Page 82 of Bad Girls Don't Marry Marines (Rock Canyon, Idaho 3)

And if she hadn’t shown up at Fred’s farmhouse unexpectedly a week later, she wouldn’t have seen her dad’s car leaving the Silverton ranch. A sense of foreboding washed over Val as she climbed the porch stairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she pushed the door open and looked around.

Fred Silverton stood by a wooden hutch, his back to the door. He turned slowly and his leathery face looked tired. “Ah, Valerie. Justin’s out at the moment.”

“I know; I was going to surprise you all with dinner, but . . . Fred, what was my father doing here?”

With a hoarse laugh, Fred said, “He was just coming by to persuade me to talk to Justin.”

Val’s stomach twisted up on itself, nausea sweeping over her. “About what?”

“About you.” Fred actually looked at her with pity. “Valerie honey, your daddy warned me a month ago he didn’t want you anywhere near my son. Guess he just lost patience when I didn’t do what he wanted.”

“But . . .” Val looked at Fred’s shifting eyes and asked, “What was he using to persuade you?”

Fred sighed. “He has pictures of me burning down my field seventeen years ago.”

“What?”

“I knew about them, but he never acted on them. Maybe it’s because Ed was too close to the scandal, so he was afraid his dirty dealings would be exposed. Whatever the case, he’s threatening to have me brought up on charges.”

“Why? Does Justin know about this?”

“He knows. You father asked to be my partner on an organic food venture, but he was actually using toxic pesticides to increase crop production. I tried to make it look like an electrical storm caused the fire that destroyed the crop, but I guess someone saw me,” he said. “I collected insurance money on the crops to pay your father back. But if he turns those photos over to the county prosecutor, I could be charged with insurance fraud.

“I also told my son that if you make him happy, to hell with it. I’m not going to give Edward Willis the satisfaction of making me back down, but . . . I could lose everything. I did a bad thing for a good reason. I made a mistake, but if we lose the farm, my sons will have nothing.”

Fred was blaming himself, but Val knew it was her fault this was happening. If she hadn’t started dating Justin, her father probably would never have used those photos against Fred. Blood thundered in her ears as she realized the implications. In a last-ditch effort to prove his complete control over her, her father was willing to bully anyone in his path. Val ached with guilt and fury. She’d just tried to be happy, but her father had destroyed that.

Fred was willing to sacrifice everything so she and Justin could be together, but she couldn’t let him. She couldn’t be selfish, not when she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she loved Justin Silverton.

And when you loved someone, you protected them, even if it meant offering yourself up on the chopping block instead.

JUSTIN WAS DRIVING back from the store with Everett riding shotgun when his cell phone rang.

Everett picked it up from the cup holder and looked at the caller ID. “It’s your girlfriend.”

Everett said it like a grade-school kid, complete with kissy noises, and Justin hit his shoulder before taking the phone.

“Hey, Val. We’ll be home in about twenty minutes—”

“We can’t see each other anymore.”

The flat statement sent ice water racing through his veins. “What? What are you talking abo

ut?”

“We tried things your way and it didn’t work. We’re just too different and—”

“Where the hell is this coming from?” Justin asked, trying to concentrate on the road and ignore Everett’s muttered, “Fuck.”

“Just lose my number and move on, okay? You and I had a good run, but now it’s time to give up the fantasy and return to reality.”

With that last cold statement, she hung up on him, and he lost the ability to breathe. Pulling off the road, he gripped the steering wheel and tried to fight the misery he felt washing over him like dark waves in an ocean storm.

“Hey, man, I’m sorry. I really liked Valerie.”

“Something’s wrong. She wouldn’t just call me and break up with me for no reason.”

“You said from the beginning she’s gun-shy. Maybe she just got cold feet.”

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