Page 12 of Karma

Chapter Three

“So Kelly, youcan expect to hear from Liza soon,” Faith said, continuing her conversation about the fundraiser. “She can’t wait to get involved in planning the gala.”

Dare heard Liza’s name, swallowed wrong, and began coughing, his eyes tearing uncontrollably.

Ethan, starting to rise from his seat, eyed him warily.

“I’m fine,” Dare choked out before his brother could begin the Heimlich and break one of his ribs. Dare reached for the water, and a few minutes later he was breathing better.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nash asked.

Dare nodded. “Something got caught in my throat.”

“Are you upset that I’m working with Liza?” Faith asked. “Because she’s Brian’s sister?”

Upsetwas hardly the word Dare would use. He’d just been shocked to hear her name after seeing her not thirty minutes before.

As for Faith, Dare understood why she’d worry he’d be upset. The whole family had become aware of Dare’s deepest secret. That he’d been at Brian’s party the night Stuart Rossman died. Such a stupid, tragic incident. One that could have been avoided or at least handled so much better than it had been, both at the party and then afterward.

Especially afterward.

Pain, regret, and suppressed anger gnawed at Dare then and still did today. Nobody had truly paid for Stuart Rossman’s death. Because Brian’s parents—Liza’s parents—were friends with the district attorney, Brian had only been charged with misdemeanor assault, assured youthful offender treatment, and spent no time in jail.

No one else had been charged with a crime.

It had been so easy to cover things up.Too easy,Dare thought. And once the wall of silence had gone up around the incident, nobody spoke of it again. But Dare suffered with the nightmare that had been his reality.

With no one to turn to and afraid to even admit the truth out loud, fifteen-year-old Dare buried the incident deep inside him, wrapping himself in the persona of the happy kid nobody could tie to the tragedy. But he lived with the knowledge that he’d run. No matter that he’d only been a kid himself at the time, he knew better.

Dare hadn’t forgiven himself yet. He didn’t know if he ever would.

“Hey, you okay?” Nash asked, concerned.

Dare nodded, then glanced at Faith. “Sorry. Of course I’m not upset you’re working with Liza. She’s not her brother.”

He might have equated her with him before, but five minutes in her company outside the police station and he knew she was different. Not innocent exactly but more open and honest in her emotions. And despite all sound judgment, she pulled at something deep inside him.

Suddenly that formal gala didn’t seem like something to dread after all.

“I’m glad,” Faith said. “She seems so excited about the fundraiser and I’d hate to cause upheaval here.” She glanced around the table and everyone knew what she meant.

They’d all come so far; nobody wanted to lose the family they’d managed to create. The rest of the meal passed in relative quiet, if one could consider any meal where Tess was instigating trouble quiet.

A couple of hours later, Dare had thanked Faith and Ethan for dinner and said his good-byes.

“Wait up,” Nash said, meeting him by the front door before he could leave. “What’s with your reaction to Faith working with Liza McKnight?”

“I choked,” Dare reminded his brother.

Nash smirked. “Tell that to someone who can’t read you like a book.”

Dare frowned, but his brother was right. Nobody read him like his middle sibling. Nash knew Dare. Hell, there’d been only one thing Dare had ever kept from Nash, and Dare had paid for the secret in spades. They’d gotten past the lie, and Dare didn’t want to go back to the days when his middle brother had shut him out completely.

“So? You and Liza?” Nash pushed.

Dare closed his eyes, and a vision of Liza as he’d last seen her in tight spandex and wet handprints on her breasts flashed through his mind.

“She’s…interesting.” Dare met his brother’s gaze.

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