Soft Place to Fall (Navy Book 4)

Chapter 24

Carmen heard Adrianna return and could hear the low murmur of her and Will's voices. When she heard her mother laugh, she knew that Will had turned his charm on full blast and aimed it at her.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at herself in the mirror, noting that she looked fairly normal. She didn't feel normal, she felt as if she was about to jump off a very high cliff with no one there to catch her.

It was now or never, so she might as well go and get it over with. She would be very surprised if she didn't end two relationships today, her and her mother's and her and Will's. Not that she and Will really had a relationship, only a mutual attraction that she had hoped would turn into something more.

She opened the door as she straightened her shoulders and moved slowly down she short hallway towards the kitchen. Will was standing behind the breakfast bar, his hands busy with something, and Adrianna was sitting on a barstool watching him in fascination. When Will caught sight of her he grinned and winked, his protective persona firmly in place.

"Your mother was just telling me what a hopeless cook she is."

Adrianna turned towards her, her smile faltering as soon as their eyes met. "Your boyfriend is very handy with a knife." She licked her lips.

"I'm sure he is, he excels at just about everything he does." Including lying and charming liars, she thought silently.

Will caught the edge in her voice and frowned, but when Adrianna turned to give him a nervous smile his smile was firmly in place as he threw the knife in the air carelessly and caught it by the handle.

Carmen didn't move any further than the living area of the apartment. She had no interest in breaking bread with her mother.

"What's the game this time Adrianna?" She crossed her arms watching as her mother's face flooded with color.

"I really don't know what you're talking about?" Adrianna stood, suddenly nervous.

"It has always amazed me how you have led the life you have, yet you still can't tell a lie to save your life. I'm not stupid Mother." Carmen only called Adrianna mother when was very angry.

Adrianna closed her eyes at the sound of it.

"You knew things that there was no way you could know, unless someone told you about them. The flowers for instance, I never mentioned them to you, yet you knew they had been left, and I never told you about the high security surrounding the ranch where I was staying, yet you knew about that too."

Adrianna reached for her purse as she realized she had lost any edge she thought she had with her daughter.

Carmen raced for the door blocking it. "No, this is my life that is being threatened, you're going to tell me everything, and then I will tell Josh and he will deal with it."

Adrianna slumped back onto the barstool, but Carmen wasn't fooled. If she walked away from the door her mother would make a run for it. "Who is this Xavier man, and why is he insistent on being in charge of my security?"

The story came pouring out of Adrianna. Everything they had heard her talk about on camera she repeated, but the way she told it was that she was trying to protect her daughter while doing everything she could to save her career.

It surprised Carmen that Adrianna had caved so easily, it was most likely because she was tired of dealing with all of it, and if she told Carmen the truth it would no longer be her problem, it would be Carmen's. Then she could go back to ignoring reality. The way that she had told the story, trying to play it like she was the heroine of the tale, was completely improbable to Carmen.