Night Heat by Brenda Jackson Read Free Book Online Page B

to exchange strength. When Jocelyn returned to her seat, she braced herself against the chair, needing support. “All right, tell me everything.”
    Leah lowered her head and whispered, “I doubt if I can, but I will tell you what you need to know, okay?”
    At Jocelyn’s nod of understanding, Leah began talking. “You know Reese and Neil never got along. Everyone wondered why Dad even hired Neil because he was nothing but a drifter and he was always causing trouble. Well, Dad finally fired him but I didn’t know it. Late that same afternoon I went to the construction site looking for Reese. I wanted to tell him that I had decided to accept his marriage proposal and would go to a cookingschool around here and wouldn’t be moving to California after all.”
    A tear fell down Leah’s cheek, joining the others. “I arrived at the job site, thinking the work crew was supposed to be there, working on Alyssa Calhoun’s home. Instead I found Neil there, gathering up his stuff. I didn’t know Dad had fired him just a few hours earlier. Neil claimed Reese was downstairs in the basement, finishing up something and stupid me, I went looking for him.”
    Jocelyn felt her sister’s palms getting sweaty, but she held them tighter, refusing to let them escape her grasp. “And when he got me alone in the basement, he raped me and dared me to tell Dad or Reese. He said if I did he would deny it and convince Reese I went along with it.”
    â€œReese would never have believed him, Leah, you know that.”
    â€œYes, but nothing could erase the shame I felt after being taken like an animal on that floor. I felt humiliated, disgraced and dishonored. Reese had been the only man ever to touch me and I felt dirty and unworthy of him.”
    â€œSo instead of telling anyone what happened, you left town,” Jocelyn said, knowing that was exactly what her sister had done.
    â€œYes. If Reese had found out the truth, he would have killed Neil, if Dad didn’t get to him first. AndI couldn’t let that happen. Neither could I stand the thought of going to the police, pressing charges and facing the humiliation of Neil claiming it wasn’t rape. You remembered what happened to Connie Miller when she claimed that one of the Banks boys raped her. She became the town’s spectacle and eventually she and her family left disgraced.”
    Yes, Jocelyn remembered. Everyone had known that Ronnie Banks had done it, but the Bankses had had enough money to make Ronnie the victim instead of Connie.
    â€œBut it didn’t necessarily have to turn out that way for you, Leah,” Jocelyn said, though she clearly understood why her sister would have thought otherwise. Although Neil had been a drifter with no family ties to the area, it still would have been his word against hers. And with him being the troublemaker that he’d been, and with his intense dislike of Reese, he would have loved to make it seem that Leah had practically begged for it.
    It was through sheer will that Jocelyn didn’t curse the ground the man was buried under. “If he weren’t already dead I would find him and kill him.”
    Leah’s trembling hands went still at the same moment she sucked in a deep breath. “Neil Grunthall is dead?” she asked in a shocked voice.
    Jocelyn lifted a brow. “Yes, didn’t you know? But then there was no way that you would have since youleft town that same night. He left town drunk and drove to that tavern on the outskirts of town and got even drunker. It’s my understanding that he was speeding, hit a tree and was killed instantly.”
    Leah hung her head and said softly, “I never knew that. The few times I came home I could never fix my lips to say his name to ever ask about him. It took me years just trying to deal with being a rape victim before admitting I needed help. I finally went to a victim assistance program and I