“Okay, but I can’t stay behind the counter for long.” While Max was making the rounds with his easygoing smile, I could tell some of my customers were getting pissed. And soon the people around the bar would be rioting for their drinks.

She was quiet for nearly a minute before she said, “I’ve been thinkin’ about what you said.”

“I said a lot of things,” I said, my stomach a bundle of nerves.

She shot me a dark scowl. “About Lula.”

It had all been about Lula, but I knew better than to point that out.

“I asked around about you,” she said, then took a sip through her straw.

“Oh?” I said in surprise, my brain scrambling to figure out whom she might have asked. Just about everyone who knew anything about me was in this room.

“I wanted to know if I could trust you.”

“And?”

Rather than answer, she focused on sipping her drink, which was going down entirely too fast. But I didn’t really need her to share. I doubted she would have shown up to gloat if she’d heard through the grapevine that I was a terrible person. She was here because I’d been deemed trustworthy.

She leaned closer and caught my eye. “When Lula left for Chattanooga, she was deliverin’ a package.”

I hadn’t seen that one coming. “What kind of package?”

She glanced around, then leaned even closer. “She wouldn’t say. Trust me, I asked.”

“Was it for Bingham?”

She paused for a moment. “I’m not sure.”

But the look in her eyes told me she still didn’t trust me enough to be truthful. Which suggested this might be related to one of the illegal activities she’d mentioned.

I took a breath. “Greta, did Lula mention that she was going to run off again?”

She shook her head adamantly. “No. She told me she was stickin’ around because she needed the job. Because of…you know.”

I nodded. “Have you heard from her at all today?” When she shook her head, I said, “Do you know why she was scared of Bingham last night?”

She shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“What do you know about her breakup with him?”

“Not a thing. Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean she shares everything with me.” She took another sip of her drink, then glanced up at me. “Yesterday afternoon, I asked about her trip, but she refused to tell me anything about it other than insisting she was done. No more runnin’ packages.”

“Is that what she was doin’ every time she left?” I asked. “Running packages?”

Greta pressed her lips together as though locking Lula’s secret into a vault.

“Greta, I want to help her, but you have to tell me what you know.”

“Why?” she asked with more vitriol than I’d expected. Especially since she’d come to me. “You’ll have more hours if she stays away. Maybe you want her gone for good. Or maybe you’re workin’ with Marco to get her into trouble.”

“No, Greta,” I said in a soft, calm voice. “I swear to you that I don’t have a malicious reason for looking into this. I’m worried about her.”

“Why?” she shot back. “You work with her for a few hours, and suddenly you’re attached to her? You think you can save her?”

Save her? I cocked my head. “Save her from what?”

She glanced down at her nearly empty drink as though trying to decide if keeping her secrets was worth ditching her drink. When she lifted her gaze, her eyes pleaded for understanding. “I want to trust you, Carly, really I do, but I’m still not sure you have her best interest in mind. I just can’t see why you’d go to this much trouble for someone you barely know.”

I understood her concern. It was a legitimate question. She didn’t know me from Adam, and I hardly knew Lula at all. How could I explain my reasons to her when I hardly understood them myself?

My mind flashed to Rose and Neely Kate coming up to my broken-down car by the side of the road.

“I think maybe I’m helping her because I was recently in a very difficult situation, and strangers came to my aid. Maybe I’m just payin’ it forward.” When she didn’t bolt, I added, “When I took Lula home last night, she seemed scared, but she refused to tell me why. I asked her about Bingham, but she didn’t say much other than that he could make people disappear. Which makes him suspect number one. But when I talked to him this afternoon, he didn’t let on that he knew she was pregnant. Maybe she was delivering a package for him and something went wrong?”

If Lula had botched some kind of delivery for him, she had a legit reason to be worried. At the same time, I doubted she would have come back at all, let alone stayed by herself in that cabin, knowing Bingham might come gunning for her.

“He might not be the daddy,” Greta said so softly I barely heard her.

I wasn’t surprised, but I needed more to go on. “Who else could it be?”

“You can’t tell anyone,” she said, leaning forward again and grabbing my wrist in a tight hold. “Swear it.”

I couldn’t tell her I planned to share what I learned with Marco. She clearly didn’t trust him. At the same time, I didn’t want to lie to her.

Her hold tightened, her fingernails digging into my flesh. “Swear.”

“I swear I won’t tell anyone.” I hated the constraint, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to tell me otherwise. I’d have to find a work-around.

“She was seeing someone else around the same time, but I’m not sure who. I wasn’t even sure she was seein’ Bingham until you verified it.”

“Why wouldn’t she tell you?” I asked. “You two are obviously close.”

“Her crazy-ass mother puts all kinds of ideas into her head. She keeps telling Lula not to trust anyone, even me. Lula still tells me things, just not everything.”

“Do you have any clues to help me track this other guy down?”

“All I know is that he was supposedly a man of importance.” She made a face. “That’s what she called him. A man of importance. She doesn’t talk like that, so I figured he was the one who told her that. Other than that, I only know that he was older and she used to meet him at the Mountain View Lodge outside of Ewing.” Pushing out a sigh, she said, “Lula has daddy issues.”

I supposed having a father who’d tried to drown you would do that to a person.

“Do you know when she first started seeing him? Or the last time?”

“The last time I know of was back in September. She met him several times that month. As to when it started…I’m guessing early summer? I know she asked to borrow a bikini in June because he was taking her to the lodge and they have a hot tub. She wanted to look good.”

“And you loaned it to her?”

“I almost didn’t since she was so stingy with details. She finally confessed that he was married. He’d sworn her to secrecy. In fact, I don’t think her momma even knew about him.”

“What about Bingham? Did he know about the other man?”

“I’m not sure they overlapped. I can’t imagine he’d handle sharin’ well.” She shrugged. “Either way, I suspect he never knew. I don’t think she met her Ewing guy all that often in the beginning, and the only reason I knew was because of the bikini. She’s pretty good at keepin’ secrets.”