He uncuffed her wrist, but she couldn’t move. She was too sore. Too tired. He pulled her off the table but lost his grip on her, and she sank to the floor.
“Rosemary. Tell me what happened.” Rob’s tone carried the calm authority of a policeman. He knelt next to her, his face expressionless.
“I…shot him. I killed him.” The sobs ratcheted up to a new level of miserable.
“Stop.” Rob’s voice was a sharp crack of sound that startled her into silence. He looked around the room—blood covered the table, the floor, had splattered against the wall and part of the ceiling—then back at her. “You’ll go to prison for this. You’ll be lucky to be out by the time Evanee and Thomas have graduated.”
She wanted to die. She needed to die. Life was over. She reached for the gun.
Rob grabbed it first, ignoring the blood all over it, and tucked it inside his pants. “That’s not the answer. I have an idea, but you’ll owe me. I’m putting my job and my life on the line for you.”
“Anything, Rob. Anything. Just make it go away. All of it.”
And he did.
*
“Mommy, Junior hurt me between my legs.”
Her hand lashed out, cracking against Ev’s mouth hard enough that her palm stung. She was horrified at what she’d done, but buried the feeling deep inside. If Ev ever told anyone, Rob would kill her precious daughter.
“Liar. Never say that again. Ever.”
Fat tears swarmed in her child’s miserable blue eyes. A red palm print stood out on Ev’s pale face, and blood drizzled from the corner of her mouth.
“Go to your room. Don’t come out until tomorrow morning.”
Ev ran up the stairs, the sound of her sobs trailing behind her.
On wobbly legs, Rosemary crossed the room and sank down on the sofa. She had destroyed Ev’s life. All because of her own stupid decisions.
Now she was trapped in a marriage to a pervert and his equally twisted son. Trapped too well to leave. She had no family—Dad’s death still haunted her. No money. No job. No car. Where could she and the kids go that Rob wouldn’t find her? How had she ever looked at him as her savior?
Once she’d threatened to confess everything, but Rob reminded her of what would happen. She’d end up in the psycho unit with the crazy label. She had no proof of anything. No gun. No body. No evidence. No way of implicating Rob in covering things up. Who would believe her over the deputy sheriff who was the sheriff’s chosen one?
Her children would suffer even worse. With no other relatives, Ev and Thomas would remain in Rob’s custody, no matter what happened. Once she was out of the picture, it would be a matter of time before not only Junior was messing with her girl, but Rob too.
It came down to degrees of awful. Junior messing with Ev was less awful than Rob. Junior was technically still a kid. He couldn’t hurt her as badly as—
The SM ended.
Lathan’s vision returned. Honey’s hand was on his cheek, her thumb caressing his skin. He smelled her worry in the air.
“Are you all right?”
Shit. He’d stayed in too long. It only took a few seconds for each SM, but somehow Honey had noticed. His face heated up, a bead of sweat tickled its way down his spine. He felt like he’d just been caught in the middle of an immoral act with his pants down.
“I’m fine. It was nothing.” Dealing with his shit was the last thing she needed.
“What happened? It was the same as that night at the diner.”
He felt everyone’s eyes watching him. Knew exactly what they’d seen. It wasn’t natural for anyone’s left eye to roll around the socket independent of the other one. Gill called it his poltergeist look. “Later. We’ll talk later.”
“He’s fine.” Gill spoke from the foot of the bed. Must’ve come running when he thought Lathan’s ability was about to be exposed.
Honey kept her hand on his face. “There’s just one thing I need to do, then I’ll be ready to leave.” She faced Junior and Senior.
Junior looked and smelled like his entire world had just died. That was odd. Lathan would’ve thought the asshole incapable of love.
“I’m going to offer you both a deal you don’t deserve. When I walk out of this house, I’m never going to think about either of you ever again. You’re going to leave Lathan alone, forget you ever met him. And if by chance I see you out in public, you better turn and go the other direction. Because I’m done with the secrets, and I’ll start talking to anyone who’ll listen.”
Chapter 13
By the time Gill parked at Lathan’s back door, the gray sky had finally faded into evening. The day was almost over. About time. Honey had soldiered through everything, but every warrior had limits and Lathan didn’t want to test hers.
He heard Honey speaking to Gill, but couldn’t make out the words.
Gill raised his hand in a semi-friendly acknowledgment. Honey got out of the car. Little Man greeted her with his paw in the air, doing his best impersonation of a good dog.
Lathan paused, hand on the door handle, a chuckle tumbling around in his throat.
Honey fit into his life so seamlessly that he didn’t want to remember the pre-Honey days. If Gill would quit staring at his colon and pull his head out of his rectum, he’d see how much better Lathan’s life was because of her. Worry about being overwhelmed by SMs—gone. Struggling to understand speech—gone. He could hear. Fucking hear. It wasn’t perfect—her having to touch his cheek—but he wasn’t going to tread on the miraculous.
Gill touched Lathan’s arm, gaining his attention. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning. I need Evanee’s statement about the ring.”
“When you’re done, can I get a ride to the car dealership?”
“You’re going to buy a car? For her?” Gill jutted his chin toward Honey.
She was scrubbing at Little Man’s ears. Anyone who thought dogs weren’t capable of facial expression had to be blind. Little Man’s jaw hung open, his eyes were partway rolled up in his head, and his normally dangling jowls were pulled back in an intimidatingly toothy grin.
“For us.” Lathan said, still watching Little Man and Honey. Gill touched his arm again.