Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Merritt
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I had to have lost my damn mind somewhere between Baltimore and Hope Valley and was just realizing it. That had to be the only explanation for why I’d agreed to Tristan Fanning’s offer to let Levi and me stay with him.
The refusal had been right there, on the tip of my tongue, but then Blythe vouched for her brother, waxing on about all of his good qualities. I was still on the fence, but she managed to shove me the rest of the way over by pointing out that Levi and I would be safe with him. I was leery of police and other public officials in our small town, given Warren’s reach. But my gut was telling me Tristan wasn’t like that.
“There isn’t anything my little brother wouldn’t do to protect someone under his care,” she’d insisted vehemently, and her eyes told me she believed that to her core. She trusted her brother. And I trusted her, so I took a leap of faith. I said yes before I had a chance to think twice, before I could start second-guessing all the reasons why it was such a terrible idea. Before I had a chance to back out, Tristan mentioned he had a dog, and that basically sealed our fate.
Truth was, there weren’t a whole lot of options when it came to places to live. I needed a home for Levi, but I didn’t have the money for a down payment on an apartment, and I’d just quit my job. Walking out without so much as a word, I seriously doubted I could put them down as a reference. I needed a roof over Levi’s head and a job, and I needed them now .
Levi had been talking about Tristan’s dog nonstop since we left the center, asking all kinds of questions I couldn’t possibly have the answer to.
“Do you think it’s a big dog, or a little dog? Do you think it’ll let me snuggle with it? I bet it licks my face!” he said with an excited giggle. Through the rearview mirror I could see him bouncing around in his booster seat like he was coming out of his skin. Seeing him so excited about something after what he’d been through soothed a place inside of me that had been running off stress and anxiety for the past several hours.
As good as it felt to see that the most important person in my life wasn’t indelibly scarred by what he’d witnessed, I still wanted to track my brother down and hold a pillow over his face until his body stopped thrashing. I would never understand how a parent could do that to their own flesh and blood, and I would never forgive Ozzy for putting Levi in such a dangerous situation. No kid should have to call the police because his father was seizing and choking on his own vomit. Fortunately, that rage had been somewhat tempered by Levi’s smile before I could do something stupid, like drive to the hospital and maim my older brother.
“I’m not sure. I don’t see why not. And I bet it does,” I said, answering his questions in order.
“If it licks my face, that means it likes me, right? You think it’ll like me?”
My eyes shot back up to the mirror, my gaze landing on that precious little boy. His hair flopped down over his forehead, the color the same deep, dark brown as mine, only a few shades from black. His cheeks were still a little chubby and always had a rosy hue to them that only added to the sweet innocence in his cherubic face.
“What are you talking about? Of course, it’ll like you!”
“Think so?”
“Absolutely. You’re the most likable kid in the whole entire universe, little dude.”
His eyes, just a tad darker green than mine, went wide and his lips parted, forming an adorable little O. “Wow, that’s a whole lot.”
I nodded seriously. “Sure is. I mean, think about it, kid. Every single person who’s ever met you has instantly fallen in love with you.”
His cute little face scrunched up in thought for a few seconds before he nodded earnestly. “Yeah. You’re right. I have a ton of friends.”
I choked out a snort. He wasn’t being conceited or vain—he didn’t have it in him—he was simply pointing out the truth. Most of the kids in his class gravitated toward him because he showed kindness and acceptance to everyone equally. I’d never met a human being with a bigger heart and a larger capacity to care as much as my nephew, and I counted my blessings that my brother’s influence hadn’t rubbed off on him.
Now it was my job to make sure Ozzy never had the chance to tarnish Levi’s tender soul ever again.
“Dang straight, you do. So any dog you meet is going to love you just the same.”
Levi’s eyes pointed out the window beside him as his feet swung back and forth. “I always wanted a dog,” he said, his voice quiet and his tone almost wistful.
I swallowed, a ball of emotion clogging my throat. “Well then this is your lucky day, isn’t it? We just have to pack up the rest of your things and you’ll be good to go.”
I shifted my focus a bit higher in the mirror, seeing that Tristan’s big gunmetal gray suburban was still trailing behind us.
When we left Hope House, he’d insisted on coming along to help. When I tried to refuse, his jaw ticked as he ground his back molars together before his features gentled.
His throat worked on a swallow as he stepped closer and lowered his voice so only I could hear. “I’m so sorry, but... it’s still an active crime scene.” The words sounded like they were being pulled roughly from his throat, almost like he didn’t want to let them out but had no choice.
My eyes went wide as realization settled in, chilling me to my very bones. “You think there could be more drugs in there?”
His hand came out, his rough fingers somehow gentle as he gave my forearm a reassuring squeeze. “We don’t know, but I always prefer to err on the side of caution, and I hate the thought that you and Levi could be walking into something dangerous.”
Sincerity had swirled through his baby blue eyes, and the guards I had up around me lowered a couple inches as the heady scent of his cologne penetrated my senses. He smelled like cloves and musk and something spicy. It was a combination I wanted to dive into and swim laps around.
“Aunt Merri,” Levi called, bringing my mind back to the present. “We can’t forget my wrestlers! We have to take them with us.”
My little guy had a serious obsession with all things wrestling, and more than once, he’d nearly scared the life out of me by jumping off the back of the couch or something, just like he’d seen one of his favorite wrestlers do. Since my brother was always conveniently broke come the holidays or around Levi’s birthday, I made sure to spoil my nephew as much as Warren would allow, buying him his favorite wrestling figures every year. They were his most prized possession.
“We won’t forget your wrestlers, I promise.”
“Do you think da-tek-iv Tristan likes wrestling?” he asked, butchering Tristan’s title for at least the fifth time.
“ Detective ,” I attempted again, stressing the word.
“That’s what I said.”
I gave up trying to get him to say the word correctly. “How about you just call him Mr. Tristan? I bet he’d be okay with that. And I’m not sure, little dude. You’ll have to ask him.”
We pulled up to the trailer Ozzy and Levi lived in a few minutes later, and my stomach sank like a boulder at the sight of it. The single-wide had never been in the best shape, but it seemed even worse than it had before I left town two months earlier. The skirting along the bottom was either missing or chewed through by large rodents. Rusted beer cans and empty liquor bottles lay strewn about the overgrown front yard. It looked like the crispy grass was in a losing battle with the weeds threatening to choke it out.
Beyond a set of rickety wooden steps and a front stoop with missing boards, the screen door swayed precariously in the breeze, only the bottom hinge keeping it from breaking off completely. Yellow police tape stretched across the doorframe, the sight of it twisting my stomach into knots.
This was no place for a child to live—hell, it wasn’t fit for the rats that probably infested it—and I couldn’t believe Ozzy had been okay leaving his son in a mess like this.
A piece of my heart broke off as I threw my car into park and turned off the ignition. It felt like swallowing glass when I forced down the tears trying to claw up my throat.
“My wrestlers!” Levi cheered, bouncing up and down in his booster. “Can I get out now, Aunt Merri?”
I checked the mirror to make sure Tristan was also parked and pushed my door open. “Yeah, sweetie. But stay on the path and wait for me.” I didn’t want him running through that calf-high grass and getting bitten by a snake or something. There wasn’t a single place that was safe for a kid to play.
Levi made sure to stay on the path, skipping over the cracks like he was playing hopscotch as I rounded the back of my car, meeting Tristan there.
“I can’t believe they were living like this,” I said quietly, a knot forming in my throat and making my words come out in a croak.
I felt Tristan’s gaze on the side of my face, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from the dilapidated trailer that looked like it was going to crumble to the ground at any moment.
“It didn’t look like this last time you saw it?”
I shook my head, an abrasive laugh breaking free. “It’s always been a shithole, but it somehow got a million times worse since I left. The outline of the structure grew bleary as tears formed in my eyes. “And I left him to this. I just left him.”
“This isn’t your fault,” Tristan said, his words coming out in a hard clip that had me twisting my neck to look up at him. “This is on his dad. You need to remember that while you work to give that boy the good he deserves.”
His tone was so ardent, his features going from soft to stone in an instant as he said them, that his words actually worked to loosen the muscles in my shoulders. It shouldn’t be possible for a complete stranger to put me at ease, but there was something about Tristan Fanning that seemed to defy logic... at least for me.
I nodded, blinking rapidly to break the spell the swirling blue of his eyes pulled me into. God, he really was too handsome. If that were even a thing. His blond hair looked like it was a couple weeks past needing a cut, but somehow, instead of looking shaggy, it added to his appeal. Prominent, masculine brows sat over those beautiful eyes. His nose and cheekbones were sharp, but his square jaw evened everything out so he was still a hint more rugged than pretty. His button-down hugged wide, solid shoulders before tapering down to a lean waist, hiding what I was sure was a six pack, at the very least. He wore the shirt more casually than Warren did, open at the collar to reveal a hint of tanned skin at his throat, and, with his sleeves rolled up, putting a set of forearms roped with muscle on perfect display while his slacks covered strong, thick thighs.
Beneath the clean-cut trappings was something powerful, and while there was a little niggling in the back of my mind telling me I should be frightened, I couldn’t stop going back to those eyes. It was the kindness in his blue eyes that put my fear at ease. Those eyes were likely to get me into trouble if I didn’t watch myself.
If I wasn’t careful, I could do something epically stupid, like develop a crush on this man, and that could not happen.
“It’ll be a quick in and out,” he said like he was trying to reassure me I could do this. “We’ll head straight to Levi’s room, get what he needs, then get the hell out of here. Sound like a plan?”
Before I could answer, Levi’s voice rang out from the middle of the path. “Come on, you guys!” he said in exasperation. “You’re goin’ so slow, and I wanna meet the dog.”
I curled my lips between my teeth and bit down to keep from laughing while a deep, raspy chuckle rattled from the chest of the man beside me.
Damn it , even his chuckle was attractive.
Giving Tristan a nod, I said, “Sounds like a great plan. Let’s get this over with.”