The Lies We Told Ourselves (Willowbrook #2)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

REECE

I stared at the little flashing lights illuminating the entire dash and swore.

Of course, this was where my car chose to take its last spluttering breath—in the middle of damn nowhere!

This was what my life had turned into. A failure of epic proportions.

Everything I had left was in this car. All of my belongings were shoved in garbage bags, and I had thirteen dollars left in my pocket.

What was I supposed to do now?

The telltale lump in my throat started to choke me as I tried desperately to hold back the tears. If I started crying now, I wouldn’t stop. I didn’t have time to fall apart. This wasn’t far enough, and I still hadn’t figured out where to go.

I couldn’t go back. The dulling ache in my ribs was a reminder of why.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

I…

My head started thumping, and I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to stop the spiral I didn’t have time for.

I had to do this.

But then a gust of cool air hit my cheek, and a voice growled, “Are you out of your damn mind?”

“I think I might be,” I whispered.

My body felt like it was wading through sand as I turned my head to see the owner of that gruff voice. I should probably be scared, but I didn’t have the capacity to feel any more than the sorrow and despair that currently filled me.

The sight of the scowling cowboy in front of me didn’t register as real. I thought I was in New York State. Yet there he stood, jeans, a flannel shirt, and a Stetson sitting on top of his head.

Maybe I really had lost my mind after all.

He grumbled something under his breath and then reached across me, unfastening my safety belt, and suddenly, I was in his arms as he pulled me from the car.

Most women would probably start screaming at this point. I was fighting the urge to lay my head on his chest and start crying.

Was it so wrong to need someone else to carry the burden, even if it was just for a moment?

He carried me over to a truck that was parked a little way in front of my car, dropped the tailgate, and gently sat me down on it.

When he pulled off his hat and bobbed down to look me in the eye, his expression confused me. He was either furious with me or extremely concerned. It was a strange mix that I’d never seen on anyone’s face before.

“You with me, sweetheart?”

My eyes took in his face, his dirty-blond hair, and the beard that only made his chiseled jaw look like it was begging to be touched. I should probably answer his question, but I found myself mesmerized by his stormy blue eyes and the way they were pinched in concern in the middle. It had been too long since I’d seen that expression on anyone’s face. At least when it came to me.

“Val. Here,” he suddenly barked, and I flinched.

I couldn’t help it. It was a natural reaction for me now. One I doubted I’d ever be free of.

When did I become this person?

He raised his hands in surrender as his gaze moved across my face. I’d usually duck my head now, turn away, and try to hide the fading bruises, but there was something about this man that strangely made me feel safe.

Something wet nudged against my hand, and I blinked in surprise and glanced down. A dog shuffled closer to me, staring up at me with big brown eyes before laying its head in my lap. My fingers brushed through the soft brown and white hair on its head, and I felt the tightness in my chest loosen enough for me to take a deep breath.

“Good girl, Val,” he grumbled. “I need you to tell me you’re back with me so I can put out the fire.”

My head snapped up. Fire?

And then I saw it behind him, the black smoke that poured out from under the hood of my car.

“No! Everything I have is in that car.”

“I got it.” He stepped back, looking at me with concern. “Stay there.”

I nodded numbly. Those tears I’d wanted to hold back finally broke free.

He swore softly when he saw them and then reached into the bed of the truck and pulled out a small fire extinguisher. I watched as he jogged back over to my car, popped the hood, and then hit it with a blast from the extinguisher.

I was actually surprised when the smoke stopped. It would be just my luck for the whole thing to explode and take everything I had with it. It had been foolish to think that beat up old thing could have been my escape route, anyway. But it was one more thing that I was clinging to from my past. A reminder that I’d once had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, and I could get back to that if I was just brave enough to try.

The cowboy reached inside the hood and then swore as he burned his fingers. He quickly pulled off his flannel shirt, revealing a white undershirt and more muscles than I knew could possibly exist on a man. I tried not to drool as he wrapped it around his hand and started to do something with the engine.

It was impossible not to stare as he walked back to me. I was even embarrassingly aware that my mouth was hanging open as I did.

“I’ve disconnected the battery, which seemed to be the problem, but that car isn’t going anywhere,” he said when he reached me.

My teeth clicked together as I snapped my mouth shut. Now was the time to respond, but I was starting to think I’d forgotten how to form words.

“And for the future, when your car sets on fire, you’re supposed to get out of it.”

That strange mixed expression of annoyance and concern was back.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“Don’t be sorry. Be safe.”

I nodded numbly. That was actually pretty sound advice.

“So…what’s the plan?” he asked.

I looked back at the completely trashed car and then around me at nothing but open fields, and my heart sank. I had absolutely no idea. I was out of money, without transportation, and had nowhere to go even if I had some. I’d basically just thrown what I could salvage of my life into the back of the car and drove with no destination in mind. I didn’t even have a phone, not that I had anyone to call.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

This would have been the moment to start crying. The point when I realized I was completely out of options apart from the one thing I never wanted to do—go back. Instead, I took a deep breath and built up the walls inside me. Tears wouldn’t get me through this. I needed options.

“Okay, well, you got a place to go? Someone you can call?”

I shook my head and then focused back on the man in front of me. “Thank you for helping me.” I hopped down off the tailgate of his truck and patted the head of his dog. “I shouldn’t take up any more of your time.”

I had a backpack in the car somewhere. I’d take only the important stuff, walk to the nearest town, and see if I could find a job. Anything. Maybe if I pushed the car off to the side of the road, I could sleep in it tonight. Or if there was someplace nearby I could push it to and leave it parked, I might get a couple of weeks out of it. I wasn’t above sleeping in my car until I could get my feet under me.

I walked back to the car, but then his hand on my arm stopped me.

“Wait. I can’t leave you here without knowing you’re going to be safe.”

“I’ll figure something out. It’s okay.” I gave him the best smile I could summon, but I could tell he wasn’t fooled.

I slipped from his grip and headed back to the car. I could do this. I’d gotten this far, and I wasn’t turning back now.

I heard him swear softly behind me before he jogged to catch me up. “Will you just wait a second?”

I turned and looked at him expectantly. I shouldn’t be annoyed. He was only being kind. Kindness might be something I wasn’t all that familiar with anymore, but that didn’t mean I had to be rude to him.

“Look, you’re obviously in trouble. And if I had to guess, you’re not exactly in a position to get that car fixed. How bad is it?”

Part of me wanted to tell him it wasn’t his problem. To say something so scathing that he’d wash his hands of me and leave me at the side of the road. But there was just something about him. I should have been scared of this enormous man, but he’d been nothing but gentle with me. He’d even called his dog over to me when he could see that I was spiraling. Something about him made me think that he’d understand.

So, instead of running, instead of acting like a crazy person to get him to leave, I sighed. The fight leached out of me, and I looked at the stranger in front of me, desperately needing to think that he could be someone I could trust.

Trust.

That had come so easily to me before.

I ignored the pinch in my heart and the ache of my bruises, and I made a decision.

“I’ll be fine. I’m heading into town to find a job, and I’ll get back on my feet. The car can wait. I don’t have the money to fix it right now, but I’ll figure it out. That’s what you do, right? You figure it out and just get on with it.”

He squinted in annoyance. It might have been the truth, but it clearly wasn’t the truth he wanted.

I wasn’t an idiot. I knew what he was really asking me. He wanted to know why I had bruises on my face, why I couldn’t quite stand completely straight. The thing was, I didn’t know why he’d care.

The me from before would have just told him the truth. Any truth he wanted to hear. Because that’s what you did, right? People were concerned because they wanted to help. They weren’t trying to assess your vulnerabilities so they could manipulate them in whatever way they needed for their own benefit.

I’d never seen the potential for bad in people. I’d always believed that, deep down, everyone was at least decent.

And that was the thing he’d taken from me that I hated him the most for.

So I sank down deep inside myself, and I pulled the Reece I used to be back to the surface, and I smiled.

I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. Not yet, at least. But I was working on it, and even if I had to pretend for a little while, I’d find that version of myself again one day.

“No,” he growled, squinting at me as his massive hands landed on his waist.

Holy crap, this man might be part giant or something. I was getting a crick in my neck just from staring up at him and trying to hold this look of fake confidence on my face.

“No?”

He sighed, and I could have sworn I heard him swear under his breath. Honestly, the fact that he was so annoyed by either me or his own concern for me was getting amusing.

“No, you don’t just figure it out. I’m not leaving you on the side of the road with no clue about where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.” He glared at me again, and then he pulled his cell out of his pocket. With a sigh of annoyance, he did something on the screen and then held it to his ear. “Dex, I need you on the road out to the ranch… No, we’re not playing paintball. I need you to come and pick up a car and fix it… Just do it.”

He abruptly hung up on whoever Dex was and shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Idiot,” he grumbled.

“Erm, while I appreciate all this, I don’t have the money to fix my car. It’s a piece of junk, anyway. It’s probably time for it to go to the scrap heap in the sky.”

He looked at me like I was insane, and for a second, I shuffled awkwardly on the spot. This was honestly the strangest situation I’d ever found myself in, and this was coming from the girl who once got her foot stuck in the automatic doors at Target and had to be cut free by firemen.

“I own the ranch up the road. I need some help.”

I stared at him and watched as his scowl grew deeper. “Is that a job offer?” I asked.

Obviously, it was, even if it had been done in the strangest way, but I was wondering just how deep this guy’s scowl could get.

“Yes. Or you can stay here and die on the side of the road.”

“That sounds awfully like a threat,” I pointed out.

I wasn’t dumb. I could see this guy was trying to help me out, even if it seemed like it wasn’t something he was all that used to.

“Considering you were about to set yourself on fire, it’s more of an observation.”

“I would have gotten out eventually!” I protested.

He raised a single eyebrow in question but, thankfully, didn’t say a thing. I wasn’t so sure that was the truth, either.

“What’s the job?” I asked instead.

“Working on the ranch.”

“I might not be very good at that,” I said nervously.

My expertise was actually marketing, with a bit of event planning. There was no way my body would handle manual labor. The will might be there, but my noodle-like arms would definitely fail.

“I’ve no doubt you’ll be terrible.” The corner of his lips ticked up in a smirk, and it lit a fire in me.

“Well, that doesn’t make you sound like a very good employer or business owner.”

“We’ll make a perfect pair, then.” He turned around and started heading back to his truck.

This was it. A turning point in the downward slide that had become my life. I could take a chance with this guy I didn’t know and who could be a serial killer rapist, or I could stand here on the side of the road with no plan, no money, and no one else in the world who gave a crap.

He opened up the passenger side door to the truck and looked at me expectantly.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” I mumbled and jogged to the truck.

He shook his head, almost like he was disappointed in me. Hell, I was pretty disappointed in myself, too. The last person I’d trusted was the reason I was in this entire mess, and I hadn’t met him on the side of the road.

“It’s Reece, by the way,” I said as he watched me climb in and clip the seat belt in place. “My name,” I clarified.

He nodded. “Booker.”

Booker slammed the door and then disappeared. I’d expected him to climb in the driver’s side, and when he didn’t, I twisted in my seat to see if he was prepping a machete or something for me out of sight. Instead, I found him pulling the bags out of the back of my car and moving them into the back of his truck.

I probably should have thought of that.

I watched as he ruffled the hair on his dog’s head and then leaned forward and softly bumped his forehead into hers. It was one of those sweet moments you weren’t supposed to see but told you so much about a person.

When he looked up and saw me watching him through the window, his scowl was firmly back in place. It wasn’t fooling me now. I’d had a peek at the soft, fluffy center this guy was trying to hide, and it intrigued me.

“So, just to clarify, murder isn’t on the cards, then?” I asked as he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

He looked at me for a moment like he was considering it, but then that smirk was back. “Nah, too much mess to clean up.”