24. Shep
24
SHEP
My phone rang through the speakers on my truck as I turned onto the dirt road leading to Thea’s house. A twitchy feeling had settled in my muscles around mid-morning and hadn’t left since. I wanted to see Thea and hated that I had no way to check on her during the day because she didn’t have a damn phone. All because of the bastard who’d terrorized her.
I forced those thoughts down and glanced at my dash. The screen said Trace Calling . Given that it was only three-thirty, I knew he was on duty. My brother took his job seriously. It was more than a job to him. It was a calling. Something he’d needed to do given what he’d grown up in. So, he didn’t usually call to chitchat during his workdays.
Tapping the button on my steering wheel, I answered. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” he said quickly. “Didn’t mean to tweak you.”
My gut twisted. A few months ago, Trace would’ve given me shit for worrying just because he called. But now, he was walking on eggshells like the rest of my family. Worried because they knew the Silas thing had twisted me up and I wasn’t handling it well.
“I’m fine,” I gritted out. “You just don’t usually call for tea and gossip in the middle of the day.”
“Fuck off,” Trace muttered.
That had a little of the tension easing. It was normal. “What’s up?”
“Wanted you to know that I tried to have another conversation with Raina Wheeler.”
I was an ass for not thinking about her or Russ since Thea’s revelation a couple of days ago. My mind had been so fixated on Brendan that I’d let Russ’s assholery fade into the background. But it wasn’t in the background for Raina. She lived with it every single day.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
“About the usual. She shut me down and said I needed to leave because Russ could be back at any second and wouldn’t like me there.”
My grip on the wheel tightened. “I hate watching her fade away. When we were in school, she was so full of life. Funny, too. Now, it’s like she’s scared to move.”
Trace was quiet for a long moment. “It’s killing me that there’s nothing I can do. No proof. No other charges I can bring him in on.”
It had to dredge up bad memories for Trace. The way he’d been forced to live for so long. The volatile environment he’d had to survive.
“Called Fallon,” he went on. “She’s going to try to have a word. She’s got a lot of resources she can connect Raina with.”
Fallon was a social worker in Mercer County. She worked in the Child Protective Services department, but the overall office wasn’t very big, so she had plenty of contacts who could help Raina.
“That’s a good idea. Plus, if anyone can reach Raina, it’s Fal.”
Fallon had a tenderness about her. She was an empath through and through, taking on the pain of the world and not looking away. She did whatever she could to heal it.
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Trace agreed. “It’s my last hope. I’m out of ideas.”
“You’ve done everything you can. More than most would do. ”
Trace sighed across the line. “Doesn’t feel like it.”
“You have,” I pressed.
“I guess.” He paused. “How are things with you? Rho said you’re making good progress at Thea’s.”
I stiffened at his words. Normally, it wouldn’t have fazed me that Rho and Trace were talking about me. With a brood as big as ours, we kept each other apprised of the basic goings-on in our fellow siblings’ lives. But I knew this was more. This was Trace checking in.
I tried not to let the annoyance at that settle in. “Yeah. Leak was pretty bad. Working on clearing out her bathroom.”
“How are you feeling about…everything?”
Trace went for it. I guessed it was better than beating around the bush. But that annoyance just burned brighter. “I’m fine. It wasn’t me who was kidnapped and almost killed.”
Trace sucked in an audible breath on the other side of the line.
I was an asshole. There was no way around it. “I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“We’re just worried about you. You took it hard, finding out it was Silas.”
“Wouldn’t you?” I snapped.
“Yeah, I would,” Trace said. “Which is why I’m checking on your ornery ass. So don’t bite my head off. Tell me how you actually are.”
I let out a long breath. “I’m dealing. Spending time with Thea? It’s been helping.”
It was as honest as I could be. More truthful than I should’ve been. But there was no way around it. Thea had a calming effect, and it eased me more than anything else had the past few months. But more than that, helping her gave me a purpose I needed.
“Wanna meet this girl. You bringing her to dinner anytime soon?”
An image of Thea at the Colson family table filled my head. She’d fit. But it would also likely overwhelm her. “Not sure on that. She’s a little shy.”
Trace chuckled. “What? You don’t want to expose her to the chaos that is the Colsons just yet? ”
I grinned out the windshield as Thea’s house came into view. “Don’t want to scare her off.”
Trace let out a low whistle. “You like her.”
“I do.” It was as simple as that, yet so much more.
“Well, I want to meet her whenever you’re ready.”
“Noted. I gotta go.”
“All right. Take care of yourself, Shep.”
“You, too. Tell my niece I love her.”
I heard the smile in Trace’s voice when he said, “She wants you to go riding with her and Arden next weekend.”
“I’ll see what I can do about that.”
We hung up just as I pulled up in front of Thea’s house. She was out front watering her garden in those damn overalls, her cat trying to attack the water as she went. The sight was beyond ridiculous, but it was somehow transfixing.
The way her hair was piled up in a bun, exposing her long, slender neck—one I wanted to trace with my tongue. How the sun hit the apples of her cheeks, making them glow. She was made for this, being in her garden and at one with the sun and nature around her.
I turned off my engine and slid out of my truck, grabbing a bag on the way. Thea’s now green gaze came to me. Something about that, how she no longer hid from me—not even the shade of her eyes—hit something deep in my chest.
A smile tilted her lips up. “Hi.”
“How was your day? How are you feeling?”
“Good,” she said. “Relieved. I think telling you released some of the pressure that was building. That and knocking down those walls.”
“I’m glad,” I said, moving closer.
Moose leapt into the air, doing some sort of flip as he tried to attack the spray of water.
I shook my head. “What is wrong with that mutant cat?”
Thea scowled at me. “Nothing’s wrong with him. And he’s not a mutant.”
“What’d that water ever do to him?”
Thea chuckled. “Could be here to do grave bodily harm to us all. ”
Moose batted at the stream but seemed to know I was talking about him because he turned to look at me and hissed.
“Moose,” Thea chastised him.
The cat let out some sort of mangled meow.
I rifled through the bag and pulled out a small treat pouch. The moment I shook it, Moose bounded toward me and sat like a dog would.
My gaze shot to Thea. “You teach him that?”
She stifled a laugh. “No. But those are his favorite. He’s not above bribery.”
I opened the bag and bent to give him a couple. The moment my hand got close, Moose’s front paws latched around it, and he yanked it toward his face.
“Jesus,” I mumbled as he snatched the treats from me. “I could lose a finger.”
Thea just grinned. “I’m not going to say that’s not possible because it definitely is.”
I moved closer to her, so close I could feel her heat. The urge to kiss Thea was so strong I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself in check. Those green eyes peered up at me as she leaned closer.
One arm went around her, pulling her into me. “You really doing okay?”
As Thea stared up at me, she didn’t hold anything back. I saw the war of emotions in her eyes. “I didn’t sleep that great.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not.” And I hated that she’d been struggling to find that rest alone. I wanted to be there to soothe her back into dreamland. Or tire us both out so we had no choice but to pass out. The latter sounded a hell of a lot better.
Her gaze softened on me. “Even though I didn’t sleep, it was a good day. I feel…better. Braver.”
Thea’s words hit me like beautiful blows. “I’m glad.”
“Me, too.”
I bent then, unable to stop myself. My lips brushed her temple, featherlight. But the feel of her skin against mine scalded in the best way. “You’re one of the strongest people I know,” I whispered.
As I pulled back, our eyes locked. It would be so easy to dip my head and take that mouth. Thea’s lips parted, and her head tipped back. Silent permission. Those plump, berry lips. I wanted to know what they tasted like. What they— My phone rang.
The sound was so jarring, Thea jerked in my arms. I cursed as I let her go, pulling the device out of my pocket. Jennie’s name flashed on the screen. “My realtor,” I said before answering. “Hey, Jennie.”
“Shep,” she greeted, not wasting any time before getting into it. “I’m not having any luck on a rental that meets your specifications. Best I can do is early September.”
I let out another curse.
“Can you stay at Cope’s place for a couple of months? Or Nora’s?”
That was the thing about small towns. Jennie knew my whole family and had helped most of us with our real estate purchases. “Yeah. I’ll figure it out. Go ahead and get the lease worked up for the September place.”
“Will do. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thanks, Jennie.”
“Anytime.”
I hung up to find Thea studying me. “What’s wrong?”
I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “Nothing, really. I just need a rental while I work on the new house. She can’t find me one until early September.”
Thea studied me for a long moment. “It’s more.”
That was the thing with Thea. She always saw more. I’d sensed it while watching her from afar. But truly getting to know her, I saw it firsthand. She had a radar for wounds and scars, anything that might be amiss.
“It means staying with my mom or brother for a couple of months. They’ve been…hovering since Rho was taken. I didn’t handle it well when I found out it was Silas. ”
If Thea had been willing to give me her hard truths, the least I could do was give her mine. Even if it made me look weak.
Thea’s expression didn’t fall in pity like I expected. She simply switched off the water and moved into my space. “You blame yourself.”
Acid crept up the back of my throat. “I worked with him for almost a decade.”
“And an FBI profiler who’d been trained for that long worked with Silas for years and didn’t see it.”
My mouth snapped closed.
“Shep,” Thea said, her voice going soft as she laid a hand on my chest. “People fool us. We think they’re one thing when they’re really another. It doesn’t say anything about us ; it says something about them .”
I knew what those words had cost Thea. How deeply she understood that torment. “I hate what Silas did to Rho. What he did to Anson. And it’s because of me that he had the access to inflict that damage.”
“And you think he wouldn’t have found another way?” Thea challenged. “He was a freaking psychopath.”
I let out a harsh breath. “I know. I just… It messes with me.”
“Understandably. And it doesn’t help when it feels like the people around you are watching you like a hawk, trying to see if you’re going to break.”
“No. It doesn’t,” I admitted.
Thea was quiet for a moment, her hand still on my chest, eyes searching mine. Then she finally spoke two words that shocked the hell out of me. “Stay here.”