55. Wentworth
FIFTY-FIVE
Wentworth
I ONLY MET KAIT’S SISTER ONCE, BUT I KNOW THE WOMAN who climbs out of the truck’s passenger seat when it comes to a stop isn’t her. She looks like her—honey blonde hair and wide blue eyes that I can see both she and Kait got from their father—but the woman who rounds the front of the truck to stand quietly at the front of it, isn’t her.
The Abbey I remember was bright and vivacious. Loud and colorful. Not afraid to speak her mind. To dig in and fight for what she wanted. This woman is dull. There’s no shine to her. No spark. It’s as if the life has been sapped out of her and all that’s left is an empty shell.
When the driver’s side door opens and I see who gets out, I understand why.
“Hey Kaitydid,” Brock says, his gaze flickering over me before it settles on Kait with a wide, friendly grin. “Long time no see.”
Seeing him, understanding what it means, Kait tightens her grip on my arm for just a moment before she lets go, her feet lifting like she’s getting ready to charge and tackle him in the dirt. Before she can, I wrap an arm around her waist, anchoring her firmly to my side.
“ Shhh …” I barely breathe it, full attention trained on the man in front of me. “Easy, Sunshine.”
Brock steps forward to offer me his hand. “So, you’re him,” he says, giving me that wide friendly grin that covers up a nasty smirk. “The guy who stole my Kaity, right out from under me.”
I hear it, even if no one else does—the slight emphasis he put on the words under me.
“Yeah…” Staring back at him, I tighten my hold on Kait because it’s suddenly not about helping her keep herself in check. It’s about not reaching out and breaking his goddamned neck. “I’m him.”
Mook, his massive head still pressed against his mistress’s knee, lets out a low-level growl that pushes Brock back and drops his hand back to his side.
I’m buying him a bacon factory as soon as we get home.
“Hi, Kaity,” Abbey says, filling the charged silence like she knows exactly what I’m thinking about doing. “I—” Taking a half step forward, she stops and reaches back to pull something out from behind her.
A kid.
When she sees him, Kait flinches.
Crouching down next to him, Abbey takes both his hands and smiles. “Thomas, this is your Aunt Kaity.” Sending a timid smile in her sister’s direction, she stands. “Kaity, this is Thomas, my son.”
My son.
Not our son.
The look on Brock’s face tells me Abbey is going to pay for that later.
When the boy hesitates, Kait steps forward and crouches down next to her little sister. “Hi, Thomas, I’m happy to meet you.”
Shooting his father a look almost as timid as his mother’s, the boy gives Kait a nervous smile, looking up at her with dark brown eyes. “Hi,” he says before looking at Kait and Abbey’s mother. “Grandma, did you make any cookies?”
Smiling down at him, Hillary nods. “You know I did, but you know who makes the best cookies I’ve ever had?” Dropping her hand on Kait’s shoulder, she gives it a squeeze. “Your Aunt Kaity, here. Her peanut butter chocolate chips are way better than mine.”
Giving Kait a skeptical look, he reaches for his grandmother’s hand. “Can I have one?” Before she can answer, he raises a nervous look to his father. “Can I, Dad?”
Giving Kait another nasty smirk, Brock puffs out his chest. “Sure thing, partner. Go on with your grandma but don’t have too many or you’ll spoil your supper.”
Leading her grandson into the house, Hillary stops on the porch steps long enough to say something to her husband. Tom doesn’t look happy about it but he nods his head to whatever she said before she ushers her grandson inside.
“Come inside, the two of you,” Tom says, his tone hardening as he watches Kait slowly lift herself from her crouch. Shooting me a fuck you smirk, Brock starts to move toward the house but Tom stops him. “Just the girls. We got family matters to discuss. That dog stays outside.” By his tone and the way he’s looking at me, I can’t tell if he’s talking about me or Mook.
Kait shoots me an apologetic look. “Went?—”
“It’s okay.” Coming toward her, I wrap an arm around her waist and drop a kiss on top of her head. “We’ll be right here when you get back.” Letting her go, I have the insane urge to snatch her back and throw her in the truck when she and Abbey start to make their way to the house.
As soon as they disappear with a bang of the screen door, I follow after them, Mook on my heels. Mounting the porch steps, I see a pair of sturdy looking chairs, identical to the one I remember being on the porch at Northpoint.
Lowering myself into one of them, I give Mook an ear rub when he whines at the screen door Kait disappeared behind. “She’ll be back,” I tell him, gaze aimed over the porch railing at the man still standing in the yard. He’s pissed at being excluded from whatever business Tom has with his daughters. I have a feeling that’s something Kait’s little sister is going to pay for too.
As soon as Mook settles, his big block head resting on my boot, I reach for my phone and text my brother.
Me: Why didn’t you tell me Tom fired you?
Catching movement in my peripheral, I look up from my phone to watch Brock stalk his way across the yard. Gone is the shit eating, I had her first smirk, his intentions clear as he stomps up the porch steps.
“You’re not going in there,” I tell him in a conversational tone that stops him midstride.
Reaching up, he makes a show of taking off his cowboy hat before setting it on the railing. “That right?”
“Sure the fuck is.” Still seated, I look up at him, arms loose and ready. “And before you ask, you so much as reach for that door, I’ll drag you off this porch and beat the breaks off you. Again.”
“You have any idea who you’re fucking with, boy?” Brock growls at me, fists clenched. “You might be some big?—”
“I know exactly who I’m fucking with,” I growl back. “I’m fucking with a piece of shit who drives a sleeping woman into the woods and wakes her up, just to rape her.” Reaching up, I run a finger down my forehead, tracing a line that mimics the ugly, puckered scar that runs from his hairline to his eyebrow that was hidden by his hat until now. “Guess they don’t have plastic surgeons in the valley, huh?”
Before he can answer me, the screen door creaks and Kait’s mother steps out on the porch, a big ceramic bowl on her hip and Abbey’s son in tow.
“Went, how about you take a walk with me and Thomas,” she says, with a sunny smile. “I’m sure after such a long plane ride, those long legs of yours could use a stretch.”
“We flew here in my private plane, Mrs. Barret. It wasn’t that uncomfortable.” Shooting Brock a fuck you smirk of my own, I stand, Mook immediately jumping to his feet beside me. “But I’d love a walk if you’re looking for some company.”
“That I am,” she says, beaming at me when I offer her my arm. “Make yourself useful, Brock, and snap these beans for supper.” Shoving the bowl into Brock’s hands, Hillary takes my arm and lets me lead her down the porch steps.
“DON’T WORRY—brOCK ISN’T NEARLY AS brAVE AS HE thinks he is. He’ll stay on the porch,” Hillary reassures me with a pat on my arm. We took a lap around the house before we settled on a bench in front of a giant maple tree with a tire swing hanging from one of its sturdy branches. “Besides, he’s got a lot riding on what’s going on in the house between Tom and the girls, he’d be stupid to mess it up.”
I want to ask her what she means by that but I have a feeling she’d deflect the question so I don’t bother. Instead, I ask her another one. “Do you know where my brother is?”
She nods her head, eyes glued to the boy swinging from the tire and the dog barking and dancing happily around him. “He’s working a ranch in Cut Bank, last I heard,” she says. “It’s not too far from the reservation where his grandfather lives.”
“Your husband fired him for bringing me here, didn’t he?” I know the answer but I ask anyway.
Hillary makes a noise in the back of her throat. “Loyalty is very important to Tom and he feels like Damien betrayed him,” she tells me, effectively avoiding the question. Before I can push by asking her again, she gives me a smile. “Do you and Kaity have any children?”
For some reason, the question is like a punch in the gut. “No.” Shaking my head, I look at the little boy, hanging from the tire swing. “Not yet.”
“Well, that’s okay.” She pats my arm again. “You’re both young. There’s plenty of time… did she go to nursing school like she planned?”
“She did.” This time the smile I give her is genuine. “In Boston. She works with wounded veterans.”
When I say it, Hillary’s chocolate brown eyes fill with tears. “Oh…” she says on a shaky smile. “That’s good. Luke would’ve loved that.”
Remembering the stories Kait told me about her brother on the drive here, I can believe it.
“I want to thank you,” she says quietly, almost like her gratitude is a secret. “For taking Kaity away from here.” Giving me a knowing smile, she sighs. “When I noticed she’d started spending more and more time up at Northpoint, I’d dared to hope. That girl was baking every damn day and she doesn’t bake for just anybody.” She laughs at the memory but the sound of it dies quickly. “I knew the things they were saying about you in the papers couldn’t be true. Damien’s a good man and loves Kaity almost as much as Luke did—he wouldn’t bring anything less than that around this ranch.”
“You wanted me to take Kait with me when I left?” I ask, not sure I understand her meaning.
“Tom’s mind was made up and he wouldn’t be swayed, no matter how hard I tried…” she tells me with a shake of her head. “Emma would’ve risen from the grave and killed me dead if I’d have let her daughter marry that?—”
Stopping midsentence, she gives me a wide-eyed look like she just told me something she shouldn’t have.
“Kait told me, Mrs. Barrett,” I tell her as gently as I can. “She told me her birth mother was named Emma and that the two of you were cousins. She also told me that you were a good mother to her and never made her feel like she was anything less than your daughter.”
“Emma was more than my cousin. She was my best friend. When she died…” Smiling through her tears, Hillary takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. “Thank you for helping me save her daughter.”
“I love her,” I tell her matter-of-factly. “There was no way I was leaving this valley without her. Not after what that piece of—” Now it’s my turn to stall out when I realize I’ve said too much.
“The kitchen window was open. I heard the two of you talking on the porch,” she says with a sigh. “I’d always known Brock didn’t hit a deer but I wasn’t completely sure of what happened that night until then.” She gives me a fierce look. “You did that to him, didn’t you?”
Even though telling her the truth is a risk, I do it anyway. “Yes, ma’am. I’d fallen asleep on the front porch—” When she opens her mouth to admonish me for it, I laugh. “I know—bears.” Giving her a sheepish grin, I shake my head. “Anyway, I woke up to see a truck rolling past the house and I saw Kait, asleep in the front seat.” I skip over the part where I’d thought the worst of her daughter and followed after them so I could see for myself what kind of person she was. “I followed them on foot and when I caught up, Kait was unconscious on the ground, bleeding, and Brock was getting ready to—” Shooting a look across the yard at the house in the distance, I make a low, angry noise in the back of my throat. “I stopped him and took Kait back to Northpoint with me.”
“I’m not surprised.” Hillary gives me a short, bitter laugh. “He’s just like his father.”
“If that’s true, if you knew what kind of man Brock is” I say because it’s something I just can’t wrap my head around. “Why would you let Abbey marry him?”
“I didn’t—” Her voice breaks and she looks away from me to train her watchful gaze on her grandson. “I tried talking her out of it but she wouldn’t listen. Abbey’s just as stubborn as her father. She’d made up her mind and once that girl makes up her mind…” Shaking her head on a sad chuckle, she sighs. “She told me that I could either respect and support her decision or lose her forever. I know my daughter and I believed her. So I let her go.”