Chapter 33
He needed to reevaluate just how he was going to capture his woman forever. But, well, Kurt just wasn’t good at that part of things, apparently.
He picked up his phone—it wasn’t too late. Not considering that she’d probably just made it back to the Hiller ranch a little while ago. He’d waited in the hospital parking lot for her to leave with her parents and her tiny fairy sister.
It hadn’t been deliberate—he’d only just left the waiting room a few minutes earlier, after Jackson had taken Garth back to sit with Marie for the night.
Janie had taken the children to the Barratt Finley Creek for a few nights.
Kurt had given her some money to do that—Marie and Garth’s, and Janie’s—house would need to be cleaned first. And Brenton’s.
Jessica had attacked Brenton in his own home.
How could Janie take two innocent kids back to that?
Kurt would never forget what witnessing violence had done to him and Kevin as kids. There had been nine years between them—Kevin had once protected Kurt. He’d been good at heart once.
Kurt was still digging into what had really happened to his brother. And why. He was finding disturbing reports in the social services files he’d had an investigator with Lassiter Investigations look into. But he had different directions to look in now.
Thanks to what Greer’s father had told him. Things Lassiter had been able to actually confirm, now that they knew the right direction to go in.
Kevin had gone…wrong. Bad, and not just when he was with the Hillers. Kurt was just trying to figure out why those reports had been covered up. Years before what had happened to Greer.
Hell, Kevin had been almost twenty-four when he’d hurt Greer. He’d lived with the Hillers when he’d been seventeen and a half. They’d gone into foster care when Kurt had been four and Kevin thirteen.
Five years later Kevin had aged out. And been arrested thirty-two times between eighteen and his death at twenty-four and ten months. Yet Kurt hadn’t seen those arrest reports until now. Not a single one, until Lassiter had found them.
It didn’t make a damned bit of sense to him at all.
Unless someone in the department of family services in this area was hiding something, at least twenty-something years ago. Kevin’s files just looked weird to him—and to Lassiter. They hadn’t found a satisfying answer yet.
And Kurt wasn’t too thrilled with that idea—considering where Greer worked now.
There were a lot of gaps and holes in his brother’s file. Holes Kurt was going to fill in. He’d already started gathering information—stretching from Oklahoma to Brownsville. He was just getting started.
He sent his woman a text. She could kick his ass for bothering her later.
Hey, honey, did you make it home okay?
He didn’t expect a reply, of course. But… a man in love could hope, right?
Leave me alone, Chase. I’m trying to sleep here. And I don’t want nightmares about you.
Just checking on the love of my life and our baby.
Bull poop. I am not your love. And I never will be. So just forget whatever you are planning.
A sound from the baby monitor had him pausing. Bronte was fussing again.
But honey, I am a changed man…love has redeemed me—brb. Baby awake.
He hit send, then stood.
Daddy-duty called.
She could just imagine him in basketball shorts and nothing else, rocking Bronte back to sleep. The jerk.
She was not going to lie there in her bed, after almost losing her brother and best friend to a raving lunatic and not be able to sleep because of that toad. She just wasn’t.
But she would be lying if she said she wasn’t waiting for him to text back.
She grabbed her phone and looked at the text. And then wished she hadn’t.
He’d sent a photo. Of him. And a beautiful baby girl.
The jerk.
He just did not know what he was doing to her.
Then again, he was diabolical. Maybe he did.
But his arms had felt so strong around her tonight.
He’d made her feel safe, like the world was right again.
And she’d seen him with Garth and Janie and even the kids.
Kurt had genuinely cared about all of them.
And when Luna Sandoval had shown up with a few things for the kids and Janie, she’d seen how he treated her, too.
Protective. Like Greer’s own brothers were with her.
And he had been there every single time Greer could have possibly needed something. Just right there.
With her.
She couldn’t forget that.
She really wished he was with her right now—maybe then she wouldn’t feel so alone tonight. She…wanted to be with him now. Wanted him to be holding her. Everything felt right when he was holding her now.
As she sat there on the edge of her bed it sank in. Her mother had said that. It would feel right. When it was the right man.
She didn’t know if Kurt would ever be that right man. But maybe it was time she actively tried to find out? Finish this between them once and for all. He’d said he loved her. More times than she count right now. She just…didn’t know if she believed him at all.
It was time for some answers. She couldn’t keep driving herself crazy this way. She just couldn’t.
She was going to come up with a plan on how to deal with that man head on. Because one thing was certain: She wasn’t so through with Kurtland Tyson after all.