Chapter 23
“I don’t know what could have possibly made you think this was a good idea, Ryder!”
“It’s not his fault!”
“Hannah, stay out of it!”
“Don’t talk to her like that. She hasn’t done anything wrong.” In comparison to the two women in front of me, my voice was surprisingly calm. Though the icy look I earned from Erin sent a chill down my spine.
“Don’t tell me what to do with my daughter.”
“Our,” I said in a voice so low, she barely heard me.
“What?”
“Our daughter,” I repeated. “She’s mine too.”
“Then why did you have the brilliant idea to leave her home alone—”
“I’m seventeen!”
I turned my attention to the floor. I’d rushed home after seeing all the missed calls and texts from Hannah, only to find Erin’s SUV in the driveway.
Hannah sat on the couch with Carlos in her lap, tears streaking her face while her mom angrily paced in front of her.
Then I walked in, getting the verbal beating of a lifetime when she caught sight of me.
Hannah had decided to take Carlos for a walk. It was dusk, but not too dark, so she didn’t think anything of it—until she realized she was being followed. Knowing Erin would freak out, she’d called me. Only, I’d left my phone in the car while I was dealing with the police.
I made sure Hannah was okay before addressing Erin. I asked if she’d recognized the person following her, but she admitted that she hadn’t seen anything to identify them except for the dark shadow of their jacket.
“… I’ve told you,” Erin was ranting, “when you have a kid, you can’t just run off to hook up with your boyfriend.”
“How dare you?” I snapped. “We weren’t hooking up!”
“Then what was so important that you ran off leaving your teenage daughter home alone on a Saturday night?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep, centering breath. I was about to channel the side of my parents I never liked—the one where they treated me like a child. “Hannah, take Carlos to your room, please.”
“But—”
“Don’t tell her what to do!”
I ignored Erin’s indignation. “Hannah, please. I’m only asking for five minutes. I need to have a word with your mother. Okay?”
Reluctantly, and with worry filling her blue eyes, she picked up the puppy and disappeared down the hall. I waited until I heard the door click shut before I turned back to Erin, who stared at me with her arms crossed. “Care to explain what that was about?”
I didn’t want to talk about this at all, let alone to Erin. My encounters with Luke made me feel weak and vulnerable. I hated those feelings, but I needed her to understand that I’d never do anything to put our daughter in danger.
“Earlier today there was a break-in at the bar, and they’re pretty sure Kian’s brother did it. They needed me down there to give my statement.”
Erin’s face softened, albeit only slightly. She quickly turned away, running a hand through her hair. “It couldn’t have waited? You couldn’t have called me?”
“Think about where we were at seventeen. Did you want to be treated like a kid? We were doing far crazier things than being left home alone, or taking a fucking puppy for a walk.”
She held up a finger at that. “We’ll talk about the puppy later.”
“No, we won’t. This is my house and if I want to get a dog, I’ll get a dog. I can’t tell you how sorry I am this happened. I feel horrible. I didn’t want to leave her, but…”
Erin stood her ground. “But what?”
I sighed. “Would you rather I’d taken her with me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Both of you, stop it!” Our heads snapped to the hallway where Hannah stood with hands on her hips. “You’re acting like children. I’m fine. I was a little scared, but I’m fine.” She turned her eyes to me. “Can we just get back to our night? I’m starving.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Erin cut in. “You’re coming home with me.”
“No, I’m not.”
They bickered, and Carlos barreled toward me and leapt at my legs, so I picked him up and held him in my lap. Petting the little terror calmed my nerves.
I was kicking myself. I shouldn’t have left Hannah alone. I’d hesitated, which meant my instincts had been warning me that it was a bad idea. I just wasn’t accustomed to listening to them. In point of fact, I’d spent much of my life actively ignoring them.
“Ryder?”
I blinked up at them. God, they looked like twins. Erin stood there with hands on hips, while Hannah’s arms were crossed. I gulped. “Huh?”
“Can I still stay here tonight? I don’t want to go anywhere with her.”
My heart raced. I met Hannah’s ocean-blue eyes, but I could still feel Erin’s boring into me from where she stood.
I wanted to keep arguing with Erin, but I needed to protect my daughter first. As much as it pained me to do so, that meant siding against her.
Her safety was more important than her desires.
“I don’t think it would be a good idea. You should go home, where you’ll be safe.”
“What? That’s not fair!”
Hannah and Erin began bickering again, and I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. I felt like I’d betrayed her. “Hannah, please? I don’t want to fight.”
“Go pack your things,” Erin said, pointing toward Hannah’s room.
Hannah looked at me, pleading with her eyes, and as much as I wanted to look anywhere else, I held my ground.
Think of her safety. Think of her safety.
My heart cracked a little, but finally she turned and stormed off in the direction of her room.
Carlos wiggled in my arms until I released him and he claimed Hannah’s blanket for himself.
“Can I speak with you?” Erin whispered. “Alone?”
“Let me walk you out while she’s packing.”
We walked in silence, and Erin waited until we were a respectable distance from the front door before she rounded on me. “Thank you. But if you think siding with me lets you off the hook for one minute, you’re in for a rude awakening, Ryder Clark. What if something had happened to h—”
“Erin, please. I feel guilty enough. You’re not helping by continuing to berate me. I’m not a kid. We’re not seventeen anymore. Do you really think I would have left Hannah alone if I’d thought she’d be in danger?”
Erin looked off into the darkness of the night, quiet for a moment. “None of this crazy stuff started happening until you got here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Break-ins, strangers following my teenage daughter…”
I shook my head. “I’ve worked in bars for as long as I can remember.
This kind of stuff comes with the territory.
But,” I held up a finger when her mouth popped open, “I also learned how to handle it. You spent time in New York, you know the charmed life of this little town isn’t going to prepare Hannah for the outside world.
I’m not suggesting we put her in danger—I would never, ever suggest that—but when things like this happen, all we can do is teach her how to deal with them for herself.
She’s smart enough to avoid most trouble, but if we shelter her, she’ll never survive the first trouble that comes her way. ”
Her glare said she wasn’t listening. “Did they arrest him?”
“I don’t think so.” And that made me uneasy.
She nodded, then took a deep breath. “I don’t want Hannah over here until they do.”
My heart fell into my stomach. “What are you saying?”
She opened the driver’s door of her vehicle. “Honestly, Ryder, I’m not sure it was a good idea for you to move out here. The drama I can handle, but not the danger.”
Hannah opened the front door, duffel in her arms and backpack slung over her shoulder.
She probably didn’t intend for me to see, but as she turned to close the door behind her, she brushed tears from her cheeks.
She stomped around Erin to throw her things in the back of the SUV, then hesitated.
I knew she was pissed at me, but she still wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed—hard.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into her hair. The anger I could handle, but her hug nearly unmade me. I felt a burn in the back of my eyes, made all the worse when I didn’t get a response out of her. She released her grip on me and went around to the passenger’s side without looking back.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Erin said, before getting in herself and driving off.
I cleared the lump from my throat and turned around, walking back to the door. I didn’t look back.
I was too anxious to sleep. I kept the TV on, but wasn’t paying attention to it.
I laid across the couch, keeping my eyes on the front door.
Carlos curled up on my belly, his light weight almost enough to comfort me to sleep—almost. My eyes threatened to shut, but I couldn’t let them, not yet.
I forced them open and fumbled for my phone on the table, texting the only other person I wanted in that moment.
Can you come over?
No sooner had the message been marked as “delivered,” when a knock sounded at my door. I scooped the sleeping Carlos off my stomach, bundling him up in the blanket Hannah left before going to let James in.
“Is Hannah asleep?” James asked, easing the door shut behind him.
I shook my head. “She’s not here. Do I need to give you permission to enter every time you come over?”
“No, once is enough unless you tell me otherwise. What do you mean she’s—fuck!” Carlos popped up out of his blanket, giving James his Predator growl. “What is that?”
“A puppy.” I raised a brow at him. “His name’s Carlos. Want to hold him?”
“No, I don’t want to hold that furry creature from hell.”
“Aww,” I teased, keeping my voice low. “Is the big, bad vampire scared of dogs?” I reached down to pick up the ball of fluff at my feet.
“No! I just—ah!” He flinched as Carlos stuck his nose out to sniff him.
“James, you bite harder than he does,” I said with a chuckle.
“But you like it,” he pouted. Still, he suffered through Carlos’s inspection. “I figured with everything that happened tonight, you wouldn’t appreciate me breaking into your house. Now where’s Hannah?”
The events of the night seemed to weigh down my shoulders. I turned to the side to take a few deep breaths, but James picked up on my odd reaction at once.
“What’s wrong, love?” he asked, placing a tentative hand on my shoulder.
“I’m fine.” I focused on the weight of Carlos in my arms as a distraction, like a tiny, fuzzy weighted blanket.
“You’re not as good of a liar as you think you are.”
I relaxed into James’s arms as he crowded me from behind. “We’ve both had a rough night. Can’t we just forget about it?”
“Would that work for you?”
I sighed in frustration. “No.”
“Then tell me what’s wrong. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to know.”
I kept my back turned to him until I was sure I wasn’t going to break down.
Once the sensation passed, I led him over to the couch and recounted everything that had happened.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, his hand found its way to my thigh, his thumb rubbing a soothing pattern across the cotton of my pajamas.
I hardly stopped to breathe, and by the time I finished talking, my chest ached.
“I guess it’s a good thing I texted you first,” he said at last. “You might’ve stabbed me otherwise.”
I furrowed my brow. “Would it have done anything?”
“No, but borderline immortality doesn’t make being stabbed a pleasant experience.”
I laughed, disturbing Carlos who’d fallen asleep on my stomach.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asked. “At least until you fall asleep?”
Yes. I swallowed hard, the word seemingly stuck. Surely asking for help should be easier than this.
“You can tell me no,” James offered.
I sighed, too tired to fight anything anymore. “I don’t want to. Stay—all night. Let me put Carlos to bed.”
I carried Carlos to his enclosure in the kitchen. Behind me, I heard James mutter something that sounded suspiciously like, “Give him an exorcism while you’re at it.”
We settled into bed as we had before: me on my side with James tucked in behind me. I let out a deep breath, relaxing every muscle in my body as his arm closed over me. My throat constricted again, and I blurted, “What am I going to do if I can’t see her anymore?”
James said nothing, but he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to my temple.