Chapter Fifteen #2
“Idiot,” she muttered, closing the front door behind them with more force than necessary. “Not you,” she said when she noticed him watching her. “Him.” She jerked her thumb toward the window. Wilkes was getting into his truck and leaving.
“I didn’t for a single second believe you were talking about me.”
She stabbed a finger in his direction. “Don’t start with me. I’m not in the mood.”
No, she was a woman who’d been pushed too far.
“What can I do to help?” He’d been forced to sit back and watch her handle the situation with the sheriff and then the deputy.
He was struggling not to overstep while battling his protective instincts.
Used to taking charge, it chafed to have to watch her bear the brunt of the load.
She raked her fingers through her hair and dropped down on the sofa. Closing her eyes, she dropped her head back. “I honestly don’t know. There’s so much to do.” So much it had to be overwhelming.
“Is it safe to come out?” Adam poked his head around the end of the hallway.
Vinnie patted the couch cushion beside her. “Safe enough. Come here.” With a glance at Cyrus, he joined his mom. “We can’t stay here.” The pain in her voice made Cyrus’s chest ache.
“Because of me.” The toe of Adam’s sneaker rubbed against the area rug. His bangs fell forward to cover his eyes when he tilted his head down to stare at his lap.
“No, it’s because I don’t have a job anymore, and I won’t be able to find another one, not in this town.”
He jerked his head up. “That’s because of me, because I ran away.”
They were going in circles and going nowhere. Cyrus shoved the coffee table aside and crouched down in front of them. “We can all play the ‘what if’ game. What if I’d done this? What if I’d done that? In the end it doesn’t matter, because none of us can go back in time and change what is.”
“Easy for you to say.” Accusing eyes that mirrored his glared back at him. “You don’t have to find a new house, go to a new school.” His voice broke. “Leave the only home you’ve ever known.”
The truth burned in his gut. “No, I don’t. I wish you didn’t have to do any of that. It’s not fair, but there’s no time to wallow.” He jerked his head toward the front door. “I can guarantee Deputy Wilkes is trying to figure out how he can make more trouble.”
“Why?” Vinnie threw her hands into the air. “I’ve worked alongside him for years. He’s had girlfriends, was even engaged once for a short time. But the past ten months or so he’s been insufferable.”
Cyrus had a theory. “What did his girlfriends look like?” She stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. “Humor me.”
She rubbed a hand over her face and huffed out a breath.
“Let me think. Sandra was about my height, black hair, with turquoise eyes. She worked at the bank. Lisa was a nurse, a bit shorter than me with black and ... green eyes...” She trailed off as the truth sank in. “Son of a bitch,” she whispered.
“They were substitutes for you.”
“I don’t believe for one second that Davis Wilkes has been pining for me all these years.”
“Not pining, but you’re the one who got away, the one he never had. Guys like him aren’t used to being turned down. I bet he was Mr. Helpful when you first joined the department.”
“It was a long time ago, but yeah, he was. After about six months, he started pushing for more. When I turned him down, things got ugly for a bit.”
Cyrus’s wolf snarled inside him. Adam’s eyes flashed and fur rippled on his arms. Their gazes met and father and son came to an understanding without words.
They had their differences, but there was one thing they agreed on.
They’d both be keeping an eye on Vinnie until they were far away from here.
“God, I don’t know where to start. There’s so much to do.” It wasn’t defeat in her voice, but exhaustion.
“You need to eat. We all do. Over supper, you can start a list of everything that needs to be done. There are three of us here. If we need more help, some of my brothers will come.” It wasn’t a bad idea, now that he thought about it.
A few extra hands to carry the load and keep an eye on Vinnie and Adam wouldn’t hurt.
“Adam, order from Pizza Palace. I have no idea what’s in the freezer, and I’m too tired to cook.
” She stood up from the couch. “I’m going to grab a quick shower and change.
” He could see her fighting the urge to stay with her son while he was upset.
In the end, she smothered her protective instincts.
“Hold down the fort until I get back.” She tousled Adam’s hair.
“We’ve got this,” Cyrus assured her. With one final look that warned them both to be on their best behavior, she disappeared down the hall.
As soon as the bedroom door closed behind her, he turned to his son.
“Whatever you do, don’t be alone with Wilkes.
” Anger was too tame a word for what he’d seen flash across the deputy’s face before he’d locked it down.
“I wouldn’t put it past him to try to harm you to hurt your mom. ”
Adam curled his hands into fists. “He tries anything, he’ll regret it.”
“And then what?” While he understood the sentiment, they couldn’t afford to make mistakes.
“There’s a time to step back and a time to fight.
You attack a deputy and you’ll be locked up or sent to a juvenile facility faster than you can blink.
You have to be smarter than him.” That got his attention.
“Wilkes is looking for an excuse to get you out of the way. He sees you as an obstacle to what he wants. I can guarantee he’ll goad you into doing something stupid if you give him the opportunity. ”
The deputy’s dogged search for Adam suddenly took on a sinister tone. Cyrus might be a paranoid bastard, but he seriously had to wonder what might have happened if the deputy had found Adam and they’d been alone. There were plenty of places to bury a body in those hills with no one the wiser.
Adam swallowed hard, his throat rippling. He was being forced to handle things most adults wouldn’t be able to. “I’ll be careful. Mom’s got enough to deal with.”
“Our job is to help and support her. That starts with pizza.” He patted his son’s shoulder. “Quadruple what you normally order. I’m starving and you’ll pack away more than you think you will.”
Adam placed the order and was promised delivery within forty minutes. It helped that it was past the suppertime rush. Then he pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of a kitchen drawer and sat at the table. “I don’t know where to start.” He didn’t write anything, overwhelmed by what was happening.
Cyrus pulled up a chair alongside him. He could practically read his son’s thoughts. “This isn’t your fault. If you hadn’t run away, you would have gone through the shift alone and would most likely be dead. You’re running away led your mom to me.”
He wanted to grab the boy and hold on tight but reined in the impulse.
It was a delicate balance between offering reassurance and stifling him.
It was Cyrus’s job to instill confidence.
“You were following your instincts when you went into the woods. In the end, you did the right thing. It’s unfortunate that you have to pay such a steep price.
” Losing Sin Mountain would be devastating.
It gave him an inkling of what his son and Vinnie were going through.
“But you have your mom. That’s what’s important.
And you have me, and my family ... whether you want us or not. ”
While they’d been talking, the shower had gone off. Vinnie wasn’t lingering, not wanting to leave the two of them alone together for longer than necessary. He didn’t take it personally. He was still a stranger in so many ways.
She strolled into the room a short while later rubbing a towel over her damp hair.
Faded blue jeans molded to her long legs.
A tank top that matched her eyes left her tanned arms bare and clung to her torso, accentuating the fullness of her breasts.
But it was her bare feet that had his throat tightening.
She’d always worn boots or sneakers before.
This was truly home, the place where she could relax and set down her burdens. And now she was losing it.
“So what are we doing?” She draped the towel around her neck and grabbed the two ends.
He cleared his throat. “Pizza will be here in about thirty minutes. Adam is starting a list.”
“Good idea.” She peered over her son’s shoulder. “There’s nothing on it.”
“We just started, Mom.”
“I can take care of the moving van and getting boxes, if you’d like.
” It wasn’t easy to not take over. He was managing the impulse, but sitting back and doing nothing was impossible.
“Zach and Noah can drive it here, help us load everything up.” And be added security.
“You’ll have to personally handle whatever needs doing with work, talk to a realtor, get copies of Adam’s school records, deal with your bank, utilities, and the rest. This is something I can do. ”
Vinnie leaned against the counter and crossed her ankles. “I have no idea where we’ll end up settling. Not until I find a job.”
His wolf howled. Every muscle in his body clenched.
It hadn’t occurred to him that she might not come back to Kentucky with him.
“Adam needs to spend the summer on the mountain. You should both come. We can rent one of those moving pods and store your things for the time being. That will give you some breathing space to make decisions.”
“It would be too much of an intrusion. And what would your brothers say?” He knew she was thinking about Josiah, in particular.
“They’d all insist on it. I can guarantee if I go home without you, they’ll call me out and come looking for you.
” Indecision was written on her face, but she was waffling.
“You’re losing so much. Let me give you this.
” It was as close to begging as he’d ever come.
All their fates lay in her hands. A wall clock in the shape of an apple ticked the seconds away.
He held his breath. Adam’s fingers tightened around the pen he was still holding.
“For the rest of the summer,” she finally agreed, allowing him to exhale. “That will give me time to find a job.”
“For the summer,” he echoed, but he was already planning way beyond that. The hurdle of getting her back to the mountain had been dealt with. Once she was there, all that was left to do was convince her to stay.