Chapter 9
Nine
Julie
I hated that Gage wouldn’t tell me what Patrick wanted to talk to him about. It had been eating at me all afternoon, and every time I would try to approach it, he would shake his head at me and walk away. I didn’t even have to say anything—it was like he just knew what I was going to say.
We were in the middle of making dinner while Daisy colored at the coffee table in the living room when my phone rang. I cleaned my hands on the dishtowel and pulled it out of my pocket, feeling relieved when I saw Patrick’s name. Perhaps he was calling to update me on their conversation.
“Hey,” I said as I answered and pressed the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could finish cutting the veggies for the fajitas. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to talk to you about Christmas.”
“Okay. What about it?”
“Well, since it’s only two weeks away, I talked with Mom and Dad. We all thought it would be nice to spend the holiday together this year.”
I frowned as I set the knife down on the cutting board and processed what he said.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No, Jules. I’m not kidding. I think it would be great for all of us to spend Christmas together. We haven’t done that since—”
“I’m aware of the last time we were all together for Christmas,” I interrupted, not wanting to hear him say it.
My heart hammered in my chest as I remembered the last Christmas we had all spent together as a family. It was the one we celebrated before Mike was killed in a car accident a few weeks later, and my life was forever shattered, along with my heart.
“All I’m saying is that it would be nice to have family there to support you and Daisy,” he said, his tone softer.
“We’re okay,” I lied, even though we were for the moment.
But what happened after we left the safety of Gage’s grandmother’s inn was something I didn’t want to think about just yet.
I knew I would have to eventually, but for now, I wanted to live in the false sense of security I had been clinging to since the morning we arrived and Gage answered the door.
“Julie, you can’t be so stubborn all the time,” Patrick said with a heavy sigh. “This guy, Joel, isn’t who you think he is. He’s dangerous, and I’m genuinely worried about you.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“But do you? Do you really know who he is? Because what I’ve found so far is terrifying, Julie. The thought of him getting close to you or Daisy again makes my blood boil.”
I was about to agree with him when something stopped me.
“Wait—what do you mean the stuff you’ve found?” I asked, my eyes cutting to Gage, who purposely turned away from me so I couldn’t see his face.
“I did some digging.”
“Patrick!” I scolded, forcing a smile when Daisy turned and looked to see what was happening. “I can handle this. I promise. You don’t need to get involved in this. It’s better for everyone if you don’t.”
“It’s a little too late for that,” he replied. “Shit, I have to take this call real quick. Can I call you back in a few minutes?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
Before I could say anything more, the line was dead. I set my phone down and turned toward Gage, allowing my heated stare to burn into the back of his head.
“I’m not going to tell you anything, so you can stop with the death stare,” he said from over his shoulder as he continued cutting the meat for dinner.
I sucked in a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. Before I could badger him about what he wasn’t telling me, my phone rang again. I picked it up without looking at the screen and answered it.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” I said, resting my hand on my hip. While he was my older brother, I wasn’t going to just let him get away with intruding on things in my life that weren’t his to worry about.
“Well, I could say the same to you.”
I gasped as my hand flew to my mouth and covered it. My eyes widened with fear as Gage spun around and rushed to my side.
“Like why you felt it was necessary to leave in the middle of the night,” Joel said, his tone filled with anger. “I thought we talked about that and I made myself very clear about my expectations.”
“Put it on speakerphone,” Gage whispered, his voice so quiet that I had to rely on reading his lips to understand what he said.
I nodded and did as he asked, hating the tears that were already burning my eyes.
“Something unexpected came up, and I had to leave. It was a family emergency,” I said quietly, praying that Daisy wouldn’t hear this conversation.
“You should have told me. I would have gone with you and helped you.”
“I didn’t want to bother you with it.”
I struggled to keep my tone soft because what I really wanted to do was scream at him and rip him a new one for all of the stress and trauma he’d created for me. I wanted to yell from the top of the mountain and tell him every single thing I’d come to hate about him.
“Well, that’s where you would be wrong. It wouldn’t have been a bother. Imagine my frustration when I found out you left in the middle of the night, right after you promised me you wouldn’t. Can you understand my worry that something terrible might have happened to you? To Daisy?”
I covered my mouth to keep from throwing up at the sound of my daughter’s name coming out of his mouth.
“What do you want, Joel?” I asked, getting to the point as my voice broke.
“Oh, Julie. I thought I had already made that clear. I want what’s mine. The only thing I’ve ever wanted was you. And in case you haven’t noticed—I always get what I want.”
“I’m not yours. I will never be yours,” I bit out with a strangled sob.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong again. But I get it. It’s hard being out on your own, trying to navigate a scary world while taking care of your daughter. You’ve done a great job with it, especially with handling that snowstorm you got caught in on your way up to that cabin.”
I covered my mouth tighter with my trembling hand as the tears rushed down my cheeks.
Gage watched me carefully as his jaw clenched and his fists balled at his sides.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Joel had put a tracking device on my car, in addition to the one he put in Uni, to keep track of where I went.
However, I hadn’t had the time or the knowledge to look for one before I left.
“It must be scary being out in the middle of nowhere with no one to hear you scream for help. No one would even notice if you truly went missing. How terrifying it must be to feel someone watching you, but never know exactly where they are.”
My throat burned as bile rose from my stomach. He was a fucking monster.
“I won’t keep you on here for long. I wouldn’t want you to burn dinner,” Joel said dismissively.
My heart stopped in my chest as the color drained from my face. If he knew that we were making dinner, then that meant he could see inside the house. I pressed a trembling finger to my lips to keep from screaming.
“Oh, and Julie?”
There was a long, silent pause that made the entire room go quiet as he waited for me to respond.
“Yeah,” I replied as steadily as I could.
“I would be careful about leaving your daughter around a rottweiler. They’re known to be an aggressive breed. They can turn on children in an instant, and we wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to our sweet Daisy, now would we?”
Before I could say anything, the line went dead, leaving me in a stunned silence.
Just then, my phone rang again. I glanced down to see Patrick’s name on the screen, but couldn’t move. Gage grabbed it and answered it, holding it between his ear and shoulder as he wrapped his arms protectively around me.
“Yeah. We have a big fucking problem. Forget Plan A. We’re moving to Plan B.”