Except…that money.
There had been almost ten thousand dollars in cash tucked into a broken panel in the bottom of that desk drawer.Em had found it two months after their father had abandoned them for the last time.That money…had saved them.For twoyears.
With it, Auggie had been able to buy food for her sisters and had been able to pay some of the bills that inevitably came from having a home.She had made plenty of mistakes, but she had figured things out along the way.For two years, that money had kept them going.Until her aunts and uncles had realized what was happening and had swooped in and changed everything.
It had taken Auggie a while to get used to the changes after that.She’d had trouble trusting someone else, an adult, to make the decisions for her and her sisters that she was used to making for herself.Sometimes…she thought she was still stuck in that cycle.
It was all Bruce’s fault, too.But…it had to be the money.Bruce had gotten himself into serious trouble lately.Everyone in town was still talking about what had happened to Dylan Talley—and Fletcher.Fletcher and Dylan were both still at the inn recovering after what Bruce had done to them.It hadn’t even been four weeks.
She’d been deluding herself that he had gotten out of town.Most likely he had holed up somewhere like the snake he really was.Watching.
She knew how determined he could be when he wanted something.
Just waiting to strike, to poison everything once again.
And Auggie had six beautiful little girls, and two big girls, to protect from the destruction that was Bruce.She forced herself to calm down.To be the cool, collected, always in chargeMama Augthat the girls were depending on.
Cal was still hurting.It was obvious in how he was moving around.Not that he would let that show.He could be so stubborn.
He stood now, when he should probably be sitting.At the window, watching.They were waiting for the Masterson County sheriff’s office or the WHP to send someone out.She hoped it was soon.She was starting to shake apart.
Her sisters would be home, soon.She didn’t wantBruceor anything about him to get close to her baby sisters.She would do anything to keep that from happening.
“There’re two cars coming down the drive,” Cal said, quietly.He hadn’t said much since she’d explained to him exactly what had happened.But…he had touched her.Multiple times.Little brushes along her arm, and he’d cupped her cheek once.Even though he hadn’tsaidmuch, the emotions had been in his eyes.
There had been something about the way that man had been looking at her since.
And he had stayed at the windows.Guarding her.
“Faster than I expected.They were probably closer to this end of the county.”She was almost fifty minutes from town.Her nearest neighbors were fifteen miles south from where her ranch was.
Her father had always boasted that he’dtakenthis ranch in whatever devil’s deal he’d made back then specifically because he’d wanted the isolation.He hadn’t wanted his brothers butting their noses into his business—he had said that so many times.Her father’s brothers had all lived up on Tyler Road, north of town.But not Bruce—even though he’d had property there years ago.Before he’d lost it to foreclosure.Gil owned that land now, keeping it all in the family.
“It’s Claudia, and Zach.That guy…I swear he’s attached to her hip at times.”
“They are good friends.Considering…” Zach had been Claudia’sfirst.But Auggie wasn’t certain if Cal knew that or not.She wasn’t about to tell, if he didn’t.Claudia had made it clear that sometimes Zach liked to yank Cal and Cadell’s chains, just for the hell of it.Claudia had told her that even she didn’t know if her brothers knew about her previous relationship with Zach.But that was all in the past.The two acted more like squabbling siblings than anything.There was nothing romantic between Zach and Claudia at all now—even if Zach liked to make jokes that there was.He did the same with Marin, too—they’d dated about six years ago, Auggie thought.Zach was just a flirt.And she’d be really happy to see that man walking up her porch right now.“I’m glad it’s them.”
If it had been Joel, her cousin Phoebe’s husband and the sheriff, or Sage, she wouldn’t be able to keep this away from the rest of the family.But Claudia and Zach…they were a different story.
Claudia, at least, wouldunderstand.
Auggie wasn’t going to let Bruce destroy the girls’ newfound peace and sense of safety.She just couldn’t let that happen.
35
Cal explainedto his sister and Zach what he’d seen, and what had happened.Claudia was pushing for him to go back to the hospital and get the ribs checked out again.Cal washurting,definitely.But he would be fine.“I’m good, Claud.I’m not leaving her.And the girls will be home soon.She’ll want to talk to Em and Junie, come up with a plan for the girls.I amnotleaving her to deal with this alone.”
His sister just blinked up at him, from the eyes she’d inherited from their mother.That bright piercing green.His much darker green was the same as his father’s.Claudia looked a great deal like her—it made Cal miss his mother more sometimes.Seeing so much of her in his sisters, the way he did.“Since when have you assigned yourself her protector?Does she realize?What were you even doing out here?Need I ask?”
“We had plans.We were going to…talk…about something more serious happening between us, Claud.That’s all I am saying.”
Zach Lowell had taken off down the hallway with Auggie toward her bedroom, to see where Bruce had first been.Cal was going to be in there, if she needed him.
His sister followed him, questioning him over everything he could think about where Bruce was concerned.“What doyouthink he was doing here?”
“I think he is looking for something specific.And I think the man is damned crazy and will do anything to get what he wants.And he’s not afraid of physical confrontation at all.He almost acted like he enjoyed it.”There had been a look in the man’s eyes that said Bruce Tyler was running on something—some sort of fumes that a normal man just didn’t.There had been so much intensity in the blue eyes Auggie and her sisters had all inherited.“There is something crazy in that man.Something…maybe it’s something driving him.Some purpose or mission.I don’t know.”
But he’d seen a look like that before.Right before his father had gone off the rails.He’dknownsomething was eating his father, destroying him, but Cal hadn’t acted soon enough for it to matter.By the time he had, it had been far too late.People had almost died because of it.
