And Bruce Tyler was a hell of a lot more dangerous than Cal’s father had ever been.
That thought chilled him through to the bone.Auggie and the girls couldn’t protect themselves fromthat.They just couldn’t.
“Just between us, the man is batshit crazy,” Claudia said.“That was clear the last time I crossed paths with him.I think he’s just devolving more every time something in his little plan goes wrong.With what has been happening lately, I think he’s getting more dangerous.Far, far more than I want to think about right now.And I’m not too happy knowing that they are an hour away from town, and there are six innocent little girls who have already been traumatized by him before.Not to mention, Auggie and Junie and Em.”
“I’m staying.”Nothing would make him leave.Even if she and her sisters told him to get out, he’d just park his truck at the end of their drive and watch over them.The thought of that bastard anywhere near Auggie and her sisters just pissed him off more than he could think.They didn’t deserve this at all.
“Damn it, Ican’t.At least for now.I’m on until three a.m.But I can come back after my shift.”
Then his sister could cross paths with that bastard again.Hell, no.“I don’t want you driving out here with that bastard on the loose.”
His sister had already encountered that guy before, and had been shot because of him, too.
“I’m the cop, you realize that, right?”
“I’m the big brother.It never goes away.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Claudia said.“I think she’s holding herself together by a thread here.I know how she operates.”
“So do I.And I am not leaving her alone now.She needs me.”
They were in Auggie’s bedroom now.And she was telling Zach exactly what had happened.Cal didn’t stop to think about the consequences.He walked over to her, ignored every twinge and bruise and put his hand on her arm.And listened.
His hand practically scorched her.Auggie pulled in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down even further.Adrenaline was running through her, making her…jumpy.She still felt like her father had to be out there somewhere nearby.Watching.
She probably wouldn’t calm down until the girls were home and she knew they were all eight safe.Here, where she had thought they weresafe.She should have learned her lesson—no one was ever truly safe, anywhere.
But she wanted her girlshome.
Then she would figure out what came next.Cal’s hand slid over her back, to cup her shoulder.She just…let herself lean there for a little while.Let him be the strong one for just a moment.
She looked up.Into bright green eyes.Speculative eyes.His sister was full of questions.Hard to miss that.Well, so was Auggie.She just didn’t know which question to ask next.
She explained to Zach everything she could think of.“It has to be…the money.From before.”
“Tell me about the money.How much was it?”
“Nine thousand four hundred and ninety-two dollars.I was twelve when Em first found it.”She pulled in a deep breath.“My father had left us and just not come back, two months before.We were behind on bills, and we had no food at that point.But Em was playing beneath the desk.The bottom panel slid open.And money came falling out all over her.We…thought it was God giving it to us, honestly.We were so, so hungry.School was out, so we weren’t getting the school lunches, or… From…Clancy.Clancy would slip food to Em when she could.On Fridays.Boxed macaroni and cheese.Cereal and oatmeal.A bag of beans, once.Junie and I counted that money three times.That money…kept us going out here for two and a half more years.We were so careful with how we spent it.The electric was turned off at the time, for lack of payment.But we had wood from before he left, so we were warm, at least.We have an old well in back, too.So we had plenty of water.We found wood in the old barn after that.It kept us warm all winter.”It was highly unlikely her father had come back for the girls.That was what she was telling herself.Whatever he had come back for it would be something that benefitedhimcompletely.She’d never met a more selfish human being in her life.And now…she was telling secrets she’d thought she’d take to her grave.“He probably just thought that money was still there.”
“Do you know how he got that money?”Zach asked quietly.
“Who knows?Probably something illegal.All I know was that it kept us from starving.And that was all that mattered.We used the generator when we needed electricity.We figured things out, the three of us.”
And she would never forget how afraid she had been back then.How so many people didn’tunderstandwhat it was like to be that poor.People who thought their way of life was the wayeveryonesurvived.
There had been so many nights when all she’d eaten was a school lunch and a half cup of oatmeal or a scoop of canned corn because that was all they’d had.When they’d been lucky, there had been a bag of beans to cook on the woodstove.She’d figured things out, somehow.Even talking to the guy at the grocery store, insisting her dad wanted the same order delivered every week.For fifteen dollars the store owner’s teenage son would deliver.That delivery service had saved their lives; she knew that now.They would have starved otherwise.
Everything she had done back then had been to take care of Junie and Em.
She’d never forget those kinds of hunger pangs.Or seeing them in her sisters’ eyes.Of knowing she hadn’t been able to get enough food for her baby sisters to eat.For a long, long time she’d been convinced Em was so small because of something Auggie had done.Because Em hadn’t had enough food to grow.
Thesesisters would never know that hunger again.
“You did,” Cal said.“You survived, sweetheart.And the three of you are amazing women because of it.”
“That you are,” Zach said, quietly.
A sound outside told her what she was waiting for.“My girls are home.None of you—don’t say a word about Bruce to them.The kids…they still have nightmares that he’ll find them someday.Please, help me keep them from being so afraid.”
