CHAPTER TWENTY
SILAS
“Doyou want me to stop anywhere?” I asked Rachel as we hit a cluster of traffic on the highway. She’d been quiet ever since she’d climbed into my truck, and while rage still burned in my veins thinking of that asshole’s hands on her, I had to hide it.
“No, just home. Listen, thank you for?—”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”
“It’s fine. I probably wouldn’t have gotten as rattled if my mother hadn’t stopped by with her new boyfriend on my way out tonight. And he was just as creepy as the ones I remembered.” She rubbed at her neck. “I don’t want that around my sister.”
“Your mother’s boyfriends were creepy, how?” I asked as traffic came to a full stop. I grasped the steering wheel so tightly I had a cramp in my wrist.
“When I was a teenager, they’d leer at me. My grandmother never allowed them in the house for too long. And my mother would always say I was overreacting, but I think my instincts were pretty spot-on.”
“Did any of them touch you?” I cleared my throat when my question came out like a growl.
“No,” she said, turning toward me with a tired chuckle. “What would you do if they did? Go back in time and kill them for me?”
“You’d be surprised what I’d do for you.” I drifted my hand down her cheek, letting my thumb run up and down over the curve of her jaw until the blare of a horn made us both jerk forward.
“Where is your mother now?”
“I really don’t know,” she scoffed. “I told her I changed the locks and not to come back. But I get the feeling she will. My sister isn’t little anymore, so my mother thinks we can all hang out like besties without her having to pretend to be a parent. I won’t let her fuck up my sister’s head.”
“You’re sure they left?” I asked as we turned off the exit toward Rachel’s neighborhood.
“Locks are changed on my upstairs door and the front door so she couldn’t get in, and my downstairs tenant hates her and would call the cops on sight. It’s fine. For now. I’m calling my aunt to put her lawyer on retainer in case I need one.”
“It’s not fine. You shouldn’t have to deal with any of this.”
“My mother has been a constant problem. Even when she’s not around, her existence fucks things up.” She let out a humorless laugh. “I mean, she gave me life, gave me a sister, a grandmother I loved very much. I just wish she’d stay away. But I’ll figure it out.”
Her long sigh both gutted and infuriated me.
“Wow, you’re lucky to find a spot right in front.”
Rachel pointed to the brownstone in the middle of the block. “This is me. Thank you again.”
I grabbed her hand when she reached for the door handle. “I’m walking you up.”
“Silas,” she said on a long exhale. “They’re gone. Trust me.”
“I’d like to make sure. I’ll only be a minute. I’ll walk you upstairs, make sure you’re alone, and then I’ll leave. Promise.” I held up a hand.
The corner of her mouth curved as she held my gaze.
“Okay, Coach. If you want to do a sweep to make yourself feel better, have at it.”
I waited for her on the sidewalk as she shut the car door. My eyes found hers under the glow of the streetlamp, the light illuminating her like the angel she was. Leaving her tonight would be the hardest promise I’d ever make.
“This is a beautiful house,” I said, gazing up at the flower beds on the second floor.
“Thank you. My grandmother would appreciate that. She loved this house and this neighborhood.”
I followed Rachel inside as she opened the front door, a light flickering on after I shut the door behind me.
“I thought maybe she was back,” a short, tan-skinned woman with a thick Spanish accent said to Rachel. “She and that baldie hung out outside after your cab drove away. She saw me give her a look out the front window and left.” She tightened the sweater around her chest when she found my gaze over Rachel’s shoulder.
