Cody frowned. “Was there a lot in there?”
“All my savings since I’d started working at the age of fifteen, so…thousands of dollars. I was stupid not to realize she was still on the account and had access to it. And that stupidity cost me.” She swallowed. “I left work that night and drove straight to my hometown, to her house. I was so angry and upset. She’d never been a good mother. She was absent a lot of the time, always drunk, and completely ignorant of any pain I’d ever endured. But this was the worst thing she’d done since…”
She paused, not ready to talk about her father just yet. “In years. She was passed out when I got there, which wasn’t unusual. She often passed out with an empty bottle of whiskey by her head. My brother was also there, and he informed me that I wouldn’t be getting my money back. That Iowedthem, and they’d keep taking from me as often as they liked.”
Anger radiated off Cody. “Why does he think you owe them?”
“While my mother’s an alcoholic, and my brother’s a deadbeat, my…my father was a drug addict. And when he was using, he became violent.” Cody’s fingers tightened around her thigh. “Usually, he’d just shove or hit me. He did the same to Mom and Ross. But one day, he escalated to the point he ended up throwing me down the stairs. I screamed, and the neighbors heard.”
“That’s how he was arrested.”
Her gaze flashed up, a look of shock on her face. “How did you know?”
A muscle flexed in Cody’s cheek. “After the alley attack, Eastern found a report on your father. It revealed that he was out of prison after serving eight years of his ten-year sentence. The details said a neighbor heard someone scream, police showed up, and he was arrested for assault and drug possession.”
All this time, he’d known one of her greatest secrets. She shouldn’t be surprised. The information was a matter of public record, and his brother was the town sheriff…but for some reason, she’d never allowed herself to consider he’d bother looking into her past.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wanted to wait until you trusted me enough to tell me yourself.”
She let that sink in, realizing she wasn’t angry. If he’d told her, she’d have been utterly embarrassed, considering they hadn’t known each other nearly as well back then. But now? Now she trusted him. “It’s true. Police found drugs in his system and searched the house, where they found more. Enough to put him in prison. Despite what a terrible person he was, my mother loved him. He was also the only income earner in the family, so she and my brother blamedmefor being broke.”
“When they should have made sure you were okay and protected you.”
She could have laughed, even though there was nothing remotely funny about any of this. “They’ve never protected me from anything. And when Mom took my money, I just felt so defeated and hopeless…I ran. I realized that unless I disappeared, it would just keep happening. They’d sweep in and destroy any life I tried to build.”
“I’m sorry.”
For some reason, those two words made her want to cry. Maybe because they were spoken so gently. Maybe because no one had ever cared that her family didn’t love her, but Cody seemed to.
“I’m scared.” The two whispered drops of truth fell from her lips. “I don’t know what my dad wants, but I know it can’t be good.”
A hard look came over Cody’s face. “I promise I will doeverythingin my power to protect you from him.”
“I want to believe that’s enough.”
“It has to be.” They both remained silent, and after a beat, he tilted his head. “What were you saving for?”
She smiled sadly. “A small house. White picket fence. Space for a cat. A vegetable garden so I could grow my own food. That felt like security to me. I used to dream about it when I was young and living in a home where I didn’t feel safe.”
His warm fingers touched her chin, pulling her gaze up to him. “This is a setback. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”
“I keep telling myself that, but sometimes it’s hard to believe it.”
“I’ll believe it enough for the both of us.”
Cody movedfrom table to table, filling up the small bowls of nuts that sat on each one. They weren’t open yet. After breakfast, he’d driven Harper to the cabin so she could collect the last of her things because she’d finally agreed to stay with him. It was a huge weight off his chest.
Her father would be back. And they still didn’t know who this firebug was who’d torched her car, or the person who’d attackedher in the alley. It wasn’t safe for her to be on her own, and thank God, she was letting him look after her.
He’d called Eastern, but his brother hadn’t seen or heard from Rodney Rain.
Cody’s muscles tensed just thinking about the guy. The spineless sack of shit. Hearing Harper tell him in her own words that he’d pushed her down a flight of stairs made him want to go out and murder the asshole.
“We’re out of napkins,” Barry said from behind him.
Cody turned. “Sorry, I’ve fallen behind on some of the ordering. I’ll do it today.”
