“He was very controlling.He got jealous if anyone in the bar talked to me.”
“He thought he could leave you alone at a dive bar, and no one would hit on you?”
“He accused me of inviting their attention.”
“He sounds like an idiot.”
“We both were,” she said.“We argued a lot, and things got ugly fast.I can’t lay all the blame on him, because I never backed down from a fight.”
“He got physical with you?”
She shrugged, as if it was no big deal.“I can hold my own.”
Wade’s mouth made a thin line of displeasure.“You’re a small woman.”
“I’m average.”
“Maybe in height.”
“I’m strong for my size.”
“You are,” he said easily, “but you can’t square up with a man.Not as an equal participant.”
She knew he was right.She’d realized long ago that Tripp had goaded her into hitting him first, or hitting him back, so he could claim self-defense.“When I was twenty-four, I decided I’d had enough.I quit drinking, and I stopped arguing with Travis, but the fights continued.They became more intense, even when I didn’t do or say anything to make him mad.He started locking me in a room, refusing to let me leave the house.”
“How did you get out?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Is he looking for you?”Wade asked.
She gave him a warning stare.It was another cop question.
“What’s his real name?”
She couldn’t answer that, either.She drank from her water bottle, because she was done talking.He took the hint and dropped it.Then he rose to his feet and paced around the sidewalk with his hands clenched at his sides.
Meredith felt a trickle of unease.He seemed furious, and barely able to rein it in.What if he broke his promise and investigated her past?
“Wade,” she said softly, moving to stand beside him.“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
“It’s nothing you can fix.”
“You can file a report without disclosing your location.”
She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.She didn’t want to tell him that Tripp had threatened her family.He might not be able to find her, but he could always go after them.He could still make her pay.
Wade turned to study her face, as if the answers to all of his questions were written there.He reached out to cup her chin and rubbed a thumb over the scar near her mouth.“Did he do this?”
Tears filled her eyes for the third time in one night.It was some kind of record for her, as she rarely gave in to her emotions.
“If he comes around here, he’ll get what he deserves.You can count on it.”
Meredith blinked away the moisture and took a deep breath.Then she met his steady gaze.His irises were like liquid amber in the evening light.She believed that Wade would try to protect her from harm.He was that kind of man, bound by honor and duty.He wouldn’t back down from a fight.
Which was why she had to leave town before Tripp caught up with her.Before she risked Wade’s life—and lost her heart.
