Page 104 of The Woman with the Handcuffs

“I’d rented a cabin. After… you know… you. I thought you’d come for me, so I rented a cabin to disappear to. I told him he could go there. I brought him to the garage and watched him leave with my car.”

So it wasn’t her dad.

As fucked as things were with him, I was at least glad she didn’t have to live with the fact that the man she hero-worshipped beat her.

“And then?” I prompted when she didn’t go on.

“And then the hit to my head. And when I looked up… there was my dad’s girlfriend.”

“What? She hit you?”

“No. She was there. But it was Ira. Ira was the one to beat me.”

My jaw tightened.

That bastard.

“Did they say anything?”

“They wanted the keys.”

“The keys. To the storage units?”

“Yes.”

If Ira was involved, he either simply found out that Daniel had a sweet deal and wanted the fruits of that labor. Or… or he was fucking over the organization.

I needed to talk to Leo.

Have him do an audit to make sure all the merchandise and the money we made lined up.

But first… I had to get Caitlin comfortable and reassured.

“I ordered you about a metric ton of snacks. And Chinese should be here any minute. You gotta eat with those meds so you don’t get sick.”

“You remembered,” she said, her smile soft.

When it came to her, it seemed impossible to forget anything.

“Yep. Now, the only question is if you want to make a nest here or on the couch?”

“Here sounds good. And you’ll stay with me?”

“Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Caitlin

For the first two minutes of consciousness, my mind was gloriously blank.

All I could focus on was the warm cocoon of blankets I found myself in, how comforting it felt.

But it wasn’t long before my wrist, face, and head started to throb in sync, like they were each sharing a heartbeat.

Quickly on the heels of that was the pain: the headache in my temples, the soreness on the back of my skull, the ache in my cheek, the throb in my stomach, and the sharp, tight pain in my wrist and forearm.

It all came rushing back then. My dad. The betrayal. His escape. My attack. Running to Gav for help. The treatment from a very kind Salvatore.