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“I would sure hope so,” I said.
She gave me a tight hug then looked around me, eyeing Caleb. “I’m really glad you brought Evelyn. It was great to get to know her.”
“Thanks for having us.” His voice was still strained. Hard and coated with the residual violence.
“You’re welcome any time.”
He edged around us and moved into the living room where Evelyn was on a blanket on the floor next to Olivia. “Come on, sweetheart,” he murmured as he lifted her into his arms.
She was already close to sleep. Sleepy when she wrapped her little arms around his neck. “Are you still mad?” she slurred.
He hugged her tight and muttered, “No, I’m not mad. Never at you.”
He carried her out the door, and I followed, glancing back one more time at Dakota who gave me a knowing wave. “Be careful out there. Thank you for all your help this afternoon.”
“Of course. What is it you say? Love is on the house?”
A soft smile pulled at her mouth. “Love is always on the house.”
Then I followed Caleb out, across the front porch, and down the walkway.
I came up to their side, and from where she had her head rested on Caleb’s shoulder, she gave me a sleepy smile.
“Are you tired, Evie-Love?”
“So tired, but sometimes tired is worth it.”
“Now if that isn’t some sage wisdom, I don’t know what is. We have a smart one here,” I whispered.
We.
Because that’s what it felt like. I opened the rear driver’s side door so Caleb could buckle Evelyn into her booster seat, and I shut it once she was secured.
For a moment, Caleb and I stood in the withering darkness that seeped over the earth. Shame radiating from his spirit, toiling with the rage he couldn’t seem to let go.
“It’s okay, Caleb,” I promised him again.
Throat bobbing with his hard swallow, he gave me a tight nod, and I dipped my chin at him before I rounded the back of the SUV to the other side.
A gasp tore from the middle of me.
Horrified disbelief.
Caleb raced up behind me, instantly on guard. “What is it?”
He recoiled when he saw what had been painted in giant white letters on the passenger side door.
The word glaring in the moonlight.
SLUT.
My stomach fisted in disgust.
In hate.
Caleb spun around, searching the shadows, busted hands curling back into fists.
I knew exactly what he had on his mind.
“I will fucking destroy him, Paisley.”
I grabbed him again, hugged him to me, and whispered at his back, “No. Stay right here. With me.”
THIRTY-FIVE
CALEB
I carried Evelyn’s sleeping form upstairs through the rippling silence of the house.
A house that whispered omens and morbid prophecies.
I tried to slough it off and not allow my mind to go there, but it was impossible.
The feeling like I’d once again been unable to stop someone I cared about from being hurt.
The uncontrolled spiral that threatened to suck me under.
Chaos that blustered through, banging at the walls and curling through my spirit.
I knew my volatility had a whole lot to do with receiving that letter after months of nothing.
When it felt as if I was no longer the hunter, but the hunted. The demon I’d chased enclosing with the promise to strike.
The two of them together made me feel like I would lose my mind.
I hugged Evelyn tighter as I hit the second-floor landing and moved left down the hall in the direction of her room. Paisley’s presence covered us from behind.
I entered Evelyn’s room, dragged down her covers, then settled her onto the bed. A contented moan slipped from her lips, and I thanked fuck she was completely unaware of the offenses that had occurred tonight.
I wanted to kill that bastard.
End him for having the audacity to hurt this woman who was the brightest, most brilliant thing. But that was the thing about having that kind of light in your life. When you lost it, you realized you’d do anything to hold it again.
He’d made the mistake of trying to get it back.
I’d wanted to hunt him down and show him how much I meant it.
Make him pay for it.
But it was the plea coming from Paisley’s mouth that had staked me to the spot.
“No. Stay right here. With me.” Her words had rang with more than that moment.
They’d rang with permanency.
Forever whispering from her lips.
So I’d turned and dragged my hand through the paint to smear the word into ambiguity instead of hunting the fucker down.
A promise of my own.
I watched then as Paisley went to Evelyn’s dresser and took a nightgown from the top drawer, inhaled the peace of her aura as she returned and the two of us worked quickly and silently to remove the sundress Evelyn had worn.
Together we got her ready for bed.
Evelyn blinked her eyes open as I lifted her so Paisley could slip the nightgown over her head.
