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“I know—he came in and told me.”
Neil rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, he’s an asshole treading on everyone’s toes, messing in things he shouldn’t, and giving me all kinds of grief. But he’s good, and he has his eyes on Fox, okay?”
“He won’t go marching in and pulling Fox out, right? I don’t want Fox scared. I should go and?—”
“It’s okay.” This was a blur—everything was white noise. “Connor won’t do that. Now, do you want to expand on it for me? Give me an idea of what we’re dealing with when it comes to your ex-husband.”
“Fox saw him hurt me,” I blurted. “But Fox doesn’t know he’s here…”
“Okay.”
I stopped—how much did Neil need to know? Even as sheriff, he didn’t have to understand everything about my private life. Right? I’d told Chris about Briggs, but only in loose terms. He’d shared so much of himself with me, but what had I given him back? Not anything of Briggs and what he’d done. I covered my eyes, all the regrets shoving at me and not letting me breathe.
“Briggs shouldn’t be near me,” was all I said, and Neil nodded. “He threatened…” I stopped—had he actually said he was going to hurt Chris, or was that just his usual crap? “I don’t know. It wasn’t a threat, but he said Chris wouldn’t be so pretty with a baseball bat to his head.”
The words fell into silence. Neil’s jaw tensed, and he went icy cold.
“Okay then,” he said. “We’ll leave it at that for now. I’ll have an informal chat with this Briggs guy if he’s still in town. Run this encounter up his local PD for breaking the restraining order.”
“Okay.”Just don’t make him angry.
“But, Noah, what Connor found when he did the background on the guy…”
“I know. Briggs is…” I had to search for the right words. “Arrogant, feels as if the world is against him, or rather heownsthe world. He knows he shouldn’t be near me, but he…” I stared right at Neil. “He acts like none of that will touch him.” I massaged my wrist again, and I swear it hurt.
Neil nodded, probably making a mental note that Briggs was an asshole, and that was all I could read of him. His job as sheriff would have him on my side—the restraining order was coveringme. He was helpingme.
“You want me to mention it to the school for your son?”
I thought I had more time—I thought he’d leave us alone, that we were done with him. I’d been naïve. Stupid. Wrong.
“I’ll talk to Fox first,” I half whispered, and then raised my eyes to meet Neil’s steady gaze.
This was my fault. I shouldn’t have let Briggs take me out of people’s sight. And if that photo hadn’t been on my phone… hell… if I wasn’t with Chris, then Briggs wouldn’t have gotten angry.
Fuck that noise. I didn’t want it in my head.
Neil nodded, then clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I look after this town, and, Noah, you’re part of Whisper Ridge, okay? You know where I am.”
“I know.”
“What about Chris?”
“What about him?” I blinked at Neil, who sighed.
“He’ll hear about this. Plus, I don’t want to see my friend, someone who likes you a lot, get hurt. He’s a good man to have in your corner, and he loves you, anyone can see that. I’m going to ask you, off the record, friend to friend, does Chris know about Briggs?”
Chris and Whisper Ridge were one and the same thing, and he and Neil were friends, and I was messing everything up by keeping secrets. “He knows enough.” But not all of it. Not the pain, or the fear, and how could Chris truly love me when he didn’t know the real me? I was in some happy land where I was divorced and moving on, but that wasn’t enough. I was afraid of Briggs and my past, and he could still hurt me with words. I owed Chris the truth about my ex, about him hitting me, hurting me, threatening me, and to have an honest talk about what that meant for me and Chris.
I reworded it. “He doesn’t know enough.”
Neil left after a few more questions, and I moved into Fox’s room, staring at the mountains, coming up with all this conviction that everything was going to be okay, and I’d not mess this up. Fox had replaced the poster of Briggs in his glory days with a montage of photos of us, his friends, the town, and in pride of place, a blown up shot of him and Molly hugging, and another of the four of them—him, Molly, Clarke, and Ainsley—from the double date.
“I won’t let your papa hurt the life you’re building, Fox,” I promised the montage. “I won’t.”
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Chris
