AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She dropped her hand on his lap.
“I don’t think my cousin would be too happy if one of his featured players gets arrested for public indecency,” he said, laughing, yet also groaning as her hand crept higher.
“You got me up here, wicked man. I thought you traveling types lived for danger.”
Damon’s smile slowly faded. “Allie, there’s something I should tell you right now. I’m not what you think I am.”
“A hot, amazing man who saved me last night and then made love to me the way every woman dreams of being made love to?”
He wasn’t distracted. “I’m not really a carnival performer.”
“You do a good impersonation of one.”
“I mean,” he explained, shaking his head in reluctant amusement, “I’m not a traveling mesmerist. I’m not a professional carny. I don’t live on the road. This summer is the first time I’ve ever traveled with Slone Brothers, and I only did it because I needed to escape my real life for a little while.”
Allie carefully shifted in the seat to face him. “Explain.”
And he did. Speaking slowly at first, gazing out at the ocean, almost lost in his own thoughts, he told her.
The fact that Damon was a professional therapist came as no surprise, given his people skills. But when he told her why he’d quit his job—what had driven him to take on this carnival life—she felt tears prick her eyes and understood his haunted look.
“How old is he…the little boy?”
“Four.”
“He’s okay now?”
Damon’s mouth tightened. “He’ll probably never be able to run and keep up with other kids his age; his legs took the brunt of the abuse. But at least he survived.”
She closed her eyes briefly, still not fully able to comprehend the horror of it. “And the courts gave him back to his parents, after everything you did to keep him away from them?”
Still not looking at her, Damon nodded. “Yeah. Despite the medical records—the trips to the E.R., the photos of the bruises and X rays of the broken bones—they gave him back.” His voice broke. “I had sat by that little boy’s hospital bed and promised him nobody would ever hurt him again. And not six months later, after he’d finally found security in a safe foster home, some judge decided the sanctity of the family took precedence over the child’s own welfare.” Shaking his head in disgust, he added, “The parents had gotten off drugs and alcohol. They played nice in court. The judge was sure everything would be fine.”
“You knew it wouldn’t.”
“Hell, yes, I knew it wouldn’t,” he said, his mood shifting and anger underscoring his every word. “I knew them and it wasn’t drugs that drove them, it was pure meanness. They were bad, for themselves, for society. Especially bad for their little boy.”
“I can’t imagine how hopeless you felt.”
“Hopeless. Helpless. No matter how much I fought it, short of kidnapping him myself there was nothing I could do.”
She seriously suspected he wished he had. “How long after they got him back did it happen?”
“Three weeks. As his caseworker, I was the one they called when the mother finally took him to the E.R. for treatment. The police got her to admit her husband had lost his temper over Tyler spilling a glass of juice, and she’d kept him hidden at home until his legs started to turn green.” His body hard, taut as a wire, he shook his head in disgust. “A damn glass of juice.”
He fell silent, as did Allie. She was crying now, unable to picture that poor child without immediately picturing Hank.
The Ferris wheel paused occasionally to let people on and off, but not them. The operator obviously knew Damon and allowed them to go round and round, until Allie felt her tears finally dry, and the tense rage slowly ease out of Damon’s body.
“What will you do at the end of the summer?” she asked softly, wanting to know if he was getting over what had happened.
“I don’t know. I won’t go back to work for DCF, that’s for sure. Not even sure I’ll return to Florida.” Leaning his head back on the headrest and staring up at the stars, he murmured, “Is Pennsylvania a lot like Indiana in the winter?”
Her heart tumbled, knowing what he meant. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I guess it is.”
He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to. They were both thinking the same thing—that as crazy as it sounded after such a short time, they were involved in something big here. Something that might involve a future.
“There’s one more thing I have to say,” he said, clearing his throat. Lifting his head, he met her stare, his gaze unflinching. “I know how early this is and that I probably have no business even going here so soon, but I want to get this out in the open now. Because it might be a make-or-break thing.”
