Page 29 of Love At Peace

She nodded, but I caught the hint of worry in her eyes.

“I will never get it,” I told her, letting more of my anger rise to the surface. Of all the things she could do, she had to mess with someone like that jerk who tried to damn-near kidnap Heather and force her to go with him against her will. Of all the things she could do, she had to get pregnant and be forever tied to the asshole who couldn’t possibly care to stay with her when he was so hung up on Heather to come all this way after her.

I’d never understand my niece.

And I still didn’t know how any puzzle pieces of life could’ve possibly fit together like this.

I was still in the dark, though, but I wasn’t going to bark up the wrong tree and pick a fight with her about her “love” life.

“Tell me where he is. Where he went. If he talked to Eric, I want to know.” I pointed at the floor where we’d found him groggy and unable to talk. “Now, Nevaeh. Talk. Marty will question you too, but I am sick of being held back from answers. If you want to insist that your baby daddy is a ‘good’ guy, convince me that he’s innocent of how someone got hurt near his home.”

Chapter 11

Heather

“Iappreciate you driving me to the hospital,” I told Gavin after the first fifteen minutes of the drive passed in awkward silence.

Accepting help was something I’d never be able to do with a war of indecision, but he hadn’t really offered the ride like a good Samaritan would have. Nor had he told me that this was how it was going to be, that I was riding with him.

In the wake of Roarke’s shock at learning that Nevaeh was pregnant, it seemed wise to get the hell out of there. He looked furious and so confused. I bet he always held on to a low-lying assumption that she’d get knocked up sooner or later. Nevaeh hadn’t proven to make very good decisions in life and he likely had that low of an opinion of her to consider her getting pregnant from carelessly sleeping with some guy.

But with David?

I cringed as Gavin drove. It was hell to be attached to David at all, but with a kid on the way? That would be more means of him controlling her. Pity flared to the surface again, but it didn’t take hold. It couldn’t take hold now. Too many other emotions were in charge. Fear for Eric. Panic about what David was doing. Anxiety about all of it.

“Well, I didn’t want to stay for that conversation. Hell. She’s pregnant?” He ran his hand through his hair. “You knew and didn’t tell him?”

“I—” I frowned, shutting up. “It wasn’t my place to say anything.”

“Because you and Roarke are fighting or going through a little lover’s quarrel?”

I pulled my lips in and exhaled through my nose, needing to vent and count through my breaths for a moment. Already, I was getting overly defensive. “It’s not a little lover’s quarrel. I don’t need to explain myself to you. Or him. Or anyone. But David Kenning is a bad man. I do not want to expose myself to being in his presence. I don’t even want to think about him. If I could purge him from my mind, if I could rewind time and do things differently, I would.”

“All right. All right.” He held up a hand while keeping the other on the wheel. “I won’t pry. But I’m surprised you didn’t tell him that she was pregnant is all. That’s...big. That’s big and potentially bad news. Nevaeh doesn’t seem capable of taking care of herself, so it can be a matter of making sure the baby is taken care of. You get what I’m saying?”

I nodded, realizing how much of a dad he was.

“I know. And I considered that too. I wasn’t going to stay quiet about it for good. It just all happened fast. I saw the test, but I didn’t want to say anything until I knew or heard from her one hundred percent that it was hers. Then she got onto my laptop and...” I lifted then dropped my hand on my lap, unsure of what I was even trying to gesture or convey. I couldn’t tell why I was worried about trying to convince him of anything about how or why I justified my actions. “I would tell him, or someone, though. To at least see if she’d be able to get prenatal care and be healthy for the baby’s sake.” Here I thought I’d be spared an interrogation by not riding with Marty. He wanted me to speak up about David, and with how we’d found Eric, I would. I hadn’t counted on Gavin questioning me so much about not telling Roarke that Nevaeh was pregnant, but I hadn’t done anything wrong. “It wasn’t my place to tell Roarke. It’s her secret to share.”

“Yeah. I see that. But unfortunately, she keeps too many secrets.” He glanced at me a couple of times, as if hesitating to speak. “He’s not... This guy’s not going to beat her or anything, is he?”

I opened and closed my mouth, intimidated with his slight urging to speak up about my past. David wasn’t a beater, or he wasn’t with me. Not too much. He used his strength to physically constrain me but he never outright attacked me.

But that would never mean he wouldn’t raise his fists to someone else. “I can’t predict that, Gavin.”

“But you’ll talk to Marty, right?” He braked at the hospital’s entrance. “I understand that your past might be...difficult to talk about. Or however you want to describe it. And I get that. But if you know anything that could prevent someone else from getting hurt, isn’t it your responsibility to speak up about it?”

I nodded, not looking at him as I exited the truck. I didn’t need him to remind me. David would always be a boulder of obligation on my shoulders. I shouldn’t be responsible for speaking up. Nevaeh damn well could too.

Shelving all my thoughts about having to tell Marty about my past, I went to the front desk and asked for Eric’s room. He was taken to the ER, but since I was family, and due to him not being able to speak well, they permitted me to go back to his room. He wasn’t there, still being X-rayed and scanned for his injuries, so with the company of the beeps and noise of a busy hospital, I sat there and waited. And waited. Hours passed, and the nurses could only say that he was being assessed. “The doctor will come by soon.” That was the line they gave me over and over.

Stress weighed me down, compiling and accumulating with every second that ticked. I wondered if Nevaeh was being upfront with Roarke and Marty. I thought about what David was doing, preying on her. I worried about why Eric would’ve been near David’s apartment. And I—

“Hey.” Marty rapped his knuckles on the doorframe, poking his head in to face me.

I’d almost forgotten that he’d be coming here too, for answers. I assumed he would’ve lingered at that apartment building to speak with Nevaeh a little longer.

“I just spoke with the doctors and all. They’ll be wheeling him back here.”