Page 40 of Love At Peace

“Where should I take her?” Marty asked again.

I laughed once, unamused. “To wherever she calls home.”

My cabin wasn’t it. I wasn’t living in the cabin I’d first started renting since I came to Burton. With that busted water pipe, I was staying at the other, more rudimentary cabin. It was even smaller than Heather’s. Calling it a studio would be a stretch. The couch folded out to a bed, and that was the extent of furniture.

“When I ask her where she’s staying, she won’t reply.”

I hung my head and rubbed my brow, hating that she was being this difficult for him.

“Yeah, because I don’t need you being nosy and coming by to ask me questions about Eric. Or Heather. Or any damn laptop. Or—”

“Roarke?” Marty asked, his voice clearer and louder because he had to be closer to the mouthpiece on his phone. “Where should I take her?”

“I have no clue,” I admitted. I supposed I could tell him to bring her to the cabin I was in, but I didn’t want to. I never let her stay at my place without my supervision. This cabin didn’t have the security cameras like I’d installed at mine. The irony wasn’t lost on me that I had to rely on cameras to keep my home secure from my thieving niece. If push came to shove, I could sleep on the floor and let her take my couch-slash-bed, but I was no longer in that sort of a giving mood.

“Did you go on Heather’s laptop?” I asked.

It was a jarring shift in the topic, but that was all I needed to know. If I could extend help to Nevaeh, it would have to be with the knowledge that she hadn’t done anything to compromise Heather’s integrity or career. Until she could tell me if she had done anything like that, my generosity was conditional.

“Screw you, Roarke. All you care about is that stupid woman. She broke David’s heart, do you know that? You’re so concerned about this lying little bitch when all she does is stomp all over good men who want to help her.”

I narrowed my eyes, zoning out at the ground.

“Well, her loss is my gain. David’s gonna help me out. He’ll pay for my fine. No. You know what, he’ll erase this fine altogether.” She laughed. “I don’t care what you and Marty wanna ask me. I’m not saying shit. I don’t care what fines or charges anyone wants to throw at me. David will make it all go away.”

The degree to which she was completely unworried bothered me. It peeved me that she would lack the simples sense to determine right from wrong. And it pissed me off that she’d use a loophole to avoid consequences of her wrongdoing too.

I wish I never helped you in the first place.

For all the trouble she’d caused me, and all the trouble she’d likely caused Heather, I regretted enabling her and letting her off the hook one too many times.

I disconnected the call, at an utter loss of what to say.

Because it’d all go in one ear and out the other.

And nothing I said would get me closer to Heather again.

Chapter 15

Heather

The allure of running away didn’t fade. Every day since David stalked up to me outside Nance’s house, I lost sight of that flicker of wanting to fight back.

To stand up to him for once. To stay in place and look him in the eye and know that he couldn’t control me.

If I run, wouldn’t that be another way of him controlling my anyway?

If I leave my hometown, this temporary safe haven, am I letting him hold all the power over me?

Wanting to get as far from him as possible sounded like a decision I was making on my own behalf. But with him being the motivation to go, he was directly influencing my actions.

Nance made her opinions clear about the matter. Fergus, too.

“I don’t care who he is, you tell Marty,” Nance said as she and Fergus stood in front of the table I’d chosen to eat at in the lunchroom.

“Yeah.” Fergus nodded, matching her stance and crossing his arms. “If he got away with anything before, he’ll have a hard time doing so now. We”—he flicked his finger between himself and Nance—“were right there. We’re eyewitnesses to him harassing you and acting like an asshole.”

“But that’s nothing more than a matter of he-said-she-said,” I said plainly. “And when it comes down to that, his voice will always be louder and taken more seriously.”