Page 5 of Love At Peace

Shit. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my temper. She was pushing all the right buttons to make me livid and defensive here, and it was all because I’d deemed her worth fighting for. I didn’t want to see her go. Not just because I was slowly falling for her and caring too damn much about fostering this connection that felt so right between us, but also because she seemed to need the support she was starting to find here. With me. With Todd. With Nance and Fergus at the bank.

She was fitting in, and based on what Gavin explained about her past, I wanted that for her. I wanted her to have a place to belong—even if it wasn’t with me. If she wanted to stop this between us now, so be it. I wouldn’t force a woman into anything. But I hated the idea of her giving up on being here in her hometown at all, on the run again.

“You’re trying to tell me that you can’t stay in Burton because of a rumor you heard. You’re willing to put more stock into secondhand knowledge than what you see and know.”

“That’s not true.”

“How is it?” I argued. “You hear a rumor and freak out.”

“No. That’s not what’s going on here.”

“You just said it. They were your words.”

She frowned, seeming to consider my perspective, but she was too stubborn to relent. Keeping her chin up high, she shook her head and refused to back down. “You want to harass me about what I see? I saw that your niece was in there near my laptop.” She pointed at the cabin behind me.

“Did you see her on your laptop?”

She growled, dropping her head back to squint at the darkening sky.

“For fuck’s sake, Roarke. What has she ever done to deserve your defense?”

I had no answer. I couldn’t reply to that honestly. Nevaeh was sketchy. She was shady. She wasn’t untrustworthy at all, so my defense of her didn’t make sense.

But I couldn’t stop arguing with Heather’s points. If I didn’t stand up and insist she could be wrong, then she’d have no resistance from anyone or anything to stop her from running.

“You want to talk about what I know?” she challenged, tilting her head to the side. “I know David. I know what he’s capable of. What he does. How his sick, twisted mind works.”

She had me there. I didn’t know a damn thing about that arrogant jerk from the big city. It seemed that there was nothing to learn about him either. Marty had looked. I’d shelved the idea of getting a PI to investigate him. I didn’t know David or what he could be like, and I wished, so badly, that I did. Regret and disappointment hit me hard with the acknowledgment that Heather refused to tell me about her ex or her past.

Maybe it was too traumatic.

Perhaps she was just that independently stubborn not to speak up.

I couldn’t tell, but her silence aggravated me all over again.

“I know how David schemes and makes an agenda. He came here, all the way from Chicago, to chase me down to come after me.”

“If you’re so convinced that he came here to follow you and stalk you, why would you be so quick to think he’s with Nevaeh then? Based on a rumor, no less.”

“Because he can’t be trusted. He does everything with an ulterior motive. Nothing is simple with him and there is always a hidden agenda.”

“Against you?”

She shrugged, scowling at the ground. “All I can say is that I don’t trust this situation. I told you what I wanted to do. I explained that I wanted to lie low and not engage with him. That I hoped he’d get bored and leave town. Don’t act like I’m being a moron, or weak, or naïve to dislike the news of your niece getting close with him.”

Because you think they’re going to team up against you? That makes even less sense. “Nevaeh isn’t close to you.”

“She was when I was stupid enough to take pity on her looking sick. She was when I volunteered to let her rest at my home.”

“I don’t understand how that has to automatically mean that she—or he—will try to—”

“There’s no trying, Roarke. Someone did go on my laptop.”

“For him?” I furrowed my brow. Nevaeh wouldn’t. Right?

“I don’t owe you answers, Roarke.” She slashed her hand through the air. “I don’t have to explain shit to you. I’m not comfortable with my ex stalking me or being so near.”

“Yet you won’t let Marty or the law help.”