Page 56 of Love At Peace

I blinked. “You went to college?”

“Dropped out the first semester, but whatever. This asshole, your David guy—”

“Whoa. No. He’s not mine.”

“Whatever. It sounds like he came to town looking for you.” She narrowed her eyes, as if she was rethinking helping me.

“He stalked me, Ashley. Stalked me. It’s so complicated to explain, but he is not my anything. Except my enemy. One I want to take down and make pay.”

She pointed at me. “Now that, I can help you with. If he hadn’t gone after Imogen, I wouldn’t have cared. I would’ve crossed him off as another pathetic asshole not worth my time after trying to drug me. But Imogen? Shit. She and her hubby just divorced. She just miscarried and lost her baby. Her mom and dad disowned her. Life was shitting on her, and then some asshole’s gonna try to date rape her? Uh-uh. Not on my watch is that asshole getting away with it. He messed with the wrong woman.”

I huffed. “It sounds like he messed with the wrong best friend who is a mama bear.”

“Exactly. No one messes with my friends.”

“Must be nice.”

“Oh, suck it up.” She smiled. “You always have. I give you shit because it never works. You’re a stone-cold hard soul to crack. You’ve never let me win and feel like I got to you.”

I laughed once. “You have. Trust me, you have.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” she quipped.

I arched a brow.

“Fuck. Fine. I’m sorry, Heather. I’ve been a rotten bitch to you all my life because I hate how free you are. I’ve envied how independent you are and can do whatever you want.”

I’d never realized how confined she must have felt all this time, but it wasn’t hard to imagine. Her family was the big shot family of Burton, and I supposed she did have a lot of expectations to uphold and meet.

“Maybe we can reschedule this kumbaya moment for another day, all right? I want to make David pay.”

She narrowed her eyes. “If he was so bad, why didn’t you make him pay earlier?”

“Like I said, it’s complicated. You think you might have him by the balls with this video, but I know better. He’s a lawyer, and he’s got connections everywhere.”

She smiled. “So does my daddy. He might not want to piss off someone who donates money to his campaign, but he’s taught me a thing or two about how those political maneuvers work. How to use leverage with the right, bigger person.”

I shrugged. “You’ll send me the link to the video then?”

She nodded. “I’ll text you a copy of it too.”

Today, she seemed to want to start the process of befriending me. She was twenty years too late. Since kindergarten, she was terrible to me, but it seemed she’d changed to want to help me now. It was a moment of sisterhood, of women lifting each other up, and I wouldn’t let my reservations about accepting help hold me back now.

This morning, however, just wasn’t an idle time for me to tell her that I couldn’t reply to her rapid-fire texts. She was the kind of texter who send seven messages in a row, like a battery.

By lunchtime, I felt frazzled and pulled in too many directions. This new, strange almost comradeship with Ashley would take some getting used to. Then all the work tasks that we were handling without Fergus there to assist. And still this matter of trying to get David caught and held accountable for his actions.

Needless to say, I had a lot on my mind.

Nance accompanied me to the café, where we found that they were serving turkey leftovers. That suited me fine. I ate around talking, and Nance was intent on getting me to spill all.

“I am not surprised that he’d slip a drug into a woman’s drink,” she said, keeping her voice down so our talk could be confidential. “He seems like the sort to do that.”

“He is the sort to do that.”

She paused, her turkey BLT halfway to her mouth. “Did he drug you?” She almost whispered it with how quietly she asked.

“I— He—” I closed my lips and exhaled through my nose. “I don’t want to go into the details about what he did to me. With me. I have no evidence. And the times that I went to the cops or tried to tell someone what he was doing, no one listened. But someone will pay attention to Ashley’s video. Marty will be able to start...something.”