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No, she didn’t. Not at all. Not when it mattered most.
“We did,” Beck grumbled. “Why is that?”
“Well, my wife left after I got sick, said she hadn’t signed up to spend her life taking care of an invalid. Heavenly was just a teenager, in school and far too young to manage the spread by herself.”
Beck’s heart tripped in his chest, thundering in his ears. He forced himself to keep his expression neutral.
I’m the guy your mother warned you about.
My mother never warned me about anything. I haven’t seen her in eight years.
Their conversation careened through Beck’s head. Sympathy and fury mingled and crushed him in a single wave.
“Heavenly must have taken that hard,” Seth murmured somberly.
“She felt so abandoned after Lisa walked out. I’m afraid the experience taught her that those who should care most often don’t give two shits. Unfortunately, she’s had to shoulder most of the responsibility since. But Heavenly is a good girl. She’s taken good care of me all these years.”
The man’s words went off like a bomb in Beck’s brain. In a couple of sentences, Abel had explained the reason Heavenly kept every last one of her fucking secrets to herself. She’d had no one to rely on since she’d been a child. Her own mother had crumbled the very foundation of Heavenly’s life before she’d been mature enough to understand. When she should have been thinking about boyfriends, football games, and prom, she’d been a cook, caretaker, maid, and helper. She might still be a virgin, but the minute her mother had abandoned her, she’d lost her goddamn innocence.
And there was another fucking mole to whack on the head…maybe one that could never be vanquished.
He knew now why Heavenly hadn’t asked him for help. But Beck still intended to take control of her situation.
Seth quickly banked his shock, then pinned him with a pointed stare. Yeah, he fully planned to stick his two cents in to help Heavenly, too.
Yippee.
“After I sold the farm, I rented a little house in town for us…” Abel went on about his illness, his doctors in Wisconsin, and the reason he and Heavenly had moved to LA. By the end of his speech, his strength had waned. His voice was cracking, his sentences trailing off.
“I promise I’ll make some phone calls and set you up with the best neurologist in the city,” Beck said, patting the man’s shoulder.
When he pulled back, he couldn’t help but notice the slew of prescription meds on the table beside the bed. After a quick scan of the labels, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Jesus, no wonder his little girl couldn’t afford food. Every dime she made waiting tables must be paying for medicine. If she had anything left over, it couldn’t be much.
The older man smiled in gratitude. “I can’t thank you enough. If your medical friends can’t cover all the expenses, maybe we can pay some now that Heavenly got that raise at the hospital and started working so many hours. It’s the only way we’ve been able to afford that gawd-awfully expensive medicine my doctor recently prescribed…”
Raise? Abel’s words sent Beck’s warning bells ringing, his pulse racing. His mouth went dry. The old man thought she earned money volunteering at the hospital? Was that the well-meaning lie she’d been telling her father so he wouldn’t worry?
Oh, little girl… You’re going to have the reddest ass when I get done with you. You will learn never to lie again.
Beside him, Seth tensed and whipped a concerned look Beck’s way. So the PI knew her “raise” was bullshit, too.
And if she barely had money to buy meds, how the hell was she paying rent?
Skin prickling, Beck glanced at the door. Heavenly had been gone a long time for someone who merely intended to drop off cash. And she hadn’t actually taken money with her.
Because she didn’t have any. So how exactly had she planned on keeping this roof over her head?
Goddamn it, there was another fucking mole.
A sick feeling tilted his gut as the pieces of her reality slid together. Heavenly hadn’t asked River to have sex with her because she wanted the prick. She simply hadn’t wanted to give her virginity to her fucking landlord.
Beside him, fear and rage warred across Seth’s face before he shot out of his chair and charged for the door. So the PI had put two and two together and come up with shit, as well. Good. That saved him the time and explanation.
Beck leapt to his feet, too. Abel—nearly asleep—mumbled something Beck didn’t hear.
“We’re going to check on Heavenly,” Seth shot over his shoulder as he ran outside.
Beck followed. Then they both skidded to a stop, eyeing the units across the courtyard.
While he was trying to remember which fucking apartment belonged to the landlord, a door on the far side of the atrium suddenly slammed against the stucco wall. A terrified, gut-churning cry followed.
