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“That’s fine. Ben is coming in. He’ll help, out. Walker will take you home.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “But,” Walker started to say.
“No buts about it. You take her home and stay with her. Rachel is already on her way to get Arte, so she’ll be safe too. This time, Walker, you aren’t alone.”
She still didn’t understand what was going on and even more confusing was the statement that sounded like her father had talked to her mother today. “Did you talk to Mom about Artemisia?” Danni asked.
“I did,” her father grumbled. “Just because I was worried about you,” he added as if Danni would believe that.
Yeah, that was the reason. She rolled her eyes. Walker sighed at her. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”
“I don’t understand.” She was confused, and Danni didn’t like them keeping secrets from her.
“I’ll explain on the way home.”
When they reached her truck, it was obvious that Walker was driving. He opened the passenger door and put her in the seat. Before his butt had a chance to hit the driver’s seat, she asked him if he even had a driver’s license. She always saw him walking around town. “It expired while I was in prison.”
“Then why are you driving my baby girl?” She asked him. “You probably don’t even have insurance.”
He chuckled at her. “I don’t.”
Danni shook her head. “You wreck her, your wages from Ike’s will be paying for her repairs,” she informed him then she remembered that he took care of his mother with those paychecks. “I’m sorry Walker. I was only teasing.”
He looked at her quickly then back at the road. His arm was draped across the steering wheel like he had never missed a day driving in his life when in fact he hadn’t driven in eight years.
“What’s going on? What did Dad mean when he said you aren’t alone this time. You took the heat for Jesse the first time. Don’t bother denying it. Matt’s words that he threatened me before and did again this morning. He was talking about your argument this morning with Jesse, wasn’t he?”
Walked nodded. He glanced at Danni once then he looked back at the road. “Danni, you know I’ve always had a soft spot for you. He used you and Mom against me to take the fall for his drug possession and dealing charge. The Sheriff knew it was Jesse and not me but with the evidence Jesse planted he had no option but to charge me and with my confession and guilty plea there was no case against my brother. If Jesse had gone to jail…well there are people on the inside that would have gotten to him.”
Danni sat on her side of the truck and looked at him for a moment then she scooted across to be close to him. She laid her head on Walker’s shoulder.
“Jail changed you, Walker.”
He chuckled at her.
“It does baby. Having your freedom taken away changes a man but I had to protect you and my mother. I was convinced that Jesse would have hurt you.”
Danni didn’t understand still. They were brothers. How could he hurt Walker that way? “He’s your brother.” Her own brothers would never hurt her.
“Jesse has always been in trouble, you know that. He has no conscious or regret. He has no love for me. Don’t you remember how he was in high school?”
“I guess,” she responded.
He was in juvenile detention several times as a teenager. The last time he did two years for breaking a kid’s jaw. Their father leaving them had changed the two boys in different, ways. Walker withdrew into himself. He didn’t want to get hurt so he kept everything hidden beneath all the layers that he used to protect his heart.
Jesse let it all out by reacting and fighting. Then dealing drugs to make money. He had grandiose ideas of finding their father and showing him what a bigshot he had become and no amount of talking to from Walker, Matt or Simon Hatfield helped Artemisia save Jesse and Walker lost five years because of his brother’s headstrongness.
“What does he want?” Danni asked.
“Money,” Walker replied. “He owes some scary people money. He’s got himself into trouble again.”
“You don’t have money. Why come to you?”
She had hurt his pride again. She could tell, and she swallowed the regret that she felt. “I’m sorry, Walker. That wasn’t nice of me.”
“No, it wasn’t nice.” He was straightforward with her like when she was a child. “Danni, I do have money. I’m not a millionaire, not even close but when my grandparents died they left me and Jesse one hundred fifty thousand dollars each. I invested mine and Jesse blew his.”
She was surprised by Walker’s admission. He lived on the streets. He didn’t have a car. He walked everywhere but he had that much money and lived like he didn’t have a dime to his name. “I don’t understand,” she told him.
