AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve got a baseball bat, my pocketknife, and a can of Mace,” she said. “I’ll be fine. He knows the package isn’t in my house, right? He’s not gonna come back. He’s probably too busy cleaning the poop out of his pants after you nearly killed him.”
She was proud of how normal she sounded. Like she wasn’t on the verge of wetting her pants just thinking about being alone in her house tonight.
“It isn’t safe,” Wes said. “You’re not staying here.”
Embarrassed by the admittance, she said, “I don’t have any friends or family I can stay with, okay? And even if I did, I wouldn’t put them in danger like that. I’ll shove chairs under my doorknobs and call 9-1-1 if I hear any weird noises.”
“Wes is right,” Cooper said. “There’s a good chance that the guy could come back to your house tonight looking for you.”
She tried not to shudder and failed miserably. “Yeah, okay. I won’t stay here.”
Stupidly, she waited for Wes to say she could stay with him. The silence dragged out. Wes cleared his throat but didn’t say anything. Hoping no one could hear the disappointment in her voice, Eleanor said, “Cooper, can you drop me off at a motel? Nothing too expensive. There’s a Motel 8 not too far from here.”
She’d have to go a couple of days without eating to afford even a night or two at a cheap motel, but it was better than being dead, right?
“Don’t be silly,” Daisy said. “You can stay with us. Right, Cooper?”
He nodded. “Yes. You should pack a bag with enough clothes for a few days. It’s probably best you don’t stay here for a while. Your car is still at Wes’s, right? We’ll swing by his place to drop him off and grab the package your dad sent you. Okay?”
She rubbed above her eyebrow again. “Maybe I shouldn’t stay with you. I don’t want to put you or Daisy in danger like I did with Wes, and -”
“You didn’t put me in danger,” Wes said before a growl escaped his throat.
“I did,” Eleanor said. “It was my fault that -”
“No, it wasn’t.” Wes growled again before a pained expression crossed his face. He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t your fault, Eleanor.”
“Still, I don’t want to put Cooper and Daisy in danger.”
“You won’t,” Cooper said. “I’m more than capable of keeping you and Daisy safe, even if this asshole figures out where you are and comes after you again.” He glanced impatiently at his watch. “I don’t mean to be a dick, but I haven’t had dinner yet, and I’m starving over here. Can we stop arguing about this so I can get some food into me?”
Daisy grinned at him. “You’re cute when you’re hangry.”
“I’m adorable when I’m hangry,” Cooper said. “But I really do need food, so Wes, maybe you could move your ass so Eleanor can get out of the truck?”
Wes moved aside, and Eleanor slid out of the truck, wincing when even the slight jar from her landing made her arm ache.
Wes frowned at the way she rubbed her arm and said, “I’ll come in with you.”
“So will I,” Daisy said. “You’ll need my help to pack because of your arm.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “Christ, I guess I’m going in too. Anything to make this happen faster.”
With a low grumble, he reached in and lifted Daisy out of the truck. Acutely aware of Wes’s gaze on the back of her head, Eleanor headed toward her house.
* * *
Eleanor stared at the small box on Cooper’s kitchen table. Her father’s neat handwriting was sloppy, like maybe he’d been in a hurry. She traced the lettering before glancing at the postmark. “He mailed this the day he died. This might have been the last thing he wrote before dying.”
She winced at how melodramatic she sounded. Christ, what was wrong with her?
Daisy rubbed her back. “You don’t have to open it tonight if you don’t want to.”
Cooper added the last of the dinner dishes to the dishwasher and closed it. “But you probably should.”
“Coop,” Wes said with a scowl. “Don’t push her into doing this.”
To her surprise, Wes had come with them to Cooper’s house. When they arrived at Wes’s house, he’d instructed her to stay put, then taken the parcel out of her car and climbed back in beside her. He’d slammed the truck door shut, and a look passed between him and Cooper before Cooper pulled back onto the street and driven them to his house.
