AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded, waiting for the hammer.
“She told me about the kittens,” Thad said. “About what her father did to them.”
The kittens. God, the poor kittens. The scene replayed in my mind. I blinked to get the images out of my head, but I found that my eyes were wet.
Thad watched me carefully. How many seconds had gone by? I’d lost all sense of time, carried into the past. I had to answer his question.
“I found them under our house,” I said. “And brought them in to try to save them, but they didn’t make it. Unfortunately.”
“That’s not how Chloe described it.”
I swallowed bile that wanted to strangle me. “What did she say exactly?”
Thad scrubbed both hands through his hair without looking at me. “She said her daddy hurt them. He took them away and they never came back. She said you cried, and her daddy used his fists to hurt you.”
“She said all that?” What else had she said? How much did she remember?
“She made a fist to show me exactly what she meant.” Thad demonstrated by folding his fingers into a tight fist. “What did he do to you?”
“He drowned the kittens. Threw them into the river in a trash bag.” A sob came out of nowhere, feeling as if it might knock me over with the force of the pain I’d stuffed deep inside me for so long. “Then he came home and beat the crap out of me. Chloe woke up and started crying and to punish her, he threw her against the wall. I thought he’d killed her. That was the one thing I couldn’t forgive. I knew I had to leave. So, I did. And now I’m here.”
“You left no traces behind? Is that right?”
“I tried, anyway. I don’t know if I’m free, even though I want so desperately to start a new life. All I care about is Chloe.” I paused, barely able to breathe. “She’s all I have in the world. The only thing God’s trusted me with. I cannot mess her up.” I began to sob into my hands, the grief like a river pouring out of my eyes. “But it’s probably too late.”
He moved closer and wrapped his arms around me. “You’re safe here. You never have to go back there.”
He was wrong. I wasn’t safe. All it took to wipe out my life was a clever police detective or John’s father and brothers showing up to kill me for what I’d done. Yet it felt so good in his arms. If only I could stay here forever.
“You can tell me anything,” Thad said into my ear. “I won’t hold it against you. I just want to know you.”
“I can’t tell you who I really am,” I whispered, hot tears dripping into the fabric of his shirt.
“Why?” His arms tightened around me.
“Because it would be wrong to involve you or your family.”
He lessened his hold on me, drawing away, but I couldn’t meet his eyes until he lifted my chin with his fingers. “I have feelings for you, Sammie. I’m sure it’s obvious to you.”
“What?” I must have heard him wrong. Or he meant he cared about me. As a friend.
His forehead wrinkled as he cocked his head to the left, observing me. “I like you. A lot. You can’t tell?”
My heart raced a million miles ahead of my brain. He liked me? “But you don’t know me.”
“I’d like to think I know you a little. Enough to have fallen in love with you.”
“You do know me,” I whispered. “But there’s so much more, and if I told you, I’m pretty sure you won’t think you’re in love with me any longer.”
“I don’t think I’m in love with you. I am. Do you feel anything for me at all? Because I need to know that at least.”
“I don’t let myself think about that kind of thing. There’s Chloe to think about.”
“I was raised by a stepfather. He’s my favorite person in the world. I can be a good father to her, even if my blood doesn’t run through her veins. You could give me a chance. Let me prove to you that your secrets are safe with me.”
“It’s too risky. I don’t want you implicated. Trust me on this.”
“Implicated? That’s an interesting word to use. Why don’t you try me?” He lifted my hair away from my damp neck and caressed the skin with his thumb. “I can be the keeper of your secrets, Sammie. The one person you tell everything to.”
