by Sarah Hegger
“Blythe.” Eric reached for her again. “If I thought he would hurt you or Kim, I would never let him near you.”
“You don’t know him.” Blythe had to get away from there and calm the fuck down. “Brett is like some kind of Svengali, and as long as you’re drinking his Kool-Aid, I don’t want you anywhere near me or Kim.”
Eric’s expression tightened into anger and his dark gaze bored into her. “That’s not going to happen either, sweet thing. You spent last night in my bed and that tells me you still want what I want, which is for us to work this thing out between us.” He gestured between them. “I’m going now because you’re upset, and you need to settle Kim, but I’m not going far.”
* * * *
All the way home, Blythe sensed Kim sitting in her car seat and wanting to ask questions. Fortunately, Kim was smart enough to know to leave her alone for the duration of the drive.
They arrived back home and got into the apartment in silence.
“Will?” Blythe dropped her bag inside the door and waited.
Kim followed her in and took off her shoes at the door, without being asked. A sure sign her sister was on best behavior.
Walking into the lounge, Blythe called again. “Will? Blake?”
“Where are they?” Kim wrapped her arm around Blythe’s thigh.
Stroking her hair, Blythe smiled down at her. “I’m not sure, but we’ll find them. Are you hungry?”
“A little.” Kim’s eyes were huge.
“A little?” Blythe managed a grin to let Kim know she wasn’t mad at her.
Kim grinned back, and the tension leaked out of her. “Maybe a lot.”
“Take a seat, short stuff.” Blythe lifted her onto one of the stools and got busy making her a snack.
“Blythe?” The tone was warning enough.
“Yup.”
“Is Brett my brother?”
She cut Kim’s apple into slices before she turned. “Yes, he is our oldest brother.”
“One of the ones who went to prison?”
Blythe no longer questioned how Kim found stuff out. Children always seemed to know the family secrets. “Yes, Brett went to prison, but they let him out now.”
Kim accepted her snack with a small thank you. She picked up an apple slice, chewed and swallowed. “Is he a bad man, Blythe?”
Yes! She wanted to yell the word loud enough for the world to hear. Something stopped her, however, and it was more than Kim looking at her apprehensively.
Brett had looked—she couldn’t find the right word. Regretful? But that couldn’t be. Brett charged through life, going over and through anyone who stood in his way. Yet, something had been different about him.
“I really don’t know how to answer that.” She sat down next to Kim. Now that she had calmed down enough to process the earlier scene, the fear and fury had vanished. “What did you think of him?”
“He was nice.” Kim ate another slice. “He came to see me and told me he was Brett, and he was my big brother.”
Blythe nodded.
“He said that you were coming to get me and that I mustn’t worry.”
“Were you worried?” Will and Blake would hear from her when they arrived home. Assholes were probably lying low somewhere waiting for her to calm down.
Kim shrugged. “A bit, but I knew you would come for me.”
That hit her where she lived, and Blythe ducked her head. She didn’t want Kim to see her cry like a baby. All she’d done, every damn thing, had been to know her sister felt safe. That Kim always knew someone would come for her.
Blythe got up and fussed with the kettle. She didn’t want tea, but it had been an emotional hour or so, and she needed time to compose herself.
“I don’t know if Brett is a good man or a bad man,” she said when she had it under control. “I know he wasn’t a good man before he went to prison. I haven’t seen him since he got back.”
“Maybe he learned his lesson,” Kim said.
Wouldn’t it be great to live in Disney’s version of the world? She smiled and ruffled Kim’s hair. “Maybe.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Blythe drove Kim to kindergarten the next morning.
She had woken up this morning convinced her brothers would be home, but both their beds hadn’t been slept in.
After dropping Kim at her classroom, she went to find Reverend Michael.
He was in the kitchen listening to one of the women who helped with the soup kitchen. Catching sight of her he smiled and held up his hand to indicate five minutes.
“Blythe.” It was only a shade past five minutes when he joined her in the hallway outside the kitchen. “Hope everything was all right yesterday?”
“Um…yes.” Reverend Michael didn’t miss much, and if he hadn’t witnessed her freak out yesterday, there was a damn good chance someone else had informed him. “About Brett.”
“Ah.” Michael motioned her to precede him. “I think this might need my office.”
Blythe wasn’t sure it would, but she followed him.
Michael indicated for her to take a seat. “Do you mind if I call Daniel in for this?”
“Why?” Blythe hated having her family dirty laundry hung out to dry on the town grapevine.
“Daniel is an ex-con.” Michael had the sort of voice that could be endlessly patient. “I know he’s been working with Brett since his release.”
“He has?” Blythe sat back in her chair and let that sink in. On his past prison releases, Brett had never worked with anyone. He’d gone straight back to doing whatever it was that had landed him in prison in the first place. “Sure. Let’s see what Daniel has to say.”
Michael made a call, and then sat back to wait. “Kim okay?”
“Yeah.” Kim hadn’t spoken about yesterday this morning, so Blythe was hopeful it was forgotten. “She wanted to know who Brett was.”
“What did you tell her?” Along with that voice, Michael had soulful eyes that looked like they had seen the worst the world had to offer and come out the other side even more accepting of all they saw.
“She asked if he really was our brother, and I told her he was. Somehow she knew he’d been in prison.”
Michael gave a rueful chuckle. “Kids know so much more than we give them credit for.”
“Then she wanted to know if he was a bad man.”
A knock sounded, and Daniel poked his head around the door. “You wanted to chat?”
“Come on in.” Michael waved him in. “Blythe is here to talk about Brett.”
Daniel looked at her, his expression empathetic. “Is this about yesterday?”
“You know about that?” Blythe looked at Michael, but he shook his head.
Daniel took the seat beside her. “Brett told me. He said you were really upset about it.”
“I was. I am.” The ground beneath her convictions didn’t feel as firm as it had when she’d arrived. The Brett she knew ran his own ship, headlong into trouble, not stopping for anything. “I don’t trust him.”
“That’s understandable.” Daniel’s expression softened. “He also told me what happened, what he did to you.”
Now she understood what people meant when they said they were dumbstruck. All she could do was stare at Daniel. “What did he tell you?”
“About beating you up,” Daniel said. “About beating you so badly that he broke your arm.”
“He broke her arm?’ Michael frowned. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“It was.” Daniel found the words that had escaped her. “Brett got himself tangled up in drugs. He was into some pretty bad people for a lot of money. It’s not an excuse.” Daniel shrugged. “There are no excuses, and he knows that.”
“We’re still talking about, Brett, right?” She knew it sounded like she was being a smart ass,
but the question was genuine.
Daniel actually laughed. “He said you would say something like that.”
“Blythe?” Michael looked at her, no judgment, no expectations just that endlessly patient look of a man who’d seen it all and a whole lot worse.
“I don’t know what to say.” She caught herself bringing her hand to her mouth to bite her nails, an old childhood habit when she was anxious. “I’m not sure what to think either.”
“Why don’t you tell us what’s going through your mind?” Daniel leaned his elbow on his knees. “Just talk. No right or wrong.”
“Well.” She took a breath and tried to order her thoughts. “I hear what you’re saying, and I know neither of you have any reason to lie to me. I even see Eric with him. Eric gave him a job and tells me he’s changed. But this is not the Brett I know.”
“You don’t think people can change?” Michael watched her.
“Do you?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I really don’t have a definitive answer for that. I think it’s hard for people to change. And I think the temptation to resort to old patterns of behavior is always there.”
Boy, did she know a little something about that. One look at Brett near Kim, and she’d been the old Blythe. The one who reacted without thought, the Blythe who lived her life in fear and struck out before she could get struck down. “You’re saying Brett has changed?”
“Daniel?” Michael glanced his way.
Daniel nodded. “I’m saying that I believe Brett has had a long hard look at himself and didn’t like what he saw.”
That didn’t surprise her at all. Not many people liked what they saw when they looked at Brett.
“But he respects that you are not obligated to forgive and forget,” Daniel said. “Part of owning his mistakes is Brett knowing he’s not entitled to forgiveness because he is feeling repentant.”
“He wants me to forgive him?” The knowledge twisted inside her with razor sharp edges. Forgiveness. A word people threw around with trite expressions like I’m sorry. Pat liked to toss that one around like confetti. Whatever he did, or whatever his sins of omission and neglect, he would scatter apologies and pleas for forgiveness, and then assume all was forgiven. “I’m not sure I can.”
“And that’s fine.” Daniel didn’t look disappointed or sound it, but Blythe sensed he would have liked her to answer differently.
Michael smiled at her. “What if we started smaller than that?”
“How small?”
Daniel glanced at Michael as if looking for permission to proceed. “Would you agree to meet with Brett? I could be present, Michael too. Even Eric if you wanted him there.”
Blythe wanted to give them that. It really didn’t sound like too much to ask, but she couldn’t. “I’m sorry. I’m not ready.”
“That’s fine.” Daniel took her hand. “You are under no obligation here.”
Then why did she feel so guilty?
* * * *
By that evening, Brett and even Eric were the least of her worries. Neither Will nor Blake had gotten in contact with her. She’d run by the apartment between clients and still, no sign of them.
She stopped for groceries on the way home from fetching Kim.
“Sorry, declined.” The checkout clerk handed her card to her with a long-suffering look.
Blythe stared at her, and then at the box of pasta, the jar of sauce and the bag of salad greens. “Pardon.”
“Your card.” The clerk spoke slowly as if Blythe was simple. “It’s been declined. Do you have another?”
She didn’t, because she hated living on credit, but she had enough cash to cover the few items. There had to be mistake, she had more than enough money in her account to cover her one bag of groceries.
She drove home with a sick churning in her gut.
One of the problems with being a Barrows is that her mind always went to worst-case scenario. The bank was already closed but she would call the number on the back of her card when she got home.
Barrowses’ cards weren’t declined because the bank had made a mistake. They were declined because the account had been emptied, or they were stolen cards.
Now, she knew her card wasn’t stolen.
Another problem with being a Barrows is that you didn’t believe in coincidence anymore. Blake was missing, and her card had been declined.
She couldn’t, wouldn’t, believe Will capable of stealing from her. But he was also missing, and that worried her. Focusing on Will held the rising wave of panic at bay. Every penny she had was in that one bank account. Every penny she’d scrimped and saved to put between her and Kim and destitution.
It wasn’t much, because their move into the apartment had depleted her saving. Right now, she was getting by pay check to pay check, until she could build those reserves up again.
By compartmentalizing she got through dinner with Kim. When Kim was sitting watching her TV show, Blythe tried the bank.
“I’m sorry, Miss Barrows,” the sweet voiced girl on the other side of the call said. “Would you like to report your card stolen?”
“Yes.” The steady drum of her escalating heart rate pounded in her ears. She stood in her apartment with her phone in her hand and tried to get her brain to slow down enough to enable her to think this through.
Bella. She dialed before she could think better of the idea.
“Blythe.” Bella answered with a laugh in her voice. “Are you calling about that girls’ night we keep promising each other?”
“Um…no.” Her thoughts wouldn’t arrange themselves into words,
Bella’s tone changed instantly. “What is it?”
So many things, she started with one. “Will is missing, and I don’t know where he is.”
“Let me get Nate.”
“No…” But Bella had already moved out of hearing distance.
The next voice on the line belonged to Nate. “Blythe? Bella tells me Will is missing.”
“Hi Nate.” The awful soul sucking tide of her suspicions rushed over her and suddenly she was crying, sobbing and trying desperately not to.
“Blythe, sweetie,” Nate said calmly and so kindly that it made her cry even harder. “Where are you?”
“H-home.” God, it sounded like Will was dead. “It’s okay. I’m just being stupid.”
“I’m on my way,” Nate said.
“N-no.” But the line was already dead, and Blythe was secretly relieved because she didn’t want to be alone. She wanted someone to lean on right now.
She wanted Eric with every fiber of her being. She dug her nails into her palms to stop her stupid, needy self from calling him. From the lounge, canned laughed drifted over from Kim’s cartoon.
Blythe’s legs felt like noodles, and she slid down the wall and sat next to the front door. Her world was flipped upside down. Brett was suddenly the good guy. Blake had disappeared. Will was missing. She didn’t have any money. And now asking for help didn’t feel like ripping off a limb.
She must have sat there for longer than she knew, because the doorbell rang.
Clambering to her feet, Blythe opened the door to a sea of faces. But she only saw one.
Split lip, black eye and all, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“Sweet thing, get over here.” Eric opened his arms.
Safe. Blythe breathed him, felt the hard strength of him and stayed right where she was. Her heartbeat slowed, her thoughts calmed, and she knew she would find her way through this.
“Now you’re freaking me out.” Eric’s arms tightened around her. “You never come to me for anything.”
Because she tried her best not to. Right now, however, he felt too good and held her too tightly for her to want to let go. “Put it down to stress.”
“Gonna share what’s cau
sing that stress?” Pressing his temple against hers, Eric whispered in her ear.
“Are we still pretending they’re not a thing?” That sounded like Liz.
People filed into her tiny apartment. She stayed where she was as they went past her, most with a nod and smile. Matt and Pippa, holding Jasmine. Noel followed in Liz’s wake. Bella slipped past with a finger waggle and then Nate with a firm nod.
Nate shrugged. “We couldn’t stop them.” He winked at her. “I will admit to calling Eric.”
“Thank God Phi is a firm believer in beauty sleep, or she’d be here,” Pippa said. “She’s talking about calling the coastguard.”
“We’re on land.” Nate looked at Bella, who shrugged.
Pippa laughed. “She doesn’t care, she likes the uniform.”
And from somewhere Blythe found her sense of humor, and she laughed.
Another person appeared in the doorway.
Daniel slipped past her and Eric, and then Laura.
“Eric.” Laura nodded to them. “Blythe.”
“Laura.” Eric tensed.
“I made some calls,” Nate said.
“And then I made some calls.” Daniel nodded. “I brought Laura along because she knows where Will is.”
The look on Laura’s face didn’t auger well. At all.
All amusement fled from the faces in her apartment.
Then Laura pulled a face full of regret, and Blythe knew she wasn’t going to like what she heard next.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Blythe stepped away from Eric. “Where is he?”
When you saw them together, it was clear that Laura and Pippa were sisters. Same red hair, same green eyes and the same flawless sense of style.
Laura sent Daniel a loaded glance, and then said, “Will’s been seen. Earlier today in fact.”
Daniel stood by Laura’s side. “I called Laura because she has a great ear to the ground with the kids Will’s age.”
“Do you know where he is?” Another twist in her life. Not so long ago, Blythe would not have been in the same room with Laura, and now here she was, waiting for Laura to help her find Will.