“Sorry, baby girl.”
“It’s okay,” I croaked out. “I just…I…” I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t explain why it hurt so much to be here. I couldn’t explain how my body hurt in more places than he knew about.
He gave me a sad smile and halted in front of a set of doors. “In here.” He opened the second door and moved aside so I could walk in. The walls were gray, and a lone metal table was attached to the floor, along with four chairs around it and a bar attached to the top of it. I’d only ever seen rooms like this in the movies, and now I was in one, about to tell my dad how I’d killed a man. I’d killed someone. I’d taken their life, and I didn’t regret it even for a second.
“I’ll be back,” he said and closed the door.
I inched farther inside, not sure whether I should sit down or not, but before I could make a choice, the door opened again, and Uncle Jord and Uncle Ky came inside.
“Sit down, Belle,” Uncle Jord said, his voice soft. I did as he said, wondering where Dad was, but I didn’t have to wait long for an explanation. “Your dad can’t interview you,” Uncle Jord said, placing something on the table. “Conflict of interest.”
I swallowed, understanding what he was saying, but that didn’t mean this would be any easier. Or maybe it would. At least I wouldn’t have to look into my dad’s eyes as I told him I pulled the trigger and watched the life drain out of someone. “Okay,” I whispered, staring around the room. One wall had a large mirror on it, and I wondered if my dad was behind there.
Uncle Jord said something, but I wasn’t paying attention until Uncle Ky asked, “Why don’t you tell us what happened?”
I pulled in a breath and held it for several seconds, then looked at him. He pushed his hand through his light-brown hair, his green eyes holding mine intently.
“I…well…” I placed my casted arm on the metal table, causing it to clunk. “Where shall I start?”
“Start with what led up to the dead bodies,” he replied without thought.
“Okay.” I cleared my throat and thought back to yesterday. Was it really only yesterday? “I was at work.” I blinked. “I work at the general store in town. And I got these pains in my stomach, so I…I closed the store and went to the local doctor’s office.” I stared down at my fingers on the table, still able to see dried blood under my nails. “She checked me out and told me I was having Braxton-Hicks—”
“Braxton-Hicks?” Uncle Ky asked, leaning forward.
“Yeah.” I looked up at him. “They’re like practice contractions.” I paused and waited until he nodded for me to go on. “Dr. Ponts took me home and told me to rest. Wait…no, before that, I called Leopold.”
“Leopold?” Uncle Jord asked.
“Yeah, he’s—was. He was the owner of the store.” I took a breath through my nose, trying to keep my tears at bay. I didn’t even know if Leopold had any family. Who would arrange his funeral? Who would water his roses?
“Keep going, Belle,” Uncle Ky demanded, but his tone gentle.
“Right.” I shook my head. “I went to sleep, and then something woke me up. I wasn’t sure what it was but…yeah.” It had been the gun. The shot, which most likely had killed Leopold. “I called Curtis’ name.” Uncle Ky’s mouth opened, and I knew what he was going to ask, so I told them, “Curtis is who I was living with. He was a friend from college—Justin’s roommate.” Uncle Ky nodded. “So, Curtis brought me some soup and told me he had to clean the kitchen and to stay in bed to rest.”
I closed my eyes, wishing all of this wasn’t happening, but the reality of the situation was that it was. I couldn’t turn back time, all I could do now was make changes so I never got into a situation like this ever again.
“I heard the front door close, so I got up and went to the bathroom, and then…then I got Curtis’ cell charger for my cell.” I stared at Uncle Jord and then Uncle Ky, and finally at the large mirrored wall. “I was going to call my mom. I…I wanted to come home, but I was scared.” I left that hanging in the air. It wasn’t a lie, it was the truth. I was scared how they’d all react when they saw me again, but most of all, I was scared to come home and have everything be so different without Ford here.
“Then I walked into the living room and saw the blood on the floor and…and the gun.” I hiccuped a sob, not able to hold it back as I relived the moment everything had changed. “And I saw Curtis dragging Leopold’s body outside.” I swiped at my face to get rid of the tears. “Leopold was one of my only friends. He knew about almost everything and was there for me whenever I needed him. He was my friend, and Curtis killed him because of that.”
Uncle Ky placed his hands on the table. “Wait…what do you mean?”
I closed my eyes and tried to get my emotions under control. If I told them now, I wouldn’t have to relive it, at least, not out loud anyway. “He said he was protecting me. That’s why he did it. And he said he kill—”
“Open this damn door, right now!” I jumped at the loud voice from outside and the banging on the door. “Brody! Open it now.” I stared at the door, expecting it to come flinging open any second.
“Uh-oh.” Uncle Jord chuckled. “Mama bear is here.”
“Lola,” I heard my dad growl. “Stop.”
“Not until you open this damn door,” Mom shouted back. “Open it. Right. Now.”
“You know we need to take the statement. You know that.”
“Does it look like I give a flying fuck if you need to take a statement? My daughter is in there, a daughter who I haven’t seen for nearly half a year, and you expect me to wait while you grill her about what happened?”
I imagined she had her hands on her hips and was staring my dad down. Normally she won, but when dad replied, “She needs to finish. It’s for her own good,” I knew she hadn’t this time.
The silence stretched out, and finally, I heard my mom grind out, “Fine. But I’m not moving from here, and you’ll hurry it the hell up.”
I turned back to face Uncle Jord and Uncle Ky, who both had grins on their faces. They knew what my mom was like, but most of all so did I, which was why a part of me wanted this to take longer than it would. I wanted to delay the inevitable.
“Keep going,” Uncle Jord told me.
I squeezed my legs together and shuffled on the seat. “Where was I?”
“You saw him dragging the body.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “He heard me and then…we fought. He hurt me, and I knew I wouldn’t get out of there alive. Not when he’d told me he’d also killed Stella and Justin.” My hand fluttered to my neck, and I trailed my fingers over what I could see were bruises in the mirror. “I remembered the gun. I’m not sure how I managed to get it, or how I got him to stop hurting me, but I did. And then…then…then I shot him.”
I blinked several times, not knowing what else to say. I’d tried to sum it all up, and although I knew I should have gone into more specific detail, knowing my mom was on the other side of that door was all I could think about.
“Okay,” Uncle Jord said, standing up and causing the chair legs to scrape against the floor. “I think that will do for now.” He walked over to the door and grinned at me. “We were the easiest part. Now you have your mom to deal with.” He chuckled and pulled the door open, and Uncle Ky followed him out, and then I was alone again, but not for long because my mom ran into the room.
“Belle!” Her voice echoed off the walls a second before her arms flung around my neck. “I missed you so much. Where have you been? Why haven’t you called?” She pulled back just enough to look at my face. “Your face.” Tears shone in her hazel eyes. “Sweetie,” she murmured, moving my hair off my face in the way only she could. “You look so tired.”
“I feel tired,” I whispered.
She pulled back and stood to her full height. “Let’s get you home. These cavemen don’t get to hog you any longer.”
“Who you calling a caveman?”
I glanced over to see Dad leaning against
the doorway with a small smile on his face.
“I’m protecting her, you know that.”
“I know,” Mom replied. “I remember when you did the same for me.” She paused, and Dad’s nostrils flared. “But now you can get out of our way. We’re going home.”
Mom held her hand out for me, and I took it without a second thought but halted as a shadow moved behind Dad. I spotted the jean-clad legs first, and then the black T-shirt, and finally, I made it to the face. A face that shouldn’t have been standing there. His gaze clashed with mine, so many emotions showcased to me, but all I could feel was shock.
“Ford?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
FORD
Her voice was music to my ears. Music I’d been deprived of. Music I’d longed to hear almost every day for the last six months.
Six months she’d been gone. Six months of wondering where she was. Six months of stopping myself from searching for her. Six months of waiting for a call to say she was okay and back home. But it never came. Brody and the team had said they were on it, and I’d given them all the information I knew from when I was staying with her at college. But they’d come up with nothing.
And yet again, it meant Garza had won. It was because of him I’d had to go underground and for all intents and purposes, cease to exist. The goal was to get the cartel to back off, and it had worked, but in the process, we’d all lost Belle. I’d been gone for five months, and although I’d had little contact with Brody, I hoped Belle had come home.
But she hadn’t.
So for the last four weeks, I’d debated back and forth what I could do and how I could find her, but I’d come up empty every single time. The guys said they’d followed every possible lead, and they’d tracked her onto the highway, but then she’d disappeared. Just. Like. That.
And after talking to Aria, and finding out what happened the day of my fake memorial, I knew she hadn’t been taken. She’d run away. She’d escaped. If she didn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t.
She’d grown up around men who had taught her things, whether we were aware or not. She’d learned how to be invisible. She’d learned how to cover her tracks. And I had no doubt that was what she was doing.
I’d been on my way home from watching the activity on a house all night for our current case when Lola had called. I hadn’t been able to make sense of her hurried words at first, but after she’d repeated them, I’d sped to her house.
Brody hadn’t called me, and although I knew it was because he was acting on instinct and so he could get to Belle as quickly as possible, it still didn’t sit right with me. I’d been back at work properly for a month, but I’d only been given small cases to work. Brody said he was easing me back into work, but he was being cautious. We thought the threat was gone, but we knew it never truly would be. Garza would still be hanging over our heads, whether it was obvious or not.
But I couldn’t live my life afraid of what could happen. I hadn’t so far, and I didn’t intend to start now. So I waited with Lola for hours to hear an update, and when Brody finally called to tell her Belle was in a bad way and that they were at the offices, we didn’t hesitate to go there and find out exactly what was going on. Nothing would keep me away from seeing her, not a single thing.
The last time I’d seen her, she’d begged me not to leave, and although I knew it was the right thing to do, it didn’t mean I didn’t regret it almost every day. If I’d just stayed with her, things would have been so different.
So when her blue eyes captured mine and threatened to never let go again, I wasn’t sure what to think. Her face was swollen, her one eye closed, and as I tracked my gaze down her, I saw the light purple bruising starting to come out on her neck, and the cast on her arm. She was hurt, and I hated seeing her like that. I wanted to decimate the person who’d done this to her.
Lola helped Belle stand, and my nostrils flared. Someone was talking, Brody was saying something, and Jord was standing a couple of feet away from me, but I couldn’t take my gaze off Belle. I was afraid if I did, she’d disappear.
“Ford?” she asked again and shook her head as if she was dreaming. I knew exactly how she felt. She was so close, and yet, she felt so far away.
“Hey, Baby Belle,” I greeted, my voice cracking.
Her hand covered her mouth, and I tracked a tear as it slipped down her cheek, a tear I craved to flick away. Lola said something to her, holding her arm, but Belle shook her head again and moved forward, out of Lola’s grip.
She took three steps and didn’t speak as she waited for Brody to move out of the doorway, and as soon as he did, she ran across the hallway and flung herself at me. I didn’t hesitate to catch her, and as soon as my hands made contact with her body, I knew I’d never let her go again. Life was too short to deny yourself of the things you loved, and that was what she was. I loved her more than I should have.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” she whispered in my ear, and it was only then that I came crashing down to earth and realized the way she was standing with her body bowed forward. She was in pain, and here I was, trying to crush her to me so she’d never let go.
I pulled back and placed my hands on her shoulders. “You look a little rough,” I told her, trying to make a joke of it. Inside, I was a raging bull staring at a piece of red material waiting to charge at it.
“Just a little,” she replied and continued to stare at me. I’d never get enough of her. I’d never get fed up of looking into her eyes and wondering what she was thinking. We’d been apart for so long, and it had solidified exactly how I felt. I’d never doubted it before, but I now realized I’d made a mistake the day I’d walked away from her. I should have stayed. Stayed and fought for us.
“She’s what?” Lola asked, and her sharp tone had both Belle and me freezing. I wasn’t sure what she’d told them about us, or even if she’d told them anything at all, but I was preparing myself for the firing line. I’d given up on us before, but I’d never do that again.
“Darlin’, calm down. I’m sure she’ll explain,” Brody said, and I glanced over at him. His gaze flung back and forth between Lola and Belle. “Let’s get her home so she can rest, and then we can all talk as a family.”
Lola blinked at him, and my hands drifted off Belle’s shoulders as she stepped away from me. I gazed back at her, wondering why she was moving away, but her head was down now, and her chest was heaving as if she was trying to hold her emotions in. I wanted to tell her she didn’t need to do that. She was home now, and I’d make sure she was safe—we all would.
“You didn’t think to tell me she was pregnant when you called me earlier?” Lola asked Brody, her hands planted on her hips.
Pregnant?
“It wasn’t my place to tell you,” Brody ground out.
“Mom,” Belle whispered, and Lola spun around to face her. Lola’s expression was a mix of anger, sadness, and relief, but I could also see the utter happiness in her eyes too. “I was going to call you,” Belle continued.
“You were?” Lola asked, stepping toward her. “When?”
“Before all of this happened. I’d…I’d charged my cell and was going to tell you I was coming home.” She paused, and I stared at the two of them, trying to read between the lies, but it felt like an impossible task. “I was going to tell you.”
“This is big,” Lola told her. “Really big.”
“I know,” Belle replied, and her gaze flicked back to mine and away again. Gone was the Belle who had flung herself at me, and in its place was the Belle who was trying to hide. The same Belle who had won when she’d run away and not contacted any of us.
“I’m going to be a grandma.” Lola scrunched up her nose. “I think we need to find a better word than that. It makes me sound old.”
Grandma? What the hell was she—
I finally tracked the length of Belle’s body, and I stumbled, my back colliding with the wall. She wasn’t in pain when she was hugging me, there was just something i
n between us. I must have made a noise because both Belle and Lola stared at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I realized I’d felt like that a lot lately. I’d been floating on the wind with nothing to weigh me down, no purpose since I’d been back home.
“We need to take swabs before you leave,” Jord said, but his voice sounded far away. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, my pulse thrumming at an alarming rate.
Belle was pregnant. She was having a baby.
And every thought I’d had since I’d seen her drifted away. She’d been gone for six months, and she’d come home pregnant. And it was then I realized I had no idea what had happened that caused the team to go to her aid. I was thinking of her as if it was six months ago, when the reality was, time had passed.
She’d changed. But so had I.
“Ford,” Belle whispered, but I shook my head in response. I couldn’t listen to her. I couldn’t stand here any longer. She was hurt, bruises covering almost every part of skin I could see, and all I could think about was the baby she carried inside her and how she’d let someone else touch her.
It shouldn’t have hurt so bad, but it did. I rubbed my palm over my chest as Lola pulled Belle toward Jord so she could get swabs taken, and as soon as they were out of sight, I closed my eyes and tried to get myself under control.
“Ford?” Brody’s deep voice asked. “You okay?”
I snapped my eyes open and pushed off the wall. “Yeah.” Clearing my throat, I stepped toward him. “Just tired. I was up all night watching that house again.”
Brody nodded, but his lips were in a straight line as he stared down the hallway where the lab was. “I’m taking them home, but we need a meeting in the morning to go over everything.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe she’s back.”
I made a noise in the back of my throat, not sure what else to say. My emotions had spanned a width I hadn’t known was capable, and now exhaustion was setting in. It was early afternoon, and I hadn’t slept in nearly thirty-six hours. Maybe I just needed to go home and get some sleep. Everything would look better after that. I hoped.
Bonded Duet: Ford & Belle: Torn Bond & Tied Bond (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 3) Page 28