“Jeez, that’s one scary dog.” Kitty huffed as she sat down.
Ty reached over and kissed me, Monty growling at the intrusion again. “Monty, stop,” I said looking down at him and patting my knee for him to put his head back.
He looked around unsure, but finally put his head back in favor of a stroke.
“Jesus Christ. Kay won’t need no training with that thing next to her, he’d rip someone’s arm clean off.” Luke laughed.
“Exactly!” Evan said from the other end of the room.
“Evan, meeting.” Ty nodded his head at his chair, signaling him to come over.
“I’ll listen from here!” he shouted.
“Get your ass over here.” Ty huffed out, dropping his head into his hands.
“I take it that it didn’t go well?”
“No.” He lifted his head up, his eyes meeting mine. “Wasn’t a thing to be found. Just an old warehouse with nothing inside it.”
“Damn,” I said under my breath.
I saw Evan move closer, taking slow, measured steps as not to disturb Monty. He lifted his head, looked over to Evan, made a noise in the back of his throat and lay his head back down.
“Just sit down, Evan.” I chuckled. “He won’t hurt you.”
“Pffft,” he said as he lowered into his chair slowly.
Shaking my head, I looked back down at Monty and smiled. I’d always wanted a dog.
“So it was a no go?” Evan asked.
“Fuck!” Ty banged his fist down on the table, causing Monty to look up again. “We need to find those girls, why are we hitting dead ends?”
I turned to face him, not knowing what to say. Charlie hadn’t got any closer either, in fact, we were the only ones providing leads for him.
Reaching over, I placed my hand over his clenched fist. “How about going to see the parents of the girl that went missing last. We may be able to find new leads from that.”
“Charlie’s already interviewed them,” Kitty said from across the table.
I looked up at her, her eyes blazing with…something. I couldn’t put my finger on it. She hadn’t been herself lately, I wanted to ask her what was going on but I had a feeling she’d shut me down.
“I know,” I said, trying to stay calm. “But it couldn’t hurt for us to talk to them.” Looking back at Ty, unsure, I asked. “Right?”
“It’s not a bad idea,” he said, nodding and turning his hand over, entwining his fingers through mine. “I’ll talk to Charlie about it.”
“Okay.” I nodded and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “What do we do now?”
“Now?” He smirked. “Now we show Monty his new home.”
I smiled back, looking down at Monty.
This was the happiest I’d been in a long time; I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It wasn’t normal for things to go this smoothly. Not for me, anyway.
I thought I was frustrated before but now I was beyond that. Way beyond that.
We were getting nowhere. The only thing that may bring new leads, was going and talking to the parents of the last girl who went missing. It was a good idea, one that I should have already thought of but I could see now that I had blind spots when it came to this case, and I admit, that was all down to Serena.
Right now wasn’t the time to think about work though because we were on our way to my parents’ house for dinner. Kay had been back at the house all afternoon baking pies.
“Your ma told me to bring pie,” she’d said.
“Yeah, but from the store. She wouldn’t have expected you to make one from scratch.” She’d just shrugged her shoulders and carried on making the pastry.
Now she was sat next to me in the truck, three pies at her feet, Eli in the back, and Monty in the truck bed.
Yep, Monty had to come too. That dog hadn’t moved from Kay’s side since she brought him home a few days ago. The only time he did was when he was playing with Eli but, most of the time, that was in the same room.
The dog was loyal to a fault and, if I was honest, it put me at ease that he was watching out for her. It meant that when I couldn’t be there that he would.
“Stop,” I said to Kay, reaching over and putting my hand over hers. She’d been ringing her hands since she got in the car, now I understood why she’d made so many damn pies; to keep her hands busy.
“I can’t help it,” she whispered, looking back at Eli and Monty, giving them the ‘mom smile’. The one that all moms gave to reassure her children that everything was fine, even when it wasn’t.
“I know, sweetheart.” Giving her hand a final squeeze, I let go and turned on to my parents’ land. They had acres that surrounded their house, something which I loved as a kid.
Dad had a work shed out back. Well, shed was putting it lightly. It was basically a cabin; he’d built it from scratch with wood that he’d cut down himself.
Mom had a stable full of horses. She loved them, well, she loved any animals, but horses were her favorite. She had a habit of taking in horses that had been neglected or the ones that people didn’t want anymore. She currently had six; two ex-race horses, three mares and a foal.
“Can I go to Trevor’s house again, Ty?” Eli shouted from the backseat.
“Trevor’s house?” Kay turned to me with a frown marred on her beautiful face.
“You’ll see.” I smirked, and parked on the grass outside the house.
Looking away, a frown still on her face, I watched as she took the whole place in. I tried to see it from her eyes but it was hard to do having grown up here. This would always be home.
“Ready?” Pulling open the door, I waited for her to answer before I jumped down. Spotting Ma as she came out of the house, shielding her eyes from the glaring sun.
“Yeah,” she whispered, not exactly convincingly.
“Come on, mama,” Eli whined from the backseat, already standing up, ready to get out.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then opened them and pulled her door open.
“Let’s do this.” She nodded and bent down to get the pies once she was out.
Pulling Eli’s door open, I helped him down and waited for Monty to jump out. I turned around to tell Eli to wait for me but he was already running towards dad’s work shed.
“Eli!” Kay shouted, each hand holding a pie with Monty at her legs again. “Where are you going!”
“To see Trevor!” he shouted back, not bothering to turn around.
“I’ll go.” I smiled and jogged after him after planting a kiss on her lips.
“Bud!” I shouted just as he got to the door. “You shouldn’t run off like that.”
“Oops, sorry.” He looked down at his feet, kicking the toe of his shoes in the grass.
“Hey.” I crouched down in front of him and put my thumb and finger on his chin, bringing his face back up to me. “You don’t need to be sorry, bud. It just that mama didn’t know where you were going. You have to ask her first, remember?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. His eyes moved to the door making it clear that he couldn’t wait to get in there.
“Come on.” I chuckled and stood back up, pushing through the door.
“Dad?”
“In here, son,” his gruff voice replied. I followed Eli towards dad’s voice. I should have known he’d be in here filing down some wood.
The last time we came, he’d promised Eli that he’d make him a chair, and from the looks of things, he’d nearly finished it.
“Ah! Eli!” Dad put down his tools and went straight to Eli, picking him up and spinning him around. “How’s it going? You being good?”
“Yeah.” Eli chuckled.
“Ah! That’s no good! We need to get some mischief in you.” He sat him on his work bench and I moved closer, making sure there was nothing that could hurt him. “Did you climb any trees?” he continued on with the questioning. I may as well have not been there.
But I didn’t mind, in fact, I loved that he got on with Eli s
o well.
Dad didn’t have any grandkids yet so Eli was kind of his first. Wait…did that mean I was Eli’s step-dad?
I didn’t know how Kay would feel about that, but I’d got to admit, I liked it.
“So…where is she?” Dad asked, finally looking at me.
“She’s in the big house with ma.” I pulled Eli down off the bench and held my hand out to him. His tiny hand was completely lost inside mine.
“Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” He threw his work apron down on the bench and walked straight through the door.
Elena helped me bring the pies inside and told me what Ty had already said earlier on in the day; that I should have got them from the store but I couldn’t do that, I had to impress her in some way. I knew they were only pies, but they were really good pies.
I’d perfected my mom’s recipes over the years, every time we would have a baking or cooking lesson, I would write every little thing down in my special notebook. I’d used the recipes so many times that I now knew them all off the top of my head. Telling Monty to sit, I followed Elena into the kitchen, the smell of the food pulling me in.
“Need any help?” I asked.
“Ah, hon, that’s kind but you don’t have to.” She waved me away, trying to manage several pots on the stove at once while simultaneously trying to chop vegetables.
“Here,” I said, stepping forward. “Let me do that.” Taking the knife out of her hand, I started to chop them.
We worked well together and in the matter of ten minutes, everything was under control.
The sound of boots coming through the door had my heart beating out of my chest. This was it. This was where his dad would hate me and then Ty wouldn’t want-
“Well! Kay?” Trevor’s deep voice boomed through the house as he got closer to the kitchen. “Jesus H. Christ! What is that thing?” I heard from the doorway.
Monty’s bark sounded through to the kitchen and I stumbled forward, knowing that no one would be able to get him to stop but me.
“Monty!” I shouted, coming into the living room. “Heel.”
He sat back down, not moving his eyes from Trevor.
“Sorry,” I said, looking over to him. My eyes widened at what I saw. He was a mixture of Ty and Charlie but with a smattering of gray hair.
“Hi?” I whispered, seeing Eli standing behind him holding Ty’s hand. My eyes connected with Ty’s, looking for reassurance.
“Well?” Trevor smirked and stepped closer, “Am I gonna get a hug?” He opened his arms wide and Ty’s nod of encouragement had me stepping forward.
I wasn’t used to all of this touching. It was so foreign to me but I was slowly starting to like it. His arms wrapped around me, enveloping me in his fatherly hug. He was tall, not as tall as Ty and Charlie, but still tall which meant he towered over me.
“So nice to meet ya.” He stepped back and looked down at Eli. “Got a great boy there,” he said, nodding to him.
“Thanks,” I whispered. Clearing my throat, I replied. “so do you.”
“Yeah, he’s alright I suppose.” He chuckled and slapped Ty on the back. “Now! Where is my food, woman? I’m wasting away here!” Leaving with a wink, he headed into the kitchen.
“Wasn’t so bad, huh?” Ty moved forward, wrapping his arms around me while Eli leaned on Monty where he was now lying down, his eyes drooping closed.
I looked around properly now, not having the chance to when I first came in. The walls were lined with pictures of Ty and Charlie. In the middle of the main wall sat a picture, bigger than the rest and the only one in a different frame. It was clear that this one meant the most to Elena and Trevor.
A woman was stood in the center with Charlie behind her, his hands on her clearly pregnant stomach and Ty stood next to them in his forces uniform.
“That’s a lovely picture,” I said, pointing over to it.
Ty smiled and turned to see which picture I was pointing to. His face dropped when he realized which picture. Clearing his throat, he said, “Dinner done yet?”
Frowning at him, I turned to Eli. “Sweetie, go and see if Elena and Trevor need any help.”
“Okay, mama.” He stood up and went running into the kitchen.
“Ty?” His eyes were still focused on the picture. “Ty?”
“Huh?” He pulled back, looking at me with wide eyes. “What?”
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he said, trying to shrug me off. But I wouldn’t let him, he’d promised not to do that.
“Ty…don’t keep things from me.”
“Really?” He chuckled. “You keep things from me. You still haven’t opened up about Max.” His eyes blazed with a mixture of sadness and anger.
“Ty-”
“No, forget it.” He huffed, scrubbing his hands up and down his face. “Shit! I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I mumbled. Not wanting to admit how much he’d hit home with what he had said.
He was right, I still hadn’t told him about Max. It wasn’t like I wasn’t ready, because I was. It was finding the right time to broach the subject, getting into that head space took so much energy, energy that I didn’t want to waste. But I knew I had to at some stage.
“Ty-”
“Just forget it,” he said cutting me off a second time, trying to walk past me. Grabbing onto his arm to stop him, I moved closer. He wasn’t going to do that, not to me, he needed to listen to what I was saying.
He looked down at his arm and then back up to my eyes.
“I’m trying to tell you that I’m ready.”
“You’re ready?” he asked wide eyed.
“Yeah.” I let go of his arm, stepping closer to him. “I’m ready to talk about Max, but you need to tell me too.”
“Tell you what?” He frowned, putting his arms around my waist and interlocking his hands.
“About that woman in the picture,” I said, tilting my head to the picture.
“It’s not my story to tell, sweetheart.” Searching his eyes, I could see that he was telling the truth. I knew just from seeing the picture that it was Charlie’s story, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t tell me parts of it.
“I don’t want to know the full story, just who she is.”
“Okay.” He leaned down, bringing his lips to mine and kissing them softly. “Tonight?” he asked when he pulled back.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Tonight.”
Nodding, he pulled me in for a hug. I breathed him in and rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Pulling back, he let his arm drop over my shoulders and steered me into the kitchen.
“Now that we’ve sorted that…” He tilted his head down. “Time for ma’s food. Man, I love eating here.”
“Hey!” I elbowed him in the ribs, giving him a mock stare. “I cook for you all the time.”
“Ahh, sweetheart, I didn’t mean it like that.” He chuckled.
Pulling away, I huffed and smirked when my back was to him.
“Don’t be like that,” he groaned.
Huffing, I swayed my hips that little bit more, aware that he was watching. Purely by coincidence, of course.
Walking out of Eli’s room, I stood at the top of the stairs preparing myself for what I was about to do. I was afraid that bringing all of this up wouldn’t destroy all of the progress I’d made. I was hoping that it would make me stronger but I wasn’t holding my breath.
Things had to get worse before they got better though, right?
Taking a deep breath, I pulled my shoulders back and walked down the stairs.
Ty was sat on the edge of the coffee table waiting for me, his arms resting on his thighs. I took him all in, the way his back was tense and his hands clenched into fists. He was always so composed, I could see that he was dreading this as much as me.
The step I was on creaked and he lifted his head, I gasped at the intensity in his eyes. I stopped on the step that I was on, not wanting to go an
y further.
“Ty?” I whispered.
He closed his eyes, his chest moving up and down as he took a deep breath. I could see that he was trying to get himself under control but I was freaking out over here.
A lump formed in my throat and it was all too intense, just too much. “I…I…” I gripped my hands as hard as I could, my knuckles turning white.
My eyes widened when he stood up all of a sudden, walking straight to me. I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up, my legs going around him automatically.
Burrowing my face into his neck, I clutched my arms around his shoulders as he took us upstairs and straight into his room. Feeling him sit down, I lifted my face out of his neck and pulled back slightly.
He cupped my face, keeping his eyes planted on mine. “I’m here,” he said, his voice rough but soft at the same time. “He can’t get to you anymore, sweetheart.”
“I know,” I whispered, closing my eyes. I had to do this. I’d built it up into this big moment and I didn’t even know where to start. “I don’t know where to start,” I confessed.
He nodded and looked away. “When did it first start?” I knew that he knew the answer to this question but I answered him anyway. It was a starting point and that’s what I needed.
“When I was pregnant.”
“Okay,” he gritted out. “What would he do?”
Closing my eyes, I told him. I told him everything that he would do.
How he liked to control me, tell me what to do and what to wear. The names that he would call me and that was all before he had started to use his fists.
“The first time he hit you?” he ground out, staring into my eyes.
“He slapped me for not having his dinner on the table when he came in from work.”
“Son of a bitch,” he swore. I felt him tense underneath me and I made to move off him but he grabbed my legs and held me in place. “Keep going.”
“It wasn’t too bad at first, he only did it every now and again. But…”
“It got worse?” he asked. I could feel his fingers tapping that beat on my legs, a sign that he was trying to stay calm.
Exposed: Book 2 MAC Security Series Page 11