She wondered if her dad had been listening, as he parted the curtain, his gaze landing on her. Yup, overprotective, worried—it was all there in his expression. He stepped inside, followed by Sheriff Blake, and she could feel her mom hovering closer, her hand now pressed into the pillow above her head, her other hand on her shoulder. She didn’t know when she’d reached up and taken her mom’s hand, but she wasn’t about to let it go.
“So we got a description out about the guy who attacked you, and a couple of my deputies are already talking to the kids in the dorm. I wanted to go over a few things with you, Sara, from my deputy’s notes. He said you’d been drinking, and you said this guy was with you at a party?”
She could see the way her dad pulled his arms across his chest and breathed. He was tense, and the way he shook his head told her he was disappointed without him having to say a word. Of course, she wondered how long she’d have to wait until she got an earful from him.
“Sara, you’re only eighteen,” Laura said. She didn’t have to look up to her mom to know how angry she was, either. “So it was a party you went to, yet you told us you were studying. This isn’t okay, and we’ll be talking about this later.”
“I did go to study, and I told you, we did go into the coffeehouse…”
“Don’t start lying,” Andy snapped. “Some asshole put his hands on you, so if you’re thinking of trying to downplay anything, don’t. You were drinking, and we’ve already established you weren’t where you were supposed to be. So it was a party at the dorms? This guy who attacked you was at the party. You knew him?”
The way his heavy gaze lingered, she knew there was an edge to his anger.
“You hold nothing back, I mean nothing,” he demanded. Even Blake shifted his gaze over to her father, and she wasn’t sure what passed between them in that exchange, but it only added to her unease.
“I’m a kid, you’re right,” she said. “I’m eighteen, and yes, we were drinking—but I wasn’t drunk, or I wouldn’t have been driving. I didn’t know him at all, Dad. That was just what he said to me, that he was at the party, but I’d never seen him before. He was in my face before he grabbed me, saying I was the one who had been making eyes at him.” She looked over to the sheriff, who was giving her a heavy gaze that was all cop, as if he knew there was more to the story. But he couldn’t know, because he hadn’t been there. She hoped not, anyways.
“You shouldn’t have been drinking, period, Sara,” Blake said. “And then what were you thinking, to get behind the wheel? It may be a moot point, because you didn’t, but let me point out to you the serious hot water you could’ve been in if you did. Even though I’ve known you since you were a baby, and I’m friends with your parents, don’t think I wouldn’t have had you tossed in the back of a cop car and driven you home. I would’ve taken your license, too, and done anything else I could think of to show you that underage drinking isn’t tolerated—and never drinking and driving!” He exhaled. “But let’s put that aside for now. There will never be a next time. You’ll never think about getting behind the wheel after you’ve been drinking, because the smart move is to call your parents or your brothers or even me to pick you up. You may be in trouble for the drinking, but it’s nothing compared to the trouble you’d have been in if you got behind the wheel after a few drinks.”
Andy pulled his arms over his chest again and let his gaze linger on her. She knew he had a lot to say on the matter, as well. “So you said a party at the dorms,” he started. “Who was there? I want to know everything, Sara.”
She had to swallow. Her throat still ached. Her dad was doing the tough-love thing, and now her friends were going to get dragged into this nightmare. She didn’t want anyone to know anything about this. “I don’t know everyone who was there,” she said. “My friends…we were in the dorm social area where the sofas are, but I think just about everyone in the dorms was there, and their friends. We were on the sofa. There was tequila.”
“And drugs?” Her dad cut in.
“I’m not that stupid, Dad,” she said, even though she had been able to smell weed in the dorms. “I only had a couple shots.” She shrugged, but that was a mistake, as her shoulder was already stiffening. She took in the exchange between her dad and the sheriff and didn’t look up when her mom swore.
“Okay, let’s get back to who was there,” Blake said. “This guy who attacked you, you never saw him before?”
“No, he was just there in front of me when I was at the truck, about to get in,” she said, and she told them the rest, how he had grabbed her, how she had screamed, how fast it had all happened. She could hear her voice, feel the stress and the panic as she relived the horror of his hand working the button of her jeans. “I couldn’t breathe, and he had me pinned on the ground. He was going to rape me…”
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” her mom said. “We’re here. You’re okay. You did everything right, Sara.”
She felt her dad’s hand on her foot. He was watching her in that overprotective way of his that she usually hated, but not right now.
“I mean, did I do this?” she said. “Am I responsible? He seemed to think he had every right to put his hands on me, as if it was my fault. He even said so, that I had given him a look…like, what the fuck does that mean?”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Laura said, holding her hand. She didn’t even scold her about dropping the F-bomb, even though she’d heard both her parents drop it more times than she could count.
“Sara, you listen to me,” Blake said, and she didn’t miss the overprotective way her dad was watching over her and her mom. There it was in his expression: the same worry that had taken over in Cancun, when his cousins had been held hostage by some crazy man. She wondered now if he’d ever let her out of his sights again. Maybe, right now, she didn’t mind so much.
The sheriff stepped closer to her so she was looking right up at him. “No one has any right to put their hands on you, and you did nothing wrong. You’re not responsible for any of that. The booze is another matter, but the guy who attacked you and tried to put this in your head…” He shook his head. “None of that is on you. You fought, you did everything right. We’ll catch that son of a bitch, and we’ll put him away for a long time, so you just get that out of your head that you brought this on. You didn’t. It’s not your fault. This may not help, Sara, but it’s never the woman’s fault in this type of assault. People who say it was somehow her fault, that she made him do it…that’s what cowardly assholes do. They twist everything and never take responsibility for their actions.”
She could hear her heart thumping, the adrenaline still surging. “You know he saved me,” she said. “Devon, he pulled that guy off me. I thought I was going to die. He was choking me, and I couldn’t breathe.”
Her dad’s face said everything. “You don’t know him, then?”
She just shook her head. She’d never seen Devon before, and she didn’t think she’d thanked him enough for what he’d done. She didn’t even know if she could ever find the words to tell him, not that she’d know how to get a hold of him.
“I’ll be talking to him,” her dad said, and she just nodded. She knew he would want to be involved with every aspect of this, and she was sure he’d track down the guy who had touched her. She wanted to say more, but she heard the curtain pull back.
A doctor stepped in, a woman with light hair and blue eyes. “Okay, Sara,” she said. “I’m going to take a look at you. No more questions right now, Sheriff.”
The sheriff just nodded. “We’ll need evidence, photos.”
“We’ll take care of it,” the doctor replied.
Sara didn’t miss the way Blake let his gaze linger on her another second.
“We’ll get him, Sara,” he said. Then he stepped away, stopped beside her dad, and gestured out to the waiting area with his head.
Andy just nodded and patted her foot again. “We’ll be right outside, Sara. Your mom will stay here,” he said, and then he and t
he sheriff stepped out, and the doctor pulled up a stool and sat down.
All she wanted to do was get dressed and go home.
Chapter 4
“You didn’t get any sleep, did you?” Laura said from behind him.
Andy was standing at the living room window, taking in the early morning sunrise, holding a mug of coffee. Laura slid her arms around him, her hands sliding up his chest, pressing into him, and he could feel all her softness against his back in that embrace. She pressed a kiss to his back through the thin gray T-shirt he’d pulled on along with sweats when he finally climbed out of bed at four.
“Not much,” he said, then reached for Laura’s hand and pulled her around into his arms. She reached for his mug and took a swallow of what had to be now lukewarm coffee. “Sara still asleep?” he asked even though he’d checked on her half a dozen times already. The sight of her face, the scrapes, the bruising, and just the thought of what that animal had almost done to her… He still wanted to kill him.
“Yeah, sound asleep. What do you want to do?”
He looked down at Laura. Sara had the same amazing blond hair as her mom, the same expression, the same green eyes. She was his baby girl. Laura was wearing a sleep shirt that stopped just before her knees, and she still had the most amazing figure. He couldn’t imagine his life without Laura or his children. He pulled in a breath, feeling a giant ache that wouldn’t leave his chest.
“She was almost raped. She could have been killed.” He hadn’t meant to say the words that had kept him awake all night. He dragged his hand over his jaw, hearing the scrape of whiskers. He could tell by the flicker of emotion that settled in Laura’s expression that he’d only voiced what she’d been thinking, as well.
“But she wasn’t,” she said. “Isn’t it you who always says not to start worrying about things that haven’t happened? It didn’t happen, yet here you are, doing what I should be doing.”
How was it that even in such a horrible situation, his wife could make him smile? “Okay, you got me,” he said. “She didn’t get raped because she fought her way out of it, and…”
“And she was lucky Devon was walking by and stopped it. You should reach out to him, talk to him, thank him. You’ll talk to Blake today and see if they have any leads on this guy? And Devon, do you think he knew him? Sara said she didn’t, but…”
He took in his wife’s frown and the doubt in her tone. This was the first time he’d heard her question anything Sara said. “You think she lied?”
Laura lifted his mug and swallowed the last of his coffee, then made a face as she shrugged. “No… I don’t know. I’m just tired and upset. She wasn’t telling us the truth before about the party at the dorms, and she was drinking, and this likely isn’t the first time. Is there more about this guy? Likely not, but at the same time, it isn’t lost on me how easy it was for her to lie to us.”
Laura stepped away, barefoot, and he followed her into the kitchen. She lifted the carafe, which had only dredges left, and poured the rest into his mug, then started to make a fresh pot. He leaned against the island. He didn’t know what to say.
“Why would you think she lied about the guy, about knowing him? That doesn’t make sense.”
Laura filled the reserve with water and slipped the carafe back in before switching it on to brew and turning around. He took in the outline of her breasts under her loose shirt, and her eyes told him she knew something he didn’t.
“Look, ever since Cancun and what happened there, that awful situation that scared all of us, almost losing little Becky and Brad and Neil, and your aunt and uncle being held at gunpoint…I understand it was complicated,” Laura said. “I don’t understand even now how they let him go. I know Rodney felt responsible, as if he made that man into who he was, and I get it. It scared all of us, but you, Andy…ever since that happened, you’ve become a lot more overprotective. Actually, scratch that. I saw how scared you were in Cancun, and I saw how you took it all on. Since then, I’ve seen the worry you have for not just the kids but for me.
“You know it was kind of a joke between Sara and me, that overprotectiveness that almost drowned us at times, needing to know where we all were and everything we were doing every minute of the day. I know Sara felt smothered by you and wanted space, and you know I talked to you a few times about easing up, but I could see how you always had that fear in the back of your head that something horrible could happen. And then this happened, and I’m so angry at Sara for putting herself in danger. I’m not sure what to say. Did she lie about any of what happened? No, I don’t think so, because I know when she’s lying. But did she tell us everything, everything about this guy? I don’t know.” Laura shook her head.
He’d never seen her doubt Sara before, and it did little to ease all his worry. He pulled his hand over his jaw and took in the way Laura was considering, thinking. “So we sit her down this morning and have it out, find out if she’s holding something back. I’ll make her tell us,” he said.
A smile that wasn’t really a smile touched Laura’s lips. “There’s one thing about Sara: She’s not Chelsea. She’s always been quiet and easy, but I swear she’s smarter than all the kids. At the same time, Andy, she’s always had you wrapped around her finger. If she doesn’t want you to know something, there’s nothing you can do to make her tell you. She evades, and she’s good at it…”
“I didn’t lie about last night.”
He hadn’t heard his daughter, but he turned to see her standing in the kitchen archway and took in the bruising, the scrapes, the cuts, and the outline of the man’s hands in the bruising around her neck. That bastard had tried to squeeze the life out of her. Her long hair was a mess, and she was wearing blue track pants and a hoodie that was zipped over her pink pajama shirt.
“Hey, come here,” he said and stepped away from the island. He held out his arm and took in the hesitation before Sara walked over to him and into his embrace. She sighed, and he kissed the top of her head and held her for a second. “You know we love you.”
Sara stepped away and walked over to the coffee pot beside Laura, who rested her hand on her back as she poured herself a coffee and rubbed. It wasn’t lost on Andy that Sara hadn’t answered.
“You think I was responsible in some way for what happened?” she finally said, not turning around.
He couldn’t pull his eyes from his daughter, who glanced over to Laura. She was taller than her mother but slender and gorgeous just like her. He knew how men would say or do anything to put their hands on her, to have her, and right now he imagined only finding a way to make sure she didn’t leave the house.
“Of course not,” Laura said, but as Sara turned around with the steaming mug of coffee, he could see she wasn’t as put together as she normally was, and that too made him angry, that some punk had taken something else from his daughter—her confidence.
“But I heard you, Mom, and what you said, that you don’t think I was telling you everything, that I’ve lied. You wondered if maybe I did know him.”
He was watching Sara, remembering what Laura had said about him not seeing when his daughter wasn’t telling the truth. Yeah, he’d do anything for her, for all his kids.
“But you have lied by omission, Sara,” Laura said. “Last night, you said you were going into town to study, to do homework for your composition class. Remember how you clearly told me it was a group project and it was necessary to meet with your friends or you’d fail? You said you’d be home at nine, and you were going to the coffeehouse, but you didn’t. You partied instead, and you drank, and then you were going to get in the truck your father gave you and drive after drinking. That part was extremely irresponsible. But that guy attacking you and what he did…that’s not your fault. I do have to wonder, though, Sara, if you’ve told us everything. I know you well, and I know when you’re lying. Let me be clear: There’s no room for you to lie your way out of this. If you knew that guy—”
“I didn’t,” Sara snapped, and she sl
ammed her coffee on the counter, spilling it over. “What, do you think I’m responsible for this, led him on, teased him?”
“No one is saying that, Sara,” Andy interrupted, seeing how tightly wound his daughter was.
“Mom is.”
He’d never seen such shock on Laura’s face before as she said, “Sara, you’re twisting my words. Is there anything else about last night that you maybe omitted, any part of last night?”
Sara reached for her mug of coffee and took a sip, just a slight hesitation.
“Sara?” Laura prodded, and he didn’t miss the sharp glance she tossed his way as he watched his daughter, whom he loved more than his next breath. She wasn’t answering. So there was something else.
“Look, what difference does it make?” she said. “We were drinking. I didn’t know the guy who attacked me. Why are we talking about this, anyway? I just want to forget about last night.”
Laura made a rude noise, and he wondered when Sara had started this. He’d never noticed how she just blew them off and never answered. “It matters, Sara,” Laura said. “Don’t bother denying that there’s something else.”
Sara gave him everything, and he could see how determined she could be. She had her mother’s beauty, but she had his strong will. “It’s completely irrelevant to me being attacked,” she said, and if this were anyone else but his daughter, he’d have been amused by the unwillingness to answer.
“I disagree,” Laura said. “Nothing about last night is irrelevant, so you’d better spill right now, Sara, because my head is starting to go to some pretty bad places.”
Laura was direct, and her words apparently had the needed punch, because Andy could see the stubbornness that had been there a minute ago in Sara’s expression fade. She pulled in a breath, not looking his way, and the giant knot in his chest tightened that much more.
Stay Away From My Daughter Page 3