“Why’d you leave?” He said the words into his hands. “Please tell me.”
“No,” Tabitha whispered because she didn’t have a better defense against the question so soon after seeing him again. She didn’t know why she was surprised he would throw it at her. This was Wyatt she was dealing with. “I’m asking you not to press it. Please.”
Wyatt’s jaw locked. She could see the fury glowing in his eyes, something dark and far more formidable than she created in fiction. He stood up with a growl and turned away from her. He ran both his hands through his hair. Then he took a long, cooling breath as if searching for sanity.
“Did someone hurt you? Brett and Vaughn were living over in Mercy at that time, but I know your mama used to have
lots
of people over. Your uncles, their friends, that house was always full of criminals,” he snapped as if he’d lost the battle with himself. “I read the last book. I know it was something. I never believed it was just that fight. You don’t have to tell me what happened. Just give me a name and—”
“Wyatt—”
“Fine.” He threw up his hands and turned from her again. “I’m dropping it.”
“Thank you,” Tabitha whispered, even if she knew this wouldn’t last.
He covered his face with his hand as he stood there, the anger and emotion vibrating off him so strongly Tabitha could almost taste it. Finally, he said, “Why did I leave you that night? So young and stupid. Why did I start that fucking fight? I’d give anything to take it back.”
“Please don’t do this.” Tabitha wiped at her eyes frantically. “I shouldn’t have come back. I knew this was a mistake, and I sure as heck shouldn’t have gotten into your car earlier. We can’t fix this. We’re broken, Wy.”
“No, Tab.” Wyatt jumped forward and grabbed her by both arms so quickly she gasped. He forced her out of the chair. Then he hugged her tightly and rested his chin on the top of her head. “Listen to me, darlin’. You and me, we’re going to work together to make sure coming back wasn’t a mistake. I have no idea how we’re going to do it, but we are, okay? Whatever time we have, we’re going to make the best of it. We both got demons, but we’re going to hide them. We’ll shove them in a closet somewhere until we can get to a point that we can deal with them.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to happen,” Tabitha told him with authority, because she had been going to support groups since she first got to New York and recognized what a complete mess the rape and losing Wyatt had made her. “We could be doing more damage than good by lying to ourselves and trying to make this work. I don’t want it to be impossible for us, but I think—”
“It ain’t impossible,” Wyatt told her with that hard driving confidence he’d obviously never grown out of. “Nothing is impossible, especially if it’s worth fighting for, and you have
always
been worth fighting for. I should’ve fought the first time. I ain’t making that mistake again, and I don’t care how many letters you write me asking me not to.”
God, she wanted to believe it was so easy.
She needed this too. It felt so good to be in his arms again, and she had been so desperately lonely without him. She had forgotten how invincible Wyatt made her feel. He forced her to believe in happily ever afters, even if life had taught her time and again, in painful and traumatizing ways, that it was impossible. She wanted to know how the story was supposed to end, but for Wyatt’s sake she should have told him no and walked away.
Tabitha had doomed them both by agreeing to move into the old Conner house instead.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
November 2012
A strange thing about demons.
Tabitha discovered they
could
hide in closets as long as everyone in the house was willing to keep the door shut. She and Wyatt made a commitment to keep them locked away, and it had worked amazingly well for months now.
Life wasn’t perfect, but it was close.
Her book was coming along nicely.
Jules was so busy with the final days of her pregnancy. She didn’t have much time to worry about them. Of course, that was Wyatt’s version, and Tabitha knew he always lied about those things. He spent Tuesday and Thursday evenings at her house while Romeo taught his karate classes. He usually came back bitching about Jules’s bad attitude since she’d been stuck on bed rest, but that was all Tabitha really knew about it.
Tabitha’s mother had come through her heart surgery well and was back home and recovering. Tabitha had paid a crew to do work on the house, and then she spent one full week cleaning it while her mother was in the hospital. She bought new furniture, and new linens for the beds. The house wasn’t spectacular, but it was clean and a vast improvement over what she’d found the first day back home.
She had learned well from the mistakes of the past and brought Wyatt with her this time because there was no way she was going to risk being alone with Brett. There was a part of her that knew she was delusional for being in that house at all. Her mother didn’t deserve Tabitha’s help any more than Brett did. She had left Tabitha in that hospital, knowing something terrible had happened. She’d chosen to protect Brett instead. There were days Tabitha wondered if her mother second-guessed calling 911 in the first place. At this point, she didn’t really give a fuck what her brother and mother thought about her living in the old Conner house. The whole dang town was talking about it anyway, and she didn’t owe any of them an explanation.
If Tabitha was being honest with herself, she enjoyed the pale-faced look on her brother’s face when she walked into the house with baskets full of fresh towels and Wyatt towering at her back like a dark guardian from Brett’s worst nightmares.
Good, let him sweat about it.
She wasn’t going to tell Wyatt what happened, but Brett didn’t need to know that. She hoped he passed the word on to Vaughn, and they both disappeared into the night. Tabitha might still battle with a lifetime of post-traumatic stress thanks to those two, but she wasn’t twenty-one and naive anymore. She knew how to protect herself, even if that meant Wyatt was stuck cleaning that horrible house with her.
He hadn’t even complained about it. Tabitha suspected Wyatt enjoyed the fear he caused as much as she did. Tabitha was almost sorry Vaughn wasn’t there, but then again, she knew it was a good thing he wasn’t. She wasn’t ready to face him again. Just knowing he was in town somewhere had her holed up in Wyatt’s house when she wasn’t forced to run errands.
Anytime she was out without Wyatt, she broke into a cold sweat. She was constantly looking over her shoulder, and she detested Vaughn for it. If she didn’t love Wyatt as much as she did, she would have told him just to rid herself of the fear.
She hated it.
But today was a good day as she and Wyatt shopped together in the hardware store for some supplies for his house. All that work on her old place had the two of them plotting to fix up his. He didn’t want it modernized; he wanted it restored, and it was a fun project.
“What’d you think of this?” Tabitha held up a sample of wallpaper to him. “It’s ’bout the same yellow as the one you got in the kitchen.”
Wyatt picked it up and studied it. “I guess. Lighter than what we got now.”
“I think it’ll look nice.” Tabitha took it back and held it out. “Terry told me any yellow you buy should be two shades lighter than what you think you want; otherwise you’ll hate it once you get it on the walls.”
“Why?”
Tabitha shrugged. “I dunno, but I reckon he knows what he’s talking ’bout.”
“Yeah, I reckon so,” Wyatt agreed and then turned around with a scowl as if sensing someone staring at him in that cop-like way he had. “Can I help you, Davis?”
Tabitha sucked in a hard breath but refused to turn around.
“What? Is it illegal to be in a hardware store?”
The icy shiver of fear spread from the back of Tabitha’s neck into her limbs. She reached out to the sample book of wallpaper and placed the piece back, looking for something to hide the shake in her hands.
“What you buying there, boy?”
“Nothing,” Vaughn said defensively.
“Yeah, you better put it back.” Wyatt turned to Tabitha, a scowl still on his face. He stepped closer to her and said under his breath, “You know, they use those scrubbing pads to smoke crack. They think I’m stupid, but I ain’t. I know my business. I’m calling Adam when we get back. I want him patrolling round the Davis place. I swear to God, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m gonna make sure that boy dies behind bars. You know he got off on two counts of possession with nothing but time served and parole. Ain’t that some shit?”
“Yeah, it is.” Tabitha nodded.
“I hate that fucker.” Wyatt’s voice was still low in fury. “I ain’t never got over him threatening you like he did. I know it was a long time ago, but still. I think the only reason I do this job is the hopes of catching him red-handed one of these days. I’m glad he saw us together. Scare him a little. Scare him even more when he sees Adam’s patrol car rolling past his house every half an hour.”
“Yeah, it’s good,” Tabitha whispered as she fought the bile rising in the back of his throat. “Is he gone?”
“You okay?” Wyatt leaned in and studied her. “You look like you’re gonna be sick.”
Tabitha swallowed hard. “I ain’t all that fond of him either.”
“Yeah, I bet not.” Wyatt put an arm over her shoulder and pulled her close to him. “Come on, Tabby Cat. Take a deep breath. I got ya.”
Tabitha did as she was told, taking one more deep breath as she whispered, “I know.”
“Let’s get out of here.” He closed the sample book. “We’ll grab a bite at Hal’s.”
“I can cook.”
“I can buy my girl a meal.” Wyatt rubbed her arm and gave her a smile. “You’re always cooking.”
“I’d rather go home. I like seeing Hal, but Clay’s girlfriend works there and—”
“You don’t like Melody?” Wyatt asked in surprise. “Everyone likes her.”
“She’s very sweet,” Tabitha agreed, still feeling dazed. “But I know Clay’s bitter over the drug overdose. I know he has issues with stuff like that. He hasn’t said more than two words to me since I got back and—”
“Hey.” Wyatt cut her off, his eyes wide in shock because Tabitha had accidently opened one of their demon closets while she tried to work on recovering from the horror of hearing Vaughn’s voice again. “Anyone could take extra medication on accident. No one’s holding that against you.”
Tabitha turned to him in surprise, still completely caught up with the horrible anxiety attack. “Is that what she told you that night?”
“Who? The doctor?” Wyatt scowled. “Yeah. Why? Was she lying?”
“You think Clay bought that?” A manic laugh burst out of her. She understood Wyatt was in some sort of massive denial over that night. He would never believe she was capable of taking illegal drugs, but Clay knew her mother wouldn’t have called 911 unless Tabitha was almost dead. “You honestly believe he’s been avoiding me like the plague because he thinks I took too many over-the-counter pills?”
“I actually think he’s avoiding you because he’s watched me hurt for so long over our breakup. Sometimes he’s too loyal for his own good.”
“We should go.” Tabitha pulled out of his arms before Wyatt could argue.
“Tab—”
“I’ll cook,” Tabitha announced as she kept walking to the door, hoping to God Vaughn had already peeled out of the parking lot.
* * * *
Wyatt stretched out on the bed his sister shared with Romeo Wellings—a man who had been one of Wyatt’s least favorite people for a long time. Earlier that year Jules and Romeo had run off and gotten married in secret. Who said God didn’t have a sense of humor?
Wyatt folded his arms over his chest and looked away from the television to dart a glance at Jules. She was propped up next to him, surrounded by pillows, books, and electronics. Romeo had spent a small fortune to keep Jules entertained when the doctors put her on bed rest a month ago.
There were days when Romeo still grated on Wyatt’s last nerve, but he didn’t envy the man for putting up with Jules when she was cranky, bedridden, and uncomfortably huge in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Romeo
had
to love Jules, because she had been unbearable for a while now, and he hadn’t complained once.
“Tabitha and me have been talking ’bout finally changing Dad’s room,” Wyatt started cautiously.
Jules’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t look away from the Bruce Lee movie. “I’ve been asking you to update that house for years, but Tabitha comes along and—”
“We’re not updating. We’re restoring,” he countered, keeping his voice even rather than upset his sister. “I ain’t gonna do it if you don’t want me to. I was just asking what you thought. Your opinion on it matters, Ju Ju.”
“Are you gonna move into Daddy’s old room with her?” Jules still hadn’t looked away from the television.
“No,” Wyatt said defensively. “I ain’t ready for that. I just thought we could get the demons out.”
Yeah, the demons were slowly starting to drive Wyatt crazy. He couldn’t tackle the ones with Tabitha, so he started taking down other ones, and the agony over his father’s death was a big one.
“Have you asked her why she left yet?”
Wyatt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hated that Jules could read him so easily. “No.”
“Wyatt—”
“This is gonna start a fight.” He cut her off. “And Romeo threatened to hurt me if we got into it again. Just forget I asked.”
“You can’t keep on pretending she didn’t hurt you like she did,” Jules went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “You know I’m telling the truth. Why can’t you—”
Jules stopped talking when the heavy footfalls of someone stomping up the stairs echoed into her room.
“For the big mama!” Tino burst in, full of energy as usual as he held up two pints of ice cream triumphantly. “I got chocolate fudge and caramel swirl. Mama gets first choice.” He looked to Wyatt with a grimace. “I don’t buy ice cream for cops. Sorry, Sheriff, you’re shit outta luck.”
Wyatt flipped off Jules’s brother-in-law.
“Chocolate.” Jules took the ice cream and a spoon Tino had obviously grabbed from downstairs when he got home from the gym. “You’ve got to stop doing this. Neither of us can afford to gain any more weight.”