Page 3 of Broken Halo
His words hit me like a Mack truck going eighty around a bend.
“Where is she?”
“Juilliard honored her admission. She left with Jen this morning—wouldn’t let her mama or me take her. She made her statement to the police, then barely said goodbye.”
My eyes fall and all I see is her in that hospital bed, wrecked and shattered in a way that had not one thing to do with a broken rib or mar on her porcelain skin. It was the last time I could get to her because her family fucking cut me out.
“I won’t allow a Barrett to ruin our lives.” He moves away from the open front door but I can’t bring my feet to follow him. I’m numb and angry and empty. Before I know it, he’s back and shoving a slip of paper against my chest. “Take it. Take it and stay the hell away from my family. I never want to see your face again.”
I’m forced to look down at the paper. A check. For one hundred thousand dollars.
“I don’t give a shit what you do with it but stay away from my daughter.”
I take in all the zeros put together next to my name. It’s more than I could contemplate in a lifetime.
When I look back to the man I’ve just lost all respect for, I hold the check up between us. “Is this all she’s worth to you?”
“Take it,” he spits. “Go to school. Start a new life. I don’t care what you do as long as it’s far away from here. She doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
“I love her.”
He ignores me. “Get the hell off my property.”
“I love her, Kipp.”
“You come close to my daughter again, I’ll come after you and this time I won’t let Ellie or Jen stop me.”
I don’t even think twice. I rip his ugly bribe in two and then rip it again. When the pieces fall at his pretentious feet, his face reddens. “I might have Barrett blood running in my veins but I will not be bought. I’m not that kind of man. And I’ll say it a third time—I love her. I did everything I could to stand by her—all the other shit is not my fault.”
“The police are lookin’ for you and you’d best cooperate. Do us all a favor,” his voice turns rough, “leave her be. She’s been through enough.”
That’s the first thing he’s said that I agree with.
She’s been through more than anyone should experience in a lifetime.
But I don’t get a chance to fight for Ellie or agree she deserves better.
Kipp slams the door in my face and, with that, I’ve lost. And it has nothing to do with what the police want to question me about.
Yeah, I’ve lost everything.
* * *
Four months ago
I almost lost her today.
For the second time.
Not that she was mine to lose this time. She wasn’t. She married that motherfucking shithead who almost killed her tonight.
I can’t believe I’m here. I don’t even recognize myself. I’ve hated her for so long, I’ve forgotten what it was like to love her.
It’s two in the morning and I’m sitting outside her mansion of a house situated in this absurd gated community. I was able to slip through security behind another car with no problem and the guard waved at me like I belong here. I guess no one questions a Benz.
Good thing I didn’t drive my truck. In this neighborhood, they’d send SWAT after me in the rusted-out beast I still prefer over this G Class.
Jen’s Rover is here which means her special agent lover is probably here, too. Ellie’s not alone, even though, from the outside, she looks like it.
