I grabbed my I.D. and hurried down the hall. I felt as if I hadn’t taken a full breath since Walker’s call twenty minutes ago. I would’ve been here in ten, but I had to wait for Kennedy and Cain to get to the house to watch Justin and Lyla. I counted the doors as I walked, not bothering to knock on the one that readChief Cole. I pushed it open.
“Mason,” Walker greeted.
I didn’t bother looking at him. I moved straight to Anna, framing her face in my hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. He just surprised me, is all.”
But I felt the slight tremor in her hands as they wrapped around my wrists. It was more than that, and that knowledge had my gut tightening. I pressed a kiss to Anna’s head and breathed in the scent that was only hers, a mixture of her shampoo and whatever flowed from her skin.
When I’d done my best to assure myself as much, I straightened, easing into the seat next to her and taking her hand in mine. I wove our fingers together, needing that point of contact. I would’ve pulled her into my lap if I could’ve. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”
Walker leaned back in his chair, his gaze settling on our interlocked hands. “Derek Raymond is apparently in town to testify.”
I glanced at Anna. “Keisha didn’t say anything about that.”
“She didn’t know. Paisley hasn’t listed him as a witness yet.”
“What did he say to you?”
Anna’s gaze shifted away. “Just talked about some stuff from the past.”
Walker rested his hands on his desk. “You need to fill Mason in. On everything.”
Her head snapped in his direction. “How do you know?”
“I’m a cop. As soon as this whole thing began, I did my research. I didn’t want to push if I didn’t have to. The situation has changed. Raymond’s here. The people in your circle need to know everything so they can be prepared.”
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” I growled.
Anna tugged her hand out of mine. She toyed with a string on her denim shorts. “Derek tried to get back together with me after I got out of juvie. He wanted me to move in with him. Kept showing up at the coffee shop I worked at, would wait across the street from the shelter where I was living in Portland.”
“What did you tell him?” I hated the idea that she might’ve considered it. He’d been her first love. All she ever knew.
“I told him I wanted nothing to do with him. But he didn’t give up.” She took one string and wove it with another. “He did everything to isolate me. Made calls to the coffee shop to say I was stealing. A report that I had been rude to a customer. Even though the manager believed me, the owner didn’t want to deal with the hassle, so they fired me.”
“Asshole,” I muttered underneath my breath.
“He made several calls to the shelter where I was staying, saying that I was bringing drugs into the facility. They kept searching my room. They didn’t find anything, so they didn’t kick me out, but I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“What did you do?” I couldn’t imagine how terrified Anna must have been. She had only been eighteen years old and completely alone in the world. Which was what Derek had been counting on. That, eventually, she’d be forced to come back to him.
“I spilled my guts to Detective Markum. He was the one who questioned me when I was arrested. He did his best to get the district attorney to charge Derek and not me, but he didn’t have any luck. I was pissed at him for a long time, but he kept coming to visit me in juvie.”
A tear rolled down Anna’s cheek, and she quickly brushed it away. “He was the one to pick me up the day I was released. Found me a good shelter to stay at. Helped me get that job. I told him everything, and he knew I had to get out of Portland. Another detective friend of his had sent a woman to Hope House. She was hiding out while she brought charges against her abusive husband. That was how he knew about Sutter Lake.
“He drove me all the way out here, three hours. Bought me the basics I needed. Hid all traces of where I would be. And it worked. Derek never popped up once.” She let out a bitter laugh. “He never was one to put in an effort when things got challenging. I figured he’d moved on.”
“But now you’re not so sure.” My fingers curled around the arm of my chair, knuckles bleaching white.
“He wasn’t happy that she was married,” Walker offered.
“It’s not that simple,” Anna cut in. “It’s ego more than anything. He was always the only safe place I had—or that’s what I thought, anyway.”
“He won’t like that you made a safe place on your own,” I surmised.
She nodded. “Hope House was everything I needed to get my sea legs again. And I wasn’t worried about running into Derek or my family. I started to breathe. I would go on these long walks in the woods behind the center. For hours. And for the first time, I didn’t hear all of the voices saying ugly things about me. I started hearing my voice again. I started believing that I might have a purpose in this life, after all.”
I moved my chair closer, my hand slipping under Anna’s hair at the back of her neck. “You do have a purpose. I’ve seen it time and again. In the way you reach any resident from the grumpiest hardened men, to women scarred by trauma, to terrified kids. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
