I snorted. “No, they won’t.”
“Then looks like you better be the one backing me.”
“Why thehellwould I back you? I love my husband.” A sense of belonging like I’d never felt before coursed through me. “I’ll defend him ’til the day I die.”
Jamie smirked wickedly, eyeing my ring as he asked, “Does he know you’re Chet’s whore?”
My throat ran dry. “What?”
“You heard me.” He broadened his stance and crossed his arms. “Does your husband know all about the ways you let Chet touch you as a teen?”
That cold sweat came back. I tried to stop the fidgeting of my fingers, pinning them between my back and the truck I was now using as support. My legs became weightless, and as I leaned deeper into the truck, Jamie chuckled.
“I knew it.” He clapped his hands together. “I fuckingknewthere was somethin’ way off about you. Hearing Chet ramblin’ about a ‘pretty girl’ he used to keep under his roof while he lost every dime—and here you are. In the flesh.”
I pushed off the truck and lunged for him, kicking him right in the balls. He fell to the ground, caught between a fit of laughter and grunts of pain. “You’ll back me if you know what’s good for ya!”
My shaky palms balled at my sides as I stomped over to Car’s truck and got in. The keys in my purse fell from my hands as I pulled them out, making them clatter to the ground.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I pounded on the steering wheel, gripping the faded leather like it could reverse time.
But nothing could do that.
I’d tried, imagined, dreamed—done it all.
Nothing fixed the past.
TEN YEARS AGO
The duffle bag at my feet was quickly filling. Every second that passed, the excitement in my stomach tightened, making nerves jump to the tips of my fingers, shooting all the way down to my sneaker-covered toes.
Tonight was the night I’d finally make it out of here. I’d no longer come back to this shithole. Never have to live under the same roof as the monster that slept a room over from me. Never have to smell his rum and coke breath as he taunted me, or hell, even breathe the same damn air as him, again.
The small clock beside my bed let me know that in thirty minutes, it would all be different. My life would change, for the better. I’d planned to leave before meeting Carver Roland. I’d planned to leave Alliston and start fresh, somewhere far-the-fuck away from these deteriorating walls. But, now that he was coming with me, my future seemed brighter.
Better.
I fell hard for him. So hard that staying in Alliston Springs had crossed my mind more than once. But when he said he’d come, a whole new image for my future opened up.
It became our future. Our lives. The one we’d share—together.
A noise that sounded like an engine roaring snapped me from my dreams that were about to become reality. A smile touched my lips as I dropped the balls of clothes from my hands and ranthrough the front door, expecting to find Carver’s dad’s truck he was supposed to be borrowing.
But the truck rolling up to my house wasn’t Car’s.
I pressed my flattened hand to my forehead, blocking the hazy sunset glistening from the dark blue paint of the truck, yet I still couldn’t see whoever was inside. I dropped my arms, waiting for the truck to roll to a stop.
The boots that hit the ground sent me back a few steps.
“Well, well.” Shutting his truck door, Noah made his way toward me at a leisurely pace, hands digging into his pockets and a smirk twisting his mouth. “Heard you’re leavin’ town?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Leaving with Carver.” It wasn’t a question. His eyes bored into mine, sending me back another step.
“Again—why the hell do you care?”
Noah tsked. “I don’t. Not really.” He stopped a few feet from me, digging his boots into the dirt. His scrutiny moved over my house before falling back on me—too much of me.
