She needed someone to take her out of her head for a while, and that was his new favorite occupation.
He also needed to let her know that this wasn’t just sex for him. He wanted to take care of her.
“He asked if his wife was with Lila,” Roxie explained. “You have to know that neither I nor Major would ever have told him a thing.”
“He’s not an idiot. I went out there right after Carrie saw Lila the first time. This has apparently been going on for years. Carrie comes in, tells Doc it was an accident, and nothing happened. She sees Lila once and we were on his doorstep. Did he threaten her in any way?”
“No. He asked if Lila had taken care of her. He’s a careful little shit,” Roxie said with her usual candor. “If he’d said anything even indirectly, I would have called you immediately because he’s got a brother and I wouldn’t put it past them to work together.”
“According to Carrie the brother never touched her.” He’d had a long discussion with Carrie while Lila had been on the phone to the shelter. He’d documented years of abuse, and the guilt sat in his gut. “The mother never physically abused her and I can’t put people in jail for being assholes.” God, he wished he could. “Call me if anything else happens. And treat Bobby Petrie like gold. I’m not joking. I don’t want anything sketchy about this arrest.”
“Got it. And, boss, this isn’t on you.”
“I’ve been the sheriff here for years.”
“And she was good at hiding it,” Roxie replied. “Doc was good at pretending it didn’t exist. He should have told you. You have a big jurisdiction. You can’t patrol every inch of it every day. Believe me, I know. You did good today, and tell your girlfriend that she rocks. I’ll hold the fort down here. You relax.”
He glanced at the bathroom door. It was slightly open and steam poured out. “I’ll try to do that. I’ll be back tomorrow before his arraignment. Be careful and keep your eyes open.”
“Will do.”
He hung up and stepped back into the room. They’d stopped at a convenience store and grabbed a few things they would need, but he hadn’t thought about the fact that she didn’t have clothes for tomorrow. Not that she would need them tonight.
She was inside the gorgeous stone-and-glass shower. His eyes caught on her graceful body, but there was a weariness to the way she held herself that kicked him in the gut. She was feeling every minute of the day.
He tugged his shirt over his head and ditched the rest of his clothes. He kept thinking about how much she needed him, but it was all a cover. He needed her. He thought about her all the time, his life utterly revolving around her moods and desires. If she smiled at him, he was happy. If she was sad, he had to try to fix it. There was no fixing what was bothering her now, but he could help her forget for a while.
He stepped into the shower. “You know you did good today.”
Her eyes came open and she glanced his way. “I hope so. I don’t know. The truth is she could be right back in his home in a couple of weeks. I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen it all, the same women coming through time and time again and having the very men who put them in the ER pick them up. It was different in the ER. I didn’t get to know anyone. I wasn’t completely responsible, if you know what I mean.”
He stepped in behind her and picked up the soap, building up a rich lather in his hands. “I know exactly what you mean. I used to be responsible for any number of cases. But it was easy to distance in the city. I know every one of these people. Maybe not as well as I should, as today proved, but I know them. They’re not names on a file I can’t quite recall. They’re the people I grew up around. Carrie’s mom was friends with mine. They used to bring by a tray of Christmas cookies every year. She was younger than I was, but I can remember her standing next to her momma and delivering treats. How did I not see she was hurting?”
He put his hands on her shoulders and started to wash her skin. She sighed and let her head drop forward. “That’s not your job. It’s mine. You can’t do a thing if she won’t talk to you. You can’t force her to tell you the truth. From what I can tell they purposefully isolated her.”
“Well, I’m going to check on the people who live on those islands more often,” he promised. “I’ll try to make it so it’s a friendly thing, but I need to make sure nothing’s going on out there.”