“We’ve got you a room in the dorms. It’s ready and waiting with some of your things in it.” I paused, debating whether to tell her the rest. I didn’t want to keep secrets from her. She’d been sheltered her entire life, but now wasn’t the time to leave anything out. “But if he doesn’t get sent down”—I swallowed—“you’ll have to go into witness protection.”
“Witness protection?” She gasped and held my hand tighter. “As in…I won’t see any of my family ever again?”
“Only until he’s dealt with. It won’t be long.”
She let her head drop and placed her hand over her face. “I can’t believe this. All because I came to the club that night. It’s all my fault—”
“No.” I let go of her hand and pushed off my chair. “It’s not your fault, Belle.” I crouched down beside her and held her face in my hands. “Listen to me, sweetheart.” Her gaze met mine, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “This is not your fault. You didn’t ask for any of this to happen.”
“But—”
“No buts,” I interrupted. “You didn’t know what was going to happen. I had no idea the danger Stella and Justin were also in. If I had…” I paused and closed my eyes. Hindsight was a thing of beauty. You could see all the mistakes you made, but the horror of it was that you couldn’t change a single thing. “All that matters is what happens now. We have a plan in place. All we need to do is wait.”
She bit down on her bottom lip, and I knew she was trying to keep her emotions at bay. She’d cried every n
ight since we’d found Stella and Justin, and I’d held her tight, promising not to let go. But the reality was that after today, I’d have to let go completely. It didn’t matter whether Garza was sent down or not, because I couldn’t be by her side. I was making things worse. I was creating a bigger target on her back, and I refused to see her suffer because of it.
Every part of me wanted to tell her that, but as I stared at the agony on her face, I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to cause any more pain, so I pulled her to me and held her.
“It’ll be okay, Baby Belle. I promise. It’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t sure how long we were in that position at the kitchen table, both of us full of words neither could voice. The only sounds in the house were the ticking of a clock and Lottie as she trotted in and out of each room. But we stayed deathly still, afraid to move and break the bubble we were in.
The ringing of my cell blasted through the house like a bomb had exploded, and I yanked away from Belle and pulled it out of my pocket. Brody’s name flashed on the screen, so I turned it around so Belle could see it too.
“This is it?” she asked.
“This is it,” I confirmed. I pulled in a breath and hit the answer call button, then placed it next to my ear. “Brody,” I greeted.
“Fifty-five years with chance for parole after thirty,” Brody grunted, not skirting around the issue. Fifty-five years seemed like a long time, and Garza would probably be dead by then, but if he got parole, he’d be an old man by the time he got out. A really old man. I stared at Belle, and she stared right back with hope in her eyes.
“Has Belle decided what she’d going to do?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I stepped toward Belle. “She’s going back to college to finish the year out.”
Brody groaned. “I thought she would.” A beat of silence consumed us, and then he continued, “Take her there. Stay the night to make sure she’s okay, and then come home tomorrow. We need to debrief and work out our next move.” I wanted to tell him I didn’t want to come home, but I couldn’t. It had been over a year since I’d last slept in my own bed.
“Okay.” I lingered on the line, not sure what else to say. “I’ll speak to you later.” I ended the call and stared at Belle. “He got fifty-five years.”
Her eyes glazed over. “So, I can go back to campus?” She sounded sad that she had to go back, and I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, but I knew deep down she just wanted to finish this year and get it done with.
“You can go back.”
She blew out a big breath and then stood. “Now?”
“We can wait a little—”
“No.” She shook her head. “We need to go now, or I’ll never want to go back.”
“Okay.” I stepped toward her as she stood, hesitating. Did she want me to comfort her? Or did she want to be left alone to try and work through everything? I wasn’t sure which step to take, so instead, I just watched her as she spun around and headed up the stairs.
I was still in the same position when she came back down with a small bag of her things. “Let’s go,” she demanded.
I opened my mouth to say… I had no idea what to say. She was pushing everything aside and barreling forward. Whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen, but at least she wasn’t curled up on the bed any longer.
She waited at the front door with Lottie beside her, an old habit she’d gotten into. But I didn’t tell her that or point it out. Instead, I opened the door, checked outside, and then gave her the signal.
* * *