Dread pooled in his gut and he pressed his lips together to hold back the string of curses he wanted to let loose.
She looked at the chair. “The accident that did this to me wasn’t an accident.”
Evan shook his head.No way.
She nodded. “I was going to leave him. But you don’t leave a man like Turner Carson. I thought I was so blessed when I met this charming handsome man. I won’t tell you I wasn’t taken in by the money because who wouldn’t be swept off their feet by a man who could take you on a vacation or buy you a car on a whim. But for me, it was so much more. He was a widower and he seemed so broken by the loss of his wife.
“She killed herself, you see.” She looked at him. “I’ve sometimes wondered at that. If she really did or if… Well, anyway. We were happy for a time, but he started to let me see the real him after the wedding. He didn’t hit me, didn’t beat me. But he was abusive. Controlling. Manipulating.”
She was looking back out the window now and he wondered if she was watching for the sight of this man who’d tormented her to return or if she was looking out at the freedom she’d enjoyed for these last two years knowing it was all going to come to an end.
“By the time I got up the nerve to leave him, I was completely isolated. I had no friends, my daughter hardly visited me. I felt completely alone. I knew the whole town thought he was a prince but I never thought the lawyer I went to see would tell him I was planning to leave him.”
Evan didn’t speak for fear of stopping her. He was calculating in his head how much time they might have before Turner Carson got there. He didn’t know how close the man was.
“If I wasn’t going to be with him, I wasn’t going to be anywhere,” she said, her words holding the haunted quality of someone reliving a nightmare. “He reached over and unclipped my seatbelt as he slammed the car into a tree.”
“Jesus,” Evan whispered, sorry he hadn’t been able to hold back the word.
She nodded, though she didn’t look at him. “He was injured, of course, which made it all the more difficult for anyone to believe he could have tried to hurt me. He needed some stitches and had a broken wrist, but he was there by my side the whole time I was in the coma, waiting like the dutiful husband to nurse me back to health.
“I told a doctor but Turner convinced him I was delirious. Later he told me he hadn’t killed me in that hospital room because he decided he would make damned sure I never left him. If that meant crippling me, so be it. I was supposed to go to physical therapy but he’d cancel sessions most of the time saying I was too depressed to go. He took me to just enough appointments to keep the doctors from getting suspicious.
“If my daughter hadn’t come and gotten me out of there, I don’t know…” She didn’t finish as her voice broke and he could see tears wetting her cheeks.
“Ma’am,” Evan said, sitting forward. “Will you let me get you out of here? I’ve got my car outside. It’s not too late for us to leave. I’ll get us to a hotel and then we can figure out a plan from there.”
Now she turned to him, shock on her face. “But my husband hired you.”
Evan hated that the people this woman had reached out to in the past hadn’t tried to help her, had betrayed her in the worst ways. “That doesn’t matter.”
It did. He needed the money. His wife and daughter needed the money. But not at this woman’s expense. He went on. “I’ll worry about that later. I took a job to locate a woman who had some old watches her husband wanted back. I didn’t take a job to find someone so her husband could continue to abuse her. Or worse.”
She hesitated, searching his gaze for long moments before nodding.
He stood. “I’d like to say we can pack you a bag but your husband was in the state the last time I talked to him and I don’t know how far he might be. I think we should take your purse and go. We can worry about clothes and things later.”
Hell, this woman needed round the clock care. There was a lot more to worry about here than clothes, but right now, he needed to get her away from here so her husband didn’t get his hands on her.
She nodded. “My purse is there on the counter. There is a tray of medicines next to the refrigerator. Can you put those in them, please?”
He hurried to do as she asked, not worrying about whether the bottles were tucked neatly into the bag.
He didn’t carry a weapon on the job. He wasn’t really that kind of PI. The jobs he took weren’t normally the kind of thing that would land him in trouble like this.
Hell, that just wasn’t him. He was overweight and out of shape.
They were moving back down the hall in minutes and he was glad of it. He would feel a whole hell of a lot better if they were away from the home. Then they could see about talking to the police for some help.
He paused by the front desk.
“Jessica,” Mrs. Carson said, “I need to go see my daughter. She’s been in an accident and I need to go see her.”
The woman’s features pinched. “Your daughter. I didn’t think she lived in the area.”
“She doesn’t,” Evan said. “But she was on her way here when the accident happened. She’s been taken to a hospital an hour away. She sent me to bring her mother to her.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope she’s okay, Mrs. Lawson.”