I laid a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “I’m fine. Promise.”
Ian sneered at the action. “Just how many men are you spreading your legs for, Evie? There’s the cop who won’t get off my case thanks to you, this joker, and given the way Ben jumped to your defense, I’d guess him, too. I shouldn’t be surprised you turned into a slut. Mom would be ashamed.”
The room around us went deathly silent. That heat I couldn’t find earlier rose to my cheeks now. The shame that this was who I shared blood with, that my brother would speak to me this way. But I didn’t duck my head or hunch my shoulders. I wouldn’t let Ian see that making a scene at my workplace was a direct hit to everything I was building here. “Leave.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
Tim took a step forward. “This is a private business, and we have the right to refuse service to anyone. We’re doing that now. Leave, or we’ll call the sheriff’s department.”
“I already have,” Kelly said from behind the counter. “Deputies are on the way.”
Ian spat on the floor. “Your little lap dog coming in handy yet again. Hope you’re sucking his dick good. I’m gonna sue both of you for harassment.”
The heat in my cheeks burned, but it wasn’t just there. It was in my blood, too. The shared blood that flowed through my veins. “You’re the one who showed up here. Somehow, I don’t think that makes for a very strong case.”
Sirens sounded, and Ian’s eyes flashed. “I should’ve killed you that night. Finished you off instead of settling for broken bones.”
And with that, he turned on his heel and jogged off. My ears buzzed. Kind of how a fluorescent light sounded, only amplified. I was only partly aware of Tim ushering me over to a seat in the waiting room and easing me down into it. I thought he might’ve asked something, but my brain couldn’t seem to comprehend the words.
I could feel the burn in my scalp. The crack of my ribs. I could taste the blood filling my mouth. All of it. And he wanted to hurt me more.
Hands gripped my calves, and I blinked as the face in front of me came into focus. Hayes. Somewhere in my jum
bled mind, I put together that those dark eyes and the sharp, angular jaw belonged to Hayes.
“He wishes he’d killed me.” My voice broke on the words, but the tears didn’t come. I was simply empty. Too many tears cried over the brother who was supposed to love me. The family who had never stepped up for me when I needed them.
For some naïve reason, I’d thought my brother could have outgrown this hatred. That he would never be a fan of mine but wouldn’t wish me ill, either. That he might be mad that Mom had left the property to me but would get over it. That he would’ve grown up. Matured. But he hadn’t gotten over anything.
Hayes’ jaw ticked as he framed my face with those rough hands. Hands I was beginning to know by touch alone. The pads of his fingertips. The raised scar on his palm. “I’m so sorry, Ev. I had to send a deputy out to talk to him and Allen since we’ve had a few run-ins lately. It’s just procedure.”
“I know.” This was why Hayes and I would never be. Because my family would destroy it. Just like they ate away at any other good thing in my life. I’d been so stupid to think that all I had to do was face them again to put this haunting anger to rest. They’d never be done with me.
I blinked around the room, a worried Kelly and Tim filling Miles in on what’d happened. I loved working here. And I truly believed I could create a sanctuary at home that was so needed in our community. But maybe I’d have to give that up, too.
“I don’t like where your head’s at right now.”
I focused back on Hayes. “It’s not anywhere.”
“Bullshit.” His thumbs sweeping back and forth across my cheeks took away some of the sting of the word. “You’re thinking about running. Don’t.”
I clamped my mouth closed. How was it that in a matter of months, Hayes could read my mind and decipher my tells better than anyone ever had before?
“You run, I’ll chase you.”
“I shouldn’t have come back,” I whispered. “I knew they wouldn’t be happy to see me, but I thought…sixteen years. That’s more than enough time to take away some of the sting. Figured they’d have moved on, and I could do what I needed to.”
“They don’t get to stop you from finding your peace.”
“What peace?” I waved my hand around the waiting room, now teeming with officers. “There is none.”
He gripped my face more firmly, making me meet his gaze. “You have to fight for it.”
I let my head tip forward to rest on his. “I’m too tired to fight.”
“Then you rest for a little while and pick up the sword again when you’re ready. There are other people who can hold it for you in the meantime.”
Other people, who would quickly grow tired of its heavy weight. And then they would walk away, too.