“Stability!” She pounded her fist on the top of the table, her eyes flaring with anger. “No more moving, no more running. If he finds us, then we end this. I’ve given him too much power, and I’ve let you down in the process, Hunter. You deserve a normal life. Angelina is a great girl, and you deserve some happiness after everything that’s happened.”
Happiness. I wasn’t sure I remembered what that was anymore. Well I did. Lina had shown me some since I’d met her. But it wouldn’t last. I’d ruin it, or Dad would. “It’s not that easy.”
“It can be.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her back pocket and offered it to me. “Jenna will help.”
I stared at her outstretched hand, my gut churning. The ever-familiar heat of anger simmering turned over in my stomach. “You didnottell Lina what happened. Mom, you—”
“I didn’t, but I got Jenna’s information for you to use to get back to work. Bill’s not going to bend on this, and you love your job, so either call Jenna or call someone. Get that anger under control so you can be with Angelina.” A tear popped from the far corner of her eye and trekked down her cheek. “I can’t lose you, Hunter. Not to that poisonous anger. Not after what happened with Isabelle.”
I gulped. And that’s when it hit me. “Dad resurfaced, didn’t he?” My heart hammered my ribs, and blood pounded through my head like a raging river. “He hurt someone.”
More tears fell. I hated it when Mom cried; when women cried in general. It broke me. Shattered my barriers.
“Mom?”
She nodded. “He caught our trail in Flake, it seems. My old…boss, Terry—” She swiped her finger beneath her eye, but it didn’t clear the now streaming tears. “He…didn’t make it.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I tossed my plate onto the table. Flake was the last town we’d been in nearly a year ago. If he tracked us there…
“He’s not coming this direction. Marshal’s on it.”
“Please. He hasn’t gotten anywhere with capturing Dad in all these years, Mom. How the hell is this any different than the other times?”
“It’s different because we’ve found a home! You’re going to finish college and walk-through ceremonies. We have a home. You found Angelina.”
I shook my head. “She deserves better than me, Mom.”
“Thenbebetter. Look at all that she’s accomplished these past months. You’ve helped her achieve that. You know what to do.”
“Easier to do that for someone else than yourself. I refuse to drag her into this. No matter how badly I want to be with her.” I jammed my hands through my hair. “Dad’s left a trail of bodies. Anyone he views as in his way to get to you ends up dead, or missing or…Shit, Mom. I have to stay away from Lina. If Dad hurts her—”
“She’s strong. She might not look it, but she is.”
“The strongest…besides you.” I sat back down at the table. Mom had a point. If I wanted Lina more than anything I’ve ever wanted, why the hell wasn’t I trying to be better for her? Why wasn’t I doing everything in my power to protect her and be with her?
Because every time I’d tried to do something for me or Mom, Dad had ruined it somehow. Or I had.
I wasn’t even sure if I knew how to function without Dad on my mind or the worry of him jumping out of nowhere.
“What brought this on, Mom?”
“Angelina.” She smiled as she brushed the tears off her face and hitched her hip against the table. “After what she’s been through and how she’s doing now…it inspired me. We can get through this thing with your father. It ends here.”
“She told you, didn’t she?”
Mom nodded. “It’s a precious thing to have her trust me with her secret. You can have it, too, Hunter. If you want it.”
“I’ll ruin it.”I’ll ruin her.
“You will if you think like that.” Mom rubbed my hand. “But I know you, boy. You have a heart bigger than your biceps and thighs put together. That’ll win.”
I wasn’t so sure. After what I’d done to Issie…that’d ruined me forever. And when Lina found out, she’d walk away from me, I knew it. Mom didn’t, but I did. There was no way Lina, after having suffered at the hands of men, would stay with me once she found out that the very hands she’d held so tightly had killed a woman.
“You know when I say it’s a precious thing to trust someone with a secret that’s so deep…it goes both ways.” Mom smiled and sat back down in her chair to finish her meal.
Both of my hands shook like I was a nervous wreck. I wasn’t sure I could handle Lina’s rejection, though.
But if I didn’t tell her, I would lose her…and possibly my sanity.