Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,71

mean you’re to blame.”

“You don’t get it. I figured him out. After a while, I stopped waiting for his attack. I’d let him bitch, watch his rage grow, and then before he could turn on her, I’d provoke him. I’d divert his attention, let him take it out on me.”

“You were a kid.”

“Fourteen is not a kid. I knew what I was doing.”

“Fourteen is young.”

“Is Fifteen? Sixteen? Seventeen? I made it my job to take him on. To turn him away from her.”

“But that never should’ve been your job.’

He laughed, sardonically. “It became my job, Taryn. For a few years, I’d make sure I was home every day at the same time, just in case it was one of those days.

I stared out the window, at the trees whipping past. He was driving aggressively. Angry. like the shadow of his father was following him everywhere he went.

“How often were those days?”

He reached down, shifting hard. “Sometimes he’d have a few in a row. Sometimes a month would pass and it would be fine. I’m not sure which was worse. That anticipation made it impossible to relax.”

“When did it change?”

“What?”

“I remember you coming around a lot. After you got your license and you and Matt would hang out all night. You must’ve decided to stay away from him at some point, because it was like you never went home again. Sometimes my mom did your laundry so you wouldn’t have to go home before school on Monday.”

He hit the blinker, turning away from the road that should take us to his house. “When I was seventeen, my mom broke her collarbone. I’d been in a fight at school and had detention. I didn’t make it home in time, and he attacked her. So I gave her an ultimatum. I told her I couldn’t do it anymore. That she needed to leave him. And she wouldn’t do it.”

I stared at the window, the despair in his voice washing over me.

“She chose him over me,” Landon explained. “So I stayed away. What you can’t see doesn’t hurt you, right? I ignored it all, and I got into partying with Matt. I did everything I could to pretend I didn’t know what was happening at home, because I was tired of being his punching bag, and the only person who could change it was her. And she refused to do it.”

“And then you left town.”

He nodded. “It was like the perfect storm, that morning I left your bed. Matt called me a loser, said I wasn’t worthy of you, and then I go home and the house looks like shit and there’s broken glass everywhere from their latest fight, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I packed a bag, wrote my mom a note, and then left. I drove away with nothing, but I knew that if I stayed in that house one more day, I was going to turn into the deadbeat loser that my father was. The one that Matt believed me to be. I drove away determined to make something of myself.”

“And you did.”

“And now I’m back in this town listening to people talk about that asshole like he was a good guy. He was the farthest thing from that.”

“It doesn’t matter what they think. He’s dead now, and you know the truth.”

“Sure, except I’m here and they think I caused the problems.”

“They’ll realize you’re not who they thought you were, as long as you give them a chance to see it for themselves.”

He nodded, determination burning in his eyes. “Maybe so.”

“Definitely so,” I replied.

He flipped the blinker on. “I need to stop by the office and pick up some work to do at home,” he said. “Do you mind?”

“Sure. That’s fine.

His center was just down the street from the funeral home, so we arrived there in only minutes. “Why don’t you grab some coffee or something from the cafeteria? I’ll only be a minute.”

“Sounds good,” I said, following him inside. I could use some caffeine to propel me into a different headspace. The wake had been tough, emotionally.

We were only steps inside the door before a man approached, his strides gobbling up the distance between us. His greying hair and crisp suit would’ve looked refined, intimidating anyway, but he was sweating and darting nervous glances over his shoulder. “Can I speak with you?”

“Hey, Stewart,” Landon said, furrowing his brow. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Landon,” a sunny voice called. “The lighting in these offices is atrocious. Who picked it out?”

I froze when