turned on its fuckin’ head. We’re workin’ to get her back to happy, so she can forget her good-for-nothin’ mama. But you bein’ here does nothin’ but dredge all that up.”
I shake my head and look back to the woods—alive with birds, bugs, and who knows what else. My palms bead with sweat that has nothing to do with the heat and humidity heavy in the air. If I could, I’d damn myself to hell for my own weakness. Dress me up as a cocktail waitress and throw me into a room full of terrorists—I will find their leader and have him tipping me in the process. But anything to do with Cole Carson and my nerves are a shoddy mess.
I focus on the forest as I keep speaking the truth to the man who just put me in my place. “You won’t have to worry about me. I plan to leave as soon as I can. You have my word.”
“Good,” he belts and smacks the chipped siding next to the front door. But he adds one last zinger before allowing the rickety screen door to smack him in the arse, finally ending the berating he’s so soundly handed me. “If only my son would fall in line, we could forget this ever happened.”
My phone vibrates again.
Cole – Bella, don’t go silent on me.
I’m exhausted from the heat, the pain pills, and I swear, I still have an anesthesia hangover. It also seems nothing can take it out of me like Red Carson. All I want to do is go back to bed and pray I wake up in the humble home I’ve created in Pakistan.
Instead, I pull myself to my feet, determined to make one more lap around Cole’s property. I need my strength and I’m not going to build it wasting away in bed.
But, first, unlike the truths I told his father, I lie to the man who will probably haunt my heart for the rest of my days.
Me – I’m good. Going to catch a quick nap. I’m knackered.
I step down onto the forest floor and put my hand to my belly over my nasty scar. It doesn’t hold a candle to another one that’s proving to get uglier and deeper by the day.
Chapter 9
The Ghost
Cole
I pull the covers up and tuck her in. “Night, baby.”
Abbott grabs my T-shirt and her words come out in a rush. “Don’t leave.”
“It’s late and Grandpa said you got up early this morning.”
I’ve been home from work for two hours and she’s been glued to my side the whole time. Not that she isn’t usually when I’m home. It was worse in the beginning when Tabitha was newly out of the picture. I did everything I could to make sure my daughter knew I’d never leave her—that she’d always have one parent who cared about her more than anything else because she never got it from her mother.
“Sleep with me.” Her little hand grips tighter. Like I usually do when she wants something, I give it to her. It’s easy. Abbott only ever wants my time and attention. I’m sure it will change someday when she’s a teenager and she’ll want all the shit I know nothing about but, for now, when she wants me, I’ll be here. She deserves it.
“I’ll stay ‘til you fall asleep.”
“No, don’t leave, even after I go to sleep.”
I settle in beside her as she wiggles out of the covers and practically crawls under my skin. I put my lips to the top of her head where her hair is still drying from her bath. “You know I have to go to work before the sun comes up.”
“Will you come with Grandpa and me tomorrow to get my cat?”
I shake my head. “I’ll try to be home early but work is busy right now.”
“I don’t want you to go to work. I want you to help pick out my cat.”
“Baby, you know I have to go to work. Someone’s got to pay the bills. And, apparently, buy cat food.”
She looks up and I see the purest smile I’ve seen on her face in days. “And cat toys!”
I smirk. “You think the cat will need some toys? I thought it was going to catch mice.”
Her little face scrunches up. “Ew. I decided I don’t want my cat to catch mice. I want it to be inside with me.”
I tap her nose with the end of my finger. “So basically this cat isn’t going to be pulling his