played. I heard a scream. We rushed back to the jungle gym, and Jill was lying beneath the monkey bars, screaming and crying. Her arm was so badly broken, the bone had pierced the skin.”
Shay swallowed hard as if she saw the scene right in front of her. “An ambulance came, and when they asked her what’d happened, she said that Michael had stepped on her fingers and she’d lost her grip. He insisted that it was an accident and started to cry. But when they loaded her into the ambulance, I looked at him, and he was smiling. On the way home, he said, ‘I guess she won’t be playing with us anymore.’”
I pulled Shay closer to me. I couldn’t imagine trying to wrap your head around that as a child. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s not the half of it. One friend I made, who was terrified of snakes, found one in her locker at school. Another had her bike smashed with a bat. At some point, I just stopped trying. It was easier that way.”
“But you were alone.” I wanted to erase it all. Every painful moment. I wanted to paint over her past so there was no more hurt or loneliness. But I couldn’t. And as much as I wanted to, those experiences made Shay who she was today. And that was a woman I was falling in love with. So, how could I wish her away?
“I was. But I got used to it. And once it becomes your normal, it’s really hard to break.” She tipped her head back so her gaze met mine. “It’s not always that I even want to push people away. It’s just habit. But with you…I’m scared. If anything happened to you. If Michael hurt you—”
“He won’t.” I pressed my lips to hers. “He doesn’t know where you are. He has no clue who I am. We’re safe here.” Or as safe as we could be when there’d been a murder just ten minutes away. But I wasn’t about to let my worries and fears fuel Shay’s.
“I just want you to understand why it’s hard for me. I’ve never been able to have this before. For a million different reasons. And it’s hard for me to trust that I’ll be able to have it now.”
My fingers tangled in Shay’s hair, tipping her head back. “You’re going to have it all. Everything you want. A big, beautiful life full of friends and music.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I knew I was right because I planned to make it so. I studied her face before I spoke. “Don’t be mad…”
Shay grimaced. “Just the sentence every woman wants to hear.”
I chuckled. “I hired a P.I. to do some digging into Michael.”
Shay sat up, the sheets pooling around her waist. “You did what?”
I pushed myself into a sitting position. “I hired a private investigator. Someone who has done some incredibly sensitive work for Carson. I trust him implicitly. And I’m having him look into Michael. Keep an eye on things.”
“You should’ve asked me first. This could lead him straight to you if he figures out someone’s watching him.”
I took Shay’s hand in mine, tracing circles on her palm with my finger. “I probably should’ve. But you were so locked up. I didn’t want to push, and I needed to know you were safe. That Michael was where he was supposed to be.”
“Is he? Where he’s supposed to be, I mean?”
“Dante ran surveillance last week. So far, everything adds up, but he had to leave for another job. I’m going to get him to do a deeper dive when he’s finished.”
“Brody,” Shay cut in.
I squeezed her hand. “I need it. I’ll have him check out Michael, and then I’m going to have him look into things on Anchor.”
Concern filled Shay’s expression. “You’re worried this person is going to kill again.”
My jaw worked back and forth. We hadn’t learned much about the murder that had taken place a few weeks ago, but the man that was killed didn’t have a shortage of enemies. Parker had filled us in that he was an avid gambler and a heavy drinker. He owed a fair number of people significant money. Parker’s working theory was that someone who wanted to kill the man had seen news coverage of my case back east and used it to cover up a revenge killing.
It was a fair theory, but something still had me on edge. Maybe it was simply because I’d been down this road before, and