Heat crept up the back of my neck. “She doesn’t need warm and welcoming. She needs to go back to wherever she came from.”
Dad set his barbeque tongs down with a clang and turned around to face me dead-on. “That girl saved your sister’s life. A couple more days and she could’ve died of dehydration. She risked everything for someone she didn’t even know.”
“Her father kidnapped Shiloh!” I couldn’t believe my parents were taking this in stride. So happy to have the memory dug up and salt poured into every wound.
“Hayes…” My mom’s voice grew quiet, thick with emotion. “It kills me that Shy will never be the same because of the actions of a sick man. But none of it was Everly’s fault. You need to open your eyes a little more. You’ve always seen things in black and white, but life is shades of gray.”
I pulled my keys out of my pocket, fisting them so the bite of pain would keep me in check. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I’m going to head back to town now.”
Mom laid a hand on my forearm. “Hayes, don’t do that. Stay. Have dinner. Shy’ll be back when she’s ready, and we can all eat together.”
I couldn’t refuse. Not when there was so much hurt in my mother’s voice. She might not recognize it, but that pain was there because Everly had returned. Stirring things up just like I’d feared. We’d be lucky if Shiloh had only retreated to her loft above the barn. If it was a bad episode, she’d grab her horse and her pack and disappear for days, leaving us all worried half to death.
I just couldn’t see Everly as a hero. Couldn’t erase her ties to the man who’d destroyed so much of the heart of my family. I simply wasn’t built that way.
5
Everly
Pulling into a parking spot outside the hardware store, I kept my hands firmly on the wheel. I’d mentally donned my armor all the way here, bracing myself for any ugliness that might come my way. If Hayes’ reaction was anything to go by, I’d have to get used to it.
I rolled my shoulders back and turned off the engine. More than a few projects around the cabin needed my attention. Drawer pulls that needed replacing. A few warped cabinet doors. A bedroom door that needed to go. And paint. I needed lots of paint.
I’d decided that paint was the solution to ushering out the old and bringing in the new. Fresh colors on the walls to bring in light and drown out memories. I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to venture inside the main house. Making the cabin mine would have to do for now.
Climbing out of my SUV, I shut the door and beeped the locks. As I strode towards the old-timey store, the same one my father had taken us to so many times before, my steps faltered. I hadn’t seen her in fifteen years, but I would’ve recognized her anywhere. The long braid down her back, the high cheekbones tinged pink.
“Addie,” I called.
My cousin whirled around, her eyes going wide. “Evie?”
I didn’t think, I simply launched myself at her, wrapping her in a hug. “I missed you.”
She stiffened in my arms, pulling away. “What are you thinking coming back here?”
“Mom left me the mountain property.”
Addie’s gaze jumped around the parking lot. “You should sell it. Go home to Seattle.”
Her words stung—a hell of a lot more than the ones from Hayes. “I knew some people wouldn’t welcome me back, but I honestly didn’t expect that from you.”
She grabbed my arm. “That’s not what I mean. I’m so glad to see you. But not everyone will feel the same.”
“Adaline. Step back from that traitor.”
The voice cracked like a whip through the asphalt, and Addie immediately dropped my arm.
My gaze rose to meet the cold eyes staring back at me. “Uncle Allen.”
He spat at my feet, thankfully missing my shoe. “I’m not your uncle. If it were up to me, I’d take payment for your betrayal with a switch.”
Addie flinched behind him, and heat rose to my face. Anger for everything I knew he put Addie through with his fear tactics and cruelty. “You forget,” I said in a low voice, “I’m not a child anymore. I know how to fight back. Don’t start something with me that you can’t finish.”
Addie paled as Allen’s face turned a shade of red I’d never seen on a human before, but I stood my ground. When I went to live with my sister, I’d felt powerless. I was so terrified that I barely slept. It didn’t help that my uncle and brother had shown up to Jacey’s home and my school multiple times to make a scene. They couldn’t simply let me go. In their minds, I needed to atone for my sins.
Even after Jacey and Kevin had moved us to a place that Allen and Ian didn’t know about, I was still on edge. I’d felt as if I were losing my mind, piece by piece. Jacey had finally sat me down and told me that I needed to find things that would make me feel safe.
I’d built that wall of safety, brick by brick. I’d thrown myself into self-defense training with a single-mindedness that I knew sometimes scared Jacey. I’d begged Kevin to continue the firearms training my father had started. Dad’s fixation on preparedness and self-reliance had been the one gift he’d left me with. When my classmates were all building profiles on the newest social media app, I refused to be in a single photo.
I’d become obsessed with making sure my family never had a way to find me again. I’d relaxed over the past five years, easing my restrictions, living life more freely, and no longer constantly looking over my shoulder. But I hadn’t relaxed a single thing about preparing for something bad to happen. The events all those years ago had taught me that bad things could happen to anyone.
And as I looked at my uncle, who spluttered and raged, I hoped he’d take a swing. He had no idea what would be waiting for him if he did. My eyes focused on looking for the signs. The weight shift. The angle of a shoulder. The retreat of an arm.
Allen’s hands balled into fists, his knuckles bleaching white. “You will have to face what you’ve done. I can’t believe you had the audacity to come back here. Just wait until Ian hears.”
The sound of my brother’s name made me flinch. My hand wanted to curve around my ribs protectively. I could still hear the crack of bone. Feel the steel-toed boot meeting my torso time after time. I could taste the blood in my mouth. But for all the pain I’d endured that night, I wouldn’t wish it away. Because it had been the thing that’d freed me. The last straw that gave my mother the push she needed to send me to Jacey. The final breaking point that let me let go of every last tie to my family.
At least, that was what I’d thought. Until the letter. A collection of words on a page that had made me realize I hadn’t moved on. There were ghosts I still needed to exorcise.
I didn’t look away from my uncle’s face. “If Ian wants to come for me, let him come.”