“Where are you going?”
“Away.”
“Away? Why?”
“He changed the locks.” I nod at my door.
“Who did?”
“Daddy dearest.”
“How?”
Why does he need to know? “Not now, Gage. Not now.” I move fast, stomping down the steps and out the door on my way back to the bus stop. There’s a motel a few blocks away. I’ll stay there for a night or two until I can figure out my next step.
I hear his footsteps before he says, “Daisy. Wait.”
Stopping dead in my tracks, I rotate until I’m facing him. “What?”
“Where are you going?”
“To the bus stop.”
He steps closer and bends slightly. I feel his hand touch mine, and then the bags in my right hand are gone. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ve got my car. I’ll take you where you need to go.” His voice is so soft, gentle.
And that’s all it takes to put me over the edge. The tears start pouring out of my eyes, and I don’t even try to stop them.
“Daisy?” I hear the bags rustling, but my eyes are closed. Then I feel him—or his arms, rather. They’re wrapped around me in an embrace, and I honestly feel like it’s the first time in forever anyone has hugged me. Shit. It only makes me bawl harder.
“Honey,” he practically coos. I’m pressed against his hard chest, and all I want to do is snuggle against him for the rest of my life. “Shh, shh. It’s gonna be okay.”
I shake my head against him because I don’t think I can talk right now. It doesn’t feel like everything’s going to be okay. Not ever.
“Sweetheart.” He pulls away and I move with him, doing whatever I can to stay right where I am.
“Daisy.” I open my eyes and see we’re nose to nose. “Honey. It’s gonna be okay.”
Wiping at my eyes and nose, I sniffle and attempt to get my breathing under control. This time I nod.
“Let me take you. Where are you going?”
“Motel.”
“You’re going to a motel?”
I nod.
“Do you want to call your father?”
“No.” I cough out the word thanks to the goop in my throat from all the crying. Okay, it’s snot. Sorry. “I don’t want to speak to him.” Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.
With one hand, Gage holds mine. With the other, he picks up the shopping bags. “Let’s go.”
I have no fight left in me, so I go.
In his car, I buckle up and watch him do the same. “You hungry?” he asks.
“Not really.” I still have a sub in one of my bags, though that doesn’t even sound appealing anymore.
“How ’bout Blaze Pizza?”
I find a smile somewhere in all of my melancholy. “I could eat Blaze Pizza.”
“Good, because I’m starving.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gage
Driving to the restaurant, I spend half the time looking at the road and the other half checking on her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I will be.”
At the pizza place, we line up to order. I watch and listen to Daisy order her pizza, and then it’s my turn. The line goes quickly. I pay for both of us, hand her a cup for her drink, and locate a table near the back. Luckily we missed the dinner rush, so the restaurant is pretty dead. Once we’ve got our pizza, which is as good as she promised, I ask, “What happened?”
“My relationship with my father is… complicated.”
I keep eating, not wanting to interrupt her.
“I got home last night to find my father had come in and taken my stuff.”
“What do you mean? What stuff?” I look at her and realize she’s still wearing the clothes from last night.
“Clothes, computer, toiletries, things like that.” She scoffs. “He even took my sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels.”
What the hell is that asshole doing? “Why?”
“He said it’s because he’s worried about me living across from a murder scene.”
“He’s right. It’s not the safest place to live until we catch our killer.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “He doesn’t care. My dad’s playing a game with me.”
“What kind of game?”
“He’s trying to control me. To get me to move back in with him so he can control who I see.” She looks at me pointedly. “I found a camera hidden in a bobblehead in my apartment.”
What the hell? He’s surveilling her? “You think he was watching you?”
“I do. Everything’s in his name: the apartment, my car, my cell phone—heck, my bank account. Because I refused to move home, he cut off the phone and my debit card, and my car’s gone.”
That doesn’t sound like something a concerned father would do. He’s basically cut off her ability to run away or even reach out for help.
“So, what are you going to do?”
She shrugs. “I’ve got some other things in the works. I’m not broke or anything. I was smart and put money away in another account.”
“Is it enough to—”
“It’s enough,” she says angrily.
Since we each ordered individual pizzas, I finish mine first, most likely due to the fact that she’s been doing most of the talking, plus she’s only picking at her pizza. “Well, until you figure things out, why don’t you stay with me?” I offer, wiping my mouth with a napkin.
“No.” she shakes her head. “That would be—”
“That would be perfect.” I smile at her. “I’ve got a nice spare bedroom all set up.”
She shakes her head again.
“You’d be doing me a solid, really.”
“Oh yeah?” Her eyes are red, and her pretty nose is a little puffy, but she still nails the smirk. “How so?”
“Well, I’ll be working late a lot, and you’d be, in essence, house sitting. You could keep Pepper company.” Unless she’s still afraid of my cat.
“Won’t you get into trouble?”
I shrug. “I’ll explain the situation to my boss. It’ll be fine.”
Hopefully.
I hold my breath, waiting for her answer. Then she says, “Okay. I can
