He’d also been careful not to call the women aunt or grandma. As far as Holden was concerned, they were dead to Faith. And he’d do everything he could, including taking Faith and Charleigh on the run to keep the Towlers away from his girls.
But when Holden caught sight of Ayla’s father, he was happy Charleigh wasn’t there. The man looked destroyed. There was no shortage of anger rolling off the older man. But it was the sadness that hit Holden in the gut.
“Mr. Purdy. What can we do for you?” Nixon asked.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” Mr. Purdy started. “Ayla’s pregnant.”
Oh, fuck.
The man swallowed and looked at his feet.
“Nix—” McKenna paused in the doorway and started to back out into the hallway. “Excuse me, I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”
“You know.” There was no missing Jonny’s cold, hard tone.
“Um.” McKenna glanced at her husband and he nodded. “Yes.”
“Is there anything else we should know?”
Technically, McKenna was breaking the law by hacking into Ayla’s phone. Jonny didn’t ask how McKenna found the information she found and she never admitted to illegal activity.
There had been times when the proper warrants had been obtained, but this was not one of those times.
“Elliana’s worried she is, too,” McKenna softly said.
“How did you find out your daughter was pregnant?” Holden inquired.
“Periodically, my wife checks Ayla’s phone. She’s not allowed to have a passcode on it. This morning while Ayla was in the shower, KiKi looked through her phone and saw one of those disappearing messages… you know from that app… I can’t remember the name. Anyway, my wife saw the last message Ayla sent to Elliana telling her she was pregnant. The message had expired before KiKi could show me. But I did read the message from Elliana that said ‘he’s gonna freak’.”
“Did either of them say who “he” is?”
“No,” Mr. Purdy answered and Holden turned to McKenna.
“No.”
Fucking hell.
“Did you confront Ayla?” Nixon entered the questioning.
“No. We thought it was best to talk to the police first.”
“Why is that?” McKenna asked. “I mean, why report her pregnancy to the police?”
“Because there is something wrong. She’s not the same. After that night, something changed in my little girl.” There was no missing the hitch in the father’s voice.
No one said a word. It was obvious he had more to say but needed a moment to compose himself.
“She was…she…something happened to her. And now she’s pregnant.”
“Please, Mr. Purdy, have a seat,” Nix offered.
Christ. Jonny had been right.
“I want you to find the man responsible,” Mr. Purdy demanded as he sat in the chair Nix had offered. The room went still at the older man’s ragged voice, he struggled to keep his emotions in check but lost the battle. His shoulders sagged and he let out a gut-wrenching roar, “She’s…she’s…” The wounded disjointed words coming from a father undone had acid churning in Holden’s stomach.
Unable to watch a father in extreme pain, Holden turned to McKenna. “What else were the girls talking about?”
“The last message Elliana sent to Ayla was reminding her they’d made a pact not to talk about what happened.”
Jesus.
“Has she told anyone else?” McKenna looked at Jonny and shook her head in a nonverbal answer. “I need to know the second she does.”
Translation: If Ayla reached out to the man who violated her, if he was indeed a serial pedophile, she would be putting her life in jeopardy.
Hours later, Holden was getting ready to leave when Weston stepped into his office.
“Got a minute?”
He didn’t; Charleigh had already picked up Faith from school and he was anxious to get home to them, but he needed to talk to his friend.
“Yeah.”
“I need to apologize.”
It took a moment for the meaning behind Weston’s statement to hit him, but when it did, he decided it was time to shut this shit down once and for all.
No more talking about the past. No more hindsight, no more apologizing, no more talking about Paul.
“Appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t want to talk about Paul.”
“Good to know.” Weston chuckled. “I was going to apologize for letting this whole situation go on as long as it did. I should’ve been a better friend. We all should’ve been better.”
“Nothing you could’ve done.”
“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have tried. We failed you.”
“You really didn’t. I wasn’t ready to face what’d I done, and if you would’ve pressed the topic, you would’ve pushed me away. I’m a stubborn jackass.”
“You are that,” Weston agreed.
“Good. That’s done.” Holden’s tone left no question, they were indeed done with the topic. So he made the inquiry he’d meant to the other night but hadn’t had the chance. “I need the name of the realtor you and Silver used.”
“Looking to finally dump that trailer?”
Holden’s eyes narrowed on his friend. “Call my baby a trailer again and you’ll find my foot up your ass.”
“Touchy. Geez. But seriously, you thinking about moving?”
“Yeah. I need to buy a house.”
“Need?”
Christ, did Weston miss anything?
“Charleigh’s not going back to her apartment. I’d move them into the Airstream but that’d work for about a night. And we can’t live in Evie’s uncle’s house indefinitely. So, I need to buy us a place.”
Weston’s mouth curved up into a broad smile.
“Does she know she’s moving in with you?”
“Not yet. Though Leigh-Leigh’s not dumb. She has to know now that I have her back I’m not letting her out of my sight.”
“You mean bed.”
“That, too.”
“I’ll text you Jodi’s number. Ask her about the property next to me and Nix. The front of the house is around the block, but the property butts up to mine. Might be more house than you’re looking for but you’d be close to us.”
That would be perfect for Holden but Charleigh might want to live in a
