Page 89 of Hold Me Until Morning

Agitated.

Shaken to the core by Pruitt showing up here. The truth that he didn’t seem to care about what I had hanging over his head.

His threat lingered over me like vapor that swirled and spiraled and loomed.

Do you think I’m afraid of you? Do you realize how easily you could cease to exist?

It wasn’t the first time he’d said something like that.

For years, it’d kept me stagnant.

Static.

Unable to move.

Somehow, some way, I’d found the courage to leave anyway, and I’d been so close to believing that we might actually be okay.

How ignorant I’d been.

I didn’t know if Cody showing up here had made it better or worse. This comfort that I wanted to sink into that I knew could only be fleeting. Respite for what was sure to come.

It was stupid to allow him to stay here, to do this pretending thing out in public like he seemed set on, but I hadn’t known how to argue when he’d been standing there looking at me like that.

So freaking resolved with my daughter’s hand wrapped in his, the child jumping at his side, emitting all her joy without a single clue of what was coming for us.

Pruitt was here.

Nausea swam in my stomach, clawing its way through my insides and festering in my spirit.

Pruitt was here.

I had to figure something else out. Find a way to stop him.

Fully and completely.

My mind raced to the proof I kept hidden in a locked box beneath my bed.

But what then? What would it do to my dad? My father had been selling him horses for years. The thing was, he had no idea what was really happening with those horses, what they were being used for, the lawlessness that Pruitt embodied all while keeping a squeaky-clean name.

It’d taken me two years of living in the middle of it to discover his sins.

But I knew exposing it was the one thing that would stop him. It was the single power I possessed. I just needed to figure out how to wield it correctly.

Finally, I managed to tug free the big blanket I was looking for and dumped it on the ground then went in search for an extra pillow.

I gasped when a hand reached out and grabbed me by the elbow, and I whirled to find Lolly standing there with the most salacious grin on her face.

It slid right off when she saw what must have been written on mine.

Worry knitted her wrinkled brow.

“What is going on? I thought you were going to be happy that mountain man came knocking at your door, pushing his way right in, but I don’t see a lick of happiness right now.”

She almost tried to phrase it a tease, though I heard the concern.

The knot in my throat refused to lessen, and I took a painful, gulping swallow around it, looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening.

I dropped my attention back to her when I heard Cody laughing at something Maddie said from the kitchen.

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