Page 99 of Chasing Home

I’ve never had a reason to be violent in my life. Most of the time, I can solve my problems with a grin or an apology. But when the tallest of the guards rushes toward Rory, I act out on instinct. It’s only a shove, but when he stumbles back into the chest of another guard and levels me with a dark glare, I know I’m in deep shit.

“Back off,” I warn.

“I have questions for you, Lee. And I want you to answer them. I deserve the answers,” Rory says, raising her voice to be heard over the commotion happening around us. “My mother deserves the answers.”

Lee flinches, his eyes dimming at her last few words. It’s everything I need to confirm that while he may not know Aurora, some part of him remembers her mother. Whether from the Bennett name or whatever he saw in Rory moments ago.

“You deserve nothing. I don’t know who you are, but we’re done here. Whatever outlet asked you to come here today can go fuck themselves. You tell your boss that my past is nobody’s business,” Lee mutters, the dismissal lacking the heat I expected.

“I don’t work for anyone! Wanda told me where to find you. She?—”

“I don’t care what my daughter told you. She loves to get on my nerves, and this is only another example of that. Now, leave,” he demands.

Beck takes his words and uses them to have us removed. She waves at the guards, who crowd me, and one heads directly for Rory.

I can’t do anything to stall that won’t end with my guts getting plastered on the walls, but even that’s a small price to pay to bring Rory peace. The devastation on her face as she stares at her father right now seals my fate.

Snapping a hand out at the security guard targeting her, I grip his shoulder and release a deep sigh. I tug on him, and when he snarls down at me, I wince, prepared to have my shit rocked.

“Let them go,” Lee says, his back to us as he grips the door handle. You could bounce a penny off his back with how tense he is. “Make sure they leave, but don’t touch them. The last thing we need is another damn scandal.”

Beck scoffs, staring at him in disbelief. “Lee?—”

“Let them go,” he repeats. I release the guard. “I don’t want to see them again. Either of them.”

“Are you that much of a fucking coward?” Rory blurts, drawing my gaze. She clenches her hands into fists at her sides, but her expression is more hurt than angry, her mask nowhere to be found. “It makes sense now, at least. You never deserved my mother, and you sure as shit never deserved me. Maybe it was a blessing for all of us that you never had a place in my life. I wouldn’t have known what to do with a pathetic excuse of a father like you anyway.”

She spins on her heel and leaves, taking off down the hallway. I swallow, every instinct inside of me screaming to unglue my feet to the carpet and go after her before she gets too far. With a heavy step, I stare at Lee, finding him watching her leave. There’s a heavy, deathly silence in the air as I leave, chasing after my girl.

I find her pacing in front of the closed elevator doors, her panted breaths too loud. The tears streaming down her face make my chest ache, a piece of it crumbling.

“Rory . . .” I start, approaching her slowly, my hand extended. It’s shaking, but I ignore that.

She shakes her head, not looking at me. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t—I can’t talk about it.”

“We don’t have to talk about it, sweetheart.”

“Stop. Stop using that tone with me. I don’t want it.”

I clear my throat. “Alright. We don’t have to talk at all if you don’t want. Let’s just get you back to the hotel.”

“I’m not going to the hotel. I need fresh air. I want to be alone. Please.” The plea nearly breaks me.

“You don’t have to beg me for fucking anything, darlin’. Go and take your time. Just call me when you don’t want to be alone anymore, and I’ll come find you.”

She sucks in a hitched breath, nodding her head, still not looking at me. The elevator dings, signalling its arrival, and I take two quick steps toward her. I cup the back of her head and drift a kiss over her cheek, feeling her tears on my lips.

“I’ll see you later, baby,” I whisper.

Sniffling, she tips her chin and rushes into the elevator the moment the doors open. It takes everything in me not to follow her, especially when she turns to face me and I see how deeply that man back there has hurt her.

I knew it was a possibility just as much as she did. But having it happen like that just now . . . suddenly, it’s real. The pain is deep and scarring, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to fix it right now.

The second the doors shut, I’m tugging my hair at the root and leaning back against the wall. Toronto’s a beast of a city, and neither of us knows a damn thing about it. She probably has as good of an idea as to where to go as I do. But if this is what she needs, then who am I to stop her? My only concern is her well-being, and that’s what got me so fucking stressed.

The apartment floor is still empty, and as I look anxiously around the small sitting area across from the elevators, I freeze. Abandoning my place by the wall, I drop to my haunches in front of the small garbage and the folded paper hanging off the edge.

I know what it is the moment I pick it up. My breath catches at the small photo hidden beneath it amongst the trash.

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