Page 37 of Secrets Within Us

Her eyes snapped open and for the first time since I’d met her, there was anger in them. “Kind?” With incredulity, she asked. She opened her arms wide, revealing herself, “Do I look like he was kind to me?” She screamed. “You saw all the bruises, and cuts and burns, the handprints around my throat! He tortured me, Kip! To the point where I begged for death. I pleaded with that devil himself to take me, to end the anguish, and you dare call him kind?” She spat out the last word like it tasted bad on her tongue.

No. She was wrong.

“I don’t believe you. You lied the second you woke up here and you haven’t stopped lying since then and you’re lying now. You have to be lying. That man was loved by everyone that met him, there’s no way he could have beat you. And all I know right now is that I found you in the woods, covered in blood!” I yelled, taking a large step towards her.

Mike put his hand on my shoulder, holding me back from getting any closer to her.

But she stepped closer in her own anger. “And bruises! You found me covered in blood and bruises! You have no idea the horrors I survived at the hands of that monster.” She bit out, her face contorting as she pointed her finger at my chest angrily. “I survived because he didn’t. He was going to kill me. He told me that every single day. That man didn’t just beat me, Kip. You keep saying I was beat up, roughed up a little by some dude, but it was so much more than that. I was tortured in ways you wouldn’t even have tortured terrorists overseas!”

No, that didn’t make sense! I grabbed my hair and pulled it as I paced in frustration before turning back to her once more, “No! You’re wrong! You murdered someone! A good man!” I felt an eerie, menacing calm settle over my body as I let my disgust fall from my lips at her. “You’re no better than the pieces of scum that murdered my family and I pray to God you rot in jail until they put the needle in your arm and kill you for what you did.”

She gasped at my accusation and recoiled back, swallowing down the pain. It was the most fucked up thing I’d ever said before. I instantly knew that even before Mike stepped forward and stood between us.

“Okay, I think that’s enough for right now, you are both upset about what happened earlier and now this is a lot of stress on top of that-” He tried to reason but I could see the finality on Hadley’s face as she wiped harshly at the tears on her face in anger.

“You know what, Kip?” She said as she stared at me unwaveringly, “I wish I had told you everything right away. Because then, you would have hated me instantly and called the police and I never would have fallen in love with you.”

My heart stopped beating when she said the words. Until today I’d thought myself to be falling in love with her, but to hear her say it made me know I had been. But she wasn’t done.

“I’d walk back into the Hell that deranged Saint inflicted on me with open fucking arms if it would take back every single thing that happened between us. I’d face him again if it’d make meeting you never happen because just like that, you’ve leveled the playing field for me by reminding me you have all the power and obviously the capabilities to hurt me physically and emotionally, just like he did!” She threw her arms up in frustration, “You are just like him, maybe even worse. Because the entire time he was hurting me, he told me he was going to, he told me over and over how he’d end my life, but not until he’d destroyed every single part of my soul first. But you tricked me into thinking I was safe here with you while you were the one who actually finally destroyed me.”

There was no way Peter Daniels had hurt her the way she was describing. There had to be an explanation, maybe we were talking about two different people.

But as I looked down at her in silence, I realized she had never lied to me. She didn’t tell me the truth, but she had never lied. I deflated, the adrenaline having run its course through my veins, leaving me exhausted and bewildered. I had seen the marks on her body firsthand, saw the pain she was in physically and emotionally, and if she said that Pastor Daniels had done it to her, didn’t she deserve to be believed? Why would she lie? She couldn’t have lied about the marks; I had seen them.

I turned to look at Mike, searching his face for some clue, but found he was struggling the same as me. “For God’s sake, there were handprints around her fucking throat. Multiple sets.” I said to him, looking for some way to explain all of it. But the answer to all of it was on his face and I realized then that I’d had it the entire time. Someone had beaten the proof into her body until she was nearly crippled with it, and I had it all along.

I paced back and forth in the kitchen with my hands pulling on my hair as I tried to figure out what to do. The police were after Hadley, but I couldn’t let them just arrest her. She’d been traumatized too much already; it would destroy her to be treated like a criminal after what happened to her. Fuck, I still didn’t even know what exactly happened to her other than somehow she’d come in contact with Peter, and he’d beaten her repetitively until she somehow managed to kill him. And then she walked nearly fifteen miles in the freezing cold before I found her. There was a reason I’d found her, that she had ended up on my property. I was supposed to protect her, and I’d done the exact opposite when she needed me the most.

I whipped around again to face her, “Hadley-”

But the words died on my lips when I saw her staring back out the window with fear in her eyes. I looked past her and saw three sheriff's cars pulling up my driveway.

She slowly turned to face me with complete defeat in her eyes and her shoulders slumped as reality set in.

And for the rest of my years on earth, I’ll never forget the catastrophic pain on her face as she looked at me and whispered, “I guess it’s time for me to get the needle for what I’ve done.”

“No,” I said when I watched past her as Sheriff Boyd got out of his car, flanked by two deputies. I rushed toward her and spun her to face me, but she wouldn’t look at me. She just hung her head in defeat. “Listen to me.” I tilted her head up and bent down until she was looking at me. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from crying for so long, but her face was devoid of any emotion other than loss. “I’m sorry, my family was taken from me five years ago while I was away at war, and I’ve never dealt with it. Having you here forced me to decide if I could let them go for good or watch you walk out of my life. I came back in here earlier to tell you that you weren’t wasting your time here with me, that I just needed time to figure out how to love both the past and the present and then I found you in there, and you were distraught, and I lost my mind. I’m so sorry.” Breathing her in, I placed my forehead against hers. She placed her hands on my chest and gripped my shirt, holding onto me. “But I believe you. Dammit, Had, I believe you. I don’t understand why this happened to you or how, but I believe it did. And I’ll do everything in my power to help you clear your name. Baby, I can pull strings and call in favors with the police. I believe you.” In a state of frenzy, I attempted to express everything as quickly as possible. I could hear the heavy footsteps of the cops on the porch and knew I was out of time.

“Me too, Ms. Hadley. I’ll help in any way I can because I can see the truth in your eyes. I believe you too.” Mike said from behind me as the door vibrated with knocking from the outside.

She remained silent and wouldn’t look at either of us as she just hung her head.

“Kip? It’s Sheriff Boyd, I need your help with something.” The sheriff called out from the porch.

Mike stepped forward and put his hand on the door handle as he turned to look at us. Stepping forward and standing just in front of her to the side, I turned to face him as I reached down and pulled Hadley’s tiny ice-cold hand into mine. I knew what needed to happen, but I was going to protect her the best I could while it did.

With a single nod from me, Mike opened the door and nodded briefly to the sheriff, who shifted his gaze between him and me, before finally looking down at the petite pixie standing behind me, holding my hand.

Sheriff Boyd paused for a second before he stepped forward over the threshold, removing his hat and addressing me. “You want to tell me why you’re holding the hand of a fugitive wanted for murder, Kip? Pretty little thing that she is,” He paused, taking her in from head to foot, “but wanted for murder, nonetheless.”

I pulled her behind me further as I leveled him with a stare that made better men sweat and he recoiled slightly. He wasn’t a bad man, but I didn’t appreciate the way he eyed Hadley up and commented on her looks. “We didn’t realize she was wanted until about five minutes ago when Mike told us. We’ve been snowed in until recently, and I don’t have cable or anything up here,” I clarified.

He nodded his head and stepped into my home further, making room for his two deputies. I didn’t miss how the young one who looked like he’d just graduated from the academy put his hand on the pistol on his hip and looked at her as though Hadley was going to reach out and strike like an animal.

“You’d better get your hand off that gun inside of my home boy, before you truly need it.” I warned him, staring him down.

“Kip.” The sheriff and Mike warned cautiously. I couldn’t help it, though. My body was wound up tight and if anyone was going to lash out at the deputies, it was going to be me. And I could sure as hell do a lot more damage than she could.

---