Page 80 of Defending Casey

Brian knew her. He’d been around for so many years that he’d become a part of their small family because she thought he cared about them.

But she’d never really known him.

Never really knew what was in his head.

His heart?

No, a man who could hurt her father like that couldn’t have a heart.

And yet, he knew where to hurt her. How to threaten.

He knew exactly who to go after to poke and prod her in the right direction.

“Come on,” Brian smiled and tugged her toward the door, “let’s go. We can talk once we’re alone.”

She stumbled after him, but she turned back toward the office. “My dad-”

“Casey!” She turned her head toward him when she heard the edge in his voice. “I said, let’s go. If you do what I say, we’ll get him help, okay?”

What could she say to that?

“Okay.” She moved her feet because she had to hope that it would speed things up. “Okay, let’s go.”

Once sunlight touched her face, she made every effort to keep her eyes off her car.

She could only pray that Nora was still asleep in the back of the car, letting her medicine take effect.

Brian tugged her forward again and she struggled to get her feet under her and catch up. His grin was almost child-like. “I know you’d be more comfortable in my truck, but I thought it was best that people didn’t know it was me driving around.”

He yanked open the door on the truck standing off to the side of the lot. It had seen better days.

No, better years.

“When I’m sure you understand what I’m telling you, we’ll go and get my truck so you can be comfortable.”

He gestured to the open door.

“Get in.”

She grabbed onto her first thought. “You want me to drive?”

“Right,” he scoffed, “like I’m going to give up control here. Get in and scoot over to the center of the seat. You think I’m going to let you get in on the passenger side and give you a chance to run off while I’m walking around to the driver’s seat? Is that how stupid you think I am?”

“No, no.” She hoped he was stupid… somehow. “I just thought it would be fun to drive.”

“You thought,” he gave her a wink and smiled at her with a tilt of his lips that made him look angry instead of amused, “that I’d trust you. Well, you need to know, Casey, after I saw you and Hale buying furniture, there’s no way I’d trust you. Not just yet. Maybe when you convince me that you know we are meant to be together, then we’ll talk about trust. Until then, you need to know that I’m in control.”

She swallowed the sob that welled up inside of her.

He wasn’t thinking straight. He wasn’t even thinking, really.

Casey didn’t know this version of him. This wasn’t the Brian who laughed with them at the table and took them out for ice cream.

She climbed up and moved over to the middle of the bench seat. Brian followed quickly after and jammed the key into the ignition.

It made a noise and then it went silent.

Brian swore and slammed his open palm on the dashboard.

---