Page 119 of On the Wild Side

“Yeah, I am. Listen, I love you all.” Now the tears come, and I swallow hard again. I can’t dislodge this lump in my throat. “I love your family so much, and the last thing in the world I want is to have to say goodbye to you. But I can’t lead her to your doorstep. You may be able to fight her, but she’ll cause so much chaos in the process that I just can’t do that to you. She’s not just mentally ill, she’s…evil.”

I stand now and wipe the tears from my cheeks.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

I turn and walk out the back door, looking for my daughter. She’s playing with the other kids, laughing and singing with them. God, she loves it here so much. These are her best friends. This isherfamily.

“Come on, babes. We have to get home.”

“But we haven’t had dinner,” she says with a frown that reminds me so much of her father’s.

“I know, but I’ll feed you at home.”

“Is Brady coming?”

“No. Come on, and don’t sass me. I’m not in the mood.”

Daisy frowns, but she doesn’t say anything as I lead her to the car and help her get buckled in. I’m not usually short with my daughter like that, but Ihaveto go before I break down into a sobbing mess and accept any help that the Wild family is willing to give me. Before I scream for Brady to hold me and tell me that everything is going to work out.

Because it’snotgoing to work out. Iwantto accept their help. I know that they all have more money than Janet and that they could squish her like a bug, but I don’t know how to depend on people like that. I’ve always depended on myself, and it’s time that I remember that.

We’re quiet in the car on the way into town, and once we’re in the house, I tell Daisy to go to her room and choose her favorite things to pack.

“No.” She watches me with wide, brown eyes. “No, Mama.”

My girl is smart, and she remembers more than I give her credit for.

“Baby, we have to go.” I don’t know what I’ll do about this house and the business, but I’ll figure it out when we get wherever we’re going.

“No.” She shakes her head, and tears fill her sweet eyes. “We need tostay. I don’t want to move again. Please don’t make us go. We have Brady. What about Brady?”

I close my eyes and sigh. I should have known better than to get too comfortable. To fall in love and let my daughter fall in love, too.

I’ve royally fucked all of this up.

“Daisy, I’m sorry. I’msosorry my love, but it’s not safe for us here anymore.”

“Brady will protect us,” she says, propping her fists on her hips. “We’re safe with him.”

Before I can argue, the doorbell rings.

It has to be Brady. I don’t want to see him and have to tell him all over again that we can’t be together. It’s only going to make this so much harder. Jesus, I don’t know if I can recover from this.

With another heavy sigh, I walk to the door and open it.

“Oh, God.” Crazy eyes stare back at me.

“Where’s my daughter?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

BRADY

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I mutter as I brush Blackjack. “She’s been lying to me since the day I met her, boy. How can I even know her,reallyknow her, if I don’t know her name?”

He blows out a breath and nudges my shoulder, hoping for an apple.

“Exactly, I can’t. I’ve held her while she screams and cries and has a breakdown about night terrors that I thought were about the bullshit she went through as a teenager.” I shake my head and move around to the other side of the horse. “And maybe there was some of that laced in there, but it was really about shit that I didn’t even know about. Because she didn’t tell me.”

---