Page 81 of Shelter from the Storm

“You don’t need to thank me for orgasms, kitten. It was my pleasure.”

She lightly slapped his bare chest. “I don’t mean for tonight. Though tonight was definitely worthy of some gratitude. I mean for the rest of it. For so many years, I couldn’t find a way out of the darkness, trapped in a life that was slowly killing me with no clue how to turn the tide. Then you took a chance on me, gave me a job that led me to Gracemont, and…”

The rest of her words faded, but he knew what she meant.

Then, his thoughts drifted in a different direction, and he realized she had a point about those million things they didn’t know. Time to start filling in some of the blanks.

“You know, there’s something I’ve been curious about,” Theo said. “Given how controlling the asshole was,” Theo didn’t think her ex deserved to be referred to by name, “I’m surprised he let you out of his sight long enough to go to work.”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Gretchen’s head rested his shoulder, her fingers toying with the light smattering of hair around his nipples. “That was probably his biggest mistake, because he let his overweening sense of confidence convince him he’d snowed everyone in his life into thinking he was some pillar of the community and a great guy. He found a job for me shortly after I ran to the bus station. It was his way of insuring I had a warden to keep an eye on me during the day, when he was on duty. The sad thing was, he didn’t need to bother at that point. That last failed grab for freedom had beaten all the hope out of me, pushed me into a well of depression where I’d spent nearly a year and a half drowning.”

Her disgusted tone always gave away how much she hated being what she considered weak, even though the odds were not in her favor back then.

“Who was your new warden?”

“Brenda,” Gretchen replied.

“Isn’t she the woman who helped you escape?”

Gretchen nodded. “Briggs had known her his whole life. Her younger brother, Douglas, is Briggs’s best friend. Brenda was like a big sister to him, so I’m sure he believed he’d found the perfect solution.”

“Brenda didn’t know what he was doing to you?” Theo found that hard to believe. Edith confided in Theo that she’d noticed bruises on Gretchen’s neck the first day she arrived in Gracemont, and that it hadn’t taken a genius to figure out they were the same shape and size as fingerprints.

“She didn’t. Not at first. I worked for her for two years, and the first year and a half, I got very good at making excuses for the bruises. Though to be fair, she didn’t see many of them. I owned a lot of turtlenecks, and I was very good at covering my injuries up with makeup. Then about eight months ago, Brenda walked into my office, closed the door, and asked me how long Briggs had been hitting me. It was the first time anyone had asked that…and I fell apart. Cried my freaking eyes out. Then I told her everything.”

Theo tightened his arm around her shoulders, his free hand stroking her bare arm.

“Brenda was incredible. Initially, she tried to talk me into checking into a domestic abuse center in the city, but after the three failed attempts at leaving him, staying in Harrisburg wasn’t an option I would consider anymore. I wanted away, you know? So she and I started making a plan. My paychecks went into Briggs’s account, so she gave me a small raise and a bonus, both paid in cash, that I locked in a safe she had at work. Then she helped me through the legal process of changing my name.”

Theo nodded. “I figured Banks must have been a new name when Briggs called the sheriff asking for Gretchen Parker. Forgot to ask you about it.”

“Banks was the last name of my great-aunt. She sent me a birthday card every year until I was ten. It always had five dollars in it and a nice note. Some years, that five dollars was the only gift I got.”

“Why did she stop when you were ten?” Theo asked.

“She died. Funny thing is, I’d only met her once, shortly before my dad left, and I didn’t remember her very well. Even so, I lived for those cards. I was devastated when I didn’t get one on my eleventh birthday. No one had told me she’d died. When I asked my mom about her, she rolled her eyes, and said, ‘The nasty old bitch finally croaked. Good riddance.’”

Theo couldn’t begin to imagine how someone as sweet as Gretchen had come from such a horrible woman.

“Ordinarily, in Pennsylvania, you have to publish your intent to change your name change in the newspaper, but Brenda’s mom is a lawyer, and she got a judge to waive that requirement for safety reasons. I started smuggling clothing out of the house, one piece at a time, so Briggs wouldn’t realize I was packing a bag. And Brenda wrote me the greatest reference letter in the history of letters, one that she allowed me to tailor to each job I applied for. I swear I must have applied for at least a hundred jobs, and I rewrote that reference letter every single time.”

Gretchen realized what she’d let slip, because she gave him a sheepish look. “Oops.”

“You didn’t plan the open houses for Brenda’s real estate business, did you?” he asked, trying not to laugh.

Gretchen shook her head. “I’d never planned a party in my life, so I was shocked as hell when you emailed to set up an interview. I’ve never studied so hard for anything, researching everything I could find on event coordination and party barns and breweries and wineries. Are you mad?”

“Not even a little.” Though now it was Theo’s turn to look sheepish.

Gretchen frowned. “What is it?”

“Your resume was in our rejection pile.”

“Then why did you interview me?”

Theo couldn’t help grinning. “Because we’d narrowed it down to four good candidates.” He paused, waiting to see if Gretchen would figure it out on her own.

“And?” she prodded.

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