Page 32 of Hero Next Door
Hitting your own kid.
God.
Avery took in my face and then my hands, clenched into fists on the table, and slowly set down the fry she’d been about to eat. “Exactly,” she said quietly. “And when she got old enough to escape him, she started dating a guy who wasn’t much better. I’m sure you remember him. Her high school boyfriend. He worked so hard to isolate her that she only had one friend left, and that friend couldn’t get her out fast enough. The moment they graduated, Olivia got her out of town and into Nashville, and they promised each other—Olivia promised Parker—that they’d never look back.”
I felt like I was going to throw up. Thank God I’d only watched Avery eating rather than eating anything myself. Yeah, I remembered that guy. Gordon something. He’d been a punk townie, always bragging about something, and big as a horse.
He’d been hitting Parker with those ham fists of his.
Jesus Christ.
Avery leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “I wasn’t here to protect her and Olivia did the best she could, but she got her out of town for a reason. She saw that Parker had to figure out who she was away from her father and that guy, and she took her to Nashville to do it. Parker is better now, but being back here is... It kills her. Brings up all the memories she’s worked so hard to bury. And I’m only telling you all of this because I can see that you care for her. But if you hurt her, Dev, it won’t matter how much Jackson loves you. I’ll kill you myself, and I won’t have one single regret. Take care of that girl, or I’m coming for you.”
Look, Avery was barely above 5 feet and weighed next to nothing. She was the tiniest girl I’d ever met, and normally, her threatening to kill me would have been hilarious.
But one look in her eyes, one glance at the fiercely protective look on her face, and I knew she was telling the truth.
The thing was, I didn’t even blame her. She loved Parker with her whole heart, and she’d protect her with her dying breath. And that, I understood.
Because I’d started feeling the exact same way. And hearing that someone had hurt her—hearing thattwosomeones had hurt her—just made me want to protect her even more.
Which I was sure she’d hate.
But I didn’t think I’d be giving her a choice in the matter.
* * *
I went right to the junk yard that Gordon now ran, dragged him away from the engine he was tinkering with, and threw him against the wall. I wanted to kill him. But first, I wanted to hurt him as badly as he’d hurt Parker.
Of course he just thought some crazy guy had come in to make trouble.
“What the hell are you doing?” he hissed, launching himself off the wall and back at me.
And the guy was just as big as he’d always been. But these days, I wasn’t the skinny kid I’d been in high school. I was just as big as he was.
And I had a whole lot better reason to be fighting.
I shoved him back against the wall, pressed my arm across his throat, and leaned in close. “You used to date Parker Pelton in high school.”
His confusion turned into a sneer. “Her? biggest mistake of my life. Little tramp that she was. Loser. Not worth the time. Nothing but a life wrecker. I’d have been better off if I’d never even seen the girl.”
None of that was true. But I wasn’t going to argue with him. If he didn’t like her, it would just make my next demand even easier for him to accept.
“In that case, you won’t bother her now that she’s back in town,” I muttered. “You’re going to leave her alone. Stay out of her life.”
The confused look on his face told me that he hadn’t actually known she was back in town, and I remembered suddenly that Parker had been going out of her way to stay out of town. She hadn’t wanted to make any appearances inside city limits...
Probably because she hadn’t wanted Gordon to know she was here.
Dev, you fool.
“I don’t want anything to do with her, even if she is here,” he huffed. “Get off me, man. Run back to her, if you’re so worried about her. Glad she’s your problem and not mine.”
I backed off, horrified at what I may have done, and turned to get back to my truck, my mind buzzing. This answered so many questions. Her hesitation to come into town. The fear on her face when I forced her to sit outside the grocery store.
The grocery store. God, her parents had owned that store up until her father died. I hadn’t even thought of that until right now.
That was where he’d beat her.
