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Rolling his eyes, he said, “I’ll get you a blueberry muffin.”

Indie laughed, to the amusement of the well-dressed man standing behind her.

Lee glared at the stranger until he looked away. “There’s only one table left, girl. You’d better grab it before someone else does.”

“Are you always so bossy?”

“You’re about to find out.”

***

Indie, along with every other woman in the place, watched Lee place his order. Drake and his brother looked identical, but their styles set them apart. Drake was polished and sophisticated. Lee was casual, a little rough around the edges, and ridiculously sexy. She couldn’t believe he had managed to change her long-standing opinion of him. Something about the way he’d held her last night convinced her that, in his altered state, he’d believed what happened between himself and Cassidy had been consensual. Beneath that rough exterior, he was tender, protective, and loving. He wasn’t the kind of man to hurt a woman.

“Here,” he said, tossing a paper bag on the table. “Eat up.”

“Thanks,” she said, pushing the bag aside, “but I think I’ll save it for later.”

He pushed back the sleeves of his black button-down shirt before claiming the seat across from her. “Why are you being so stubborn?” He softened his tone, leaning in. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be so pushy, but it would make me feel better if you ate something.”

“Why do you care so much?” She studied him carefully. “You do care. Admit it.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Liar.”

“Fine, you don’t want to eat it, don’t eat it,” he said, trying to act nonchalant as he peeled back the lid on his coffee cup.

“I won’t.” She picked up the paper bag to toss it into a nearby trash receptacle.

“Please,” he said, reaching for her wrist.

She dropped the bag at once. It nearly rolled off the table before he could catch it. A nervous laugh bubbled up in her throat. “Wow, I can imagine what you’re like with Hannah at dinner. You won’t let her leave the table until she’s cleaned her plate. Am I right?”

“Why did you do that?” he asked, lowering his voice. “You pulled back when I touched you. Are you afraid of me?”

I’m afraid of anyone getting too close.
“No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Indie,” he said, capturing her eyes with his, “I’d never hurt you. I hope you know that.”

“I do.” She needed to end their uncomfortable conversation. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me. I eat what I want, when I want.”

“Were your parents good to you?” Lee wrapped his hands around his cup. “I mean, before… were they good to you? Did you have a good relationship with them?”

She was so rattled by the question that she thought about getting up and walking out the door. She knew she would have to face him at the office, so she decided to answer. “Yes.”

“Then why did you leave? Why didn’t you try to make them understand?”

Indie opened the bag and set the muffin on the paper napkin. She wasn’t hungry, but if it would distract him from thinking about her past, she would try to eat. “I tried that. They wouldn’t listen. They’d already made up their minds about what happened, and nothing I said changed anything.”

“It just seems a hell of a price to pay… losing your whole family that way. I mean, didn’t that son of a bitch take enough from you?”

She gasped. “Are you saying I should have stayed, tried harder to make them believe me?”

“I don’t know. I just know what it feels like to lose your parents. But the difference is mine are in a cemetery. Yours are probably still living in the same house where you grew up. Am I right?”

“I have no idea where they’re living.” She popped a bite of the muffin in her mouth. “And I don’t care to know. They’re all dead to me.” Tears burned her eyes, but she smiled through them. She’d gotten good at that. Tossing the muffin in the trash, she stood and reached for her cup and Drake’s croissant. “Thanks for the coffee. I’d better get back to work.”

Indie stared at her cousin and shook her head in denial.

“It’s true, honey,” Penny said, closing her hand over Indie’s. “I’m so sorry.”

Indie’s big sister was in the hospital, fighting for her life after her excuse for a husband beat and raped her.

“They’ve been separated for almost three months,” Penny said. “According to your mama, he’s been stalking her.”

“You talked to my mama?” Indie’s voice was a raspy whisper.

“Yes, that’s how I found out.” Penny took a sip of tea. “Apparently he was waiting in front of her apartment when she returned with a date. When he spotted them kissing good night in the parking lot, he went ballistic. He followed her upstairs and…” Penny shuddered. “Well, you know what happened next.”

“Where is he now?”

“In jail, where he belongs!” Penny blushed when a few people at nearby tables turned to stare at her. “I hope they lock him up and throw away the key.”

“Yeah,” Indie said quietly, clasping her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. “No less than he deserves.”

“But that’s not gonna happen without our help.”

“Our help?” Indie whispered. “What does that mean?” Her stomach pitched and rolled, telling her she didn’t want to hear the answer.

“We know what kind of monster he is. We need to tell the police what we know.”

“I can’t…” Indie couldn’t even allow herself to think about going there. Her family hadn’t even believed her; she’d be a fool to think a stranger would. Lee had believed her, but he hadn’t known her as a rebellious teen.

“You have to,” Penny whispered. “Your sister is counting on you. She deserves justice.”

“Didn’t I deserve justice?” Indie asked, torn between heartbreak and anger. “For what he did to me? Didn’t you deserve justice?”

“Of course, but this is different, and you know it. Amy may not pull through. If she doesn’t, we need to be her voice.”

“Don’t say that.” Indie propped her elbows on the table as she covered her ears. “She’s going to make it. She has to.”

“I want to believe that too, but we have to consider the possibility she may not.”

“No!” She shook her head furiously. “I won’t think that way, and you shouldn’t either. She needs us to remain positive. We have to believe this will work out, that she’ll be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.” Penny sighed. “Her son needs her.”

Indie’s jaw dropped. “Amy has a son? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Every time I tried to talk to you about your family, you shut me down.”

Indie couldn’t argue. Her cousin was right. “How old is he?”

“Six months.” Penny took a sip of water. “Apparently Amy left the dirtbag shortly after Cameron was born. That’s when she realized he wasn’t going to change. Things were going from bad to worse because the baby was taking so much of her time and attention.”

“She told you this?” Indie tried to ignore the stab of pain that came from knowing her cousin had stayed in touch with the people who’d betrayed her. She knew they were Penny’s family too, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Yes.” Penny lowered her head. “I hope you don’t think I was being disloyal to you by keeping in touch with your mama and sister. I love all of you. I kept hoping you’d find your way back to each other. I thought if I kept the lines of communication open that might happen.”

“You haven’t told them I’m here, have you?”

“No, of course not,” she said, looking offended. “You can trust me. I thought you knew that.”

“I do.”

“Please don’t be angry with me. I was only doing what I thought was best for you.”

Indie knew her cousin’s heart was in the right place, even if she didn’t agree with her tactics. “I’m not angry with you.”

Penny gave Indie a little smile. “I’m going to visit Amy this weekend. Come with me. You could meet your nephew.”

“What? No, I can’t do that.” Indie shook her head. “I can’t believe you’d even suggest it.”

“I know how you feel, I do, but imagine how you would feel if you never got to see her again.”

Indie closed her eyes as an image of Amy holding a pillow high above her head flashed through her mind. They’d shared a bedroom until they were ten and twelve, and pillow fights were common. “Please don’t. You know I can’t go there.”

“He’s in jail. He can’t hurt you again.”

“I’m not afraid of him.” Indie looked her cousin in the eye and squared her shoulders. “I’m not the same scared little girl he took advantage of.”

“No, you’re not.” Penny grabbed Indie’s wrist, clasping it when she tried to withdraw. “He’s taken so much from you. When is it going to end?”

“He stole my virginity,” she whispered, glancing at the people dining next to them. “That’s all he took from me.”

“No, it’s not,” Penny said. “He robbed you of the ability to have a normal relationship, to believe there really are good guys out there who won’t hurt you.”

“That’s not true,” Indie said. A little voice in her head screamed at her to stop living in denial. “I just haven’t met anyone I’m interested in.” Lee’s face popped into her head. She wasn’t interested in him in
that way.
He was all wrong for her.

“How do you expect to meet anyone when you reject any guy with the courage to try to scale the huge wall you’ve built around you?”

Indie wanted to defend herself, but she couldn’t. “Maybe in time—”

“How much more time do you need, Indie? It’s been years.”

“You don’t understand.” Indie swallowed convulsively. “You were lucky enough to get away before he—”

“I know, honey,” Penny said, rubbing her cousin’s forearm. “I know the hell he put you through. I know better than anyone what he cost you.”

Indie was glad her cousin couldn’t really understand the depth of her pain. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

“Your parents loved you. So did Amy. They still do.” Before Indie could interject, Penny said, “Think about the girl you were back then. You had a wild streak a mile wide. That whole goth thing you had going on: the purple hair, piercings, that crazy makeup.” She smiled. “Skipping school, setting off the fire alarm in the girl’s bathroom by smoking, stealing booze from your parents, sneaking out at night to be with…” She snapped. “What was his name again?”

“Hal.” Indie smiled, thinking of the sweet, shy boy who hid behind scary clothes, hoping he could fool people into believing he was stronger and braver than he was. She had thought he was the guy who would be her first.

“You were really into him, weren’t you?” Penny asked, a teasing glint in her eye. “I remember you telling me you thought you loved him. Still think you did?”

Love. It seemed such a foreign concept to her now. Indie couldn’t even speculate about what her first crush might have evolved into had they been given more time. “Who knows? For all I know, he could be married with a couple of kids by now.”

Penny snorted. “I doubt it. He’s the same age you are. That’s hardly old enough to be locked down with the old ball and chain.”

“You don’t know that.” Indie propped her chin in her hand. Maybe life had dealt Hal a blow that had forced him to grow up fast.

“No, I don’t. But I do know you should come with me this weekend. I know your parents would give anything to see you again.”

“How do you know that?” Indie asked. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Your mama tells me so all the time. I can’t tell you what it does to me hearing her say she misses you and not being able to tell her where you are.”

“I’m sorry,” Indie said, feeling her heart soften. “I didn’t mean to put you in an awkward position.”

“I did what I had to do to protect you,” Penny said. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“I love you.” Indie wished those words didn’t feel so foreign on her lips. “I don’t tell you that often enough, but I hope you know I do.”

“I know.” The two women shared a tender look before Penny said, “As long as we’re on the subject, your mama says your daddy hasn’t been the same since you left. I think once they had time to process what happened, they realized you’d been telling the truth.”

“You can’t speak for them.” Indie tried to keep the resentment from her voice. “If they wanted to find me, they wouldn’t have stopped looking until they did.”

“We talked about that once, your mama and me,” Penny said. “She said she didn’t think you wanted to be found, that you felt you were better off without them.”

“I am. I don’t need a family who accepts a stranger’s word over mine.”

“He wasn’t exactly a stranger,” Penny said. “He and your sister had been dating a long time. Your parents saw him as a member of the family. So did you.”

That was what hurt the most. Indie had trusted Kendall. She thought of him as a brother, and he turned on her. He was deaf to her protests, ruthless in his pursuit of taking what he wanted.

“I have to get back to work.” Indie reached into her purse for her wallet.

“Lunch is on me. Just promise you’ll think about going with me.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Indie muttered, sliding out of the booth.

***

Indie was useless for the rest of the day. She was so lost in thought that she barely heard Lee knock on her door.

“What’re you doing here so late?” Lee asked. “It’s after dark.”

“It is?” Indie glanced out the window. “I guess it is.”

“Mind if I come in?”

“Sure.” She gestured to the chair on the other side of her desk. “Take a load off. How was your first day on the job?”

Lee chuckled as he sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I’ve been freelancing for Drake for a while. What we did today was no different.”

“Except now you have a steady paycheck. That has to count for something, right?”

“I guess.” Lee frowned. “You okay? You seem kind of distracted.”

If someone had told her a week earlier that she would feel comfortable talking with Lee Elliott, she would have thought they were crazy. Yet there they were, and she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather open up to about her sister. “I got some bad news today. It kind of hit me hard.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You wanna talk about it?”