Page 190 of Unexpected Heroine

The thought of losing Redleg lodges jagged rocks in the back of my throat.

“Big Al, can we talk?”

He shifts in his chair and rolls out his neck. “Absolutely.”

“Yeah, so...” When I pause, a gulping sound echoes around the office. Two guesses who it came from, and it wasn’t Big Al.

“Go on.”

My pulse slams behind my ears, reverberating through my entire neck and shoulders. An ache resonates from my hands through my arms. When I look down, I notice I have a white-knuckle death grip on the armrests of my chair.

Three times, I open my mouth. Three times, nothing comes out.

He notices me bumbling, leaning his broad frame forward and lowering his chin. From under his steely brow, his eyes scream at me with nothing but compassion. “What’s the matter, T? Steady yourself and talk to me. You know you can tell me anything.”

Fuck.

“There’s uh...” I clear my throat and try again. “There’s something I need to tell you. About her. Violet.”

My vision wobbles in and out. I’ve rehearsed how I would say this in my head a thousand times. Apparently, it wasn’t enough.

I haven’t even gotten the words out yet, and I’m already fucking it up.

“Anything, son,” he coaxes.

Two little words. They mean so damn much.

If anyone will forgive me, it’s him.

He’s not prone to overreact. More than likely, he’ll hear everything before he speaks. In a way, it’ll be the exact opposite of how I told Lettie. His daughter.

Hopefully, that means it’ll have a better outcome.

Still seated, I brace my elbows on my knees, bending over at the waist. I run my fingers through my hair and take a few deep breaths before I can meet his eyes again.

“I already know she isn’t staying with you anymore. Is that what this is about?”

Naturally, he knows. Boss knows all.

Still gathering the courage to look him in the eyes, I descend my head slowly in a pronounced nod.

After all, what I’m about to tell him is the reason she left.

“What can I do to help?” His voice is deep and calm, steadying me like he’s done so many times before.

Suddenly, I’m transported back to South Carolina more than a decade ago. Boss and I were sitting in a rental car. I was preparing to confront my father. Big Al asked what he could do to help.

He’d already supported me so much. I had no idea he was about to do even more.

Shaking off the horrid memory of that night, I man up and look him dead in his eyes. “This is about why she left. I fucked up. When we?—”

My words are cut off when my phone chimes with an incoming text alert. Guess I forgot to silence my phone when I came into HQ this morning.

And it’s not just any alert. It’s the tone I assigned to sugar bear.

Pulse racing, I reach into my back pocket to retrieve the phone.

“Hang on. It’s her,” I mumble, my gaze fixed on the screen.

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