Page 68 of Hold the Line

One of us had to start, and I decided it would be me. “She asked to be paid in cash and used the last name Spellman on her application.” His hand twitched around mine. “But that’s her foster family’s name, not hers. I never pressed her on it since she’s a great worker and really sweet. It never raised any flag how often she asked about you. I just thought she was a curious person like I am. But I think…well, is Hailey your sister, Deacon?”

He nodded. “She is.”

I exhaled, slow and heavy. “I should have seen it. You have almost the same hair color. Her eyes are darker, but they’re the same shape as yours. And you’ve talked about your sister, but I didn’t—”

He tugged me closer, his hand stiffening. “Is she okay? I mean, is she safe? Healthy?”

I opened my mouth to ask a dozen questions but thought better of it. Slamming my lips shut, I nodded. “She says her house is loud but the good kind. Her foster mother, Linda, picks her up every day from work. And Hailey is…well, she’s wonderful. So, yes, I’d say she’s okay.”

His exhale was jagged. “Good. That’s good to know. All I ever wanted was for her to be safe, even if she’s gettin’ that with other people.”

“I think she is.” I looked at him, but his gaze was far away, like he wasn’t even beside me.

I needed more from him after both their reactions, but I could wait until he came back to himself.

First, I’d get him home, make sure Hailey had gotten home too, then we’d talk.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Deacon

Phoebewasperchedonmy bed when I came out of the bathroom, steam billowing around me from my burning-hot shower. She waved her phone before dropping it onto the bedside table.

“I just spoke to Linda, Hailey’s foster mom. She picked Hailey up at the diner not long after she left Sugar Rush. She’s doing fine now.”

I nodded and walked to my dresser, taking out a pair of sweats. I yanked them up my damp legs then roughly dried my hair with my towel. My head was in too much of a fog to properly respond. I couldn’t believe she’d stayed—especially after she’d witnessed my little sister run from me in horror.

Once I ran out of things to do, I walked to the bed and sat beside her. Curling forward, I braced my elbows on my knees and held my head with both hands.

“I know you have a lot of questions. It’ll be easier if you ask me instead of me trying to sort out my muddled thoughts.”

I felt her moving closer—the exact opposite way she should have gone. She pressed her cheek to the back of my shoulder and circled her arms around my middle.

“She was living with you when you went to prison?”

“Yep. Parents didn’t give a damn as long as they kept getting her check from the government. As soon as I graduated, I took her out of that hellhole and sorted a place for us to live. I’d been looking after her since she was born. I was still a kid too, but I couldn’t leave her there to fend for herself. It was a struggle—taking care of her and myself—but I did it. Tilly’s mom watched her for next to nothing while I was working. We were poor, but we’d always been poor. That didn’t matter. She was safe, and that’s worth more than a bank full of money.”

Then I made decisions I’d always regret. I screwed up so badly my sister couldn’t even look at me without running away.

“Deacon…” she whispered, her palm moving in slow circles over my flank, “what happened?”

“Richie,” I uttered. “He kept coming around to visit Hailey. During his visits, he was always reminding me how easy it would be to pull the rug out from under us—he could snap his fingers and make sure Hailey went back to our parents.”

I’d been almost certain he’d been bluffing, but there’d been no way in hell I was willing to take my chances with Hailey. Not when our parents’ house was a revolving door of criminals and lowlifes who wouldn’t have thought twice about hurting a little girl.

“For a while, all he’d done was dangle that reality, but a few months before I got arrested, he’d turned it into a noose, and my neck had been all the way in. He had me driving him and his buddies to jobs. I’d never asked what they were doing, but I knew. The fourth one had done me in. Someone saw my truck, saw me driving, and I was done.”

“Not Richie?”

I shook my head. “They tried to get me to turn over on him, but that’s not me. Even if it was, Richie promised he’d make sure Hailey went to a good family, not back to our parents. He’s a piece of shit, but he cared about her. That, I knew for sure.”

“So, Richie’s done one good thing in his life.” She hmphed. “Actually, he probably had nothing to do with Hailey’s placement. Why would social services listen to him? I won’t be giving him credit for the Spellmans—not when he let you go to prison for his crimes. He doesn’t get credit for a damn thing.”

I straightened, twisting around, one knee bent on the bed, and cupped the side of her face. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her eyes were lit from within. Pretty and angry, my girl was.

“You’re mad.”

“Well…yeah.”

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