Page 15 of Fighting His Fate
Grace hopped out of the truck and slammed her door, the baby behind Brett crying once again. He sighed heavily before turning around in his seat to address her as she opened the back door and unhooked the car seat. “Do you think you could stop slamming the door? That’s twice now you woke mine up.”
“Mine’s still sleeping.” She grinned at him before slamming her door again. The remaining baby cried harder.
“Great. Fucking fantastic.” She was halfway to the door, but he kept talking under his breath. “You’re a real gem, you know that, Grace? No wonder that preacher of yours snapped you up like he did. And here I was thinking you had a nice ass every time you walked by my window. Little did I know about your less than stellar personality.” A man would have to be out of his mind to want to live with that woman forever. He’d seen the way John looked at her, and that was clearly part of the other man’s plans.
Freaking lunatic.
He unbuckled the second baby, the child’s cries piercing his eardrums, and he made his way to his side of the duplex where Grace waited. He unlocked the door, holding it open for her to enter first. “Oh, wait. You don’t have a hazmat suit.”
“Very funny.” She maneuvered around him.
“There’s a little chlamydia on the floor and some gonorrhea on the couch. Watch yourself.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
He put the screaming baby down inside the door, car seat and all, and made his way to the kitchen to take his cell phone out of the bag of rice. It looked okay, and he held down the power button with a silent prayer. Grace marched over to him, wide-eyed. “You’re just going to leave him there, screaming?”
He shrugged. “What would you like me to do? Ask him what’s wrong? Because I don’t think he’s going to tell me.”
She shook her head dramatically as she headed toward the infant. “Unbuckle him, for God’s sake. Pick the poor thing up.” She did just that, the baby quieting the moment she took him in her arms. “Ugh. He needs a diaper.”
The phone played a little song as its screen lit. “Yes!” He went straight to his messages, finding nothing.
“Thank God you can get on Instagram,” she said, cradling the baby with one hand and opening the diapers with the other. “That’s far more important than taking care of a child.”
He clicked over to his phone app. His stomach clenched when he saw he had a voicemail from Joni. The sound of her voice was like a sharp blade sinking into his heart, and his eyes instantly stung. He’d never hear her words again, never talk to her like they used to when they were young, and he was profoundly sorry he’d been avoiding her calls.
They’d been so close growing up, Joni seeming more like his family than his parents and brother ever did. No, not just family. Joni had been home. But after he came back from his tour of duty, he couldn’t handle the thought of those blue eyes seeing straight through his defenses, expecting to hear every detail of a story he never wanted to remember and wasn’t sure he could get past.
So he’d lost her, just like that—by choice—long before she’d left this world. She was married to Luke by then, the two of them quickly hitting it off after Brett introduced them and marrying while Brett was away. Two of his favorite people in the goddamn world, and he’d deliberately lost touch with them both.
What the fuck is the matter with me?
“Brett, it’s me,” said Joni. “I really need to talk to you. It’s important. Luke and I are in trouble and we need your help.” Her tone had the hair on his arms standing on end. “I’m scared. God, I hope you’re in town. Call me when you get this. We’re on our way to you, but we’re being followed. I can’t call the police… It’s such a long story. I have so much to tell you, so many things you really need to know. We don’t know who else to turn to.” She took a shaking breath. “I know you haven’t wanted to see us, to see me. But I need you this time. Please.”
Followed. Police. Scared. Trouble. Brett’s eyes locked with Grace’s as she walked back into the room, feeding a baby. His head was spinning, guilt and grief sucking him deep into the depths of hell.
“What?” Grace asked.
He worked to control the emotion that threatened to come out, his eyes burning and a scream of horror building in his chest. He told himself he was overreacting, that the frantic tone of Joni’s voice was exaggerated in his mind, but her fear had been palpable. Something was terribly wrong.
What if the accident wasn’t an accident at all? What if Joni and Luke had been murdered?
He put down the phone, searching his memory for details about the accident. Damn it, he’d been so upset about his friends, he had barely been listening to the preacher’s description of what happened. “Joni left me a message. They were coming here to see me. She said they were in trouble, that they were being followed.” He crossed to the windows and pulled the drapes shut. “What do you know about the accident?”
She shrugged. “Just that it was a hit-and-run at a rest area off the highway. They were walking into the building. The husband died at the scene.”
“And then the van that killed them shows up at the hospital, and some guy tries to take their kids.” Sweat broke out on his skin with a sudden rush.
“This was no accident, Grace.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” she agreed.
He began to pace. “Who handled the accident? Was it the state troopers?”
“I think so. I saw two of them at the hospital.”
“I have to go there now. Learn what I can about what happened. See if they got a hit on the vehicle. Moto’s working on it, but—” He was heading for the door, but he stopped when she didn’t follow. “Come on.”
