Page 13 of The Chase
He tucked Bristol against his chest and rocked her in the chair while they waited for her new caseworker to arrive. As he planned.
“Where mama?” That had been the biggest question Bristol had asked. Wanting her mother. It broke his heart every single time.
His girls needed a mother to love them. He…couldn’t imagine any other woman fulfilling that role, being in his life forever. Just the one he dreamed about every single night.
He wanted her forever so damned much it was starting to consume him.
He just had to figure out how to make her understand he wasn’t the bastard he had been almost three months ago. That he’d figured things out. Changed.
Somehow.
He’d spend a lifetime making it up to that woman, if she would just let him.
9
He didn’t recognizethe girl at first. Until the cook called her by name and told her she was looking good today.
The woman he’d been watching turned more fully then. He supposed it could be her. The girl. Greer. She’d grown up nice, that was for sure.
Of course he had never forgotten her. That girl was the reason he’d nearly been locked away for life. Had she died, it would have been a given. Hell, it might have even been a needle.
The therapists had asked him repeatedly if he regretted what he’d done, reminding him Greer Hiller had only been nine years old. He’d figured out what to tell them eventually, but it had probably taken more years than it should have.
He really was a stupid fuck at times. But eventually he’d learned to talk to the talk. Tell them what they wanted to hear. Walk the walk, talk the talk, all that bullshit.
Of course he regretted what he had done. He just hoped the little girls forgave him someday. Hoped that one made a full recovery,all of that.Hoped Kevin’s brother and sister could move on with their lives.
Kevin.
Thoughts of Kev, his only real friend in his entire life, drove him nuts sometimes. Kevin had always been the less stupid one of their pair. He’d told Dwayne to not be an idiot more times than he could count. Kev had been a year older, he’d taken care of Dwayne when he could.
But Dwayne hadn’t listened. Now Kevin was dead.
The Hillers had killed him.
And Dwayne would never forget.
He stared at the girl—woman now. She’d been nine. It had been almost fifteen years. Twenty-four. Hell, Kev had beentwenty-fourwhen he’d died. Dwayne would never forget the blood everywhere. The sight of his best friend’s body there on the gravel beneath the old mesquite tree. The sounds of those Hiller bastards, punks he’d known when he’d been a teenager, crying for their little sister like that.
She’d not even been born yet when Dwayne and Kev had been sent to the Hillers, or even a year old when they’d left. Just a snot-nosed brat that the Hiller family had cooed over constantly. Her, and those other two girls. One hadn’t even been in school yet when Dwayne and Kev had beenmovedby the Hillers’ request.
So what that Dwayne had gotten a little rough with that oldest girl. She’d been spying on him, questioning what he was doing. He’d just shoved her out of his way. The girl had hit her head, but she’d been fine after a few days.
But her father had been there. He’d seen it happen. And one of the rules of the great Hiller household—no putting hands on one of their preciousgirls.Ever.
He and Kev…they’d been gone from the Hiller Ranch that night. Kev hadn’t even done anything, really. Just took up for Dwayne when he didn’t have to, asking the great Max Hiller to give them anotherchance.Dwayne had never forgotten how Kevin had argued for him that night.
They’d come back eight years later though. When the lure of the Hiller money had been too good to resist when they’d needed it most.
Probably the dumbest thing he had ever done.
Kev had died. Dwayne had gone to prison.
And those Hillers had walked around free, like they were gods or something. Someone in the system in this town had been bought off. It was the only thing that made sense.
He just didn’t know how to prove it.
He stayed right where he was, watchingGreer.
