Page 31 of The Chase
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Greer just didthe wrong thing. She knew it. She let that toad wrap his arms around her and hold her again. She definitely shouldn’t have. It was weak.
She blamed hormones.
She pulled in a deep breath and looked up at him. “There are police reports about that day.”
“I have them. But all they say is that there was a head-on collision. And there were injured, and…dead. But that’s it. It doesn’t even name the injured. And the investigator I’ve hired said the reports are incomplete. He thinks they are fake somehow.”
She didn’t believe that. She didn’t think it worked that way. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“My investigator said…your family…might have covered some things up that day. Hid what your brother did. To protect him.”
“My brother didn’t doanythingwrong. None of them did. Gene was just driving home from the hardware store that day. Grady…Grady was in the truck behind us…” Her memories of that day were so hazy. But she remembered looking through therear window of that stupid old car and seeing Grady coming for her in his new truck.
She’d just known her big brother was going to come for her. Going to save her. She had never been so terrified in her life, but she’dknownher brother was coming for her the instant his truck caught up to them. She’d hadhopethen.
“You were in the car.” Kurt said, flatly. His hands tightened on her, turned her more fully. She could smell him all around her, that warm spicyKurtscent that she hoped she’d one day be able to forget. “With my brother.”
She just started shaking. As she remembered. “They shoved me into that car. The one with red hair grabbedme.The other guy, the one with brown hair—he’d grabbed Genny. They smelled bad. Really bad, so bad it made me want to vomit. Rotten, like soured clothes. I just thought they were dirty. Now I know they were drunk. I remember the smell first. In my nightmares. Every time.”
She closed her eyes, and to her shame, pressed her forehead against his chest. She just needed arms around her now. That was all. He smelled good, and real, and it helped erase the memories.
“Now I know it was alcohol. They were drunk. Really, really drunk. And cursing. Almost every other word. My parents, my brothers…they didn’t curse around us. My parents didn’t allow it. Genny was fighting and screaming. I was yelling, biting. Trying to just get his hands off ofme.He was hurting me where he held me. Scaring me so much.The twins heard me and Genny screaming. Gunn was in the house, making dinner. He was so close. Gunn heard us first. Genny…that one with brown hair had dragged her off the porch. She was biting him and kicking and fighting. The other guy had me over his shoulder. We were almost at the car. Then Gunn was justthere.Gunn was closest to Genny, Kurt. Gunn was nearest to where that man hadGenny. They were going to hurt us—just to get back at our dad. Because Dad had turned them into the police for theft. Grady came running from the barn. He was so far away. Grady was yelling my name. Just yelling it, telling that guy to just let me go. Begging almost. Saying we were just little kids. But the man who had me kept saying we Hillers had to pay for everything wrong in his life. My dad and Gene had fired them for stealing the weekend before. He’d given them jobs because they’d been foster kids my parents had taken in back when Genny was in diapers and I wasn’t even born. They took my grandmother’s wedding ring and some of my mom’s other jewelry. My dad had pressed charges, and they’d gotten out on bail. They’d pawned my mom’s jewelry to buy drugs.”
“Baby girl…I didn’t know any of this.”
She looked up into his brown eyes, seeing the horror. Or…doubt. She looked away. At the precious baby girl asleep in the middle of her bed now. Her father…he had never forgiven himself for his kindness in giving those two men jobs. He’d blamed himself for what Greer had gone through for so long. Her father was a good man; he hadn’t deserved what they had done to his family, either.
When did the past stop hurting people?
Her entire world had been changed, her family had been traumatized…and even Kurt had lost someone he’d loved. Why? She had never fully understood.
“I don’t care if you believe me. I know what happened that day. I’ll never forget. I hurt every single night because of what they did. How can I ever forget?”
His hands flexed on her arms, and he pulled her closer. To her shame, she wanted to press against him and just…forget for a little while. “Tell me. Tell me what happened. What did they do?”
She looked into his brown eyes. Into his beautiful toad face. Tears covered her cheeks. She didn’t want to remember those horrible days. The two years ofpainthat had come after. The trauma that had never been fully erased. “They were angry and they were drunk and they were going to make my family pay. By taking me and Genny and hurting us, Kurt. I’m sure you can figure out how. I’m sorry. I know he was your brother, but he had his hands on my thirteen-year-old sister and was going to hurt her in a way no man ever should even think about. And his friend hadme.I was nine.”
Kurt flinched as if she’d hit him. Thishadto be hurting him, too. If he even believed her.
Her words were flat when she told him the rest of the story. As much as she remembered, anyway. “Grady came for me, across the yard, but he was just too far away to reach me in time. They shoved me in the back of the car. It only had two doors. I couldn’t get out. I could see Grady in his truck coming up behind us. He was trying to get to me—and I knew he would keep chasing us until he rescued me. Because he loved me. They drove around the corner, by the big pecan tree there. They were all over the road. Gene was just driving home and he was right there. Gene couldn’t get out of the way. He just couldn’t get out of the way. There was nowhere for him to go right there. He had no idea I was in that car. The man driving…crowed. They were happy when they saw Gene. The redheaded man yelled. But your brother was afraid, and he was cursing. I remember your brother cursing, then begging his friend to just get out of Gene’s way andnot to do it. I hate cursing. I hate it. Because of him. The driver was happy to see Gene. And he sped up. But Gene’s truck was a lot bigger than that stupid car. And Gene tried to stop, to get out of the way. They still hit him head on. We were lucky Gene was alive. They were only going thirty or so. If they had been going faster, I probably would have died instantly. I was thrownthrough the rear window. My brother would have died, too. Instead…I was in a coma for three days. When I woke…I couldn’t walk. No one knew if I’d ever walk again. My leg was shattered and there was swelling on my spine. And other things. For a few years, after, I had seizures from the damage to my head and spine. It took me two years to be able to walk without crutches again. And people in town just kept saying it was allGene’sfault. The rich man and the poor fosterboy.Your brother was not a child when he chose to do what he did. Gene almost died that day. I almost died that day. And your brother did die. Grady and Gene…had to sit there with me almost dead between them on the ground and wait for help that day. Gunn had called the police the instant he could. And help wasclose.An ambulance was close because the paramedics had been eating at the diner. That was the only reason I didn’t die that day. Right there next to your brother’s body. And everyone said it wasGene’sfault at first. He never deserved that. Ever. That’s probably what your stupid reports said, wasn’t it?”
He just nodded.
She looked at him. At how pale he was. And she just waited.
24
The truth wasin her big eyes. In the scars on her body he’d seen for himself. In thehurtin the way she held herself.
His brother was dead. His brother had tried to hurt her and her sister. If he trusted her at all, he had to believe her, right? “I want to know one thing…”
She tensed, then nodded slowly. “Go ahead. Ask. What’s the point of hiding anything now?’
Kurt reached out for her and wrapped his hands around her chin. “Are you okay now? That is all that really matters to me. All I’ve ever wanted to was to know the truth of that day and why it was hidden. Now…I just…want you, Greer Katerina Hiller. You, my girls, and our baby. Nothing else matters to me anymore, butyou.”
He saw it in her eyes right there.
