Page 103 of To Bring You Back
When Tim came, he wore jeans and a button-down that made Adeline wish she’d changed out of her sweats while she’d had the chance. “Let’s see your IDs. Real and fake.”
Olivia rifled through her clutch and extended a card toward him. “I only have this one.”
The woman in the picture was obviously not her. How had she gotten into a bar with that?
Without taking the card, Tim snapped a picture. “Let’s go.”
He led them to the drive where an SUV waited. Two members of the security team hopped out and opened the back doors. Adeline and Olivia sat in the middle row, Tim in the back.
Olivia gave her address, and they were off. Other than the teen’s crying, no one made a sound the entire way into town. The SUV pulled to the curb by the Cullens’ modest Cape Cod. Everyone piled out of the vehicle.
At the sound of more car doors, Adeline leaned to see who else was out at this hour. Photographers. Of course.
Tim appeared at Adeline’s side. “We’re here to bring her home, but we’re not commenting on or apologizing for anything. Understand?”
His tone left no room for argument, as if he’d sue her if the Cullens pressed charges using anything she said.
Olivia bumped into her other arm and hiccuped. “My dad’s going to kill me.”
She wanted to correct her that the one he’d want to kill was Matt or the man who’d bothered her, but because of Tim, she refrained. “He’ll be glad you’re home safe.” With her arm around the teen’s shoulders, they climbed the concrete steps. Adeline pressed the doorbell.
As they waited, she peeked over her shoulder. The security detail had succeeded in discouraging the photographers. The two extra vehicles pulled away.
The door let out a short creak. Joe Cullen stood in the opening, rumpled in plaid flannel pajama pants and an old T-shirt. “What’s this?”
Olivia covered her mouth and sobbed, shaking under Adeline’s arm. Tim stood at the bottom of the stairs, silently observing. It would be ages before Olivia could speak.
Adeline couldn’t stand silent that long. “Olivia was at a bar with a fake ID, drinking. She ended up at the cabin, so we’re bringing her home.”
“What cabin?”
Cabin. Right. No local would call it that. “Havenridge. Where the band is staying.”
Lines bracketed Joe’s mouth, and concern wrinkled his forehead. “Olivia?”
The girl inhaled a vortex of air. “I got invited to a party. That’s all. Nothing happened.” She coughed twice and lay a hand over her stomach. “I’m going to be sick.”
Joe focused on Tim for a moment. When his line of sight moved on to the street, where the security detail stood, his expression hardened. He moved his mouth, but before he spoke, Olivia turned, gripped the railing, and vomited into the bushes along the front of the house.
She spat, groaned, and put a hand back on her stomach.
Joe glanced at Adeline. “You’ve done enough.” He took Olivia by the arm and brought her inside, closing the door behind them.
Olivia was in for quite a discussion, if nothing else. Did Joe see Adeline as part of the problem?
Sadness more than anything swirled as she turned from the door to find Tim still stationed on the walk, watching her.
“What? Did I say too much for you?”
Tim wordlessly followed the walk to the SUV. He took the spot that had been Olivia’s on the way there, and Adeline returned to her own seat. As the vehicle pulled away from the curb, she watched the dark neighborhood pass.
Tim took a breath, and she looked over.
“I have a daughter.” He frowned and sighed, not making eye contact. “It’s good that didn’t go any further.”
She nodded. Understatement of the year.
The whole thing left Adeline’s stomach twisting, uneasy.
