One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(51)
“Does Decker know?”
Carina shook her head. “No. He’d confront Wendell as fast as my dad would. I just can’t … The situation is too delicate to bring too many people into the fold.”
“Except now, you called the cops. Your dad’s golf buddies with the Sheriff.”
Carina squeezed her eyes closed. “I know. I only had a split second to decide that. Haylie’s going to hate me, but I love her too much to let him…” She swallowed hard and gripped Emily’s hand. “What if he kills her?”
Fear squeezed her ribcage. It was a legitimate possibility, one that Emily had borne as a kid, every time her parents fought, a fear she still entertained whenever she thought about her mom continuing to stay married to him. She had to believe that if her father had killed her mom, she would’ve heard, somehow. Wouldn’t she? Despite that she had long ago severed all the ties to her former life and her blood relatives—so thoroughly that no one from her old life should be able to reach her—a part of her still wondered if, somehow, a daughter could sense her mother’s murder.
“It’s okay,” Emily said. “I get why you didn’t. I know I don’t like to talk about my past, but that’s just because I’ve moved on. My father doesn’t have the power to trigger me anymore.” Emily took Carina’s hand. “Calling the cops on Wendell was the right thing to do. Maybe they’ll catch him in the act and arrest him. That would be the best outcome.”
Carina’s eyes closed. “Drive faster, will you? I’m going to pray.”
She released Emily’s hand and clasped hers in front of her face, mouthing a silent prayer of her own. Heart pounding and her head dizzy with fear for Haylie, Emily turned her focus back to the road.
Haylie and Wendell’s apartment was a twenty-minute drive from the resort, though both places were located in the same small town of Dulcet, in the heart of Ravel County. The apartment was tucked into the backside of a complex one block removed from Dulcet’s Main Street, behind Delbert’s Grocery Depot and two blocks from the firehouse.
Ty had invited Haylie and Wendell to live in the family’s compound on Briscoe Ranch after they eloped two years earlier, even offering to remodel Carina’s former office above the garage into a granny flat so the newlyweds could have privacy, but Wendell had insisted they strike out on their own. It made sense now why Wendell had done that. An abuser’s first job was to isolate his victim from her support network.
Emily and Carina arrived at the apartment complex to find a crowd gathered in the doorways and parking lot, all eyes on the spectacle on the second-floor walkway. Haylie was standing outside her open apartment door, dressed in a gray skirt and silky blue top, barefoot, and shouting at the top of her lungs while gesticulating wildly at the two sheriff’s deputies who stood next to their cruiser in the parking lot.
As she took in the scene, Carina sucked in a pained breath. “Oh, no.”
Emily ran a visual scan of Haylie’s body for damage. Her face was red, her hair was tangled, and the top two buttons on her blouse had pulled from their buttonholes, with one missing and the other dangling by a thread. Other than that, her body showed no visible signs of injury. Though her arms were covered by the blouse’s long sleeves, she seemed to be moving them fine. Her legs looked strong and bruise-free. Her lips weren’t swollen, and neither were her cheeks.
Emily patted Carina’s knee as she double-parked behind a line of cars. “She doesn’t look hurt too badly. We can handle this.”
Haylie bent down and grabbed a potted succulent from a cluster of plants near her front door and held it over the railing, looking ready to hurl it at the officers. “Fuck you! No one asked you to come here. This is private property!”
The deputies perked up at that. One of them made a calming gesture with his open palms. “Ma’am, please. Set the plant down or we’ll have to take you in. You can’t be destroying property and threatening an officer.”
Carina scrambled to unfasten her seatbelt and open her door. “Let’s get over there before she gets herself arrested.”
When Haylie spotted Carina and Emily, the eye roll she gave them was probably visible from space. With the plant in her hand, she threw both arms in the air. Potting soil and dried leaves rained over Haylie and fluttered to the first floor walkway below her. “And look who it is now! The guardian fucking angels I never asked for.”
Carina’s steps faltered for a moment before continuing on her route up the concrete stairs at the end of the building. Emily followed, keeping quiet and letting Carina take the lead. “Are you okay, Haylie?”
Haylie stabbed one of her long, acrylic nails toward the deputies. “Did you call them? I told you to stay out of my fucking business!”
Carina stopped at the top of the stairs, several apartment doors away from Haylie. “We can’t stay out of it. We love you too much.”
Haylie snarled. “Do I look like I need your help?”
Yes, she did. Emily’s gaze went to the mangled potted plant. Carina’s must have, too, because Haylie looked down at it in her hands as though realizing for the first time that she was holding something.
With proud, if stilted, movement, Haylie set the plant down, then rose to her full height, her chin high. She extended the middle fingers of both hands and held them out to Carina and Emily. “How about now? Do I look like I want you your help now?”