No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(39)

“I’m going to catch the bastard,” Dawson said. “I have to. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t.”

Gavin let his breath go in a long, audible exhale. “What does that mean?”

“It means I have to do this my own way. I’ll clean the room when I’m ready.”

“I wish you’d let us take care of it for you,” Elijah said. “But...I don’t want to make things worse for you. I’ll tell my mother that she’ll have to come out here and talk to you herself if she feels that strongly about it.”

“Tell her I appreciate the support she’s given me. The same goes for you. A person in my situation...having someone in your corner makes a big difference.”

“We know you better than everyone else,” Elijah said.

Gavin kicked a pebble in the dirt. “I feel terrible. If only I’d been home when you came by after shoving that hitchhiker out of your truck, I could’ve corroborated some of your story.”

“I could’ve gone back to the bar to see you, but I didn’t want to drink anything else, didn’t want to get sucked back into that scene for any length of time. I was just wasting fifteen or twenty minutes until I could go home and get some rest. I had to work the next morning.”

“And you didn’t want to let your parents down by being unable to do that.”

He chuckled without mirth. “That’s the irony.”

The sound of a motor caused them to turn. Sadie had arrived. She parked to one side so the Turners could still get around her and climbed out carrying a small, white sack.

“Hey.” Elijah obviously recognized her and seemed startled to see her.

She glanced from one brother to the other. “Hi.”

“Sadie works for me now,” Dawson explained to avoid any misunderstanding. “She’ll be taking care of Angela, once we get the house cleaned up and I can bring my sister home.”

“You quit the diner?” Gavin asked her.

“I’m still there, but only for another week or so. This job will give me more hours. I needed to get something that paid a bit more.”

Elijah nodded. “I see.”

Dawson dug the house key out of his pocket. His parents had never locked the house during the day. They’d rarely bothered to lock it even at night. When they were murdered, the house had been left wide-open, and Dawson knew it was because they figured he’d lock up after he got home. They’d felt safe. But after what he’d been through, he wasn’t about to allow anyone, including the vandals who’d come after, the chance to get inside his home ever again. “Here you are. You can go inside and get started,” he told her.

“Okay. See you in a minute.” She offered them all a self-conscious smile before leaving.

“Sadie, Dawson?” Elijah whispered once she was out of earshot. “What about Sly?”

“What about him?” Dawson asked.

“He’s super possessive, for one. I can’t imagine he’ll be okay with having her out here—with you—even if you weren’t—” he paused, grappling for words until he ended with “—public enemy number one right now.”

“I’ve been tried. I was found not guilty.”

“That won’t matter,” Gavin muttered, showing his complete agreement with his brother. “Not to him.”

Dawson scratched his neck. “She applied. She was qualified and close by and needed the money. I didn’t see why her ex should have any say in the matter.”

Elijah looked less than comfortable. “Don’t mess with Sly, man. He can be a real ass.”

Dawson was finding that out. “He’s not going to tell me who I can and can’t hire. That’s not fair to me or her.”

Gavin cleared his throat. “I applaud your fighting spirit. And I can see why you’d feel that way. So would I. But I’ve seen that dude in action. Like Eli said, he’s a real prick—a prick on a power trip.”

“Most cops are,” Dawson joked. “At least the ones I’ve met.”

Eli dipped his head as if to say he could understand. “I’m sure you haven’t seen the best side of law enforcement. Everyone on the Silver Springs force is convinced you’re guilty. But you’ve been through enough. I’d hate to see you wind up in trouble again.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Dawson asked. “That I fire her and let him starve her out? Allow him to force her to come back to him because she has no other way of feeding her child?”

“Jayden is his child, too,” Gavin said. “Sly won’t let him go hungry.”

“I’m not so sure,” Dawson argued. “He seems to care more about himself than his son—or his desperate-to-be-rid-of-him wife.” He thought of how frightened Sadie had been this morning that someone would see him coming out of her house. Sure, she was concerned about what her landlady would think, but she was more afraid that Sly would find out. “She hasn’t said much, but everything she has told me suggests he’s not playing fair.”

Eli leaned around his brother, checking to be sure Sadie had gone into the house and wasn’t standing off in the shade somewhere, listening. “I don’t know him that well, to tell you the truth. You might be right. But Sly’s a snake, a jealous snake. A few weeks ago, Sadie must’ve found someone to watch her kid, because I saw her at the bar. Sly was there, too, and stared daggers at anyone who dared approach her. He made it very clear he still considered her to be his property and wouldn’t put up with interlopers. So...watch your back.”