Whispers of You (Lost & Found #1)(38)

“None of your damn business.”

My nostrils flared. “She will always be my business. And you know that.”

Chris huffed out a breath, his gaze straying to the lake.

It was Jude who spoke. “We’re friends. That’s it.”

Maybe that was true of Jude, but Chris looked at Wren like a man dying of thirst looked at a glass of water.

“Someone had to step in when you bailed,” Chris muttered. “She needed someone. Her parents were checked out, and she was a wreck. She was dying. Not because of some bullet, but because of you.”

Each word was a carefully placed blow designed to inflict maximum damage.

Jude clamped a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “C’mon, man.”

Chris shrugged him off. “It’s true. We might be able to get over the fact that he bailed on us, but Holt destroyed her, and he shouldn’t get the chance to do it again.”

Chris stormed toward his truck as I stared after him. Wren’s words echoed in my ears. “I don’t give a damn about the five minutes you missed that night. I give a damn about the last ten years you threw away.”

I’d thought I was doing the right thing. But all I’d done was inflict more damage on everyone around me.

“Give him some time,” Jude said. “He’s protective of Wren, but it’s more than that. He was hurt when you left.”

Because leaving before I told a soul was the only way I could’ve done it. “I’m sorry. If I’d been stronger, I would’ve kept in touch. I just knew that if I kept hearing about home, about her, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to stay away. And I thought staying away was the right thing.”

Jude nodded. “I get that. It’s still gonna take some time to mend fences.”

Understatement of the century. But if I didn’t try, I would keep living this half-life that was slowly eating me alive as memories tortured me. I had to make things right and heal what I could—as people would let me.

I met Jude’s gaze. “I’m staying. I don’t know for how long, but at least for the foreseeable future. I want to make things right.” More than that, I wanted to atone.

“Good.” Chris’s truck started, and Jude glanced over his shoulder. “I’d better go before he leaves my ass.”

I nodded, pulling my keys from my pocket and starting for my SUV. “Hey, Jude?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for not decking me when I showed up.”

He barked out a laugh. “Don’t think I didn’t consider it.”

I grinned. “If I offer Chris one free shot, do you think it would help?”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

I shook my head as I climbed behind the wheel of my SUV. It would be worth it for a clean slate with the friends I’d had all my life. But they weren’t the only ones I needed a fresh start with.

I stared at the cabin. Leaving felt every kind of wrong, but I worried if I pushed too hard now, I’d lose those glimmers of hope I’d found with Wren last night.

I forced myself to start my SUV and hit Lawson’s contact on my phone as I headed toward my parents’ property. He answered on the third ring. “Everything okay?”

“Do you ever answer the phone any other way?”

Lawson grunted. “When you have two teenage hell-raisers, one accident-prone six-year-old, and you’re the chief of police, people tend to call when there’s a problem. Wren doing okay?”

“Happily kicked my ass to the curb this morning.”

Lawson chuckled. “I think it’s a hell of a lot of progress that you lasted almost twelve hours.”

It didn’t feel like progress; it felt like torture. Two steps forward, one step back. Except each inch I gained was a reminder of everything I’d missed these past years. “Any updates?”

“I submitted the shoe print last night because I knew you’d be hounding me. It came back as a common, unisex work boot. Hard to get an exact size because the prints were smudged.”

“Not exactly narrowing things down.”

The boys’ voices rose in the background, and then the sound of a door closing came across the line. “I can’t do much else unless someone shows up again.”

Just the thought of that had rage pulsing through my veins. “I drew up security plans for Wren’s place.”

“And how did she take that?”

“About as well as you can imagine.”

Lawson chuckled. “Holt, you two have a shot to find your way. But you’ll kill that if you come in after being gone for a decade and start trying to boss her around.”

“That’s pretty much what she said. Just without the you-two-have-a-shot part.”

He coughed, and I knew it was to hide outright laughter. “Listen to the woman.”

“I need to know she’s safe.”

“I get that. I’ll have officers stopping by Wren’s place regularly. But you might try just talking to her. Tell her your concerns and ask if it would be okay if you used your contacts to get her a screaming deal on a security system. But you have to listen to her input on it.”

“Why’d you have to go and be all logical?” I grumbled.

“Big brother’s job.”