Page 37 of Chasing Shelter (Sparrow Falls #5)

ELLIE

I climbed behind the wheel of my SUV and tossed my purse onto the passenger seat. My arms were tired, but they’d lost some of the soreness over the past two weeks of working at The Mix Up. And I was learning to balance more than two plates on my tray at once—a true victory.

I’d started to slip into a routine of sorts. Shift at the bakery, working on the house, cooking lessons with Trace and Keely, family dinners with the Colsons, self-defense training with Kye, and time with the girls. It was simple and perfect and me .

Now that I’d finished the mural, it was time to put in my butterfly garden. Trace had warned me that it could freeze any day now that we’d dipped deeper into October, but I didn’t care. It was the principle of the thing that mattered.

I started the engine in my parking spot behind The Mix Up but paused as my phone rang. Swiping it up, I hesitated at the unfamiliar number. My stomach lurched. I hadn’t heard from Bradley since I’d switched my number, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have found it somehow .

Staring down at my cell, I flipped through my options. But I didn’t want to run. Not anymore. Swiping my finger across the screen, I accepted the call. “Hello?”

“You are receiving a collect call from an inmate at Longfield Correctional Facility. This call is being recorded and may be monitored. To accept this call, press 1.”

A vein thrummed in my neck, and a whooshing sound filled my ears. I’d kept as much distance from my father as possible, but I still knew what prison he was at while awaiting trial. I should’ve hung up. Denied the call. Rejected any contact. But I found myself hitting the 1 on my screen.

“Eleanor.” My father’s voice sounded older somehow, and the noise in the background—voices and a few shouts—wasn’t something I was used to hearing when he called.

“What do you want?” The cold question surprised me, even though it had come from my mouth. Maybe my time in Sparrow Falls had made me bolder, stronger.

“That’s no way to greet your father,” he clipped.

“You haven’t acted like a father once in your life, so I guess that’s fitting.”

Background noise filled the line for a handful of moments before Philip spoke again. “I can see my sources were correct. You’re letting bad influences take control of your life.”

Unease slid through me. Sources. Ones that could find any phone number or location.

The same sort of sources Bradley had used to harass me since I’d arrived in Sparrow Falls.

But I wouldn’t let Philip know that he’d struck a nerve with the information he’d managed to glean while in prison.

“That’s rich, coming from you. The only bad influences in my life were you and the people you put there. ”

“Eleanor. That is enough,” he barked. “I heard from Henrick that you aren’t returning Bradley’s calls.”

Bradley’s father had tattled on me? I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of me. “Seriously? Bradley told his dad, and his dad called you ? So you can…what? Tell me to play nice?”

“Eleanor.” My name was uttered through gritted teeth, a sign I was getting to him. “The Newbury family is your only hope. Helen already thinks of you as a daughter.”

It was a low blow, bringing Bradley’s mother into it.

She’d always been kind to me, especially after my own mother passed.

She’d taken me shopping for new school clothes a handful of times and had been a source of warmth at stodgy society events.

Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was stuck the same way my mother had been.

Locked in a castle where someone had thrown away the key.

But I saw what Philip was trying for now.

He was attempting to play on what I’d always longed for… a family.

“I don’t need the hope the Newbury family brings me.

I wish them the best, and I’ll always be fond of Helen.

” I couldn’t say the same for Henrick. He was a pompous ass of epic proportions and a huge reason why Bradley lived with the entitlement he did.

“But this is done. Bradley and I are done. That world and I are done.”

“Stop throwing a stupid little tantrum,” Philip spat. “You need to pull yourself together. Go back to New York. To Bradley. I expect you to live up to the Pierce name.” The tone was a jerk of the chain he thought was still around my neck.

How many times had I caved when I heard disapproval in his tone? How many times had I surrendered to his threats? Too many to count.

But I wasn’t that scared little girl anymore.

“The only thing I want to do is hide from the Pierce name. I’ll change it as soon as I can because I don’t want any ties to the man who murdered innocent human beings for nothing more than a quest for money and power.”

Philip scoffed. “They were hardly innocent.”

“They didn’t deserve what you did. And neither did I.

You never cared about me. You taught me to be nothing more than expensive window dressing.

And I let myself believe it was true. That I had to be whatever you wanted me to be, so scared I’d lose my last parent if I didn’t.

But I know the truth now. It would’ve been the world’s greatest gift if I’d lost you. ”

Blood roared in my ears, and my breaths came in quick pants .

“You’re going to regret your insolence, Eleanor. And when you do, you’ll remember this moment.”

A click sounded, and the line went dead.

I waited for the fear to hit, for a wave of anxiety to come crashing down. But it didn’t. As I lowered my phone from my ear, my breaths slowed, and the pounding in my ears lessened. I felt…lighter.

Never—not once—had I told my father how I truly felt.

I’d always been too frightened. Of what he would do, of losing him even though he terrified me.

But Trace had made me realize something.

I wasn’t scared anymore. I could be exactly who I wanted to be.

Feel the way I needed and share those feelings.

And all of that was okay. More than okay. It was good. And it was freeing.

I dropped my phone into the cupholder and plugged Bloom it didn’t make me feel steamrolled while still offering his wisdom. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

“We’ll find you some things for pots for now. You can bring them inside on the nights when the temperatures are really dropping. Then, we’ll get you bulbs for the garden. They need to be planted in the fall. Come spring, your yard will be full of color.”

I mulled that over for a long moment. Something about that idea spoke to me. Laying the seeds now for a bloom to come. “Kind of the perfect metaphor for my life right now,” I mumbled.

Curiosity filled Duncan’s eyes, but he didn’t give it voice. Instead, he said, “Let’s get started.”

I heaved the bag of soil out of the back of my SUV, grunting at its weight. I might’ve started Kye’s suggested weight training regimen, but apparently, I wasn’t in fighting shape quite yet because this bag of soil was doing me in.

“Blaze,” a familiar, deep voice warned. “What are you doing?”

“Painting my nails. What does it look like, Chief?”

A second later, the soil was being hoisted from my arms. “You could seriously hurt yourself.”

I glared up at the six-foot-something sheriff holding the massive bag with ease. “It’s annoying how easy that is for you.”

One corner of his mouth quirked up. “I’ve got some inches and pounds on you.”

Did he ever… And that was annoying, too.

Or maybe it was the fact that our alone time had been nil since that moment at Haven.

A stolen kiss or touch here or there, but that was it.

Time with Keely, callouts and extra shifts, and one emergency trip to the vet after Gremlin ate an unidentified mushroom on a walk had interrupted any attempts at some good old-fashioned one-on-one time.

And my sexual frustration was reaching epic proportions.

“Where do you want this?” Trace asked, breaking into my grumpy thoughts.

“By the front porch,” I grumbled.

As we walked in that direction, Trace’s steps slowed. “Whoa. You know, it’s not nice to show up your neighbors with a full fall décor installation.”

I took stock of the dozen or so pumpkins currently lining my front porch steps. “You really aren’t going to want to look in the back then.”

Trace chuckled as he set the bag of soil down. “Go big or go home?”

I rocked from my heels to my tiptoes, taking it all in and wondering if I’d gone too overboard. I hadn’t even added the potted flowers yet.

“Hey,” Trace said, moving into my space and wrapping an arm around me. “It looks great. I was just giving you a hard time because we haven’t even gotten pumpkins yet.”

I tugged my lip between my teeth. “I never got to do this growing up. My dad always had a company come in and decorate for fall and Christmas. ”

Trace muttered a curse and pulled me closer. “Giving yourself the things you never got.”

I nodded.

“Well, we’re doing your place to the nines, and then you can help me and Keely do ours. Twice the Halloween, twice the fall, twice the cheer.”

He sounded so pissed off about it all I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out.

Trace pulled back, scowling down at me. “What?”

I only laughed harder. “That’s maybe the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me, but you sound so angry about it.”

Trace brushed the hair from my face. “Blaze, I’m angry at everything that was stolen from you. Rites of passage and experiences that should’ve been yours. And I’m pissed as hell that you were too scared to ask for what you wanted.”

I stretched up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his. “Not scared now.”

Trace took my mouth, his tongue sliding in, teasing and toying. I pressed myself against him, relishing the feel of his strength. My phone dinged, but I ignored it. Then it let out three more alerts.

I growled against Trace’s mouth as I pulled back. “I need a Do Not Disturb setting for life.”

Pulling out my phone, I unlocked the screen. I had eight new text messages, each from a different number, and all including a photo.

As I opened them one by one, my heart pounded faster, ice sliding through my veins. Pictures of me. Leaving my house. Walking Grem. Working at The Mix Up. Poking around in shops downtown. At dinner with the girls.

And each image had a message. Cruel and taunting things.

YOUR LIFE IS PATHETIC.

YOU’RE NOTHING.

GO HOME OR ELSE.

And then pure fury sounded from beside me. “What in the actual fuck is that?”