Page 119 of Traces Of You

“Don’t you dare say it.”

If his brother felt any sympathy over an abuser, he’d take Clay down himself and pound the shit out of him.

“Say what?” Clay asked. “And get that look out of your eye. You can’t take me and you know it. You’d give it an excellent shot and we’d both end up bloody and get a lecture from Mom, but your girl would nurse you for weeks and I’d be at work in the morning.”

He hated that his brother was probably right.

They both were big and strong, but Clay’s training put him heads above anyone.

“That you think she was framing him to go to jail for something. That she shouldn’t have done it, even though she had no intention of having him charged with anything. He beat her. He broke her arm months ago.”

Ford knew he’d never be told everything done to Reenie. Or that he was positive if his girlfriend had stayed it’d only escalate.

“Fuck no,” Clay said. The appalled look on his brother’s face was laughable, but neither of them found any humor in the situation. “It’s the fact that she was devious enough to do that. Who thinks that way? To not just leave blood, butcleanit so itwas naked to the visible eye. To make it look as ifOliverwas hiding something.”

“People do it,” he argued. “She said she’d been thinking of things for years.”

“People like me do it,” Clay said. “Think about that. That’s my problem. It takes a special person for their mind to work that way. Not just find a way to leave, but to set someone up. To jam them up in a way the average person couldn’t dream of. Blood on the floor, broken dishes, added to the house being trashed. Sure. I get that. It’s the leaving the hidden bloody clothes and cleaning up staged blood I can’t get past.”

There would be no winning with his brother.

He’d never be able to convince him of anything when it came to Reenie.

But he couldn’t let it go either.

“Clay, she’s been abused in multiple forms her whole life. She’s believed all the shit dropped on her lap that she wasn’t worthy or whatever she did, good or bad, could result in some form of punishment. Desperate people do desperate things. More so when you add confusion to the mix. Butthatdoesn’t make them a bad person.”

Ford stalked to the door, whipped it open and slammed out, returning to the woman he loved.

He was going to protect her the best he could, even if that was against his brother’s opinions.

32

TRUST WAS LIMITED

Reenie pulled herself up into Ford’s truck on Monday.

She hated having days off, but no one was going to let her work every day either.

She was scheduled for the cafe this weekend, which meant two days off during the week. Having been off this weekend, she didn’t know what to do with herself.

Not that Ford left her side much on nights and weekends when he wasn’t working. And living with her in the cabin in cramped spaces wasn’t fun either.

Which was why they spent the weekend at his house, and since her car still had the brake light out, Ford told her to take his truck this morning and it was best to just leave it at the cabin for her usage.

She wouldn’t argue because the last thing she wanted to do was to be pulled over again.

After adjusting the seat so her much shorter legs could reach the pedals, she backed out of his garage, holding her breath she hit nothing, then into the road and turned toward the orchards.

She might not be working, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t see if Brooke needed anything. Maybe she’d plant some more flowers around the cabin and spruce it up some.

The gates were open during the day, making it easy enough for people to pull in and out, but Clay could see everything.

She came to a stop next to the cafe, shut the truck off, opened the door and hopped down. Yeah, this wasn’t for her in the long run.

“What are you doing here on your day off?” Brooke asked, wiggling her finger in a stern motherly way, though she was sporting the Ridgeway smile her son had.

“I wanted to stop in and see if you needed anything in town. I’m shopping for flowers and pots to put on the front porch of the cabin if that is okay?”