She slid down onto her ass, her back leaning on against the wall and sobbed.
* * *
Fuck. Fuck.
He bashed his fist against the steering wheel as he drove. What had he been thinking to get involved with her? He should have known this would happen again. Should have expected it.
He’d fucking trusted her again and she’d let him down.
You’re wrong.
Her voice swam through his head and he growled. He didn’t fucking need this. He needed to get home and sleep. He was exhausted. He shouldn’t be driving. But something pulled at him. What was he missing?
With a frown, he pulled off to the side of the road. What was it? With how exhausted he was, it was hard for him to think properly. But his gut was telling him something was off.
The baseball bat.
His heart leapt into his throat. Why would she need a baseball bat to answer the door? Her pale features. Could have been because she’d been caught, but she looked like shit. Like she hadn’t been sleeping. Worn and scared.
She was scared.
No, terrified.
Fuck. Fuck.
He did a U-turn and pressed down on the accelerator. He needed to get back to Daisy fast because something was very, very wrong.
13
Where the hell was she? He’d knocked on her door. Repeatedly. And he was running out of patience. For some reason, all the curtains and blinds were pulled across the windows. Upstairs as well as downstairs. And she rarely drew the curtains upstairs.
Finally, his worry got too much and he raced around to the back door. Ellie would understand him breaking a window and it was better to do it back here. He picked up a hefty rock and smashed it through the window by the back door. Then pulling off his jacket, he wrapped it around his arm so he could knock out the bits of glass.
Inside, he heard a scared cry as he carefully climbed through the window. He quickly raced in. “Daisy? Daisy!”
His instincts screamed at him, just as he saw a flash of movement. He dropped and rolled, the baseball bat just missing his head. Fuck! That was close.
“Stay away from me, you creep!” Daisy screamed, racing at him, the bat raised.
She was in too much of a panic to see that it was him. At least he hoped that was the reason she was still coming after him and not because she wanted to bash his brains in.
“Daisy, it’s me! It’s Jed.” He didn’t want to panic her further by taking the bat off her, even though he easily could. He ducked back as she swung.
“Daisy-girl! Put the bat down!”
Another swing. Shit!
“Daisy! Sugar. It’s me, Daddy. It’s Daddy. You’re safe now.”
It was still so new to her that he didn’t know if that would work. But suddenly she stopped and stared at him, the baseball bat dropping. Seemed that did work.
“D-daddy?”
She sounded so terrified it made him feel ill. And furious. At whoever had caused this. And at himself, for making it worse. For not listening to her. For jumping to conclusions.
You had reason to believe she was capable of cheating on you.
He watched as she deflated. The bat dropped and she slid to the floor. As though she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up anymore.