Page 47 of Hurricane Love

His breath caught and his heart started racing a million beats per minute. “Holy shit, Nance.”

“What?” she asked, sounding alarmed.

“Holy shit. I got in.” He showed her his phone, even though the print was probably too small for her to see it without her readers. “I got into UF Law School. They have an opening for me. They want me to start in two weeks for the fall semester. They need an answer by Friday. What do I say?” He took back the phone, re-reading the email to make sure he’d not misunderstood it in his haste. Yep, it was right there in writing. He glanced up to find Nancy grinning, somewhat smugly. Before she got too high and mighty about it, he said, “This doesn’t mean you were right.”

“Course not,” she said with a smirk. “Congratulations, Wy. Shall we break out the champagne?”

Excitement bubbled up inside him. This was his dream come true, the next step in his climb to the top. All of his carefully laid plans were finally coming to fruition, but did he have to go it alone? And what about Diego and what they had going? Whatever the man proclaimed, there was something there worth pursuing.

“Hang on, Nance. Diego asked me to call him. Seemed important. Give me just a sec.”

He stood and walked a few paces away. He punched Diego’s name and the man’s voice came on the line a moment later, but he sounded…distressed.

“Hey, Wylie, you need to come down to the pit. As soon as you can.”

“What’s going on?” Wylie asked, worried by the somberness of his tone.

“It’s Hannah.”

Moments later,Wylie was behind the wheel of his car and swerving out of Sunset Village, heading straight for the pit with Diego still on the line. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“She looks…she doesn’t look good. I think maybe he hit her.”

“Hewhat?” Wylie roared. If Fuckface had laid so much as a hand on her…

“Yeah, she said she bumped into a wall, but walls don’t do that kind of damage. Kayla’s here too. We’re trying to get Hannah’s shift covered, but I don’t think she should go home.”

“Fuck no, she shouldn’t. I’m five minutes away. Donotlet her leave.” Wylie was breathless from adrenaline and fear. What the fuck had he done to her this time?

“I’ll do my best. Drive safe.”

They ended the call. Wylie white-knuckled the steering wheel while his mind raced with a hundred different scenarios of how he was going destroy Brian MacPherson, ranging from beating his ass to informing his boss that the man was a criminally abusive asshole, but that would have to wait. He needed to take care of Hannah. They needed a plan, and Wylie needed to be convincing. Her life literally depended on it.

A few minutes later Wylie careened into the pit’s parking lot and slammed his car into the nearest parking space that was typically reserved for customers, before hauling ass toward the restaurant’s entrance. The pit hadn’t yet hit its lunchtime rush. Kayla was sitting in a booster seat at one of the booths closest to the kitchen, scribbling on a kid’s menu while Hannah cleared a table nearby.

Closer, he could see that her cheek was swollen and her bottom lip was split–even the lipstick couldn’t hide that–and there were bruises all over her arms too. Wylie laid a gentle hand on his best friend’s shoulder and said to her quietly, “leave it and come with me.”

Sighing, she followed him to the booth where Kayla was sitting. Wylie greeted the little girl with a smile and a kiss on thetop of her head, then turned to his best friend. “What the hell happened?”

“Hey, Wy.” She tried to smile, but it was clearly too painful. She looked exhausted and sad and fucking beat up.

“Hannah, what the…what happened to your face? And your arm? Tell me the truth. Please.”

Hannah blinked, tears pooling in her eyes. She’d done her best to hide the black eye with makeup, but Wylie could see it now. Brian had hit her, more than once, and from the bruises on her arm, he’d grabbed her too. What a spineless piece of shit.

“You know what happened,” she said, utterly defeated. She glanced at Kayla to indicate that they needed to be careful about what they said.

Wylie had a plan already, but he needed her cooperation, so he asked. “And what are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know. My mom’s at work, and I don’t want to go to her house anyway. You know how she gets. She’ll just make me feel worse about it.”

Hannah’s relationship with her mother was contentious, had been since she was a kid and only got worse when Hannah became, in her mother’s words, “pregnant out of wedlock.” Hannah’s mom claimed to be Christian, but she was stingy with her charity toward her own daughter when it came to anything other than watching Kayla on occasion. She was probably part of the reason why Hannah had stayed with Brian for so long, but laying blame wasn’t going to solve this fucked-up situation.

Keeping his voice low and calm, Wylie said, “This is what’s going to happen. Your shift is getting covered. We’re going to take Kayla to Nancy’s and she’ll watch her for the day. Then you and I are going down to the station to file a police report. And then we’re going to the courthouse to get a restraining order.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks and made tracks in her makeup. Wylie hated to see it. “I don’t want him to get arrested, Wy. He’ll lose his job.”

Wylie fought very hard to maintain his composure. It wasalways abouthim.What was best for Brian? What could Hannah do to make him happy, to make him be faithful? Wylie wanted to smash his fist through a wall, or better yet, through Brian MacPherson’s face, but he knew that he had to be the one in control. She was already scared shitless.