Page 21 of Love At Peace

“No one now.” Again, she looked at me. “That man was renting it.”

I tensed. “Which man?”

“The one I was telling you about. The smartass guy with the slicked-back blond hair.”

“Him?” Marty showed her his phone with a photo of David on it.

“Yep.” The woman nodded. “I heard him being a huge deal with Jerry the other day about rent fees and such. Jerry told him to get out of here.”

So David was here recently... My stomach clenched with anxiety. It was so knotted that I swore it would never unravel again. And Eric was too...

Maybe Eric did go after David despite me warning him not to. I hated that thought even more. I didn’t want to be the cause of anyone in pain.

As soon as he was more awake and able to talk, I’d get to the bottom of this.

Her toddler started to fuss, squirming in her arms, and she backed up a step with a heavy sigh. “Oh, hush. I know. I know. We’ll get back to your bedtime story in a minute.”

The little girl continued to fuss though, and the mother winced. “Okay, okay. We’ll go. We’ll go.” She nodded once at Marty. “If you have any more questions, you know where to find me. Don’t hesitate to ask me anything else. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure this building stays safe.”

“Thanks,” Marty told her, clearly familiar with her and her concerns.

“Want me to drive you to the hospital?” Gavin asked as she walked away.

I nodded, but Marty held up his hand. “I can take you. I’ll be needing answers from him or the doctors about why he was lying there all day or night.” But he furrowed his brow at me in such a manner that made me want to cringe.

“Heather, if David Kenning is responsible for this, if he’s involved with any circumstance of Eric lying down here like he’d been assaulted...”

I swallowed hard, hating that it’d come to this.

“That’s serious business.”

Like I don’t know that. Like I don’t know how seriously bad things can be with David Kenning.

“You’ve got to speak up. Please,” Marty said. “Before anyone else could get hurt. Can you please talk to me?” He shook his head. “There’s no record on him. There’s nothing to find on him, but I’m not convinced that doesn’t mean he’s not a threat around here. And I’m not referring to him driving recklessly and speeding.”

He didn’t have to twist my arm. I nodded, hating that I’d need to open up and share things I wanted to tuck away and lock into my past. Eric was hurt, and if it was David’s fault, I wouldn’t sit back. This was beyond me now. This wasn’t just a something done to me.

“Okay,” I said, hanging my head so I wouldn’t have to face Roarke and let him see the utter defeat on my face. “I’ll...explain.”

Chapter 8

Roarke

“Iwould appreciate you shedding some light on what we might be dealing with,” Marty told Heather.

He wasn’t rude or gruff. His tone was firm but mild to the point he sounded coaxing in a friendly but authoritative way.

“Yeah.” Heather nodded without fully looking up. “I...can see that.” Her throat strained as she swallowed hard. “I understand.”

The broken tone of her voice sliced at my heart. She wasn’t selfish. I knew she wasn’t. No person could be selfish and open up her home to someone like Nevaeh. No one could be considered heartless when they let others stay over in times of need, like she had with me when my cabin was flooded.

She didn’t want to keep her secrets for the hell of it. It mattered to her that she wasn’t exposed and bothered. I respected that her past impacted her to be guarded now to this day, but witnessing her crumbling expression now told me that she wasn’t being secretive as a means of holding others back. She wasn’t closed-lipped to be cruel.

It pained her to speak up. Fury filled me anew at the thought that one person, that David, could have ruined her so much that she’d be trapped under her pain of her past. I couldn’t tell if it was shame. If it was the need to avoid pity. Or if it was the desire to prevent further harm coming to her.

She refused help. She refused to talk about it.

Until now.