Page 95 of Her Hidden Smile

I nodded.

“Now I want you to talk. I want you to tell me everything.”

“I think you know everything. I’m assuming they kept me sedated until my nerve pain calmed down?”

He turned my chin so I was looking up at him. “No, not that stuff. About you being held hostage. I want to know everything.”

“It wasn’t bad,” I lied.

“Millie.” My name came out of his mouth as a warning grumble. “Tell me,” he commanded.

“He didn’t hurt me, hurt me. If that’s what you’re worried about.” I said the last part with my face smashed into his shirt because I couldn’t look at him without turning red.

“Okay. He didn’t rape you. I get that. But he beat you pretty badly. He had you for two days. I want you to tell me everything that happened. I want you to release that poison and not let it fester. Can you do that for me?”

I tilted my head and looked at him. “Renzo, of course I’ll tell you.”

And I did.

I walked with Nash Rivers into Millie’s house. The crime scene tape had been taken down.

“I know a cleaning company that can come in and make it seem brand new. I’ll give you their card,” Nash said.

“I’d appreciate it.”

“God, Renzo. It guts me to think that Millie had to be traumatized yet again. Hasn’t that woman been through enough in her life?”

I walked over to the kitchen island and pulled the stool away from where it stood in front of a cabinet.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to tell you a story. Millie wasn’t a victim. She was a fucking fighter, Nash. My woman was fighting this motherfucker every chance she got. Even the day Lisa and Bella were due to come over, she was trying to get her hands on a weapon. And this was with her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together.”

“What are you talking about?”

I opened the cabinet and showed him what she had done. He whistled. “Smart and gutsy.”

“She constantly amazes me,” I nodded in agreement.

“How is she with you? I know she’s allowing you and a couple of others in her house now, do you think she’ll backslide?”

I thought about her not having a panic attack in the hospital. “I’m not sure, Nash. Anything’s possible.”

“Are you going to stick with her?”

I frowned. It was a really personal question, and I didn’t really know this man. Nash must have gotten my vibe because he grinned.

“I’m too old to have gone to school with Millie and too young to have gone to school with her parents. But I was born and raised here in Jasper Creek. Millie Randolph is one of my people. You’re an outsider. I’m taking an interest. So I’ll ask you again. Are you sticking?”

“What do you mean by taking an interest? Are you saying you’re interested in Millie?”

“And if I said I was?”

“Then I’d tell you that you were barking up the wrong tree, because Millie is taken. I might not have a ring on her finger yet, but it’s just because I haven’t had the time to go shopping yet. There have been a few things that have kept me busy.”

Nash grinned. “Good to know.”

“How are things going with Junior?”