Ch.6 Messages

Claire’s POV

I left Nick’s office a little after eleven with Grant’s drive locked back in his safe and Evan taking the copy home with him.

Nobody tried to stop me when I said I was going to bed. Nick asked if I needed anything before I went, I told him no, and he let me leave.

Lilly was still asleep when I opened the bedroom door. She had rolled almost completely across my side of the bed, taking both stuffed animals with her. Kevin was tucked under her arm and Mr. Pickles was somewhere beneath the blankets near her feet.

I stood beside the bed for a minute before taking my shoes off.

She looked exactly the same as she had when I left her.

I changed in the bathroom, washed my face, then climbed into the small strip of mattress Lilly had left for me. I had barely pulled the blanket over my legs when my phone vibrated on the nightstand.

Grant.

I let it ring until it stopped.

He called again.

The second call stopped too, and then the messages started.

“Claire, answer the phone.”

I turned the screen facedown.

It vibrated against the wood.

“We need to discuss what you’re doing.”

Another one followed before I finished reading it.

“Lilly needs to come home.”

I picked up the phone.

There were nineteen missed calls.

I opened the messages and scrolled back through what he had already sent while I was in Nick’s office.

Most of them sounded nothing like the man who had torn through our bedroom after realizing the USB was gone.

“I know you’re upset.”

“We can work this out privately.”

“You don’t need those people involved in our marriage.”

I rubbed my thumb across the edge of the phone.

Those people.

He meant the men sitting a few rooms away with the drive he already knew I had taken.

What he didn’t know was that Evan had opened it.

He didn’t know I had seen the names.

The women.

The motels.

His name.

Another message appeared.

“Whatever happened between us doesn’t change the fact that Lilly needs both of her parents.”

I looked over at her.

One of her feet had worked free of the blanket. I reached across the bed and covered it.

The phone vibrated again.

“You removed my daughter from our home without my permission and took her onto property controlled by a criminal motorcycle club. I’ve tried to give you time to calm down, but this has gone far enough.”

I read it twice.

Then I typed.

“You shoved her.”

My thumb rested over send.

I deleted it.

Grant knew he had shoved her.

Just like he knew everything else he had done.

I started another message.

“Stay away from us.”

Deleted that too.

If I sent anything, he would answer. Then I would answer him. Eventually he would call, and I knew exactly how long it would take before I was defending myself while he explained what had really happened.

I put the phone down.

It vibrated again.

I snatched it back up before it woke Lilly.

“I spoke to an attorney tonight. If you continue withholding my daughter from me, I will have no choice but to handle this through the court. I don’t want to do that to you.”

I stopped reading after the last sentence and started over.

“I don’t want to do that to you.”

Grant had said that before.

Usually when he had already decided what he was going to do.

I got out of bed and carried the phone into the bathroom. I left the door open and sat on the closed toilet so I could still see Lilly through the doorway.

Another message came in.

“Come home tonight. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

My finger went to his name.

Calling him would stop the messages.

At least for a few minutes.

I could tell him Lilly was asleep. Tell him I wasn’t bringing her anywhere tonight. Maybe keep him calm until morning.

I pressed call.

The screen changed.

I ended it before the first ring finished.

“No.”

The word came out loud enough that I glanced toward the bed.

Lilly didn’t move.

I set the phone on the sink.

Grant had always been better on the phone.

I could hang up on a message.

It was harder when I could hear him.

I looked at myself in the mirror, then down at the shirt I had bought that morning.

Nick had taken us shopping because Lilly and I had left the house without enough clothes to make it through more than a day or two. I had stood in the children’s aisle holding a package of socks and asked him if it was okay to put them in the cart.

He had looked at me, then at the socks.

“Does she need them?”

“Yes.”

“Then put them in the cart.”

I’d done the same thing twenty minutes later with pajamas.

Nick hadn’t said anything that time. He had just taken the package from my hand and put it in the cart himself.

I looked back toward Lilly.

Her birth certificate was still at the house.

So was her Social Security card.

Most of our paperwork was in Grant’s office, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had opened the filing cabinet without asking him first.

The checking account had both our names on it. I knew that much. I didn’t know how much money was in it.

I didn’t know what was in savings.

Grant paid the mortgage from his computer. He handled the insurance. He handled the taxes. Whenever something needed signing, he put it in front of me and told me where.

I picked up the phone again.

The messages were still there.

Attorney.

Court.

My daughter.

I walked out of the bathroom, slipped my shoes on, and left the room.

Nick’s office door was open.

Teo was still inside with him, sitting in the same chair he had been in earlier. Both men looked up when I walked in.

Nick took one look at the phone in my hand.

“Bennett?”

I held it out. “Read them.”

He took the phone.

Teo got up and moved beside him while Nick scrolled through the messages.

Neither of them said anything until Nick reached the attorney message.

Teo leaned closer. “Go back.”

Nick handed him the phone.

Teo read the last few messages for himself before looking at me. “You answer any of this?”

“No.”

“Good.”

The word came out of both of them at almost the same time.

I stared at Nick.

He caught it.

“You can answer him if you want.”

“That sounded different five seconds ago.”

“Because I don’t think answering him while he’s trying to scare you is going to help.”

“But I can.”

“It’s your phone.”

I took it back from Teo.

I stood there for another few seconds before asking, “Can he take Lilly?”

Teo blew out a breath through his nose.

Nick didn’t give me the quick answer I wanted.

“He can file for custody.”

“He already has custody. He’s her father.”

“I know.”

“He’s the sheriff.”

“I know that too.”

“My mother will back him.”

Nick’s jaw moved.

“She told me to go home this morning,” I reminded him. “My sister too. If he goes into court saying I grabbed Lilly and ran to a motorcycle club, what do you think they’re going to say?”

“They’ll say whatever they say.”

“That’s helpful.”

“You want me to lie?”

“No.”

“Then I’m not going to tell you he can’t make trouble. He can.”

I looked down at my phone.

“At least you’re not telling me everything’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t know what a judge is going to do.”

Teo walked back to the chair and sat. “What we do have is the drive.”

“Which Grant knows I took.”

Both men looked at me.

“He watched me leave with it,” I said. “He knows I have it. What he doesn’t know is whether I’ve looked at it.”

Teo nodded. “And I’d like to keep it that way.”

“I agree.”

Nick folded his arms. “Then don’t tell him.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“Good.”

I looked at him.

He gave me a look right back.

“That one was okay,” I said.

“What?”

“The good.”

Teo started laughing.

Nick looked over at him. “You want to leave?”

“Nope.”

I sat down in the chair across from Nick’s desk and held the phone between both hands.

“If I call Grant, I already know what happens.”

Teo glanced at me. “What happens?”

“He’ll start calm.”

Neither of them interrupted.

“He’ll ask where Lilly is even though he already knows. Then he’ll tell me I’m being unreasonable. After that, he’ll start asking what Nick has said to me. Whether anybody touched the drive. Who I’ve talked to. Then he’ll tell me I’m putting Lilly in danger.”

Nick’s mouth tightened.

“And somewhere in there,” I continued, “I’ll start explaining myself.”

“Why?” Teo asked.

I looked at him.

He shrugged. “Not being a dick. Why?”

“Because that’s what I do.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.”

The answer came too fast.

I rubbed my forehead.

Teo looked away.

Nick didn’t.

“No,” I said. “I guess I don’t know. Not yet.”

Nobody jumped in to make me feel better about it.

I dropped back against the chair.

“I don’t know how much money I have.”

Nick frowned. “What?”

“In the bank.”

“What does that have to do with Bennett’s messages?”

“Everything.”

I looked at him. “If he locks me out of the account tomorrow, I don’t know what I have. I don’t know what he can take. I don’t know where my passport is. Lilly’s birth certificate is at the house. Her Social Security card is there too. I don’t know the passwords for the mortgage or the insurance or anything else because Grant handled all of it.”

Teo sat forward. “Are the bank accounts joint?”

“I think so.”

“You think?”

“I have a debit card with my name on it.”

“That’s a start.”

“I used it today.”

Nick nodded. “It worked.”

“Yes.”

“You want to check the account?”

I looked at him.

“Do you have the banking app?”

“I don’t know the password.”

“Can you reset it?”

“The email might go to Grant.”

Teo pulled his phone out. “Then don’t touch it tonight. We can figure out what’s connected to what before you start resetting shit.”

I nodded.

Nick looked at me. “You need another phone too.”

“Why?”

“Because Bennett knows this number and probably knows every account attached to it.”

I hadn’t thought about that.

“Can I—”

I stopped.

Nick’s eyebrows lifted.

I closed my mouth.

Teo looked between us. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Nick’s mouth moved.

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.”

“I really wasn’t.”

I pointed at him. “I was about to ask if I could get another phone.”

Teo leaned back in his chair.

I looked at him. “Don’t you start.”

“I didn’t say anything either.”

“You both have faces.”

Nick rubbed one hand over his beard.

I looked back at him. “See?”

“All I was going to say is yes, we can get you another phone.”

“I don’t want you buying me everything.”

“Then pay for it when you get your accounts figured out.”

“What if I can’t?”

“Then worry about it when that happens.”

I shook my head.

“What?”

“You make everything sound so simple.”

“No. I’m telling you what can be handled tomorrow.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“No.”

My phone vibrated again.

All three of us looked down at it.

Grant.

I turned the screen over without reading the message.

Nick asked, “What do you want to do with that tonight?”

“Throw it through a window.”

Teo pointed toward the back of the clubhouse. “Use one of the old ones.”

I laughed before I could stop myself.

Nick looked at him. “Helpful.”

“She laughed.”

“I noticed.”

I picked up the phone again but didn’t turn it over. “I don’t want to block him yet.”

Neither man argued.

“If he says something stupid, I want it saved.”

Teo nodded. “Evan can pull everything off it tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Nick pushed away from his desk. “Anything else?”

I started to say no.

Then I looked toward the hallway.

“I almost went back.”

Teo stopped messing with his phone.

Nick stayed where he was.

“I didn’t pack anything. I didn’t get her out of bed. I didn’t even leave the bathroom. I just thought if I called him and said I was coming home, all of this would stop.”

Nick was quiet for a second.

“For how long?”

I looked at him.

I knew the answer.

“I don’t know.”

That wasn’t true either.

I looked toward the hall again.

“Lilly already knows too much.”

Nick said nothing.

“She knows I cry in the bathroom.”

Teo’s eyes dropped.

“She told me herself. She knows her dad is mean to me. She’s watched him hurt me.”

Nick’s arms dropped from where he had folded them across his chest.

I kept going because stopping would have been worse.

“She watched him beat me.”

Nobody moved.

“She has stood there and watched her father put his hands on me, and I kept telling myself she was little enough that maybe she didn’t understand what she was seeing.”

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“She understood.”

Nick’s voice was low when he answered. “Yeah.”

“She knew why I cried in the bathroom.”

I looked at him.

“She knew before I admitted she knew.”

Teo rubbed both hands over his face.

“And then he shoved her.”

Nick’s mouth hardened.

“I spent years learning how to live around him. Lilly has already started learning too.”

The phone buzzed again.

I ignored it.

“She knows when he’s mean. She knows when I’m crying. She knows there are things we don’t talk about in front of him.” I shook my head. “She’s five.”

Nick stayed quiet.

“I don’t want her growing up thinking that’s normal.”

“She won’t.”

I looked at him.

He didn’t turn it into a promise about something he couldn’t control.

He just waited.

I unlocked the phone.

Grant’s newest message was sitting under the others.

“You are making a mistake you won’t be able to take back.”

I read it once.

Then I set the phone on Nick’s desk.

“I already stayed too long.”

Neither man said anything.

“I’m not taking her back.”

Teo nodded once.

I looked at Nick.

“I mean it.”

“I heard you.”

“He can file whatever he wants tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“My mother can tell him he’s right.”

Nick’s mouth tightened again.

“I’m not taking Lilly back into that house.”

“Okay.”

That was all.

I stood and picked up my phone.

“Tomorrow I need to figure out the bank.”

“We’ll help.”

“And another phone.”

Nick nodded.

“And I need to find out how to replace Lilly’s paperwork if Grant won’t give it to me.”

“We’ll figure that out too.”

I stopped at the doorway.

“Nick.”

“Yeah?”

“When I ask permission for things I don’t need permission for…”

He waited.

“Tell me.”

His expression changed. “Every time?”

“Yes.”

“You might get sick of me.”

“I already was years ago.”

Teo laughed.

Nick looked at him. “You can leave anytime.”

“I’m having a great time.”

I looked back at Nick. “I mean it.”

“All right.”

“And don’t make a whole thing out of it.”

“I won’t.”

I nodded and walked back to the bedroom.

Lilly hadn’t moved much. Kevin was on the floor now, and she had stolen the rest of my side of the bed while I was gone.

I picked him up and tucked him beside Mr. Pickles before climbing in next to her.

Lilly shifted toward me in her sleep.

I put my arm around her.

My phone buzzed again on the nightstand.

I reached over, turned the sound off, and left it facedown.

Grant could keep sending whatever he wanted.

I wasn’t taking her home.