Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 10

Roarke

“ P rove it,” Nevaeh repeated to Heather. “If you want to stand there all high and mighty and try to accuse me of something, I’ll show you—”

“No. No, no, no.” Marty stepped between them, physically intervening and standing in the middle. “We’re not getting into this.”

I shook with rage, needing to roar, to punch a wall, to just let go of some of this tension wracking my body. I felt like I couldn’t take this anymore. First, Nevaeh not giving a shit if someone was hurt. It was like I couldn’t even recognize her, this spiteful, cruel version of her. Yes, she’d always been hotheaded, but not cruel.

Then, this news about her being pregnant? That fact couldn’t sink into my head. It was too damn surreal to accept.

Marty’s tone was full of authority. He was the officer in charge here, and while I felt like I was responsible for my niece, he was ultimately the real one in command of all of us.

“The matter about anything to do with that laptop will be handled accordingly,” Marty said, glancing back at Heather. “We need to focus on the emergency at hand, and that’s whatever happened to Eric.” He firmed his face into a stern expression that even Nevaeh couldn’t miss as a silent sign that she better watch her attitude.

“I’m going to go.” Heather shook her head, turning around quickly. “I need to go see if he’s okay.”

“I’ll—” Gavin looked at me, concerned and jumping into action. “I’ll, uh, give you a ride. I can swing back by after, Roarke.”

I nodded once, acknowledging what he didn’t have the time to say or hash out. He was my ride here, but I wasn’t leaving. Now that I’d found my niece, she and I were going to have a chat, regardless of what she wanted. I was owed answers. And she had to get in the mood because there was no way she was clamming up and pulling this silent treatment or vague nonanswers again.

I’d been in the dark for too long.

“I’ll head to the hospital in a moment,” Marty told them, not taking his serious glare off Nevaeh.

Heather didn’t look back. She didn’t spare me a single glance, and I couldn’t blame her. It couldn’t be easy to face off with the woman who was so crude, who might have caused her issues at work.

To my dismay, I couldn’t focus on Heather at this moment, too locked and sucked into this spiral of anger and frustration of what Nevaeh was up to.

She never told me what she did, but I was getting a flood of news now. And none of it was good.

Here she was getting together with an asshole like David. Potentially stealing Heather’s work data. Then getting knocked up.

I didn’t even know where to start with her, and I wondered if I shouldn’t bother. If it’d be better for all involved parties to let her deal with her life on her own, since she was so damn fond of telling me that she was an adult. Deep down in a small kernel in my soul, I knew I couldn’t walk away yet. I had to try.

“Nevaeh, if you have any information about the circumstances that led to Mr. James lying down here, you need to speak up.” Marty straightened, likely feeling weighed down by all the stress of the night. “I wouldn’t plan on leaving town.”

“Oh, is that a threat?” she sassed.

“Watch your attitude,” I scolded her.

“Roarke?” He turned toward me as he moved aside to go. “I’ll be in touch.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I’ll catch up with you shortly.” Anything of importance that Nevaeh could tell me that could be connected to why Eric ended up down here like that, I’d be sharing in a heartbeat.

The second Marty was gone, Nevaeh huffed and turned away. “I don’t have anything to say to—”

“You better watch your tone with me.” The cold yet level tone I used was effective. She stopped midstep but didn’t turn to face me. “After all the things I’ve tried to do for you. All I’ve offered without question, this is how you treat me?”

“Without question?” she parroted with snark. She spun to glower at me, haughty once more. “Without question ? All you ever do is nag with questions about what I’m doing, where I’m going, and what I want.”

“And you never,” I said through clenched teeth as I stalked toward her and pointed my finger, “ ever fucking tell me a thing.”

“Maybe because it’s not your business.”

I was sick of this. I was exhausted of the pure disrespect. “It’s not? Then why do you keep coming back? Huh? Why do you always show up and take what you want? Why do you count on me when you do? Have you ever stopped for a single damn second and realized I do that because care? Because you’re my niece. You’re family. And it is my business.”

“You don’t give me anything. You let me crash on the couch when your uptight bitch of a girlfriend isn’t there.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Call her a name one more time, kid, and see what happens.”

She swallowed and lost a little of her bravado at my growled warning.

“You don’t give me money anymore.”

“Earn it for once,” I shot back.

“You don’t let me have a key to your place.”

“Because you steal,” I explained immediately.

“You don’t—”

I cut her off with another growl. “I don’t care, Nevaeh. I don’t fucking care what you want anymore. Why the hell should I trust you? Why should I enable you to depend on me just giving you charity all the time? What’s that going to teach you?”

“Who says I need to be taught anything?” she sassed.

“Oh, my—Fuck this.” I pivoted, rubbing my face. This was past the point of no return. The sheer audacity. The attitude and complete avoidance of being a responsible person at all. She was too much.

“Oh, so you just walk away too? You’re going to abandon me like my parents did?”

I laughed once, a sound of pure insanity and misery. Her taunt stopped me in my tracks though. “Nevaeh, I’ve never abandoned you. You’ve always known to come find me when you have nowhere to go, but that doesn’t mean I’m a dumbass you can manipulate forever. Grow up. And own up to your mistakes.”

“I don’t need to ‘grow up.’” She ran up to round me and face me, snarling like the angry person she was. “And I don’t need you. I don’t care if you walk away too.”

I shrugged, too spent and twisted with this mind fuckery.

“I’ve got David now.”

I narrowed my eyes, livid all over again at the mere mention of his name. Many details had to be filled in about him, but the little I knew and the majority of what I speculated didn’t paint a rosy picture.

“Yeah, sounds like you found a winner with him .”

“You don’t even know him.”

I nodded, looking down for a second so I wouldn’t shout. “Yeah. You got me there. I don’t know him. Do you?”

She smiled, but when she opened her mouth, I cut her off.

“Do you know who that asshole is? He made Heather leave. He made her so terrified of him that she locks down in panic at the mere sight of him.”

“Because she—”

“Do you really think you’re a decent judge of character to be able to tell if he’s a good one or not?”

She cranked her smile back up to full wattage. “I know I’m not wrong about him. He loves me. I love him.”

“And now you’ll just be one happy little family, huh?” I gestured at her stomach. “Is he acknowledging that he knocked you up?”

Her smile lost a little strength. “I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet, but he’ll be excited and happy.”

“Oh. You haven’t told him yet. Huh. That’s interesting. But hey, you love each other and all will be well. Even though you don’t have a job or any way to care for yourself, let alone another life. Even though you don’t have a place to stay, nor does your highly esteemed asshole of a boyfriend.” I flung my hand up to indicate the apartments. David vacated the one. And I still had no idea where Nevaeh stayed when she wasn’t with me. “I guess I’m holding you up, then, huh? Am I keeping you from reuniting with that creep?”

“He’s not a creep,” she protested. Of course, that would be the one thing she’d latch on to and worry about the most.

I rubbed my face again, tired of all the headaches. “How na?ve can you be?” I asked.

Not long ago, I tossed that out to Heather. I’d accused her of being weak and na?ve. Comparing how I used that description with Nevaeh and Heather, I realized how wrong I was to assume Heather was na?ve. Or not strong enough. She had been wise and brave to leave David. Seeing my niece falling for that cunning man now was just proof of how little she was being smart about this. Nevaeh wasn’t rational, hooking up with a man who was too pushy and controlling to ever be a good guy. She wasn’t even thinking—or she wasn’t thinking with her head.

“You know nothing about him. He’s...he’s damn near twice your age. And you’re going to believe that he’ll be happy about knocking you up here, when the only reason he came to town was to stalk and terrorize his ex?”

She laughed, too high and trilling to be a real reaction. “Terrorize? How is he terrorizing her? You’re letting her paranoia and lies get to you, Roarke. Tell me when David has been terrorizing Heather. Tell me when he’s even talked to her.”

“I was there the last time that he did. I stood up to him when he showed up on her front step,” I replied coolly.

“Since then.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin higher. “Since that day, when has David even cared to talk to her?”

He hadn’t, actually, to the best of my knowledge. “What about Eric?” I said. There had to be a connection to Heather’s cousin ending up unconscious at the foot of the stairs at her ex’s place.

“I have no clue, Roarke. Eric’s one of those quiet weirdos. Who knows why he goes anywhere that he does.” She shrugged. “That’s not a sign of David terrorizing your whiny neighbor. It’s not even a connection to why she can act like he’s wronging her by being here at all.”

I stared at her, trying to reconcile how utterly young and ignorant she sounded. Like all that mattered was that David showed a morsel of attention to her and she was hooked like a groupie, just like that. She’d never proven to be a good judge of character where boyfriends where involved, but this took the icing.

“You want to know why he hasn’t been ‘terrorizing’ Heather? Because he’s been with me. In love and busy with me.”

“For now, until he’s done with his agenda for Heather.”

She sneered. “What agenda? You can’t realize how na?ve you sound about her. He doesn’t have an agenda with her.”

“And does he have any plans with you? Other than knocking you up?” I again gestured at her still-flat stomach. “You think he’s going to help you care for a baby and make sure you’re not raising in out on the streets? You think he’s going to accept this kid and provide for you both?”

She nodded, but I caught the hint of worry in her eyes.

“I will never get it,” I told her, letting more of my anger rise to the surface. Of all the things she could do, she had to mess with someone like that jerk who tried to damn-near kidnap Heather and force her to go with him against her will. Of all the things she could do, she had to get pregnant and be forever tied to the asshole who couldn’t possibly care to stay with her when he was so hung up on Heather to come all this way after her.

I’d never understand my niece.

And I still didn’t know how any puzzle pieces of life could’ve possibly fit together like this.

I was still in the dark, though, but I wasn’t going to bark up the wrong tree and pick a fight with her about her “love” life.

“Tell me where he is. Where he went. If he talked to Eric, I want to know.” I pointed at the floor where we’d found him groggy and unable to talk. “Now, Nevaeh. Talk . Marty will question you too, but I am sick of being held back from answers. If you want to insist that your baby daddy is a ‘good’ guy, convince me that he’s innocent of how someone got hurt near his home.”