Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

4. Salem

FOUR

SALEM

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I peered back at the huge industrial shop as Darius floored the accelerator out of the lot and sped down the road. The hulking man stood where I’d left him, his mouth gaping open in shock and a bit of hurt and something else that slipped beneath my skin like the kindling of flames.

An old-seeded fire that had long died out that threatened to burst back to life.

My stomach was in knots and my pulse thundered like an out-of-control freight train that blew into town. A coming disaster that I wasn’t sure I could derail. Because falling prey to what that man had to offer would likely destroy the bare semblance of any control I possessed.

It was a promise of the type of recklessness I could not afford.

Not to mention the fact that Darius was seething in his seat beside me. He white-knuckled the steering wheel as harsh breaths panted from his nose.

“What the fuck, Salem?” he hissed as the building disappeared from view.

My brow curled as I shifted my head to look at him. “Excuse me? I already told you that my car broke down and he stopped to help me. Do you have a problem with that?”

I couldn’t keep the pissiness from my voice. He didn’t get to do this.

His words were shards. “I was worried about you.”

Uneasily, I readjusted my bag on my lap. “I tried to call you a bunch of times, Darius. Service was out for everyone. I was coming downstairs to ask him if I could borrow his phone to call you.”

A grunt left him, and he pitched me a hard glance. “He’s my boss.”

“Which I didn’t know, considering I just got here last week, and you never told me where you’re working. I thought you were still at the dealership?”

He released a strained sigh, a wash of bashfulness softening his formidable features. “Didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out. Not exactly qualified to be working there.”

Tenderness pulled at my chest. “Of course, you are. Who wouldn’t want you working for them? I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other?”

He cut me a glance. “Don’t we?”

There was an accusation there.

“Darius.” Frustration laced his name.

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, he’s my boss and he’s?—”

“He’s what?” I challenged, defensiveness making a rebound.

No, I might not know the guy, but the one thing I knew was he’d been kind.

The thousand emotions I’d felt last night scattered through my consciousness.

The cornerstone of a man I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Hard and cocky. Sweet and flirty. Overbearing and…dark. I guessed it was that layer hidden beneath that sexy smirk that held the power to knock me from my feet.

It billowed through me then. The memory in the night. The feeling of not being alone when the torment came. Like the man could give me comfort in the storm that hit me night after night.

I shook my head out of the stupor. God knew, those thoughts were dangerous.

I couldn’t go there.

But if I were being honest, I had to admit there was something about him.

Something that compelled me to look closer. To touch and explore and feel. A piece that ached to come alive under those massive hands.

Yeah. Definitely dangerous.

Still, regret fluttered, shame at the way I’d reacted.

Instead of thanking him, I’d blown up in his face.

Darius seemed to war, peeking at me every couple of seconds as he flew down the street, his words controlled as he bit them out. “He’s my boss, Salem, and you need to stay away from him. Simple as that.”

But it was the way my brother looked like he was about to snap the steering wheel from the dash that made me think it wasn’t so simple.

The way his jaw locked, and rigidness took to his spine.

His anxiety ripped through the air and banged through the cab.

Slowing, he made a right into an old neighborhood. Here, the houses were quaint and modest, fronted by lawns and ancient, towering trees.

Darius’ breaths filled the air.

Anguish tightened my chest, but still, granite filled the words. “I took care of myself for four years, Darius. You can’t tell me who I can and cannot see.”

Not with Jud. Not with anyone else.

“And I barely got you back, Salem. You think I didn’t worry about you every second of every day? Do you think I wasn’t terrified? Do you think I didn’t know you were out there, fuckin’ scared and hiding for all that time?”

He blanched with the admission. “Spent years not sleeping through the night. Not knowing how you were or where you were. Desperate for the rare calls you made to let us know you were safe. Having no way to change it or make it better. And now that we brought this family back together? I will do anything—absolutely anything—to make sure you two are safe.”

Sadness swept through my being. “It’s not your responsibility, Darius.”

Foreboding whispered through my consciousness. A warning that I’d been a fool, agreeing to come here. That maybe Darius was wrong. That it would never be time, and it would never be safe, and thinking it would only destroy us in the end.

But there was no question Darius was right on one account. We would never find a normal life if we were running forever. Would never find peace or safety or stability.

I owed her that. Wanted it more than anything.

I had to take the chance.

For her.

Years had passed without a word or a trace, and I had to pray it was enough.

Darius’ brow pinched as he made a left into the single drive of the house he’d been renting for the last three months. “It is my responsibility,” he countered, blowing out a sigh as he put his truck into park and shut off the engine.

But he didn’t make a move to get out. Instead, he shifted, reached out, and set his hand on my arm. His voice tightened with the plea. “I need you to know that I will do anything to keep you safe, Salem. For you to have a good life. No matter the cost. It’s time.”

Tears filled my eyes. Love filled me up to overflowing.

It spilled free with the rush of moisture that slipped down my cheeks.

Marked and true.

I touched his face. My big brother who I had always looked up to, adored, and revered. The one who was taking the chance, too.

“I know you would, Darius, and there is no way to express my gratefulness for that. For what you’ve done. For what you’re sacrificing. And I’m terrified the only thing I’m doing is putting you and Mimi in danger. That I might be responsible for?—”

A swell of sorrow crested. My breath caught on the snare of it.

Tight and hot.

A hole so deep it would never be filled.

It was my fault.

It was my fault.

I nearly buckled with the grief.

“You’re not putting us in any danger,” he insisted. “We’re safe. Promise you.”

I swallowed the torment, my thickened tongue rushing over my lips so I could get this out.

“What happened…it’s going to hurt…haunt me forever…”

No, there were no actual words. No way to verbally express what this kind of loss felt like. The empty pit that festered.

I forced myself to continue. “You convinced me to come here. To start a new life. That it was time. And because of that, I’m looking forward for the first time in years. For the first time, I’m not just surviving, I’m living. And I’m so thankful for you. So thankful you love us so much that you would stand in front of anything to protect us. Thankful you moved here to create a safe place for us. But you also can’t stand in the way. I know I’ve made a million mistakes and I’m sure I’ll make a million more, but I have to do this, Darius, and you can’t freak out every time I step out the door. Not if I’m actually going to live.”

His expression twisted in grief. “I know, and that’s all I want for you—for you to live. Free. Without fear. Without ever havin’ to look over your shoulder.”

Affection pulled a soggy smile to my mouth. “I know you do, and I want that, too, but none of that is your responsibility.”

“The hell, it isn’t,” he grumbled.

He was such a protector, too.

I forced some lightness into my voice. “Thank you for the ride, Darius. I’ll figure the car out. Don’t worry about it. Now, you’d better get to work. Your boss seems like he might be the type to get grumpy.”

Darius didn’t laugh.

His lips pinched, and he swallowed hard as I unlatched the door and started to slide out. Before I made it to standing, he reached out and took me by the hand to stop me. His words were razors. “Just…stay away from Jud, Salem. He’s not the kind of guy you can trust.”

Sadness slipped beneath my skin. “Don’t worry, Darius. I don’t trust anyone.”

Only this tiny family.

I stepped from the truck just as the front door banged open and Juniper came bounding out. She jumped off the single step and raced down the sidewalk to meet me.

“Mommy! There you are finally! Jeez louise, doncha know we got the worries about you? Where did you go? I thought you got lost all the way in the rain and floated all the way down to the ocean and you had to live with the dolphins.”

Love squeezed my ribs in a fist.

Crushing.

So intense it nearly dropped me to my knees as my little girl came flying my direction.

Juniper was nothing but giggles and smiles and black, messy hair that had been twisted into two wild buns on the sides of her head.

Pink, chubby cheeks and the tiniest, sweetest mouth.

She threw herself into my arms, already knowing I would catch her, that I would sweep her off her feet and swing her around before I brought her to my chest and hugged her tight.

Our cheeks were pressed together as I inhaled her sweet plum scent. “Get lost and live with the dolphins? Not a chance. I will always find you.”

Behind us, I caught sight of Darius pulling away. His eyes were on us. Staunch protectiveness in his gaze.

And I got it…got that he’d felt helpless for all those years, and now that we were here, he would do anything for us.

But he had no idea what I’d been through. I guessed in the end, I had to respect that. For years, he’d wanted to fight and, now that he had the chance, he couldn’t do anything but come alongside me.

Another giggle slipped from Juniper’s lips, her little nose scrunched as she edged back enough to see my face. Her dark, dark eyes were the same blue as mine.

But hers?

They burned with innocence. With the hope and belief I wanted to give her.

“Because I’m your world, right, Mommy?”

I held my five-year-old close.

My life.

My source.

My purpose to get up each morning for the last four years and fight. My purpose to go on.

“That’s right, Juni Bee, no matter where you go, I will always find you.”

I spun her around. She squeezed her little arms over her chest as she laughed and squirmed in my arms.

Devotion erupted from that crater.

The one that would forever be carved inside me.

“Even if I’m all the way up high in the sky?” Her tinkling voice danced around my ears and seeped into my soul.

It was all a tease. The game we played. How far would I go to find her? To protect her?

Little did she know, there was no distance because I would go to the very, very end.

“That’s right. Even if you’re up all the way high in the sky.”

“Even to Mars?” She flung herself back at that, her arms outstretched, her face lifted toward the cloudless sky.

I could feel her bright, bright spirit burn in my arms.

A precious treasure I held in my hands.

“Even to Mars.”

She swung herself up to grab onto my shoulders. She wore a gigantic grin. “That’s because you love me all the way to the stars.”

“That’s right…all the way to the stars.”

To the moon.

To the sun.

My guiding light.

My one purpose.

I felt the movement at the doorway, and I looked up to find Mimi standing there. Her weathered face was full of worry and relief.

My grandmother was eighty-seven, short and heavyset, and the strongest woman I knew.

The years might have blurred the edges of her youth, but they hadn’t robbed her of her vitality.

“Well, there you are, young lady,” she said. With the tone of it, I was pretty sure I was in trouble with her, too.

I held Juniper close as I trudged that way. “I hope you got my messages. I hated that I couldn’t make it home.”

“When my phone started working, I saw the text that your car broke down and you were with a friend .”

She said friend like an accusation.

We both knew I didn’t have any of those.

“Didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about you.” She quirked a concerned brow.

“I know. I’m sorry. My car just died.” I waved a flustered hand in the air, another bolt of distress lighting me through. The last thing I’d needed was another issue.

“Told you that thing was about to go kaput.”

“You weren’t wrong.”

She leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms over her chest. “Which is why I didn’t want you out gallivanting by yourself last night. Told you a storm was a’comin’. My poor aching bones are at least good for something.”

Gallivanting?

Not even close.

I’d somehow convinced my grandmother and brother I was meeting the neighbor lady I’d met across the street for drinks downtown.

Unbelievable?

Absolutely.

But I guessed all of us had become complacent.

Easing into normalcy which was the goal.

Our claim.

What we were desperate for.

She didn’t need to know I was hawking the last piece of jewelry I still owned of my mother’s.

Mimi’s eyes narrowed in speculation. “So, who was this friend?”

Uneasily, I took the last step up to the front door, my gaze dropping to my feet for a second before I met Mimi’s eyes. I thought to lie, but then I figured the woman could see right through me, anyway.

She’d raised me, after all.

“I guess you could say he just became my friend last night.”

Juni clapped, her voice full of a thrill. “You got a new friend, Mommy? That’s so, so good! Meeting new people is really important.”

“That’s right, Juni Bee,” I told her, though my attention was still locked on my grandmother who eyed me up and down.

“He a looker?” she asked, her brow rising in what appeared glee.

“Mimi,” I chastised as I stepped into the old house. The main room was small, the carpet worn, and the furniture old. But Mimi had taken to making it a home. Every nook and cranny was filled with the same knickknacks from her house growing up, and she’d covered the walls in family pictures.

Juni and I were staying in the main living room since there were only two bedrooms, and I wasn’t about to oust Darius and Mimi from their beds. Darius had tried to argue, but I’d insisted. He was paying for this place, and like I’d told Jud, I was no charity case.

I’d managed to scrape by doing odd jobs for the last four years, and that wasn’t going to change.

Mimi laughed as she followed us inside. “Oh, I was young once, missy. Don’t even be givin’ me that. It’s about time you had yourself a little fun.”

“I’m not anywhere near being in the position to entertain the idea of fun , Mimi,” I told her, setting Juni on her feet. Juni scampered over to the dolls she had set up by the window, singing under her breath when she climbed down onto her knees to play.

A light in the shadows. My beacon in the dark. Where my heart would always follow.

I realized I must have been staring at my daughter because Mimi’s expression had gone soft when I finally looked back at her.

“The heart usually decides when you’re ready, Salem, not the head.”

A doubtful chuckle rippled out. “Honestly, it was nothing, Mimi. Just a nice guy who stopped to help me in the rain. A guy who just so happened to turn out to be Darius’ boss. There was nothing there, so you just forget whatever scandalous ideas you have spinning in your brain right now.”

“I live for scandalous ideas.”

“Mimi.” I huffed.

Laughing, she started to shuffle toward the kitchen. “I might be old, but I’m not dead, girl, so don’t pretend like I didn’t just see that blush light up your cheeks. Nothing there, my ass.”

“I am not blushing, Mimi,” I hollered behind her.

The second she disappeared through the doorway, I touched my cheek, feeling the heat on my fingertips.

Crap.

“And while you’re at it, you might as well fess up about whatever you were up to last night because I sure know it wasn’t meeting up with a friend , but I sure like the idea of you making some new ones.” Her voice carried from the kitchen.

Double crap.

“Mimi, ass is bad words.” Juni said it so casually, like she’d been a part of the entire conversation. “You’re the one who’d better be fessing it up, young lady, before you get in troubles and have to go to timeout all the way in Antarctica.”

“Time out in Antarctica? Well, we don’t want that now, do we? How about I trade you a popsicle, instead, angel girl?” Mimi all but sang.

Juni hopped to her feet and raced for the kitchen.

The child was nothing but pink bows and bright, blinding life.

“Deal!”

“Ugh, Mimi, you are going to spoil her rotten.”

“That’s what mimis are for, sweet child.”

“And you’re my greatest mimi, right?” Juni asked, standing at her side with all that hope shining on her adorable face.

I’d followed them to the entryway, light laughter rolling from my throat. Juni kept smiling up at her great grandmother. Mimi touched her chin. “That’s right, Juni Bee. The greatest, and don’t you ever forget it.”

My chest squeezed tight.

I nearly hit the ceiling when the doorbell rang five times in a row. Carefully, I inched that way, forever on edge. I peered out the drape and the dread that had bottled fizzled in a flash. I worked through the lock, calling, “I think you have a visitor, Juni Bee.”

She was already at my side by the time I got the door open to the little neighbor boy and his dad’s girlfriend, Eden.

You know, the one I’d supposedly gone out with last night.

We’d met them yesterday when they’d been out playing in front of their house. The child’s hand was wrapped up in Eden’s as he anxiously jumped at her side. “Hi, hi, hi! Do you remember me? I live right there.”

In excitement, he pointed at the house directly across the street.

Juni giggled and squirmed, and I was pretty sure she was blushing, too. “’Course, I remembers you! You’re my new best friend Gage, you silly willies. I seens you yesterday with your brand-new red bike.”

The little boy laughed like what she’d said was hysterical, all dimples and brown eyes. “It’s the coolest bike in the whole wide world. I’m gonna ride it to the highest mountain. You wanna try it today? My Miss Murphy said I was allowed to ask you. Right, Miss Murphy, right?”

The words rambled from his mouth in a slew of excitement.

“That’s right, Gage.”

Eden’s smile was adoring as she looked between the two of them, knowing as she glanced at me in small wonder. As if she couldn’t believe she was experiencing it herself. I didn’t really know her, but it was clear she’d taken up a role in the child’s life that had changed everything in hers.

Adoration stark.

Love fierce.

Devotion whole.

Eden was tall and slender and blonde. Wearing a modest floral dress and sandals. Everything about her was soft, gracious, and kind. “I hope we’re not imposing. Gage woke up this morning and the only thing he could talk about was getting over here to ask if Juni could play.”

My chest pressed with hope and twitched with nerves. “You’re not imposing at all.”

Eden smiled, pure affection rolling from her tongue. “Okay, good. We can be a lot to handle.”

“You wanna try it?” Gage asked Juni.

“Yes! Oh, please, yes!”

The second we’d come in after meeting them yesterday, Juni had begged for a bike so she could play with him.

And I was trying…trying so hard to give her everything she deserved.

Which was the precise reason I was out at nine at night in the middle of a storm trying to scrimp something together.

Stupid?

Maybe.

But I couldn’t ask Darius for anything else, couldn’t put another burden on his shoulders, not when he was paying for Mimi’s medications and this house, so I’d slipped out when he’d gone to hang out with the girl he’d been seeing for the last few months and had headed straight to a pawn shop.

A piece of me felt guilty for parting with the last ring I had of hers. But my mom? I had to imagine she would have done the same.

We’d lost her so young, when I’d been four and Darius eight. A heart condition she’d never even known she’d had. Gone in a failed beat.

Since our father had never been in the picture, Mimi had stepped up to raise us.

Gage turned his attention to me, all dimples and cuteness and manners for days. “Miss Salem, is it okay if Juni can come play with me because you know I live just right across the street, and she’s got to be my best friend forever?”

“I think that would be really nice,” I whispered.

Suddenly overcome.

Overwhelmed.

Because Juni and I had never stayed in one place for longer than a couple months.

This was what I dreamed of for her.

Wanted for her.

More than I could say. More than I could express.

A friend.

A safe place where she knew the people would care for her. Look out for her. Love her .

A home she could always go back to.

Emotion gathered at the back of my eyes. The hope blinding and terrifying at the same time. I had to blink the moisture back, to hold myself together so I didn’t crumble.

Eden reached out and gently touched my arm, her voice so soft, held so it was just for me as the two children began to jump around on the stoop. “We’re so glad you’re here.”

“Thank you.” The words wobbled.

She smiled. “And also, I don’t want to be forward, but I’m teaching a beginning ballet class for five and six-year-olds this summer after school ends. It starts next week. Three days a week. It’s free at the school where I work. We’d love to have Juni join us.”

“Ballet? Oh, Mommy, Mommy, please!!!” Of course, Juni had heard it, her little eagle ears in tune, her fingers threaded together in a prayer. “I want the ballet shoes so bad, and maybe I will get to go to Russia and do the dances!”

Affection pulling tight, I glanced at Eden.

Those dreams right there.

The ones that’d been unthinkable for so long, and now? Maybe…maybe they were within reach.

“That would be wonderful.”

How I was going to get those ballet shoes, I had no idea, but I would figure it out.

Eden’s smile spread. “Great. I knew these two would be a good fit. I think you and I will be, too.”

She gently touched my wrist again. Like she saw everything written in me. Every secret. Every fear.

Like she was silently offering to come alongside me.

A friend.

I hadn’t had one in so long.

My throat grew thick. “I do, too.”

“Come over and chat with me while the kids play in the front?”

“Sure.” I leaned back into the house and called, “We’ll be out front, Mimi.”

“Have fun,” she hollered.

I stepped out and shut the door behind us.

Hand-in-hand, Juni and Gage started to run down the sidewalk.

“Wait at the curb,” Eden called, and the children skidded to a stop. We flanked them as we crossed, and we walked up the sidewalk to the house that was basically the same as the one we were renting, though it’d obviously received a little more care and updates through the years.

I nearly stumbled when a man came sauntering out the front door. Tall with a shock of black hair, tattoos covering every inch of exposed flesh.

He was pure intimidation.

Menacing.

Extremely so, in a way that set me on edge.

Bad was written all over him in bold streaks and hard lines.

But this sweet, sweet woman all but floated over to him and let him wrap his arms around her.

So opposite it was like they slipped into the other to form a whole.

They whispered below their breaths, their words only meant for the other.

Something familiar pushed at my consciousness when he looked at me with the darkest eyes from over her shoulder.

The way they pierced and flayed.

My pulse thudded.

Eden spun around with her hand wrapped in his. “Salem, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Trent. Gage’s dad.” Her voice deepened with devotion. “Trent, this is the new neighbor I was telling you about, Salem, Darius’ sister.”

The man looked me up and down, cautious, but still, he stretched out his hand to shake mine. “Nice to meet you, Salem. I didn’t even realize Darius had a sister. He works for my brother at his shop.”

I froze as I realized the familiarity.

The resemblance.

The way those sharp eyes held the power to slice me in two.

Jud Lawson was his brother.

The man in the rain. The man who sparked something inside me that I hardly recognized in myself anymore.

A want that had sizzled across my flesh. A need I’d all but forgotten.

A fire in my guts.

But it was the fire that burned.

The flames that ruined.

And I knew I needed to stay far, far away from the blaze.