Such a great dad.

  “I’m planning to drive through for some grilled chicken,” she told him. There was a place right by the freeway, not ten minutes away. “You can come with us and we can eat there, if you’d like.”

  “Chicken!” Bella hollered. The little girl loved her chicken. Fried. Grilled. Baked. She wasn’t too fond of vegetables, but she’d eat chicken every meal if she could.

  “How about macaroni and cheese?” Josh suggested, and she frowned. Most chicken places offered the side dish—Bella’s second favorite food—but the one by the freeway did not. Josh knew that. They’d had a meltdown with Bella there about a year before.

  “I’ll be right back,” Josh said. He ran out to his vehicle and came in carrying a sack full of groceries. “How about if we make chicken and mac and cheese here?” he suggested to his daughter, pulling out her favorite frozen meal.

  “Josh,” Jasmine said. He’d asked her for an hour. She hadn’t packed anything for a longer stay for Bella, who, while potty-trained, was still wearing pull-up, disposable diapers at night.

  Looking at her over the top of the bag, Josh said, “Please?” And, of course, when his big brown eyes—just like hers and their mom’s—implored her, she couldn’t deny him.

  He’d had a bad day. The worst. So he could have hours like the one he’d just spent. They could do dinner. And if Bella fell asleep in the car seat on the way home, she could always carry her into the house and put her to bed. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d changed her niece while Bella was asleep.

  Might even be better that way. Bella had cried for several minutes the last time Josh left before she was asleep.

  While Josh and Bella pretended to help her, but really just played silly games in the small kitchen area, Jasmine made dinner for the three of them.

  “You got a whole gallon of milk,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s going to spoil before you get it all the way home.” Giving his shoulder a nudge with her knee as he crawled past her, she capped the container and put it in the fridge. Along with the pound of butter he’d also purchased for the quarter of a cup she needed.

  They kept the refrigerator stocked with essentials that held longer shelf lives, like condiments. There was usually some cheese and a few other things in the freezer. And boxed food in the cupboards. But opened butter and milk...he’d need to take those with him.

  It wasn’t until after they ate and she was just putting away the rest of the dishes—Josh had offered to help, but she’d told him to spend the time with Bella—that she noticed her brother had brought in a couple of more bags. Along with a duffel.

  And she got it. He was planning to stay. Maybe even until his court date on Thursday to officially record his plea before the judge. Her heart lightened a bit more. He was taking care of himself. Coming to their haven because it was where they’d always gone to get healthy.

  To find security and freedom from fear. To remember that they were valuable human beings with rights. That they were strong and capable and would be okay.

  All reminders that she wanted to give him. He’d known how to access them, even before she’d thought of it. That was Josh—dealing with the bad by taking action to bring out the good. She was proud of him.

  They’d get through this. Heidi could be going to jail for her attack on Jasmine. And even if she didn’t, there’d most likely be a permanent restraining order. They were going to be okay. Josh was going to be okay.

  It was just a bump in the road.

  Chapter 21

  Her phone went immediately to voice mail. Again. Greg had been trying to reach Jasmine for a couple of hours, and she wasn’t picking up.

  Josh had obviously gone straight to her from the meeting with his lawyer. She knew what Greg had been doing the previous week—the evidence he’d turned up against her brother.

  And she was clearly no longer speaking to him.

  Because she believed her brother was innocent.

  And because she now thought Greg had been lying to her, using her, all along?

  He thought about the way she’d moved on top of him—and beneath him—just three days before and ached like he’d never ached in his life.

  He needed to see her. To explain.

  He couldn’t explain. He worked for the prosecution. The case was going to trial.

  He needed to hold her.

  He needed her to trust him.

  Which meant he had to let her come to him.

  Or not.

  Downing a cold meat sandwich for dinner, along with a protein shake, he went down the hall to his gym, turned on the television mounted to the wall and listened to voices droning on as he worked out. Doing what he could to deal with the frustration of knowing that there were so many things he couldn’t fix.

  * * *

  Leaving the light on over the sink in the clean kitchen to welcome Josh after they left, Jasmine went to find Bella and get her loaded up for the drive home. They could still make it by her bedtime. Which was important; the toddler had to be up the next morning for Jasmine to be able to get them both ready to go to the Stand. Luckily she’d already prepared the materials for the next day’s lessons.

  The cottage had grown quiet, which was saying a lot since it was really just two rooms—the big room that served as the living area with the kitchen divided off with a half wall in one corner, and the bedroom. Josh had had a lovely full bath added on to the back of the original structure, off the bedroom.

  Glancing outside, she didn’t see the twosome in the yard, so headed through the bedroom door, figuring her brother was having his daughter go potty before the drive home.

  The sound of splashing water hit her before she could see inside the bathroom. On his knees beside the mammoth tub, Josh was leaning over, bathing Bella.

  “I thought I’d give her a bath,” he said while Bella grinned up at her and said, “Watch, Auntie JJ!” At which point she picked up a squeezable, colorful letter block toy and pushed it under the water, laughing as it popped back up through the water at her.

  Jasmine smiled. Made some appropriate comment to the toddler but didn’t say much else. She understood. Josh was struggling. She ached for him.

  So much.

  If there was a way they could spend the night...

  But she couldn’t. She had to work in the morning. Bella had daycare. There were no official orders yet allowing Josh to spend the night with Bella, and she wasn’t going to let him screw things up at this point.

  Worrying all of a sudden that she’d already taken way too much of a chance of that, bringing Bella out to the cottage, afraid she’d given in to Josh at a time when he’d needed her to be strong for him, to see the bigger picture, she calmed herself down. No one but the two of them knew about the cabin. It had always been their secret. Just the two of them. That’s what made it so safe.

  Josh had purchased it through one of his holdings as just a piece of land. The cottage hadn’t had running water or electricity. It hadn’t been taxable. She was sure there were permits somewhere for adding the electric, but the water, that was on well.

  Weird, maybe, but when you grew up in a home of terror, you learned to do what you had to do to live healthily in a world with very few guarantees.

  Not wanting Bella to catch on to her changed mood, not wanting to ruin the last few minutes Josh had with Bella, she left them alone and went out to gather her bag and the few things she’d taken out of the backpack full of Bella’s things she always carried anytime she had the little girl. An emergency juice box. A few travel toys. A change of clothes. A couple pairs of big girl panties. Usually a pull-up or two, but the little girl had grown, changed sizes, and she hadn’t thought to put larger ones in. She hadn’t been planning to take Bella anywhere to spend the night.

  They weren’t going to stay the night. She was not going to let her brother convince her to go that far. As much as she owed him, as much as she understood, it didn’t feel right having Bella away from her home overnight.

  Nor did it feel right calling into work the next day. Letting her kids down.

  When she heard him in the bedroom, she grabbed Bella’s sweater, put their bags on her shoulders and had her keys in hand, ready to take Bella on her free hip. It would just be easier to load her in the car herself, rather than have her hanging on her daddy, not wanting to let go to get buckled into her car seat.

  * * *

  Leaving Josh up at the cottage alone wasn’t easy.

  He was alone when he joined her in the living area. “Where’s Bella?” She stood there, watching him as he moved toward the front door.

  Locking the keyed dead bolt from the inside, he stood in front of the only door, facing her. The doors on his home were locked the same way. Something he’d done in his house when Heidi had been pregnant. Part of baby-proofing the house, he’d said. She and Heidi had thought it overkill. But survivors all had their little quirks.

  “What are you doing, Josh?” she asked. The poor man. This had to be killing him. “You know we have to go.”

  “Not yet,” he said. “I just laid Bella down. She can fall asleep here, and I’ll carry her out when you leave. I need to be able to show you the things that Ryder showed me today, the discovery materials.” He grabbed a file out of a drawer in the bookcase along one wall. “He made a copy for me,” he said. “I couldn’t do it with Bella awake.”

  She didn’t relish the hourlong drive back in the dark, but for Josh, it was a small price to pay. She’d thought they could talk while she drove home and Bella slept. But if he had things to show her, she definitely had to see them.

  Nodding, she dropped her bags on the couch and went over to the kitchen table to look at the paperwork.

  * * *

  Greg tried Jasmine again after his shower. In his room, pulling on basketball shorts and nothing else, he listened as her voice mail picked up again after the second ring.

  Either she was deliberately refusing his calls or her phone was off.

  Jasmine wasn’t the type to avoid him, no matter how pissed she got. She’d pick up the phone and tell him to go to hell. In the nicest way possible, of course.

  Or demand that he admit he lied to her—also without raising her voice. Just like she’d immediately called him out both times she’d thought he might be using her.

  She had a way about her—some things that were consequences of having grown up a victim—and one of them was that she didn’t take a lack of truthfulness lightly.

  She’d fought hard to be a survivor and was going to make damned certain that she didn’t become a victim again. And, as evidence of that last thought, he offered himself the fact that she was never going to live with a partner again. She’d learned that doing so made her vulnerable.

  He needed to drive by her house. He didn’t have to stop. If her lights were on, he’d know she was there and okay.

  Maybe he’d stop. He could figure that out when he got there. See how he felt.

  Already out of his shorts and into jeans, Greg grabbed a sweatshirt, his wallet, phone and keys, and was out the door.

  * * *

  Jasmine stared at the pages of documentation, a partial transcript from a conversation between Greg Johnson and Heidi Taylor that had taken place the previous week. Pages of corroborating evidence. Grainy photos of time-stamped security-tape footage. Copies of text messages from two phone numbers she recognized well. Josh’s and Heidi’s.

  Dizzy, she sat down. Her chest was so tight she worried about breathing for a second. All last week, while she’d been on a new relationship high, hopeful, Greg had been making sure her brother hanged.

  And Josh...

  “You... These texts... You threw Heidi out and hurt her foot so bad so couldn’t walk?”

  She didn’t get it. Truly just couldn’t comprehend. There must be a way to right this. She knew it. But where was it? Why couldn’t she see it?

  “I didn’t throw her out,” Josh said, pulling out a chair to sit next to her, moving it close enough that their arms were touching as they looked at the pages together. “I told her multiple times to leave. She said if I wanted her gone, I’d have to make her go. I couldn’t call the police on her. Not again. She was trying so hard. And when she’s in a good place, she’s great with Bella. But Bella was coming down the hall and I couldn’t let her see Heidi in that state, so I pushed her out the door. The foot thing was completely unintentional. I was watching for Bella, not looking at Heidi, and shut the door before she was completely out. It caught her foot.”

  She nodded. Able to see it all happening. Because she’d been witness to enough similar situations in the past to know exactly what Josh was talking about.

  They went through all of the pages together. He had explanations for every situation. Believable ones.

  And yet he’d had to plead guilty.

  Sick to her stomach, she kept looking it all over, as though there was some answer there she was missing.

  Some piece of clarity.

  God knew she needed it. Desperately.

  “Ryder says there’s no way to beat all this in court. With this evidence...the judge is going to know that the things happened and then it’s going to be Heidi’s interpretation, her word, against mine. And with our judge, my chances are pretty much nil.”

  “So we file to have her removed. Petition for a new judge.”

  She was just spitballing. He’d already pleaded guilty.

  “I have no legal grounds to do so. She’s a sitting judge with a stellar record. The most I could do is file for appeal. She’s been up on appeal a few times. Has only been overturned once, and it wasn’t on a DV case.”

  She got to the bottom of the pile. The picture that had started it all. Only there was a second one there, this time. Of the proper wrist. Also taken from Heidi’s phone with the same time stamp.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  Shaking his head, he said. “Apparently she had two photos on her phone.”

  “But...this one matches her testimony,” she said, looking closely at it. And then the following paperwork, mentioning a doctor’s report and neighborhood security coverage. “Did you look at this, Josh?”

  He grabbed up the photo. Studied it like he’d never seen it before, and she was scared for him. She knew how trapped this was all going to make him feel. How hopeless and hurt.

  But when he looked at her, he didn’t look hurt. He looked...determined.

  “I didn’t take the plea.”

  * * *

  There were no lights on at Jasmine’s place. She’d have just put Bella to bed. Could be in the back part of the house. Greg got out of his car and circled the place, noting, with comfort, the security cameras. She’d given him her code to the gate, so he’d gotten in without a hitch.

  Which meant any number of other people could do so as well.

  Her bedroom light wasn’t on. The blinds were still open. She never left them open at night.

  Jumping up onto the deck, he sat there for a minute, on the wicker couch he’d occupied the first night he’d met her. Hard to believe that had just been three weeks ago. Seemed like years of his life had passed in that space.

  In the three weeks he’d known her, she’d been adamant about getting Bella to bed on schedule. Believing that a regular routine built a sense of security. And she had to be at work in the morning. Something else she was a stickler about.

  Funny, how he knew her so well in such a little bit of time.

  So...where was she?

  She wouldn’t be with Josh. The brother and sister pair were committed to following Bella’s visitation rules, and with his court case coming up on Thursday—with his determination to win—no way that either of them would jeopardize things now.

  She could be at The Lemonade Stand. Helping with some emergency situation there. Maddie would watch Bella.

  But what emergency would require an elementary school teacher to be on hand at nine o’clock at night?

  It hit him then... Heidi. The woman knew better than to go after Jasmine again. She knew she was treading a fine line between freedom and jail.

  But she also wasn’t stable.

  On his phone immediately Greg made one call—and then hit the road himself. If Heidi Taylor thought she was going to hurt Jasmine or that little girl, she had another think coming.

  This one, he was going to fix.

  Chapter 22

  “You lied to me?” Josh hadn’t taken the plea? There was no order to remove visitation restrictions? She couldn’t be there. Not with Bella. She shook her head. “You lied to me?”

  “I had to get you here, Jas. I had to be able to show you all this, and I’m not allowed at your place with Bella there. Look at all these things. It’s like there are eyes everywhere. And Heidi’s opening them. For all I know, she’s sitting on my place. Following me. Taking pictures...”

  It was a bit extreme. And yet...somewhat believable, too. Knowing Heidi. And seeing all of the evidence that had been collected on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

  She couldn’t even think about the finder of that evidence. The collector. Sleeping with that man...she just couldn’t go there. Not yet.

  “All you had to do was tell me the truth, Josh,” she said. It was their golden rule. They would never, ever lie to each other. Because they both had issues and had to know that there was always someplace they could go where they didn’t have to worry about misplaced trust.

  “I know.” He put a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry. I just...after seeing all this, I wasn’t thinking straight. But tonight...being here, a family, playing with Bella...”

  She felt his hand on her wrist and saw, in her mind’s eye, the photo that was right in front of her. Another wrist he’d had his hand on.