Page 100 of The Complete Truth Duet
“Jeez. Forget I said anything.” She scoffed, following after me.
She’d been with me for two days.
Two excruciating days.
She wasn’t a bad kid. Truth be told, she was a really fucking good kid, with a good heart and a troubled soul her parents had never taken the time to heal. However, when I looked at her, all I saw was Cora. Not in her features or her mannerisms, but rather in my memories. And considering that it had only been a little over a week, those memories were still so fresh and so potent that they wrecked me every time.
I missed Cora something fierce. And with her out there, hurting, it was a wonder I could function at all.
But I’d done all I could for her.
I’d cashed out a substantial portion of my retirement account to leave her that million and change, but where I was going, money in the bank didn’t matter. Though, if I was being honest, it had never truly mattered.
It hadn’t saved Lisa.
It hadn’t kept me from falling into the darkness after she’d died.
But I hoped like hell it could save Cora.
There was a good chance Drew was never going to speak to me again. Giving her the cash was always supposed to be the backup plan if anything truly happened to me. But when I’d gotten to the building that night, I’d peered up at the railing on the third floor, imagining her smile as she stared down at me the way she so often did when I got home from a run.
Leaving her was going to destroy me in ways from which I’d never recover.
But I couldn’t walk away without knowing she had everything I could possibly give her.
However, that meant taking some things from her as well.
That building. That fucking building. It had been her home for over a decade.
But it had to go.
I couldn’t risk that they would ever try to take her back there. Manuel had at least another five years on his sentence, but his empire would not still be standing when he walked out of the chain link gates.
The biggest part of that legacy was his family name.
So, one after the other, I choked the life out of his sons as well.
In the previous four years, I’d done a lot of things in the name of avenging Lisa’s death.
But that.
Killing Dante and Marcos.
That was for Cora.
And I would never feel the first regret over it.
So yeah, while I hated knowing that Cora was hurting, I was able to climb out of bed, put one foot in front of the other, and breathe through the pain of losing her all because I knew she was free.
Drew was going to stay with her until she got settled somewhere new.
I’d like to think he was doing it as a favor to me.
I knew Drew though. He liked to play the hard-ass, but he was a good guy who cared about Cora more than he’d ever admit. He’d make sure she was taken care of.
Even if I couldn’t.
Savannah and I climbed into my car, my door slamming while hers softly clicked.
“Are we gonna follow him?” she asked.
I ground my teeth, hating like hell that she was involved in this clusterfuck. But the moment I’d let her climb into my car that night, I’d made her a part of this. I shouldn’t have picked her up. I should have called Drew, told him where she was, and let him handle it.
But I’d promised Cora I’d get her back. Hell, I’d driven seven hours to Cleveland using the little details I’d gathered about Savannah over my two months with Cora to track her down.
And seeing her standing on that corner, with bruises on her arms, clearly up to no good, I couldn’t wait.
She needed help.
And I was there.
Well…Shane Pennington was there. I didn’t know who the fuck I was anymore.
When she’d asked questions about Cora, I’d been forced to tell her the truth.
Or at least part of it.
I’d glossed over Lisa. Then told her that Marcos and Dante were dead, but I didn’t explain the how, i.e. me being responsible. This led us to the fire at the building, then the money I left behind, and finally the body Drew had purposely identified as my own.
For being sixteen, she’d taken all of it surprisingly well. Her first question had been a shrieked, “Holy shit. You left her a million dollars?” Followed by, “Holy shit. Where’d you get a million dollars?” Followed by, “Holy shit. Can I have a million dollars?” But after she’d calmed down, her face had paled as she’d whispered, “The whole building is gone?” Followed by, “Were any of the girls hurt?” Followed by, “Cora thinks you’re dead?”
Her heartbreaking concern was nothing compared to the hurricane swirling inside me, but I had only one answer. “Yeah. And no matter what happens, you can’t tell her I’m alive. She’ll become a target, Savannah. I left so she could finally have a life of her own, not get bogged down in someone else’s shit. After everything she’s done, I think we can both agree she deserves that much.”
