Page 43 of The Only Seconds that Matter
“Can I stand instead?”Taylor said.
“If you want.”He sank down onto his desk chair, straddling the back of it and crossing his arms over the backrest.“Wanna tell me what’s up?Don’t saynothing, because I know that’s not true.”
Taylor squeezed her hands together, face pink.She refused to meet Victor’s eyes, which struck Victor as odd, considering how bold she usually was.
“Taylor?Come on, hon.Something is clearly wrong.”
“You can’t tell Uncle Johnny,” she whispered, eyes darting toward the open door.“He’ll get mad.”
“What is it?”
Suddenly tears rose up in Taylor’s eyes, and she started crying.Victor stood up, and before he could even stretch out a hand, her arms were around his waist like tentacles, her face buried deep in his shirt.Christ.What hadhappened?
“I can’t ride!”she blurted through her sobs.“It’d hurt too much.”
Victor felt himself tense, and he placed a hand on Taylor’s shoulder to pull her back slightly.“What hurts?”
She sniffed and wiped at her nose with an arm until Victor grabbed a tissue from his desk and offered her that instead.
“I said some mean things to Mike,” she muttered miserably.“He got real mad and gave me a whooping.”She paused, flushing even redder before whispering, “On mybutt.”
“Oh, honey.”Victor yanked Taylor back into a hug, and she started crying again.“When did this happen, hmm?”
“This—this morning,” she stuttered.“It still hurts.”
“Did he do it with his hand, or—”
“His belt.”
Victor sucked in a slow breath, trying to work the mess of emotions this admission raised.Most of it was rage born out of protectiveness.She wasn’t his kid, but Taylor was his student, and the only bruises his students got were the ones the horses put there.He was the last person to pick a fight, but for Taylor he might be willing.
“Was your mom home when this happened?”Victor asked.
“Yeah, but—but she was outside.”Taylor rubbed at her eyes.“She yelled at him but she was mad at me, too.She said I—she said I—” Taylor paused a moment to catch her breath around a sob.“She said I need to watch my mouth.”She turned her face up toward Victor, eyes red and puffy.“Can I just stay here today?I don’t wanna go home.”
Victor was not a teacher or a therapist, so he wasn’t legally bound to report anything to authorities, but he couldn’t imaginenotreporting this to anyone.At the same time, he knew that by doing so he’d be inserting himself into a family situation he was not prepared to deal with.This barn was clearly her refuge and the one place she felt safe enough to admit such a thing, and if he went to the cops, there’d be no way in hell her mother would ever bring her back.What if she was taken away from her mother and thrown into foster care?Victor had never gone through it, but he knew some people who had, and their stories of abuse stayed with him.He felt like he was between a rock and a hard place, and he hadn’t a clue what he should do.
“Listen.”Victor bent down to meet her gaze.“Why don’t you take out Midnight and just walk her around a bit, okay?Maybe take her to the round pen and do some of that desensitization practice I taught you.That sound good?”
Taylor nodded, rubbing her face on her arm to clear it of tears.Victor gave the back of her neck a squeeze before she stepped out of his office.Once she was gone, he shut the door and did the thing she’d asked him not to: he called Johnny.He seemed like the only person who had Taylor’s best interest in mindandan understanding of the family that Victor did not.
Thankfully he picked up after the third ring.
“Johnny, hey.This is Victor.”
“I know,hom-bray.I see your name on my phone.”
Victor let thehom-braygo for now.“We need to talk.”
CHAPTER 13
Victor didn’t tell Johnny about why he needed to turn around and drive back to the barn, but he made it clear it was serious.Johnny didn’t argue with him, and within twenty minutes he had returned.Victor pulled him into his office and closed the door.
“You’re scarin’ me, actin’ like this.Is Taylor okay?”Johnny asked.
“She’s working with Midnight in the round pen.She was supposed to have a riding lesson today, but…” Victor trailed off and sighed.“Did she tell you she couldn’t ride today?”
“What?No.Why can’t she ride?”
