Page 41 of Property of The Grump

“By stripping off her panties and fucking her? You priests are all a bunch of fucking weirdos. Where is my wife?”

“You’re a tough man, right? Controlling a woman with your hands? Making her feel so small so you can feel big? Is that it?” I step forward, begging this fucker to put hands on me… and he does.

He shoves me back against the little old church that’s been a part of my family’s lives for decades, and I brush myself off and straighten my back. He shoves me a second time, and I finally have the permission I need to grab my pocketknife from my jeans. I pull the blade and point it at his head. He was offered grace he didn’t deserve, and he refused it.

Leanne shrieks and runs back into the church, screaming for Wren. I have seconds to make a decision. Seconds before Wren is out here in this parking lot. Seconds before this man has control over her again. Seconds that need to be spent wisely.

I smash the knife’s thick handle against his temple and knock him to the dirt. His weak, meek frame falling easily against the gravel. I follow him to the ground, driving my fists into his face and ribs.

Over and over, moment by moment, every bit of pain he’s ever caused her, every word he’s ever said, all of it forced into every hit I drive into the man. I can see the second he passes out, I can feel the instant my hand breaks, but I don’t stop. I don’t stop until I hear her voice, which is followed immediately by police sirens.

A few seconds, that’s all I needed. A few seconds and every fantasy I had of a life with Wren is over.

Chapter Fourteen

Wren

Present Day

Father Anderson looks toward me with the downturned expression of a man I don’t recognize. His beard is longer now. The lines beside his eyes sunken deeper. He’s also somehowmoremuscular, if that’s possible.

“What are you doing?” My voice is frayed, my brain spinning at how any of this is real. Of all things today, I wasn’t expecting to see him. Hell, I never expected to see him ever again.

He sets me down in his truck, rounds to the driver’s side, and pulls away from campsite four fifty-seven as though he’s known all along I was coming.

“I’m doing what I should’ve done to begin with.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m leaving with you. Tonight.”

“What? I can’t go yet. I haven’t said goodbye to anyone. I have a list of things I still have to get for the baby, and—”

“You stayed with that fuck,” he growls, his jaw tight as we drive up the mountainside, weaving between heavy pines and yellow aspen. “Why did you stay? Why didn’t you answer my letters?”

“Letters?” A tear rolls down my cheek. “I didn’t get your letters. Not a single one. His family has kept me under lock andkey for years. They took away my access to everything, including vehicles and money. I’m to show up at events, I’m to smile, and I’m to put on the perfect little show. If I don’t, trust me, I get hell for it.”

He slams his fist against the wheel of his truck. “I should’ve fucking killed him.”

I jump back and blow out a breath, my hand moving over my stomach where my daughter grows. “I’ve thought about you every single day for seven years. Every day I watched the prison’s website. I saw the day you were released, but then you were gone. No online presence whatsoever.” She sighs. “I convinced myself that you didn’t want me. That you didn’t want to be found. I did ruin your life after all.”

“You didn’t ruin my life, Wren. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I’d have done anything for you. I still would,” he growls, his hand on the shifter as he glances toward me. I have no idea where we’re going, but we’re climbing further up into the hills.

“How did you get away today?”

“I made these little creatures for the new house manager, and she let me use her car. I think she feels sorry for me. I told her I was out shopping and that I just needed a minute to myself, but I know she saw how broken I was. I know she’s heard him yelling.”

Kade’s fists tighten around the wheel of the truck. “You realize we don’t have a lot of choices, right? You’re having the man’s baby, so we can’t risk you staying. God knows what he’d do to get that baby back. Didn’t you say his own father made his daughter disappear?”

I nod. “I know. That’s why I’m scared. I can’t let Evie—”

“Evie?” He glances toward me, the soft light of the morning sun filtering in through the window. “You’re naming her Evie?”

I nod. “It made me think of you. This should be our little girl, Kade. I don’t know what to do.”

He reaches over, his hand on my stomach, the touch of rough, calloused fingertips like a memory that slips back into the present without pause. “That’s our baby and I’m going to protect the both of you. I’m taking you to the cabin I have up in the woods. We’ll stay there while Tucker works on the new IDs.”

“You’re coming, too? What about your life here at the campsite? I don’t want to ruin everything again, Kade.”