The fury I feel is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.
Wyatt and Chase seem to be taking the news of Halle’s true identity better than me. Why is that? Why does this bother me so much, even though I, much like my brothers, immediately understood why she chose to keep everything a secret?
I race home in the afternoon, dropping everything I had left to do on my day off in order to talk to Halle about what I’ve found out. For hours, I hesitated. As soon as I got Chase’s text messages earlier today, I was tempted to go straight to the firehouse and confront her. But I knew it wasn’t the time or place.
Chief Holt and the others in our crew are better kept out of this, at least until we can speak to her directly. My brothers are right, Halle’s safety is at stake here. Her safety as well as her children’s, whom I’ve grown increasingly fond of. So I went about my business, biding my time to the best of my abilities.
But the fury has finally taken over.
The sun sets in an angry red west of the city as I pull up outside our house with a screech. A split second later, I walk in and close the door behind me. At the same time, Halle comes rushing out of the kitchen with a worried look on her face. “Are you okay?” she asks, almost breathless.
For a moment, I soften up, just a little bit. She’s worried about me.
“I’m okay,” I say, gathering myself and taking deep, measured breaths. “You, on the other hand… Halle, you’re not okay.”
“What?” she blinks a few times, genuinely confused. “I’m fine. I just got home. I wanted to get dinner ready before I have to go pick up Sammy and Luna. Your parents have movie tickets for tonight, so I figured I’d get the kids out of their hair earlier.”
“Who’s Helena Nash?”
She freezes mid-step, eyes wide, her lower lip quivering in horror. I can see the tension gathering in her shoulders.
“What did you just ask me?” she manages, shaking like a leaf.
“Helena Nash. That is your real name, isn’t it?”
“How? Where?”
“So it’s true.”
Tears fill her grey-blue eyes. It’s tearing me apart on the inside to see her like this, but the truth needed to come out.
She looks so beautiful in the simple white cotton dress she’s wearing. Her chestnut brown hair flowing in elegant curls. For the life of me, I cannot reconcile this vision of her with those newspaper photos. It’s as if I’m looking at a completely different person altogether.
“Eric, it’s complicated,” Halle can barely speak, choking up on her tears. “I’m so sorry—”
“What is it you’re sorry about? Lying to us? Not telling us your ex is a verifiable psycho?”
“All of it,” she cries out, the tears now rolling down her pink cheeks.
It’s getting increasingly harder to keep my composure since the only thing I want to do right now is to walk over and take her in my arms. But I cannot overlook a slight this big. This is a huge fucking issue, especially given our degree of intimacy. If the trust is broken, we’re doomed from the very beginning.
“Eric, I’m so sorry. I was scared. I thought I was starting a new life, but then the diner burned down, and—”
“Did you know it was him?”
She appears not to register the question at first, but then she does, and her eyes grow even wider. “What?”
“Colby. We’ve got enough evidence to consider him the primary suspect at this point,” I say, carefully gauging her reaction.
Halle had no idea. The shock that is currently setting in drains the blood from her face. She can barely stand, slowly leaning into the wall next to her for some semblance of balance.
“I…. No. I didn’t. I didn’t even know he’d found me,” she manages, wiping her tears. Something else is taking over her. An instinct I have seen manifest in other people, under similar circumstances of duress. Taking deep, shaky breaths, Halle straightens her back and steels herself. “It explains a lot, though. I need to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere, Halle, we’re not done talking,” I say. “You need to tell me everything. You need to tell us everything. We deserve that much!”
“Not right now.”
She bolts right past me, and I’m too shocked to do anything about it. I try to catch up with her before she walks out the door, but she yanks her wrist free with a seething look on her face.
“Halle!”
“I said not right now! I need to get my kids out of here!”
The glassy yet determined look in her eyes sends shivers down my spine. I’ve never seen her like this—so furious and devastated at the same time. My blood runs cold as I reach for my phone.
Whatever she thinks she’s doing, she’s not doing it alone. Whether she likes it or not. Sooner or later, Halle will have to understand that she’s not alone anymore. I sure as hell don’t plan on letting her battle The Devil’s unhinged son on her own. Especially not after he tried to burn her and their kids alive in that fucking diner.
This impending danger puts everything in a different perspective, now that Halle is out the door. My own anger subsides and a sense of protective urgency takes over. We can fight about the secret she kept from us later. Colby Nash isn’t going to stop. We know who he is. We also know how powerful and influential his family is.
No wonder Halle is running.
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