Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Somewhere that isn’t my house?”
She nodded.
“How about we stop and get some lunch to go. I have the perfect place.”
After stopping by my cousin’s café to get some lunch for myself and Emma, I headed to the park.
“Are we going to your office?”
Smiling, I shook my head and turned down one of the service roads. “No. There’s a cabin down this road. We use it every now and then if we have someone from the upper ranks coming to stay for a few days. We’d thought about renting it out but decided to keep it for business use.”
“Will we get in trouble for using it?”
I looked at her. “Considering I’d be the one arresting us for trespassing, I think we’re okay. I used to come here a lot when I needed to get away for a bit.”
She looked out the window as we drove down the road. I was glad the guys had already gotten around to plowing it. We always tried to keep it clear, just in case.
After parking, we grabbed the food and drinks and headed toward the wooden cabin. “Be careful, it might be icy.”
Emma walked carefully up the few steps and onto the porch. “How adorable is this place! It looks really old.”
“It is. The cabin was built in 1915 for Mary Belle King Sherman. She was one of the main people who fought for the creation of the park, as well as other parks like the Grand Canyon.”
“Really?”
“She and her husband lived in Estes Park, and they built the cabin as a place to get away from town and enjoy the wildlife.”
Emma laughed. “I can’t imagine the town was very big back then.”
Smiling, I turned on the lights. “Want me to build a fire in the fireplace?”
“Will we be here long enough to enjoy it?”
I raised my brows, and her cheeks flushed.
“You build the fire; I’ll get the food out and plated up. I’m glad you had paper plates in your truck.”
Getting to work on a small fire, I glanced at Emma over my shoulder. “I like to take Hadley on random picnics from time to time. I was stopping to buy them so much, I decided to just keep some in the truck.”
After getting the fire started, I sent a text to headquarters to let them know I was using the cabin in case they saw smoke. Then we sat down at the small table and ate our tuna melt sandwiches and made a bit of small talk before Emma set her sandwich down and exhaled.
“Something happened today at ladies’ church.”
“I figured.”
She gave me a soft smile. “I’ve been so nervous to tell you about my ex-husband Ben.”
“Emma, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to share.”
“I know. But I see now that my anxiety about telling you was silly. Rose told me to give myself grace.” She rolled her eyes and let out a humorless laugh.
“You mentioned earlier you didn’t want me to think less of you. Was it because you stayed with him?”
With a small nod, she wrung her hands together. “I was married to Ben for ten years. For eight of those years he was physically abusive.”
My hands clenched into fists. I wanted to track down Ben and make him hurt, just like he’d made Emma hurt.
“The first time he slapped me was after a dinner with some of his friends. One of the guys mentioned how pretty I was. Ben accused me of flirting with him.”
I nearly growled. “He hit you because his friend said you were pretty?”
Emma nodded. “He always cried afterward, in the beginning. Begged me to forgive him. A few months would go by and something else would trigger him. He’d pull my hair, or slap me, or push me to the floor. Sometimes, he…” She paused. “He wanted rough sex, so he would…”
I closed my eyes. “Tell me he didn’t hit you while having sex with you.”
She swallowed hard. “No. He would just be…rough. As the years went by, the abuse got worse. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to leave the house or be around any of his friends because I knew I’d say something wrong, or they would. When he did force me to go out with him, I pretty much sat in a corner and didn’t speak until I had to.”
“And no one thought that was strange?”
She shrugged. “If they did, they looked the other way. Ben was charming and handsome. If someone questioned him, he had a way of talking around them.
“Early on, I found out I was pregnant. I thought for sure he wouldn’t touch me if I was carrying his child.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “That mother—”
My curse broke off when Emma put a hand on my arm. “He didn’t physically hurt me while I was pregnant. It was more emotional and mental, like threatening to take the baby away from me and lock me up somewhere.