“He’ll come back here.”
“Yep.”
“And I’ll be gone.”
“Yep.”
The bluntness makes me stand so fast the chair scrapes back. “No.”
Lottie doesn’t move. “Okay.”
“I can’t just leave.”
“Then don’t.”
“I can’t stay either.”
“There it is.”
I press my palms to my eyes. “This is insane.”
“No. Insane is waiting for Jeremy to file papers while Derby stacks assault charges like firewood and Legend tries to protect a sister he just found while his own almost-wife is bleeding at Paradise Falls because every family in this state has rot under the porch.”
I drop my hands.
Lottie keeps going.
“You think the men are going to stop? Derby gets out, he goes right back to watching Jeremy. Legend gives orders.Whiskey digs. Oaks breaks something. Royal starts talking like a funeral program and somebody disappears. They’ll call it handling things. And maybe they will handle it. Maybe they’ll save you. But it’ll be their hands on the wheel again.”
Her eyes lock with mine.
“You done letting men decide where you stand, honey?”
My throat tightens.
“I don’t know where to stand.”
“Then get somewhere nobody is pulling you.”
“That’s running.”
“That’s surviving with better scenery.”
I almost laugh.
Almost.
“Derby will think I left him.”
“Maybe.”
“That will hurt him.”
“Probably.”
“Lottie.”
“What? You want me to lie and say he’ll understand right away? Derby is a raw nerve wearing boots. He’s going to lose his mind.”