Folding Hearts (11 page)

“We can’t prove this call ever happened and even if we did, he could still get someone else to come after them. Even with this little prick behind bars, he is still threatening my family. If you ask me I think we need to get them as far away from here a
s we can.” My mother was shaking
and holdin
g
Bella tightly. I could tell she was honestly scared for our safety.

“Mom, I don’t think he is serious. He is just sayin’
w
hat would hurt me the worst.
”

“Get your head out of your ass Randa. This guy was trouble from the
beginning
. You need to start thinkin
g
about your safety first.
When does he get out?” Conner asked.

“I have no idea. I didn’t
even know he was gettin
’ out early at all.” I argued.

“The first thing we need to do is call whoever is in charge of Tucker’s case. When we have more details we
can figure out what to do next,” m
y aunt chimed in.

“What happens if they don’t believe me? It isn’t like anyone else heard what he said to me.”

“Miranda, you need to think about you and Bella. Have you forgotten what he did to you?” My mother seemed petrified to think about what Tucker had done to me in that parking lot.
Remembering how I looked when I left the hospital that night made it easy to see her side. Being a mother myself, well, I couldn’t imagine seeing my own child go through what I was.

“No Mom. I remember every detail of what happened. All I am sayin’ is that we don’t know whether this is just some k
ind of joke. We may be
panickin
’
and he isn’t getting out of jail early. We just don’t know.”

“Well I will not be taking the chance with my
only daughter and grandchild,” m
y mother said
assuringly
.

My aunt was already on the phone with someone. I had no clue
who
she could be calling aroun
d nine p.m., but she was talking up a storm, explaining
the whole situation.

Colt and Van were deep into a conversation with my brother and my mother and Lucy were tryin
g
to settle Bella. I felt like I was in the mid
dle of some worm hole, listening
to a
ll of them decide
what was going
to happen.
If it weren’t for my aunt making
a few phone calls, I would have just assumed this was all a hoax, but finally her calls paid off.

She pulled my mother into the kitche
n and we could hear them talking
, but not clear e
nough to figure out what they were sayin
g
. I think we were all thrown a loop when they called
everyone except me and Lucy in there with them.

“Guess we are
n’t
at liberty to hear what they are deciding?” I said sarcastically.

“You know that whatever they are saying, it is for your own good. You have to make the right decisions here missy. That Tucker is a dangerous man. You need to get as far away from him as you can.
” She started to tear up as the words came out of her mouth.

I grabbed her
and
hugged her tightly. “I love you Lucy. I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe.”

Everyone came walkin’ out of the kitchen. Their faces told me everything I didn’t want to know.

“Over-crowding! He is ge
tting out early on account of
overcrowding
. Do you
believe
this shit? He
committed
an act of violence and he is being let out six months early.” My brother was not too happy.

“Honey, sit down!” My mother said as she sat down on the couch and waited for me to join her.

“He beat the shit out of her. Does anyone else have a problem with this?
I don’t care if he has had good behavior or some dumb shit that qualified him for an early release. This is horse shit,
” Conner slammed.

The room was filled with sudden animosity and I knew whatever they were about to tell me couldn’t be good.

“When does he get out?” I asked.

“As early as three days from now.” My mother answered.
“They said that you would receive a letter.”

“You really think I am in danger?”

“We have all made arrangements for you and Bella to go away for a while, at least until we can tell you aren’t in any imminent danger
,
” My aunt explained.

Tears filled my eyes. “Where am I supposed to go? How long? Is anyone goin’ to go with me?”

“We have a place for you to go. It’s out of state and you will have help there. I have made arrangements for you to stay with family in North Carolina. They have plenty of room and you and Bella will be safe there. It isn’t forever honey, just until we know for sure that you are safe.” She looked over to her son Colt and gave him a quick nod. He and
Van left the room without saying
a word to me.

“When do I have to leave?” I asked.

“Tomorrow. We will help you pack up enough of your
things before you make the trip,
” My mother explained.

I started to really cry and my mother wrapped her arms around me. “I have never left home before. I don’t want to go. I don’t even know the people where I am goin’. This isn’t fair.”

“You aren’t staying with strangers. You are going to stay with Tyler and his parents. They have a small farm and a carriage house that you and Bella will be comfortable in for the time being. Honey, this is temporary.”

The only word I heard out of her mouth was Tyler. I was shaking so bad, but I definitely heard her right.
“
You are sendin’ me to stay with Ty?”

How could they want me to go stay with the one person they made a point to try to keep me away from?

“Yes. I know it isn’t what you want, but just go there and lay low, at least until we can figure out if t
here is anything to worry about,
” My mother suggested.

My brother looked out the window
.
I could see him clenching his jaw. He didn’t like this idea one bit.
“This is only temporary Randa. We just need to make sure this son of a bitch is not goin’ to be a problem for you.
Give it a couple of weeks and then you can come home.
”

For the next hour my family t
ried to convince me that leaving
was my best and safest option. It
wasn’t
like I was fighting
them;
I just wanted to be
able
to make my own decisions. When it was all said and done, the decision was final. Tomorrow mo
rning I would wake up and pack
as much as I needed and be on my way to a different state. By the time the discussions were done it was too late to call and talk to Ty about how his par
ents really felt about me coming
to stay with them. I was sure that the last thing they wanted was for a baby to be in the way of their everyday life.

The next morning was hectic. My family got me up at the crack of dawn. They insisted that I drive
Van’s new car instead of taking
my own, on account of Tucker not being able to tell whether I was still in town or not. My aunt handed me a envelope full of cash and a new cell phone before I
pulled out with a road map and a long trip ahead of me.

I felt like I was going into a witness protection program. My family was famous for overreacting, but in this case, I wasn’t really sure what Tucker was capable of. I couldn’t take any chances when it came to Bella.

It was hard to watch everyone kissing Bella goodbye, and it honestly felt like
it was a forever
instead of just a few weeks.
At any rate, it sucked something
fierce.

When I had finally pulled out of the ranch, it was already one thirty, so with all of the stops it was nearing dark before I pulled onto the farm road.
Bella was great the first two hours and then she got
on this crying
fit that forced me to pull over five separate times.
It didn’t help tha
t it was pouring
down rain
ing
for most of the ride.

I wanted to call Ty and let him know how close I was to getting there, but my new phone had no numbers programmed in it. I f
igured that he would be standing there waiting
for us to arrive, but that isn’t exactly how it went down.

Chapter 12

Tyler

It had been months since Miranda and I had seen each other. Ever since I was
forced to leave the ranch,
we hadn’t been as close. It was probably for the better to keep some space between us. When I was there visiting, I started thinking that may
be I wanted more from her
than I should.

Apparently, Miranda must have caught on to my sexual innuendos because she backed off from our friendship and hadn’t really been the same since. I tried to talk to her and still do occasional video chats with Izzy, but something changed between us.

The longer I was apart from Van, the more I started to understand that I had considered her more of a possession then an actual partner in our relationship.

Most of my friends were starting to get into serious relationships while I was still single,
and
quite frankly pretty miserable. My booty calls became less frequent and eventually had almost become non-existent. It wasn’t like they weren’t still coming in. Hell, even Heather called every once in a while. I don’t know why she couldn’t just give up, I mean, I hadn’t been with her since before my visit to Kentucky.

I missed Izzy more than I wanted to admit. I couldn’t explain the connection I felt to that little girl, but it was always there, almost making me want to be a better person.
It was like the strain on mine and Miranda’s relationship had caused me to re-evaluate the things that I wanted in my life. Well, that, and the fact that everyone seemed to have someone to share their life with, while I went home to an empty house every night.

Life had been ha
rd for me in the
past
year
. I got so
bored being at home that I went
out and found myself a full time job working on cars.
It wasn’t what I pictured my future to be, but it gave me a
steady income. It
wasn’t
like I had many bills. I was living at the carriage house rent free. My parents would
,
in due time
,
leave me the farm anyway, so they weren’t very pushy about me moving or having to pay rent. Since my
uncle’s
life insurance had paid off their house, they were doing good financially.

Being that
I worked five days a week, I was tired b
y the time I got off at night. It had been pouring down rain
ing
all damn day and my mo
od was being affected by the gloomy
weather. My phone had been blowing up so much with calls and text messages that my boss had asked me to leave it in the car after lunch
. I figured someone was almost certainly
having a big party and
I
didn’t really feel like going anyway. By avoiding the calls, I didn’t have to piss anyone off for not showing.

After stopping by the liquor store and grabbing a case of beer, I headed home. There was no telling which one of my friends would end up crashing later on, so on weekends I kept the fridge stocked with beer and waited for people to show up.

My mother hated it, but she couldn’t argue with the fact that I wasn’t drinking and driving.
When I finally got inside
,
all I wanted to do was get a hot shower. Smelling like gasoline and motor oil got old after a while. I popped open a beer a
nd went into the bathroom. I
let the water pound down on my back until it started to get cold
. That is when
I hopped out and heard someone knocking at my door.

I figured it was just one of the guys, so I wrapped a towel around my waist and headed for the door. A drenched Heather stood in the doorway, taking in my almost naked appearance. I rolled my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“You going to let me in or make me stay in the rain?”

I didn’t answer, but instead opened the door wider so that she could walk in. She took off her jacket and of course was in some red little skimpy number.

“Seriously Heather, I am not in the mood for you tonight.”