Maybe his family would hate him for it, but he was going to stand by her.
When Milly answered the door, she didn’t seem to know what to say. Instead of being her usual cheerful self, she was somewhat subdued, and he could tell she’d been crying.
“Is Addy okay?” he asked.
“Chief Stacy just left. It was...rough on her to...to have to recount everything in such detail. Those details weren’t easy to hear, either.”
He was grateful he hadn’t been around for that part. He was afraid of what he’d do to Kevin and the others, despite the fact that his brother seemed to have instigated the attack.
“Can I see her?”
“She doesn’t want to put you in the middle, Noah. She told me to tell you, if you came by, to go on about your business. She—she wishes you well and wants you to be happy.”
She started to shut the door but he stopped it. “Nice try, but no thanks,” he said, and squeezed through the opening despite Milly’s walker. “Addy?” he called.
Helen came out of her bedroom. “I just gave her a sleeping pill,” she said. “She’ll be fine after she gets some rest.”
“I’m glad to hear that, but I’m not leaving.” Circumventing Helen, too, he let himself into Addy’s room.
She lifted her head when she heard him come in. “Noah, you need to leave before someone sees your truck.”
He didn’t respond. He scooted her over to make room in the bed. Then, even though it was only midafternoon, he got in, wrapped his arms around her and drew her up against him.
“Go to sleep, Addy,” he murmured. “We’ll figure it all out when you wake up.”
* * *
“Addy? Chief Stacy needs to talk to you again.”
Noah had drifted off. When he heard Milly trying to wake Adelaide, he raised his head. “She’s finally resting. Can’t she talk to him later?”
“He asked me to wake her. He says word that the coach of the football team and other respected members of the community might’ve been involved in a gang rape is spreading all over town. Everyone’s riled up. He wants to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible, which means he needs her full cooperation.”
“Might’ve been involved?” Helen stood in the doorway behind Milly. “Tell him they were involved, those sons of bitches. My baby wouldn’t lie about that.”
The police chief’s wording worried Noah, too. Didn’t Stacy believe her? And, if not, was it because of the pressure his father was bringing to bear? Brent was, after all, the mayor.
The mere idea that his father might be actively working against Addy made Noah angry.
“Who’s at the restaurant?” Addy was coming around but sounded groggy.
“Relax, everything’s fine there,” Helen replied. “I’m going back now. I just came home to check on you.”
“I’m okay,” Adelaide insisted, but Noah was worried for her. His father would be a formidable foe.
Milly inched closer, hampered by carrying the phone while trying to use her walker. “Honey, Chief Stacy says that none of the men you’ve accused of raping you owns a white truck or a white SUV, except Stephen. And his hasn’t been in an accident. Stephen is saying you came by and saw that for yourself.”
“If they don’t own one, it has to belong to a friend or neighbor. Someone here in Whiskey Creek is driving a white vehicle that’s banged up on the front right panel.”
Noah stiffened when a vision of his father’s Range Rover popped into his mind. It was white, and it was damaged exactly where Addy said it would be.
But none of his old baseball buddies would’ve had access to his father’s car.
“What’s this about a white vehicle?” he asked.
Addy curled in on herself. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I am worried. How can you be sure the person who abducted you was driving a white truck or SUV? Weren’t you blindfolded?”
“I was, but I could tell it wasn’t a car. And we hit the retaining wall down the street between Lovett’s Bridal and the lawnmower shop. Stacy can check that wall himself. It has white paint all over it.”
Milly relayed this message to Stacy, who was still on the line. A moment later, she covered the phone. “Chief Stacy’s wondering if maybe your abductor hit something else and the damage to that wall happened another time, to a different car.”
“No.” Addy remained adamant. “It was only a minute, if that, after we left the driveway. I remember hearing the scrape. He freaked out when I grabbed the wheel and he slugged me.” She touched the eye that had been so swollen.
Milly repeated this to Chief Stacy, as well. But Noah had stopped listening. His mind was stuck on what he’d seen in his parents’ garage. Had his father really hit a tree? Surely, Brent wouldn’t do anything to hurt Addy unless...unless he truly believed Addy was to blame for what went on at that party.
A sense of foreboding set in as Noah slipped out of bed. “I’ve got to go take care of a few things,” he said.
Adelaide grasped his arm. “Noah?”
He smoothed the hair out of her face. “What?”
“Don’t come back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s not too late. We’ve been seeing each other for what...two weeks? You don’t owe me anything.”
Helen had left, presumably to return to the restaurant; Milly was talking to Chief Stacy. “You don’t think what we’ve had, what we could have, is worth fighting for?”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I think this is the beginning of something that could tear your family apart. I don’t want to be responsible for that. And...how will we ever get beyond it?” She paused. “You’ll meet someone else.”
But that was it. He didn’t want anyone else. He never really had.
He remembered Joe’s daughter, Josephine, telling him at Just Like Mom’s what it took to find a wife. You have to fall in love with someone and prove you won’t ever stop loving them.
“You’re not just another woman to me,” he said.
* * *
His father’s receptionist seemed relieved when he showed up at city hall. “Noah’s here!” she said into the intercom.
His father appeared almost immediately and ushered him into his office. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” he asked as he closed the heavy wooden door.