Page 91 of Take The Risk

​Rowdy pushed past me and Wade, depositing Delilah on the couch. She freaked, reaching for his arm, pulling him down with her.

​I was going to kill him.

​Rowdy appeared put out, but gave in, which had me taking a menacing step forward. Delilah was six-fucking-teen.

​“Take your hands off of her,” I snarled.

​Rowdy’s hand was only touching her arm, but that was enough.

​“Calm your tits, Brockmann.” Rowdy gave me a patronizing look. “I am aware that she’s a kid.”

​Wade rested his hand on his gun, his police uniform not enough of a deterrent to keep him from shooting Rowdy if he’d done something to Delilah. “Then you can move away.”

​“No!” Delilah cried, gripping his hand harder. “No! He—you don’t understand. He didn’t do anything! I did!”

​“What’s this now?” Delilah was a child, Rowdy an adult. Did he make her think that she was responsible for…

​“This isn’t about me,” Rowdy interjected, seeing where my thoughts had gone. “This is about Phoebe. If life wasn’t about to kick your ass, Brockmann, I would for you even thinking what you are.”

​“What does that mean? What does this have to do with Phoebe?”

​“You know?” Wade scrutinized Rowdy, checking for any signs of deception.

​“I know,” Rowdy agreed, sounding dejected.

​“You know?” Delilah whispered fearfully, shrinking further into Rowdy’s side.

​“What the hell do you all know!?” This was starting to piss me off.

​Wade frowned at Delilah, clearly confused.

​“It goes like this,” Rowdy said. “My charming psycho mother paid your girlfriend a visit yesterday. She decided if Phoebe wasn’t going to leave town willingly, she was going to blackmail her into it.”

​“What the hell are you talking about?” I barked.

​“How do you know this?” Wade was suddenly closer, his presence intimidating as he went full-on cop. “What did you do, Rowdy?”

​“It wasn’t him!” Delilah yelled, pulling away from Rowdy’s side to glare at Wade, tears streaming down her face. “It was me! I did it! I didn’t know! I just wanted her gone! I just wanted my family back.”

​Delilah was on the verge of a complete breakdown, her breath coming in short pants. I’d seen this with Phoebe enough to know the signs.

​Grinding my teeth, I forced myself to sit down calmly on the coffee table in front of her, gesturing for Wade to do the same. Speaking as softly as I could, I asked, “What do you mean, sweetheart? You know you can tell me anything.”

​Rowdy rubbed his hand up and down Delilah’s arm, and I tracked the movement. Proving something very serious was going on here, Rowdy ignored me and gently spoke to Delilah. “We’ve been over this.”

​Wade and I both frowned at that.

​“You need to tell them everything. None of this is your fault, okay?” Rowdy spoke firmly, daring her to argue. “Now, tell them everything from the beginning.”

​I wanted to know about Phoebe and what Rowdy meant by Amber-Rae threatening her, but Delilah was…Threats. Amber-Rae had threatened Phoebe. I shot a look at Wade, who was focused on Rowdy and Delilah.

​ Delilah tried to explain. “When she came into the bookstore, I knew I should have ignored her.”

​The thoughts swirling in my head, the need to get to Phoebe, stopped. “What?”

​“I’ve-I’ve been skipping school.”

​No kidding. We all knew that. Mom had put a tracker on her phone, so she’d know where she was. It was always the same place.