Choices of the Heart Read Free Page A

bag he’d carried from the station. “If you need anything, you ring me. I’ll come fetch you tomorrow, if you’d like. Walk with you to the funeral home?”
    She nodded and gifted him with a smile. “I’ll see you then.” She removed her hand from his arm and let it hang at her side. “Good night, Reese.”
    He watched her walk toward the stairs that led to the rooms on the second floor. Numb and lonely. That was the only way to describe what he felt as he watched her walk away from him again.
    His beautiful Chloe. No longer within his reach.

Chapter Two
     
    “Well, well, well. The whore’s come home.”
    Chloe backed up a step, tripped over her foot, and landed flat on her backside. Her father, drunk and disorderly, pushed his way farther into her hotel room the next morning, kicking at her legs as he pressed his rank, disgusting-self inside, slamming the door behind him with his boot. She thought the knock had been from Reese, coming to pick her up for the funeral parlor appointment, so she hadn’t even bothered to check before opening the door.
    She quickly regained her feet and reached for the first weighty item she could find—a silver hairbrush. She threw it at his head, missed and hit the door instead. “Help!” She screamed as loudly as she could with fear lodged deep in her throat.
    “That’s not a very nice way to greet your father, Chloe. Especially not one who loves you so much. How dare you leave me, you bitch!”
    He slapped her open-handed across the face, ripping open her lip and bringing tears to her eyes. She drew a deep breath, then screamed again. Damned if she’d put up with this to save her family name. Damn the town’s gossips, and damn this evil bastard to hell!
    She picked up a heeled boot and whacked him in the head, still yelling for help. He pushed her onto the bed. His dirty, oily hand pressed her chest onto the mattress.
    “Get…off…me!”
    She kicked at him, and he grabbed her legs and separated them.
    A roar, dragged from somewhere deep in her soul, exploded from her mouth. Chloe kicked him in the groin with her free foot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reese barrel into the room. He pulled her father off her, punched him square in the jaw, and sent him backward with a thud into the wall.
    “Call the police,” Chloe yelled to the desk clerk, who suddenly appeared in the doorway. Her gaze darted between her father and Reese. Would Reese hit him again?
    “Now, now, Chloe, baby. There ain’t no need for the police to git involved in this. This is a family matter.”
    Rubbing his dirty, stubbly jaw, her father picked himself off the floor. He fell back once before getting his drunk-self up all the way. He stumbled toward her, but Reese blocked his way.
    “I ain’t done nothin’ wrong. Just welcomin’ ya back to town, is all,” her father said.
    “Get the hell outta here, Brandt.” Reese folded back the sleeves on his shirt, readying for a fistfight.
    “Protectin’ the slut? Even after she left you for faster times? You more stupid than I thought!”
    Her father rushed forward, but Reese was ready for it and pushed the older man back down on the floor. Her father shook his head, as if getting rid of the cobwebs. He stood again.
    Reese crossed his arms and widened his stance, shielding Chloe behind him. “Get the hell out of here before I haul you to the police myself.”
    “I’d like to see you try.” He smacked Reese on the shoulder as he stumbled past, leaving a trail of alcohol stench in his wake. He stopped at the door and turned.
    “I’ll be back, Chloe baby, you just wait for me. It’s been two long and lonely years.” He winked at Chloe and stepped out the door.
    She shivered, grabbed the trash bin, and threw up the contents of her stomach, so disgusted by what her father had just done to her. Reese rubbed her back and spoke soothing words as, kneeling on the floor, she continued to retch. Finally, with his help, she stood, only to collapse