We both needed a little bit of space and a little bit of air, so we were eager to get out of the car. I told Ayden she could wait on the curb if she wanted, but she just rolled her eyes at me and followed me up to the front door of the duplex. I knocked on the door and winced as it rattled in the frame. Several large flakes of peeling paint landed on the top step next to my boots, and memories of a trailer built like a tin can started to dance behind my eyes. Why Avett would stay here when her parents were so willing to give her a handout was beyond me, but something kept hounding me that there was more to the story than anyone was seeing.

Nothing happened after the first knock or the second and Ayden asked if we could just go. I contemplated actually forcing my way inside the building but figured with my luck someone would call the cops on me and I’d end up back in Royal’s squad car, this time for trespassing. It wasn’t like I actually had any proof something fishy was going on with Avett, just my gut instinct that the pink-haired hothead had somehow bit off more than she could chew with that tweaker boyfriend of hers.

Ayden had turned and was walking back to the Nova muttering under her breath about little girls not knowing what was best for them when the door suddenly cracked open. One of Avett’s hazel eyes peeked out. Even with just the sliver of her showing, I could tell she was a mess. Her dark hair was showing at the crown of her head where the pink typically lived, she looked thin and pale. There was an ugly scratch on her cheek. The hand that was gripping the door had a broken nail on each finger with cracked and scabby wounds healing on each knuckle. The girl looked like she had been in a fight; I wasn’t sure, but if she had, she didn’t look like the victor.

“What are you doing here, Opie?”

Her voice was strained, scratchy in the way one got after screaming or yelling for a long period of time. The entire picture made me frown and had my hackles rising up.

“People are worried about you. I thought I would come check on you and see if I could put their minds at ease.” No way was that happening now. Brite would lose his ever-loving mind if he saw his only child in this condition. “The druggie boyfriend do that to you?”

I crossed my arms over my chest to show her I wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry and she pulled the door open another inch. Her bottom lip was split open and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to tense up in rage when I saw the black-and-blue marks that ringed her neck like some kind of horrific necklace.

Avett moved several strands of faded pink hair out of her face and adopted a pose very similar to my own. Even bruised and battered, she was still a defiant little thing, and I had to admire her spark even if it was firing in all the wrong ways.

“I haven’t seen him in a few weeks. He said he was in trouble and took off right after I gave him the money I took from the bar. This is from the guys that came looking for him. Apparently he’s in bigger trouble than he led me to believe. They thought I was lying when I told them I didn’t know where Jared was. This”—she pointed a finger at her battered face—“was their way of persuading me to tell them the truth about his whereabouts.”

Her raspy voice wobbled and a chill slid up my spine. I knew all about how bad men tried to use the people in other bad men’s lives to try and get information. I would bet all my meager belongings that what I could see was only half of what she had been forced to endure while trying to protect her useless man.

“Why are you still here, Avett? Go home. Let your dad take care of you, let your family help you out. Where do you think this road you’re on is going?”

Ayden had taken a few steps back toward the door and Avett shifted her gaze to my sister as she quietly told her, “This road ends up with you hating yourself and walking away from people that love you. It dead-ends with you sitting by the bedside of someone you love praying for them to wake up from a life-threatening injury because there’s always more trouble around the corner and eventually it’s going to catch up with you and with them.”

The young woman shook her head and laced her fingers together as she took a step back toward the open doorway. “You don’t understand. Jared isn’t a bad guy. He loves me, he just has a problem. He needs me.”

Ayden and I exchanged a look. We both knew it was impossible to try and help someone that wasn’t willing to help themselves first.

Ayden’s voice was hard when she told the younger woman, “His problems don’t automatically have to be your problems.”

“Rome didn’t press charges, your parents bent over backward to give you a shot at a steady and normal life. I’m here because you remind me just a little bit too much of myself right before everything went to shit. How many chances do you think you get before your luck runs out?” I laughed drily and lifted a hand to rub the back of my neck. “Because let me tell you, when the luck runs out it’s a really scary thing, and what’s waiting for you on the other side isn’t something I would wish on my worst enemy.”

She just shook her head again, and shoved her mangled fingers through her hair and whispered, “I love him.”

She gave me a look that let me know the conversation was over and then turned on her heel and disappeared back inside the doorway.

I stood there in silence for a long moment trying to situate how I felt about what had just happened. Feeling helpless to help someone wasn’t something I was used to and I couldn’t say that I cared for it very much. Ayden grabbed my elbow and gave me a little tug to get me moving. She bent her head and rested her cheek on my shoulder.

“That kind of love kills.” Her voice was quiet and I could hear all kinds of memories and fear twisted through it.

“It’s not love.”

Ayden murmured her agreement, and we both fell silent as we got into the car and headed back toward downtown.

“So what are you going to do about her? She can’t just stay in that place while people are looking for her junkie boyfriend and using her as a bargaining chip.” It was all too familiar to my sister and I wished I had refused to let her come with me. She didn’t need any kind of reminder about the way things had been for us back in the day.

“I’m going to talk to Brite and my guess is he’ll go in there and bodily move her out of that crack den. I know he’s frustrated with the choices Avett has been making over the last few years, but there is no way he’s going to sit by and let her purposely put herself in danger over some loser with a drug problem.”