The Man She Once Knew Read Online Free PDF Page B

yourself out exercising could drain some of the fury when locking it down was beyond him. Sometimes no amount of logic or self-discipline could help.
    Walking away from the earlier confrontation would only increase Mickey Patton’s contempt, but David had forced himself to do it anyway. He would never risk being put behind bars again, so he’d run up one hill and down the other, so many miles that he knew he’d be rubber-legged when he stopped. After he finally retrieved his mother’s sedan and drove home, all he could think about was a long shower, some food and a nap before work.
    When he spotted Albert Manning’s car out front, he got a sinking feeling. His mother was behind on her house payments, and Manning handled Miss Margaret’s affairs.
    This couldn’t be good.
    David crossed to the back steps, sweaty and filthy from his run and the dust on the roads he’d traveled. He followed the sound of the voices before realizing there was a third one.
    He stopped dead at the entrance to the hallway as Callie Hunter stepped out of his bedroom.
    His bedroom. The one place in this world—the only space for fifteen endless years—where he had the right to close the door. To shut out everything and everyone.
    Callie wasn’t alone, either; his mother and Manning were with her. The feeling of violation was so intense that he gripped the door frame before he could leap into action. Before he said something that couldn’t be taken back.
    He had almost nothing in this life that belonged to him anymore—not his good name or control over his future, barely the clothes on his body—but that one miserable, small room was the place he’d begun to relax, just a little. To quit feeling hunted by fate and choices made, by a world that had rendered a verdict and found him wanting. It wasn’t home—no place was now—but it was still a refuge. His mother honored his unspoken need for privacy, for a spot where he didn’t have to worry about fighting for his life or hurting the innocent, and he’d started counting on that.
    Now strangers were breaching it, and it didn’t matter that one of them had been a girl he’d cared about, had stupidly tried to shield.
    The woman before him was not that girl. The man behind her represented the system and the town that had turned their backs on him long ago.
    “Get out.”
    “David!” his mother gasped.
    “You have no business here,” said the lawyer. “This is between your mother and Ms. Hunter. She now owns the mortgage.”
    David’s gaze snapped to Callie’s. He could see nothing of the young girl who’d cried in his arms. The woman who stared back was a stranger.
    With the upper hand.
    “Tables are turned now. Feel good?” he asked Callie.
    “Here, now,” the lawyer said. “You’ve got no call to talk to her like that.”
    “I can speak for myself,” Callie said coolly.
    Her expression revealed that she’d indeed heard all about him, not that it was any surprise. Plenty of people would be happy to fill her ears with the salacious story.
    His mother’s face was white with strain and horror, but David was beyond social niceties. “You can’t want to be here. Not in Oak Hollow.”
    Callie’s flinch was barely visible, but something flickered in her eyes before she looked away. “I have business to attend to.”
    He had to reach past the polished woman to the girl who might remember what he’d given up for her. “Don’t do this, Callie.” His mother would never survive losing her home. However desperately he wanted away from Oak Hollow, that was too high a price to pay for his freedom.
    “You are in no position to make demands.” The lawyer stepped forward. “You need to leave now. Haven’t you done enough to your mother?”
    “I’m talking to Callie, not you.” David didn’t budge. “Are you afraid to face me?”
    “I’m not afraid of anything.” At last she looked at him, and her chin jutted.
    The moment pulsated with too many memories, too much that