How Cassie Got Her Grind Back(Divine Creek Ranch 23)(119)
Miraculously, she’d suffered only second-degree burns on small exposed areas, but Joseph was still in the local hospital, awaiting transport to the burn unit at SAMMC because he required skin grafts to third-degree burns on his arms. Considering the shape the coffee shop was in, they were extremely fortunate the McCulloch brothers had recognized her vehicle in the parking lot and had gone inside after her and Joseph.
The emergency room doctor had kept her there for the night and had agreed to let her go home if she got plenty of rest and fluids and called if there were any changes in her respiration. But once in Samson’s truck, she’d insisted on seeing what was left of the building. Now there she stood, the tender skin on her face and throat tight and stinging, as she stared at the still-smoking remains, aware of the slow traffic of rubberneckers and curiosity seekers streaming past the building.
“Baby?” a soft voice said, and she startled out of her daze, realizing she’d practically fallen asleep on her feet. She relaxed into Ivan’s supportive arm around her waist. “I think we need to get you home.”
Giving in, she nodded sheepishly.
By the time they got Cassie home, her mother was in a tizzy, and they’d both been put straight to bed. Cassie fully intended to get to the bottom of all the events, just as soon as her head cleared a little bit.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two days later, feeling no better in body than she did in spirit, Cassie sat on a hard straight-back chair in her father’s hospital room. He’d given the hospital staff no choice but to use padded cuffs on his wrists and ankles to keep him in his bed. He’d been admitted for his injuries but also for the testing he needed, after her Uncle Antonio had confirmed her report of her father’s erratic behavior with the medical professionals.
“Daddy, why?” she asked, looking down at her hands, which trembled. She’d barely gotten any sleep in the last couple of days and her nerves were well past frayed. Ivan had even tried to help, fixing her whatever foods and drinks he thought might soothe her, but the flashbacks had her in a state of adrenaline overload and her sleep had been plagued by nightmares.
“Huh?” he asked sharply, his grouchiness still evident despite the painkillers he’d been given.
“Why set my business on fire? You’ll probably be arrested for what you did at the shop, besides taking Aunt Rita’s car and causing a multi-vehicle accident. There were children in one of those vehicles who were injured. What if someone had died?”
“I don’t know anything about an accident!” Had his twisted mind and faulty brain already erased the incidents from his memory?
“I saw you on the security camera footage, running out the back door of my coffee shop after setting the fire. Why would you do that?”
His face twisted into a grimace as he yanked at the cuff attached to the bed rail and pointed a bony finger at her. “Women belong in the home, taking care of family. Cooking! Cleaning! But you? No! You are off serving strangers and having an affair!”
She frowned. “I’m not having an affair. I’m a single adult.”
He shook his head vigorously. “You’re my wife, and you are going to hell for having an affair with that son of a bitch Cutter. Bill told me! He saw you!”
“When? Bill doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.”
“He told me after you were arrested that he saw you and that Cutter son of a bitch together, kissing! How could you?”
She froze as realization came to her. “What is my name?”
He scowled at her. “¿Eres estúpida? I know who I married, Delicia!”
“Oh no…”
“And if you don’t work for me at my restaurant like a good wife should, you certainly are not going to open your own place and compete with me.”
“Wait a minute.” She took a deep breath. “Bill told you I cheated on you the night I was arrested after the high school football game?” Why?
“Yes, isn’t that what I said? Bill is loyal to me. He saw them—you—together in the office of the volunteer fire department station—embracing!”
“You’re confused. I’m not Delicia, Dad. I’m your adult daughter, Cassie, and I run my own life. Whatever happened was decades ago and has nothing to do with me or Samson and Ivan Cutter.”
His frown cut deep ridges in his face as he shook his head. When she’d been little, she’d thought him handsome, if a little frightening, and then life had taught her outer beauty could hide such ugliness. His perpetual frown had carved his inner bitterness into his visage over the years, making him remarkably unattractive.