But right now, none of that mattered. Right now, he was on her side, and she forced herself not to think about what he’d be like as opposition.
An hour later, Savannah finished sorting the paper documents while Ian listened to the last CD. After fifteen minutes of hearing the first recording, Savannah had given Ian earbuds and insisted he listen to them privately. Hearing the ugliness she’d already lived through made her sick to her stomach all over again. And over the last hour, the Ian she’d come to know transitioned into the man she feared he might be—his eyes dark, expression stern, anger vibrating off him in waves.
She dropped back to the pillows, exhaling as she scanned a copy of Hank and Lyle’s bank statement. The document had turned out to be useless in a court run by Tim Baulder’s father.
The opposition she faced came into sharp focus once again, and hopelessness edged in. She shouldn’t have gotten Ian caught up in this mess. She should have let him remain blissfully oblivious.
Ian exhaled, pulled off the earbuds, and dropped his head back against the headboard, eyes closed. “I need a shower. Your ex is a
filthy excuse of a human being.”
Hearing her worst fear verified by someone with the training and knowledge to know exactly what filth looked and sounded like felt like a knife in Savannah’s gut. She was ashamed she let the abuse happen in the first place. Mortified to look back and see just how long she’d let it go on. Feared how it would continue to affect Jamison as he grew up.
“He threatened to kill you six times.” Ian opened his eyes and turned an intense look on her. “Six times.”
“More like a dozen. I just didn’t get the other half on tape.”
“Not funny. So not funny.”
“Sorry,” she sighed. “If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.”
“Audrey should have gotten you a restraining order a long damn time ago. Didn’t she use this in your divorce hearing?”
“Nothing detrimental to a Bishop would be admitted as evidence in a court system greased with Bishop Mining cash and power.”
“You’re a Bishop,” he said, his voice tight with restraint.
“By marriage, not blood.”
“Fucking unbelievable.” His gaze went distant a long, quiet moment. Then he turned that intense stare on her again. “Why hasn’t he come through on the threats? Why didn’t he kill you a long time ago? It’s obvious he would get away with it.”
That hit her as a bit harsh, but when she thought of his background, she realized talk of murder wasn’t unusual in his world—which made her second-guess the decision to let him into hers.
“I’ve wondered the same thing in some of my darker moments,” she admitted.
His hand closed over her thigh and squeezed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
She covered his hand with hers. “Honestly, I think he fully believed that I would come back to him. As time passed and his attempts to beg, bargain, threaten, and scare me back didn’t work…” She exhaled. “I think he gets closer and closer to following through on that threat every day. And there’s Jamison to consider. When Hank and I were at college, he told me that he wanted kids someday. As soon as Lyle got his hooks back into Hank, that changed. We were already on shaky ground when I got pregnant. Hank was so pissed.”
She closed her eyes, remembering. In retrospect, Savannah believed Hank’s anger had stemmed from fear. Fear of being trapped in Hazard. Fear of living under his father’s thumb. But mostly, fear of being too weak to do anything about it.
“Hank’s always seen Jamison as a pawn,” Savannah said. “To gain his father’s approval, to control me. He has no desire to be a father to him, and as long as I’m around, he doesn’t have to be.”
A long moment of silence followed while they both got lost in their own thoughts. Savannah basked in the moment of having someone who cared about her ready to do battle on her behalf. Really do battle. Misty was supportive, but she didn’t have any more power in Hazard than Savannah did. Part of her even hoped that Misty’s hunch about Ian being part of a military special forces group was true, because then his claims of having friends in important places would also be true. And Savannah knew it would take people outside Hazard and Lyle’s influence to free her.
“So, what do you think?” she asked, glancing at his notes. “Ready to run screaming from the room yet?”
“More like ready to take Hank and Lyle into a dark alley.” He gestured to his notes on a spiral notepad Savannah had given him. “This is all good stuff, but we need to find something that will lift you outside the Hazard justice system so these threats will be heard.” He reached out and picked up the papers she’d sorted. “Tell me about these.”
“Hank had a joint bank account with Lyle that I didn’t know about. Lyle deposited money into it every month. The amounts varied, and at first, I thought Lyle was helping with our bills. But the numbers didn’t add up. It wasn’t long before I realized Lyle wouldn’t do anything for us out of the goodness of his heart. I suspected Hank was doing something for Lyle on the side, but I never could figure out what.” She met his gaze. “After I found those passports…”
Ian nodded. “Lyle is paying Hank to pick them up and deliver them to him.”
She shrugged and gestured to the bank statements. “Seems like a lot of money for such a small errand.”
“It wasn’t small.” Ian picked up the pile and skimmed the top statement. “By having Hank handle the passports, Lyle kept his hands clean. If anyone ever discovered the deal, Hank would be the only person physically connected with the passports. Lyle must believe he has sufficient control over Hank to keep him from implicating Lyle in the deal.”
“He does.” Savannah made a face. “It’s a skeezy kind of control. One that combines fear and power and money. Lyle has always known how to dig into all Hank’s fears.”