Tobias wanted to argue that it didn’t matter. Carl shouldn’t be allowed back in the house.

But this wasn’t his house, and it wasn’t his call.

Biting his tongue so he wouldn’t say too much and make this night even more difficult for his landlord, he stalked into the kitchen and got a bag of ice, which he wrapped in a towel and brought to Uriah. “Here, put this on your face.”

Uriah didn’t respond.

Tobias squatted across from him. “Uriah…”

His eyes finally met Tobias’s. “I’m getting too old for this.”

Tobias wanted to agree, but he knew how torn Uriah had to be. He and Maddox felt the same about their mother. They should’ve cut her out of their lives long ago. But family was family, so they kept trying to get her to change and improve.

He gripped Uriah’s forearm by way of encouragement. “You going to be okay?”

“I think so.”

“Will you call me when he comes back?”

He finally accepted the ice pack. “What for?”

“I’d like to have a talk with him, get a few things straight.”

A bit of Uriah’s sense of humor resurfaced as he managed a wry smile. “You mean you’d like to threaten him.”

Tobias grinned as he stood. “Damn right. He needs to know there’ll be hell to pay if he ever causes you to get hurt again.”

Uriah sobered. “What makes some people do what they do?”

Tobias shook his head. “I wish I could tell you.”

“Tobias?” a female voice called.

Harper. He’d left the kitchen door standing open when he’d run inside, and she’d come through it.

“In here!”

She appeared in the doorway to the living room, wearing the sweats she’d put on to sleep. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her forehead creased in concern.

He rested his hands on his hips as he looked between her and his landlord. “For now,” he said.

7

Although they’d returned to the house, and Tobias had gone back into his bedroom, Harper had been sleeping in fits and starts. Almost every time she closed her eyes, she’d hear Tobias tossing and turning or getting up to go to the bathroom and would wake up, too. Those were such small noises—noises that normally wouldn’t bother her—but she was too aware of him to drift off for any length of time. And now, although he’d moved quietly, she could sense that he was in the same room she was.

“What time is it?” she asked, covering a yawn.

Tobias turned from where he’d been standing at the kitchen window, keeping watch on the drive. “Nearly four.”

Two hours since the fight between Carl and Uriah. Somehow it seemed longer. “Is something wrong?”

“No.”

“Then why can’t you sleep?”