Free Safe Harbor by Tymber Dalton Page A

added as secondary guarantor of funds.
    Sully and Mac were the ones who found this place for Tad and got him admitted. By her best guess, Sully had spent more than fifty grand on the initial apartment condo fee, guaranteeing that her uncle in essence “owned” his little efficiency, in addition to fifteen hundred dollars in care expenses he paid every month. That meant around one hundred thousand dollars to date.
    How would she ever earn that kind of money to repay him? And how the hell would she ever find a job that paid good enough to support herself as well as pay for her uncle’s care?
    The thought overwhelmed her. She struggled not to cry. She felt guilty that Sully had spent all that money on her uncle when she should have been living here with him, taking care of him. Her inheritance would have paid for the apartment fees and some of his care.
    If Mac noticed her disquiet, he didn’t mention it. She offered to help him schlep the groceries upstairs, but he refused. She disappeared to her room and closed the door behind her to think in

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    private.

     
     
    * * * *
     
     
    Sully walked downstairs to talk to Mac when he realized Clarisse had closed herself in her bedroom. “How is she?”
    Mac shook his head. “I don’t know. She seemed awful quiet when I picked her up.”
    Later that evening, before dinner, Sully left his office door open.
    He sensed Clarisse’s presence in the doorway even before she spoke.
    “Am I interrupting you?” she quietly asked.
    He turned and smiled. “No, sweetie. That’s okay. Come on in.”
    She didn’t move from the doorway. “Can I speak to you alone?”
    “Of course.”
    Hesitantly, she stepped just inside and pulled the door shut and leaned against it, but she didn’t approach him. It killed him that she couldn’t trust him but he knew he couldn’t force it.
    “I wanted to say thank you. For taking care of Uncle Tad.”
    He mentally swore. He’d meant to tell Cindy not to reveal the payment arrangement to Clarisse. It had totally slipped his mind.
    “Tad’s like family.”
    She wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I’ll figure out a way to pay you back somehow. I promise.”
    He struggled to keep his tone soft and steady despite his aggravation threatening to break through. Goddamn her ex for destroying her trust. “You don’t need to do that. I don’t want your money.”
    She shook her head. An edge of anxiety crept into her voice. “No.
    He’s my uncle. He’s my responsibility.”
    Sully didn’t have the heart to correct her, to remind her she had jack shit and a raging case of PTSD to overcome. She was in no condition to take care of herself, much less Tad. “Clarisse, honey, it’s okay. Don’t stress it. Please. Tad will always be taken care of. I

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    promise you.”
    Her hair hid her eyes, but he didn’t miss the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I will pay you back,” she softly promised again before she slipped out the door.
    Before he made it to the office doorway, he heard her bedroom door softly close. When he walked down the hall with every intention of knocking and talking to her, he heard her muffled sobs on the other side.
    Mac, his instincts finely tuned as ever, quickly appeared in the hallway entrance, a dark frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”
    Sully shook his head, lifted a finger to his lips, and waited until he led Mac downstairs to talk about it.
    Mac sat on the bottom step, his head cradled in his hands.
    “Dammit. I want to help her. I want to strangle the son of a bitch with my own hands. What do we do?”
    “Nothing, for now. I just wanted you to know what’s going on with her. That’s why she acted so quiet when you picked her up.” He started to mount the stairs, but Mac reached out and touched Sully’s leg.
    “When you said she could stay with us as long as she needed, you meant that, right?”
    Sully sat on the riser next to Mac and draped an arm around his shoulders. “Yes, I meant it. It’ll be good for