The Officer's Promise (Brothers in Blue Book 1) by K. Langston Page B

already learned so much.
    While some restaurants cut corners to save time, they took every corner with tender loving care. Everything done here was done by hand.
    In addition to this location, there were several others spread through multiple states. There was also a catering business, a bed and breakfast, and stables that offered riding lessons near Upstate that all required full staff. The brilliance behind the concept was no one stayed in one position longer than three months. There were exceptions when it came to management and the volunteers, but the goal was for each employee to grow from one position to the next. Relearning life and social skills that deteriorated or were oftentimes extinguished when someone was in an abusive relationship.
    The counseling sessions here were extremely helpful as well. It was comforting to be around women who had been through what I’d been through. Who were now, like me, trying to find their new place in the world. Their stories were parallel to mine.
    Some were far worse.
    But it was Hank’s that I was most curious about. Reese had told me she opened the first Bird House up twenty years ago, after her husband, a wealthy oil tycoon, died mysteriously back in Texas. She’d found him in bed unconscious and by the time the ambulance arrived, he was dead.
    Reese said the police interrogated Hank and conducted an extensive investigation but never found any evidence of foul play, and the circumstances surrounding his death still remains unknown. A year later, she packed up what she didn’t get rid of in the estate sale and moved to New York, taking her husband’s millions with her.
    I’d become intrigued by her.
    Mostly her strength.
    The way she carried herself, confident and sure. How she took time to speak to everyone. And if there was one thing I’d learned in my short time here, when Hank spoke, people listened.
    I’d just finished chopping another bell pepper when she walked into the kitchen. She was making her rounds, checking on everyone. Hank didn’t sit still for long, always moving around, encouraging you each step along the way.
    “How’s your day been, darlin’? Sick of choppin’ yet?”
    Chuckling, I reached for another pepper. “Not yet.”
    “You’ll get there. In a couple of weeks you’ll be begging me to move ya.”
    “Where will I go next?”
    “Server or hostess?”
    I thought about that for a moment then answered. “Server.”
    “Good choice. More money and you have a lovely smile, dear. The customers will appreciate it.”
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    “Sure, you can ask me anything,” she said.
    “How long did you stay?”
    She was quiet for a moment, as if contemplating her next words carefully. “Twenty years.”
    I could not imagine staying with Trent that long. Six years seemed like a lifetime, twenty years must have felt like an eternity.
    “He was charming. Sweet. Like they all are in the beginning. He was also very wealthy. His reputation was impeccable, so very few people knew the kind of man he really was. I don’t think anyone knew him like me.” She moved closer, unbuttoning the sleeves of her blouse and rolling them up. Extending her hands, she revealed her wrists, each one harboring thin white scars that overlapped one another, some deeper than others, making my stomach roll with nausea.
    No wonder she wore long-sleeved shirts every day.
    “He tied me to the dining room chair with zip ties. He’d leave me there for hours. Sometimes for days.”
    “Oh my God.”
    “I was his prisoner, not his wife. I was terrified. Every move and decision I made, every breath I took, was because he allowed it. But there comes a time, for everyone, when enough is enough. When your heart, your mind, and your body just can’t take it anymore. I knew no one would believe me. Hell, my own mother wouldn’t even listen when I told her what was happening, only said I needed to stop doing whatever it was that drove him to it.”
    I could feel her