The Long Road Home [The Final McCassey Brothers Book] by Lauren N. Sharman

situation where I'd be around heroin addicts all damn day—recovering or not.
    "But it actually turned out to be a good thing for both me, and the handful of people that I like to think I got through to over the years. And, yeah, I completed my service hours a long time ago, but decided to stay on at the counseling center anyway. It's the only productive, non-self-destructive thing I've ever done."
    Judd's body seemed to relax a little, as if some of the tension had gone, but the scowl on his face remained. “So then why won't you help Georgia?"
    Had Judd even bothered to listen to a word he'd said? “I didn't say I wouldn't help her, Judd. I just don't know if I can help her. Aside from the fact that I've never coached anyone through detox, there are several other issues that Georgia's going to have to deal with.
    "Being stolen from her mother and raped by her father at the age of fifteen has probably done more damage to her than heroin ever could. Drug addiction she can get over. The rest of the stuff—the rape, being held captive and forced to have sex with God only knows how many men over the last four years—that's some pretty heavy baggage for a kid to be carrying around."
    Shrugging his shoulders, Wade backed up, leaned against the receptionist's desk, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Georgia needs professional help, guys, not a drug counselor who lives day to day hoping he doesn't get the urge to go out and get high."
    "She's not a kid,” Judd protested, even though it was obvious that he didn't believe it. Wade could tell Judd was trying to protect his sister; solve her problems for her because right now, she wasn't able to do that for herself. “She's nineteen."
    "Come on, Judd,” Wade refused to allow him to slip into denial, “you know what I mean. Physically, Georgia may be nineteen. And although her experiences over the past four years have probably aged her to the point that she can relate to people Blackie's age—no offense—” he said quickly, pointing to Blackie but keeping his attention on Judd, “but you have to face the fact that the last time she was a productive member of society, Georgia was a fifteen-year-old girl.
    "One minute she was a sophomore in high school who probably did things like shop at the mall, go to dances, and prank call boys. The next thing she knew, she'd been stolen from her mother, had non-consensual sexual intercourse with her father, and was a two to three bag a day heroin addict being forced to have sex with men who gave your father money to use her body.
    " That's the stuff I can't help her with. Those are the things that are going to be the hardest for her to deal with. Georgia has a long road ahead of her; kicking her drug habit is going to be a piece of cake compared to what she's going to have to face once she's clean."
    "Why do you say that?” Judd looked a little confused, and Wade hope he wasn't wasting his breath explaining everything to the brothers.
    "Because of everything I just mentioned, Judd. Once Georgia doesn't have the heroin to dull her emotions, she's going to start feeling again. She's going to be sad. She'll feel hurt, anger, pain, humiliation, and every other possible emotion that goes along with everything she went through. I can't help her with that because I'm not trained for it. I wouldn't want to take the chance of making things worse."
    "But before she can deal with all that stuff, she has to get over her heroin addiction, right?"
    Finally, he got it. “Right."
    Judd backed away even more, retaking his seat. “Then can you help her with that?"
    How could he say no? Most recovering addicts were lucky if they had one person willing to stick by their side. Georgia had three people who were desperate to save her. Even though, after hearing the rest of the story, Wade didn't believe that he'd be able to do Georgia much good, he agreed to try. “But I'm not making any promises."
    "Thanks, man.” Judd was the first one to step