Dark Heart

by Eve L Mitchell

  I was in front of her now, looking down at her as she stared at her feet. “Now, fuck off back to your room and don’t come out until morning. I’ll deal with you when I am awake and ready for your shit.”

  A sob escaped her as she raced past me. The bedroom door slammed for the second time that night and I let my head fall back onto my shoulders.

  I genuinely didn’t have the patience for this crap. I closed the door and headed back to bed. I stopped just before getting back into bed and headed over to the window. I looked out, just in case. I’d be shitting rainbows if there were human footprints out there and sure enough, the footprints were animal, about the size of a racoon.

  Damn city girl wasn’t going to last two minutes in Boulder. Boulder in the winter? She was going to be begging daddy to take her home. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

  I woke at my usual time, before seven. My second bedroom had a treadmill in it which sat in an alcove. It was nothing fancy, I liked to run in the morning – I preferred the outdoors but when the trails were covered in snow, I had this old treadmill for the mornings when I couldn’t go outside. I started my run and kept an eye on the door. I did my normal miles and went back to my room to shower and dress.

  I was making my coffee when she emerged. Lela padded across the floor in the same jeans from yesterday and another huge oversized sweater. Her hair was still damp and pulled off her face. She was whiter than yesterday, she was most likely hungry, I mused.

  She came to a halt in front of me and then sat at the table. I poured my coffee. She stared at me, her eyes ran over my usual jeans, t-shirt and bare feet.

  “Could I possibly have some coffee?” Her voice was low and husky like yesterday. She had a nice voice, if you could be bothered with the rest of her.

  Wordlessly, I poured her a mug and handed it across. She took it and then looked at me again.

  “What now?” I asked her in exasperation.

  “Milk?”

  “Nope.” I popped the p just to annoy her. “No milk.”

  Her eyes flashed at me. “You offered me cereal last night!”

  I grinned. “Didn’t give you cereal because I knew I had no milk. I drink my coffee black, no need for milk.”

  “Is every part of you covered in tattoos?” she blurted. A random question, but she seemed to be fascinated with my ink. It was also a very similar question to one a freshman chick had asked me a few weeks ago. What was wrong with these people? Had they never seen a man inked before? I treated her question the same way as I responded to the freshman. I ignored her.

  “You called daddy yet?” I asked her instead. I frowned when she shook her head. “Why not?”

  Her eyes filled with tears again. Seriously? What could she be crying about now?

  “He told me not to call until I had sorted myself out and spent some time with my mom.” She sniffled. Actually sniffled. Like a three-year-old.

  She rubbed her eyes with the cuff of her sweater. I took a big drink of coffee. I needed it.

  “You need to tell him that your mama fucked off to Hawaii and has left you here – alone. With nowhere to stay. How can you sort yourself out with mom, if she isn’t here?”

  Lela nodded. “It makes sense when you say it, but dad and mom don’t get along. He’ll take it out on her, by ignoring me.”

  I looked at her as I assessed her. She was still twitchy, but she seemed sincere. “That makes zero sense.”

  Lela shrugged. I ran my hand over my hair. Oh God, I was going to have to call Skinner. Fuck it.

  “Wait a minute.” I picked up my cell and called the scumbag. The call went straight to voicemail. His phone was turned off. That’s when I realised this may not be as easy a fix as I would like.

  Skinner had turned the phone off. That meant him and the wife didn’t want to be interrupted. That meant no one knew where he was. That then meant he wouldn’t have any staff scheduled for the house…and that meant I was either paying for her hotel, or she was staying here. I sure as hell wasn’t spending a penny on her.

  I rested my head in my hands as I leaned on the counter as the realisation that I had maybe a week of her, sunk in. I tilted my head up to look at her. Lela met my stare, unflinching.

  “I can get you into your mom’s house, how do you feel about B&E?” She frowned at me. Jesus. “Breaking and entering?” I clarified.

  “NO!” She jumped off the seat. “I got picked up for a misdemeanour earlier this month, daddy got me off, but I can’t be in any more trouble.”

  “What they catch you with?” Lela looked away from me and bit her lip. “Lela.” I snapped at her. She jumped and turned to me. “If I have to keep you in this house, you will tell me right now what it is you are into.” Her eyes widened and I could see she was about to protest. I stopped her, as I walked around the counter. “Don’t even try to lie to me. Skinner told me you were into recreational drugs. I don’t do drugs, I don’t like drugs and you sure aren’t bringing them into my house. So,” she was looking out the window shaking her head, “tell me now, what is your recreational drug of choice?”

  Lela stood in front of me, I reached out and caught her arm, she flinched. I hissed at her for being prissy. She glared in return. She had fight in her, I could tell, which baffled me as to why she was in this situation.

  “Speed,” she bit out. She shrugged out my hold. “I get a quick high, party for a few hours more than most and then it wears off and I am fine the next day.”

  I looked at her. “Uh-huh. Says every junkie, everywhere.” I went back to my coffee.

  “I’m not a junkie!” Lela yelled at me.

  I took a drink as I looked at her mockingly. “Says every junkie, everywhere.”

  I watched her storm back to her room. Her room? Steady now, I hadn’t actually decided to let her stay yet. Had I? I thought about what she said, she was fine the next day? Had she looked in the mirror recently? She was delusional. Maybe Skinner was right, she maybe did need rehab.

  I groaned. For reasons that must have been derived from my black twisted soul, I called the bastard again. Nothing. Fucker. I could call his office, but I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere. His secretary was an old bitch who hated me.

  I couldn’t put up with this invasion of my space for a week, I would throttle her. Hell, I wanted to throttle her now. I poured more coffee. There was nothing for it, she was going to have to call her father, they could have their family bullshit somewhere else.

  Skinner had told me I was to look after her, not keep her. I assumed he meant make sure she wasn’t in trouble. Not share a fucking living space with her.

  What the hell was I going to do with her? At least she couldn’t get her meth, she had no cash. Maybe I was wrong last night and she got it by other ways, I didn’t need a whore in the house either. Admittedly, women weren’t my specialist subject. I didn’t really spend my time with the opposite sex. Mutual hook-ups were enough, I wasn’t looking for anything else and I made sure they weren’t either.

  Relationships didn’t interest me, more often than not, they baffled me. Shadow and Maria had been together since they were fourteen. Maria was tiny, lucky if she hit five feet, she’d transferred to our school and on the first day, someone had knocked her over in the cafeteria, because Maria had a smart mouth. She was tiny but she was mouthy. She had gotten back up, stood on the table and whacked the guy over the head with her dinner tray. Shadow took one look at her, all five feet of fury and told me – with a big beaming smile – that she was going to be his wife.

  He introduced himself that day, asked her out and they were smitten. Maria was funny, so it was no big deal that she sometimes tagged along. She had zero filter, and lots to say. I didn’t doubt she would have told Matt the details of their failed pregnancies, she just shared things about herself. Freely. It made me antsy when she divulged information like that. Information was power, you give it out freely, you have zero power.

  I heard the door opening up the hall, which interrupte
d my musings. Lela came almost running into the kitchen with a cell phone and tears streaming down her cheeks. She half flung the cell at me. I jerked to catch it, before it hit me.

  Daddy: You created this mess pumpkin. You were told you would be punished. You refused to behave, so I refuse to allow a daughter of mine to drag this family name into the spotlight for the wrong reasons. I do my business in this city. Don’t come home until you have sorted yourself out. Time spent with your mother may help you get home quicker.

  I read the message twice. I read her message to her father, telling him I was a tattooed thug, a monster. She feared for her safety. I raised my eyes from the phone and pinned her with a stare.

  Lela’s eyes widened as she realised her mistake. I smiled slowly at her as I placed the phone carefully on the counter.

  Lela had been standing in the space between my kitchen and the living room, the dead space as my mom called it.

  “Aaron, I can explain…” she started. I walked past her and headed up the hall to the room she had been in. I opened the door, Jesus, what a mess. How had this happened in one night? Jay hadn’t been this messy as a young teenager.

  I started picking items up and throwing them in the open cases. “What are you doing?” she demanded from behind me. I ignored her. I felt her try and squeeze past me to get to her things.

  I moved slightly, effectively blocking her.

  “I had to make it sound like I was in danger, he doesn’t need to know it isn’t real!” she yelled at me. I said nothing. I zipped up one case and then the other. I turned and walked past her with the bags. At the front door I opened them and placed them outside. I turned around and tossed her stupid boots from last night out too. When I turned back, she stood in front of me with her head bowed and her shoulders drooped.

  I walked past her, leaving the door open. I didn’t need to speak for my intentions to be clear.

  I went to my room, pulled on some socks and headed back out to the kitchen. I noticed the door was closed as I checked the coffee pot was off. I rinsed my cup from earlier. I could see her out the front window, dragging those stupid cases onto the street. She looked ridiculous. I grinned at the image she portrayed. I pulled my boots on and pulled a hoody on over my t-shirt. I flung my leather jacket on over it and headed out the door. I reversed out the drive, it had snowed some more during the night, but my truck went over the thin covering easily.

  I looked to the right to see Lela turn the corner, shaking my head I turned the other way and drove to Boulder Women’s Care.

  It was a little after eight, I knew Shadow would be here already if he hadn’t stayed. At this time of the morning, the parking lot was better. I parked easily and made my way into the waiting room. I sat down and texted Shadow; a few minutes later he came through the doors from the rooms.

  “How is she?” I asked immediately rising from my seat.

  “So much better, had a good sleep. They scanned again this morning and bump is fine, hanging in there, doing somersaults.” His whole face depicted his joy.

  “That’s amazing, so what happened?”

  Shadow motioned for me to follow him. He led me through the doors, the nurse noticed but said nothing. I wasn’t about to raise the issue, so I followed.

  “They think she had a small pocket of blood, like a blood clot or something, sitting right up beside the sac, and when she jerked when she fell, it tore free. They said the sac was fine and not torn, bumps got no worries in there.” He beamed at me again.

  We entered a room and I smiled in greeting when I saw Maria sitting there. Her long black hair was lying over her shoulders and her natural caramel skin tone was a little pale, but her smile was radiant.

  “Aaron! How are you babe?” She enquired, she reached out her hand and as always, I leaned down and kissed it.

  “You scared the fuck out of us, that’s how I am,” I growled at her. Shadow ducked out of the room again as I shucked off my jacket.

  “Awww was the scary Aaron Jonson worried?” she teased me. I mock punched her arm as I sat down and grabbed her hand.

  “Shut up, tell me how you are?” I enquired. Her smile faded a little as she ran her other hand over her swollen belly.

  “I’m fucking terrified, but I’ll be ok.” Maria looked at the door to make sure Shadow hadn’t come back in. “I’m being put on bed rest.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m supposed to be in bed and nowhere but bed until delivery, can you believe this?”

  “Shut up, I’ll tie you there myself if I have to.”

  She laughed at me. “You probably would enjoy it too, I always knew you would be a kinky bastard.” I winked at her and she laughed more. Shadow came back in the room with ice chips.

  “We get scanned every two weeks from now on and my little wife is on bedrest.” He beamed at her. I hid my smile from Maria as she turned to me looking for support.

  “We’ll talk about it when they let me out of here,” she muttered.

  “Are you crazy? After what you went through yesterday, why aren’t you wanting to do everything they tell you?” I asked her quietly.

  Shadow laughed as her face flushed. “My mama’s coming to stay for the time Maria is on bedrest.” I caught Maria’s eye and started chuckling.

  “Oh honey, I’m so sorry,” and I full out laughed when she swiped at me. Shadow’s mother was a force to be reckoned with, she was also bat shit crazy. Even I didn’t argue with her. She put the fear of God into me when I was sixteen and I hadn’t ever said a disrespectful word to her since. We didn’t get along, but she doted on her son.

  The three of us caught up while Maria rested; they told me about the recent vacation they’d had where they had been visiting family. I caught them up on what had been happening here.

  “So, you know Matt?” Maria interrupted when I was telling her about Jay and the trouble he had caused.

  “Yeah, not well, but the three of them were in the Warehouse.”

  “It’s not like you to work for Skinner like this.” She was piercing me with look, trying to fish out the reason.

  “It really just happened.” I shrugged. “The younger brother, Connor, was in a state. I jokingly said he should ask for a loan, not realising the prick would do exactly that. I didn’t know how much he had lost.”

  “Jesus Aaron, you know what Malcolm’s like though! What age is this boy?”

  I shrugged again. “Eighteen? Nineteen? I dunno. Old enough to be able to make his own messes and clean them up,” I added. She scowled at me. Seems the mothering gene was kicking in early. I mock scowled back.

  “He left about fifteen minutes later. I thought nothing of it. Then, about a week later, his brother and friends show up. I didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on. I took ‘em to Skinner, he got in contact with Malcolm. The brother, Colton, looks like a professional boxer. Just the way he moves, you can tell he could fight.” I shrugged again. “I mentioned it to Skinner. He saw dollar signs. He told Malcolm, and Malcolm told them they needed to fight to pay the debt.” I shrugged. “I didn’t know the details of the arrangement at that time. I was told to arrange them matches. I don’t care about Skinner, but I tread carefully with Malcolm.” They both nodded in agreement.

  Malcolm Litton. I tended to stay off his radar, he wasn’t worth getting involved with. He operated legitimately, but there were so many underground connections that he was under constant surveillance. They just couldn’t catch him. I didn’t know half of what he was involved in – and I wanted nothing to with the half I did know about. Skinner was one of his guys that worked solely for him, which spoke volumes to me.

  I did some work with Skinner that was mutually beneficial. Like the Warehouse. Industrial land was hard to come by cheaply. Skinner had a warehouse in Louisville, that had an authentic courier business operating out of it. Had a huge indoor area within it – made a perfect fighting ring. I ran my matches out of there and paid him for the pleasure.

  “That could have gotten so messy,” Maria muttered. I
nodded in agreement.

  “Genuinely didn’t think they would last, but they could fight. Colton brought more people, better fighters meant bigger bets. Skinner wanted more.”

  “Why did they stop?” Shadow enquired quietly.

  “Girlfriend ratted them out to one of their mothers. Mommy sent the daddies to Malcolm. Not sure what happened, they were out of the fighting by the time the meeting finished though.”

  I shrugged again. It really had nothing to do with me. I knew Skinner or Malcom had them by the balls and I was told to arrange their fights. The fact they were good, made it easier, I guess.

  “Shit!” Shadow suddenly exclaimed. “Where’s the stepdaughter?” My answering laugh was enough to make them both groan. I quickly relayed the last fourteen hours for them.

  “She’s broke?” Maria exclaimed. I nodded. “Aaron, what if she gets attacked or hurt? Or abducted?” She looked at her husband for support.

  “Trust me, anyone abducts her – which is a completely fucking ridiculous idea, even for you – they’ll be handing her back after about five minutes of her sniffling,” I muttered.

  “It’s snowing! You can’t leave her out there with nowhere to go and with only thirty dollars, Aaron,” Maria continued to protest.

  “I have to agree,” Shadow said carefully, “this is hard, even for you.”

  “I have zero fucks to give. She annoys the fuck out of me.” I leaned over and took one of the few remaining ice chips.

  “Hey, don’t eat my wife’s ice!” Shadow protested.

  Maria shifted to look at me full on. “Aaron, go out and find her. She is too vulnerable to be out there herself. It’s only a week or two you said. If she is an addict or something, she is too fragile to be alone.”

  I groaned in protest.

  “Man, you know it’s not right to leave her out there,” Shadow reprimanded me.

  “For my unborn baby, Aaron. How can I bring a baby into this world, if you can treat another human being like that?”