“What!” Savanna asked, fully awake suddenly.
Lyric chuckled. “I said, I think that Cody is in love with McKenna.”
Savanna turned over on her side, looking back at Lyric.
“Why do you think that?” she asked.
“Well, one, because I saw the kid’s face and she’s completely gone when she talks about the girl. You saw it today too, you know it,” Lyric said, narrowing her eyes slightly at her wife. “And just now she basically said she thinks she is.”
Savanna thought about the possibility. Cody certainly hadn’t been acting like she normally did when it came to this woman. Their daughter had always been fast and loose with women, never sticking with one for long, and rarely letting them as far into her life as she’d let McKenna in the last twenty four hours. The gym and the animal shelter were huge things for Cody, she didn’t share them with just anybody. McKenna being around Cody’s friends, and seeing her at the shelter where Cody was completely open was a big step for their daughter. It made sense.
Savanna nodded finally. “But do we think that McKenna feels the same?”
Lyric shrugged. “Well, she’s still here, even after everything with the case…”
“True,” Savanna said. “But she’s married to a man,” she reminded her.
“Sometimes we don’t know who we are until we meet the right person, babe, you taught me that,” Lyric said.
Savanna looked back at Lyric. “You weren’t married to a man, Lyric.”
“I know, but I was also in pretty heavy duty denial about my sexuality. This girl doesn’t seem to have that particular impediment.”
“So they did sleep together,” Savanna said, thinking they probably had, but not sure.
Lyric grinned, her eyes sparkling.
“What?” Savanna asked, knowing her wife well enough to know that she was dying to tell her something.
“She got Cody… uh… home,” Lyric said, trying to be humorous.
They’d discussed Cody’s admission to Lyric about not ‘finishing’ and Savanna had said that it was perfectly normal for someone who’d suffered the sexual traumas that Cody had to have that kind of problem.
Savanna stared back at her wife. “She did?” she asked, surprised.
Lyric nodded.
“Well, then that’s why Cody thinks she’s in love with the girl,” Savanna said.
Lyric rolled her eyes. “Well, Code did say it’s been over a year and a half since the last one…”
Savanna stared back at her, blinking a couple of times. “A year and a half?” she repeated, in disbelief.
Lyric chuckled, nodding her head.
“Christ, I get two days out and we have a problem…” Savanna said, smiling at Lyric with her tongue between her teeth, her eyes dancing in amusement.
“Uh-huh, I know, trust me,” Lyric said sounding put upon. “That’s why I get things thrown at my head when I work too much.”
“Yes you do,” Savanna said, grinning unapologetically.
“Well, she did say that it might be the sudden complete lack of sexual tension,” Lyric said. “So I think she’s got her head on straight about this.”
Savanna nodded considering Lyric’s words. Then she suddenly slid her hand over Lyric’s bare shoulder.
“How many days has it been?” she asked seductively.
“Who cares?” Lyric replied, moving to kiss Savanna’s lips sensually.
Savanna’s arms wound around Lyric’s neck, pulling her close and pressing her body closer. Lyric’s hands pulled at her, as she moaned against her lips. Minutes later, they were both crying out.
“That never gets old…” Lyric said, breathing heavily, as they lay together afterwards.
Savanna reached down smacking her ass. “It better not!” she exclaimed.
Lyric chuckled, moving to kiss Savanna’s lips again.
The next morning McKenna slid out of Cody’s bed and went into the bathroom. Cody stirred and rolled to her stomach, clasping a pillow under her head with both arms. When McKenna came back into the room, she was shocked to see the tattoo on Cody’s back. She walked over to the bed and sat down, reaching her finger out to trace the black treble clef design. Cody stirred again, turning her head and opening one eye.
“What are you doing?” she murmured tiredly.
“Checking out your art work,” McKenna said, smoothing her hand over the tattoo, noting the rainbow outline of the musical symbol.
“Mmmm…” Cody murmured, closing her eye again, and smiling warmly.
McKenna lay down on her side facing Cody with her elbow propping her head up, taking in Cody’s profile. Cody sensed she was being watched, and opened one eye again.
“It’s all about the music, isn’t it?” McKenna asked, her tone amused.
“Always,” Cody said, repeating what she’d said the night before. “But that’s about Lyric too.”
McKenna nodded, having suspected that as well.
“Are you awake now?” Cody asked tiredly.
“Probably,” McKenna said, glancing at the clock on Cody’s nightstand. “It’s six a.m., when I normally get up.
“We didn’t go to sleep till like one,” Cody said.
McKenna smiled. “I know, but my internal alarm clock is pretty set. That doesn’t mean you can’t go back to sleep.”
Cody rubbed her face on the pillow under her head, then turned over onto her back, groaning as she did.
“I can’t lie here in this deafening silence, though,” Cody said, reaching over to pick up the remote to her iHome and hitting a button.
Music filled the room suddenly, and Cody grimaced comically turning the volume down with her eyes squeezed shut. McKenna watched with an amused grin on her face. So this was Cody in the morning.
“Deafening silence,” McKenna repeated. “Is that what it sounds like to you?”
“It sounds really loud,” Cody said, nodding.
McKenna nodded her look contemplative. “So do you have any other tattoos that I don’t know about?” she asked, grinning.
Cody went still for a moment, and McKenna instantly recognized uncertainty in Cody’s eyes. McKenna reached out her hand touching Cody’s cheek, her eyes searching.
“What is it?” she asked softly.
Cody looked back at her for a long moment, then bent the knee of her left leg, moving aside the sheets to reveal the “SUR” tattooed on her thigh.
McKenna looked at the tattoo, then she looked up at Cody. “What does SUR stand for?”
“Sureños, they’re a Mexican street gang,” Cody said, her voice breaking slightly on the word.
“Why do you have it?” McKenna asked, her voice as gentle as she could possibly make it, sensing that this was a big deal to her. This was not like the other tattoo.
“It’s not like I had a choice…” Cody said, her voice trailing off as she swallowed convulsively. “You know how ranchers brand their cows?” she said. She kept her tone even, but her eyes told a completely different story.
“Oh Cody…” McKenna said, her eyes shining with tears.
McKenna’s look was so completely devastated for her that Cody had to close her eyes to shut it out for a minute. Her lips trembled slightly as she fought to control her emotions.
“That’s why I do what I do, Kenna,” Cody said, when she had control of her emotions again.
McKenna looked back at her but Cody still had her eyes closed. When she opened them, McKenna could see all the pain and desolation in them and her heart ached for Cody. She reached out her hand and laid it on Cody’s shoulder, her eyes looking into Cody’s.
“I’m so sorry, Cody,” she said, her voice tremulous. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been through in your life. “But you are so amazing to have come through it the way you have.”
Cody gave a short sarcastic laugh. “Well, coming through it is true enough, but I’m not sure there’s anything amazing about it.”
McKenna sat up in her surprise at wha
t Cody had just said. “How can you not see how amazing you are?” she asked, her tone serious. “Cody, you do a job that saves people’s lives,” she said. “You deal with the most horrible people, and take monsters off the street… How do you not see that as amazing?”
Cody looked back at McKenna, sensing McKenna’s tension and her obvious surprise that Cody didn’t know this about herself. Cody narrowed her eyes looking doubtful.
“I do it while taking Lithium and screwing every woman in town,” Cody said, her tone self-castigating.
“That’s coping, Cody,” McKenna said. “And I hate to hear you talk that way about yourself.”
Cody looked back at her, surprised by what she’d just said, unable to think of a response. Blowing her breath out, she shrugged, shaking her head.
McKenna put her hand over Cody’s heart, then looked directly into her eyes.
“You have an incredible heart, Cody,” she said softly. “You just have to let people see it.”
Cody blew her breath out, grimacing. “Yeah, that’s always the problem.”
“What is?” McKenna asked.
“Letting people see,” Cody said, her eyes downcast.
“Why?” McKenna asked.
“Because if they see your weakness they can take advantage of it,” Cody said, sounding very much like the street kid she’d been years before at that moment.
McKenna heard it in her voice and saw it on her face.
“Not everyone wants to take advantage of your weakness, Cody,” McKenna said.
Cody’s eyes looked into hers, her look doubtful.
“Is that what you think I’m trying to do?” McKenna asked her then.
“No,” Cody answered immediately, making McKenna’s heart skip a beat.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” McKenna said gently, shaking her head slowly, her eyes on Cody’s.
Cody’s lips trembled and her eyes softened. “I know,” she said.
“Is that why you’re letting me see you?” McKenna asked her voice still very soft.
Cody nodded, her look affected. “No one else has ever seen this much,” she said, her voice a whisper.
“That scares you, doesn’t it?” McKenna asked.
“More than you’ll ever know.”
McKenna drew in a deep breath, blowing it out in a sigh. “I just want to…” she began, her voice trailing off as she shook her head.
“Want to what?” Cody asked, her eyes searching McKenna’s.
McKenna hesitated, because the words that came to mind just sounded inadequate for the way she felt.
Cody sat up so her face was only inches away from McKenna and reached out to gently touch her.
“What do you want, McKenna?” Cody asked, her voice intense, but gentle at the same time.
McKenna lifted her eyes to Cody’s. “I want to love you.”
Cody’s lips parted in reaction and she leant in and kissed McKenna’s lips gently. “Then love me,” she said as she pulled back, her voice a quiet plea.
Tears sprang to McKenna’s eyes instantly, and she reached for Cody, who pulled her into her arms, holding her tightly against her. Cody held her in her arms, her hands stroking her hair, her lips against McKenna’s temple. McKenna pressed her face against Cody’s neck, breathing in the scent of her and feeling completely at peace. It was the most incredible, wonderful feeling and McKenna couldn’t believe how simple it had been. Cody wanted to be loved and McKenna wanted to love her, how could it have been any different? McKenna didn’t know, but she knew that she’d been meant for this woman. She felt it to her very core.
Later that morning, McKenna’s phone rang and she pulled it out of her purse, seeing that it was her parents.
She grimaced. “I need to take this, it’s my parents,” she said, and she got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.
Cody lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, music still played on the iHome. She could hear McKenna talking and didn’t want to eavesdrop so she turned the volume up on the speakers, not overly loud, but enough to mask whatever McKenna was telling her parents.
A new song came on just as McKenna hung up the phone and she stood in the bathroom listening to the words. They talked about how she had no idea if love was real because she was damaged too much to know that. It spoke to abuse and having things taken away. McKenna guessed that Cody was talking about her innocence.
McKenna walked out to the bedroom to see exactly what she expected; Cody was singing the words and staring up at the ceiling. The song was Plumb’s Damaged, and the words of the song went straight to McKenna’s heart. She walked over to the bed, staring down at Cody as she sang.
As the song faded out, Cody moved her hand and pressed McKenna’s to her heart, her look meaningful. It told McKenna that Cody was trusting her with her heart at this point. McKenna nodded, accepting the unspoken entreaty that she not break it.
“So how’d that go?” Cody asked when McKenna sat down on the bed next to her.
“Well, they’re shocked, and they want me to go visit them.”
“Okay. And how are you feeling about all of this?” Cody asked then.
McKenna breathed out a sigh and shook her head. “I feel like I had to be the world’s biggest fool not to see what he was doing,” she said, trying to express her feelings genuinely. “I wonder if part of me always knew he wasn’t the man I thought, he was too perfect. But now that I know what he really is, I just feel sick. How could he be that horrible and me not know about it? Am I really that naïve?”
Cody sat up and touched McKenna’s face. She felt a strong need to protect this woman.
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through with this,” Cody said, her voice soft. “But you gotta know that he planned it this way, and he did a lot to hide from you who he really was.”
“I just want to hit him,” McKenna said. “I want to punch him over and over until he hurts the way he hurt those girls.”
Cody chuckled. “Well, rather than violence that’ll only get you arrested too, let’s let the court handle him, okay?”
McKenna nodded, knowing Cody was right.
“And you’re still okay with us… this?” Cody asked, gesturing to them as a couple.
McKenna didn’t answer right away, wanting to try to make sense of everything that was in her heart and head. “I can’t explain it,” she said, shaking her head, “but this feels right somehow. You know?”
Cody curled her lips in a derisive grin. “Don’t I know it,” she said, with a humorous tone to her voice.
McKenna laughed softly, shaking her head.
Chapter 7
Later that day McKenna got to see yet another side of Cody Falco. They were at the LGBT group home run by Savanna. Cody held her hand as they walked up the stairs leading up to the front door of the house. Cody opened the door and stepped inside, glancing around as she did.
“Cody, Cody, Cody!” a young girl chanted excitedly as she ran up to Cody.
Cody had to let go of McKenna’s hand quickly as the girl launched herself into Cody’s arms. Cody hugged the girl, smiling, turning with the girl in her arms and winking at McKenna.
When the girl finally let Cody go, she looked at McKenna.
“Who’re you?’ she asked suspiciously.
“Easy now…” Cody said, her tone amused. “This is McKenna. McKenna, this is Christie.”
Christie looked like she was about twelve. She had blond hair that was pulled back in a few different braids with colorful rubber bands. She had a very young-looking face, but her brown eyes were wary, far too wary for someone so young as far as McKenna was concerned.
“Hi Christie,” McKenna said, smiling.
Christie narrowed her eyes, her look skipping from McKenna to Cody and then back.
“Why are you here with Cody?” she asked then, her tone supporting the suspicious look she was giving her.
“Chris,” Cody said sternly. “She’s with me and you need to be respectful of that.”
“Yes,” Cody said, her tone more gentle now.
Christie looked at McKenna again, her look assessing, then she looked back at Cody again. “You’re never with anyone, Cody.”
Cody’s lips curled into a grin. “Yeah, well, I guess I am now, huh?” she said, a slow smile spreading on her lips.
Christie looked like she didn’t like that answer, but then she put her hands on her hips, in a sudden show of sassiness. “But just till I’m eighteen, right?”
Cody laughed, nodding. “Of course,” she said.
Christie gave McKenna a so there look and walked off, turning her head to wink at Cody.
“That was… interesting,” McKenna said, giving Cody a sidelong glance.
Cody grinned. “Yeah, she kinda has a crush,” she said. “It seems to help her talk to me a bit, which is what Savanna says she needs.”
“So you don’t just work with dogs…” McKenna said, grinning.
“Dogs are just easier,” Cody said, her look serious.
McKenna nodded, understanding that completely.
“McKenna?” queried a girl that walked down the stairs.
McKenna recognized Julie from the group home that had been shut down due to John’s crimes.
“Cody?” Julie said then, recognizing McKenna much easier than she had Cody.
“Yeah,” Cody said, nodding.
Julie looked shocked. “Is that really you? ’Cause you look totally different.”
Cody nodded, blowing her breath out. “Yeah, we need to talk, okay?” she said. “I need to talk to all of you,” she said, looking around for the other girls from the home.
“Cody,” Savanna said from the doorway to the back patio. “I’ve got everyone out here,” she said. “Julie was just joining us.”
Cody nodded, turning to McKenna. “I need to talk to them, do you want to stay in here, or…?”
“No, I want to be there,” McKenna said.
Cody had already told her that she intended to talk to the girls from the home, explain who she was, and what she had been doing there. She needed to know if anyone else had been victimized, and this was the best and easiest way to get that information.
Vendetta (WeHo Book 7) Page 14
