I placed my hand on top of it, holding hers underneath.
Please let me help you.
“There’s a guy,” she said, like she heard my silent plea. “There’s a man.”
It wasn’t much but it was something. “Aiden’s dad?”
She shook her head. “Aiden’s dad is in jail. Has been since he was born. Real winners my sister chooses.”
One thing the man did do was bring her nephew into this world and that could only be fate. I squeezed her hands and she continued.
“He was a guy who gave a good illusion. He was perfect.” She paused, laughing a little. “My sister doesn’t draw people like that. She never draws good people. She’s such a mess.”
“What happened?” I had a feeling I might not want the answer, but that didn’t mean I didn’t need it.
Her lips went tight. “He turned out to be a bad guy. A bad guy that did bad things and went to jail for them. But before that, he worked his way in. He got to her, my sister. He got her to trust him. He got me to trust him and think he was different. Growing up, my sister and I didn’t have much. Our mom’s serving time for drugs. Our dad, we have no idea where he is.”
What she said wasn’t easy to hear, not at all, and I hated we had as much in common as we did. We both grew up without a biological mother in our lives.
“And then, my sister had Aiden,” she went on. “He was our only good thing. But even with him, he couldn’t keep my sister and I from butting heads. We fought all the time, about the bills, her boyfriends. She had this one that spent all our rent money on drugs and she got high right alongside him. She even let him take the money set aside for Aiden’s diapers one day, Brody,” she paused, shaking her head. “The baby’s diapers. I couldn’t take it and she couldn’t take the nagging from her younger sister. She kicked me out and I pretty much couch surfed through middle school.”
She was so young to be on her own, just a baby herself.
“But then this guy came in,” she said, folding her hands on the table. “He came in and made things different. My sister didn’t get high anymore. She was responsible with her money. She even asked me to move back in just before high school. I would have too, but I got into a fine arts school on the coast for dancing. I was given a scholarship and boarding, doing things I thought were impossible, and my sister and this guy were so supportive. He even drove her and Aiden up to my recitals. He never missed one and looked happy to do it, to be there. He was just so nice. He was perfect until he wasn’t.”
Her voice cracked then, broke down, and choking, she got it back.
“I didn’t see the bruises, Brody,” she said, her eyes glassing. “I didn’t see them. She always hid them when I saw her, and Aiden… he kept quiet for years.”
My face blazed, and my hands in hers, I tried to keep them from shaking at this guy’s cowardice. Because that’s what a man was, a coward, to ever lay his hands on a woman.
“Did he hurt Aiden?” I asked, and I didn’t know how I managed to voice the question. My right mind had left the moment she admitted what this fucker did. “Did he ever—”
“No.” She sniffed. “Not him. I asked. He never laid hands on him, but did just as much damage. It would always happen the same time every night. He’d get off work, get home from the bar super late, and my baby…” She finally let it go then, her tears. “I thought Aiden just called to talk to me, Brody. But he called because he was in the closet as that man beat the shit out of my sister. And he still calls every night long after because of the nightmares.”
I closed my eyes. The watch. Her watch. He needs a call the same time every night.
How fucked up…
“And he never told you?” I asked her. “Aiden, never told you what was going on?”
She shook her head. “I think he was just scared. He was just so small then. A little thing.”
Letting out a breath, I relieved some anger no matter how little. “How did you find out?”
“My sister was good at hiding it, but she couldn’t do it forever. I figured it out when she, Aiden, and I went to the beach. She admitted everything, but she wouldn’t leave him. She wouldn’t. She said she loved him and I told her if she didn’t do it for herself, she had to do it for Aiden. She still didn’t listen. She wouldn’t tell. She stayed silent.”
A single tear dropped from her cheek then and her hands were the ones that started shaking in mine this time.
“Alex?”
Her lashes blinked up. “She stayed silent, but I did something. I did something and he’s in jail now for the bad things he did. At least, I thought he was.”
I didn’t understand, but she went on.
“After he started his sentence, my sister and I had a falling out. Any good relationship we’d developed after she got clean just wiped away as if it never happened. She blamed me for putting her boyfriend there. Pissed off, hurt, I went to New York and left California behind me. I thought I could make it out there. I danced so well in school. I really thought I could make it and knew it’d be the only shot I’d have at working out my problems with my sister. If I made something for myself, provided for her and Aiden both, I could pull them out of California and we could all just start over. We’d be a family and…”
Pushing our hands together, I rubbed hers. She didn’t have to keep going with this and I hated to hear the pain in her voice. Eventually, I had to hear more.
“But it didn’t work out that way,” she whispered swallowing. “Days passed, months in which I couldn’t find work. All the good leads I had going in fell through and no auditions led to anything worthwhile. I was stuck, couldn’t pay my rent, and ended up dancing in nightclubs just to keep a roof over my head. But then those clubs turned into exotic ones and when I wasn’t doing that, I was hustling and selling all kinds of things I’m not proud of. I almost came home so many times, my tail between my legs, but I chickened out every time. I guess it was my pride. But one day, I got a call from him, Aiden. A call that changed everything.”
I was afraid to ask the extent. “What did he say?”
Her hand moved over her hair, lowering to her neck. “He said he called. The guy. He called asking for my sister, Elena. They’d moved since he and Elena were together and a guy with a similar sounding voice called one day asking about my sister. Aiden wouldn’t say anything to him, though. He was silent after the initial hello and ended up hanging up on him. He called me immediately after. Aiden thought he might be back. He thought he might be out.”
I let out a breath, all this so much to take in. “But there could be a chance he’s not back? He could have called your sister from the inside, and Alex, that might not even have been him on the phone. Aiden could have been mistaken.”
She shook her and my gut did nothing but turn. “I looked him up. He was up for parole, and…”
He could get out and go for the family he believed sent him there.
“He’s out, Brody,” she said, nearly shaking. “It’s all public record. He’s out and I’m scared. What if he finds them? And when he does, what if he doesn’t just go for Elena this time? What if he goes for Aiden?”
And she was going to take on all this alone, go to California into God only knew what. Alex, she was resourceful no doubt about that. But the odds were definitely stacked against her here.
I pushed my hand through my hair. “And you said, he hasn’t come around yet?”
“Not that I know of. Aiden would have told me.”
That was good, so good. But one other thing concerned me and that was her sister. She said her turning this guy in led to their falling out. What if she went all the way there and she was only met with resistance?
“What if your sister doesn’t want the help?” I asked her, hating that I had to. But with what she told me, it was a possibility. “What if you get all the way there only for her to turn you away? What if she wants to be with this guy still?” It hurt to say because all women deserved more than that, but sometimes, they didn’t
realize that with the rest of the world.
“She won’t,” she said, way too quickly, and because she had, the words felt more wishful than certain.
I tapped my hands on the table. “How do you know, Alex?”
Her gaze left me then, out the window and to the late morning traffic. She blinked. “Because her life got so much better after they moved,” she said. “And…” Her eyes fluttered away again and never returned this time. She chewed her lip. “She knows that and she told me if he ever came back, she’d do the right thing this time. She told me that. She told me that.”
I wanted to question her, because with her story, that didn’t seem to be the outcome that resulted from the falling out between she and her sister. I had no reason not to believe her, though. She hadn’t given me one.
“So I’m going to go,” she continued. “I’m going to go. I’m going to warn her and get her and Aiden out of there for a while. However long we need.”
“No, you won’t,” I told her, my voice not faltering at all with the statement. “At least, not alone you aren’t. I can’t let you do that. Not by yourself.”
“Brody—”
“Alex,” I said. I wouldn’t argue with her about this. This was a battle I refused to let up on. I squeezed her hands. “I’ll take you. I’ll get you there to Aiden and your sister. I worked the leave out with my job. It’s done.”
Her beautiful eyes settled on me, narrowed and hard in their gaze. She shook her head. “But why?” she asked, surprising me. “Why are you doing this? Why do you keep doing this? Helping me?”
The answer was something I felt was obvious, but I did her one better, bringing her hands together in mine. “Why don’t you feel like you deserve it? The help?”
Her hand went underneath her eye again, then the other. She sniffed, looking away, and I kept on.
“Alex, I know I don’t know you very well and because of that, this all might seem crazy. But the thing is, it doesn’t to me. It doesn’t at all and in fact, it makes nothing but sense.”
Pausing, I lifted her hand. Inside, she still held that ring and I opened it, letting her see.
“This makes sense,” I told her, lifting my gaze to her. I closed her hand in mine. “It just does and I… I want to help. Anyway I can and it doesn’t have to be more than that. I want to help and I want you to let me.”
I put it all out there, quite literally everything. I think I knew how I felt for a while now, about this girl that came to me in the night. Especially, after almost losing her.
“Let me help you,” I urged; I stressed. “Let me do this with you.”
She stared at my hands covering hers, the mood ring between us. I had no idea what color it was, but had a feeling if she looked at it, it would say everything she needed to know. I could feel it touching more of my hand than hers.
“Okay,” she said, looking up at me. And then, a smile touched her lips, a smile I wanted so bad to lean over and cover with a kiss.
But I settled for my own: “Okay.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alexa
Brody felt confident he could get us to the coast in just under two days time. Not as fast as the train, but he said having a form of transportation on hand wouldn’t be a bad thing. I trusted him, so I agreed.
I trusted him. I hadn’t been able to do that for so long I wondered if I still knew how, but the minute Brody came around? It all felt natural. Being with him felt natural. Had that been what he meant at the cafe? About us making sense to him?
My gaze found him from the corner of my eye, his one hand on the wheel, and his other on mine, holding my hand like he’d done before. We just kind of fell into that when we got into his truck, naturally, and I didn’t turn him away.
In fact, I welcomed it.
His hand in mine didn’t feel like he wanted something from me. It felt like he was giving something, support, and I think that’s exactly what it was. He knew I had a lot on my plate right now; Aiden and everything else. There was a barrier there, one he created, and that probably was best. My mind was so overwhelmed, I didn’t know if I could give anything else and he understood that.
He always did the right thing.
I took what we had for what it was and we traveled for miles while we did, him telling his stories. I missed his stories so much. This was him trying to keep the mood light. In fact, he did most of the talking while I just listened and he even let me hold his phone in my lap just in case Aiden called. He really was great, so great. We stopped only two times in six hours, pulling over for the normal stuff, a rest stop or a restaurant to eat. We went another three before our next stop and the anxiousness shook my legs. We were about to hit state lines, something I’d been trying to do for so long. I felt like I’d been traveling months instead of weeks and Brody made that happen. I actually thought he’d push us through, drive through the night on our final leg, but he took an exit after our last rest stop. We’d only been driving an hour.
I looked over at him and got nothing but a smile and squeeze to my hand.
“What’s going on?” I asked him, but I wasn’t worried. Like I said, I trusted him. I believed in him.
He turned the wheel, steering down the exit ramp. “Giving you a break from your head.”
I shook it then, not understanding.
His head tipped back with his laugh, the bill of his hat revealing his eyes. He glanced my way. “I’ve been watching you off and on all day, Alex. You need to get out of your head. You need to have some fun.”
Fun? Still, I didn’t understand. “Shouldn’t we just push through? We’re really making ground today.”
“Today is now this evening. Did you notice?”
That sunset in the horizon showed me I hadn’t. I really was stuck in my head.
The truck pushed back into traffic off the exit, the steady stream of a small town instead of the fast pace of a highway. “I was going to pull us over for the night anyway in a couple miles and this ‘fun,’” he paused, nodding with it, “will just be a side trip. I saw some signs on the road advertising it. If you’re game, I’ll take you.”
I really didn’t want to stop, but if he was going to stop anyway…
And then there was the way those blue eyes looked at me, drawing me in and everything.
His smile made me do the same, and so with that, I let him take me to “fun.” And what did fun end up being? A small carnival in the middle nowhere. Lights flashed the air and electric music coordinated with it.
My jaw went slack at the bright set up. “Are you serious?” I hadn’t been to one of these in so long.
His simply winked at me. “As a heart attack. It’s time to let Valentine out tonight.”
His reference to my stage name made me snort and after that, it turned into full-blown laugher. He came around to my side, holding out his hand.
I could only accept.
He tossed his hat in the back before we left, musing his hair all up and making it all sexy. And he was sexy. That couldn’t be denied. Anybody could be that though, but not everyone could be Brody with his big heart.
Once we got to the gate, he paid my admission to my protest. I felt I had a running total with him already.
He pulled me in, lowering. “Relax, okay? Just have fun.”
I’d sure try. After getting us a stack of tickets, we scoped out the area. This place was sure bustling for a tourist trap.
“Games, rides, or greasy food, darlin’?” he asked, staring down at me with a smile.
God, he could have anything he wanted from me, couldn’t he? I decided on food because I thought that’s what he might like. He was so big, I figured he’d always need it. I got chicken on a stick while he took advantage of the behemoth sized turkey legs the food truck had.
“Damn,” he said, sizing it up. “I’m going to regret this later, but it’s going to hurt so good.”
I giggled, taking a bite of my chicken. I’d probably regret this just as much as him. We took our meat
on a stroll when some taunting came at us from the right.
“Look at this chump,” said a clown with white oil paint on his face. He sat in a dunk tank, screaming into his microphone. “Guy probably couldn’t hit a parked car to win a stuffed animal for his girl.”
Looking around, no one was behind Brody and me. Brody’s finger went to his chest.
“Yeah, you sucka!” the clown went on, chuckling. “You get three tries for six tickets.”
Brody eyed me, pushing his thumb behind him at the tank. “Highway robbery this guy.”
He was definitely a character, but he called me Brody’s girl, he couldn’t be all that bad.
“C’mon, man! Things aren’t getting any dryer over here. Don’t be a wuss.”
The clown proved to be very vocal, but Brody, the guy that he was, took it in good stride. Heading over to the booth, he paid for the tickets, accepting the balls for his shots. “Highway robbery,” he said one last time, then, rearing back, he took his first shot. A sharp hit slammed the wall with the target, but landed just off to the right.
The clown cringed for Brody. “Ooo… Close but no cigar.”
Brody pointed at him. “You’re an asshole, my friend,” he said, with a laugh. “But I got you.”
The clown let out a roar. “Go for it. I’m willing to let you prove me wrong.”
And so he attempted again, close, but the ball fell without accomplishing its mission. The third shot failed just as the first two and the clown had a field day with that. I covered my mouth, trying not to laugh as Brody’s run ended with defeat.
He took my hand in his, looking a little sour. “Come on. We’re not giving this guy any more of our money.”
“I want to try,” I said, surprising him. His eyebrows flashed and I went off to the side, paying for a shot with three tickets. I prepared, looking for my angle, and when I pulled back, I let the ball fly. It hit the target with a thud and the clown slid off his seat into the water with a large splash. Sputtering, he came up with his red wig draping his face. He took it all in good stride though and the attendant who sold us our tickets for the shots aimed her arms at the prize wall. I picked my prize, then returned to a shocked Brody, his blue eyes wide like saucers.
Brody Page 13
