by Glines, Abbi
“Can you step outside?” he asked me, glancing at Cullen, then back to me.
I shook my head. “No. He’s not …” I paused, hating to admit that Cullen felt insecure and feared being left alone. It made me sound like a neglectful aunt. Although leaving him with his mother was neglectful on my part, it would seem. “With Tory not here, I don’t need to walk out that door. He won’t—” I stopped again. There was no easy way to say this.
“He will think you left him too,” Rio said with his mouth in a tight, disapproving line.
He didn’t have to tell me how wrong it was for a four-year-old little boy to even have that kind of fear. I was aware it was wrong. I knew how screwed up Tory was making him. I hated her for it.
I nodded but said nothing more.
Rio cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck hard with one hand. Then, he motioned for me to come closer to him. I walked softly so Cullen wouldn’t notice until I felt I was close enough for him to whisper and me to hear it.
“She’s in trouble. Place she’s at is a meth house. They’re being raided as we speak. I just got word she was there.” His words were low and quiet enough that I didn’t think Cullen could have heard him over the television.
I stood there, unable to respond. My heart hurt for the little boy who wanted his mother to come home, for the sister I loved and had fought for most of my life, and yet I was relieved. Because I wouldn’t have to fight her over Cullen. If she had chosen drugs over her son, then no matter how I felt about my sister, I had to protect my nephew.
“She needs help. He needs security.” Rio’s words sounded more like an accusation than a suggestion.
I didn’t want to discuss my life with him. He wasn’t someone I trusted.
“Thank you for letting me know,” I said, walking around him and opening the door, then stepping back in an invitation for him to leave.
He didn’t move. “Do what is right for the boy.”
The whirlwind of emotions churning inside me made me feel like I was going to explode. Rio March had no right to judge me and assume that I would do anything less than what was best for my nephew. I had been taking care of him and protecting him since he was born. Rio didn’t know that though because he’d chosen not to get to know me. The person I had become.
“Good-bye, Rio,” I said tightly, thankful I had been able to control my words around him.
He moved then, and as he walked toward the door, he paused. “The kid deserves better than this life. You know that as well as I do. Let him have the life we didn’t get.”
My knuckles gripped the door so hard that they turned white. I glared at him, unable to check my words. He had pushed me too far.
“Y-y-you know n-n-noth-thing about his life or m-mine. You assume be-be-because you became a-a-an elitist ass-asshole. I do not n-n-need your advice. I’m capable of taking care of th-th-things myself.” Although I spoke quietly, I struggled once again with my words.
I did not like Rio March. I hated him. Everything about him. Especially how he’d made me become that weak, broken girl who couldn’t speak without stuttering.
Chapter Fifteen
Rio
I closed the fridge door with more force than necessary. I’d been on edge all day. My morning visit to Bryn’s had soured my mood, and I hadn’t been able to come back from it. As hard as I had tried, I’d couldn’t shake her words from my head.
“You break the damn fridge, and you’ll buy a new one,” Saul drawled as he stood, watching me from across the kitchen with a beer in his hand, leaning on the counter.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked me, looking as if he would rather do anything other than talk about my current anger problem.
I shook my head.
“Good,” he replied, shoving off from his relaxed position and heading for the back doors that led to where my sister was currently relaxing with a cup of tea and a book with her scenic view of the Gulf of Mexico.
He was almost to the door when Drake walked into the kitchen. “Jesus, what a fucking day. Did you hear the cops busted up Garth Harden’s meth trailer this morning? Place was loaded with folks. Two of the guys in Hollow Gun got arrested. One was their fucking drummer! They can’t play without him.”
Saul had paused at the door to listen to Drake. I had hoped he would go on outside. If he heard about Tory, he’d tell Henley. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my sister worrying over that shit tonight.
“I heard,” was all I said, hoping Drake would shut up.
“Meth is insanity. I never did understand it. Just get fucking drunk,” he added as he opened the fridge to grab a beer. “Oh,” he said, his eyes wide as he turned to look at me. “Tory, the crazed bitch I went out with, like, twice. You know, the stripper’s sister. She was in there. And I heard it wasn’t her first arrest. She’s probably headed to Montgomery or wherever the hell they send folks like that. I dunno.” He shook his head then and took a drink.
I could feel Saul’s eyes on me. He had put the pieces together quickly enough. Unlike Drake, he paid close attention to things. I turned my head to meet his gaze. He said nothing, and I knew he expected me to talk.
“What?” I snapped. I didn’t have to say anything to him. If I had wanted to tell him, I would have. This wasn’t his fucking business. Just because Henley was going to give a shit didn’t mean I had to give him any information. This was not my sister’s problem, and she needed to stay out of it. “Tory is trash,” I added.
Saul turned to look out the window at my sister, who was blissfully unaware about all of this. I wanted it to stay that way. Couldn’t he just let it go?
“She doesn’t need to know,” I told him. “She can’t do anything. There is nothing to do.”
Saul sighed and then looked back at me. “I wish I didn’t have to tell her, but damn if I’m keeping shit from her. I’ve been down that road, and I don’t intend to do it again,” he said. “The sister, she has the kid?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I went by their place this morning when I got word Tory was being arrested. I told her.”
“The stripper? Y’all talking again? Even after the shit with the Jeep?” Drake raised his eyebrows. “I don’t blame you. She had some incredible tits. I’d forgive her too.”
“She’s not a stripper. And, no, I’m not talking to her the way you think. Or at all. I just—I told you, she’s a part of my past. That’s it. And then there is the kid.”
Saul nodded his head toward the balcony. “You can tell her, or I can.”
I wanted to go take a shower and stay in my room all night, alone. Talking about shit I could not fix was pointless, but if Saul went out there and told Henley, she would just come search me out to talk about it. Getting it over with now would be easier.
“I’ll do it,” I told him.
“Now,” he replied.
If the fucker wasn’t my best friend, I would hate him at times. I glared at him as I walked past him and jerked open one of the double doors that led onto the elaborate balcony. It was two levels. The second level was where the pool overlooked the beach. Saul’s father owned exclusive resorts and apartments all over the world, putting him on the Forbes list. One day, Saul would be on that list too. However, if you met Saul on the street, you’d never know it.
Henley looked up at me and started to smile but stopped when she noticed the scowl on my face. Her gaze went past me to see Saul, and she put her book down in her lap, as if to prepare herself for whatever we had come out here to tell her.
“Hello, boys. From the looks on your faces, I am not going to like what you have to tell me,” she said, shifting her gaze from me to Saul.
“Tory was arrested this morning in a meth lab, completely fucked up. This isn’t her first time to be arrested like this. She won’t be getting out soon or easily. Bryn knows. I went to tell her this morning as soon as I heard it was happening.”
There, she knew. I could go get a shower now.
<
br /> Henley swung her legs off the lounge chair she had been sitting on, putting them on the wooden boards beneath her, then stood up quickly. “You know where she lives?” she asked me.
I didn’t want to tell her yes because she looked like she was about to go somewhere. I just stood there and stared at her, trying to think of a lie to stop whatever she was thinking.
Henley’s fingertip hit my chest as she looked up at me with determination. “If Tory is in jail, then Bryn has a little boy who has been told today that he might not see his mama for a while. She has no other family. It’s just them. She can’t go to work at night if she’s taking care of Cullen. She needs help. So, tell me where she lives.”
“You aren’t getting mixed up with this. Hell, for all I know, Bryn is on the same shit. She works at a strip club and lives with a druggie. She could be using too,” I said.
Her eyes flared, and I heard Saul cough or cover a laugh behind me. I wasn’t sure which it was.
“When did you become this-this heartless, judgmental jerk? Bryn isn’t that child’s mother, but she sacrifices for him every day, the way a mother is supposed to do for her child. She’s come in the shop enough for me to see her with the little boy. He trusts her. She loves him. It is clear as day. I do not believe she bashed your Jeep. I don’t care if you saw her put the pole through a window of your Jeep; there has to be an explanation. Even if there isn’t, then you must have done something to deserve it. And I absolutely do not believe she is using drugs. Now, I am going to see Bryn and find out how I can help her and Cullen. Tell me where she lives, or I’m calling her.”
Deep down, I guessed I had known this was what Henley would want to do. It was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted her to know. Did that make me a heartless, judgmental jerk? I hadn’t even considered Bryn wouldn’t be able to work or didn’t have help with the boy. She had trashed my Jeep, but she had said she didn’t know it was mine. Maybe she had been telling the truth. Didn’t make her any less crazy for it though. She had demons, and Henley could never understand something as dark as the life Bryn had been raised in.
“I’ll take you.” It was all I could agree to.
I stood behind what I’d said about Bryn’s past damaging her. I didn’t trust what she had become because of it, and I wasn’t going to let my sister get hurt. Henley had no idea the kind of life Bryn had lived and how it had ruined her.
Chapter Sixteen
Bryn
I sat on the bed, staring down at my phone. Tory had used her one call to call me. I’d expected that. Who else would she have called? I was all she had. I was all she had ever had. Unshed tears stung my eyes. I fought to keep them from falling. Cullen was in the living room, watching some Spider-Man movie he loved with different versions of Spider-Man. It confused me, but it kept him occupied.
Tory was looking at up to forty-two months in prison. There would be no probation this time.
How blind was I that I hadn’t even realized she was addicted again? My working nights and leaving her here with Cullen. What kind of sister and aunt am I? I’d failed both of them.
The money had made our life easier—or so I had thought. That was why I had done it. But my being gone, the ease it provided Tory, it wasn’t something she could handle. She needed the stress of financial responsibility. I had taken that away. But then I didn’t know how long this had been going on. Until recently, she had been coming home.
Had she been high the night she beat Rio’s Jeep with the pole? Why hadn’t I considered that then? How long had she been doing this?
All day, I had felt a heavy weight on my chest, making it hard to breathe. Every moment that passed, it just grew heavier. I had failed Cullen when all I wanted to do was give him a better life.
The knock on the door, however, kept me from falling apart. Tonight was not the time to let Cullen answer the door. I had no idea who might be on the other side. There was the fear that Tory might owe someone also haunting me. The fact that Cullen could be in any path of danger terrified me more than anything else.
I stopped in the kitchen on my way to the door and glanced at the block of knives by the stove. Should I take the big one with me? Had our life really come to this?
“Someone knocked on the door,” Cullen said from his spot on the sofa.
I jerked my gaze off the knives and looked at him, hoping the panic inside me didn’t reflect in my eyes. “I heard it, honey. Just watch your show. I’ll handle it.”
I put 911 in my phone and had my finger hover above the Call button. Then, I walked to the door to slightly pull back the curtain covering the window beside it and peeked out. The first thing I saw was Rio’s profile. I paused, unsure if I was willing to deal with him tonight, but I was relieved I wasn’t about to get held up at gunpoint. Then, I noticed the figure beside him. It was Henley. With a sigh, I cleared my phone, so I didn’t accidentally call for help, then put it in my pocket.
As much as I didn’t want to see Rio or ever talk to him again, he wasn’t someone I feared. We would be safe while he and Henley were here. Or at least, we wouldn’t be alone. There was an ease that came with that knowledge, and right now, I needed some peace of mind, if just for a moment.
I opened the door and stepped back. “Come in,” I said, glancing behind them, suddenly thinking how it could be dangerous for them to be here and they didn’t realize it.
Henley walked inside first, and then Rio followed. His gaze immediately went to Cullen, who was on the sofa, looking at them with a curious expression. I closed the door and bolted it behind them.
“Hello,” I finally said in greeting now that everyone was inside and safe.
Henley hesitated a minute, and then she moved quickly and threw her arms around me, hugging me. “I am so sorry,” she said.
I wasn’t good with affection of any kind. I had experienced very little, if any, in my lifetime. Feeling awkward, I patted her back and stared up at Rio, who was now looking at me, amused. He seemed to know how out of place I felt.
“Uh, thanks,” I replied, not sure what else one could say.
Henley pulled back but held on to my arms. “I want to help. Whatever I can do. Watch Cullen while you work. He can come to the shop if you need to work days or stay at my house, and we can have a sleepover and bake things the nights you work. I want to help.”
I was at a loss for words. I couldn’t think of one time in my adult life that someone had offered to help me—or us. Not once. I had always had to figure things out and make it work. There was never someone I could call up for help. I barely knew this girl, and here she was, offering to do something as big as keeping Cullen while I worked.
Where had she come from? Were there more people like her in the world, or was she unique?
My gaze shifted to Rio, and the memory of him showing up at my aunt’s countless times to help me clean and do the chores she’d left for me came back to me. I quickly pushed them away, far back in my thoughts. That was a time when he had been different. I didn’t need to get that Rio confused with this one.
“I-I, uh … I don’t know what to s-s-s-say.” I stuttered on the last word, unable to control my speech with so much emotion whirling around inside me. I wanted to say so much more, but I was afraid I would stammer over every word, making it impossible to get a sentence out.
“Can we bake cupcakes?” Cullen’s small voice asked, and he was there beside me then. Reaching up and taking my hand.
Henley bent down in front of him. “Absolutely. We can make cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts, whatever you want. I also have another little friend who likes to come over and bake. I think you would like her. She’s about your age,” she told him.
Cullen thought about that for a moment. He had never had a friend come over from preschool, nor had he been invited to anyone’s house. The idea of having someone his age to play with would either be exciting or intimidating to him.
Finally, he nodded his head. “Okay,” he replied.
Henley beamed so bri
ghtly that it was as if I had just given her something instead of the opposite. She stood back up, and I focused hard on my words, knowing I needed to speak. She wouldn’t understand my silence.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this. It’s—no one—I’ve never—well, no one has ever helped us before. I am at a l-l-loss as to what to s-s-sa-say or do.” That was the truth. I was clueless. I was very close to bursting into tears.
Henley glanced back at Rio, who had stood quietly behind her since their arrival. It was clear by the expression on his face that he did not want to be here. He was here because of Henley. I could see the uncertainty there in his eyes and the concern. Henley being around me worried him. I understood. Right now, I was worried about our safety too.
“I, uh, I should tell you that I do not know …” I paused then and looked down at Cullen. He didn’t need to hear what I was going to say. Bending down beside him, I took his small hand. “Hey, buddy, go back and watch your show, okay? Let me tell them bye, and then I will get you a snack.”
His eyes lit up at the word snack . He nodded his head then, forgetting his new friend, and ran back to the sofa. The promise of a snack always seemed to work. It was still new to him. Having food in the kitchen that he could eat between meals.
I turned my attention back to Henley and Rio. As much as I didn’t want to look at him or speak to him, he was here with her, and he needed to hear this. It was clear his concern was for her safety, and her helping us could put her in danger.
“I don’t know what Tory was doing exactly, who she might have owed money to.” I paused, shifting my gaze between the two of them. “I’m not sure yet if I should be expecting someone to show up, demanding money or payback of some sort. It’s not a world I’ve ever lived in. It’s her world. Not mine. The little I know of it is that her addiction causes her to make selfish decisions,” I explained quietly, not sure if Cullen was trying to listen or not.
“Having help with Cullen so I can work would be great, but for now, I need to stay close. I can’t put you or anyone else in danger. I’ve got to wait this out,” I finished.
