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“Am I safe here?”
“You’re safe,” Breakneck grunted and I could feel the vibrations from his answer thanks to how closely he held me to his body. I still stiffened at the gruff answer which made him pull back so that he could look down into my eyes.
I straightened so that we were eye level, even though I was sitting on his lap. “Am. I. Safe? Here, in this place?” I emphasized my question, letting him know that I needed the reassurance about more than the clubhouse being a safe space. I needed to know that he could be trusted. That I would be safe with him.
“Won’t ever let anything happen to you. Promise, Little Mary.”
“Stop calling me that,” I insisted, though there wasn’t a whole lot of conviction in the way I spoke.
The jerk grinned at me and then dug his fingers into my side, tickling until I started squirming and laughing before he finally pulled me back into his tight embrace.
“Usually, I say if the name fits, it sticks, but in your case there’s something we can do about it.” I groaned in frustration. “Are you saving yourself for marriage or something?” He asked.
“No.”
“Then why? You’re almost twenty, in college, and fucking gorgeous when you don’t try to absolutely downplay your own assets.” He clearly missed the memo about today being my birthday, but I wasn’t going to clue him in. Then, he would just pity me, and I didn’t want that.
“I downplay my assets so people will take me seriously,” I informed him, not bothering to mention the part where I was dirt poor and couldn’t afford to buy items that might show them off, if I’d wanted to. “The ‘why’ is because I never want to be my mother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I needed the nanny job for a reason. I lived in Creepy Dave’s murder house for a reason. My father found out that I’m his best friend’s biological child and he left me behind with the ex-best friend and soon-to-be ex-wife. The two of them – my mother and that jackass who I’d known as my uncle my whole life – left me behind, too. I was the reminder of how they’d screwed everything up. Not that I wanted anything to do with them anyway, but it kind of left me without a whole lot of resources since the man who raised me hadn’t wanted me to work until I finished college.”
“Wait, you’re saying not a single one of those fuckers stepped up to make sure you were okay?”
“I was living in Creepy Dave’s murder house, what do you think?” I rolled my eyes and let the sarcastic tone of my voice do the work for me. “Everyone left me high and dry, and my college fund was cut off immediately by my grandfather – or I guess the man I always thought was my grandfather.”
“So, up until what? A few months ago?”
“This all happened toward the end of spring semester.”
“Up until then, you thought you were family to these people – your dad and grandfather – all your life?”
“Yeah.”
“And they just cut you out like that? You had no control over the shit your mother did. How the fuck could they do that? Blood or not, there was still a bond.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I would never do that to another person. At least my dad had his family to lean on. My mom and my uncle had one another, even though they were the ones who created this mess. I was left with no one, no money, and desperation that led me to living with a serial killer.”
“You want me to take care of them for you?”
That made me chuckle. “Would you really do that?”
“Fuck yeah, I would. That’s some bullshit, what they did to you.”
I shook my head. “None of them are worth my time anymore. Doing anything to them would mean I was thinking of them. Even if I am, they don’t deserve to know about it. Not a single one of them was thinking of me. That’s why no one would have ever missed me. My corpse could have been in Creepy Dave’s basement for years and…” I had to look away and stop myself from saying the rest. It was too awful to think about.
“Well, shit, honey, you know it’s been a rough year when you end up being consoled by the biker known for not giving a fuck, huh?” He teased. There was truth to his words, and yet, I knew he meant them to bring a smile to my face. It worked.
I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“Don’t fucking thank me for just being human with you.”
“Why not? Isn’t being human out of character for a monster like you?” It was my turn to tease with a hint of truth.
Instead of responding, he flipped me over and spanked my ass with a very heavy hand. “Ouch! What did I do to deserve that?”
“You deserve that and so much more. I’m going to show you why. Then I’m going to teach you all the things that will make your body hum and your mind forget about the troubles everyone has caused you. Can you handle me giving you that education?”
