“Yeah,” she replied tentatively.
“I’m serious. If anyone hurts you, I will put them in the ground. Do you understand me?”
Willow turned back to me with wide, frightened eyes. “Look, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just want you to understand that you don’t have to worry about being hurt again.”
“Okay.”
As I brought the brush through her hair again, I sighed. “And I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to stop your mom from hurting you. I promise you it wouldn’t have happened if I’d been there.”
“It’s okay..”
“No, it really isn’t.” A ragged breath shuddered through my body. “You didn’t deserve that, and I should’ve been there.”
With an intuition that freaked me out, Willow asked, “Did someone hurt you when you were little?”
As I recalled the horrific memories of my past, my head began to swim, and the room seemed to close in on me. The last thing on earth I needed was for Willow to see me flake out. I was supposed to be strong for her.
Finally, I counted to ten and tried to collect my thoughts. “Deacon?” Willow prompted.
“Yeah, my old man used to beat the shit out of me after he beat my mom. Usually for no reason at all. My mom tried to get us away but…”
“What happened to your real mommy?”
“She was murdered, just like yours.”
“Was it Mean Man?” Willow asked in a whisper.
I shook my head. “No, it was my father.”
After relief momentarily flickered across her face that it hadn’t been the “Mean Man”, her tiny brows scrunched in confusion, as if she couldn’t imagine anything so horrible. “Yourdaddykilled your mommy?”
“Yeah, he did,” I replied, hating that my voice sounded choked with emotion.
“He must’ve been a real bad man.”
“Yeah, he was.” As I swept the brush through her hair again, I said, “Guess we’re a lot alike how we lost our mothers.”
A solemn look came over her face. “Yes, but I’m more sad for you.”
My brows shot up. “Why’s that?”
“Because you loved your daddy, and he hurt your mommy, which hurt you really bad. Even though I lost my mommy, I still have my daddy.” Glancing at me over her shoulder, she added, “And you would never hurt me.”
My hands froze in her hair as I tried to process her words. In spite of all my shit, Willow thought I was a good guy—a guy who would never hurt her. I sure as hell hoped I could live up to her expectations. It was a lot of fucking pressure.
“You’re right,” I croaked. Cuffing the back of her neck playfully to ease the mood, I asked, “Jesus, kid, you’re five going on fifteen.”
She shrugged. “Mrs. Martinez says I’m an old soul.”
The mention of someone from her former life made me think for a minute about how she had mentioned the “Mean Man”again. The shrink she saw twice a week had warned us not to grill Willow for any information about what she had witnessed. Especially now that she was speaking.
But at the end of the day, we needed more intel. “Willow, I really hate to ask you about this, but is there anything you can ell me about Mean Man?”
Willow immediately turned white as a sheet, and a tremor ran through her body. In a strangled voice, she replied, “No. I can’t…He’ll hurt me.”
Even though I wasn’t used to showing her a lot of affection, I pulled her into my arms. “No, baby, he won’t. Me, Uncle Rev and Bishop, and the rest of the Raiders won’t let him. He can’t get to you, I promise.”
My words seemed to ease Willow’s concerns a little because she stopped trembling. Taking her by the shoulders, I gently eased her back to where I could look into her eyes. “Maybe if we knew what he looked like, we could find him and put him in jail.”
