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Breathing heavily, I gave it some consideration, but Barrick didn’t like my silence. He cupped my face in his hands, his eyes pleading. “Don’t go.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Yeah?” The wildness slowly started to fade.
I nodded. “Yes. I’ll stay. I…I don’t want to leave you any more than you want me to. I’m just trying to be smart about this. My mom would freak if she knew I was even thinking of moving in with a guy I just met.”
Which was an understatement, but I didn’t want to scare him off by how far Momma would go. She would have him fully investigated through the private security firm she’d used her entire career. Charles Seller would find every last piece of dirt on Barrick and
his family, and if Momma didn’t like it, she would use whatever she found to keep him out of my life.
And that would destroy me.
Which meant I couldn’t tell her about this. At least, not yet.
Chapter 12
Mia
The next few weeks, I was able to set a routine in all aspects of my new life. Classes got easier to deal with, especially with Barrick in my econ class and Braxton in my English.
Outside of school was fun. Whether we were going out to Jameson’s, dinner, the Underground—or my favorite, just staying home and watching TV together on the couch—I enjoyed every minute with Barrick, Braxton, and Lyla. Even though I’d been sleeping over with Barrick “indefinitely,” as we were calling this, Lyla and I were still close and met for lunch or got ready to go out together all the time. We were becoming closer than I could have hoped, and I didn’t know how I ever would have survived being away from my family without her to keep me steady.
It was even easier to fall into a routine at work. My littles made that so simple, and I fell in love with teaching them. It made me excited to start my own school later on. And while my adult class was my least favorite, I still enjoyed it.
“Great job, princesses,” I praised the girls as I went around helping some of them stretch correctly.
Stopping behind Josie, I frowned as I watched her. Normally, she was my top student, and I used her for examples to show the others who were struggling with the correct way to do something. Tonight, she seemed sluggish, like she didn’t feel well. She moved stiffly, like every muscle ached, and each time I looked her way, I thought I caught her fighting tears.
In the few weeks I’d been her teacher, I’d noticed that when Howler dropped her off, she was all smiles and bounced around like she had all the energy in the world. But the one other time her mother had dropped her off, she’d seemed sad, and I’d felt uneasy when Gwen had picked her up.
There was a look in Josie’s eyes that night that had left me feeling so unsettled, I’d called my own mom.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” Momma had asked as soon as she’d heard my voice.
“Momma…” I started, then hesitated. She’d never kept it a secret from Jagger or me that she’d been abused when she was a little girl. Her mother had been a drug addict who eventually overdosed, and Momma had become Uncle Jesse’s ward. But before that life-changing event, she had suffered unimaginable things that made me cry every time I thought about it.
“Mia, is everything okay?” she’d demanded, sounding out of sorts. “You’re worrying me.”
“How can you tell when someone is being abused?” I finally asked.
There was a long pause on her end as I stood inside the dance studio, waiting on Barrick to pick me up. I could have easily walked it, but he’d thrown a big stink when I’d tried to the first time, and I’d given in, letting him drive me to and from…well, everywhere.
“I’ll ask you again, Mia Nicole. What is wrong?”
Sighing, I told her about my gut reaction to Josie and Gwen, and she’d gone silent all over again. Then she listed off all the signs I should watch for, which I’d done the following week. But Howler had been the one to bring and then pick up his daughter that night, and I hadn’t seen anything that even suggested something was wrong with Josie.
Josie started to stretch her arm over her head, and I stood there watching. When she lifted her hand, I gasped and dropped to my knees beside her. When I gently grasped her wrist, she tried to lower it quickly, her face turning white as a ghost, but I refused to let her hide what I’d just seen.
Bruises under her arm near her armpit. Finger-sized bruises that looked fresh and painful.
Because of my gasp, the other littles stopped what they were doing to watch us, and pink filled Josie’s cheeks. Not wanting to embarrass her, I stood and clasped her hand in mine, giving her and then the others a bright smile. “All right, little princesses. Josie and I are going to step outside for a moment. Keep stretching.”
Keeping my smile in place, I opened the door and stepped through with Josie at my side. Thankfully, the door was glass, so I could watch the others while I spoke privately with her.
“I-I fell down at the park today,” Josie quickly supplied before I could even ask her what had happened.
“Sweetheart, I can tell the difference between bruises caused by a fall and those from someone who hurt you on purpose.” Crouching down so I was at her height killed my knee, but I needed to be on her level. “And I think maybe these on your arm aren’t the only ones. Where else do you hurt, Josie?”
