“Fluffy missed me?” she murmured, drying tears with the back of her hand.
“He sure has, isn’t that right, Jessie?” Katarina straightened as Jessie neared. He raised his eyebrows high on his face, watching her expectantly. “Fluffy has missed Isabella.”
“Oh! All day!” Jessie added with a big flourish of his hands. He crouched, getting on Isabella’s level and whispering, “You should go give him a big hug and ask him to give you a tour of the engine he’s working on for momma’s car.”
“Vroom vroom tour?” Isabella’s eyes lit up as Jessie directed her to bay four, where Nik indeed, was lying on the ground under the engine she’d picked out from before. He agreed to fit it to the reaper, but that came with some adjustments. It was suspended by massive chains and hooks. Isabella squealed, running across the parking lot while chanting, “Fluffy! Vroom vroom tour! Fluffy!”
“What are you doing! She could get hurt!” Rupert lurched but stopped when Jessie rose to his full height. Katarina didn’t take her eyes off her kid until Nik crawled out from under the engine and sat up. He opened his arms begrudgingly for the tiny terror who bulldozed her way into his heart. However, even from halfway across the parking lot, Katarina could see Nik chuckle and walk her around the engine on his hip.Thankfully not under it.
“She’s perfectly safe here. Hi, you must be the Hurleys,” Jessie chuckled, oozing with his usual charm. Katarina twisted as he offered a hand to the pair of scowling pests in his parking lot. She relaxed having him at her side, where her child was far enough away, she couldn’t hear their cruel words. “My name’s Jessie Bonesaw, I own this shop. How can I be of assistance.”
“So, you’re the idiot she’s shacking up with, huh?” Petunia glared at Katarina sharply before returning her attention toJessie. “Has she not sucked you dry? You do realize she’s a married woman, don’t you?”
“Pardon me,” Jessie laughed, shaking his ears slightly as he shifted his stance. Hands to his hips, putting himself just an inch in front of Katarina, he spoke again. “I thought you just insulted my girl? Which couldn’t possibly be, because no one would be stupid enough to do that to my face.”
“Jessie,” Katarina sighed, putting a hand to his arm.
He snorted. “No, no, I don’t think I heard them right. They insinuated you weren’t divorced, which isn’t true. And that you are some sort of leech. Unlike the son of theirs who’s rotting in a dungeon cell right about now.”
Rupert Hurley stepped in front of his wife, jabbing a finger in Jessie’s chest. “You’re nothing but a scum of the earth mechanic, too stupid to get a real job! You have no right to talk about our Gill that way. He’s done nothing wrong to deserve the torment this trollop has put him through.”
Trollop!?! That’s a big word for you, Rupert.Katarina’s upper lip curled in a snarl, but Jessie spoke first.
“Oh, and so when Gill puts his hands on his wife in their front yard? In front of his kid? When he takes a bat to someone else’s property to the point it can’t be salvaged? When he’s gotten himself arrested by the Lord Commander himself, that’s not doing anything wrong?” Jessie cocked his head. “Cause, you see the way I see it? Your son has done a whole lotta wrong that I’m trying to right. So, you let Gill know, if he’s got a problem with how I’m treatingmygirl or helping take care ofourkid, then he can show up anytime he wants, Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 5pm. Otherwise, I’d like you both to please vacate the premises, as this is private property and I’m trespassing you both.”
Jessie hooked an arm through Katarina’s and led her away from the two trout mouthed individuals who just stammered after the pair of them. It took till Katarina glanced back at them from ten feet away that Petunia called out, “Katarina—”
“Getfucked, Petunia!” She tossed a middle finger up into the air to the delight of Jessie who chortled the whole way down to the shop. He stopped their walk at bay four, the pair watching Nik stick his arm into the engine for Isabella who shrieked in delight.Fluffy gone!Then he’d tug his arm back and she’d shriek louder,Fluffy back!It made the warmth come back to her stomach.
“Little Momma, you okay?” Jessie whispered in her ear, clearly watching to see if the Hurley’s left of their own volition. Katarina didn’t spare them another look, knowing it’d only make her angrier.Funny how people show their true selves after just a smidgen of pushback.She knew they didn’t like her, never had, never would. That didn’t surprise her. And even their disgusting comments about her being a succubus, she went to public school, she had a thick skin. None of that was original or surprising. But…to have them go so far? To say Gill was blameless?
“Why am I shocked they think he did no wrong,” she murmured, staring at Isabella sadly. “They raised the man who made me forget I had wings. The man who tormented me endlessly, and yet I’m the terrible trollop.”
Jessie let out a low whistle as the sound of a car peeling out of the parking lot echoed off the building around her. “Cause you want the world around that little girl over there to be so bright. See, me and you? Nik? We live in the world that’s already bitten us, already taken a chunk. We’ve taken our lumps and seen the worst, lived through it. But you want to spare her that cruelty, and you’ll do that as long as you can. Even if it means the world gets a couple more bites in you. What’s a broken bone here or there if Bella never has to know how mean the world is? Unlike them, however, I don’t think you’ll let it poison you.”
Katarina glanced at Jessie. He offered her a small smile. She inhaled sharply to clear the tears that threatened to well in her eyes. “Thank you for standing up for me.”
“Says the woman who literally went to bat for me with a tire iron—”
She squawked, putting up a finger, “That! Was vastly! Different! They came to beat me up to send you a message.”
“Point is,” he waggled a finger back at her, “is that you two are my girls. You’re family now, Katarina. No one fucks with my family.”
Katarina grimaced, rocking back on her heels. “About that…Gill’s apparently getting out tonight.”
“Let him,” Jessie shrugged, pulling out his phone from his overalls. “If he wants to play stupid games, let him win those prizes, Katarina. But, if it’ll put you at ease, I’ve got a guy who can sit on him. Give us updates on where he’s at and if he’s coming in hot.”
“You can?” She blinked.Where were you and this guy several years ago!
“Consider it done.” He leaned over, kissing her forehead. “Welp, since Bella’s home early, what do you say we all pull on our best clothes and go to dinner? Elliot’s treat.”
“Elliot’s buying?” Katarina eyed him suspiciously. “Does Elliotknowhe’s buying?”
“Not yet,” Jessie winked at her before striding into the bay, arms out. “Bella bug! How about pizza for dinner?”
“Pizza!” Isabella shrieked, causing Nik to stumble back a step and recalibrate. Katarina rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but smile. Jessie had a point—she’d let the whole world take her out if it meant Isabella existed in a world where she never knew half the suffering Katarina went through.
Chapter Twenty-eight:
