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Piper's eyes blazed with fury. They were narrowed, and her jaw was clenched. If she had something in her hand, I had no doubt she would have beat me with it right then and there. I understood her anger. I was angry with myself for falling into it in the first place.
But, she also needed to understand I had no choice. I was hoping for a little bit of understanding from her, from one caretaker to another. Just a little bit.
“Piper,” I said. “This was a temporary thing. Just until I could find a job. I needed to provide for the kids – ”
“By running drugs?”
“It was the only work I could find,” I said. “It was just something I needed to keep a roof over our heads for a little while until I could find a legitimate job.”
“Shane, you were almost shot out there,” she said. “You could have been killed. What would your brother and sister have done if you'd been killed?”
I shook my head. “I don't know,” I say. “Probably gone back into the system. But then, if I couldn't keep a roof over our heads, they would have gone back in anyway, so it's not like it would have made much of a difference.”
The sound of her flesh meeting mine rang in my ears a moment before I felt the physical, stinging sensation of the slap. I stared wide-eyed at her for a long moment, unable to believe she'd just smacked me.
“Believe it or not, asshole,” she hissed. “It would have made a big difference to a lot of us whether or not you got shot.”
I sighed. “I was really caught between a rock and a hard place,” I said. “I'm sorry, Piper.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Me too. Sorry as hell.”
Something in her voice made me look up. There was something in her words, a tone or inflection, that made me wonder what she was thinking in that moment.
“What do you mean?” I asked slowly, a feeling of dread descending down over me. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”
She let out a long breath and I saw her eyes shimmer with tears. “I do though,” she said. “I'm just sorry this isn’t going to work out.”
“What are you talking about, Piper?” I asked. “Please don’t throw everything away over one mistake.”
She shook her head and the tears started to roll down her cheeks.
“It’s a pretty big fucking mistake Shane. You know my ex is trying to take Olivia from me. You know there's a court date coming up. And you know my ex is looking for any reason, any excuse, real or not, to have me declared an unfit mother. I think hanging out with drug runners is probably a good reason, don't you?”
“Yeah, but I'm not – ”
“You are, Shane,” she roared. “You are running drugs. Plain and simple. I know you needed to provide for your siblings. I know you are doing everything you can to keep your family together. I know that. I admire the fact that you are willing to anything it takes to keep your family together, but not I have to do everything it takes to keep mine together.”
“It's not like I had many options, Piper,” I said. “The job offers weren't exactly pouring in.”
“Of course there are options,” she said. “You just need to look for them. Instead, you went the illegal route – the dangerous as hell route – for the easy payday.”
“Piper, I – ”
She held up her hand, shaking her head. “No,” she said. “I'm sorry, Shane. I can't have you around me or my daughter. Not with my ex trying to pull all of this shit in court. I can't do it. I won't risk my little girl for you or anybody.”
The tears were rolling down her face fast and furious, and my heart was in the process of shattering into a million little pieces. I wanted to pull her to me, to hold her tight and tell her that I would stop and that everything was going to be okay.
“I need you to go,” she said. “You can hide in the store room until the police are gone, but after that, you need to go.”
“Piper, wait. We can – ”
She narrowed her eyes, the rage burning even brighter. “No,” she said. “You made the best decision you could for you and your family. Now, I need to make the best decision I can for mine. Make sure the door is locked behind you when you leave.”
Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked back out into the front of the store –and straight out of my life, period.
CHAPTER NINE
PIPER
