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Cat
Cat saton the edge of the bed and wondered what the hell her brother was talking about. From the way he looked at her like he hated her, she knew that her mother and step-father were feeding him lies. How could her little brother believe them though? They used to be so close when they were just kids. Now, her brother was a stranger to her and there would be no fixing that. She could see that just by looking in his blue eyes. He had already written her off.
“Hey,” Repo said. “I did a few quick updates and changed my password. The security system is back up and running. If you’d rather stay at a hotel tonight, I’d understand. I just want you to feel safe, Cat.”
“I’ll feel safe as long as you’re with me, Repo,” she said. “Besides, if Liam wanted to hurt me, he would have already tried.” She turned the plain white envelope over in her hands, studying it. “I think he just wanted to deliver a message from my mother,” she whispered.
“You know, you don’t have to open it,” he said. Repo crossed the room to sit next to her on the bed. She could tell that he wasn’t quite sure what to do about her—as if he touched her, she might break.
“I know that but I’m also curious—it’s just my nature,” she said.
“It’s why I think you’ll be great on my security team, Cat. You have natural instincts about people. If it will give you closure, read it. But, I hate seeing you in so much pain, Honey,” he whispered. She leaned into his big body and sighed.
“I think I need to do this, Repo,” she murmured. “Will you stay with me while I read it?”
“Of course,” he assured. Cat pulled the crumpled piece of notebook paper from the crisp white envelope and studied it. It almost looked like someone had crumpled it up a few times to toss in the trash, only to change their mind, fetch it out and refold it. The pencil writing on the paper was faint but she could still make it out to be her mother’s handwriting.
Cat cleared her throat, “Cat,” she started. “I felt like I couldn’t peacefully go on from this world without saying a few words to you. We left so much unsaid and unresolved when you left.” Cat almost wanted to laugh at the irony of her mother’s words. She hadn’t just left on her own. Sure, she wasn’t about to stick around and let her step-father continue to sneak into her room and rape her but her mother had kicked her out. She told her that liars and sluts don’t get to live under her roof.
“You okay?” Repo asked. She looked down at the letter she was holding and realized that her hands were shaking.
“Yeah,” she lied. She felt anything but fine but she needed to get through reading the letter and then, she’d pick herself up, dust herself off and go on—just as she always had.
“While I can never condone the lies that you told about my husband,” Cat continued reading. “I can forgive you for them. I wish I had the chance to say these words to your face but you’ve refused all my requests to return home for one last visit. Liam and your step-father have both told me of your stubborn rejection of my trying to reach out to you. I’m sorry that you are still so hard-hearted but I’m at peace knowing that they and I did everything within our power to reach you. I wish you happiness but more than that, Cat, I hope you get the help you need to get past your lying, scheming ways. Mom.” Her voice cracked when she read the last word—no, “Love, Mom” or any kind sediments, just “Mom”.
“Fuck,” Repo swore.
“It’s fine,” Cat covered. She was always fine. It was who she was and honestly, she had no idea how to be anything but “fine”.
“It’s all right to not be, you know?” Repo said. He wrapped an arm around her, finally touching her and she leaned back against him, accepting the comfort he was offering her.
“I know that Repo but you have to remember I’ve been dealing with this for a long time now. My mother never believed that I was anything more than a scheming little liar. It was too much for her to think that her husband could do what he did. If she admitted that he raped me, she would have had to take some responsibility in all of it. It was probably easier for her to think I was the one at fault than to admit that she brought a man into our house who could do what he did to me. He took everything from me.” Cat sobbed and covered her mouth with her hand, not wanting to give in to the sadness and despair that she was feeling.
“It’s all right to fall, Cat. I’ll be right here to catch you,” Repo whispered. He pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms completely around her trembling body and for the first time in a damn long time she felt like she had found her home.
* * *
Two WeeksLater
Cat had met with her lawyer four times now and her big day in court was tomorrow. This time, Repo had agreed to drive back to Alabama and spend the night at his apartment. Plus, it gave them some time to spend at his club and that was something they both needed—a way to take their minds off her pending court case. Repo’s lawyer turned out to be a godsend. He was confident that she’d get off with just a slap on the wrist and maybe a fine but no jail time. That was her hope too but she didn’t want to jinx things by admitting it out loud.
She and Repo had spent the better part of the morning packing up his apartment. He planned on turning in his keys after her court appearance and she was just worried that he might be jumping the gun. If she ended up having to do time, would he just go back to Gatlinburg without her? Every time she brought up the possibility of having to go to prison, he’d get pissed off so she decided to keep her questions to herself.
Repo walked into the bedroom holding up her hot pink planner. “Found this on the coffee table,” he said, handing it to her. “You want to tell me why you keep a record of all your clients in a hot pink diary?”
“It’s not a diary,” she insisted. “It’s a planner and well, I’m old fashioned. Honestly, I couldn’t always afford cell phone service, and this way, I’d have all their contact information in one place. Plus, I could track my appointments and stuff.” She flipped through the pages and found the last entry she made. It was from almost eight weeks prior and she realized it was the same day she got arrested and met Repo. That was the last time she had met with a client. It was the day her entire life changed.
“We’ve known each other for eight weeks now,” she said. Outside of her shitty family and her relationship with her best friend, her time with Repo was the longest she had been with anyone.
“It’s officially the longest relationship I’ve ever had,” he admitted as if reading her thoughts. “How about you?”
Cat nodded, “Yep,” she said. Cat knew that she and Repo had bonded over both being broken and having a shitty childhood and that sucked. But, she was so thankful that she had someone else in her life who didn’t judge her because he knew what she had gone through since he had been through the same shit.
He looked at her planner over her shoulder and she didn’t feel like she needed to hide all the names of the men she had been with. Faceless, nobodies who meant nothing but a paycheck to her. She’d write just their first name and a contact phone number on the date of their appointment.
Repo pointed to her planner, “What does the ‘P’ in a circle mean?” he asked.
Cat giggled, “It means that I got my period that date. In my line of work, you can’t be too careful. I also was tested every six months to make sure I was clean. It was something that my clients liked—you know, knowing they wouldn’t catch anything from me. You were the first man I’ve ever let take me bareback,” she admitted.
