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I bolt into a sitting position, sweat coating my skin as my chest heaves. The booming echoes around me, but I now realize it’s someone banging on the front door. My hands shake as I rub at my face, trying to wipe away the ick left behind from the dream turned nightmare.
“Wicked? Are you expecting someone?” Kai’s voice is sleepy as he sits up, stretching around me on the couch. I didn’t even realize he was there.
“No.” I move to stand, but he pushes me back down and leaps from the couch.
“What’s going on?” Nic’s voice sounds tired as he enters the living room and flashes of my dream shoot through my head, leaving an ache between my legs. That is until I remember the rivers of blood covering all of us.
Shudder.
“Wicked. Stay there,” Ezra orders and I hear the cocking of a gun as he charges to the front door. I don’t bother moving as the other two follow him. “It’s a…woman?”
“Mrs. Dixon already came this week,” I helpfully add, stepping into the hall.
As if they didn’t follow her around the entire time she did her job, like hawks waiting for a mouse to dart out. I really hope they didn’t scare her away. She’s the absolute best at what she does. I’d be lost without her.
“Bella! Hey, baby, it’s Mommy!” Dread slices through my body at the familiar voice, though it’s extremely slurred and off at the moment. I’m sure my skin has blanched pale white in a matter of seconds as my palms slicken with sweat.
“Don’t open it!” I hiss the words as I hear one of the locks click.
“Why? It’s your mother, right?” Nic sounds more confused than ever before. Yet, I can’t bring myself to concentrate on his aura as I start to hyperventilate when she pounds on the door again, her voice growing louder with every second.
“I hear you in there! Do you have a man in there?” She accentuates each word with another bang and a holler from down the street tells me she just woke one of my neighbors. I curse under my breath before straightening my spine, preparing for Armageddon in its walking, talking form.
“Open the door,” I command, and a few more locks click before it swings open, cutting off one of her bangs as she stumbles into whoever follows my directions.
“Woah!” A sharp smell hits me, mixed with alcohol and weed, and I crinkle my nose. I think she’s doing heroin again. “Baby girl! There you are! Why aren’t you answering my calls?”
“I haven’t gotten any calls, Mom.” I cross my arms over my chest, suddenly feeling vulnerable when I remember I’m only in a crop top and sleep shorts.
“Did you change your number again? I told you to stop doing that. A girl should never hide from her mother.” I want to tell her that she’s no mother to me, that if she were, I probably wouldn’t feel the need to block her from contacting me. But I don’t. I’d rather she just leave and disappear into the world and never look back. She only comes to me for one thing…and it isn’t for any sort of relationship.
“What do you want?” I cut to the chase, but she doesn’t answer, probably looking around and seeing our audience.
“Oh, what do we have here? I thought I heard a man’s voice. I didn’t expect to find three.” I hear the greasy flirtation in her voice as she takes them in. I cringe, stepping closer to her and crowding her to the exit until she’s forced to step out onto the porch.
“What do you want, Mom?” I feel the guys gather behind me, but I’m pretty sure it’s for my safety and not because they particularly want to witness this sort of crazy up close. At least that’s what their auras are telling me.
They don’t trust her.
Good. They shouldn’t.
“I can’t just come visit my daughter without having a reason?” Her attention isn’t on me, it’s on the guys behind me, and her frazzled aura pulses with lust.
“No, you can’t. We’ve been over this. So, how much do you need?” I keep my spine straight and my arms crossed over my chest, my nails biting into my palms at how tightly I’m fisting my hands.
“You’re not all with my piece of trash daughter, are you? I know she’s a whore, but you guys look like good stock. Is she paying you?” My mother’s words sting as she overlooks me to address the guys. They wisely ignore her antics, though flashes of anger flare up from behind me, clueing me into the fact that they aren’t totally unfazed by her actions.
Hang in there, guys. It’s only words.
“How. Much. Do. You. Need?” I enunciate each word, anger flaring up deep inside me, my teeth clenching.
Her attention turns to me as she chuckles dryly. “No need to get your overused panties in a bunch, sweetheart. They’ll be done with you soon enough, especially with how God awful your face is. That crash sure did bust you up, didn’t it?”
“Enough!” Nic bites out from behind me and I jump in place at the violence emanating from his tone. “Answer her question or leave. I will not let you talk to her like that. She’s yourdaughter.” His aura broadcasts that he’s confused at the thought that there’s such a thing as a mother who doesn’t love her child. That family is sacred and should be always cherished. The disrespect she’s showing me is eating away at him, one bite at a time.
Oh, if only he knew.
“Bella, baby.” My mother’s voice turns whiny and needy as she lays it on thick, barely reacting to Nic at all. It’s almost as if she never heard him in the first place. “I just…ran into some trouble. Just a little bit. Billy, he…took everything I had. Not a nice guy that Billy, but I warned Tina that he was trouble. I sure did, but she didn’t listen. She had him over the other night and they fought. Oh man, baby. It got so bad, I think he beat her unconscious. He came at me- Yeah! He came at me and he forced himself on me. I tried to fight him off. I did. But he was so strong. After he did it, he took everything. Cleaned out the entire place. I lost it all.”
