AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I scrubbed at my face and realized my hands were shaking. I knew her parents were terrible. I’d always known it. But I don’t think I’d ever acknowledged just how bad they’d been. They hadn’t just been shitty or strict or narrow-minded. They been controlling to the point of making their only child too afraid to make any of her own choices. The realization was like a sucker punch to the jaw.
“Once, when I’d talked about getting a job and getting my own place,” Emilia said, her voice barely audible in the quiet kitchen. “They started discussing how young I was to be a mother and ill-equipped to handle doing it on my own, and how much more preparedtheywere to raise Rhett.” Her eyes met mine and her breath hitched. “So, I never brought it up again.”
It took everything I had not to throw something. Hit something. Tear something apart. Thosemotherfuckers.
“Once they were gone, it took me a minute to get my feet under me,” she said with a shrug. “I was still so scared of making the wrong choice, even though they weren’t there to punish me for it.”
“Come here.”
“I didn’t know how to make my own decisions anymore,” she said, ignoring me. “And I didn’t want to just show up here, weak and useless, so that you could make my decisions for me.”
“Come here, Emilia.”
She shook her head just once. “So I got a job,” she said with a huff. “It was at a strip club.” She ignored my startled jerk. “I was just waitressing, but the tips were still good, and I could leave Rhett with the neighbor and he liked that. She was sweet and older, and they watched cartoons until he fell asleep. It was fun for him, and I could work, and it was okay. Sort of okay.” Her words just kept coming, faster and faster as she stared at nothing. “But then the manager started getting handsy and controlling, and I didn’t like it. At all. He finally cornered me in the back hallway and I kneed him in the balls and I never went back. He creeped me out so bad that I took what money I had and we completely left town.”
“Sugar,come here,” I snapped, finally getting her attention.
“Are you going to strangle me?” she asked with a breathless uncomfortable laugh, walking toward me.
Just the act of pulling her into my arms made the rage in my chest dull from a tsunami to a quiet roar.
“I was worried he’d follow us,” she said with an embarrassed huff. “So we took the long way here. Stupid, I know. But he seemed so much scarier in Arizona. He knew everyone, and I think he was into shit I didn’t ever see. I don’t know, people were afraid of him and I knew he was probably really pissed that I’d turned him down.”
“What’s his name?” I asked, running my fingers through her hair. A little trip to Arizona wouldn’t be a big deal. I could be there and back in a few days and I was sure Rumi would love to ride along.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said softly, her body relaxing into mine. “We’re here and he’s just another bad memory.”
“You want me to look into him?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, tipping her head back to look at me. Goddamn, she was beautiful. Even with her eyes red-rimmed and her face blotchy from crying, she was almost startling to look at she was so pretty.
“I mean, the club’s got resources and we can check to make sure he’s still doin’ his shit in Arizona and stays that way.”
The expression on her face was there and gone in an instant, but I still knew exactly what had gone through her mind. I tightened my arms around her.
“We’ve got contacts all over, sugar, but they got no idea how to find a middle class businessman that hasn’t even had a fuckin’ speedin’ ticket. You coulda been anywhere.” I brushed her hair away from her face. “But some douchebag that runs a strip club in Nowheresville, Arizona—I could find out plenty about that guy.”
“We lived in Mesa, not Nowheresville.”
“Same shit.”
Her little huff of laughter wiped away the last of my rage, leaving me the calmest I’d been since she’d shown up with Rhett.
“Sure,” she said with a sigh. “You can look into him.”
“Wasn’t askin’ permission,” I joked.
“You wouldn’t know who to look for if I didn’t tell you his name.”
“Can’t be that many strip clubs in Mesa.”
“You’d be surprised,” she shot back, smirking.
“I’m just glad you weren’t dancin’,” I said with a sigh, pulling her with me as I leaned back against the counter. “You’re bendy, but you have fuckin’ terrible rhythm.”
“That is unequivocally false,” she argued, her smile turning into a scowl. “I’m a great dancer.”
“Sure you are,” I replied, my lips twitching.
