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Bailey shook her head as she threw the towel on the floor. “It’s in the past. Forget about it.”
“Who hit you, Avonleigh?”
She sighed. “My grandmother, okay. She wasn’t Mother Goose. She was the evil grandmother from hell. I left as soon as I could. It’s done and over with. I’m free now. That’s all that matters.”
I said nothing as Bailey climbed into bed next to me. The fact that she wasn’t fighting the sleeping arrangements tonight wasn’t lost on me. Any other time, she would balk until she got her way and was back in her own apartment, but not this time. The drama with Czar, her family and now the whores weighed heavily on her. I could see it clearly in her eyes. She was exhausted.
Instead of fighting with me like I expected her to, after the fight, she just walked upstairs to my bedroom and never came out. When I entered earlier, I heard her in the shower. She didn’t even chew my ass for being here when she walked out wrapped in a towel. Instead, she silently dried off and threw on one of my shirts.
This was not the ball-buster, hardheaded woman I knew and came to love.
Love?
The second the thought entered my head, I knew she was my forever. My perfect match and I loved her. For the first time in my life, I truly loved someone. What I felt for her was unlike anything I had felt before. So young, beautiful and headstrong, Avonleigh Rose Bailey was more than what she allowed the world to see. She was also kind, sweet, and scared. I knew when she walked into my life, she would disrupt everything. I just didn’t know she would also be the one to make it better. Turning off the light, I curled myself around her, pulling her close to me.
“My mom died when I was young. I never knew my dad. Mom tried. At least I think as much as she could. She was sad all the time. I would hear her crying in her room all the time. Grandmother didn’t help. Instead of getting mom the help she needed, she ignored her. I didn’t know mom turned to drugs to forget her pain. One day she was my mom, the next she was an empty shell. When she died, I smiled. I know it sounds strange, but I was happy for her. She wasn’t hurting anymore. Child Services said because I didn’t know my dad, I had to live with Grandmother. They knew she couldn’t take care of me. All she cared about was Ray. Her perfect baby boy. Even when Ray dumped Jamie on grandmother, she didn’t say shit because Ray wanted his son. Fuck. My grandmother is a bitch. I learned quick to stay the fuck out of her way. I never listened to her. I hated her. Then, she figured out how to bring me to heel.”
“Jamison.”
“Yeah. I love my cousin. The only member of my family that means something to me. She knew it too. So she would threaten to have Jamie taken away if I didn’t do what she wanted.”
“What did she want?”
“I was small for my age. Still am, I guess. Ray ran a small-time meth lab and was having trouble getting in and out of certain areas. The local authorities knew what he looked like and arrested him every chance they got. The money he made from making and selling meth was dwindling, so Ray got the fucking bright idea to have me deliver his products. According to him, no one would suspect a small girl. Only I refused. That shit killed my mom. I wanted nothing to do with it. I came home from school one day to find Ray and grandmother beating Jamie. They said they would stop if I did what I was told. So, I started moving meth in and around the county we lived in.”
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“I was in my teens when the police showed up at the trailer we lived in and took Jamie away. Apparently, he hit grandmother, and she called the cops on him. I knew better. Jamie wouldn’t hurt a fly. I learned later that it was Ray that hit her. Instead of turning in her fucked up son, she handed over Jamie to the state. I didn’t stay long after that. The night I turned eighteen, I left and never looked back.”
“Where did you go?”
“I traveled around for a while. With no money, not even an education, finding a job was hard. I met some people along the way and they took pity on me. I scrimped and saved every penny I made. Eventually, I made my way to California. I was down to my last five bucks when I walked into Dog’s Tattoo shop. He took one look at me and that was it.”
“Dog always had a bleeding heart for strays.”
“Only I wasn’t a stray.”
“What do you mean?”
“I knew Dog was my father, King. My mom had a picture of him. While she never admitted it, I knew he was my father. When I walked into that shop and realized it was him, I stayed to get to know him. He said nothing. I saw him looking at me a lot. I looked a lot like mom. I know he saw her in me. He just never said anything. I figured if he didn’t ask, it didn’t matter. He was good to me. Taught me everything. When he died, I cried. For the first time in my life, I cried. I had a dad for a short time and in those moments, he meant everything to me.”
“He knew you were his daughter, Bailey. He said so in the letter he sent us. He suspected right away. Even had a DNA test run to prove it. If he knew you existed, he would have come for you. That was just how Dog was.”
“I can’t, I won’t allow anyone to hurt me again. I’ve lost everything. All I have left is Jamison and I will kill anyone who dares hurt him. My grandmother wants him back because she knows I have money now. If she gets Jamie, she will use him to milk me for everything I have and more.”
“You haven’t lost everything, baby. You have me now, and I’m never letting you go.”
“You may believe that, King, but you can hurt me more than any of them.”
Sighing, I rolled onto my back. Looking at the ceiling, I knew she was right, but I refused to give her up. She was mine. I was a selfish, stubborn bastard. I knew that. I never gave up. Refused to. There was no King without Bailey anymore. “I love you Avonleigh Rose Bailey. I’ve never said that to a single woman. Not even the bitch I was married to for a short while. You are mine. Please don’t put me in a position where I have to show how heartless and selfish I can be, because you may never look at me the same way again.”
“Right back at ya,” she whispered, rolling towards me, snuggling deep into my side.
I lay there in the darkness, listening to her sleep as my mind raced with the need to make her world happy again. My woman never had a damn good thing happen to her. Even when she thought she had everything she wanted, fate took it away from her. Her mom, her cousin, her dad. I refused to let the world kill what light she had left in her. I knew of one thing I could do to ease the fear she felt.
I could dispose of her family.
To easy.
