AllFreeNovel
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“A man came one day, in this really nice car, dressed in a really nice suit, took one look at us, and told us on the spot we were coming home with him.” I laugh bitterly. “We couldn’t believe it. Finn and I joked we were like Little Orphan Annie and her brother, and Daddy Warbucks was finally here to sweep us off to the good life. He filed the paperworkthat day, and two weeks later, were looking up in awe at the front door of his huge fucking house. Three cars, a pool, the whole bit.”
Tears start to roll down my cheeks.
“We thought we’d won the lottery. And for about a month, that’s what it felt like.”
I look away.
“Then we realized we were in Hell.”
Cillian’s jaw clenches, his eyes glinting in the glow of his cigarette.
“He…” I start to cry harder. Cillian stands abruptly, stubbing out his smoke and crossing to the bed, dropping to his knees. He takes my hands in his, gripping tightly as I stare blankly at the wall.
“He’d pick one of us and tell us his back hurt. That he needed us to help himfeel better,” I spit venomously, bile rising in my throat.
“On your knees, yes, just like that.”
The ring flashes on his finger. That FUCKING ring—a cheap knockoff Superbowl Championship ring from when the Denver Broncos won.
A ring that leaves marks when he backhands if you’re not fast enough to get to your knees.
A ring that sometimes catches in your hair when he grabs it.
“You and your brother are so good to me, aren’t you? Now, open wide…”
Cillian’s grip on my hands tightens so hard it hurts. But it also grounds me. It keeps me from falling over the edge into the void.
“He never…” I look away, blinking back the pain, the shame I know in my heart I didn’t deserve, the tears. “Finn took it most of the time. He was like that. He always shielded me from predators. It was the same later when we were teenagers on the streets in LA. And those streets werefilledwith monsters.”
Finn nods to the Lexus waiting at the end of the alley. “It’s fine, Una. I’ll be back in no time.”
My nails dig into his forearm, my eyes pleading.
“Please, don’t do this—”
“It’s fine. Really. Hey,” he shrugs, shooting me that grin of his I love so much. “We gotta eat, right?”
“Then let me go this time—”
The smile evaporates from his face. “Not fucking happening.”
“Finn, you can’t—”
“No, YOU can’t,” he growls. “I’ve got this, Lunatic.”
He stands, pulls a flask of cheap vodka out of his back pocket, and takes a swig. Then a second, and a third, his eyes fading into that faraway look they get whenever he does this.
When he faces the monsters and the predators for the both of us so I don’t have to. When he gets into strange cars with strange, horrible men, and comes back twenty minutes or an hour later with money, and food, sometimes drugs.
Smiling, even though his eyes are dim.
“Finn!”
“I’ve got you, Una.” He turns and grins at me as he walks to the car. “I’ve always got you.”
I start to shake as the tears flow hot down my cheeks.
“That was always the pretext. That he wanted a back rub, alone with one of us. Except it was never just a—”
