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I shook my head again and backed up. He turned his attention to Lori, “You answer me then damnit.” He growled, “You started this shit, now finish it.”
“He broke her ribs in the parking lot a couple of hours ago. Punched and kicked her with his fucking boot like a dog! Blamed her for setting him up last week when you boys showed up.” She held her head high as mine sagged in defeat. “He probably would have raped her right there if I hadn’t pulled up. Because you spit her name in some caveman act of dominance while you beat him up.” She huffed.
“He touched you?” Fox sneered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What good would it have done?” I implored, trying to get him to see reason.
He ran his teeth over his bottom lip and stared at me before tapping his fist on the bar top. “I told you when you were eighteen years old that nobody fucks with you on my watch.” He raised his eyebrows, and I could read his intent clear as day.
“And then you let me believe that you murdered my brother and went to jail on a life sentence.” I snapped back at him, ignoring the curious glares from his biker friends and Lori, “And in the process you abandoned me to figure life out on my own! You haven’t been around for five fucking years Fox; I’ve handled myself that whole time in ways you would never understand. You don’t get to just swoop in now all of a sudden and expect me to go back to the way things were.”
“No one touches you.” He hissed, leaning over the bar top. “Stay here. I’ll pick you up at closing.” He pointed his finger at me. “Don’t push me on this either, D. Stay the fuck here and I’ll take care of it.”
“Fox, just drop it,” I tried tiredly, “You’ll just make it worse.”
“No.” He shook his head, “Belden isn’t like it was back home, babe. There’s order to how shit gets done and handled. He fucked up.”
“He’s right.” Houston said, standing up and adjusting his cut. “Whether you’re Fox’s girl or not, no one is going to touch you because of something I ordered.” He nodded, “My apologies for your ribs; I’ll be making sure it’s taken care of.” He tapped his knuckles on the bar top, “Let’s ride boys.”
And with that he walked away with the group of bikers following him. Fox looked at me intensely one last time before nodding his head to me. “Stay here and I’ll pick you up.”
I watched in horror as he walked out the front door with the rest of the Black Eagle MC and turned to Lori, “What the fuck!” I snapped.
She shrugged her shoulders and collected their empty glasses, “I won’t apologize if it means you finally have someone to look after you.”
I didn’t respond, because it was irrelevant.
Because his anger and dedication to me cracked another piece of the ice box in my chest and I felt my heart take a beat for the first time in years. And then he walked out the front door with it firmly in his large hands.
I hated how it felt to stand there and hoped he returned with it.
Chapter 12 – Delilah
Past
“Youneedtoeat.”Fox whispered from next to me. “Just take a bite.”
“I can’t.” I pushed his hand away as he lifted the grilled cheese off the plate toward me. “I’ll throw it right back up.”
He clenched his jaw and put it back on the end table next to my bed. “I need you to try Delilah. You haven’t eaten a bite of food in two days.”
“I can’t.” I moaned, fighting to keep my eyes open. “Just hold me.”
“We have to get up, we have to go to the coroner’s office in an hour.” I stilled and panic filled my nerves. “Relax, I’ll be with you, the whole time.”
“I don’t want to see him like that, Fox.” I cried; with tears I thought had long dried up. “I don’t want to remember him that way.”
“I know, baby, but if you don’t do it, they’ll make Maddie.”
I shuddered as I imagined my baby sister walking into a cold morgue and having to identify our brother’s dead body because I was too weak to do it myself.
“No.” I sniffed and forced myself to sit up in my bed. I hadn’t gotten out of it for two days. Responsibility hung over my head, and I couldn’t ignore it. Not if it would negatively impact my baby sister. “Fine, let’s just get it over with.”
Fox slid his hands over my hair and looked at me with such tenderness, “Let’s get you in the shower and then we’ll go.”
He picked me up and carried me into the bathroom, gently undressed me and then himself and stood in the small shower with me, holding me up as the weight of the world tried to push me down.
“I love you, Delilah Faith Beckett.” He whispered as he shampooed my hair and rinsed it out. He whispered it continually as the steam and the scents mixed in my senses and blocked out everything else.
