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He entered a room and kicked the door shut behind him. Was this his private space? His room? We headed to the bed in the far corner. He sat on it, bracing his back against the headboard, then secured me on his lap, his arms wrapped tightly around me.
“Hush now. Shh. I’ve got you.”
“You hate me!” I wailed at him, causing Sparkle to whine and scoot up farther, curling her body under my chin.
“No, Scooter, I don’t hate you. Be easier if I did, but no one could ever hate you.”
I sniffed. “My dad does.”
“He ain’t your dad, sweetheart. He’s just some asshole your mother married.”
“He’s the only father I’ve ever known.” I sounded so fucking lost and had no idea how to find my backbone and suck it the fuck up.
“He’s a fuckin’ abusive bastard who will be wiped off the face of the earth as soon as I’m able. Is this what you’ve been worried about? Why you’ve pushed against me so hard? Because you knew he’d be back soon?”
I let out a little sob I couldn’t quite contain. “H-he’ll bring h-hell d-down on th-this place.” My sobs increased again, racking my body. Even though I knew better, I couldn’t help myself. I clung to Walker like he was my one and only lifeline.
“He can try, baby. He’ll fail. No one comes after us in our home. This club has been fightin’ demons worse than him since nineteen forty-three. He’s not going to be the one to get the best of us.”
We sat like that for a long time. I cried. Sparkle whined. Walker rocked me slightly while trying to soothe me. When I’d finally settled down to the occasional sniffle, I was exhausted, but I had more questions than I could voice. Not the least of which was why he was here with me like this and why he wouldn’t let someone else take on the responsibility.
Finally, I looked up at him and met a piercing amber gaze. God, the man was gorgeous. His full beard was gray at the temples and chin with some salt mixed in with the darker whiskers on his cheeks. The strength in his arms reassured me even though it shouldn’t. What good was his strength to me if he didn’t want to use it to help me?
“You good now? For a little while?” He brushed a lock of hair from where it had fallen over my eye. When I nodded, he smiled softly. “Good. I’m sorry, Blossom. I’m a bastard, and you’re nothing but sweetness and light. Glitter and fucking rainbows. I don’t deserve you, but I can’t leave you alone.”
“I’m the one who stalked you, remember?”
“Yeah, Scooter. I remember. There’s a reason I tried to keep you at arm’s length. I’d love to tell you it was because I knew I wasn’t good enough for you or something, but the truth is I was protecting myself.”
I snorted, looking away. “As if I could ever hurt you.”
“Oh, you could, baby. You could rip my heart out and feed it to the fuckin’ crows if you decided to. Want to know why?”
“Does it matter?” I whispered the question, feeling the oppressive despair closing around me once again.
“It matters. I might have been some badass dog handler for the Army in another life, but I’ve got my own scars and past hurts that shaped the surly bastard I am today. You wanna hear about it?”
That caught me off guard. “You?”
“I mean, I know it’s hard to think of me as surly. I’m usually a ray of fucking sunshine. I’ll admit, though, I can be a grump from time to time.”
I snorted softly. “No! Really?”
He squeezed me harder. “Yeah. So, you want this story or not?”
Chapter Six
Walker
I couldn’t believe I was getting ready to do this, but I was going to bare my soul to Blossom. That included telling her about Rebecca. It was the only possible way to get her to understand what was going on inside my head.
“Do you know why I call the mother of those pups Dog?”
She shrugged. “Only what you said before. So you didn’t form an attachment with her. Probably so you could convince yourself you didn’t care enough about her to name her.”
I gave her a small smile. “No. If only that were the case.” I scrubbed a hand over my face before continuing. Once I’d settled her closer to me with my arms securely around her, I took a deep breath and began.
“I was a dog handler when I was in the service. We went out with dogs who helped us find the explosives for the ordnance disposal team to disarm. Worked with several really good dogs in my time. None of them were as good as my girl Cherry, though. She was the same breed as Dog. Looked remarkably like her too. She wasn’t the most common breed used to find explosives, but Cherry had a knack for it.”
