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I was frozento the spot, my limbs hanging limp and useless, like they were encased in cement. As I stared at the living nightmare standing in front of me, it was as if my brain had short-circuited. This didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t be here right now. He was supposed to be locked up a thousand miles away.
“What—what are—you can’t—how? How are you here?”
Boyd Jackson lookedrough. He might not have been in prison like I’d suspected, but from the looks of him, time and freedom certainly weren’t doing him any favors. He propped his hands on his hips, pulling the opened front of his jacket wide enough that I could see the gun he had tucked into the waistband of his jeans. Icy fear reached into my chest and gripped my heart as he took slow, measured steps toward me. That spurred me into action, and for every step forward he took, I took one back.
“You mean, how am I here after my own daughter, my flesh and blood, put me behind fuckin’ bars for all these years?” he barked, the snap of his words taking me right back to when I’d been younger, causing me to flinch. God, I hated that he still had such a hold on me. I hated that he saw my weakness.
Just then, a voice I’d forgotten all about spoke up, and the panic I felt at the sound of it was for a whole new reason.
“Excuseme, sir, but we were in the middle of a conversation. If you have an issue to discuss with her, you’ll have to wait your turn, because I was here first.”
Oh shit.
“Ms. Gates, why don’t you—”
Boyd sneered at the woman. “Bitch, who the fuck are you?”
I watched in awe as the woman hiked her chin higher, staring down her nose at my father, and narrowed her eyes viciously. There wasn’t a hint of fear in her eyes. She wasn’t cowering or shrinking away like my mother always did when faced with this man’s wrath. She crossed her arms over her chest and demanded, “I’m a lady who doesn’t appreciate such vulgar, unsophisticated language. Who are you?”
I choked on my own tongue. I wanted to applaud her, but I was also worried for her wellbeing. I knew this man. I knew what he was capable of, and he couldn’t stand having a woman talk down to him. I couldn’t let him take his anger out on her. I needed to get her as far away from him as possible. “Ms. Gates, please. Why don’t we continue this conversation another time, huh? I think you should leave. You know, before the weather outside gets any worse.”
I could only hope that she was able to read the meaning behind what I was saying. I could deal with his wrath, but I didn’t want him bringing it down on her.
“Yeah, you mouthy bitch. Do what my daughter says and get the hell outta here before you really piss me off.”
Ms. Gates acted as though Boyd hadn’t said a word as she addressed me. “I absolutely willnot. You’ve given your word you’d let me say my piece, and I intend to be heard. I won’t let you weasel your way out of the promise you made.”
What the hell was going on?
Her gaze remained rooted to mine, holding it captive, and I could have sworn I saw something in her eyes, something she was trying to communicate to me. The severeness in her features softened ever so slightly. I finally understood when she darted a quick look in his direction, specifically, to the gun still tucked into the front of his jeans, before returning to me.
Was she...? Oh god, this couldn’t be happening. Somehow, she’d read my father clear as day, and she was refusing to leave to... protect me, somehow. As misguided and plain stupid as that was, I couldn’t help but appreciate what she was doing.
“Ms. Gates,please,” I whispered urgently, but it was too late.
Boyd let out a growl. “Enough of this bullshit.” He grabbed the gun and pointed it at both of us. “Get your asses in there and sit down. The both of you. It’s long past time me and my ungrateful daughter have a talk.”
Just then, the sound of my cellphone ringing came from the front desk where I’d left it earlier.
“Don’t even think about it,” he snarked when I looked in that direction, jabbing the barrel of the gun into my ribs hard enough that it knocked the wind out of me and caused me to cry out in pain. I was going to have a bruise tomorrow for sure.
“Hey!” Ms. Gates shouted at him as she caught my hunched frame, draping her arms around me and placing her hands on my shoulders. “You keep your hands off her, you hear me?”
As my phone continued to ring and ring, I clutched my side and looked up at this woman who’d just defended me. Until that very moment, I’d considered her a nemesis, my very own archenemy. Only, she’d just defended me in a way my own mother never had, not one single time.
“Shut the fuck up and sit down, both of you!” he barked, baring his teeth like a wild animal.
Ms. Gates helped me lower onto the floor in the middle of the library, propping my back against the side of one of the bookshelves.
Boyd nodded once we were settled, grabbing a chair and pulling it over so he could sit in front of us. “That’s good. About time you started listenin’.” He stuffed the gun back into his pants.
My own anger was starting to rise, setting my blood to a simmer. “Why are you here?” I demanded to know. “Howare you here?”
His smile was a vicious sneer. “When prisons are overcrowded, they tend to let the ones they think aren’t serious threats out first,” he explained as he shifted in the chair, reaching back to remove a flask from his back pocket. He continued to speak as he unscrewed the top. “Compared to the murderers and rapists and perverts, I was a little lamb.” He chuckled to himself then took a pull from the flask.
I should have known not even prison would be enough to dry him out.
“As for the why,” he shot me a murderous gaze. “You know damn good and well why.”
