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"The fuck, Maddie?" Tyke's hard gaze moves back to me and stays, shifting across my shoulders, chest, and arms before settling on my extended leg. "You hurt much?”
"Not too bad.”
His nostrils flare, jaw steeled as he rolls his lips together. "What were you thinking, baby girl?" Both meaty paws hit the back of the sofa, his arms corded as he leans over the two of us.
It takes me a moment to realize he'd asked the question of me. Maddie seems equally as confused when she opens her mouth to answer, only to have her father raise his hand to shush her.
"Um." I glance to her for help, gut knotting tighter at the sheer frustration written in the hard set of her brow. "I don't know."
"Go pick the fuckin’ thing up and put it where I can't see it." Tyke's attention shifts to his daughter.
She nods tightly and slips off the seat to do as asked.
"I'm really sorry." I edge away from him; the simmering frustration, despite his calm and level words, puts life to Cassidy’s warning. "I can pay for the damage."
"No. You can't." His eyes close, and he takes two breaths. "If you want to learn, then I'll teach you myself. But not on that fuckin’ thing."
"Cassidy said it was too powerful," I murmur, tentatively testing his slight change in mood.
He shakes his head, tendrils of dark hair falling across his eyebrow. "Fucking thing is cursed. Just like her." He draws a deep breath, the rush of air into his lungs not brooking any room for further conversation. “You okay, though?” I’m caught off guard by his change in tone. By the genuine concern that he shows as he lowers himself to his elbows, bringing his face closer to mine.
“A little shaken, but mostly embarrassed.”
“Why?”
I search his gaze before answering. “Because I fucked up something that should be easy.”
“Ain’t anything easy about it.” He draws his bottom lip between his teeth, focus falling to where I cradle my scraped arm. “What’d Cassidy say?”
“That it’s all superficial.”
He grunts in acceptance, contemplating the room and the people in it. “You okay to walk?”
“Sure.”
"Good." he jerks his head, indicating I should follow. “Because we need to talk.”
25
TYKE
Not hurt much my ass.Rae limps across the room behind me, doing her damndest to hide the way her hip smarts. Each uneven step knots my muscles a little tighter, adds another brushstroke to the picture in my mind of my hands around my daughter's throat, Homer Simpson style. Fucking girl should have known better than to use Charlene's bike.
I should have known better than to leave it on site.
I fooled myself into thinking I could sell the damn thing for a profit, but in all reality, the fucking death trap needs crushing and incinerating.
"You know, I really don'tneedto learn," Rae pipes up behind me as we walk. "It wasn't my idea, and I'm a lot happier being in an actual car."
"You been on a bike much before today?” I glance over my shoulder.
She rolls a shoulder forward before answering. "Just the ride here." Her lips thin, teeth pinching the bottom one. She knows what I'm about to say next, I bet.
"Then how you know you like bein’ caged if you haven't truly ridden?"
Her gaze lifts, amusement shining in her eyes when they meet mine. I relish the little lopsided smile that graces her cherry lips. I haven't had the opportunity to know this woman long, but I can tell the girl don't smile nearly as much as she should.
"What is it you want to talk about?” Her gaze darts upward, drinking in my office as though it's all new despite it being at least the third time she's been in here.
