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Her mouth drops in an ‘o’ and she puts her phone in the basket before tucking herself into my side. Placing my hand at the small of her back, I lead her into Church, though I don’t miss how she’s trembling.
Once inside, I have to bite my cheek from smirking. Phoenix and Bear are standing on either side of Smoke with their hands resting on his shoulders. Smoke’s already sporting a bruise along his jaw, so they must have had to use force to get him to calm down. Either that, or it’s from my punch last night. His face turns thunderous when he sees Mae, but thankfully, he doesn’t say anything. Though, that could be because Bear’s hand visibly tightens on his shoulder. It also doesn’t escape my notice the Junction Creek guys are in here, too.
Sitting down, I pull Mae down to sit on my legs so that her back is to my chest. I could have had her sit next to me, but I have a feeling she’s going to need my support during this.
Thor bangs his hammer on the table.
“All right, before we get to the clusterfuck of this morning, Mae, why don’t you fill us in on what you found out and what led you to come here yesterday?” Thor asks and Mae nods.
She picks up her backpack and pulls out a bunch of notebooks, a folder, and some pictures before setting the bag back down on the ground.
Taking a look around, all of my brothers are pissed and shooting Smoke glares, though, Levi’s glare is the deadliest. Now I’m wondering what all was said and done this morning. After Church, maybe I can talk Lex into showing me the video feed.
Resting one hand on Sunshine’s hip and the other on her thigh, I give her hip a little squeeze of encouragement. I have a feeling she’ll be needing a lot of it.
Taking a deep breath, I nod at Thor and begin.
“For those that don’t know, my stepdad’s name is Preston Cole and my mom is Lillian Cole.” Pausing, I lick my lips and take another deep breath. God, I hope I can get through all of this without breaking down or fainting. I can feel the tension in the room, and while I’m sure it’s because of the state of the main room, everyone’s masking their anger.
For now, at least.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can feel Smoke’s hate-filled gaze boring into me. My gaze lands on Levi across the room, and she gives me a slight nod and a small smile. Keeping my focus on her, I continue.
“I had gotten home from a late shift at the grocery store two nights ago when I heard Preston and Mom yelling from outside the trailer. It was a little before midnight. Preston said something about when I’m eighteen, I would be gone and then they wouldn’t have to worry about things for a while.”
I pause, shuddering as the memories wash over me.
“The thing is though, a few years ago, I had to lie about my age to get out of a sticky situation. I said I was sixteen instead of nineteen, when his dealers tried to come after me for their drug ‘payment’ like they were already doing with Mom. Lying about my age was the only thing I could think of since I knew I wasn’t strong enough to fight them off. I’ve always looked a little young for my age but wasn’t sure if I looked that young anymore.
“Thankfully, the lie worked, and it saved me from sharing the same fate as Mom that night. Though it didn’t stop them from leering at me or trying to ‘accidentally’ bump into me or pushing past me in the hallway. At least they didn’t come around very often at the time.
“A bonus out of the lie about my age was that Preston remembered the next day and asked me how my classes were going. I fumbled awkwardly through his questions and then bolted afterward, saying I needed to get to school on time when, in reality, I was going to work.”
“Wait a minute. Preston actually believes you’re eighteen? Cause you sure as fuck don’t look eighteen, sweetheart,” Ryder says.
This has Timber growling at him and I squeeze his hand that’s on my thigh. I’m his. He doesn’t have to worry about me going anywhere. Not anymore. Not after what we just talked about at his house.
Nodding, I grimace. “Yeah, he’s not the brightest and most of the time, he’s either drunk or high. Or both, which makes it even worse. I still can’t believe he remembered my ‘age’ the next day, but I’ve been living up the lie ever since then. I spent almost all my time working so that I could get Mom out of there and into rehab. Before Preston came into our lives, the second time around, she was a fairly good mom.”
At this, Smoke snorts, but I ignore him. Taking a chance, I decide to describe what it was like before he came into our lives.
“A little backstory. I don’t know everything that happened that first time around, but Mom married Preston before I was born. A month or so after I was born, they got a divorce. Again, I don’t know the details about why they divorced, but I have my suspicions it’s because Preston cheated on her the whole time.
“Mom worked two jobs to make sure I had everything I needed. Clothes that fit, as much food as I wanted, the utilities stayed on, and our trailer was never cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. Not to mention I had everything I needed for school when the time came.
“Even though she worked a lot, she always made sure to take time out of her day to spend with me. She worked at Peggy’s diner most of the time as well as doing the paper route for Rixen, the town I lived in. Whenever I got out of school, I would get dropped off at the diner until Mom got off work. One of Mom’s friends was a teacher at the school I went to and since the diner was on the way to her house, she offered to drop me off at the diner whenever Mom was working. I’d do my homework, if I had any, or I’d hang out in Peggy’s office where they’d set up a TV for me.
“When Mom married Preston the second time around, things were okay for a while.”
I go on to explain everything he did to Mom since then. How he’d slowly start knocking her down until she became the shell of the person she once was. That he keeps her strung out on drugs to do whatever he wants her to. That he frequently uses her body in exchange for drugs, or as a toy for his associates that came around. How he has her to the point where the only times she’s able to fight back is when he doesn’t have enough drugs to keep her strung out.
Timber’s grip on my thigh and waist tightens, and I squeeze the hand on my thigh again, thankful that he’s here for me. It doesn’t escape my notice that the tension in the room has increased and there’s been a few times where I’ve noticed Smoke looking confused, but I don’t acknowledge noticing his reaction.
Running my finger along the spine of the journals, I continue. “Back to two nights ago. After getting into my room, I went to stash my tips. Years ago, I had pried the boards loose on the back wall of my closet. I’d learned the hard way that if I had any money in my room, or anything of value, that Preston would find it when I was gone and take it. When I was putting my tin of money back into the hole, my fingers brushed against Mom’s journals.” I pause, flipping open the most recent entry. “This is what started me down the rabbit hole of everything.”
Taking the scanner that Alexei set up, I scan the most recent entry and then bring it up so that everyone can read it on the big screen.
Preston’s gone too far this time. He owes his dealer a couple thousand dollars, and his dealer isn’t falling for his usual tricks to get out of paying. He won’t take anything but cash and Preston has until the 9th, which is next weekend, to square up what he owes.
