My mind was so tangled up and preoccupied throughout the work day that by the end of it, I was just dragging my limp body around and accomplishing nothing. I should have called in. Uncle Joe wouldn’t have batted an eye after the countless overtime hours I’d spent here. Although that didn’t feel like an option when we would already be short-handed from losing Cooper. Regardless, I didn’t get much done with my throat throbbing, the wound ripping open each time my neck moved the slightest bit.
When I walked in that morning and made my way over to my lifts, Niko blew out a low whistle, maneuvering around his toolbox to get a closer look.
“What the hell happened to you?” he asked quietly, squinting his eyes to assess the damage.
Not in the mood to explain, I kept my tone dull. “Your girl beat my ass up. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it; bitch was on some other level last night,” I joked, turning away before he got a better look. When I took the bandage off the cut earlier at Luna’s, I physically gagged.
Although Cooper never made the move to slice my neck, he left a gaping gash from pressing the dull blade into my throat. The blunt pressure hurt more than if he had cut me and my lungs started to tighten at the thought of how close I had come to death and the screams that came from Luna’s mouth just as the police arrived.
Niko’s nose wrinkled in disgust as he examined the wound better. “Damn, man, whatever happened, you should get that thing checked out by someone. It looks nasty.” He backed away and started toward the car sitting on his lift.
“It’s just a flesh wound, no big deal. Did Harris show this morning for his truck?” I casually changed the subject, eager to put last night out of my mind.
He had better come for his truck after the prick insisted it be done that day, practically causing this whole chain of events to happen the way it did. A retired Reaper, Harris was a hard-ass who refused to believe his old hunk of metal should’ve been driven into a junk yard instead of the shop.
“Yeah, he did. I don’t know how you got that thing running. You must’ve worked some kind of voodoo magic on that shit. Harris was impressed. Told me to let you know he left something for you in the office as a token of his gratitude.”
Niko’s lips spread into a smile as he spoke. We both knew the old man probably just left a ten-dollar bill and some mints.
I nodded. “Well, he’d better not bring that piece of shit back. I’m not dealing with it again.”
Niko mumbled in agreement and went back to working in silence.
When the rest of the guys commented on my appearance, I just shrugged my shoulders and made jokes about it, throwing up a middle finger to anyone who tried to delve deeper. They’d all seen worse, so it wasn’t hard to get them off my back.
I purposely avoided Uncle Joe in the office, not ready to explain the real reason I was so fucked up. He would’ve run to Frank and demanded answers I was sure I could find on my own without doubting the truth behind them. I still wasn’t sure if Frank was behind Luna’s attack or not.
I should have at least ended my shift early after the night I had, but I didn’t even stop working to check my phone until around five, when everyone started packing their things up and getting ready to head home.
Hey, it’s Luna. Just making sure you’re still feeling okay.
The message came from the same number that called last night. My mouth twitched up in a smirk that only seemed to appear for her. Something made me gravitate toward her and my selfish ass wasn’t ready to fight it yet, even if it put her at risk.
I’m good, just a little sore. Did you tell your parents about last night?
I hit send and threw my truck into gear, heading home to finally take a shower. When Luna called last night, I had just gotten home, barely walking through the front door before I rushed back to her bakery. When I checked my phone at a stoplight, I had another message from her.
I told them what they needed to know. My mom is eternally grateful to you… talking about adoption. Adding you to her will and buying you a plot in the family cemetery as we speak. Run while you can.
Good.
I didn’t want her family to know what had happened to her, not anymore. They’d had almost a year to figure it out, spending each day in delusional bliss while their daughter suffered on their account. If the realization hadn’t occurred to them yet, then they didn’t deserve her pain, or the selflessness she was expressing to protect them from the demons that were banging on her door, threatening to knock it down and invade her headspace as they did with me all those years ago. Luna was close enough to the darkness to succumb to it and allow it in without restraint, just as I did. I knew she wouldn’t, though. There was too much light inside of her. It would never be snuffed out as quickly as mine was, and I reveled in that fact. I’d give my own life to make sure hers remained untouched and her parents would only get in the way of that now.
Nah, I think I’d like that. Tell Lynn I’ll be by to give her my information for adoption. How are you feeling?
I joked, typing out the quick response to ease her mind. I pulled the key from the ignition and walked inside the empty house. Mom’s job kept her on an opposite schedule from mine.
I’m okay. Busy with work. We need to get our story straight in case my mom asks you about last night. She's already sniffing around for more details.
Grunting to myself, I replied: Lunch tomorrow?
Lunch sounds good. ;)
I left it at that, allowing her to have the last word this time. I wanted to wait up for Mom, but as soon as my head hit my pillow, I drifted off to sleep, not waking until my alarm went off the next morning for work.
Losing Cooper set the shop behind, leaving everyone struggling to keep up with their usual work on top of making up for his. It gave me no time to see Luna at lunch. I wondered if she’d already locked herself away even more now that she was attacked a second time. Who was I to blame her, though? I’d locked my shit up years ago, crossing chains against the door and moving a boulder in front of it so no one could pry their way in.
Arriving home that night, I found Mom sitting in her usual spot on the couch, watching TV with a beer in her hand. When I entered the room, my presence barely registered to her. Her glossy eyes widened in alarm at the bruises on my face and the oozing slit on my neck. I held my hands up toward her in defense, and before she could say a word, I cut in.
“Don’t act like you don’t already know,” I accused.
“What the hell are you talking about? It looks like someone tried to kill you, Liam!”
Her already loud voice was booming through our small living room. She stood from her spot on the couch and staggered over to me, playing the part of the concerned mother to a tee. I knew better than that.
“Fuck off, Mom. I know you and Monti were behind this.”
I dodged her hands before she pressed them into my skin and made the pain that had wracked my body all day even worse. Any touch from her was unwelcome and I made that fact clear years ago. The realization of her indiscretions hit halfway through the day as I pried the rusty brakes off another classic car. Mom wasn’t happy about me getting out of the deal she wrangled me into and she was the only other person around to hear my conversation with Frank at the strip club.
Frank was too calculating to have run to Monti that quick, and Monti wouldn’t have just received a slap on the wrist for doing shady shit behind his dad’s back. He would have ended up in the hospital. Mom had to have tipped Monti off, although she would never admit it. Interfering with club business practically signed her death warrant—it was just a matter of when.
“What are you talking about?”
She pulled her hands away, giving up on touching me but still examined my neck with a disgusted look as she feigned innocence.
“Don’t fucking play dumb with me,” I ground out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Liam. You’ve lost your mind.”
She sat back in her broken-down chair, chugging the rest of the beer she was nursing with a slender brow arched up into her forehead. I walked over to the kitchen sink and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filling it up with tap water. She lasted a whole minute before speaking again, fanning the flames she was desperate to kick up.
“Why didn’t you listen to me? You fucked everything up with Frank and we’re all going to end up paying the price. You couldn’t even do this one thing without fucking it up for me.”
She was angry that I didn’t roll over and die the way she’d wanted me to, or at least allow Cooper to rip Luna to shreds, stealing away the only thing that seemed to matter to me more than she did anymore. I wanted to disappear down the stairs and shut her out, but I knew doing that would create a different kind of monster, one that wouldn’t let up until the itch was scratched. I’d engaged, and now she was ready for a fight. I contemplated if it was worth it to just stand there and take the lashing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mom.”
“You’re so stupid. Why would you want to get involved with some bitch who can’t even be honest with herself about her fucked-up life? You’re clearly just as messed up as her. I don’t know what I did wrong with you, but you’re so dumb.”
“Fuck off,” I found myself spitting out. I chose the fight. “You don’t even know what kind of shit you’re stirring up. I’m done being responsible for you and your bullshit.”
It had been years since I took part in these arguments with her. I learned at a young age that fighting back only made things worse, and the best thing I could do was keep my mouth shut while she got out whatever she needed to say. She wouldn’t remember the argument the next morning, but I always did, and I was usually filled with remorse when I thought back to the things I had said. It kept my conscious clear to just shut my mouth and take it.
Mom’s ears perked up at the tone of my argumentative voice, ready to throw fists in another one of our infamous fights. This was sport to her and until now, she had been running practice rounds without an opponent.
“No, I know exactly what I’m talking about,” she slurred again, getting back out of her chair and wobbling toward me in the kitchen. “You’re getting caught up with a girl who’s too damaged to give you what you want and you’re fucking over your own family to get to her.”
I felt my temperature rise as she got closer. In the past, her taunting arguments had conditioned me to remain calm in even the most stressful situations. She’s trained me to block any hits my opponents had attempted to throw my way as a means to distract me, unknowingly creating the perfect delinquent for a son. But Mom was a professional at testing my patience, knowing exactly how to get under my skin. I still hadn’t mastered fully blocking her out.
“You’re drunk. Talk to me when you sober up.”
I tried to brush her off, but my blood was still simmering under my skin. Anger tried to claw its way to the surface.
“Oh, fuck you, Liam. You know I would say the same thing to you if I was sober.”
With the help of a few walls, she made her way next to me and leaned against the island for support.
“She’s just a dumb little girl who’s using you to make herself feel better about being raped,” she spat the word out like it was poisonous, allowing it to linger in the air between us, hoping I would choke on it before continuing. “You mean nothing to her, and yet here you stand, disrespecting me because I said a few mean words about the dumb cunt.”
Venom filled my mouth while my mind raced with ways to respond and defend the girl I was falling for. This was too easy, though—she had too many weak spots for me to target, ending our fight prematurely. I wasn’t ready to drop my gloves just yet.
How the hell did she even know Luna was raped?
I realized that Mom was right, Luna was the reason I was even engaging in this argument, but there was no way I was going to let her spread her darkness onto the only light I’d found in my life.
“And what about you? Don’t act like you don't use asshole men and whatever pill you can get your hands on to get over your rape,” I spat the poison back at her and watched as it made its way under her skin, embedding itself there.
My tall frame towered over her, boxing her into the corner she’d backed into as I spoke. There was no doubt my facial expression was murderous, rendering her speechless. She wasn’t fighting the same man she did years ago, and she was realizing that her new opponent had more to lose than she did.
The sting of a slap to my cheek, then a punch to my nose immediately after was like gasoline being thrown onto a blazing fire. I felt the familiar warm liquid snake down my face and knew the fight had to be over before I did something I would regret. She may have gotten to me physically, but I got to her mentally.
“Don’t you ever talk to me like that again, Liam. I brought you into this world and believe me, nothing would please me more than to take you out of it… You've ruined my life. It’s my responsibility as your mother to protect the rest of the world from what a menace you are. Don’t forget, you still have his blood running through your veins. You’re no better than that piece of shit. The older you get, the more of him I see in you.”
I had no words for the stranger standing in front of me. We had never brought my asshole sperm donor into our fights and her comparing me to him only served to rile me up more. The burn from her hits kept me biting my tongue while I started down the stairs, blood pooling into my mouth from my nose and clouding my vision from the deep cut she left on my forehead. I wasn’t going to forgive her as easily for this one.
She screamed more insults toward me as I made my way down, closing and locking the door behind me in case she decided to come back for more. I headed for the bathroom and surveyed the damage in the mirror. The entire left side of my face was welted and red with the cut on my forehead spilling blood over my left eye down to my neck. My nose wasn’t broken, but it took over twenty minutes to get it to stop gushing.
Balling my hands into tight fists, I took inventory of my sparse room. If Mom was turning against me, I had to get out of there before she had me killed.