I heard the yelling from all the way out from the truck. I wanted to wait her out. Let her cool off, but trailer walls were thin as fuck. When I heard her scream something about money, I knew something bad was close to happening.
I pounded on the door but she didn’t answer. It wasn’t until I heard her say I hate you that I knew I needed to get in there and soon. When she ripped open the front door, the sight before me devastated me almost as much as it angered me. No one made my girl cry. And I still needed to know who left that fucking bruise on her chin.
When I saw the big, fat tears falling from her red rimmed eyes, I couldn’t not do anything. I needed to fix this however I needed to. But she wasn’t looking directly at me. It was like she was ashamed of her tears. That they made her weak. And hell if that didn’t piss me off even more.
“Evony? Tell me how to fix this?
When her gaze finally fell to mine, she asked, “When do we leave?”
I knew she was finally at her limit.
“Right the fuck now, baby. Go pack.”
She turned and hurried to her bedroom. Her mother got up, about to head that way when I hurried inside, grabbed her arm and pushed her back down on the couch with just enough force to send her reeling.
“Listen up, you fucking useless junkie. I don’t know what you did, but you hurt her for the last time. You ever go near her or try and find her, try contacting her, I will personally make sure your body is never found. Trust me when I say it’s not the first time I’ve killed for her. Your piece of shit husband learned that twelve years ago. You will stay here and never be a part of her life from this day forward. I can promise you that.”
“Figured why you left the same day he did. Best thing that ever happened.”
“You move from this seat, I will let her do whatever she wants to you before I take her from this shitty town. Is that clear, madam?”
Her eyes glittered, close enough to a roll before she sat back, defeated. I didn’t give a shit about this woman. She hurt my Evony for the last damn time.
“Good.”
I walked towards Evony’s room, seeing her shove things inside bags. This look of barely concealed rage and pain on her face. She stopped crying. I knew she was just skating the surface of probably a major breakdown. But this time, I was going to be there for her. I wouldn’t let her turn into this shell that she’s become over the past twelve years.
I let her do what she needed to do, even though I was dying to help her and hold her close to me.
She bent towards the closet, leaned in and was pulling things from her safe. She reached back and grabbed a small backpack, then resumed shoving things inside it. Then I heard clinking and she had paused in her packing, her concentration solely on one thing. Then she turned and looked at me with big, sad eyes.
“I’m surprised she didn’t pawn it.” She tucked it in a small compartment in the backpack, getting back up to put a few Knick knacks into her bags, trying to shove her whole room inside her few suitcases.
When she finished, she looked around her room, twenty-five years of memories. The bad, the worse and the ugly. Then her eyes landed back to the closet.
“What is it, Evony? What else do you need?”
She walked to the closet, bent, picked up a stack of envelopes bound with twine.
“Your letters. She gave them to me yesterday when I confronted her about the money you sent.”
“Toss them. I’m here now.”
“NO! They’re mine. I haven’t gotten to read them yet.”
She was so vehement on keeping them the way she had them tucked tightly against her chest. No way was I going to take that from her.
“Whatever you want, Evony.”
She nodded and looked around one more time.
“I’m done.”
I walked over and grabbed the three bags as she carried the small backpack. We walked back through the house and I was just outside the door when I heard Evony stop.
I turned and she was looking right at her mother, who had this ugly, hateful look on her face.
“All my life.” She sighed and then repeated, “All my life, all I ever wanted was to be loved. You showed that to me when I was a little girl. I don’t know what happened to make you hate me so much but just know, you’ll never have to see me again.”
“And who is going to help me out around here?”
“You’re a grown woman. You figure it out.”
Then Evony turned and followed me out to my truck.
“What about my car?”
“Would it really offend you if I said you don’t need it?”
“Kind of.”
“I can work with kind of. But if you want, since I’m going to have to call a moving service for the stuff from the trailer, I’ll have them also tow your car back to Kansas. Alright?”
She just nodded. The entire day weighing on her shoulders and it was practically dragging her to the ground. I was concerned about her jaw, which was not bruised when I saw her this morning. I wasn’t going to press the issue right now. I knew when her goose was cooked. And it was so damn well done it was charred.
“Grab what you need from it and let’s get out of here, honey.”
She opened the door and grabbed her insurance and papers, and little shit she stuffed into pockets before going to the trunk. From there she grabbed two duffel bags.
“What’s in the bags?”
“Shoes. And my shit from Gentleman’s Fancy.”
“Silly, girl. Come on. Let me help you up in the seat, baby.” She came to me and I tossed her bags in the back cab and helped her up into the front. Before I let her slide over I held onto her hips until she looked at me. “I’m not going to press you right now. I can see you’re well at your limit. But we will talk.”
“Maybe.”
“Sassy wench.”
“Asshole.”
“Keep talking sweet to me and I might just get cavities.”
“You are so mental.”
“Maybe so.”
She rolled her eyes and scooted over to the passenger side. But not before I saw a small smirk tilt on one side of her face. I walk around to the driver’s side and get belted in.
I start the engine before telling her, “I’m gonna grab my own things and check out from the hotel, okay?”
She just nodded as she buckled up and then leaned her forehead against the window. Before driving away I looked back and her mother was peeking through her curtains, a dark angry look of revenge on her face. It didn’t matter though, because like I said, I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her ever again. Her life in this God forsaken town was over. A new life awaited us back in Kansas. Together.
It didn’t take me long to check out and we made our way north.
Evony hadn’t spoken one word. Her head was downcast and I had almost thought she was asleep when she sighed deeply.
“What is it, Evony? You know you can always talk to me.”
“Can I? It’s been twelve years, Gavin. I just want—
She stopped, lost in thought and I’ve never seen her truly so lost.
“What do you want? What happened back there?”
“I was going to leave.”
My foot let off the gas pedal and I searched her face.
“What do you mean leave?”
“Well, you forced my hand, didn’t you? When you got me fired? As if I could be bought and sold like some chattel. Passing from one owner to the next. I’m a stripper, not some pass the fucking parcel. That’s beside the point. I got home, ready to pack it up and leave. I already packed a few things, and went to my safe to get the money I had saved up for the past nine years. Almost forty thousand dollars. I saved three-hundred-fifty dollars a month for nine years. Without fail. Last month when I put my savings into it, it was there. That…that—woman, got into my safe and stole the money I was saving so once I had the amount I wanted, I was going to leave and live someplace that was far away from Dayton.”
“How much were you wanting to save?”
“At least a hundred. And no it wouldn’t have taken me another nine years. I was planning on teaching more classes and working more.”
My hands gripped the wheel tighter and I had to clench my back teeth hard before I said something that was going to make me sound exactly how she thought I’d be. Some slave owner. I didn’t want her to be my slave. Hell, I wanted her exactly the way she was. Minus the stripping. It wasn’t who she was.
“I mean, that had been the plan. I was so close, Gavin.”
“Close to what, baby?”
“If you hadn’t knocked, I don’t know what I would’ve done. I was ready to go to her and finish what I had started years ago and this time I wouldn’t have stopped.”
“Well, now you get the chance. You do not have to ever go back there again. I know you think my promises aren’t worth a damn but baby, you can take that one to the bank. I have never stopped caring about you. Wondering what you were doing. Who you were doing it with. I thought since you hadn’t answered my questions, you were probably married and had kids.
“Ha. That’s a funny thought.”
“What? Married or kids?”
“Both. Gavin. Look. That’s not a part of my future.”
“What isn’t?”
“The whole marriage, kids, white picket fence thing. I never imagined it for me and somethings just can’t be fixed.”
“Yes, they can. Let me just try.”
“This isn’t going to change anything. Wherever you’re taking me, I need to find a job. A place.”
We were halfway to Dallas and the thought of her thinking she had to do any of that out of need just irritated me. Why wouldn’t she just let me take care of her like I want to do? Like I’ve always wanted to do.
“You do know you don’t need to do that, right? You’re going to live with me. If you want a job, that’s fine. But only if you want one. My house is big enough that if you just need to have your space, there are other rooms.”
“If?”
“That is if you don’t find my bed comfortable enough for you.”
“Think I’ll just slide right into your bed, do you? And don’t you work?”
“Yes. I go out on missions. Sometimes I’m not even in the country for months at a time. The longest time I’ve been gone recently was fourteen months. Depending on what the mission needs. Me and my team train and go out on selective missions these days.”
“Who deals with all your stuff?”
“I have a cleaning service take care of it and it’s close to base so I know it’s safe enough. I have the Army handle the bills until I come home.”
“Why even bother having a home if you’re barely even there?”
“Because it’s mine. My place where no one can come in if I don’t let them. I’ve had it for about six years.”
“You don’t ever rent it out?”
“No. I have things in my house that could be potentially dangerous if say a family were going to move in.”
“Like what kind of dangerous stuff?”
“I’ll have to show you when we get there.”
“What if the people don’t like me? I mean those two friends of yours are there, right? They know who I am, what I did. Stuff like that.”
“They wouldn’t spill your secrets. And I don’t care what anyone but me or you thinks so it’s really all a moot point anyway.”
“You’re so frustrating, you know that?”
“Yeah, Evony. I know. But you like it.”
“Not really.”
She yawned really loud and her haw popped.
“Here,” I reached over and unlocked her seat belt. “Come lay your head down.”
Her head jerked back and she looked at me as if I was bomb ready to detonate.
“Nothing like that. But if you’re wanting to sleep, my thigh is more comfy than that window glass. Trust me, you’re tired and I am definitely not going to take advantage of you. Yet. When we get back home, maybe. Probably. I’m hoping and wishing, baby.”
She rolled her eyes and leaned over the back seat, shuffling through one of her bags. She jerked something out and then laid it on my lap. I looked down and what the holy hell?
“Is that my—?
“Shut up.”
It was! It was the Army fleece blanket my father gave me right before he died. It had been that year I told him my wish to join the Army and become an Army Ranger. Just like him. There was nothing I wanted more. He was my hero, my idol. I wanted to be just like him. He was an amazing dad. I was never a momma’s boy. Even though she had tried making me into one. She hated the thought of me ever joining the Army. If she’d had her way, and shit hadn’t happened, she would have tried to persuade me to stay and go to college to do something that wasn’t so dangerous. Not that it would have mattered. I wanted to join no matter what.
Evony laid her head on my leg, and spread the blanket over her and over my lap.
Although I will admit, having her face so damn close to my dick made me hotter than hell. Her head close to my dick brought an uncomfortable tightness in my jeans, but I wasn’t going to say anything. She didn’t bring any pillows and most of her stuff was in the back seat so there wasn’t much room to sprawl out back there. She curled into me, shifting her braided hair behind her.
She tucked one hand under my thigh and cupped the top with her other before resting her head on it.
“Gavin?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Thank you.”
I reached down and brushed her bangs away from her face as her eyes drifted shut. A small moan escaped from her lips and her head tried nuzzling deeper into my leg.
“Always, Evony. You have nothing to worry about now. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”
Her eyes were already shut and her breathing was evening out, so I barely heard her whisper, “I don’t believe in promises anymore.”
I was going to show her just how wrong she was.