“Lola, we need to talk.” I turn around quickly. I hate that voice. My mother. When she’s around trouble is bound to be close behind.
“I can’t talk right now. I’m working.”
“Working,” she scoffs. “Why do you need to work? Word around town is that you’ve managed to capture Ryker Stone’s attention. Was it all a lie?”
“I… That’s none of your business, really, Mother,” I tell her, not liking the idea of my mom spending any time whatsoever thinking about my relationship with Ryker. There are people in this world that are just toxic and my mother is definitely one of those. I don’t want her near anything that Ryker and I share.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t see her hand coming toward me. I cry out when it connects with the side of my face, the burning sting of pain following the hit swiftly.
“You don’t talk to me like that! I am your mother!” she cries out.
“You touch my woman again, and the only thing you will be is planted in the ground for the worms to devour,” Ryker growls out, his voice colder than anything I’ve ever heard. It chills me and I know without a shadow of a doubt he would never hurt me. “Lola, come here,” he orders and I walk to him, still holding my cheek. He pulls my hand down to inspect my face. I can’t know what he sees, but I feel the glowing heat from the hit still, and I can tell from the anger vibrating through him, and showing on his stern face, that it’s not good. “Slim!” he yells out, his gaze never leaving mine.
“Yeah, Ryker?” my boss answers.
“What the fuck are you doing here? You can’t protect my woman one night? First she almost gets gang-raped out back last week and now this. Where the fuck are your bouncers?”
“Man, they’ve been watching for other men, but well… Shit, man, it’s her mom.”
“That woman is nothing but a piece of trash to take out,” Ryker growls and I don’t disagree with him. She’s never been a mother. I actually have to wonder why she showed up here.
I shouldn’t have worried, though. She makes the reason abundantly clear with her next screeching statement.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Calling me trash like that! I’m her mother! I fed and clothed the ungrateful piece of shit year after year! She owes me!” she hisses and my eyes go big. I started work at sixteen and even before that I mostly ate at one of the neighbors’ trailers in the park we lived at. My mother never gave a shit about me.
“What exactly do you think—” I start to respond, but Ryker doesn’t let me. He crosses in front of me protectively. My mouth shuts closed, because it’s apparent Ryker doesn’t want me dealing with her.
“What is it you want from her?” Ryker says, getting to the heart of the matter.
“I think this discussion is better had between me and Lola.”
“Lady, you are crazy if you think you are getting anywhere near my woman again. Now, my patience is wearing thin. I want to take my woman home, make sure she is okay and then get lost deep inside of her and go to sleep. You are keeping me from that. So spit out exactly why you crawled out from under your rock and let’s be done with it.”
“I would rather speak with Lola,” she argues stubbornly.
“And we’re done here,” Ryker says, turning away from her and back to me.
“I need money!”
“What the fuck?” Ryker mutters. He looks at me and, despite the still burning pain of my cheek, I know the color drains from my face. It’s one thing to know your mother is a bitch who could care less about you; it’s quite another to let the man you love see it. I want Ryker to see me as someone worthy of love—someone he could be proud of.
What if he thinks because she is my mother that I will end up being just like her?
“Ryker—” I start, but he doesn’t let me finish. For a second I’m scared this will cause him to leave me. Then he turns back around to my mother.
“I’m listening,” he snarls out.
“I need to get out of town. I’m going to California.”
“What does that have to do with Lola?”
“I need some money to get out of here.”
“How in the hell is that our problem?”
“It’s not yours! But Lola is my daughter and she owes me! She’s got a job and now you. Everyone in this godforsaken town knows you’re loaded. The least she can do is give me enough money to help me start over!”
“How exactly does she owe you?”
“She stole years of my life! She’s the reason Phillip left me!”
“Who the hell is Phillip?” Ryker barks.