It was hard to walk away and leave Skylar sitting there in the grass and dirt, but I knew I couldn’t leave here, or let this young mother walk away from here, without speaking to her. I knew she was only young. I could tell the second I pulled her out of the car she was still a teen.
Skylar hadn’t been able to get the car seat unclipped because it was so fucking old, it probably had food or something jammed up inside it from the previous owner. The car she was driving was barely roadworthy, the tires bald, and there were patches of rust everywhere. The girl had fallen asleep behind the wheel because she was trying to be a parent all by her goddamn self.
It didn’t sit right with me to just walk away from here and do nothing.
It could have something to do with the baby that had been curled into me for the last fucking hour or so, snuggling against my cut and sleeping soundly as the world around her was crazy with voices and sirens. Her soft features and peaceful demeanor had me all wrapped around her tiny little finger.
The EMT climbed out of the ambulance, and the officer nodded for me to go in. “Five minutes, then we need to get going,” she told me.
I nodded. “No problem.”
Ducking my head, I climbed inside the tiny space and shuffled sideways until I was right up beside the young girl’s head. She turned to look at me, tears already streaking down the side of her face and onto the pillow. Her body was strapped to the gurney so she couldn’t turn much, just enough to look at me.
“Got your girl here,” I told her, turning my body so she could see the baby in my arms. “You want her?”
She nodded and widened her arm from her body on the wall side of the ambulance. I leaned over and placed the sleeping child in the crook of her arm.
“My name’s Eagle,” I told her as I sat back down.
“I’m Megan, and that’s Cleo,” Megan said with a sniffle. “I’m so sorry. I can’t… I can’t believe I was so stupid. I usually don’t drive if I’m tired, but I—”
“Woah there,” I said, cutting her off. “I ain’t mad. I’m just glad we got you out of there.”
She looked down at the sweet girl in her arms. “Thank y-you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Thank you so much.”
“Tell me one thing, Megan?” I asked, my voice severe and sharp. Her body went dead still, and she turned her head my way, meeting my dark gaze. At first, I’d thought maybe I’d offer to help her find her feet, maybe give her some money to purchase a good quality car seat. But as I’d climbed in here, I’d seen the bruising that I knew was at least a few days old, around her arms and on her chest.
“You got a man somewhere laying a hand on you?” I asked, no fucking around or beating around the bush.
There was no horrified gasp or resounding objection that most women would give when faced with such a ridiculous scenario. I’d seen club girls like Skylar asked it over and over again by cops and members of the public thinking they were doing their duty. What they didn’t know was that our girls were probably the safest women in the state.
“Not anymore,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed. “I left this morning. We’ve been driving for hours, only stopping to feed Cleo.”
“Where you heading?”
She swallowed harshly. “I-I don’t know,” she answered shakily, then looked down at Cleo and her face hardened, her arm tightening around her daughter. “Anywhere but back there.”
I sighed. She was so fucking young, and she had nowhere to go. Plus, she had this beautiful little girl who was so new and so untainted. Megan was trying her best to keep her that way.
I fished my wallet out of my back pocket and pulled out a couple fifties. At first, her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No, I can’t, really,” she protested. I ignored her and tucked them securely into the front pocket of her jeans.
“Your car is by definition… completely fucked,” I told her, ignoring her objections. “You get out of the hospital, you take a bus to Athens, Alabama. You go to the Sunshine Cottage Inn and tell them your name, I’ll let them know who you are and to expect you.”
“Really, I-I…” she stammered, tears streaking her cheeks.
“Listen,” I said softly, and she took a deep breath. “I’m offering an option. Me and Sky, we’ve gotta go away for a few days. You do this, I’ll make sure someone looks after you and watches out for you until we get back. Then we can talk.”
She sobbed quietly, and I knew she was going to accept my offer.
“At least you’ll have a few days of rest, a few days to just relax and enjoy your daughter. Then after we talk, if you still wanna go and run off into the sunset, you can just go.”
I’d call the owner of the private and secluded women’s home and pay for the room until we got back. I wasn’t about to let some teenage girl and her newborn be chased across the country by who knows what kind of piece of shit scum. The Inn wasn’t known by many. They kept what they did on the down low and had great staff and nurses on hand to help women find their feet. The only reason I knew about the place was because they had approached the club before, when they felt like there was a threat and needed on-site guards to keep their occupants’ safe. Normally they would ask the police, but unfortunately a lot of women in these situations, at some point, had tried to approach the police for help and nothing had been done.
I looked down at Cleo who was sleeping peacefully in her arms.
She was a child raising a child.
On her own.