“A city is the loneliest place in the world,” Tally told him, picking up her burger and biting down.
Yeah, but he liked that. He liked the anonymity of a busy place. He could sleep with a woman and not have it be all over town like a rash by the next morning. He liked not having sly glances sent his way from the men of Mercy, not reading asinine comments about him, Flick, or a combination thereof on that stupid online forum, He wasn't a fan of being given the stink-eye from the older generation for seducing, and thereby corrupting, their beloved Flick.
But he really did like sleeping with Flick. Pity that he wasn’t going to be doing any more of that in the near future.
You’re losing focus again, Manning, not something that you normally do. Right now you need to focus on Jane’s daughter.The easy option would be to pay for her meal, maybe her motel bill, and send her on her way. He could do that, he didn’t have to agree to fulfill Jane’s dying request. But there was something immensely powerful in a last request, something that went far beyond a run-of-the-mill favor. It had to do with trust and acceptance and belief…it was a benediction, a belief. It wasn’t something, it shouldn’t be something, that could be easily ignored or shrugged off.
Jane had trusted him with her beloved child, he couldn’t dismiss that and walk away. He’d been eight and his mother hadn’t given a shit for anything but her next high. Even though Tally was, technically, an adult, Jane had wanted someone to be there for her and Jane had selected him. That was faith and belief and trust.
All because he’d helped her out of a situation so long ago.
“Why don’t you consider hanging around Mercy for a while?’ he chose his words carefully, thinking that if he told her what to do she’d deliberately do the opposite. Because that’s what he would’ve done at eighteen….
“Why should I?” Tally asked, belligerent. Yep, exactly how he’d been. All bravado and no common sense.
“Because rent is cheap, and we could probably find you a job here until you decide what you want to do or until you’ve saved some money.”
Kai watched as she polished off her burger, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why are you doing this?” she demanded. “Why aren’t you saying “nice to meet you” and moving on?”
Kai looked her in the eye. “Because I was eighteen once and full of shit, convinced that I needed nobody. That I was an adult and I could handle the big bad world on my own.”
“You look like you did okay.”
By the time he was eighteen he’d had a decade’s worth of practice at being emotionally self-reliant. It was hard and tough and he didn’t want that for her. It was a bitch of a road to navigate alone. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone. “Pride and self-reliance can make you cold and heartless, emotionally bankrupt.”
“Is that what you are? Emotionally bankrupt?”
Ouch.
Tally’s pointed question was spear sharp. The sadness, and speculation, in her eyes stopped him from giving a flippant answer. He intuitively knew that she, like him at that age— like him atanyage— preferred to be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie. “Possibly. It’s a hard way to live, Tally, and I don’t recommend it. Pride and loneliness make for crappy bedfellows.”
Tally leaned back and folded her arms across her narrow chest. At that moment, beneath the mascara and the lipstick and the eyeliner, she looked about fourteen and so damn scared it rocked him. “And you think that I should stay here? In Mercy?”
“It’s an idea,” Kai replied. “Just until you get back on your feet, until the ground stabilizes beneath you a bit.”
Just call him Dr. Phil.
“And you won’t try to boss me about? Tell me what to do?”
“I might,” Kai replied, intent on being honest. “We’ll argue but, as you stated, you don’t have to listen to a thing I say. You can always say no.”
Tally looked out of the window and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “And you won’t, you know, like demand a key to my apartment or anything like that?”
Fuck.Underneath the table, Kai banged his tightly clenched fist on his thigh. “No,” he said, convinced that enamel was flying off his teeth because he was grinding them so hard. If he got his hands on the person who put fear into her eyes, he’d rip his throat out. “You’ll be under my protection, Tally, just like your mother was. Besides, you’re about half my age, and I’m not interested in teenagers.”
Tally’s shoulder slumped in relief. Oh yeah, something bad had happened. He chose his next words carefully. “I was an ex-Seal, Tally, and so are my best friends. We’re not opposed to dishing out some street justice.”
Tally considered his statement for a moment and a small smile touched her lips. “I’m good but some distance away from DC…” she hesitated, “…wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“You need my help, you yell.”
“Only if I can’t handle him myself.”
Kai narrowed his eyes in warning, but she wasn’t intimidated. That was all the information he was going to get from her, but he could live with that. If she ran into trouble she knew that she could count on him. That was all she needed to know.
Tally pursed her lips. “Getting back to me staying in Mercy…I’d prefer not to prolong my stay at the motel so I need to find an apartment, and a job, quickly.”
Luckily he knew people, like Flick, who knew everybody in town. If she couldn’t help him, them, then nobody could. “Let me talk to someone. I’ll call you in the morning.”