“We won’t,” Pop said roughly.
He stepped over to the front door and slid the deadbolt home, then moved around the couch, meeting my mom in front of us. He sat at the far end of the couch, pulling my mom down onto his lap sideways facing us, before tenderly pulling my and Leo’s legs onto their thighs.
I met my mom’s watery eyes as she rested her head on my pop’s shoulder and gave me a small smile.
“First fucker that knocks on the door is gettin’ my foot in his ass,” Pop growled softly, leaning his head on the back of the couch.
My mom’s smile grew a little and I felt my lips twitch.
Then I closed my eyes, gripping my baby brother’s t-shirt as my pop’s hand came up to grasp my ankle gently, connecting us.
It was the first time I slept without nightmares.
Chapter 17
Cameron
I’d spent the day clearing out the backyard, using Casper’s truck to haul broken chairs, the shot up grill and mangled picnic table to the dump. Even the horseshoes had fucking blood on them, and I got rid of everything. As soon as I’d finished doing that, I’d dragged out Casper’s wheelbarrow and filled it eight times with bloodied dirt, digging into the ground over and over again until every speck was gone from sight. I’d left gaping holes all over the yard, but I couldn’t find it in me to give a shit.
By the time I got back to the club, I had weeping blisters on my hands and my arms were pretty much numb. After I realized Trix wasn’t in our room, I walked slowly over to Dragon’s place.
I was tired straight to my bones. Even my teeth ached from clenching my jaw hard all day.
“Hulk,” Dragon greeted from the porch steps as I reached them.
His hair was in a knotted mess at the back of his head, and his beard looked like he’d been scratching at it all day—the thing was massive.
“Trix here?” I asked, coming to a stop.
“Yeah,” he reached over and tossed me a beer from the six-pack he’d stashed beside him. “Take a seat.”
I looked at the small space between him and the porch railing and dropped my ass to the dirt. I wasn’t sitting on his damn lap.
“How’s she been?” he asked me quietly, jerking his head toward the door.
I pulled out my smokes and lit one, then used my lighter to pop the top of my beer. My lungs were screaming after all the smoking I’d done that day, but I took a deep drag before answering, anyway.
“Quiet,” I told him.
“She looks like shit,” he said bluntly, taking a long swallow of his beer, finishing it off and opening a new one.
“She’s barely sleepin.’ When she does, she’s cryin’ and jerkin’ around.”
“You wake her up?”
“No, she’s not gettin’ enough of it as it is,” I mumbled around my cigarette.
“She tellin’ you anything?”
I scoffed, pulling the smoke from my lips. “She’s not sayin’ shit.”
“When she came runnin,’ I ’bout had a heart attack,” he said, looking over toward the clubhouse. “Fuckin’ déjà vu.”
“How so?”
“Back when I was gettin’ custody of Trix, Bren’s husband showed up. Man was fuckin’ insane.” Dragon shook his head. “Brenna dropped Trix through our bedroom window, told her to run to me so Bren could face the man by herself. Knew she had to protect our girl, did what she had to so Trix was safe.”
I didn’t say anything as he paused. I didn’t think I’d ever heard the man string so many words together at once, and I sure as fuck wasn’t going to interrupt him.
“Trix got to me and she was shakin,’ she was so fuckin’ terrified. Then she’d told me, ‘Daddy’.” He glanced at me. “That’s what she’d called the fucker Brenna’d married. Fuck. That one word was enough to send me runnin’.”
“I don’t—”
“That’s what she was saying when she jumped off your Ma’s porch,” he said gruffly, cutting me off. He lifted the beer to his lips and drank deeply until it was empty. “Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.” His voice was high pitched and soft.
My stomach turned at the look on his face.
“Not sure what knocked it loose, but she’s rememberin’,” he said softly, sniffing. “Shit we thought she’d forgotten.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, dropping my cigarette to the ground in front of me.
“Just thought you should know,” Dragon mumbled, climbing to his feet. “You comin’ in?”
“Yeah, in a minute,” I replied, staying planted on my ass.
The door closed softly behind him and I rubbed both hands over my face.
Jesus.
I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Trix was wringing me dry at night, but during the day, she wouldn’t even fucking look at me. It didn’t matter what I did. I’d tried talking softly to her, pissing her off, cracking jokes, being mean. Nothing fucking worked.