I knew my face was already swelling and discolouring when Harleigh Rose opened the door for me and covered her dropped-open mouth with both hands.
She was a biker’s daughter so I figured she’d seen worse but maybe not on a woman.
“Hi,” I said.
There were three big Louis Vuitton suitcases at my feet and two more duffels slung over my shoulders. I had a lot of stuff I didn’t want to leave behind, including the wooden box in one of the duffels that contained my letters from Z.
“Ohmigawd,” Harleigh Rose breathed, stepping forward with a lifted hand to flutter her fingers along the goose egg forming on my cheekbone. “What happened to you?”
A second later a big shadow loomed behind H.R. and Zeus was in the doorway, pushing her gently aside even as his face darkened with fury.
“My dad knows about us,” I said calmly.
Then, because I’d finally made it to safety and a pair of arms that would close around me if I fell, I burst into tears.
Gently, Zeus hefted me into his arms so I could wrap my legs around his waist and bury my face in his hair. He walked me in the house straight to the left where the family room opened up into the kitchen and sat down with me in one of the big wooden chairs at the dining room table.
Cress and King sat at the table with their half-eaten dinners in front of them, frozen in the act of eating because they were both staring at me with horror.
Zeus’s hand stroked down my hair as he ordered King, “Get ’er bags and put ’em in my room. Then get your ass back down ’ere ’cause the second Lou stops cryin’ long enough to tell me why the motherfuckin’ fuck did this to her, we’re rollin’ out.”
King shoved back from his chair, already pulling his phone from his pocket. Cressida got up too and went to the stove to put on the kettle and grab a bottle of tequila from the freezer.
Zeus peeled my wet face out of his neck and held my head like I was breakable as an eggshell in his ham like hands. A low growl started up in his chest as two fingers gently brushed the aching skin of my cheek.
I placed my hand over his heart, dipping a finger into the divot of his gunshot scar. “Sorry I interrupted you in the middle of dinner.”
Zeus shook his head at me but I’d successfully broken the seal on his bottled-up fury and let a little air escape.
Cress and H.R. laughed at me. Then to my surprise, the latter came over to place a gentle hand on my shoulder and asked, “Want me to make you up a plate?”
“Smells good.”
H.R. grinned. “I made it, my famous chili. Dad’s a shit cook, which you probably know already, but I make some serious magic in the kitchen.”
“Looking forward to tasting it,” I said with a small smile as I wearily rested my head back on Z’s hard chest.
H.R. nodded then looked up at the rage in her father’s face and hers transformed into a mirror of that fury. Evidently, no Garro liked a man who hit women and Z’s girl wanted to see him ruin my dad nearly as much as he did.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked me.
I sighed deeply. “If I tell you will you promise not to kill him?”
“Fuck no.”
I sighed even deeper. “Didn’t think so.”
“You’re still gonna fuckin’ tell me,” he warned me.
“Someone sent my dad photos of us like you’ve been getting at the fire sites. There was a whole dossier of them so clearly someone’s been watching us.”
“Fuck,” he roared over my shoulder but I didn’t flinch, because I’d known he’d react this way and part of me yearned for it. I wanted to pit my guardian monster against my beast of a father and see Zeus tear him apart with his bare hands.
“I’m goin’ to have a word with the fuckin’ mayor.”
“He might be expecting that, Z,” I warned him because even though my dad seemed relatively oblivious, it was clear Javier had a part in the unveiling.
“Good.” He grinned down at me then captured my mouth in a toe-curling kiss.
“What was that for?” I panted slightly when he was done, my hand fisted into his tee.
“Can’t have my girl in my lap and not kiss ’er,” he said like it was obvious.
“Thank you for being my safe place,” I whispered, aware of his daughter and Cressida in the room but not caring because my heart was going to implode if I didn’t share some of what I was feeling.
“I got you, little girl,” he reminded me of the words he’d said when I was seven years old and running toward him through a hail of gunfire.
Even then, I knew the kind of man he was and knew he’d take care of me.
I brushed my lips against his, so silky smooth compared to the roughness of his beard. “I love you, ya know?”
He smiled under my questing mouth. “Love you like it’s my religion, little Lou.” Then he pressed his forehead to mine and said, “Just in case there was any fuckin’ doubt, this is your house now and my bed is your bed. Wanted you here anyway, sorry it happened this way, little warrior, so fuckin’ sorry, but glad you’re here all the fuckin’ same.”
“Tequila?” Cressida asked, coming to the table with a full bottle of Patrón Gold, a bowl of fresh cut limes and a saltshaker. “I only learned how to do a shooter last year but I’m freaking hooked. I think it solves everything.”
“Not hangovers,” H.R. said drily.
“No tequila for Lou,” Zeus said over my laughter. “She can’t drink doin’ chemo. That tea you put on would be good. Somethin’ herbal.”
Cress, H.R. and I all turned our heads to stare at Zeus with the same shocked expression.
He shrugged. “Did some research when I found out Lou was sick.”
“You did?” I asked, moved beyond belief and also a little amused that my badass biker had spent the time looking up medical information.
“Fuck yeah. Gotta know how to take care of my little warrior. Now, get off me so I can handle your fuckin’ father.”
He slipped me out of his lap and onto the chair then jerked his chin at King as he came back into the kitchen shrugging on his leather jacket and looking like something out of a James Dean movie.
“Aim to maim not kill,” Harleigh Rose called out helpfully as they headed out the front door.
I laughed at her and curled up into an even tighter ball, wincing at the pain in my eye now that Zeus wasn’t around to distract me. H.R. noticed and went to get a pack of frozen peas from the fridge. She wrapped the package in a dishcloth and gently pressed it to my cheek.
I hissed.
“Sorry, can you hold this here?” Harleigh Rose asked. “I’ll make you a plate of food and then we can watch a movie. I know you’ve had a rough night and I should let you choose the film but I’m really big into old Westerns right now, so how about we compromise. I choose the genre, you choose the film?”
“She’s only into Westerns because she has a huge crush on Officer Danner,” Cressida explained as she prepared my pot of tea.
I laughed before I realized that she was serious because Harleigh Rose sent her a withering glare.
“Sorry, just, a biker’s kid with a cop? Isn’t that like wrong?”
She tossed her wild mane of streaky blond hair over her shoulder and fisted her hands on her hips as she leveled me with a look. “Sorry, but isn’t the mayor’s kid with a MC Prez the same fuckin’ thing?”
“Touché,” I said with a wince then winced again because the expression put pressure on my cheek.
Cressida laughed as she came to the table with the tea and poured us our cups like a perfect little lady. “I shacked up with my eighteen-year-old student a week after we started dating, so I don’t think any of us are in a position to judge the other.”
“I still can’t believe you did that,” I said, shaking my head. “Did you guys do it at school?”
“Um, ew!” Harleigh Rose put her fingers in her ears. “Disgusting much?”
Cress winked at me. “The better question would be, when didn’t we do it at school? My King has a thing for public sex.”
“Mmm, I know what you mean, Z and I did it under the bleachers at a basketball game.”
“No,” Cress covered her laughing mouth and propped her pretty face in her hands. “In your cheerleading outfit? King would love something like that…Do you think I could borrow that?”
“Okay, hold up,” H.R. demanded on a shout. “If we’re all going to be one big modern fuckin’ family we need to make a rule about sex talk. I don’t think my brain can handle knowing what my dad and brother do in bed.”
“Fair.” I nodded slowly. “My brain can barely handle it either and I’m the one doing it.”
“Okay, see, that’s what I’m talking about, waaay gross.”
Cressida and I laughed, or at least, I tried to, but my cheek was too swollen to allow much movement and the frozen peas had made my face numb.
A key rattled in the front door and a second later, Mute appeared in the front hall. He didn’t look over at us startled women. Instead, he calmly relocked the door and put his keys on the catch-all table beside the stairs. He watched his booted feet move across the wood floorboards as he crossed into the kitchen and came to a stop unerringly at my side.
Only then did he look up at me and when he did a strange garbled groan emerged from his chest.
“Foxy,” he said, dropping to his knees and taking the peas from my hand so he could look at the split flesh. “No.”
“I’m okay, Mute,” I said softly.
“Wasn’t there,” he grunted.
There was heartbreak in his dark eyes as he stared up at me. It echoed in my chest.
“Not your fault, Mute. My dad’s an asshole.”
“Shoulda been there,” he said again.
“Can’t be there all the time,” I pointed out reasonably.
His heavy brow fell into a glower. “Me or Zeus.”
“Mute…”
He held out his hand with his pinky extended like he’d seen me do with Zeus.
The gesture warmed my heart but more, I knew this behavior from the Autism Centre. If I didn’t agree with Mute on something he felt this strongly about, I knew he would throw a tantrum like Sammy would have. My silent hero was still smarting from not knowing about the cancer and I knew this was the final straw.
Mute would stalk me if he had to, in order to keep me safe.
So, I linked my pinky finger with his and we shook thumbs.
“We’re going to watch a movie,” I told him. “A Western.”
“John Wayne,” he said instantly, getting to his feet.
He went to a long cupboard beside the fridge, reached in and came out with a huge bag full of salted nuts and another with HealthWise popcorn. Even his snack food was always healthy. The three of us watched him as he walked out of the kitchen and the sound of the TV floated in from the other room.
“Come on,” he called.
I turned to Cress and H.R. and grinned. “I think John Wayne awaits.”
