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Who are you?
I glance over my shoulder and see everyone standing and staring at us. “Look, you might have a lot of questions, but so do I. Why don’t you get out of this van right now and we can deal with the questions later? Unless you want to keep being stared at from the group of pissed of guys behind me.” I lift my eyebrows and I watch as she frowns, looking over my shoulder and getting a terrified look on her face.
She turns to look at me, biting her lip to death. She looks like she’s going to chew her way through it, then she releases it with a swipe of her tongue. Her lip is wet, plump, and a perfect deep red. Fucking kissable lips.
Shit. Fucking idiot.
The thought disgusts me when I see the purple bruises and marks on her face and down her neck. Her shirt and pants cover her body, but I don’t doubt the rest of her isn’t covered as well. I mean seriously, who thinks like that when the rest of her body is purple? I’m going to fucking hell.
“Are you going to hurt me?” She whispers. Her words echo through the large, empty van, ping ponging off walls and landing into the pit of my stomach. Her words make me pause, sadness and pity for her cooling me to the bones. But my anger is worse, burning me from the inside out.
I pull a cigarette out of my pocket and light it up just to keep my cool. “Maybe.” I flash her a set of sharp teeth and almost choke when she starts panicking. “But not in the way that you think. I’m not a good guy, not even close. But I’m not Santiago. Don’t think about grouping me in with that sick fuck again, you feel me?” I bark out at her and watch as she nods slowly. “I won’t be so fucking forgiving next time.” Lifting my hand, I wait for her to grab it. “Now come on, I’m losing my damn patience.”
She stalls for a moment, then lifts the child in her arms and crawls towards me, placing her tiny hand in mine. It’s dirty, but somehow still perfect.
Her fingers meld into my palm. My hand heats as she clutches to me, like she’s begging for me to be her savior. Like I’m her lifeline. I swallow the regret of bringing her into my life as I pull her from the truck. She’s wobbly as her feet touch the ground, a newborn doe testing out the new land.
“Come on.” I pull her towards the house, ignoring the group of questioning men behind me.
The little baby fusses, and I furrow my eyebrows as I watch the girl calm her down. I’m curious, but she’s not my problem and I’m not in the position to make her my problem.
It’s too fucking late for that; my mind tells me.
We walk in through the main area which opens to the bar. I’d rather go this way then walk past the guys. Someone will say something smart and then I’ll end up hitting the fuck out of them, and these girls will be even more frightened of me.
Haley is wiping off the counters as we enter, and when she notices me she looks at me with a smile, relief that I’m back safe. When she sees the two girls behind me, her eyes widen into saucers. I cut her a look and she looks down quickly, continuing on with cleaning the bar.
I can feel the tremor in this girl’s hand. I give it a small squeeze and pull her towards the back hallway that leads to a set of stairs. Upstairs holds some spare rooms and a couple bathrooms. My pops and I have our own bedrooms and attached bathrooms. I have my own house about one mile away from here, completely secluded and a place to be alone. But there’s no way in hell that I’ll bring this girl there. She’s not an accomplice to Santiago, that much I know. But it doesn’t mean she will be an ally to us. I don’t know where she came from, and until I know, I’ll have to hold her at arm’s length.
We get to my room and I crack open the door, revealing walls filled with half-naked women on motorcycles and unlimited posters of beer bottles and marijuana quotes. All of these are from when I was a teenager, but suddenly, her seeing all of this, I couldn’t feel more juvenile than I do now.
“Nice… room.” She whispers.
“Why do you keep whispering?” I walk into the room and start taking the shit off the walls. A little kid doesn’t need to look at bare ass and tits all day, even if they are fucking phenomenal.
She shrugs, looking around like she’s never seen a room before. “I’m just…” She looks out the window, and so many emotions play in her eyes I can barely make one out from the next. “Why am I here?”
I don’t know how to answer that, so I ask her one of my own. “What’s your name?”
She licks her lips, debating if she wants to tell me or not. She stares at me directly in the eyes, so strongly that her gaze is almost painful. “Ivy.”
I narrow my eyes. “Ivy? Is that a made-up name you made on the fly?”
She narrows her eyes back at me. “No.”
“Okay,Ivy.What’s your last name?”
She blanches. “I don’t have one.” Her gaze goes to the wall behind me, staring at it.
I look over my shoulder.Nothing is there. “What do you meanyou don’t have one?”
She looks behind me at the door, like she’s going to bolt any second. I take a step to the left to block her exit. “Okay, touchy subject.”
Her gaze falls back to the wall behind me.
“What’re you looking at?” I frown.She’s acting fucking weird.
She shakes her head as if shaking out the thoughts scrambling her brain. “What is your name?” Her voice is soft as she adjusts the now sleepy child on her shoulder.
