“I didn’t like hearing about this when it happened,” my mother offered. “And I sure the hell don’t want to think about it again years later. It’s just as painful now as it was then.”
Laric started chuckling. “At least you didn’t walk in on it happening. My dad, who I didn’t even realize was my dad at the time, walked straight in while I was learning what the hell a hymen was.”
“Wait…” Adam said. “Who’s your dad?”
There was a long pause then, “Lynnwood Windsor.”
There was a long beat of shocked silence then my dad said, “No shit?”
“No shit.”
I yawned again. “Why do I know who that is?”
“Because he’s like the scariest motherfucker on the planet,” Adam said wistfully. “You think our dad is scary? Dad has nothing on Lynn.”
I hummed. “I’m going home with Laric. If Lynn’s scary, Laric probably inherited some of his scariness.” I paused. “And he’s already proven that he’s more than capable of taking care of me. I’ll bet he can handle a gun just as easily as he can handle blood.”
Before I could say anything else, I fell asleep.
• • •
LARIC
“She says what she wants,” I mused. “And is seriously unapologetic about what she says. I tell you what, being called a bitch by her was literally the highlight of my day.”
That’s when the woman at her other side chuckled. “I’m not sure what happened to Catori. But she seriously can’t help herself. She has absolutely zero filter, and she can’t lie to save her life.”
“She was in a holdup at a bank once,” Jack started, his eyes on his daughter, his eyes scanning her face. “The guy asked her to put her cell phone down. She didn’t. Then she had to admit, ten minutes into the holdup, that she’d kept it and dialed 911.”
“Luckily,” Winter exhaled. “Her Uncle Tai was with her at the time. She’d just gotten her first paycheck and she’d asked him to drive her to the bank so she could open an account. Tai was able to disarm the guy when he came her way. Saved her life.” She sighed. “Her and her big mouth.”
I chuckled. “I feel like I’ll be learning all about that big mouth soon.” I paused, wincing slightly. “I didn’t mean that at all how it sounded.”
Adam started to laugh. “Oh, God. Y’all will be perfect with each other. By the time we’ve found Thor, you’re either going to kill her, or marry her.”
I highly doubted that I’d marry her. Though I found her highly attractive, I’d sworn off women for the most part.
Women required you to be home every night—and I wasn’t.
Women, particularly someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, likely required children—which I knew didn’t need to have a dad like me.
Not to mention I just straight up didn’t know how to deal with pleasing a wife or girlfriend. I mean, I knew sexually I could more than make her happy. But women, significant others, required love. Sacrifice. Devotion. Understanding. I just didn’t know how to provide those.
A, I wasn’t sure that love was even real. I’d never seen it and highly doubted that it was an ‘actual’ thing.
B, sacrificing would be okay. I could do that. But I couldn’t keep doing that. I’d be willing to bend, not break.
As for devotion and understanding, I’d been taught over and over again that those two things were a fuckin’ myth.
“I don’t know about all that,” I admitted, no longer wanting to think about what he’d just said. Rather, I’d like to think about the fact that I was about to have a houseguest that knew a man that was willing to shoot her just because she’d been pressed up against me. “Tell me about Thor.”
Jack growled while Adam hissed in a breath.
Winter sat back in her seat, brought her legs up to her chest, and then bonked her head on the top of her knees.
But it wasn’t the three of them that answered my question. It was a woman in the doorway behind me.
“I’ll tell you everything that you want to know,” the woman replied.
She came into the room, her face a mask of stark fear, and looked at the bed as if it held her worst nightmare.
And maybe it did.
“God,” she breathed. “I couldn’t get back here fast enough.”
My head turned back around to stare at Cat’s family.
My gaze went to the dad’s, and he nodded once.
“Harlow,” he said quietly. “This is the man that saved Catori’s life, Laric. Laric, this is Harlow, Cat’s best friend. They’ve been thick as thieves since they realized that they could talk us into having sleepovers at the age of six.”
My lips tipped up slightly, a small semblance of a smile lighting my face as I watched the woman walk up to Cat’s bed.
“I broke up with Trent last night,” she said softly. “This morning, yesterday morning, I guess now, I went to work, and they asked me to run to a place in Athens to pick up a new set of computers for the office. Paid. I didn’t have my phone on because I was avoiding Trent. And I texted Catori before I left, so I knew that she knew where I was going and what I was doing, and why I was avoiding her texts for the time being. When I turned my phone on in the hotel room and saw all the calls from y’all, I panicked. God, I’m so sorry that I didn’t answer before.”
“You’re fine, honey,” Winter replied tenderly. “We know. Honestly, we were more worried about what happened to you than anything. We were worried that Thor had somehow kidnapped you or something. That was why we tracked you down at your hotel.”
Harlow pressed shaky hands to her forehead. “I spoke to Trent for you. Asked him if he’d seen Thor, and he asked why. I had to explain everything to him. It was as if he’d never heard a thing.”
“Trent couldn’t be found for questioning,” Jack said. “Where was he when you called?”
“He’d followed me.” Harlow sighed and leaned against the bed rail, her eyes coming to me. “Thank you.”
I knew what she was thanking me for, but I didn’t know why.
Any fuckin’ guy would’ve saved Catori. I wasn’t special.
I nodded once, accepting her gratitude, then said, “Tell me about Trent and Thor.”
Harlow wrapped her arms around herself.
“I’ll just preface this by saying that I really don’t think Trent knew about Thor and what he did. He’d followed me to Athens, knowing that was where I went based on what information he was able to glean out of the receptionist at my old job. He’d followed me there and got pissed as all hell when I didn’t answer. Broke his phone into a hundred pieces. I saw the phone in his floorboard when he finally caught up to me on my way back home. He was at a gas station near the interstate. He knew that I would want to fill up before I left, and he knew that I had an Exxon card. He guessed that was where I’d go.” She breathed out shakily. “When I told him about Thor, he was honestly flabbergasted. He asked to borrow my phone, and then he called his brother, who didn’t answer. He then called the cops and told them where I was, and that he’d be home soon to answer any questions that they had.”