“It’s your money, Ma. You have every right to do what you want with it, including telling him no.”
“Boyd wasn’t happy with my answer. He told me he wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t important. I still told him no and not to ask me again.”
“Good. You stuck to your guns.”
I was proud of her. She’d never been a pushover. Being a single mother made her stronger than most, and she never put up with anyone’s shit, not even from a man.
“That was the first time he hit me,” she whispers.
I see red.
Not just red, but blood red.
All the air evaporates from my lungs, and the burn in my chest is something I haven’t felt quite so deep for a long time. Then her words really slam into me. The first time…meaning he did it more than once, but this is the first time I’m hearing about it.
“I will bury him.”
Her eyes snap open, and her hands on my face tighten as she pulls her head back to look at me. “No, you will not, Josiah.”
Her calling me by my first name doesn’t change the simple fact—he will feel a pain worse than he ever inflicted on my mother. No man lays a hand on a woman, especially not the one who gave birth to me. “Ma…”
Her eyes narrow, and the tears that have started to form spill over onto her cheeks. “You will not touch him.”
“Ma…”
She shakes her head. “I handled him.”
My brows furrow as I stare at her, blinking. “You handled him?” I whisper.
She nods as she wipes at her face. “I made sure he’ll think twice before he lays a hand on another woman. That’s why I had to leave, and I couldn’t think of anywhere safe to go but to come here.”
“You should’ve left the first time he hit you, Ma.”
Fuck.
She always taught me never to lay hands on a woman, but she took that blow and stayed for another.
“I was stupid. I believed him when he apologized and said he didn’t mean to touch me. I bought the lie. I did what women do when they want to believe the best of a person even though they’re faced with the worst.”
“At least you got away free and clear.”
She cringes and rocks backward on the edge of my bed. “I’m on the run, baby.”
I rock back on my heels and freeze.
She was hit more than once.
She took care of it herself.
She’s on the run.
All words I never thought I’d hear my mother say, but here she is, saying them.
“I’ll take care of it,” I promise her.
Her eyes widen. “It’s not an easy fix. You know small towns. He has friends on the city council. The entire police force is looking for me.”
I grunt. Small-town police forces are a joke. They are easily bought, and I have enough money to probably buy them all. “I already told you, I’ll take care of it, Ma.”
“But I…” She pauses and runs her small fingers across her forehead. “I…”
“Tell me what happened,” I ask softly.
“The last time he hit me—” She stops again and grimaces.
She just said the last time he hit her, but she didn’t say the second time. That means this shit was going on for a while, and yet she never called me to clue me in. She should’ve left after the first time or at least made a phone call, telling me what was happening so I could make sure he never touched her, or any woman, ever again.
“The last time he hit me, I went into the garage while he was sleeping and grabbed the sledgehammer.”
This isn’t going anywhere pretty, but I already have a sense of pride bubbling deep inside me. No one grabs a sledgehammer unless they plan to use it. The weight and force of something so big is not a match for the frailty of the human body.
“I walked into the house, tiptoeing into the living room where he was lying on the couch, and I lifted the hammer as high as I could before I brought that bitch down on the arm he used to strike me.”
Somehow, I don’t move a muscle, keeping my face impartial and not trying to seem as shocked as I feel. “He deserved that and worse.”
She nods with a small smile, the first glimmer of radiance coming off her. A sliver of the Ma I saw last time I laid eyes on her. “I’m not a violent person, Josiah. You know this, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t see another way out. I had to make it impossible for him to hit me again.”
“You did that,” I say with a hint of laughter.
Mom literally brought down the hammer on the asshole.
“I never saw a man scream the way he did. There was so much blood, baby. So much blood.” Her face pales as she stares at the door behind me, unable to make eye contact. “And the sound. Oh my God. The sound bone makes when it breaks is the most horrific… And then when it tore through his skin…” She pales.
“Ma,” I say, bringing her back to the here and now instead of staying in her memories. “You’re here. You’re safe. And you did the right thing.”
“I have a lot of forgiveness to ask for and prayers to say. I don’t think there’s enough penance to make up for my actions this time, sweetheart.”
I shake my head, gripping her hands with mine. “He’s the one who needs to ask for forgiveness, Ma, not you. You were protecting yourself. Plain as that.”
“He was sleeping,” she whispers.
“Did he hit you?”
“Yes.”
“Then he deserved it. I don’t care what the hell he was doing when you hit him, you did the right thing.”
“So, now…” She sighs, hanging her head. “I’m on the run with a warrant out for my arrest.” She squirms as she says the words, and the lines in her face deepen. “You were the first person to pop in my head, and I figured this was probably the one place the cops wouldn’t be looking for me.”
“You did the right thing coming here.” I climb to my feet, releasing her hand as I do. “The club will protect you, and you can stay here.” But fuck, this adds another layer of complication I hadn’t anticipated, just when I was ready to leave.
She tips her head back, gawking at me as her brown hair spills down her back. “You want me to stay here?”
I nod, rubbing the back of my neck. “No safer place to be when the law is looking for you.”
“But…”
I shake my head, putting my hand out in front of me. “It’s not up for discussion.”
She snaps her mouth shut, eyes going wide. I’ve never talked to her this way, and it shows in the shock on her face.
“You’re staying here. If you need something, one of the guys will get it. But for the time being, until I can get shit sorted, you do not go outside the gates.”
Her nose scrunches. “I can’t stay here with those—” she waves her hand toward the door “—naked people,” she whispers.
“The women don’t live here. They come and go. The guys are going to keep your ass out of jail and alive, Ma. I want no lip.”
Her head jerks back, and her eyes flash with anger. “I think you forget who the parent is here, Josiah.”
“I haven’t forgotten. You came to me for help, and I’m doing that.” I move toward the door and open it, finding Eagle walking down the hallway. “Grab Morris, will ya?”