“No can do. Got my own shit to deal with.”
“Your wife?” she quirks a brow at me.
I grunt in response. What the hell would she know about my wife?
“It’s just Ro told me her mom is kind of a bitch and that you guys fight a lot.”
“Rochelle should keep her mouth shut.”
“Calm down. Don’t be hard on her. She worries about you. Says you deserve better. Says you and her mom are all wrong for each other.” Her gaze catches mine. Pretty green eyes sparkling with something I can’t get a read on. But one thing I do know is I need to get on home. And yet my feet stay planted where they are. “So, do you...” Alexa opens the fridge, peering inside.
“Do I what?”
She smirks over her shoulder. “Deserve better?” Closing the fridge, she holds up two bottles of Budweiser.
“Not discussing my marriage with you.” I accept one of the bottles. I shouldn’t let her have the other but fuck if she doesn’t look like she couldn’t use an escape. I know all about that. “I don’t think I should need to say this, but you don’t tell Rochelle shit all about your ridin’ on my bike or me bringing you here tonight. Or anyone for that matter. You need to get your story straight whatever the fuck it is before you go home.”
Alexa pops the cap off the bottle on the edge of the counter. The cap clinks on the dirty floor. “I can keep a secret.”
I touch the puffy knot on the side of her temple. “I don’t doubt that, sweetheart, but still I need your word.”
Her lips wrap around the bottle, those green eyes burning through me as she takes a hard pull. “You can count on me. Don’t worry.”
“Right.” I grab her beer. “That’s enough. Take your ass to bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.” I know the last thing I should do is stay, but I’m afraid if I leave, she’ll disappear again.
“Thanks, Murder.”
“Yeah. Yeah. First door to the left down the hall. It’s not the Ritz but it’ll do for the night.” I don’t wait for a response. I find my way to the old worn-down couch and collapse with both beers after shedding my jacket. I bring the one Alexa was drinking to my lips, tasting her cherry lip gloss. Fucking sweet and pure trouble.
I hear the bedroom door close, and I let out a sigh. I should drive home and send a prospect for her in the morning, but if anything else happened to her, I’d feel responsible. She’s not my responsibility but for some damn reason I can’t walk away. If it were Rochelle, I’d want someone to look out for her. That’s the excuse I tell myself, but I know it’s a lie.
I pull out my cell and try Banks. If he had something to do with this, I’ll rip him a new asshole. Fucker sends me to voicemail.
**
“No. Stop. Don’t,” pleas from down the hall awaken me. Rolling off the couch I hear a whimper and more begging. I shake off the grogginess of being asleep and shuffle toward the bedroom I put Alexa up in for the night. She must be having a nightmare. No one else is here.
I would have heard someone come in. I’m quiet as I open the door being careful not to scare her. The light is still on and the image before me nearly cuts a hard ass like me in two. Alexa is curled up under the bed in a protective ball sobbing. Fuck me what the hell happened to her? I drop to my knees and gently tap her arm. “Alexa?”
Her whole body trembles as another moan wracks through her small frame.
“Pretty girl, talk to me.” I tug on her wrist and attempt to bring her out from under the bed.
“No one would believe me.” She wipes her nose, smearing snot across her cheek.
Fucking hell.
I pull a bandanna I sometimes use when ridin’ from my back pocket and hand it to her once she’s sitting up with her back against the bed. “Try me,” I press, though I shouldn’t give a damn what’s going on with her. She’s not my problem.
But in a sense, she is because whatever went down happened when she was supposed to be under my roof. Guilt is eating at my insides. I don’t like it.
“Who hurt you?”
Alexa stays quiet, other than a small hiccup as she sniffles.
I move to Alexa’s left and put an arm around her, hugging her to me. Wishing I could shield this troubled girl from the pain tearing her apart right now.
She’s fucking broken. I search her lost eyes missing the spark that’s usually burning so damn bright it’d set the world on fire.
“You gotta promise you won’t tell.”
“You have my word. Whatever you say in this room...it’s just you and me.”
“Todd came back the other night to your house. I—I thought it was the pizza, so I didn’t look. I opened the door and he barged in.”
“He hit you?”
One nod. Her bottom lip trembles. More tears fall.
I grip her knee, my knuckles turning white. I’ll kill that little prick.
“He do anything else?”
Turning away from me she cries harder.
I grab her by the chin with more force than I mean to and jerk her face to mine. “He rape you?”
Alexa stares at me for seems like forever, and I wait for her to give me the words.
“What will you do if I say yes?”
“I think you know what the fuck I’m gonna do. Don’t fucking protect that piece of shit. You let me worry about it.”
Another nod.
“Need you to be honest with me. This isn’t something to fuck around about.”
Alexa stands up. I don’t know what she’s doing, but I sense she needs me to stay put so I don’t make any sudden movements. With her back to me she lets those braids out and lifts the cheer top over her head.
“Lex...” I start but she turns to face me as she arranges her wavy blonde locks over her breasts.
Fucking scrapes, bruises, and bite marks stain her skin like a painting. My veins burn, and I taste the rage bubbling within on my tongue. When she drops her skirt, I have to look away. Fingerprints bruise her inner thighs.
My face is the last thing he’ll see before he leaves this world.
I stand up and wrap my arms around her, pulling her into me. I kiss the top of her forehead. “He’ll pay. I swear to you I’ll send him straight to hell.”
Alexa swallows hard. “Make it painful.”
“Promise you, pretty girl.”
I’ll make this right for her. Letting Alexa go, I place my cut on the bed and remove my tee then hand it over to her. “Put this on.”
Alexa doesn’t move so I shrug the shirt over her head and push her arms through the sleeves. Flashes of her bruises and scars paint my mind red. I’m going to drain that fucker. I’m gonna watch him bleed out in a slow and painful death.
“You need to get some sleep.”
I’ve got a body to collect.
My cell phone vibrates, and I grab my cut off the bed.
Fuck. It’s the ball and chain.
Ruthie’s gonna pitch a bitch fit if she finds out I spent the night with Alexa. You’d think she’d be used to this shit by now—club business but it never fails. Woman nags over anything and everything.
Ruthie: I’m home and what a surprise you aren’t. Don’t bother to come home.
I can’t catch a motherfuckin’ break.