Keep Her From Harm (The Denton Family Legacy 4)

“Damian, get in the fucking car!” Maddox Denton, his father, said, from the limo parked right near where he and Jacob had been fighting.

All of his life he had done as he was told. He’d followed orders without a fight. Everything he had done, he’d done it knowing he was a Denton. The moment Betty took her life, he’d been ashamed. What none of his family knew was that he couldn’t take care of Martha. He couldn’t look at his daughter without being swamped with guilt. The pain was more than he could describe, and he’d rather be drowning in the bottom of a bottle than allowing himself to keep on living.

He stared at his father. For once he no longer saw a force to be reckoned with, someone to respect. He saw nobody.

“Fuck you.” With that, he moved away, leaving his father and his brother behind.

“Damian, we miss her, too,” Maddox said, making him pause and turn to face him. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself, son. It’s not good for you or for the Denton name.”

“The Denton name can go rot in hell, and get fucked in the ass for all I care, Maddox. I’m done, and that’s fucking final.” Turning his back on his family, which was something a Denton had never done, he kept on walking. He didn’t stop, and even as he felt the limo following him, he ignored it.

It wasn’t long before he cut off across a neighborhood and finally lost his family behind.

His cell phone started buzzing, and if it had been anyone else but Charlotte, his mother, he would have ignored it, thrown the cell phone away. He couldn’t do that to his mother.

He pressed answer and placed the cell phone beside his ear. “Hey, Mom,” he said.

“What’s going on, Damian?” she asked, worry evident in her voice.

“I’m done. I can’t do this anymore with him, with the family.” He had somehow brought himself to a park, and he sat down on one of the swings, and stared across the street but didn’t see anything at all. There was nothing to be seen. “I killed her, Mom.”

“No, honey, you didn’t. You had nothing to do with Betty’s death. We had been to the doctor, and she was struggling.”

“I should have been there. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m done.”

“What about Martha, Damian?”

“Will you take care of her for me? I need to get my shit together, and then I’ll be back for her.”

“You promise?”

“Yes. I promise.”

Silence was on the line, and he knew his mother wanted to argue but she’d cave. She always did. “I’ll take care of her, but you’ve got to keep in touch with me. I know you don’t want to speak to your father, and that’s fine. Do not keep me in the dark.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Mom. I love you.”

“He does love you, you know? He’s worried.”

“I don’t care. I’m done taking orders from him, of being this guy.” He had no intention of going to take Martha back, nor of getting his shit together. Damian was going to wait for death because he was going to be one last Denton that didn’t poison women, that didn’t lead them to their grave.

****

Mia Banks stared at the monster who was her baby’s father. She wanted to hurt him, to make him pay for everything she had gone through, but she would be dead if she even touched him.

“What do I owe the pleasure this time, Mia?” Ivan Smith asked.

She felt sick to her stomach. She stood in a strip bar, watching as women walked around wearing nothing. She knew without a doubt that some of those women were already fucking clients.

Ivan was a big man in these parts. A crime boss. She just saw him as the asshole that had ruined her life. However, it wasn’t that ruined. She had Reese out of it.

“You’ve stopped everyone from hiring me. Why?”

“The mother of my child doesn’t get to work. I’ve told you that.”

She clenched her hands into fists wanting nothing more than to hurt him. Ivan seemed to be under the illusion that she wanted him, that because he was who he was, she would be so happy to have him want her. She didn’t. If she was honest with herself, she had hoped her weight would completely put him off. Being a size twenty didn’t exactly appeal to most guys, right? With Ivan, it didn’t seem to deter him.

From the moment they had met, she had been telling him no—even during what happened, and she wouldn’t think of it. She had screamed for him to stop, that he was hurting her. There had been many nights she lain awake remembering him on top of her, inside her, knowing that she couldn’t tell anyone. So instead, she made herself believe that everything was fine.