Prologue
I didn’t mean to push all your buttons. Just kidding. I really did.
-Slate to Izzy
Slate
Three years ago
The first time I saw her I was shackled to a table with chains.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to keep my eyes on Izzy but having a hard time doing that since there was a blonde woman that was about five foot nothing at the table next to me, giving the man she was visiting a rundown about a Chuck Norris race that she was running in about a week.
“I’m talking about the fact that our mother is a whore, and she tried to get the daycare that Astrid is enrolled in to allow her ‘visitation time,’” Izzy explained patiently.
I finally pulled my eyes off the blonde and looked at my sister.
“And this surprises you because?” I asked with a raised brow.
She sighed loudly. “I guess that it doesn’t. I’m just annoyed that I have to deal with it at all. I thought I got rid of her and she keeps popping back like a herpes outbreak.”
The blonde at the table next to us paused in her conversation with the man and looked at my sister with a grin on her face.
I sighed and tried not to stare.
It was nearly impossible, though.
I wasn’t sure what it was that drew me to her.
She was about five foot nothing with blonde hair that was arranged in a fighter’s braid down both sides of her head. She had bright pink strands that were woven throughout the braid, and at the very bottom, it transitioned into straight purple.
Her eyes were an eerie shade of green. Kind of like sea foam…but brighter.
She had the longest lashes that I’d ever seen, and that was saying something because it looked like she had zero makeup on.
Her forearms were absolutely tiny and were about the size of two of my fingers put together in width…but those forearms had so many goddamn bracelets that they went almost halfway up said arm.
“Are you listening to me at all?” Izzy asked. “Are you sick?”
I looked at my sister, once again peeling my eyes away from the blonde, and shrugged.
“You’re talking about our mother,” I said, sounding bored. “What did you want me to do? Say ‘huh, that’s weird?’” I asked. “Because it’s not weird for her. Honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to do anything before now.”
Izzy sat back with a huff and crossed her arms over her chest, looking adorably annoyed.
Izzy, my baby sister, had changed a lot since I’d gone to prison.
She’d grown into her own and had become a beautiful person.
Not that she hadn’t been one before, but there was a difference between the broken and scared doll that she used to be compared to the beautiful, confident, ‘I can do anything’ woman that she’d turned in to. Though, that had a lot to do with the fact that she was married now to a man that would kick anyone’s ass that ever hurt her—my mother included.
Izzy’s dark hair was in a bun on top of her head, and I was fairly sure she had a spit-up stain on the black t-shirt she was wearing. Not that I’d point that out to her yet. I’d make sure we got all the way through our visit before bringing it to her attention.
“I know,” she sighed. “I’m just…I’ve had a bad couple of nights with Astrid. She hasn’t slept much and she’s always in a terrible mood. And then Mom pulling that shit?”
She scrubbed her hands up and down her face. “And I had to clean a house yesterday that was a complete and utter pig sty. I wish I would’ve charged them more. I’m fairly sure they did a super deep clean right before I came over to quote them a price on cleaning for them. When I got there today? It was like a tornado had gone through it. I’m going to have to charge them more because it takes me longer to clean tornado destroyed houses than the one they showed me before.”
“Please tell me that you clean in Bear Bottom.”
We both looked over at the blonde who was now staring at Izzy with hope on her face.
“Uhh,” Izzy said. “I do.”
The woman’s face showed so much utter joy that I felt something low in my belly start to heat up.
“My name is Harleigh.” She held out her hand. “Can I get your number? Do you have a card? Oh my gosh. I’m so excited to hear this.”
Izzy’s eyes flicked to me and then back to the blonde, Harleigh.
Odd name, but it suited her.
“This is my man’s baby brother, Tray.” She pointed at the inmate next to me. I hadn’t actually seen him much, but that was because he was new and didn’t quite know his place in the hierarchy just yet, so he stayed to himself. “Dre, Tray’s brother, just moved his business to Bear Bottom and I’ve been doing my best to help him, but…it’s like cleaning up in the middle of a hurricane. It’s just not doable when the men don’t clean up after themselves—at all.”