I shook my head. “Don’t you dare. Y’all deserve to go on that cruise. That’s been something y’all have wanted to do for years. It’ll be okay,” I promised.
She frowned. “But you don’t have anybody else to talk to.”
I didn’t necessarily agree with that.
I had friends.
“The guys at work will talk to me. Not to mention I have Memphis,” I explained.
Memphis was my friend I’d met early last year. She was married to another police officer on the KPD.
She frowned at me. “I guess so. I’d feel better if you had someone to call at a moment’s notice, though.”
I thought about Miller then.
Why couldn’t I get the man out of my head?
What hold did he have over me?
I shouldn’t be interested in the man that had firsthand knowledge of my rape and subsequent beating.
But I was, and I did.
I wanted him.
I wanted to talk to him. To see him. To feel safe in his arms one again.
But I couldn’t depend on him like that.
I shouldn’t be ready to have another man in my life.
“I also have that guy, you know, the one that saved me?” I asked my mother.
My mother nodded. “The one that helped you that day. The big guy with all the tattoos.”
I nodded. “Yeah, he said I could call him if I ever needed anything.”
She studied my sincerity for a few moments before nodding her head. “Okay. But if you need us, I expect you to call us too. We’ll get the quickest flight home we can.”
I nodded and gave her a kiss, and then she walked out the door in the next instant.
My father stopped just on the outside of the door and turned, letting my mom go in front of him to the truck as he regarded me closely.
“Call me if you need anything…okay baby?” He asked roughly.
I put my hand up against his cheek. “Thank you, daddy.”
He smiled sadly before turning his head to rub his bearded cheek against my hand. “You’re my baby girl. Even if you’re not really much of a baby anymore. I’ll always be here if you need me. Call me, day or night.”
I nodded. “I will, daddy.”
He looked better now than he had earlier, and I was thankful that the previous look was no longer in his eyes.
I hated that he looked so defeated. So broken.
If I could’ve kept this from him, I would’ve.
It wasn’t good for him or his heart.
I’d do anything to spare him the hurt I’d seen in his eyes earlier.
I’d done a good job at convincing him I was all right, though.
Hell, I’d even done a good job at convincing myself, too.
When Miller had dropped me off, two mornings ago, thankfully to an empty street and an empty house, I’d gone about my usual routine.
I’d done what I always did, which was check in with work, run a few errands, and then head to the shooting range.
I’d had myself convinced that I was fine, but the ammo that usually took me over an hour to go through was gone within twenty minutes, and I’d about had a heart attack when I’d heard my name being called by Miller.
Hell, but I’d almost shot him.
My face still throbbed like crazy. My arms and legs hurt. My ribs ached. The only thing that didn’t ache was the one thing that everybody was so concerned about.
On that thought, I made a beeline for the shower, jumping into it fully clothed.
The cold water hit me like a slap in the face, and I was grateful for the rude awakening.
I deserved everything I got and more.
I was such a coward.
A stupid, lying, horrible, coward.
I’d asked for everything and more by saying what I had said that day, and I deserved the humiliation that was the outcome of that awful conversation.
And the next day the depression had hit, the self-loathing. I hadn’t made it out of bed that day, and I’d had the same thing planned for today, too.
Lucky for me, my parents didn’t care to wait any longer.
A knock at the door had me turning to regard it with trepidation.
Since my parents had just left, and the crew I worked with knew I didn’t want to be bothered, that left a very small group of people.
Plus the mail wasn’t running today, seeing as it was a holiday, so that narrowed it down even more.
I knew who it was, though, without even opening the door.
The woman always had the ability to make my blood chill, and based on how I had shivers coursing down my spine, it had to be her.
Looking through the peephole, I sighed when I saw Linda’s scowling face.
Jesus, but the woman was such a heifer. In the twelve months I’d known the woman, there wasn’t a day that went by that I could say that I was looking forward to having the woman as my mother in law.
Reluctantly, I opened the door, trepidation making my hands shake. “Linda.”
She glared at me for all of two seconds before she pulled a gun from her purse and fired it.
It didn’t hit me. Well, it did, but it was water and not a bullet.
It hit me in the face.
Eyes wide in shock, I gasped at the woman.
“What the ever-loving, fuck?” I yelled at the crazy bitch.
Seriously?
She brought a water gun that looked like a gun out, and shot me full in the face with water?
The joke turned out to be on poor Linda, though.
Mostly because of a two hundred and fifty pound pissed off alpha male hit Linda like a linebacker, and took her down to the ground at our feet.
Miller had the stupid woman disarmed and pinned to the grass, face first, in less than ten seconds.
“Holy crap,” I breathed as I took in the scene. “You just sacked my ex-to-be-mother in law!”
That’s when I started laughing my ass off.
Over the last year, there wasn’t a day that had gone by that I hadn’t wished she’d get her comeuppance one day.
This had to be that day. The day she finally ate crow.