“I’m leaving,” I announced, because I was.
I just didn’t know where I was going or how I’d get there.
“What?” he said softly, and my head jerked back so I could glare at him.
“Leaving,” I spat.
He shook his head and crossed his arms on his chest. “Clara, maybe it didn’t fuckin’ sink in, but I had a bad night, Gear had a bad night, and Tatie had a really fuckin’ bad night. I don’t need your shit right now.”
My…
Shit?
“My shit?” I whispered.
“Your shit,” he returned.
I dropped the makeup and case into the drawer and straightened.
“This isn’t shit, West.”
“Nope, it’s bullshit, Clara.”
“I don’t believe you,” I hissed.
“That makes two of us, babe, seein’ as I don’t believe you’re havin’ a fuckin’ tantrum for reasons fuckin’ unknown the morning after my daughter nearly got raped.”
So, Tatie had shared it hadn’t gone from calamitous to disastrous.
I was glad she’d felt free to share with her father.
But me?
“This isn’t a tantrum,” I whispered.
“That’s bullshit too.”
“You hurt me,” I reminded him.
His eyebrows went up. “What?”
“You…” I pointed at him then pointed at my chest, “hurt me.”
“Clara, for fuck’s—”
I whipped the tie on my robe open then I turned as I yanked it down my shoulders.
I twisted my neck to look at him and saw his eyes riveted to my bruise.
What I did not do was allow the anguished expression on his face to penetrate.
“You did that,” I stated, pulled my robe back up, turned to face him and tied the tie smartly, managing to do this with shaking hands. “You marked me,” I went on. “You did that. That isn’t the only bruise you gave me last night. One move, one second, nine bruises.”
As I spoke, his eyes were still where my shoulder used to be.
When I was done, they moved to mine.
Then he dropped his arms, but his hand came up as he got in my space, muttering, “Baby.”
He nearly touched my face, but I yanked it away and took a quick step back.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed.
His hand dropped, and his gaze locked with mine.
“Clara, honey, come here,” he said softly.
“No, I’m packing and I’m leaving,” I replied.
“Toots, baby, come here,” he repeated.
“No. I’d like you to leave. I’d like to be gone before the kids wake up.”
That wasn’t true.
I wanted to see Tatie was all right and the same with Gear.
But I thought, for them…clean break.
They had their dad; they didn’t need me.
“You got a step to take, I’m tellin’ you to take it before I take it,” he told me.
I leaned forward and snapped, “I said no!”
Before I knew what he was about, he took that step and my head was between his big hands, tipped up to look at him.
He bent so his face was in mine. “They hurt my girl.”
Yes, they did.
And I hated that for all of them.
Then he hurt me.
I tried to yank my head from his hands, his fingers tightened, so I stopped trying, but my hands came up and my fingers curled around his wrists.
“I understand that and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for you and Locke and Tatiana. That doesn’t forgive what you did.”
“I wasn’t thinkin’ straight.”
“No, I agree. You probably weren’t. That doesn’t forgive what you did.”
“No one hurts my girl.”
“Unfortunately, last night, that wasn’t true. And, again, I’m sorry. Truly, truly I am. For you. For Locke. And especially for Tatie.” I tried again to pull at his hands, though I failed, I kept trying. “But you marked me, and I wasn’t the one who hurt her.”
“You were standin’ in my way.”
“Take your hands off me.”
His face got closer. “Baby, I woke up when I heard she got home, felt you get out of bed, decided to let you have a shot with her before I got in there because I was still angry at the way she took off. Heard you two in the bathroom, and you weren’t leaving it. So I had to take a beat because I thought she’d come home drunk again, but this time she’d been driving drunk and I needed that beat because I was getting angrier. Then I got a look at my little girl, and I was beyond pissed. And you were standin’ in my way.”
“West. Take…your hands…off me.”
“When I get like that, which, I promise you, darlin’, isn’t often, but it happens, you cannot stand in my way.”
“Thanks for the advice, but I won’t be around the next time you get like that. Now, I asked you to take your hands off me.”
He didn’t take his hands off me.
In fact, he put them on me more.
He did this by stepping fully into my space, one of his arms locking around my upper back, the other hand sliding in my hair, fisting and tugging gently. The whole time, his face stayed a breath away from mine.
“This is not better,” I informed him.