Mastered by Malone (Haven, Texas 6)

So yeah. Fuck him.

He reached down and turned her around, so she was straddling his lap then he grabbed her chin and raised her face up. “You think that’s how he saw it? That he saw you as a burden?”

“How could he not have? I didn’t have anything. He had to pay for it all. My aunt was so mad about that. She asked me if I was trying to ruin her entire family. I tried to leave after that night.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Oh, no, I did. Packed some stuff up in a duffel bag, didn’t have much anyway and left. Didn’t get far, though. One of Mike’s friends on the force saw me, called it in to him and then the next moment I’m in a cop car being driven home and watched over until my cousin stormed back into his apartment to ask me what the hell I was doing.”

“You tell him what that bitch said?”

As she spoke, she was gradually easing into his touch. And he liked it.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It would have hurt him. I love Mike. He was the one bright spot in my life. He was protective and caring, he was everything to me, and it would have hurt him. So I never told him. He was in his last year of high school when my parents died. He was busy with baseball and getting good grades and girls. Mike was a popular guy. Besides, she never acted that way around him. She always pretended to be caring when he was there. Mike never knew. Mike can never know.”

He disagreed. He should have known. He didn’t give a fuck how busy he was, he should have known. And he wondered how he hadn’t. Had he turned a blind eye because the bitch was his mom? Was that why he’d taken Mia in? Because he’d felt guilty knowing the way his mother had treated her?

He also wondered if that was the only reason Mia never said anything to him.

“You thought he wouldn’t believe you? Or that he might take her side?”

She stiffened and he knew his guess was correct.

“She was his mom. He should have chosen her over me.”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. Plane crash. First vacation they took after I left the house. Both of them gone at once. Mike and I are alone now.”

He hated the lonely, lost note in her voice, and wanted to do anything he could to erase it.

“Where was your uncle during all this? You were his brother’s kid, why didn’t he stick up for you?”

Why hadn’t he taught her she was worth something? That she mattered?

“He worked a lot. Long business trips away. I think that’s part of the reason my aunt was so bitter. She was lonely. She told me he had to work such long hours because of me, but even after I left, he still worked long hours. I think she was lying.”

“Of course she was fucking lying.” Fuck. Fuck. Had everyone let this girl down? Her parents had died. Her aunt had verbally and emotionally abused her for years. And it sounded like her precious cousin and his father had both turned a blind eye to that abuse.

“You’re angry,” she stated. Her voice was back to that emotionless state. He hated it. “At me.”

He squeezed tight. “No, baby. Not at you.”

“I was never spanked as a child, but my parents did punish me. I didn’t misbehave much, I was a good girl. But, still, I was grounded a few times. But my aunt, she never punished me.”

He frowned at that. Sounded like she was punished constantly, just because she’d had the misfortune to end up an orphan and at that bitch’s mercy.

“She never cared if I snuck out of the house or was late getting home. I never even had a curfew. I never realized why that bothered me until later. I mean, sounds like every teenager’s dream. But she never gave me any boundaries because she didn’t care.”

She leaned back, looking up at him, that calm face giving nothing away. “I was wondering, would you care if something happened to me?”

Care? He’d fucking raze cities to the ground if anything happened to her.

Fuc