Chapter 29
Demon lay on the bed, Ronnie in his arms and listened to her breathe.
He’d felt her tense when he’d suggested she sleep, but it hadn’t taken long for her body to relax against him and her breathing to even out.
She felt good in his arms. He wished they could lie like this for the rest of the day, that he could fall asleep wrapped around her like this and not have anything to worry about.
But all too soon, her brother would return.
Demon had no idea what he would say if he walked in on them right now.
He had a good idea how he might react, if Ronnie were his sister, but even he could admit that he was more than a little redneck, and given the way he’d grown up, he could only guess that he would be fiercely protective of any sister he might have had.
Since he hadn’t had one, though, it would only be a guess.
Demon knew that Gavin and Ronnie had been close when they were young, and he assumed they still were now, given that her brother had dropped everything in his life to come back and make sure she was okay.
He couldn’t imagine he would take it too well if he walked in and found her naked and in bed with someone she’d known for less than a week.
But he had time. Gavin would be gone at least a couple of hours, probably more. It would likely take them at least a couple of hours to bring in Jim Bob. Longer if Gavin hung around to have a part of the questioning, or if he wanted to be the one to make the deal with him.
He glanced at the clock, he still had a while before he had to get up and get moving.
He could stay here a little longer and hopefully let her rest a while.
He hoped that by then, she would be sound asleep enough that his getting up wouldn’t wake her.
He’d heard her get up and down several times during the night and had wanted to come in and see what was wrong, but had held back, because he’d suspected they would end up exactly as they were now.
That wouldn’t have been a bad thing, except that if he was the one looking to take someone unaware, he would have gone in at night. He would use the cover of darkness to help camouflage what he was doing, so he’d felt like he had to be more vigilant.
He probably shouldn’t be here now, because the threat to her was still out there, but he felt like it was far less likely they’d come into her house in the daylight when any of the neighbors could see them and call the cops.
It was a flimsy excuse, he knew but as he lay there with her in his arms, sated and content, he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Where’s Ronnie?” Gavin asked, his voice low, as he stepped in the front door and closed it behind him.
His gaze skimmed the room, as if he was looking for her to be hiding in one of the corners.
Not that he would find her there, she was still in bed, where he’d left her twenty minutes before when he’d figured he was about out of time and gotten up.
“Taking a nap.” Demon tipped back the cup of coffee he’d made after getting up. Ronnie hadn’t even twitched when he’d slide out of bed, letting him hope that she would sleep for a little while yet.
Gavin frowned. “A nap? I don’t know the last time she took a nap.” He moved into the living room, looked around again, then sat on the edge of the sofa, hunching forward so his elbows rested on his knees.
Demon shrugged. “She was up and down all night. It’s no wonder she’s tired this morning.
” He figured she was having some disturbing dreams after her near miss yesterday, but he didn’t say anything.
It would only worry her brother, and it was something that Demon wanted to be able to help her with, not anyone else.
Gavin watched him for a moment, as if trying to determine if Demon was lying to him or if he was hiding anything. Demon wasn’t worried. He had a better poker face than nearly everyone he knew, with the exception of the rest of his Demented Souls brothers.
“Anything happen while I was out?” he finally asked.
Demon shook his head. There was no way he would be telling her brother, or anyone else about what went on between them.
“How did it go, you get him?”
Gavin nodded. “We got him.” He shook his head slowly, as if in disbelief.
“It didn’t take much to get him to sing.
And boy is he singing. Downside is that he doesn’t seem to have much on the Devils or Switchblade, upside is he’s already completely implicated my father.
I had to recuse myself from bringing him in or having any part in making a deal with him, but I’ve got some connections, so we’ll at least know what’s going on. ”
“They take your dad in yet?”
Gavin shook his head. “Not yet. They were still putting together the team, but I wanted to come check on everything here. I was getting close to that two hour window I’d told Ronnie, and I didn’t want her to freak that something might have happened to me.
Besides, my friend on the case will keep me updated on what’s going on.
As much as I might want to be there, it would raise red flags since I’m not assigned on anything here.
” He lifted one shoulder and let it drop as if he didn’t care.
Demon knew better but he didn’t say anything.
“Do you think your dad will be able to give them Switchblade?”
“I wish I could tell you. I haven’t been around all that much in the last ten years.
I haven’t kept track of what Dad’s up to and honestly?
I only got involved this time because of her.
” He tilted the top of his head toward the bedroom where Ronnie slept.
“If Dad is involved with Switchblade and others of his ilk, more than in the parameters of his legal business, because I know there will be some involvement with less than savory types when you do something like bail bonds, then he gets whatever is coming. He made his bed, now he can lie in it.”
“But not Ronnie?”
“Ronnie didn’t make that bed. I’m not going to let her get hurt because our father is a piece of shit.”
“Tell me how you really feel about him,” Demon invited.
Gavin shook his head. “I just did. I spent the morning coordinating with the team doing the take down on your cousin, and reviewing the file several agencies have compiled about my father.” He dropped his head and stared at the floor for several seconds before looking up and meeting Demon’s gaze. “What do you know about our mother?”
Demon tilted his head to one side as he tried to recall if Ronnie had ever said anything about her mom, but came up with nothing.
“Nothing. I assume you had one, especially since there are two of you, but we haven’t spent a lot of time exchanging life histories.”
Gavin took a deep breath and let it out in a rush as he leaned back and let his head fall back against the back of the couch, so it looked like he was talking to the ceiling instead of Demon. Demon got the feeling this was not going to be good news.
“Our father is an asshole.”
Demon snorted. That was an understatement.
Even he knew that, and he’d never even met the man.
He’d known it from the way he treated his daughter, using her to pay off a debt.
But he didn’t say anything. He wanted to let the other man finish what he was saying.
Interrupting him with useless commentary wouldn’t get it done, and hopefully before Ronnie woke up.
“He was never easy to live with. I can’t speak for Ronnie, but when I was a kid I thought the yelling, the throwing things, the erratic behavior, the Dad hitting Mom, or us, for what I now know was stupid shit, I though all that was normal.
” He glanced down at Demon as if making sure he was paying attention, then continued.
“I guess it all came to a head when I was sixteen, Ronnie was fourteen or there abouts. Dad came home in one of his moods. I could tell as soon as he came through the door by the way he slammed it. I finally had an escape, I had a license, and I could get out of there instead of being a target for whatever was coming. But I wasn’t going alone.
I didn’t bother going to Mom, she wouldn’t have gone, and she would have stopped me, but I did get Ronnie, and we got the hell out of there. ”
“Where did you go?” If he’d gotten them out of their father’s house when he was sixteen, why was Ronnie working for her father now?
“Just to my grandmother’s. It was only for a few nights but at least it got us out of the thick of things, at least that night.
” He went quiet, but stayed where he was, flopped out on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling, though Demon suspected he wasn’t seeing the popcorn insulation up there, but was instead looking into the past.
“The next day after school, Mom met us at the door. She told Ronnie and me that she was done. That she was leaving Dad. She didn’t know yet what she was going to do, or where she would go, but once she was established somewhere, she’d send for us. She took her suitcase and walked out the door.”
“I take it she never sent for you?”
Gavin shook his head without looking at Demon. “Nope. Not only that, but that was the last time either of us ever heard from her.”
Demon’s mouth fell open. He stared at Gavin for several seconds, half hoping he’d grin and tell him it was all a joke, but the ball of dread in his stomach told him that the nightmare was all too true.
The faint sound of fabric sliding against fabric came from the hallway.
“Give me just a sec.” Demon stood and went to the hall. Nothing there. He continued down the hall to where he’d left Ronnie’s bedroom door just touching, and eased it open a couple of inches, just until he could see the bed.