Chapter 16 #4
“I need to get her stuff for her.” I shrug.
“Let me think about it,” he says shortly and that makes my hackles rise. What does he need to think about? If he asked me to do this for him, I’d be cracking my fucking knuckles and saying let’s go.
Instead of asking him anything, my jaw sets to the side and I nod.
“Would you be going to start something?” He crossed his arms over his chest, looking at me with a look that tells me this will determine if I have back up.
“No,” I answer him honestly. “My main and only goal is to get all of her stuff. She has money she’s been saving up, clothes, and some sentimental stuff that’s at his place.
I only plan on going, getting everything that is hers and then leaving.
I’ll even swear to you that I’ll be cordial.
But that being said,” my hands curl into fists just thinking about what I know will probably happen when Mickey and I see each other.
“If he starts something, I’m not going to just take it lying down. ”
Asher chuckles, “I’d expect nothing less from you.”
“Okay, so I’ll get the address from Rox and we go tomorrow before the shop opens? If we leave by six in the morning, we should be able to get to the shop after two, if we’re able to get everything within half an hour.”
“Where are you going?” Roxie asks, rolling the mop bucket out and stopping in front of us.
“I’m going to get your stuff from Mickey.”
She pauses. “No, you’re not. Not without me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Ty,” she says strongly as if to tell me, ‘don’t start this shit right now.’
“Roxie, I’m serious. If he’s there… I can’t let him around you. Ever again.” I’m more serious about her being away from Mickey than I am about anything else. “Don’t you have things you want back?”
Her eyes close as her head tilts up towards the ceiling and I know right then that there is something sentimental she has there. Something she doesn’t want to lose.
“What is it?” I ask, softer this time.
“Ty.” Her voice breaks slightly, those dark eyes opening and showing me the sadness there.
“Please tell me, baby. Tell me so I can bring it home to you.”
Swallowing hard, she bites the inside of her lip and nods. “Remember that night in the clearing?”
I nod quickly, my breath catching in my throat. I remember every moment of that night.
“I found your drawings, the ones you left me. And those memories, the ones you must have spent all night on, they’re my most cherished possessions."
What? I think, utterly astonished, trying to keep the shock off my face and my heart from beating out of my chest.
“I…” Roxie shakes her head from side to side before wrapping her arms around her waist. “I always kept them close to me, and then on nights where it was particularly bad, I’d pull them out and just know that… at one time, someone cared for me.”
Just shove the knife into my heart and twist it. It feels like I’m dying. Like my entire being wants to desperately figure out how to go back in time and shield her from it all. I would’ve. I could’ve. But I was too young to fucking figure it out.
“I’ve always cared for you,” I whisper, stepping forward and holding her hand. I need to hold her in some way, give her some kind of comfort. If it’s for her, or for me, I’m not totally sure. But I know we both feel better immediately.
“Holding the picture you made me while you were letting me sleep on you, protecting me as I rested, it made me feel safe. That’s not something I’ve felt since that night.”
My eyes find hers, but if I’m honest, I never stopped looking at her. I don’t think I’ll be looking away any time soon. I don’t think I want to.
“I’ll get it back for you.”
“Ty,” she says again, trying to reason with me, but I cut her off.
“No, Roxie. Please, let me do this.”
“No, Ty! I will not let you go there,” she says louder, stronger. But I hear it. The tinge of fear.
“Roxie,” I start to say, my voice turning harder. Now that I know what she has there, what it means to her? There’s no fucking way I’m letting that drawing stay in that house. No. Hell-fucking-no.
“Yeah, no, Roxie. I’m with Ty on this one,” Asher chimes in, before going back to spraying down his station.
“No one asked you!” she spits at Asher and I take a deep breath because I know this is going to escalate.
“He did.” Asher shrugs, and effectively throws me under the bus. Roxie’s eyes burn into my skull as she gears up to ask me the question I know is coming.
“You what?”
“I wanted back up.”
“You guys can’t go! He’s fucking psychotic and I don’t know what he’ll do if you just barge in.”
“I don’t really care what he does. You need your stuff, carino.”
“I’ll get it myself.”
“You will not,” I say strongly. Not snapping or forceful, but hard enough that she knows I’m not bending on this.
“Ty!” She throws her hands up at me in frustration, and I can tell from the way she’s almost squaring up that this could turn into an actual fight if I don’t explain myself just right.
“Baby,” I step closer, holding her face in my hands, “I can’t let you be around that monster.
Ever again. What he did to you… I could kill him.
But more than that, I will spend the rest of my life protecting you from him.
I can’t… I’d never let you be near him willingly.
I want to do this for you. I want you to be free of him.
Please, Roxie, let me take care of you.”
Her eyes widen as I speak, looking at Asher when I mention that I could kill Mickey, but I pull her gaze back to me.
“Please, carino, I want to take care of you,” I whisper, holding her forehead to mine.
“Asher would go with you?” she asks softly. And I swear, I fall a little deeper. This fierce woman was just about to deck me because I was going to put myself in danger. And now, after I’ve talked her into letting me go into her perceived danger, she wants to make sure I’ve got back up.
I grin and nod.
“I have to talk him into it,” I admit.
“No, I’ll go,” Asher says, standing up again and dropping his cleaning supplies. He’s practically vibrating with anger. “I’m in. And Ty? Fuck what I said.” He grabs some of his stuff and shoves it into his backpack. “If I see him, I’ll help you hide the body.” Asher nods once.
“Guys,” Roxie says softly, like she doesn’t want to have any trouble, but that ship has sailed.
“Don’t worry,” I pull her into my arms, resting my chin on her head, looking at Asher over the top of her. I know he understands why she’s so nervous when Asher’s eyes widen with fury and his nostrils flare with the intense need to hurt someone.
“Tomorrow, six am,” Asher says angrily, pointing at me aggressively, throwing the words down like I’m the one that would forget.
“You guys finish cleaning up and put a sign up on the door saying we’re opening at two thirty tomorrow.
I’m going home to sleep before I have to be up at the ass-crack of dawn. ”
“Asher!” Roxie pulls back and grabs his hand. “Thank you.”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to my sister,” he says softly, cupping her shoulder before walking off and closing the door behind him.
“I swear to god, if anything happens to you guys,” she says, her voice wobbly as she looks at me in the eye.
“Nothing, and I mean nothing is going to happen to us.” I reiterate, the words coming out like a vow because I know that I can promise her that.
“No matter what Roxie, you deserve to be free. To never have to do anything you don’t want to do.
And I’m going to make it my life’s mission to make sure you are free. ”
They say love makes you do crazy things.
Well, I say, love makes you strong enough to do what you need to do.
“Six in the morning, Ty? Really?” Asher groans, stepping into the living room, dressed, but eyes closed like he can’t bear to face the morning.
I don’t blame him. We are night owls by trade.
The shop doesn’t open until noon and typically we’re working late into the night, so we aren’t exactly morning people.
I already tucked Roxie in under the blankets, kissing her forehead and moving around the room as quietly as possible so I didn’t wake her.
She’s not a heavy sleeper, but I can tell she’s sleeping easier these days and I want her to sleep as much as she can. It makes me beam with pride every time those dark circles under her eyes get a little lighter.
“It’s four hours away,” I mutter, rubbing my hands over my face before moving quickly to the fridge to get my beloved energy drink.
I crack open the can and take a long, cold drink.
Ahhhh, I sigh internally and pull it back, looking at the can like it’s not the same one I drink every day.
“That’s some good shit.” I heard someone say once that a cold energy drink is like a fridge cigarette and I have never understood something more.
“Come on, Ty, we gotta go.” Asher walks over to the cabinet and grabs a granola bar. I pick up Roxie’s helmet off the table, tossing it to him before picking up my own.
“Alright, alright, I really don’t want to do this,” I mutter in Spanish under my breath. Why, you may ask?
Because I know the second I see that motherfucker, I’m going to strangle him. My hands already tingle with the need to see him crumple to the floor and never get back up.
It’s a good thing Asher’s coming with me. I don’t know if I fully trust myself around Mickey. Not that he doesn’t deserve whatever’s coming to him.
Asher and I leave, locking the door behind us.
I’m not taking any chances with her safety.
We already talked last night that she’s not leaving until we get home.
It makes for a long day at the apartment–something she complained about non-fucking-stop last night, but when I explained how I would be going crazy out of my mind with worry if she left and I didn’t have any way to reach her…
Roxie reluctantly promised to stay put today, but only after an order and a grip of her throat. Her little, ‘okay, Daddy’ echoes in my mind and I have to immediately shut down any other train of thought because I cannot get a chubby while inviting Asher onto the back of my bike.
We walk outside where the sun is just barely beginning to rise and I take a deep breath of the morning air. It’s fucking nice before the sun rises and makes the Arizona heat unbearable. The birds are chirping, the sun is rising, the fog is starting to recede.
Now it’s time to go fuck someone up.
I take another long pull of my energy drink, draining it and crushing the can before tossing it into our dumpster, and pulling the keys out.
“Oh fuck, no,” Asher groans, stopping in his tracks.
“What?”
“I didn’t realize that coming to help you meant that I’d have to be your freaking backpack.” Asher throws a hand out at the back of my bike and I look at the backseat and then look at him, keys in my hand and a tight smirk on my face.
“Don’t get any ideas, man. I’m taken.”
“Trust me, fucker. You’re not my type,” Asher says and rolls his eyes.
I laugh and climb onto the bike, turning the ignition and slipping my helmet on. Asher shakes his head, looking at me, and I mime blowing him a kiss before tapping the backseat.
Asher laughs and puts his helmet on, throwing his leg over dramatically before he wraps his arms around my waist.
“Alright, let’s get this over with.”
I laugh loudly, the sound being muffled in the mask and rev the engine before peeling out from the front of the apartment.