Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
SERENITY
Iwas back on the day shift a few days after the night of my reluctant performance.
It was the first time I’d worked a shift with Fletcher since Rory had given me the tiniest bit of his backstory, and I found myself watching him closely as we prepped to open, my brain swimming with a million different questions.
I still didn’t know the full story, but knowing what I did now, my heart cracked a little more every time I looked at him.
“I don’t know what your deal is, but you need to knock it off,” Rory hissed from behind me, jerking my attention from the hallway Fletcher had just disappeared down so he could grab a case of beer.
“You’re watching that poor boy so closely, I’m afraid he’s going to come to me to file a harassment claim. ”
Okay, I had to admit that I was probably coming off a little creepy, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m just worried about him. He’s so closed off. It’s like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
She gave me a look of sympathy and reached out to give my forearm a comforting squeeze. “To him, it probably feels like he is.”
“What happened to him, Rory?”
She let out a reluctant sigh before casting her gaze toward the hall that led to the stockroom.
“Come on.” As if deciding it was too risky to have the conversation out in the open, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the back and into her office, closing the door firmly behind us.
“Damn, is it that bad?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s bad. Normally, the state wouldn’t bother pulling a seventeen-year-old from their home. It’s a sad, disgusting fact, but it’s a fact nonetheless.”
“So if they felt it necessary to intervene, it had to have been pretty damn bad.”
She nodded solemnly. “It was. He grew up, just him and his dad, in a place up in the mountains. There’s a group of people up there, doomsday preppers and the like, convinced the world is going straight to hell at an alarming rate.
Most of them don’t usually cause a lot of problems, mainly they’re just determined to live the self-sufficient lifestyle.
They don’t bother anyone else and appreciate if we do the same, but there’s a small offshoot that thinks our laws don’t apply to them.
It’s mainly men, think their children and women are meant to wait on them hand and foot, cater to them.
And they enforce those rules with iron fists. Literally.”
Oh God, poor Fletcher.
I felt my blood start to heat, boil in my veins. “Let me guess, his father’s one of those assholes, and his mom decided she couldn’t handle it anymore and just left him to that hell all by himself.”
She lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “No one knows what happened to his mom. One day she was there, the next she wasn’t.”
I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to hurt for him any more than it already did.
“That’s all I know. Well, that, and the fact that whatever his piece-of-shit father put him through, nearly broke him.”
I let out a sigh, my heart feeling heavy. “I’m almost sorry I asked.”
“Almost?”
“Yeah, almost. Because if I didn’t know, as much as it breaks my freaking heart, I wouldn’t know what to do or how to act to help him put himself back together.”
Rory blinked. Then smiled, huge.
“Why are you smiling like that? You look like something out of a scary movie.”
“I’m smiling because you get it. Not many people do. The more people who know, the more we can help these kids.”
She looped her arm through mine and led me out of the office.
The bell above the door rang just as Rory and I stepped back out front. I stutter-stepped before jerking to a stop at the sight of the man who’d just walked in. There was something vaguely familiar about him, but I wasn’t sure where I’d seen him before.
The vibe that was pouring off him sent a chill through the air. A tremor worked its way down my spine the moment his eyes finished their scan of the bar and landed on me. There was nothing behind those eyes. They were like dark, blank voids.
“Sorry, but we’re not open yet,” Rory stated, trepidation reading clear in her tone. When I looked over at her, I saw her eyeing the man in a way that told me she felt the same thing I had. This was not a good man. “You’re welcome to come back at eleven but for now, you’ll have to go.”
The man’s eyes changed in that very instant.
They were no longer empty, but full of so much hatred it caused me to suck in a gasp.
Recognition took hold just then, and I remembered where I’d seen this guy before.
He was the one standing on the sidewalk and staring at me the other night when I was leaving the bar.
“Don’t take orders from the likes of you, heathen.”
Rory rocked back on the heel of her kickass cowboy boot at the venom spitting from his words, but I had an altogether different reaction.
The impact of the hate in his eyes dwindled at my own rising anger.
Who the hell was this man to think he had any right to come into Rory’s own establishment and talk to her like that?
“You need to leave, now. And don’t bother coming back once we’re open.”
His focus shifted to me, his top lip curling up in a snarl. “I see you’re the kind of woman who needs to learn her place.”
I harrumphed at his audacity. “And let me guess, you’re just the asshole to teach me, right? I seriously doubt that. Now, get the hell out, before I call the cops.”
The man snorted derisively. “You think I’m gonna listen to some filthy pig and whore woman?
Your laws don’t mean shit to me.” This guy must have been one of the ones Rory had just told me about.
I didn’t think I’d actually meet one in the flesh, but now that he was standing right in front of me, I wished I hadn’t.
The laugh the man let out just then would have chilled me to the bone had my rage not been burning. “I’m not leavin’ here without my boy.”
I opened my mouth to ask what boy he was talking about when a loud clatter wrenched through the air like a gunshot.
I whirled around to see Fletcher standing at the mouth of the hallway. The crash had come from the broom and dustpan he’d been carrying. He must have dropped them because his hands were visibly shaking, and his face had turned ashen.
“Fletcher?” I started, concern for him quickly drowning everything else out.
“Time to go, boy,” the man snapped aggressively.
My head bounced between the two of them like I was watching a tennis match. “Wait. He’s your—you’re his—” My focus centered on Fletcher, his behavior suddenly making a lot more sense. “This is your father?”
He blinked like he was coming out of some sort of trance and looked at me, his eyes glassy with fear that set a whole new fire in my veins.
He looked so much younger than his eighteen years just then.
He was scared to death, and something inside me roared to life, screaming and clawing with the need to protect him from the very thing that had put that look of abject terror on his face.
“Fletcher!” the man snapped, his voice cracking like a whip. “Won’t say it again. Get over here, now. We’re leavin’.”
I moved then, putting myself between Fletcher and this vile excuse of a human being.
I looked back over my shoulder, holding my hand out to stop him while doing my best to look as reassuring as possible.
“Fletcher, stay where you are, buddy. Rory, can you call the cops to remove this piece of filth?”
She already had her phone pressed to her ear as she rushed to Fletcher and threw a protective arm over his shoulders. “Already on it.”
“The hell do you think you are, standin’ between me and my own boy?” the man boomed. “That’s my own flesh and blood. He does what I say! Not some whore who works in this den of sin.”
I whipped back around, shoving my finger in the man’s face. “Then you should have thought about that and treated him as such instead of like he was some piece of garbage whose sole purpose in life was to cater to you. You lost all rights to call yourself his father, you sanctimonious prick!”
“Serenity, don’t—” Fletcher tried to warn, but it was too late.
His father moved in even closer, and I would have been a liar if I said he didn’t scare the ever-loving shit out of me, but I’d be damned if I let it show. I was Serenity Ryan, for Christ’s sake. I would not be cowed by any man, but especially this one.
“Someone needs to teach you a lesson,” he hissed, spittle flying from his mouth.
“Better men than you have tried,” I said through gritted teeth. “And every single one of them has failed.”
He looked me up and down in a way that had me suppressing the shiver that wanted to skate over my entire body. “Think I know exactly what to do with that whore mouth of yours. Once I’m finished with you, you’ll know your place good and well.”
“Careful. You should know, I hit back. And when I do, I hit hard.” Preferably with my car. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to pay for what he’d done to Fletcher.
Sirens sounded in the distance, alerting everyone to the impending police presence.
“Dad,” Fletcher said, his voice quavering, “don’t make this worse. Please just go.”
The man looked to his son and curled his lip in disgust before spitting on the floor. Then he turned back to me and shoved his finger in my face. “This isn’t over.”
With that ominous warning hanging in the air, he turned and bounded through the door like the coward he was. He might have thought he was above our laws, but the chickenshit was still too much of a coward to tangle with the local PD.
I wasn’t surprised in the least.
I turned back around to find that Fletcher’s face was a sickly shade of white, like he’d just seen a ghost.
I moved in his direction quickly, taking hold of him by the arms and adopting a soothing tone. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay now. He’s gone.”
“You—you shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “He’s not going to get near you ever again.”
Fletcher shook his head frantically, the fear in his eyes only growing stronger. “I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about you. You just painted a bullseye on the middle of your back.”
I had to admit, that didn’t sound great, and yeah, it might have freaked me out a little. But that asshole didn’t know who I was. He didn’t know where I lived, and he sure as hell didn’t know that I’d claw his face to shreds if he tried anything.
“I’ll be fine. I promise. You don’t need to worry about me.”
He didn’t look convinced, but before I could get another word out, the door to the bar burst open, and two uniformed officers came waltzing in.
In my old life, the sight of cops was something I’d wanted to avoid at all costs.
It was crazy how things changed. Because now, instead of wanting to sneak out the back to avoid the law, I suddenly felt like everything was going to be okay.