Chapter 5
D evi was exhausted.
She dragged herself into the trailer. She was too tired to even care whether her father was home or not. Right now, all she wanted was to have a drink of water and go to bed and sleep for a hundred years.
Two more days and she had a whole two days off. Sundays and Mondays were her favorite days. She could spend the entire time in her pottery studio creating beautiful vases and bowls. She almost had enough for the gallery showing she had coming up.
That was her ticket out of here.
Nothing could stop her from participating in that show.
Thankfully, the trailer was empty and after she drank a whole bottle of water, she stumbled into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
She was going to have an amazing night’s sleep.
A thumping noise woke her up and she sat with a fright.
Shit.
Why did she jinx herself with that thought earlier? Of course she wasn’t going to have an amazing night’s sleep.
That was an impossible dream.
Another thump. She grabbed her toy squirrel, holding her close.
Coco had gotten her through some tough times.
Her mom had bought Coco for her a long time ago.
Coco had been there for her when Mom died, when her father started drinking, when her teacher started bullying her, making her retreat into herself.
And more recently when her brother left her.
When Aaron was being a jerk and her dad was being abusive.
So she hugged Coco tight as she heard footsteps and what sounded like someone banging into a wall.
“Mouse! Mouse, get out here and help your old man!” her father yelled.
She stared down at her hands which were trembling. Then she glanced over at the door. Had she locked it?
Of course you locked it.
You always lock it.
And it had a good deadbolt that she’d installed herself.
“Mouse! Get out here now!”
Shit.
She got up and tucked Coco safely away. Who knew what her father would do if he saw her? Devi wasn’t going to risk Coco being harmed.
She unlocked the door and stepped out of the room.
Suddenly, she realized that she should have thought through her actions more. She could have escaped out the window in her room and ran. Where she would have gone, she wasn’t certain. But sometimes it was safer out in the woods than it was in her own home.
At the very least she should have put on more clothes. She stared down at her oversized T-shirt. It wasn’t revealing or sexy. But it also wasn’t that long, ending just past her ass. If she bent over the asshole in her living room would get quite the show.
Fuck.
She took a step back, giving Vega a wary look. Unconsciously, she put her hand over the bruise on her arm. His gaze went to her arm and he licked his lips.
Her heart raced at the weird look on his face. What was wrong with this guy? Did he get off on knowing that he’d bruised her?
She was in real trouble here.
What was he doing in her house in the middle of the night? With her father?
Actually, whatever the reason she didn’t care. She just wanted him gone. Or she could leave.
Whatever got her away from him first.
“Mouse, come and help your old man,” her father slurred his words. Vega held his arm over his shoulder and seemed to be the only reason why her father wasn’t flat on the floor.
But why would Vega be helping her father? It didn’t make sense and she didn’t like the fact that she’d seen him two nights in a row near or in her home.
Nope. She didn’t like that at all.
“Don’t leave,” Vega said with a smirk and she realized that she had backed up so she was nearly in her bedroom.
“Mouse! Get us something to drink!” her father demanded.
Yeah. That wasn’t happening. Why wouldn’t he stop calling her Mouse? Tears filled her eyes and she had to work hard to push them back.
Why couldn’t her father ever be a dad? Why couldn’t he love her? Protect her? Take care of her?
Was that really too much to ask?
It seemed that it was. She didn’t know what it said about her that her own father couldn’t treat her with respect.
So why did she expect it from other men? She certainly didn’t get it from Vega. Or from Aaron. Or some of the guys in the bar.
But Mac has always shown you respect.
Hayes did too. And she’d only spoken briefly to Donovan but he’d seemed like a decent man.
They were out there. Good men like her brother.
She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “There isn’t any.”
“What?” her father roared, making her wince.
Shit.
She shouldn’t be showing any reaction in front of Vega. He might be a jerk, but that didn’t mean that he was stupid. He was likely reading her like a book.
“I told you to get me some fucking alcohol, girl!” Her father tried to step forward and for some reason Vega chose to let him go. He fell onto the floor in a heap.
She gulped but didn’t move. She wasn’t going to put herself closer to his zone.
That would be stupid.
“Hey! Pick me the fuck up!” her father yelled.
Vega just shot him a cold look. She could ask him to help her get her father into his bedroom. But she really didn’t want to give him any reason to stay longer.
“What are you doing here? With my father?” she asked.
Vega shrugged. “Just doing my good deed for the day.”
She snorted. “Right. You don’t have any good in you.”
Vega smirked as though he found her hilarious. She didn’t like that he found her interesting. She’d rather he forget that she existed.
“I found him like this sitting on the side of the road. Could have left him there to get run over.”
Yeah, that would have been good.
No, no. Shit. She wasn’t this person. She didn’t want to be evil. He was her father and she owed him . . . well, she wasn’t sure what she owed him.
“I can see maybe I should have left him there,” Vega said to her.
Fuck.
How could he read her so easily? Her estimation of his intelligence was going up and she wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“No, of course not. How could you say something like that?”
Vega looked her over and there was something in his gaze . . . something hungry? Predatory?
Holy shit.
She longed to rush back into her bedroom and lock the door, to pull on some clothes and hide under the bed. That was her usual hiding place.
She and Coco could hide under the bed for hours. They often had.
“Can’t imagine that it’s easy to live with a drunken loser.”
“Don’t call him that!” she protested. Although there was no heat in her voice.
Because it wasn’t anything she hadn’t thought before.
Her father hadn’t handled her mom’s death well. Losing her had broken him. But that excuse had run thin a long time ago. Other people lost their soul mates, yet they still carried on. They managed to be there for their children.
Or, at the very least, they didn’t make their children’s lives worse the way that he had.
Her father let out a snore followed by a loud fart.
God. He was so . . . disgusting. She had to breathe through the urge to glare at him, to tell him what she really thought of him.
Sometimes, she snuck into his room at night, knowing he was passed out on a concoction of drugs and alcohol and told him exactly what she thought of him.
It was cathartic.
“Crappy place you live in. You deserve better, Mouse,” Vega said.
She wanted to snap at him not to call her Mouse. But she knew better than to give him ammunition to use against her. However, she wasn’t as good at guarding her face as she thought she was.
“Don’t like being called that, do you? Yet, he keeps doing it.” He kicked her father making him let out a grunt of pain.
“Hey! Don’t do that!” she protested. She might not like her father. But she also didn’t want him to be actively harmed.
And Devi didn’t like violence.
She wasn’t necessarily a good person. Not like the heroines in her books. They always did the right thing. Even if it meant that bad things happened to them. Or that they were pushed around by other people taking advantage of them.
Devi wasn’t like that. Maybe she had been when she was younger. But years of being bullied and abused had changed something in her. It was a gradual change. Not that she could ever be mean to someone.
But that didn’t mean that she didn’t exact her own sort of revenge when someone wronged her.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I do it?” he asked in a low voice.
Did he really not know?
Looking into his face she could see no regret in his face, no recognition that kicking a sleeping, defenseless person was wrong.
Shit.
Did Vega feel any empathy? Or regret?
Devi should be panicking over the fact that she was essentially alone with this man.
Another smile crossed his face.
Fuck. He was definitely reading her mind right now.
“Why are you really here?” she asked.
“Just checking on my possible investment.”
What the heck did that mean?
Her heart raced, her stomach turning over dangerously.
“Your possible investment?”
He didn’t reply, but to her relief he turned and headed to the door.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
Shit. Why did she say that? Why didn’t she just let him go?
What was wrong with her?
He stopped at the door and glanced over his wide, thick shoulder at her. “You sound disappointed.”
She shook her head. “No. Not disappointed.”
Crap. He didn’t like that. His eyes narrowed and she braced herself.
Why couldn’t she learn to keep her mouth shut?
Because you no longer want to be that person. The one that puts up and shuts up about people hurting you.
No. But she also didn’t need to prod the beast, did she? Especially when she was on her own with little option for escape.
“Watch what you say to me,” he said quietly. “I don’t mind your fire. Going to make it interesting if I get to tame you. But that won’t make things easy on you.”
Fuck. Holy fuck.
He left, shutting the door quietly. There was more threat in that than if he’d slammed it.
Devi stood there, just trying to remember how to breathe.
Lock the door, idiot!
Shit. Shit.
Devi rushed to the door, locking it quickly. Then she peered out of the window.
Oh God.
Was he still there? It was dark out and it took her eyes a while to adjust. But she was pretty sure she saw him standing several feet away.
Still. Silent.
She sunk to the floor and leaned back against the wall, tucking her legs against her chest.
What was that? What was going on?
What did he mean by possible investment? Why did he look at her like he . . . like he owned her?
Devi glanced over at her father as he moaned and started mumbling nonsense in his sleep.
Why did she have this feeling that this could have something to do with him?
Maybe because everything bad in your life stems from him.
Devi closed her eyes. She needed to get away from this life.
The gallery showing held the key to her escape. But it was two months away and she still had another two pieces to finish. Then she had to get the items packed up and over to the gallery.
She had the money saved to pay for the transport, but it would take every penny.
Two months. . . she just had to hold on for two months and hope like hell that Vega didn’t make good on his threat.