32. Pez
Pez
I feel like I can finally breathe again when I walk in Daphne’s house.
Sabre is still with me. The way he keeps smiling kind of unnerves me.
I shrug it off. If I had lived without Cammie in my life for so long and finally get her back, I’d be much the same.
Hell, I can’t even go one day without her.
“I’m finally home, Skittles,” I call out as I turn the small foyer to go into the kitchen. I frown when the kitchen is empty, but I look across the breakfast bar and see Cammie and Crank playing in the floor with puzzles. Sabre moves in front of me, holding out his arms.
“There’s my girl!”
Cammie’s eyes jerk up. “Papaw!”
Crank’s eyes have never left mine. Cammie didn’t hear us because of the television, but Crank’s gaze has been trained on me since.
He gets up slowly as Sabre takes over with Cammie.
Sabre shoots me a look. I know he can feel the heaviness in the air.
I give a slight nod. I’ll let him know what is going on as soon as I can.
Right now, I only have one main concern and that’s to make sure Daphne is okay.
“What’s going on?” I demand, keeping my voice down to not scare Cammie. Before Crank can tell me, Cammie comes running into the kitchen.
“Pez! You’re home. Pway with me and Papaw!” I love this girl with everything I am, but right now, I have to tap down the urge to tell her no and growl and Crank.
“I can’t right now, baby,” I tell her picking her up in my arms, kissing her forehead, before looking down in her very disappointed face. “I need to check on Mommy and then I need to talk to her, but afterwards, I’m all yours. We’ll play anything you want.”
“You pwomise?”
I bring my forehead gently against hers. “Cross my heart.”
She surprises me by kissing my cheek and giving me a quick hug. “Okay, Pez. Papaw will pway fwust!”
“Sounds good, sweetheart,” I murmur as I put her down. As she runs away, I don’t repeat myself. I stare at Crank and wait.
“Fuck, man that damn ex of hers came by. She wouldn’t let me run him off.
They went outside and had a conversation.
She asked me to stay in here. When she came back inside, she said she had a headache asked me to stay and watch Cammie.
She cried herself to sleep. I didn’t really know what to do so I just kept your girl entertained and waited. ”
“Fuck. Tell me you listened to what they said,” I snap. The asshole should have never let Dane talk to Daphne alone.
“Hey.”
I look over and I’m kind of startled to see Sabre standing across from me, with Cammie. “Toss me your keys, son. I’m going to take my granddaughter and get us some pizzas for dinner. That way Daph don’t need to worry about anything,” he says.
I know he’s giving me the house to be alone with Daphne and I’m suddenly very grateful that I brought him with me.
I take a few steps so I can hand him the keys—not about to throw anything when my daughter is so close.
She is my daughter. I’m not going to let her, or Daphne go.
It’s not possible. I can’t breathe without them.
Crank decides to head out and I thank him for being here for my family.
If I wasn’t so worried, I’d smile at the term.
I never thought I’d have this chance. I don’t know everything that Dane told her, but I have to make her see me—the real me.
I have to let her know that I can protect her and Cammie.
She loves me. I know she does. I just pray Sabre’s right, and she won’t see me differently now.
I walk slowly to the bedroom and with each step my nerves tighten.
There’s so much riding on Daphne’s reaction.
The last time I put my faith in a woman, I got my heart torn out.
I recognize now it was just my pride, but the pain was real.
If Daphne rejects me, it will fucking crush me.
I open the door quietly, afraid to knock first. I at least want to see her one last time if she orders me to leave and never come back.
When I open the door, I see Daphne lying on her bed, hugging her pillow. I walk to her slowly, taking in her tear-stained face. I don’t know what that bastard did, but I’m going to kill him. At least that way, Daphne and Cammie will finally be free of him.
I’d already hung my cut up in the foyer and took off my boots.
So, I don’t even think about it. I climb up on the bed behind my woman.
I snake my arm around her side, flattening my hand out against her stomach, curling into her.
I know the instant she comes awake. She doesn’t speak, but the shift in her breathing is noticeable.
I wait to see if she’s going to pull away from me.
Instead, Her hand moves over mine. She weaves our fingers together and the tight hold on my heart loosens.
“I was worried,” I admit softly kissing the back of her shoulder.
“I still am.”
“Do you want to talk about it now?” I ask, kind of praying she doesn’t.
“We’ve got him for blackmailing of a formal federal judge, jury tampering, and embezzling from his firm.
That should destroy any influence or standing he has, plus give him a nice vacation in a state penitentiary.
On top of that, we have sworn statements from six women that he’d been cheating with when married to Daphne.
Now, that won’t have influence in court for the divorce, because Kentucky is a no-fault state.
What they have to say about how he would pay them for their silence so he could let his anger out on them, will speak volumes.
Apparently, he told three of them that he had to keep this side hidden from his wife because—and I’m quoting him so don’t shoot me—the bitch got pregnant despite being on birth control.
There was no way he could hit her because her father was in a local thug gang and would try to kill him. ”
“I should have done the world a favor and killed him years ago. I knew he was no good,” Sabre grouses. “I just didn’t realize how bad he was.”
“I need you to tell me what really happened. Why were you arrested and charged with a felony?” she asks.
I suck in a breath, flipping over on my back, before I exhale. I scrub my hands against my face. I expected Daphne to pull away, but instead she turns to face me, curling into my side and draping her leg over both of mine.
“I would’ve told you sooner, baby. I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to lose you.”
Her fingers slide against my chest as she outlines the broken heart tattoo I have on my chest. I got it to remember never to be stupid again. Nora did a number on me. Now I regret it, because I know she was never in my heart.
“Unless you did something completely heinous, which I don’t believe you have the evil to do, I’m not going anywhere. I just need to understand, because Dane is planning on making our lives hell.”
“That asshole won’t get the chance to touch you or Cammie.
I promise you. I don’t know how he found out—but he’s a lawyer, so unfortunately, I figure it was pretty easy for him.
Still, I anticipated what he would do. Sabre and I had the men working on a way to get out from under his thumb and we have it. I just need you to believe in me.”
She angles her body so she’s leaning up, her face much closer to mine as she looks down at me.
“I do believe in you,” she whispers. “I would have never fallen in low with you if I didn’t trust you, Eli.
You saved my brother, helped drag my brother out of hole he had been lost in for way too long.
You made Cammie and I laugh again, something I wasn’t sure I’d ever do again.
In my eyes, you can do anything. Belief doesn’t even begin to describe all of the confidence I have in you, honey. ”
“God, I love you.”
“I love you, too, but right now, I need you to be honest with me. I need you to tell me everything.”
“My old man,” I let out a bone deep sigh and close my eyes.
If I had to relive this, I don’t want to do it seeing Daphne’s reactions.
I don’t want her pity and I sure as hell don’t want to see her disgust. “He wasn’t a nice guy, sweetheart.
He was scum. Outwardly my Mom and I pretended everything was storybook perfect.
If we didn’t, he made us pay. I was a senior in high school—had a scholarship to college.
I was going to play baseball. It was all set. ”
“I didn’t know you played baseball,” she whispers.
“I don’t anymore,” I say, unable to keep some of the bitterness out of my tone.
“Anyways, there was this girl in school. Gracie Conley. She was quiet but had pretty hazel eyes. I could just look at her and know she had a hard life. It was a face I saw in the mirror every day. She asked me if was going to go to the prom. I didn’t want to.
I didn’t have the tux and shit other kids wore.
She was pretty, though, and I was a horny kid, so I decided to go. ”
“Ick. I’m not sure I want to hear this. I prefer to think of you as a very old virgin who is just naturally good in bed. That way I don’t have to look at other women and want to scratch their eyes out,” Daphne grumbles.
“There’s no one for me but you, sweetheart,” I vow, kissing her lips briefly. “I think I should spare you what happened at the prom beneath the stars.”
“I’d appreciate it,” she grumbles. I twirl my finger around her a copper curl, wondering how in the world I ended up in a world where this gorgeous woman would not only share her life with me, but would stand by me and not doubt me in the face of everything.
I’m not stupid. I know that asshole had to have threatened taking Cammie away.
Yet, here she is calm after an initial breakdown—which was more than expected.
She maintained faith in me. Her love humbles me.
I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she knows that I love her the same way. “Eli?” she prompts