by B. C. Falls
“So what, he’s just going to jump in front of bullets for us now?” she asks as I wrap my arms around her.
“Basically he’ll jump in front of everything. The instant he walked into this house and learned who lives here he became that for you.”
“What bout you?” she asks still not touching me. I’ve put us as close as I can but she is still leaning away from me.
“What about me?” I ask leaning my head closer to hers but she pulls back. “What’s up?” I ask confused.
“Nothing just….” She looks over at Kady and Boxer.
“Kady knows we’re together,” I whisper to her, “I don’t think she minds.”
“She doesn’t I just don’t want to…”
When she stops I let go of her and look back at Kady “Hey Kady, can you finish the bacon I gotta ask Royce about something?”
“Sure thing,” she says as she lets go of Boxer who in turn follows us back to Royce’s office.
When we’re in the office I close the door slightly, enough for Boxer to get out and enough for us to hear Kady. “Royce what is it?”
“Nothing, I just don’t like putting Kady in an awkward position.”
“Are we not together?” I ask stepping closer to her. She doesn’t respond. “I’m sorry, are you not mine?” I wrap my arms around her pulling her as tightly as I can against me without hurting her. “Are you?”
“I am,” she says with frustration.
“What happened between your shower and now? Because when I walked into your room this morning we were good.” She isn’t looking at me, which isn’t a good sign. “Royce?” I demand.
She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry okay,” she pushes on my chest, but I pull her back to me.
“No. You don’t pull away from me. Whenever you get mad or want to fucking fight with me, then you do it right here in my arms. No pulling away. Got it?” She nods. “Good now what is the fucking problem?”
She reaches behind her and pulls my phone out of her back pocket. “Sammy texted you.” When I reach for it she takes the opportunity of my arms loosening and turns away from me.
I look down at my phone. Sammy is on the screen naked. Fucking naked. I quickly delete the photo and block her number. “She was an old flame from before I met you.”
“Why the hell is she texting you pictures?” she asks calmly. Another bad sign. Royce is rarely calm. She’s feisty and fights for what she wants with everything she has. I’m royally screwed.
“I don’t know, Royce. Its not like I sent out a mass text letting every girl I ever fucked know that I was off the market!” My voice is raised and I know I fucked up even more when she turns around and glares at me. “I’m sorry,” I walk towards her with my tail tucked between my legs. “I’m sorry, Royce. I didn’t mean to get upset it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“What doesn’t make sense?” she asks. “A girl you used to fuck sent you a naked fucking picture Dane. You think I like seeing that shit? You think I have guys sexting me?” When I don’t say anything she continues. “Well I don’t, because all my exes are douche bags and you are just like them.” She pushes on my chest but I don’t budge. “Fuck, why do you have to be so freaking big?” she groans as she pushes again, and this time I let her push me back. “Don’t do me any favors,” she growls.
“Please baby,” I reach for her but she pushes my hand away. I’m not an idiot. I won’t sit here and try to convince her that she needs to stop pushing me away, but at the same time I need her. I need her close. “Look, I’m not a good man. I have demons. I have a past. Every one does and if you can’t accept my past than maybe we shouldn’t be even trying.”
“So you’re breaking up with me?” she asks. I scowl at her. “What? You said it, not me.”
“You are the one who is pissed at me for my ex texting me this stupid picture. If you wouldn’t have even seen it in the first place, I would’ve just deleted it and we wouldn’t be fighting right now.” I stuff my hands into my pockets to keep myself in check.
“So you wouldn’t have said anything to me about it?”
“No.”
“That’s the same as lying.”
“No it’s not. It’s not telling you everything because shit like that is just fucking stupid!”
She takes a deep breath. “You said no secrets.”
I take a deep breath and reach for her this time she lets me touch her. I run my fingers along her cheek until my hand curls around the back of her neck. I step towards her until our chests are touching. “I know, baby. I’m sorry, okay? I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I’m not the best at this shit. Never have been.”
“You’ve been perfect up until now. Why wouldn’t you want to tell me about that text?”
“Cause it’s irrelevant to us. You are all I want and all I need. Her sexting means nothing. I’ll block all my ex’s numbers so they can’t send me shit anymore. I’ll get a new number if you want me to. Anything Royce, just don’t give up on us.”
“I’m not. I accept your past Dane, just like you’ve accepted mine. It just hurts to see that.”
I pull on my hand until she’s looking up at me “I’ll never do anything to put our relationship in jeopardy. Please believe that.”
“I do.” She smiles that smile I love. When she lifts up on her toes so our lips are touching, I growl. I can’t help it. She makes me want her all the time. “If I run, you have to run after me,” she says against my lips.
“Always.”
“Let’s go.” She pulls away from me and walks out of the room taking my pussy and Boxer with her.
“Fucking hell,” I run a hand through my hair trying to get my hard on to go down. “She’s gonna be the death of me.”
After a couple minutes I walk out to find Kady has finished all the breakfast and is already eating. Royce is standing next to the counter sipping on a cup of coffee and smirking at me. I shake my head as I walk towards them. “Looks good,” I tell Kady. I sit next to her assuming the plate with the most food is mine. “Thanks princess,” I lean over and kiss her hair before I dig in.
“So Kady, what do you wanna do today?” Royce asks her.
Kady leans her head against my shoulder as she shrugs. “I kinda just want to hang out, you know?”
“Around here?” I ask before I take a big bite off my fork. “The house?”
“Yeah, I’ve got some homework to do and we never really hang out much anymore.”
“Work is always crazy,” Royce says. She walks over and starts picking at the bacon.
“Why don’t you sit and eat with us?” I ask.
“Not hungry.” I scowl at her. “What? I’m not. I never eat much for breakfast.”
I look over at Kady who nods her head against my shoulder. “Whatever,” I start eating again as they continue the conversation.
“Did you hear about the pictures they found on those boy’s phones?” Kady asks Royce.
“Yeah,” Royce looks nervous.
“Lacey said that they were of girls in the locker room.”
Kady moves her head off my shoulder but I keep quiet. “I know.”
“Well I think it’s just crazy. Why would anyone do that?”
“People are mean,” I say. Kady looks over at me and Royce doesn’t seem to mind me answering so I go with it. “Throughout life you’ll hear and meet people that’ll constantly shock you. Sometimes it’s just impossible to not be surprised by the actions of others, but sometimes it’s surprising and in those rare moments you’ll see humanity for what it should be.” When I look up at Royce her mouth has fallen open and when I look back at Kady she looks at me like I’m crazy. “What?” I ask. “What?”
“Okay. Well…” Kady looks back at Royce after shaking her head. “Do you know anything about what’s going to happen to Brian?”
I was about to go back to my food when she asked that and now I’m suddenly not hungry. Not hungry at all. “Why?” I ask.
Kady i
gnores me and waits for Royce to answer who by the way is laughing just under her breath at me. “I’m not sure, honey. He had the pictures on his phone and we know it didn’t come from him but you’d have to ask the police the answer to that question,” she gestures to me. “Why does it matter?” I ask. “It’s not like you like him or anything right?” I’m staring at Kady with a look that could probably scare pants off any high school boy, but she’s just laughing at me. “Right?”
“He’s in one of my classes…”
“Okay, so what? He’s older. Way too old for—” I stop myself because it just isn’t my place. I close my eyes and shake my head to get that thought out of there. I haven’t earned it yet. I feel Royce touch my arm but I just look back at Kady. “I went and talked to the principle about it. Because the pictures were of girls ages fourteen to seventeen we can technically charge them, but because Brian didn’t actually take the pictures all we can charge him with is a small infraction that won’t even go on his record after he turns eighteen. Same goes for Pete, but the person who took the pictures and originally sent them will probably get time and a record for life. It’s still be investigated though. The detectives are handling it now.”
“Wow.”
“You can’t break the law. It’ll always bite you in the ass in the end.”
“Do you know who turned them in?” I don’t say anything just shake my head. I feel Royce squeeze my arm again, silently thanking me. “Man, it’s got to suck for all those girls.”
“Probably for their parents too.”
I look back at my food and start eating again. Royce and Kady continue talking about girl shit I’ll never want to be a part of. I can’t help but love this though. My two favorite girls chatting with me here like it’s a normal day.
Boxer starts barking out of no where and I shoot Royce a look. “Hey Kady, let’s go upstairs and pick out a movie.” Royce says as Boxer continues to bark.
“Why’s he barking?” Kady asks as Royce pulls her up the stairs.
“Probably has to pee. Babe will you let him out?” Royce yells to me.
“Sure thing!” I yell back. “Come on, boy.” Boxer instantly listens to me and leads me to the front door. I step in front of it and look through the peep hole. “Go to Royce, boy.” He takes off towards the stairs. Man, for only being here a day he sure responds well to us.
The woman standing outside the door is Royce’s mom. I know this because of the same dirty blonde hair, though this woman’s is greasy and tangled mess, plus the jaw line, nose, hell even the lips are almost exactly like Royce’s. I don’t know much about her or how their relationship is, but I do know that Royce has been through hell in her life.
I open the door. “Hi,” the woman says.
“Can I help you?” I ask stepping between the doorframe and the door so she can’t see inside, but she can see my badge and gun.
When her eyes land on my hip they go instantly wide. “Oh my gosh, is Royce okay? Did something happen to her?” She tries pushing inside but I stop her with my hand up. “I’m her mother,” she states still trying to push past me.
“I know,” My words are stern and harsh. “I’ll ask you again. Can I help you?” I raise an eyebrow challenging her to try to push her way into this house.
“I’m Royce’s mother. I was told this was her address.”
“And who gave you that information?”
“A friend,” she smiles up at me and I cringe at the teeth in her mouth. I’ve seen a lot of meth addicts in my line of work, but fuck it never gets easier to see let alone on someone you know or know of.
“Ma’am, I’m gonna have to ask you to go. If you want, you can leave your number with me and I can give it to Royce,” before I can finish telling her to fuck off I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“Mama,” Royce says from behind me. I don’t budge though.
I turn slightly still blocking the woman’s view from Royce and the rest of the house. “I got this, baby.” I nod for her to go back but she shakes her head. I drop mine and sigh. I won’t win. No matter how much I want to protect her from every bad thing in this world I can’t. I need to stop worrying about it and let her do her thing because my girl is strong and will fight through hell for what she loves.
“Royce, baby,” the woman whines. I step back enough for Royce to see her mom and she gasps at the site of her. “Oh, baby you look so beautiful.”
“How did you get my address, mama?” I wrap my arm around Royce’s hip holding her against me. If I have to watch her go through this, I’ll be damned if she doesn’t know I’m right here with her.
When her mom smiles a little, Royce tenses beside me “Jeff gave it to me,” she says. I tense beside Royce but I don’t let go of her.
“He shouldn’t have done that. How did you get all the way down here?”
“I took the bus. I just wanted to see you, baby.” Royce puts her fingers to her lips trying to fight back tears. This woman is a tooth pick, all torn up from the drugs she’s been on probably her whole life, and not to mention those damn teeth. I would never be able to see my mom like this. It would break me. I squeeze my hand trying to pour my strength into Royce.
“You know you aren’t supposed to be here mama. The restraining…” She can’t finish her sentence, “You promised you’d stay away.”
“I know but I needed—” I tense even more this time. This bitch is about to ask her for money. “Money. You see Jeff told me you came into some money down here and I just…”
“No,” I say before Royce can.
“Dane,” Royce warns but I don’t back down.
“Ma’am as a police officer I’m going to have to warn you that you are in violation of a restraining order. If you do not leave immediately, I’ll have to take you in.” Her mom’s eyes stay fixed on Royce. “Ma’am.”
“Just wait,” she puts her hand up. “Please Royce. I need it.”
“No,” Royce says this time and I applaud her. Not actually applaud her cause that would be inappropriate but in my head I do it. “You need to go, mama.”
I see the instant this changes from nice words to bad words cause it’s written all over this bitches face. “You ungrateful little slut! What, you think that because you live in this big ole house and have a cop for a boy friend that you can treat me this way? Well guess—” I don’t let her finish. I release Royce and pull her moms arms around her back as I push her towards my cruiser. “You can’t fucking do this!” She yells over and over again.
“Watch your head,” I tell her as I put her into the back. She continues to kick and scream even after I’ve closed the door. I look back at Royce who is standing on the porch now with her hand completely on her mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks.
I quickly walk back to her. “Hey baby, it’s okay,” I pull her into my arms, “It’s okay.” I try to soothe her.
“Just get her out of here,” she whimpers. Fucking whimpers and I have no way of making it better for her other than doing what she wants.
I kiss the top of her head before I turn and walk back to my cruiser. I climb in and try to ignore the bitch in the back seat as much as I can.
About a half hour into our drive she finally shuts up. Ten minutes after that I finally say something.
“Have you even met your daughter?” I ask looking back at her in the rearview mirror. She doesn’t respond or look at me. “Royce is the best fucking thing in my life. Kady, your granddaughter, is one hell of a swimmer and lights up my darkest days.”
“She should’ve never gotten involved with that girl.”
“Royce did it because Kady needed someone. Kady needed Royce and frankly I’m pretty sure Royce needed Kady.”
“Ain’t her kin.”
“You’re a dumbass.” She looks at me now. “Family isn’t all blood. Family is something you build. Royce saved that little girl from falling into the same patterns and hardship she had to endure while you were out getting high.” She looks away from me. “If you
really cared at all about Royce, you’d leave her alone.” I pull into the bus depot.
“I thought you were taking me in?”
“I’m not that much of a heartless asshole.” I get out and open the back door for her. “Putting my girl’s mama in jail is a bit much for me even if she’s a piece of shit who deserves it.” She doesn’t respond. “Now, I’m putting you on a bus back to Kentucky. I’ll give the driver two hundred dollars to keep you in these cuffs if I have to or I’ll give you five hundred to get your ass back to Kentucky and stay there.”
“A thousand,” she counters and I smirk.
“No negotiations,” I tell her. “You get it or he does?” She looks pissed but eventually I see when the tables turn. She has no way out.
“I’ll take it.”
“Good.” I walk with her still cuffed all the way to the ticket counter. I get her a one way to Louisville and then we wait for the bus to arrive. Takes about forty minutes and we just sit in silence. By the time it pulls up she’s passed out. “Wake up,” I push her head until she snaps out of it.
“Fuck you,” she groans trying to get into a comfortable position with cuffs on. It’s impossible.
“Bus is here. Let’s go.” I pull her up and walk her to the bus. Once I get her into a seat I drop her bag next to her feet and stuff a wad of cash into it. “Don’t come back and don’t get off until you get to Louisville,” I tell her as I take her cuffs off. She doesn’t say anything and I don’t bother to say good bye.
The bus driver is standing outside when I get back off. “Do I need to worry about her?” he asks.
“No,” I pull my card out and a fifty. “Give me a call if she gets off before Louisville?” I ask him.
“Sure thing,” he takes the card and the fifty from my hand. I pull out another fifty. “What’s that for?”
“Give me a call if she gets off before Louisville.” He laughs and takes the other fifty.
“You got a good head on your shoulders boy. I’ll call.”
“I have some friends at a few of the stops that’ll be checking in,” I lie but he doesn’t know that.
“Got it,” he takes the money and his big ass back to the driver’s seat. I wait for everyone else to get on and the doors to close before I head back.