He dropped a quick kiss on her lips and led her to the stairs up to where the bedrooms were.“Come on, firecracker, we have a few things to talk about.”
“I hope there’s more planned than just talking,” she said.
Demon turned and looked at her, not sure he’d heard her right.
She blinked and did her best to look innocent, but failed miserably, as she had a hard time keeping a straight face.Demon shook his head and led her up the stairs.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Ronnie said as he let her into his room and closed the door.
“What did you expect?”
She shrugged.“I wasn’t sure, but not something neater than my house.I guess I expected messy.T-shirts and underwear on the floor, maybe a couple of beer cans.”
“Babe, I spent eight years in the marines.They worked all the messy out of me.Come over here and have a seat.”He used her hand to tug her toward the table next to one wall with a chair on either side.“We need to talk for a minute.”
“Why can’t we sit over there?”She motioned toward the bed.
“Because I get you on the bed and I’m not going to be doing much talking.There are a few things we need to talk about.Then we can see about going over there, if you still want to.Or I might just lay you back on this table and make a meal of you where we sit.Let’s see how things go after we talk though.”
38
EaglesdivebombedinRonnie’sstomach as she sat in the chair where Demon wanted her.She couldn’t remember a time when someone had said ‘we need to talk’ or any similar phrase, when it had been good news.
“What’s up?”she said, doing her best not to let her nerves show.
“I’d like to say nothing bad, but there’s been too much about the last week or two that hasn’t been good so let’s skip that part and I’ll let you decide how good or bad it is.”
She nodded, half convinced he was going to tell her this was all over.Not just the people after her but whatever it was she had going with him.It hadn’t been very long, and she knew it was likely too fast, but he had already worked his way into her heart.Still, she could admit, if only to herself, that if he was going to walk away, it would be better if he did it now, rather than after she was entirely head over heals for him and it broke her in half rather than chipping off a smaller piece of her heart.
“First, your dad has been taken in, and it look like he’s rolling over.They’ll get everything they can from him, and if they have any brains at all, they’ll get it all on record as soon as they can, because once it becomes known that he turned state’s evidence, he may not live for long.”He stopped talking and watched her for several seconds.“There’s more.”
Ronnie stared back at him.She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel, but it probably wasn’t the numbness that seemed to descend over her.She didn’t know what the more could be, but she needed to know.
“Okay, what else?”
“Your mom didn’t walk away from you.She didn’t leave you and your brother behind, or at least not willingly.”
“What do you mean?”She frowned at him, Where had her mother gone?
Demon took a deep breath and held it for a moment.He reached across the space between them and took her hands in his.She wasn’t sure if he was trying to comfort her or something else.
“You know we have evidence he was into human trafficking, right?”
A ball of dread felt heavy in her belly, she nodded slowly as she started to understand.
“He gave her to them, didn’t he?He sold her out of the country to get her out of his way?”Her eyes filled with tears.
Demon’s face was sympathetic as he nodded.
Her mind flashed on interactions with her father over the years since her mother’s disappearance.Echoes of her father’s voice and different comments he’d made echoed through her mind.How had she missed it?How had neither she nor Gavin picked up on the clues?Now that she looked back, she could see several clues.She might not have ever suspected her father, she knew he wasn’t a good man, but she hadn’t realized he was that bad.She stared down at her hands.“Is she still alive?Is there any chance we can get her back?”
“I’m sorry, firecracker.She’s gone.It took Gizmo a little while to track her down, but she’s been gone for a long time.”
“How?”She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but at the same time, she had to know.Her chest ached.She wanted to scream.She wanted to hit something.No.Someone.It was probably a good thing her father was in police custody.If she could get to him right now, there was no telling what she might do to him.
“The man who bought her was not a kind man.He was into some sick shit.I don’t want to go into details, you don’t need to know them.Hell, I wish I didn’t know them, but he killed her.”
Ronnie let her head fall until her chin hit her chest.She didn’t bother trying to hold back her tears and instead ignored them as they streamed down her cheeks.
