“I haven’t seen a fucking cat here.” He looks around and doesn’t see anything, and he’s in my face. “We’re leaving. You can have whatever is in this suitcase when I allow it. Act up and you lose privileges, upset me and you will be punished. Do you understand?”
I nod my head, and his fingers grip my jaw, denting the flesh of my face. “I said, do you understand?”
“Yes,” I rasp out. His grip gets firmer, and he shakes my head.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes—”
I’m saved from saying what he wants as Aiden’s fist connects with Sean’s face. The crack of his knuckles against his jaw is jarring. Sean goes falling to the floor. He isn’t a small man, but Aiden has a lot of muscle over him, not to mention general athletic ability. Aiden climbs on top of Sean and punches him repeatedly in the face.
Sean is gasping on the ground, trying to fight off Aiden with no luck. The backdoor flings open, startling me. Four police officers have their weapons drawn as they defuse the situation, getting Aiden off of Sean. Sean goes to reach for something behind his belt, and the dark metal is clear as day. His gun is barely visible when he’s shot in the arm. I cover my ears from the intrusive bang and watch as he bleeds out on my bedroom floor.
Suddenly Aiden is in front of me, his hands bruised and shaking as he touches my face. My hearing is absolute shit, and I just stare at him as he gently takes my elbow and directs me outside. The hot salty air gives me enough room to breathe, and when I inhale, it’s like I can’t get enough air, and I’m heaving and hunched over.
Aiden drags me over to one of the beach chairs and squats in front of me, his hands tenderly touching me, seeing where I’m hurt.
It’s then I catch a glance of his hand, my sobbing coming to a standstill as I take his hand in mine. It’s trembling, and I can tell he’s in pain.
“Your hand.” I’m not sure how loud I say it, but his hand is pushing my hair, and I wince as he touches the fresh bruise on my face.
“Did he hurt you anywhere else?” I shake my head, and my neck hurts from the motion. Aiden, of course, notices.
“They need to look at your hand.” His knuckles are bleeding and broken open. He already has so much pain in his right hand, what if this made it worse? What if this is too much for Aiden? I already left the office and put him in an uncomfortable position where he works, and now I’ve literally endangered his life.
My past has come back to bite me in the ass in such a brutal way. Sean had a gun, he could have killed me or Aiden.
I know I didn’t ask for this to happen, but the guilt feels so heavy in my chest, I can’t help but cry again.
Aiden is far too gracious as he sits across from me and pulls me into his lap, rubbing my back and comforting me. I should be giving this to him too; he just saved my life. On top of the guilt there’s also this warning feeling that I don’t deserve this. It’s like Sean came here because I was too happy. I don’t deserve my own business or a man who treats me the way Aiden does. Maybe I deserve everything Sean said.
“You don’t have to stay,” I say to Aiden. This is too fucking much, there’s no way he wants me and all this baggage.
“Did you hit your head?” he says softly, his poor fingers tangling in my hair and rubbing my scalp.
“No, this is just too much, Aiden. He could have killed you,” I say between sobs. He doesn’t push me away, call me names, or even scoff. He just pulls me closer to his chest.
“I’m not going anywhere, and this isn’t your fault.”
“Aiden,” I sigh his name.
“I’m going to take care of everything, baby. That motherfucker is going to jail and you’re moving in with me.” I pull away and blink up at him. He shakes his head, like he’s got a retort for anything I argue with him. “There’s no fucking way I can sleep or function not having you with me right now. After this bullshit? You’re coming home with me where I can keep you safe.”
“I don’t deserve you,” I say while I rub my face against his perfect chest.
“None of that either, just let me handle everything, okay?”
“Okay,” I say quietly and just hold onto him. I do my best to ignore the sirens or people walking by the cottage. The police ask me to retell everything that happened. It’s exhausting and so hard to bring up with Aiden right next to me. I can tell how angry he is when I talk about what Sean said to me and that he hit me. Though he knew that from the bruise on my cheek. But I think him knowing it was over a dress he bought me makes him feel even more furious about it.
I just want to crash in bed, but when I look at Aiden’s abused hands, I force him to get looked at by the paramedics, they do the same to me. Taking photos of Aiden’s hands as well as the bruises forming on my face. Since I have no other injuries and Aiden’s hand just seems to be bleeding from where he struck Sean, they tell us we don’t need to go to the hospital. I know I’m going to make him get this hand checked out this week. I will never forgive myself if he did further damage to his hand.
When we get back to his house, he takes Tylenol and makes me take two as well. I feel taken care of, and like I don’t deserve Aiden at this moment. But I’m so thankful I have him as my rock right now. If I didn’t, I’m afraid I might completely fall apart.
I try to sleep, and even though I’m surrounded by Aiden’s scent and his body wrapped around mine, I can’t help the lingering fear that Sean is just waiting for me to fall asleep so that he can come after me again. I know logically that he was arrested and he isn’t going anywhere any time soon. But this terror doesn’t leave me, and as hard as I try to sleep, I just find myself tossing and turning and startling at every sound I hear in the house.
29
IT’S DADDY’S JOB
