Rachael trembled as Daddy took her face in his hands. In the dim room, he smiled down at her. “My little girl’s all grown up. And she’s so much like her daddy. Ready to take on the world, even if she has to fight tooth and nail for it, now isn’t that right?” His grip on her tightened, his pudgy fingers sinking into her cheeks. “I said, isn’t that right?”
Tears spilled down Rachael’s cheeks. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Yes or no will suffice, little girl.”
“Yeh…yes, Daddy.”
Daddy smiled wider. “Good answer. The right answer. Now, one thing you still gotta learn is how to pick your friends. With men, you’ve got to judge them the way you’d judge a steer. Can you use him to protect the herd or will he get unruly the minute he sees a heifer he likes? Does he have some fight in him? Or is he gonna lower his head and walk right into the slaughterhouse with the rest of the cows?”
Daddy pinched her chin with one hand and tilted Rachael’s face, studying it. “Now with women, you gotta think of them as prize dogs. Will she have a sweet disposition but still protect you when you need it? Will she cower appropriately when you raise your voice at her? Or is the bitch gonna bite the hand that feeds her?”
“I wouldn’t do that, Daddy.”
He squeezed her chin tighter and put a finger to his lips to shush her. “You backed the wrong steer, little girl. Your first mistake was thinking he was the biggest bull in the pen, when that was me. That willalwaysbe me. Your second was thinking that I hadn’t judged him right. See, as big of a piece of bullshit as he is, I can still use a guy like that. He’s got sway over the other cows in the plant. He does my work for me thinking all the time he’s working for himself, which is a great motivator.
“Then he got to you. My own little girl, tried to turn her against me. But you and I have secrets, don’t we?”
Rachael swallowed down the bile creeping up in her throat.
Daddy nodded. “Yeah, we do. We know where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. Or not so to speak, huh, little girl?”
Rachael nodded mutely. Her mind drifted to that night—the dark, the dirt, the cicadas singing. The image of black birds startling from a tree.
“And you’re gonna keep on protecting me like the good little bitch you are, and I’ll keep feeding you. Yes?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“We have a deal?”
“A deal.”
Daddy chuckled. “And to make sure you don’t bite my hand again, and since he likes you so much, I’m gonna make Hank watch over you, keep you in line like all the other cows. He won’t be fucking you though, is that clear?”
“I don’t want him anymore.”
“I didn’t think so. You’re such a smart girl. When I want you to have babies, I’ll pick you out a quality steer, don’t you worry.”
Daddy let Rachael’s chin go. He patted her cheek. “But even smart girls need their lessons reinforced sometimes, don’t they?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
He grinned almost lovingly at her. “Glad you agree.”
And then Daddy punched Rachael once.
She fled the house and went straight to Hank, hoping to salvage something between them. Maybe he could still protect her. Rachael found him at Muddy’s Bar drowning his pain. She approached him carefully, hoping her blackening eye would create solidarity, if not sympathy. He needed to see that she hadn’t been the one who set him up, that they could still join forces and get out.
Chatter in the bar quieted as she sat down across from him, until the only sound was the song ”Colder Weather” by the Zac Brown Band coming from the jukebox. Even the pool players with money riding on their game paused to watch the show.
“Hank, baby.” Rachael reached out to touch his face but he slapped her hand away.
“Don’t touch me.” He slammed his shot and chased it with beer. A near-empty pitcher sat on the table beside three upended shot glasses and Hank signaled for more.
“Let me help you. I’ve got those steaks at home in the fridge.” The ones she was going to cook up to celebrate their victory. “They work really good on black eyes.” She touched hers. “This isn’t my first.”
Hank sneered at her, his eyes bloodshot both from the punches and the booze. “You think I’m stupid? I ain’t going anywhere with you,” he slurred.
“Hank, I didn’t set you up. I want out, remember? We’re in this together.”
