“Ooh, original. I’m not sure I’ve heard that one before.”
“Fuck off!”
Rolling my eyes, I dug my fingers in deeper around his wrists until I heard the painful gasp that came from his lips. Ripping his sleeves up his arms, I was horrified by what I found. Deep bruises coated his wrists, trailing up his arms. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
The woman flicked on the outside light, and as she did, it illuminated the kid’s features, showing dark rings of bruises around his neck, along with quite a few marks on his face. This kid wasn’t just running away to be a dick. He was being abused.
“Who did this?” I asked, my voice taking on an unnatural tone I hadn’t heard before.
“What the fuck does it matter to you?”
“Nobody walks around with this many bruises on their body. Who the fuck put their hands on you!”
My voice was erratic, bordering on hysterical. I was so caught up in what was going on with this kid that I hadn’t even noticed Parker running over, or his brothers joining him.
“Blake! What’s going on?”
Looking up at my husband, I was lost for words. As a federal agent, I’d seen and done a lot, but that was all to adults. This was a kid. Maybe sixteen years old, still trying to become a decent person.
Yet, someone had laid their hands on him. Had hurt him in some way.
“I—”
Parker grabbed the kid by the jacket, hauling him off the ground. I fell out of the way at the same time, too dazed by what I saw to fight it. But when he held the kid up, his face twisted in a scowl, my instincts kicked in.
“Stop it!” I shouted at Parker, stepping between the two of them. “Just?—”
The kid shoved me into Parker and took off running. Parker caught me, his attention focused solely on me, but his brothers were already chasing him down.
“What happened?” Parker asked, brushing the hair from my face. “What did he do? Are you alright? Is the baby alright?”
“I’m fine!” I shouted, shaking off the horror of what I’d seen.
“What did he do?”
“He was breaking into that house. He thought it was empty.”
“Punk,” Parker spat.
Grabbing his arm, I dragged him further away from the house. I needed him to know what I had seen. “Parker, that kid…something’s wrong.”
“No shit. He attacked you.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. He’s covered in bruises. All over his wrists, around his neck, his face…Parker…”
His features went stony at my words, but I could tell it wasn’t enough to stop the anger roaring through him at the thought that the kid could have hurt me.
“Damnit,” he hissed, pulling me against him. “Tell me you’re alright.”
“I’m fine. Trust me, there is nothing wrong with me, but that kid?—”
“Let the police handle it,” he argued. He jerked his head toward the road in the distance. Lights were heading toward us fast. “I’ll make sure I talk to Mav tomorrow morning.”
“He can’t go home,” I argued. “Not like that!”
“Blake, this isn’t?—”
“Don’t you dare tell me this isn’t my business!”
