“My dad taught me one important lesson in life. Whoever has the biggest stickwins.”
Shelly sighed. “I guess that’s true. It’s good that you had a gun tonight. But… why did you have it?”
“I always have it. I’ve got a concealed carry license, and it goes everywhere with me. Never had to use it so far. Knock on wood.”
Shelly furrowed her brow, studying me.
And it was like she was pulling the words right out of my soul.
I couldn’t look at her while I told her, so I stared out the window, one hand clenching the steering wheel, and the other holding hers tight, trying to keep her from disappearing on me.
“My dad used to beat on us,” I said, keeping my voice even. “My mom, me, my brother, even my sis. He’d go for whoever was in reach when his mood turned… and it usually turned by the time he got halfway through his daily bottle of Jim Beam.”
She went very still beside me.
“Amos,” her voice dripped with emotion.
“My mom was always trying to put herself between us and him,” I continued, because once I started I found I needed to finish it. “She’d take it so we wouldn’t have to, and most of the time it worked. I hated watching that. Can you imagine being a little kid and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it?”
“How old were you?” she asked quietly.
“Started young. I was maybe six or seven when I really understood what was happening.” I exhaled slowly. “But by the time I hit fourteen, I was finally big enough to stop him. I’d been waiting for it, honestly.”
“What happened?”
“He was beating on her again one night. Same as always. And something in me just… stopped being afraid.” I paused. “I went to the garage, and I got a baseball bat. Then I walked back in there and I used it.”
Shelly made a small sound but didn’t interrupt.
“He went to the hospital,” I rumbled, lost in the memory. “Then he went to jail. And he never came home after that. I think he knew his beating days were over. The prey had learned to fight back.”
Shelly squeezed my hand, sniffling lightly beside me.
She didn’t try to fix it or wrap it up in pretty words, and I loved her for that.
“You protected them,” she said finally.
“I did what needed doing.” I turned my hand over and squeezed her fingers once before letting go. “Same as tonight.”
I wanted to finish our conversation so badly. But Mina was inside the bar, shaken and alone, and I needed to deal with her first.
“Let me take you and Mina home,” I rumbled. “I want to call Hall and Cedar, and get some of the guys out driving around to make sure that son of a bitch has actually left town. Plus, I’ve got to let Mason know what’s happening.”
But then I leveled her with a stare so serious she had to know I meant business.
“Once that guy is taken care of, we need to have a serious conversation. There are things we need to talk about, Shelly.”
She nodded, hanging on my every word. “Yeah. I want to hear more about this cabin you mentioned. But it can wait.”
I took one quick moment to kiss her, losing myself in the love of my life, before heading into the bar to rally up the troops.
Two days later.
I stood outside Bookish, breathing for a moment before I went in.
It had been a crazy two days, chasing Mina’s ex across the state with Hall riding shotgun.
And the whole time, I’d been thinking about Shelly… and the conversation we hadn’t finished in my pickup truck.
