“After what you did, disgracing Mariposa’s memory the way you did?—”
The door was pushed open, and Dante stepped in. “Go on,” he said as he walked around them and stepped to my side. He leaned over and placed a kiss on my lips before sitting down. “Sorry, baby girl, I had to take a phone call.” He turned to look at my dad expectantly. “Finish what you were going to say about Cherish being a disgrace.”
My mother looked flustered. “If you knew what she did —the cutting, the scars…”
Dante’s hand slid over my leg until it purposely landed on my upper thigh. He slowly slid his hand back and forth in a soothing motion while making a clear statement. “I know about the scars, Mrs. Parker. Do scars bother you? Do you find them… distasteful? Perhaps you think they are disgusting?” he asked as he stared her down, his face only half turned so his scars were on full display.
I watched as my mother flinched and looked away. My father’s jaw worked furiously as he ground his teeth in anger. It was the same look he wore the day I was taken to the hospital when I was seventeen. “She dishonored our daughter’s memory,blaming it on Mariposa,” he spat out. “It was an embarrassment. We should have left her there on the bathroom floor.”
The door was shoved open, and Gage stepped in, followed by Ry. The expression Ry wore said they had heard every word. Gage’s face was blank, though his eyes were blazing with hatred. Without a word, they stepped around my parents as they stumbled backward quickly out of the men’s way, their backs hitting the wall.
Ry stood at the end of the bed, a plastic sack in his hand, with delicious scents wafting from it. Gage had an identical bag as he came to my side. Dante gave him access, sliding his hand from my thigh after a gentle squeeze and leaning back in the chair. Gage leaned down and took my mouth in a slow caress of his lips.
“You should still be asleep, beautiful.”
“I was,” I breathed out, looking into the endless blue of his eyes. “I was woken up by visitors.”
He hummed as he pulled back. He stepped over to the couch and set his bag down before folding his arms across his chest. His thick muscles bulged, the veins on his arms prominent. It was enough to make me squirm. Ry stepped over in the space he’d created.
“Cherish Parker!” my mother demanded, sounding scandalized. “What is going on here?”
Ry leaned down, giving me another sweet kiss. “Hey, pretty girl. How do you feel? Are you in any pain?” I smiled up at my beautiful Ry.
“I’m okay.”
He studied me, then nodded. “If that changes, let me know.”
I lifted my hand and smoothed it over his jaw. “I will.”
“Cherish!”
I turned my head to face my mother, pissed that our private moment had been interrupted. “What, mother?”
“What is happening here?”
“I don’t know what you are referring to. Is it the way you told Dante that I’m a disgrace, or is it how you told him scars are disgusting?”
Her eyes darted to Dante’s face, then away again just as quickly, as if the sight was too much for her to handle. It made me furious. “I never said they were disgusting.”
“Maybe it was the way my dear father suggested I should have been left to bleed out on the floor?”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees at the reminder of what they heard before walking through the door.
“Or, maybe, it was the reminder you gave me that you only see Mariposa as your daughter.”
“Don’t change the subject, Cherish,” my father said harshly. He pointed around the room. “Who are these men?”
“What does it matter? If I tell you they love me more than life itself, you wouldn’t care. If I told you they saved my life, coming in as the Angel Killer had me strapped naked to a table to stop him, you. Wouldn’t. Care.” I sighed and let Dante’s hand that reached over to grip my shoulder soothe me. “It doesn’t matter. It stopped becoming important to you the day Mariposa disappeared.”
“How dare you!”
“No, Dad! How dareyou!You don’t get to treat me like shit, forget I exist foryears, then come storming back into my life the moment your real daughter’s killer is gone. I was right there in front of you, bleeding out long before I ever took a blade to my skin.”
My mother pressed a fist to her mouth and sobbed into it at my words. My dad just clenched his fists and remained stubbornly silent. I sighed and looked at my guys. “I thought I was broken, but I wasn’t. These men that you are silentlyjudging? These men mean everything to me because they made me see that I am far from broken. I’m strong, and beautiful, and?—”
“Sexy,” Ry interjected. Dante chuckled beside the bed. I smiled.
“And sexy. Scars and all. While you threw me away. So, I’m going to ask you one more time, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, why are you here?”
