Page 21 of Shiner's Light

“I’m taking Milo with us,” Chelsea states, grinning from ear to ear, standing from her seat, eyes going to where Lucky is swinging Milo around in his arms.

“Um, okay, but . . .” Shock threatens to overtake me when Chelsea holds a hand up.

“Don’t worry, Shiner knows I’m taking him,” Chelsea laughs, interrupting me. “He’s the one who asked.”

When did he ask this?

I hadn’t spoken to him since he dropped Milo and me off here at the clubhouse, saying he had shit to do. I didn’t question him about this, I simply went with it. I needed to do some things anyway for Chelsea.

Two weeks away from work, and I had more than plenty of things backed up to deal with for her. Or so I thought. She handled everything on her own. Guilt eats at me for leaving her on a lurch, I shouldn’t have done that to her. Granted, she brushed off my apology. and I swore to her I’d make it up to her. Still, she’d been cool and said I could handle things for her when she has to be out for weeks on maternity leave. To this, I agreed gleefully, truly happy for her that she was going to be having a baby.

“You have fun tonight with Shiner, and we’ll see you for the cookout tomorrow afternoon.”

“Well, okay,” I utter, not wanting to see them leave, at least until Shiner got here. Storm was busy taking care of the triplets in her and Blow’s room, and Meadow had gone to dinner with her dad. This meant I was without anyone to talk to until Shiner returned or unless one of the guys sat with me.

I guess I need to go to Shiner’s room to keep from having to face any of the fallen harlots.I’ve already seen both Tessa and Rubi tonight. The glares they shot my way were full of nothing more than hatred. It was pretty obvious to anyone who caught the looks those women did not like me. Which is something I don’t get. Why would they hate me when I have done nothing to them?

Milo runs over and throws his arms around my legs, saying his goodbyes. Moments later, he, Chelsea, and Lucky make their way out of the clubhouse.

Getting to my feet, I start to make my way to Shiner’s room when I find myself surrounded by not only Tessa and Rubi but several other fallen harlots.

“We told you not to come back,” Tessa sneers.

“You should have stayed gone,” Rubi snaps.

I do my best to push past them, not intending to engage them, but Tessa grips my arm and digs her nails in. “You need to learn we’re not going to let you take him from us.”

“The fuck is going on over here?”

Twisting my head, I glance over my shoulder to find it was Torch who spoke up, but with him stood Scorn and Surge, two of the members I’d been introduced to, along with the others after I first got here.

“You want to get your hands off Shiner’s woman?” Surge mutters, eyes glued to where Tessa’s holding me.

“We’re just talking.” Tessa’s voice takes on a sweet tone as she releases me.

Stepping back from her and the others, I wrap my arms around myself. “She’s right.” There’s no way I want to cause even more trouble here than I already have. “I’m just going to go to Shiner’s room and wait for him there.” Turning on my heel, I rush away before any of the men can speak. I don’t want to give them a chance to call me out on the lie, defending Tessa and the others.

Once I’m safely behind the doors, sealing myself away from the others, I sink to the floor just inside and close my eyes while leaning my head on the coolness of the wood there.

What is wrong with me?

I’m weak.

Not one to fight back.

It’s not that I don’t know how.

When I was a little girl, my mom had signed Sasha and me up for self-defense classes. She said it was something our dad said we should do. We needed to know how to defend ourselves if something were to ever happen. I took the classes as told and did well in them. I could easily handle my own, but I’m not a fighter. To be honest, I lost all will to fight years ago. My sister insured that. Because of her, I stopped fighting altogether.

After Mom passed away when I was sixteen and Sasha was nineteen, she’d taken custody of me so that we wouldn’t have to be separated as she claimed, but I think it was so she could control me. I had hoped for a while that our dad would come and take me home with him, but he never came for me. I hadn’t heard from him in so many years, and I don’t know if I’d ever want to see him again if given the choice.

I don’t remember my dad that much. He wasn’t around much, but when he was, he was mostly about Mom. Though when I had his attention, it was all about me. The only thing I can recall is that he used to call me his little vila. It was a name for a fairy, I think, in Russian folklore. It’s been years since I thought of that, but he’d call me this, and Sasha was his little rusalka.

I never understood why he called us these names and never asked growing up. I just liked it because he made me feel special. Sasha said it was because we were his bastard children—the unwanted. I didn’t want to believe her, but I suppose she was right.

Still, I can’t forget the love I used to feel when he was with us. He might have given our mom more attention than us, but that didn’t mean he didn’t give us our own. Thinking more on it, I think he gave the attention he did to our mom because she was his in a way we weren’t.

The twisting of the doorknob pulls me out of my thoughts. I barely scamper away from the door before it opens, and Shiner steps in, brows drawn together as he stares down at me.

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