Page 36 of Saviors

Moonlight filtered in through the windows, making her look like a goddess. It was near impossible to shake the thoughts from my head as I sank down onto the bench seat, propping my feet up.

I should’ve offered her words of reassurance. Something, but I couldn’t. I turned to stare outside. Afraid if I kept watching her, I’d fall under her spell, too.

18

Violet

Itucked the knife back under my pillow when I realized it was Reid.

I could relax again. They were all here. They were all safe.

I was safe.

19

Violet

“It’s time for you to get out.” Maverick grasped the sheet I was clutching as Connor moved to the window and opened the curtains.

“What?” My voice cracked. My eyes were gritty from sleep or crying, I wasn’t sure. Probably sleep, since I couldn’t seem to process what they were saying. “I’m safe here.”

“You’re comfortable.” Reid said, a pointed look on his face. I was comfortable. I’d spent a month in this house and it started to feel like home. Like a place I never wanted to leave.

“You can’t stay here forever.” Connor said.

I wasn’t always stuck in the house. I went outside. Walked around the backyard and each day I got a little closer to the edge of the property. I couldn’t force myself to take the final step.

Maverick’s eyes were softer as he pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. “If you don’t leave now, you never will.”

“Leave?” My heart went plummeting to my stomach. My chest tightened like it was trying to keep the organ in.

I couldn’t leave. I had nowhere to go. No one who cared about me except these men.

“Hey.” Connor dropped onto the bed next to me. The breath whooshed from my lungs as he grasped my face. “We’re coming back, little bloom. Don’t worry, you’ll always have a place with us.”

My pulse fell into a steady rhythm again as his thumbs stroked my cheeks. I still didn’t understand how I could let them touch me. How I trusted them.

“You can’t lock yourself away.” I flicked my gaze to Reid. “You can’t let him take anything else from you.”

I inhaled deeply, trying to soothe the chaos in my gut. The fear that told me to never leave this house. If I didn’t, then nobody could hurt me. No one would take me again.

“Where are we going?”

* * *

“Mav!” The excitement on the boy’s face was obvious as he ran towards Maverick. His tennis shoes screeched as he slid to a stop on the tile floors. He threw his hands up like a boxer. “I’ve been practicing. I can’t wait to show you.”

He swung a bony arm out, hitting the air. He couldn’t be more than twelve, with sandy blonde hair and clothes too big for his thin body.

“We’ve got a fighter.” Maverick laughed as he pretended to dodge the punch. He ruffled the kid’s hair before slinging his arm over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s get the others.”

I blinked, trying to understand what I was seeing. He was so natural with him. I didn’t picture Maverick as being someone who worked with children. Or even liked them.

“They’re foster kids.” Reid said, moving to stand next to me as I watched them walk away. “He teaches a boxing class. It gives the boys an outlet. Some of them have a lot of rage.”

I understood the feeling. Beneath the fear. The shame. There was a fury simmering inside me. Not just for what had been done to me, but what had happened after. The abandonment. The knowledge that I was alone in the world.

And these children had always been alone. That feeling had been with them since birth. Building until it ate them alive.

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