Page 111 of Dark Love

WHAT? “Who?”

“I can’t tell you that without telling you more about her.”

Why did I set those asinine rules? Who cares if I get to know her before I get to know her? There’s no way I can let another guy steal her away from me.

“Do you want me to tell you?”

YES! “No. But can I kill this one?” There can’t be two men up for sainthood who are pursuing the woman I want.

“Nope,” Payne says that way too cheerfully. “But you can probably get away with beating him up a bit if you play your cards right.”

Well, that’s something, at least.

All of this is hurting my head.

Or it could be the half-empty bottle in my hand. “We should talk about something else.”

“But talking about Dahlia and the idiot she’s going to turn you into is fun.”

“I can still take you down.” No matter how well I trained Payne, he will never be stronger or more ruthless than I am.

Payne rolls his eyes. “The only thing I wanna talk about is bed.”

“What happened to that girl you rescued? She seemed attached to you.”

Payne sighs. “She’s asleep… in my bedroom.”

“WHAT? Are you crazy? That girl needs help.”

“Don’t you think I know that? But if I’m more than ten feet away from her, she freaks out. Starts screaming and running around like a madwoman.” Payne snatches the bottle back and takes a long pull from it. “I don’t know what to do. It seems cruel to just shove her out the door and tell her to get help.”

“You’ve got to do something. This isn’t healthy.”

“Oh wise man that knows everything when it comes to women, what should I do?”

That eye roll definitely wasn’t the booze talking. How in the world should I know? “What did Barb say?”

“That she’ll probably need long-term psychiatric treatment. Possibly at an in-patient facility, but that isn’t her specialty, so she’s asking around to find the right person to evaluate her. But we both know there is no right person. No magical cure. She’s broken.” Tears fill Payne’s eyes.

“Temperance would know. If she was still practicing.”

“Temperance?” Payne lifts his head up as he tries to piece together what I just said.

“Temperance Vincenti. She brought the clinic to Willow Street. But her other one focuses on abuse victims.” That place still does good things for the kids back on Willow Street.

“Do you know her? I avoided that place when we were kids.”

Didn’t we all? Even though they did their best to make the clinic feel comfortable, it was always scary to walk inside. You had to be half dead to walk through those doors. “No. But her son, Max, was in my office a few days ago. I’ll see if he can help.”

“Thanks. I wouldn’t ask if it was…” His eyes move to the closed doors. “I still see her down there in that pit.”

Those pits will haunt both of us forever.

It Was You!

Vex

Asking for a favor isn’t something I do ever.

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