Page 30 of Demo

Keys hopped up from underneath the receptionist desk to escort Mrs. Guthrie out to her car. He gave Paige a smile on his way out.

She gaped in dreadfulness at the changes done to her lobby. She saw three cameras attached to her ceiling. From the last security system they had at their home in Detroit, she knew the white rectangles on her front door were to detect when the door opened and closed. She did not know what the white squares on the two, large bay windows were for. There was one on each window.

Her eyes landed on the desktop and she felt tears start to well up. She couldnotafford this. She supposed she could pull from the account where she had been collecting the insurance money but she needed to use that in less than two months to prove to her stepfather she was seriously trying to pay back Richard’s debt. It was hopefully enough for him to not file that bogus complaint with CPS that could result in her boys being taken away.

A bell sounded, causing Paige to look up. When had a bell been installed above her door? That was when she realized, it was electronic with a very good mimic of an actual bell. It sounded behind her, which meant Keys had somehow added a speaker in the back too.

A very bundled up Abby came shuffling into the clinic. From the fresh flakes on top of her bright ginger head, it had started to snow again. Paige hadn’t had a chance to check her weather app since arriving and really hoped it was only going to be a light flurry. She didn’t have chains on her tires or an all-wheel drive car. Even though she was from Detroit, Richard had cared more about appearances than safety. Thankfully, her car was paid off and she had the title. It was one less bill to have to worry about, but she couldn’t trade it in with how bad her credit score was and hope to get a decent monthly payment on a more appropriate car.

Bulldog was covered in even more snow than Abby was, making Paige believe he’d literally held himself over Abby to protect her from the falling snow.Snow!It wasn’t like it was acid snow, but regular snow. It might seem ridiculous and overbearing to some, but Paige’s inner goddess swooned and she was pretty sure her ovaries fluttered.

She wantedthat. She wanted a man who would love her so fiercely he would protect her even from harmless snowflakes.

“I want you in my life. I want to get to know you as no one else does. I want to be your confidant and your supporter. I’ll be your biggest cheerleader if you’ll let me. I will stand between you and all the bad in the world. Not because I don’t believe you’re not strong or can’t fight your own battles, but because you deserve no less.

“I can be your white knight if you let me…”

Her heart longed for Demo in that moment. It was so foolish of her. They barely knew each other, but she felt a desire and a connection with him that she never had before. Not even when she’d been dating Richard. Demo had the ability to take her breath away with just a crooked smile.

The door hadn’t even closed fully yet before Bulldog started to wipe snowflakes out of Abby’s hair, neck, and shoulders. She unzipped her jacket and he slid it down her arms. It was like a very intimate dance, Paige realized. They moved in a synchrony that was so perfect it had to be choreographed.

Bulldog was a big guy, in height and in muscle. He had a long graying beard and a bald head. Paige knew he shaved it in solidarity with his mom, who was a two-time Breast Cancer survivor. Following so much radiation and chemotherapy, her hair had never grown back right, so she kept her head shaved and wore wigs. Both her sons, Carlos and Bulldog, took very good care of their mother, even though she’d been cancer free for over eight years.

Abby in comparison was petite. She had certainly gained weight from the malnourished woman Paige had first met, but she was still little. At five-six with bright red hair, Abby looked like she could turn sideways and disappear. When she’d first met the couple, Paige had thought it a bit—for lack of a better word—misogynistichow Bulldog did everything for Abby. He hovered, and Paige had once wondered if he chewed up her food and transferred it into her mouth like a mama bird did to her babies.

But Paige had been wrong in her judging.

Abby was fragile, but Bulldog didn’t treat her like glass. He treated her like she was the most precious and rare diamond in the world. Like her very existence was the key to his survival. Protecting her from snowflakes might seem extreme, but it was also a testament to his declaration that he would protect her fromanything.

In the near year since Abby had returned to Mount Grove, she’d started to come out of her shell. As her doctor, Paige knew some of the horrors Abby had survived during her sixteen-year captivity in the religious cult her parents had joined when she was seventeen. Paige also knew she did not knowallthe details.

Abby had told her how she had been repeatedly raped by a man who hadboughther within the community. How sick and fucked up was that? Paige’s stomach turned every time she thought about it too much. While it wasn’t common knowledge around town, Paige knew that Abby and Bulldog’s two youngest children, Caleb and Georgie, were results of that rape. She did not know how Lila and Cassie, the older two children, were related to Abby or Bulldog, if at all. Not that it was any of her business, nor did it matter in the long run. Abby and Bulldog loved their four children, regardless of the circumstances of their conceptions.

And Paige loved that for them.

She wasn’t even convinced Richard loved either of his sons. He only ever seemed to show affection towards them around others, like his sister and parents.

Her phone let out a sharpdingfrom her lab coat pocket. Paige pulled it out, under the romantic delusion that it was Demo somehow sensing her want and longing for him.

But it wasn’t.

It was from her stepbrother. Another message, reminding her of her deadline to pay back money she didn’t have.

Shame washed over her. Dousing the fire that had been brewing and wiping out her fantasies of Demo like a flash flood. Embarrassment replaced the fire inside.

“Hi, Paige,” Abby smiled brightly.

Paige shoved her phone back in her pocket. Not responding nor deleting the message. She tried to smile, but her shock and anxiety prevented it from forming fully. “Hi, Abby.”

Bulldog’s eyes narrowed on her. “What’s wrong?” He took off his coat. Like Keys, his had the club symbol on it. He hung both his and Abby’s coats on the rack by the door.

The bell above the door rang again as Keys hurried back inside. He made a show of shivering and then bent over to shake out his hair on Abby like he was a dog. Abby giggled and squirmed from the cold flakes hitting her. Rather than running behind Bulldog for protection, even in jest, Abby reached into her pocket and took out a reusable pink water bottle. With Keys’ head bent over to shake out the snowflakes, he didn’t see Abby open the bottle and pour some onto his hair.

“Hey!” the younger man shouted, stepping back. “Eh! Cold, cold, cold!” This caused him to shake his head out more, splattering water all over.

Bulldog stepped between a shaking Keys and a laughing Abby, keeping her from getting wet from the water bottle. He had a look on his face as he stared down at his wife that was a mixture of adoration and admiration. Despite that his back was currently getting wet from Keys’ attempts to get the water out of his hair, he was proud of Abby for her actions.

Paige loved that. Their bond and connection was so powerful, it felt like they were always in an intimate bubble.

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