Page 88 of S.O.S. Billboard

They both leaned against the bars, absorbing each other’s heat, and her body finally settled.

“I think I might have told you that my parents are beyond useless,” she began.

“You mentioned it, yes,” Billboard allowed. He’d had thoughts that they were a pair of fuckers, but with this grandmother thing…

“Well, myfatheris useless,” O’Shea explained. “My mother is…more complicated. She’s useless but also volatile. She’s prone to these unexplained rages. And in the past, she’d go after me or Cedric for infractions that were basically nothing. A wrong word said, a bit of food left on a plate. We never knew when her demons would arise, but when they did,” she gulped, “Cedric got the belt, and I…” she swallowed hard again. “I’d get hauled next door to my grandmother’s house.”

“She lived next door?” Billboard questioned so that he’d have a bead on where to find the bitch when the time was right.

“Uh, huh. She still does.” A shiver rattled through O’Shea, but it didn’t take her senses away from Billboard again, it seemed to strengthen them this time. “And she was monstrous.”

O’Shea’s shoulders straightened and she lost her haunted look.

“I’m sure, now, in retrospect,” O’Shea resumed, “that Grannie was probably the reason my mother was so horrible, but…” she turned hard eyes to Billboard’s. “How could she turn me over to the same woman who had ruined her?”

Billboard tried to pull an answer from the depths of his therapy sessions to give her what she needed. “We never know why brains work they way they do,” he told her. “Your mother was obviously broken by the things she’d endured, and she let that dictate the rest of her life. You and Cedric, thank God, were somehow able to overcome it.”

He didn’t know if he should continue to lead the conversation, but Billboard needed to know more. “Tell me about the cage.”

“I… You caught that, huh?” she asked, trepidation returning to her voice.

“I did. But if you’re not ready to give me details…” he trailed off.

“No. It’s okay. You’ve seen the worst of what it can do to me,” she assured him, then sucked in a deep breath. “When I was young, living under my parents’ roof, if I did something my mother didn’t like, she’d haul me next door, and leave before she could witness the consequences of dropping me there. But she was basically giving my grandmother unfettered access to deal with me in any way Grannie wanted. And what that bitch wanted was to lock me in a cage that she kept in her walk-in closet. Like an animal. Until she deemed me ‘chastened’.”

“And how long would that be?” Billboard bit the inside of his cheek. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“Generally, a few hours,” she told him. “But occasionally it would be overnight.” O’Shea looked up at him with fear and anger all mixed up in her eyes. “This went on for years, starting when I was very young.”

Billboard held his cool, but just barely.

“How and when did it finally stop?” he questioned gruffly.

O’Shea mouth quirked up just a small bit, but he’d take it. It was the first sign of relief he’d seen on her face since they’d been tossed into the clinker. “I told you that Cedric and I lived together, right?”

“Yeah. After he got out of the service.”

“Yes, and no,” she clarified. “I actually lived with himbeforehe enlisted, then stayed in that same apartment for several years. He paid for it while he was deployed, keeping me safe.”

Damn.What an awesome brother. Billboard would have to let Cedric know the depths of his gratitude.

“After Cedric came home from the service, we actually ‘roomied’ up again until he met Libby.”

“So he saved you,” Billboard stated.

“He did. My brother was strong, and got us both out of the hell we lived in. He’s a big guy. He’d gained his height and weight at eighteen, and that’s when he decided he was through putting up with my parents’ shit and my grandmother’s insanity. He basically gave them an ultimatum. We’d both be allowed to move out, or he’d make sure the cops knew about their drug habits, and the fucked-up situation at my grandmother’s.”

“And they backed off,” Billboard stated with satisfaction.

“They did. They’re useless cowards, all three of them. And for once, that worked in our favor.”

“Remind me to thank your brother. I have a feeling he and I are going to get along just fine.”

O’Shea raised a brow, some of her impishness returning.

“Oh? You expect to meet my brother?” she asked cheekily.

Billboard met her humor with another kiss to her brow, this time lingering on her soft skin, inhaling her lemony scent. He was hoping it wouldn’t be too long before Mizzay sprung them. Then he’d worship O’Shea’s entire body until she forgot all about being locked away. But in the meantime…

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