Page 6 of Broken Promises

I let Marco handle it, leaning against the door frame to watch the kids for a second, only moving away when Beckett called down the hallway to me.

“What happened to her?” Lukas asked Gregory gently, my eyes focusing on the baby now that we were in better lighting. Her face was bruised, and she had a scar on her cheek.

“My sister was coming down from something and got mad at her for crying. I try to look after her so my sister doesn’t hurt her,” Gregory replied. “She’s ten months old.”

Beckett moved to stand beside me, speaking quietly. “His sister was twelve when she got pregnant?”

“Yep. You’d be surprised how common that is,” I said under my breath so the kid couldn’t hear me, looking around the room. “Most girls are groomed from young ages to please men. The younger the girl, the more money the pricks pay. Then, the next generation of drugged up hookers start and the cycle continues.”

She made a sound of disgust, and I glanced down as a tiny hand grabbed onto mine, finding one of Gregory’s sisters looking up at me. Nancy was eight, but she looked no older than six. Her growth was severely stunted, and her eyes had always looked too big for her face.

“Hey, Nancy,” I smiled, making her giggle.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, peeking around me to see what was happening.

“We just wanted to check on you guys,” I explained, motioning to Beckett. “This is my friend, Beckett.”

“Hi, Beckett,” Nancy said sweetly, walking towards her brother without waiting for an answer. Gregory kept talking to Marco and Lukas about the baby, but he was aware of Nancy joining him as he lifted an arm and put it around her, keeping her close.

It looked cute, but the reality of it was that he was protecting her from the strangers in the room. No twelve-year-old boy should have to be the man of the house like that.

I made a mental note to check in with both Gregory and Frank again soon to make sure they were both okay.

CHAPTER TWO

LOGAN

Iwoke with a start as a door slammed somewhere in the house, Beckett’s voice reaching me a second later. “Wake up, assholes! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I have a murder appointment in an hour!”

Groaning, I rolled over to check the time, seeing that it was six-thirty in the morning.

“What does your murder appointment have to do with me?” I called back, her head poking into my room not long after.

“Absolutely fucking nothing, but if I have to be awake and functioning, then so does everyone else.”

“I hate you.”

“Hate you too. Feel free to stay somewhere else if you don’t like it,” she replied before leaving me alone again. I tried to go back to sleep, but then my ears caught onto the conversation she was having with Maddox.

“Are you just getting home? Raven needed you for almost three hours?” Maddox grunted as I heard him climb out of bed and walk out of their bedroom.

“We ended up getting stuck helping some kids that tried to steal my car.”

“By help, do you mean bury?”

“I’m not a monster,” she scoffed as they walked past my door. “I just shot at their feet and scared them a little.”

I swung my legs out of bed, moving out to the kitchen to find them sitting at the table.

“You were with Raven?” I asked, earning a dirty look from her in return.

“Yes, not that it’s any of your business.”

“Is she okay?”

“Do you think she’s fucking okay? You three assholes fucked her up. It must be bad if she’s calling me for company at three in the morning,” she deadpanned, making me wince.

“I didn’t?—”

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