Page 10 of Snagged By Hook

He practically dragged Gwen to his room, but he wouldn’t fuck her or even pleasure her. Hook just couldn’t stomach solitude tonight. The idea of sleeping alone wasn’t palatable after everything in his head and what came out of his mouth tonight. His brain hurt thinking about it.Everything hurt.

Gwen knew the score. She was probably the only person who did, sort of. Many a night he’d taken her to bed only to come up with an excuse. She wasn’t pushy like Sherry. Sherry would dig and dig and beg. That one didn’t take physical rejection well.

Gwen, she was like him. She found power and pleasure in the choice. Hook suspected it had been taken away from her at some point in her past, too.

When they got into his room, she cupped his cheeks. “I heard what you said to Squatch, you’re not broken, Hook. Whoever made you feel that way? Whoever tried to break you? They’re the broken ones.” He could see in her eyes that she’d heard everything, but being the sweetheart she was, she pretended she didn’t hear all the other secrets he’d spilled.

Hook really hoped one of his brothers saw through her role at the club and fell for her one day. She’d be a good ol’ lady. She knew when to speak and when to keep silent. When to pretend she didn’t have knowledge and when to share.

“Come on.” She dropped her hands and led him to the bed. “I’m tired as shit. Sleep first, fuck later if you want,” she joked.

Hook smiled despite the tears that were falling. They’d never fucked and never would, but she always left it open.

His choice.

With the lights out and their clothes on, Hook held a club whore and cried like a little bitch. The past loosened its hold on him as sleep crept in. Before it could claim him, Nova’s visage floated through his mind. He was appreciating every inch of her and wondering why she wouldn’t even give him a chance when her eyes came into stark focus. So close, he could see the color striations in the irises. That’s when he had an epiphany. There had been pain and mistrust. She’d been hurt too.

She believed herself to be broken, too. It was a specific look. One he saw in the mirror every damn day. He didn’t know what or how or who, but he would find out.

He’d already slain his demons, and one day he’d slay hers. Demons were easy to kill, it was the shades they left behind that did the haunting. His shades were finally quiet, and sleep claimed him.

NOVA

June was eating her off-brandLunchableswith no complaints. Nova looked at her daughter and wanted to weep. She shouldn’t be eating processed lunch meat, crackers, and something that passed for cheese as her Saturday dinner. The store had them on sale when she’d managed to find a few dollars in her spare purses, and they didn’t require cooking. Plus, they kept pretty well in a cooler.

“I’m sorry it’s not what you’re used to, baby. I promise. It’s getting better.” Her daughter deserved so much more. More than a rental that was littered with eviction notices and no power. Of course, June thought it was a grand adventure.

“It’s like living in Little House on the Prairie, Mommy. If Daddy were still here, he wouldn’t let us have a picnic inside.” She spoke like it was all fun and games, but Nova could hear a twinge of understanding in June’s voice. Understanding beyond her years.

Brent was a grade-A asshole, but Nova refused to put all the blame on him. June was half him, no matter how much she wished it weren’t so, it was a fact. Nova would do whatever she had to do in order for her daughter not to hate herself or evenhalf herself. If that meant biting her tongue on what a waste of flesh her father was, then so be it.

While she wouldn’t badmouth him to her daughter or anyone unless he forced her hand by trying to contact June or her ever, to date, he had yet to give them even a second thought. Once he left, he’d changed his number, and that was that.

June may only be seven, eight in two weeks, but she was far too perceptive for her age.

“Honey. Your daddy loves you, and I bet he would’ve loved to be here and have a living room picnic with you. He left because of me, not you, baby. Never you. You mean the world to him.” She almost choked on the words.

Nova should feel guilty for flat-out lying to her daughter, something she promised herself she wouldn’t do. But she just couldn’t bear the thought of her daughter realizing she meant nothing to the man who fathered her.

“No, I don’t.” June looked down at her hands and crumbled the cracker she was holding. “He told me so.”

“What?”

She breathed, shocked. Brent wasn’t father of the year by a long shot, but to tell her she wasn’t his world? Brent was a cheater and an emotionally distant husband, but when she even thought there was a possibility of him being cruel to June, she’d grilled June over and over.

Still, guilt assaulted her. Nova sent him packing the very first time she saw him being not so nice to June. It was the kick in the pants she needed to leave the loser. But apparently, she hadn’t protected her in time, and that killed her soul.

“Daddy said I—” Her words were cut off by a clanging outside, but Nova ignored it. The earth could be hurdling into the sun, and it still wouldn’t be more important than her daughter.

Fucking Brent.

“What else, baby? What else did he say?” She was already planning to spin it so as to preserve her daughter’s tender heart. Maybe tell June he was joking or anything but whatever caused her precious child pain.

How could she have been so blind as to not see the monster under their own roof?

Nova braced herself and hoped it wasn’t too bad, but June didn’t seem too phased by whatever it was, just resigned to it. Resigned to the fact her father was an asshole.

But that was no way for a little girl to live, damn it.

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