Page 33 of Avenging Devil: Part 1

Of course she hasn’t. She’s here on impulse. I start to get an inkling of what Mom might have been alluding too. She’s been spoiled, waited on hand and foot, and now she expects me to step up and do that for her.

I want to say one night and then she’s on her own, but fuck it, how can I? We share blood if nothing else.

In some states, she’d be young enough to legally be my daughter. Breathing out a heavy breath, I lead her out of the terminal, knowing that if she insists on not going back to Detroit, I’m going to be stuck with her. How could I allow a girl of her age to wander the streets of San Diego? I can be an asshole at times, but not one as bad as that.

I head for a hotel I’d stayed in a few days after being released from rehab. It’s not changed much in the intervening years. It’s still basic, but clean and cheap. Cyn looks around with disdain as we walk to our room, but she keeps her mouth shut and doesn’t suggest she was expecting better.

If Cyn’s thinking of moving here permanently, I’ll help her to find a suitable place, but won’t change my lifestyle for her. I could easily afford a house, but I’ve never felt inclined to buy one. First in the Marines, now in the club, I’ve grown used to having people around me. Why run the risk of being lonely and having to cook all my meals for myself?

For Saffie perhaps, yeah. If we got together, I’d buy her a house.Fuck, why is my mind going there? I’ll be lucky if Saffie ever gives me the time of day again. Besides, we weren’t even headed that way. We were friends. There’s nothing to suggest we’d have developed any other relationship.

I force my thoughts to the woman entering the room with me, wondering why she’s here, and whether, hopefully, she just needs some space between her and her parents temporarily, for tempers to cool and such.

“You tired?” I ask, sitting my ass on one of the queen beds.

“Not really.” She glances at me and shrugs, pulling her case to the other bed.

She’s probably too hyped to sleep. Well, if she wants to stay awake, perhaps she’ll start talking. As soon as I know why she’s here, I can determine a way forward.

“So tell me, why are you here, Cyn?” Leaning back on the bed, I link my hands behind my head, and study her.

Shooting a look my way, she has an abrupt change of heart. “Perhaps I will try to get some sleep.”

“Uh-uh, Cyn. You’ve got to tell me sooner or later, so you might as well spill the beans.” I compose my features into a big brother’s frown and focus my eyes on her. “You’re not staying without telling me what the fuck’s going on.”

She huffs and sits herself down, her arms folded over her chest. “Dad’s a control freak.”

Yeah, I get that. It’s why I had to get out—curfews aimed to keep me on the straight and narrow when I hadn’t needed them, chores demanded that I’d have done in any event. Everything had to be to his timescale and by his inexperienced methods of raising another man’s son. Strangely, I’d been jealous of the freedom awarded to my sisters, another reason I’d stayed away, putting it down either to their gender, or that he’d grown into the father role having known them since they were born.

I suppress myyou don’t know the half of itretort, and settle instead for, “In what way?”

Her shoulders rise and fall again. “I had a boyfriend, he chased him off.”

Rolling my eyes, I realise I’m not equipped to deal with problems of the heart. But assuming Grover had some basis for doing so, I ask, “Why did he do that?”

She grimaces. “I love him, Niran. I was living with him. Then when I went home to visit, Dad saw him and scared him off.”

So much about that doesn’t make sense. “Why didn’t your dad like him?”

She gives a rise and fall of her shoulders as if she doesn’t have a clue. But there’s a slight guilt there.

“Come on, Cyn. You want my help? Well, that comes at a price. Your honesty. I want the truth. I can call Mom tomorrow—”

“Alright, alright.” Pleading eyes meet mine. “Hester’s a good man. He just likes things done his way. I know I pushed him. I deserved the slap.”

He fucking hit her?I get to my feet fast, wobbling as I hit my false leg wrong and need a moment to get my balance. I might not have seen eye to eye with Grover in the past, but like him, this is something I won’t stand for.

“He fuckin’ what?” I growl.

“He didn’t mean to hurt me.” Unconsciously her fingers touch her eye which now that I look carefully, I can see is slightly swollen. Other things now come to my attention—the redness and the bruising that had been disguised by the darkness of her skin and which I’d put down to tiredness before. Before I can exclaim, she’s speaking again. “Dad got some of his buddies to beat him up, and Hester told me we were over. I love him, Niran. Dad’s got no right to interfere in my life.”

Grover’s got buddies capable of beating a man up? I’d never have expected that.But he does go up in my estimation for dealing with it in the same way I would.

“What fuckin’ life?” I rasp. “A life where you’re a punching bag? No man hits a woman, Cyn.”

“I love him,” she cries.

“Was that the first time he’d hit you?” I manage to get out.

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