Page 59 of Broken Daddy
Although that was probably a good thing.
“That was through process of elimination,” she protested. “It had to be you, me, or Mom. And if you knew it wasn’t you, that left me or Mom.”
“Right, and it wouldn’t be Mom. It was always you.”
“You never ratted me out, though,” she said quietly.
“Of course not. You’re my little sister. I will always protect you. As much as I can. I just wish I hadn’t had to sell my place so you could have stayed there instead of with that asshole.”
God, she wished that too. Even with two jobs she hadn’t made enough to pay the rent and continue with her pottery. And eat.
Like you eat much anyway.
“If it’s too much living with that asshole, you need to tell me. I’ll talk to Freddy.”
Fucking Freddy.
That asshole wouldn’t lift a finger to help Rohan. Only problem was that Rohan thought he was a good guy, a friend.
“He’s been checking in with you, right? He said he would. And that he’d get you out of that trailer if you needed to leave.”
Right.
Like she’d let Freddy do any sort of favor for her. He gave her the creeps. But she wasn’t going to tell Rohan any of this. He had enough on his plate.
“It’s only for a short time.”
Only she’d been there for three months already and Derick got worse with every day that passed. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t take much for him to turn violent.
Rohan eyed her for a long moment. She hoped that he couldn’t tell she was lying to him. To distract him, she started telling him about all the things she’d overheard at the bar recently. It was amazing what people would talk about when they were drunk.
Enough for her to write a book on.
“Do you remember Vega Glasson from school?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
But Rohan still sat up straight. “Why do you ask that?”
“He helped Derick home the other night,” she said, concerned by his reaction. “Said that he found him on the side of the road, drunk.”
“Jesus, fuck,” he said, leaning toward her. Then he glanced at the guard in the corner of the room. “Devi, stay away from that guy, understand me?”
“You don’t have to tell me twice, he gave me the creeps.” But it seemed like he kept popping up so she might not have a lot of choice. “Is there something I should know?”
“Vega is a very, very bad guy. And you should stay far away from him. Rumor is he works for a guy who runs several, uh, sex houses. But not the kind where the women are always there willingly. Get me?”
Oh God.
She was going to be sick.
“He doesn’t recruit close to home. Not that I know of, anyway.”
So what did he want with Derick?
“If he comes back, you get away from him. In fact, I don’t like this. I want you to call Freddy. Promise me you’ll message him. He can let Vega know that you have protection.”
“All right.”
She might wait and see if Vega turned up again, though. No need to contact Freddy unless she really had to.
