Page 91 of Special Agent Murphy

Chapter Fifty-four

After Murphy and Kayti left him, Mark let out the groan he’d been keeping in. The pain in his shoulder had intensified. But he hadn’t wanted them to think him a sissy.

In his almost thirteen years, he’d prayed for a woman to look at him with the same softness that Kayti did. When his pa had kicked him back at Vinnie’s, the store he made Mark rob, and had treated him as always, like a dog who didn’t matter, Mark took it. Same way he’d taken it all his life. What else was he to do?

The few times he’d run away had been worse. The people on the streets watched for kids like him. They used them and made them do terrible things. At least his pa only beat him, and that wasn’t every day. Most times he ignored Mark, which worked just fine.

He’d make himself as small as possible and try his hardest to stay out of the mean bastard’s way. He’d even go to school whenever he could sneak away.

Child Services, the folks who caught up with his dad at the hospital after one of his punches dislocated Mark’s shoulder, told his dad he needed to go every day. It wasn’t a hardship. He liked learning. He just didn’t like the bullying about his clothes, his hair, and most of all, his gutless spine.

But then something happened. The lady sawhim. She cared. About him. He knew it. The look he’d waited for all his life. The same look he’d seen some of his schoolmates get when their moms came to pick them up.

She even took a beating for him. No one had ever done that before. Tried to get between him and his dad. Tried to save him. His heart, thrashing in agony from fear for her safety, had fallen to her feet that night. He’d spent time imagining the if onlys.

After they ran for it, his pa had started in about finding her address, paying her back for interfering. He’d opened the phone and damned if he hadn’t gotten into her contacts. There was her photo next to her own information.

The rotten son of a bitch laid plans for revenge, and for the first time in his life, Mark thought ‘hell no’.

Now, laying in the hospital bed, the pain he had to endure was routine, just another day for him.

It was her last words that had swept him away on a wave of bliss.I love you.No one had ever said that to him… ever. She made him feel so much he couldn’t contain it. The overwhelming emotion caused the tears.

When the nurse came in and saw him crying, she spoke briskly. “It’ll be better as soon as the Tylenol kicks in, Mark.” She’d given him a box of Kleenex and had even patted his hand before leaving him alone.

She couldn’t know these weren’t tears from pain. He’d suffered through so much physical pain; he’d rate this a four. They flowed because of the happiness he didn’t know how to deal with. He’d never experienced it before, and it was… it was beautiful.

Kayti made him feel like he mattered. His small needy heart had found a home. She was his lady.Thank you, God. She cares.

Now Murphy, the man who said he’d be fostering him, he scared Mark… a little. That dude would be no man’s fool. Thinking back over the night, Mark sighed and snuggled down. As his tear-filled eyes closed, a last thought snuck in.Murphy makes me feel safe.

---