“Jameson asked me out today.” And just like that, the comfortable, familiar peace we’d begun to slip into shatters.
My veins turn to ice, and I stiffen automatically. I release her shoulders and turn to look at her. “He’s shady as hell. Have you seen how he treats his mother?”
“Everyone is shady as hell in this town. I don’t ask how you make your money,” she calls me out. Savio and I hijacked a load of stereos and sold them to make money just last week.
“He’s exactly like your father.” My eyes stay pinned on her. Each muscle in my face hardens like stone as I think about the asshole.
“We all know history repeats itself around here,” she whispers, moving her body away, but I pull her back in.
“I’m not trying to fight with you. I just worry. There are so many other guys,” I say.
“None that are my age.”
As I stare down at Demi, I can’t stop thinking how beautiful and smart she is. She refuses to see it and I don’t know how tomakeher. “Maybe you need to look at the ones a year older.” I puff out my chest and she fucking chuckles. My lips purse harder as I take the slam to my ego.
She bumps me on the shoulder before replying, “If only you dated.”
This is my moment. My mouth needs to open and say I would date her. I would do everything in my power to make her happy.
A slamming door draws our attention to her house. Her father gets into his car and speeds away. “He won’t be back tonight. I’ll be safe.” She sighs. “I should go home and make sure my mom is alright.” I hate the guilt that washes over her beautiful features. What she doesn’t say is he was hellbent on hitting someone. If it’s not her, it’s her mom.
“Yeah, I understand. I’ll keep the ladder up in case you need to use it in the middle of the night.”
“Thank you, Dante.” She leans in and surprises me by kissing my cheek and the edge of my lip.Holy fucking hell.
She moves to the ladder and I’d normally help her down, but most of my muscles have forgotten to work. My dick is the only one doing its job, hard as a rock, and I’m left giving her some shitty ass wave. I watch her limp across the road and sneak into her house.
“Tell Demi you love her yet?” Savio dips his head through my window.
“Go to Hell.” He chuckles at my comeback. “Her father hit her again.” That rage I felt returns as my lips flatten and my pulse roars to life. “I promised her he would never do it again.”
I look my brother in the eyes, hoping he knows what I’m asking and he won’t make me say it aloud.Please beat the fucker to death.
“He still at home?” Savio looks at their house, then back to me.
“I wouldn’t have let her go back if he was.”
“I have your back.” We fist bump each other. “Don’t forget to sleep with one eye open.” It’s a reminder that my mother will be coming for her pound of flesh as payment for leaving her family dinner. Savio slides out onto the roof and starts down the ladder.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
He gives me a smile and a wink. “Tonight will be the last time Demi’s father hits her. Did you want to come?”
I look toward Demi’s house. “I’ll stay to make sure he doesn’t return.” I would love nothing more than to watch him take his last breath, but I can’t leave Demi vulnerable to him returning.
“He won’t. You have my word.” Savio nods.
“Thanks, Savio.”
“What else are brothers for?” He gives me a salute and hops down onto the grass.
Chapter 2
Demi
6 months later
Mymotherlatchesthestrap of my right heel that’s one size too small for me. I wish her feet would grow so that my toes weren’t crushed every time I needed to borrow her shoes. She places my foot down onto a fast-food wrapper lying on the ground. It crunches under my heel, the sound louder than it should be.