Page 80 of Bad Men

I fought not to wince. I’d been in a state of panic over the thought of Davien making good on his threat to return. My parents had been laughing and chatting, a sure sign that something was up, but I had promised to be right back, that we could talk when I returned.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, guilt a thick noose around my throat. “I’m a terrible daughter.”

“What?” Mom shuffled to her feet and hurried around to pull me into her arms. “You have never been a terrible anything.” I clasped her tight, hating the thinness of her frame, the sharpness of her bones poking me through the material of her clothes. “I told your father not to say anything. I knew you would worry and try to help, and I didn’t want that.”

I pulled back to stare into her face. “Of course I want to help! How can you think—?”

“But there was nothing you could do,” she stressed, cupping my cheeks. “And look, it turned out fine. Now that we’re getting a bit more money in, I can take time off to recover and maybe even take a few days off during the week when I go back.” She broke into a brilliant smile. “Maybe even you can think about going back to school.”

“Mama…”

She shook her head. “I mean it, niña, you can’t take care of us forever.”

“Maybe I like taking care of you,” I muttered. “We’re family, taking care of each other is what we do, right? Besides, who’s going to be here to help you while you’re recovering? Dad can’t stay and you’ll be home alone.”

Mom chuckled. “The surgery isn’t for a few months still. You’ll be home long before that. Mia.” She cut me off when I opened my mouth. She leaned in and kissed me soundly on the cheek. “You’re a good girl, but everything is going to be just fine. Now, go get ready. The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back.”

I bit my lip and peered over Mom’s head to where my dad sat, face a blank canvas. “If I’m not working, you’ll be short again.”

A muscle flexed against his cheek and his gaze jumped to my mom as she turned to him with furrowed brow.

“Again?”

I realized he hadn’t told her we were late. He hadn’t wanted to worry her. Of course, I opened my fat mouth.

“Not again,” I corrected quickly. “I just mean short.”

But my mother glowered at my father a moment longer.

“We will be fine,” he said finally. “I have everything worked out.”

I didn’t know how, but Mom was shooing me upstairs to finish packing and I found myself in my room with Liana and a partially full suitcase.

An hour later, I was standing next to my aunt’s Jetta, my bags packed up in the trunk and my arms full of my parents.

“We’ll see you soon,” Mom promised, crying softly into my shoulder.

My father rubbed both our backs, keeping us in the circle of his embrace without pulling my mom away. “We’re proud of you, niña,” he said, stamping a kiss into the side of my head.

“Call me when you get there, okay?” Mom sniffled and pulled back. “And if you need anything, call.”

Promising them that I would call every day, I followed my cousin into the backseat.

“It’s going to be okay,” Liana assured me as we buckled in.

I didn’t think so but kept it to myself. Instead, I pulled my dying phone out and tried to think of what to tell Nero and Davien.

Chapter Fourteen — Davien

“Here you boys go.” Maude placed two plates of the breakfast specials on the table and slid them to their respective owners.

I eyed the greasy chunks of sausage and had to fight to keep the saliva from dribbling down my jaw. Nero had a nearly identical plate steaming before him, minus the sausage. His held buttered toast and bacon. I didn’t mind bacon, but it felt like a sausage kind of morning.

“Can I get you anything else?” Maude asked, dusting her palms on her apron before planting them on plump hips.

Nero and I both shook our heads.

“Thank you, Maude,” Nero said and I mimicked around a forkful of fluffy, scrambled eggs.

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