Page 53 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

“Hey, so that was pretty wild, wasn’t it?” he asks with a chuckle.

I sit in silence.

No matter what happens from here on out, I don’t want Angie to know what lead to this new road I’ve found myself on.

“Daveigh?” he asks, glancing at me.

I shake my head and imperceptibly jerk my head behind me, and he nods in understanding.

Rock drives the length of the street in silence, more than likely because he’s afraid that he’ll say something upsetting to me or Angie. I chuckle as I glance out the passenger side window. I can’t really remember too much of what he used to be like as a child because I lost so much of myself in the system. Then when the Parkers took me, I lost almost everything else I tried to hold onto.

It almost felt as if they were trying to create Hell where Heaven once stood, but even Heaven needs its angels to be whole, and when I lost mine to a different family, I vowed that my hatred would end with the Parkers. Besides, even though it happened in the worst way possible, Julius gave me a new angel to love, and I’ve done my very best with what I have to give her the best life I possibly could.

Angelina Celeste Creed.

I purposely gave her such a heavenly name when I gave birth to her in my tent one night in Skid Row to remind myself that angels exist even in the darkest of situations.

“Check it out,” Rock finally says interrupting my thoughts.

“Huh?” I ask, glancing at him.

He grins at me and leans back slightly enough so that I can see the outline of a home in the skyline down a hidden street. Rock laughs as he rolls up to the driveway which is guarded by a huge, metal, double gate, and punches in a code in the pad.

It’s a massive, two-story home that takes up so much of the goddamn sidewalk, that I’m amazed anyone would even live there.Who needs that much?I wondered as he waited for the gates to close slowly behind us, then continued up the hidden street.

“Ready to live the high life, Daveigh?” he asks cheerfully as he navigates the road, and the house starts to come into view.

“Is this your vacation home?” I joke, lamely. Uncomfortable is a hell of a way to describe how I’m feeling at the moment. Since I spent most of my life living on the streets and surviving off scraps, I don’t feel like I would belong in there.

“Nope,” he replies with a grin. “It’sourplace. I’ve had it for a while, but never stayed more than a night. Sometimes, you just need to get away from society’s ‘finest,’ you know?”

I rub my arm as I look at the structure, then sigh as I turn to look at Angie in the backseat who somehow managed to fall asleep. She hasn’t been in a car in a long time, so I guess I can understand why the steady movement lulled her to sleep. Bus rides are bumpy and far and few in between, and she has to stay awake when we’re walking wherever we need to go.

Rock rolls the car to a stop in front of the front staircase that leads the way to double doors almost as huge as the gate down the way and I take a deep breath.

“Is this what it’s like?” I ask him softly.

“What’s that Daveigh?”

“Having someone give a shift about you.”

His eyes soften when he looks at me again. Rock rests his arms over the steering wheel, laying his cheek against them and smiles at me. Only this time, it’s not just with his lips. It’s with his heart—hissoul.

It’s his way of telling me that he never stopped giving a shift about me.

As I glance at the house again, feeling the uncertainty starting to slowly fall away, I wonder if this place is also his way of showing me that he never gave up hope of being reunited again.

“Let’s go inside,” he suggests kindly.

I nod as I push the door open, then step into a world that I had the privilege of being in for a few years of my life. Only this time, I knew it wouldn’t be forced on me.

Nothing would.

Chapter 21

Rock

Iwalk around the back of the car until I’m on Daveigh’s side. She’s so busy staring at the house in such uncomfortable silence that I don’t want to bother her. I want her to feel good about this—she’s earned a good life, if no one else has, and the fact that I can do this for her, and Angie makes me feel like I’m maybe not the piece of shit that Emily insists I am.

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