Page 28 of Tormented
Hooch snorts. “Right. Last I checked you didn’t have a double-digit body count to your name. Hell, any for that matter.”
“I do.”
He twitches a frown. “What?”
“I said I do have a body count. Two.”
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as I gently tuck Sawyer’s arm beside his big body.
“You’ve killed, Abbey?” His voice rises an octave, giving away just how unbelievable he thinks the possibility is.
“There’s a lot about me nobody knows,” I answer, settling with my ribs to the sofa, legs kicked out to the side. “There were a lot of things I was made to do before I was old enough to understand the consequences.”
“Talk to me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You need to.”
I lift my gaze to his, trying to get him to see sense in this. Uncovering the past does nothing to assist the future. If I’m to move forward, be the woman I want to be, and not the one I was forced into being, then I’ve got to leave the pain and regret where it belongs: behind me.
“I want to live a normal life,” I say. “Get married, have kids, hold down a steady paying job, and worry about how I’m going to pay the utilities just like everyone else.”
“What’s stopping you?” He reclines into the seat again.
“Me. Who I am stops me.”
“Why?”
“Would you love me?”
He takes a moment too long to answer, and my vague hopes crash. “You don’t let anyone love you, Abbey, so no, I probably couldn’t be bothered with the constant battle.”
“And there’s my point,” I whisper.
He studies my face as Sawyer rolls beside me. I coax pretty boy’s chin up to keep his airway clear, and get comfortable again.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t care,” he offers quietly. “But I think if you’re lookin’ to that guy there for answers,” he says, holding a hand toward Sawyer, “you’re looking in the wrong place.”
“Because he’s crazy?”
“Especially because he’s crazy.”
I reach out, gently wiping some stray dirt from the shell of his ear. “What if that’s the key, though? Maybe it takes an unstable mind to understand one?”
“And maybe it’ll just ruin you further, give you some new bad habits to add to your collection.” He stands suddenly, sighing as he looks down at the two of us. “Either come and get me, or get one of the boys when Sawyer wakes up. He’s goin’ to be a handful, and I don’t want him hurtin’ you.”
“He won’t,” I say, admiring my sleeping beauty.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because if he was truly that evil, he would have taken advantage of my weakness a long time ago.”