Live for You (15 page)

“
Rae—”

“—
Cole”

“
Ladies, first,” I say
with a grin, then take her hand in mine.

“
I don’t regret what
happened between us tonight,” she says softly, her face hidden in
the shadows.

“
Neither do I.”

“
Of course you don’t,
you’re a guy,” she says ending with a snort.

I flip on the interior
light so she can see my face. I want her to see that I’m completely
serious. “This isn’t a one night stand for me. I’m not sure how
you’re used to being treated, but I can imagine some guys probably
dated you because of who you are. I don’t care who you
are.”

She frowns and I quickly
add, “I mean, I care who you are, but who you are to everyone else?
Not important to me. You’re just Rae, this really hot girl that I
met at the Piggly Wiggly at the ass crack of dawn.”

Her frown gives way to the
sweetest smile I’ve ever seen. “I don’t care who you are either,
Cole Morgan.” Then she leans in, kissing my cheek and this
time
I
shiver at
her touch.

The front porch light
blinks on and off. Rae laughs. “It’s after twelve. Better go in
before I turn into a complete pumpkin.”

I walk her to the door,
wrap her up in my arms and lower my forehead to hers. “I put my
number in your phone while you were sleeping.”

“
Guess I better text
you.”

“
Yeah.” I grin, then let
go of her and open the door. She walks in, with a little backwards
wave and shuts the door behind her.

A few minutes later, I’m
back at home, drinking a cold one while I sit on the back steps. My
phone vibrates and I glance at it.

Good night. <3
Rae

That little heart emoticon
gives me the goofiest swell of emotion in history. Hell, I think I
could give Wyatt a run for his money. He’s the king of
goof.

Night.
I add a heart because it seems like the appropriate thing to
do. Guess that makes me the king of goof’s bitch? Or is that love’s
bitch?

Either way, this
girl
owns
me.

Chapter
Fifteen

Violet

The next morning I wake up
and text Cole first thing:

Morning!!!! Meet me at the
creek today?

Cole doesn’t text me back
right away and my stomach flips. I’ve never experienced this part
of dating before: The Morning After. Jaxon, for all his flaws,
texted me the next day and had flowers delivered. At least I don’t
have to worry about the dreaded walk of shame.

I take my time getting
dressed and then join Nana in the kitchen for breakfast. I’m
ravenous and eat most of the bacon she’s fried up before I come up
for air. Two biscuits and some scrambled eggs later, I lean back in
my chair. Who knew sex could make a person so hungry? I reach for
my glass of orange juice and gulp it down.

My grandmother looks at me,
her blue eyes kind. “Did you have fun last night?”

I manage not to choke and
set the glass down. “Yes, but Cole ended up driving me
home.”

She nods. “I’m glad he
walked you to the door, instead of dropping you off. Such a nice
young man.”

Yeah, well that nice young
man won’t return my text, I want to snap, but it’s not her fault.
She’s trying to be encouraging. Instead, I focus on the nice things
he did do for me. “He let me wear his coat, too.”

She smiles approvingly,
then rises from the table. We clear the dishes and put everything
away before heading to church. I check my phone several times on
the way over. Nothing. Then just like a pathetic loser, I check it
again once we’re inside and seated.

Nothing.

I feel sick. I feel used
and stupid. Why had Cole bothered to say all those things to me?
Had it been guilt? Did it matter now? I’d fallen for it, for him.
Hook. Line. Sinker.

After the church service, I
walk to the truck while Nana talks to her friends. It’s cool enough
that I can open the door and sit inside without breaking a sweat. I
pull my phone out of my purse and check it for the millionth time.
Still no text from Cole.

Get a hold of yourself, I
mentally berate myself. Instead of pining over some guy, I should
be concerned that Lacey knew about the “miscarriage”. My initial
check last night had only turned up one news article from some
random gossip site.

I won’t do that again. I’ve
been taught not to go on those sites from day one of my career.
There have only been a handful of times when I’ve not listened.
Last night was one of them.

But today, as soon as I
walk in the door, I’ll go straight to my laptop and check my
emails.

Maybe it won’t be that
bad.

*** *** ***

Cole

“
Cole,” someone hisses in
my ear.

“
Go away,” I mumble. This
is the first time in years, it seems, that I’ve been able to sleep
in without Kelly waking me up.

“
Dammit, Cole, get up.”
Cold water is thrown on my fac.

I sit up with an angry
shout, swiping water out of my eyes. “What the fu—” I
blink.

Crystal is standing there,
cup in her hand and scowl on her face. Her eyes are glassy. Shit.
She’s high as fuck. “Where did you put it?”

Ignoring her demand, I ask,
“What the hell are you doing here?” There’s no way she’s been let
out. Gentle Winds’ contract says a family member is required to
pick up patients.

She fists one hand on her
hip. “Is that anyway to talk to your momma?”

I don’t answer that, mostly
because I don’t want to be backhanded across the face. “What are
you doing here, Crystal?” I ask instead, varying my questions and
inflection. “How did you get here?”

“
Paid one of the orderlies
to sneak me out,” she says dismissively and I want to puke. She
hadn’t been allowed to take money or jewelry with her, so the only
thing she had to use as currency was her body.

I get out of bed and begin
to strip the wet sheets. “This will be the first place the police
will come looking.”

She smirks. “Don’t plan on
staying here long enough to be found. Where’s my baby girl? She
needs to pack up.”

Her words stop me cold. Oh,
shit. “You’re not taking her.”

“
She’s mine, not
yours.”

I count to ten before
answering her. “And she’s not private property either. She’s a
little girl, with friends and a routine for God’s sake.”

“
I don’t need a lecture,”
she says with a toss of her honey-colored hair. “I need my
money.”

“
Community property in
this house.”

She shrieks, then throws
the cup at me. I duck and it hits the wall behind me. “Dammit,
Cole. That was
my
money.”

“
Oh sorry,” I say with a
smirk, “I blew it all on food, rent and clothes while your parents
paid for your little vacation. My bad.” I’m lying. Her money is
hidden in Kelly’s room, sewn inside her favorite teddy bear. I get
dressed, grabbing a pair of clean jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt
from the pile folded on top of my dresser.

“
You’re lying,” she says
finally, “And if I have to tear this house apart to find it, I
will.”

I push past her, sheets in
the crook of my arm and snag my cell phone on the way out. I hear
glass breaking and things being slammed against the wall as I
calmly load the washer.

She shouts obscenities and
stomps from my room and straight into the kitchen, where she knows
she can make the biggest mess and do the most damage.

And just like always, I’ll
be the one cleaning up behind her.

***

It’s not until three hours
later that Crystal finally settles down. Nearly every room in the
house is destroyed. Only Kelly’s remains untouched, like it has
every time my mother has thrown a tantrum—drug induced or not—and
it’s why Parker and I have always hidden money in there. Or
anything of value.

I keep glancing at the text
Rae sent me, torn between answering her or driving over to her
Nana’s house, picking her up and hauling ass to parts unseen.
Unfortunately neither the sane or insane thoughts I’m having right
now do me any good. I’m stuck, waiting out Hurricane
Crystal.

While Crystal had been busy
breaking the dishes I’d just bought to replace the old ones, I’d
made arrangements for Kelly to spend another night at the Evans’
house. I’d pick her up in the morning with her backpack and
lunchbox, then take her to school myself. Mrs. Evans said they had
clothes Kelly could borrow, so I didn’t have to worry about that,
at least.

Parker’s on his way to the
bar, to open it before the Sunday evening crowd arrives, which
meant I was closing.

Bright side: Jane had a
great Friday and Saturday night; she only had to break up two
fights and made a shit ton of cash from a bachelorette party that
came in and decided to have an impromptu karaoke night.

I’m all for shit tons of
cash. Best kind of shit I know.

A blood curdling scream
rips through the house, and the hair on the back of my neck stands.
I jump to my feet and run inside.

My mother is lying in the
floor, holding her arm while blood gushes out with every pump of
her heart. Her skin is flayed open, starting at her elbow and
ending just shy of her wrist.

“
Holy shit, Momma.” I drop
to my knees, grabbing a towel that’s hanging on a half-open drawer.
“What did you do?”

Blue eyes glazed with pain
narrow at me. “Give me my money, dammit, or I’ll slit the other one
and Kelly will come home to this.”

Pulling her close, I press
the towel hard against her arm, trying to staunch the flow of
blood. Tears spring to my eyes, my nose gets all runny and I sniff.
Damn her for making me feel this way. So small and insignificant
while playing to the side she knows will protect Kelly at all cost.
“Why do you hate us so much?”

“
I don’t hate them.” She
sneers at me. “Just you.”

Hurt slashes threw me, like
the knife she used to cut herself. I grab the damn thing and fling
it across the room so hard it becomes embedded in the wall. She
laughs weakly. “Way to go, Cole. If I die, then they’ll have your
fingerprints on the murder weapon.”

“
I’ll get your damn money,
but first I’m calling 911.” I pull my phone out of my back pocket,
call 911 and head back into the kitchen to make sure Crystal
doesn’t cut herself again while we’re waiting for the cops and
E.M.T. to arrive.

“
You look just like him,”
she says softly, anger draining away from her face and tone. “Don’t
really hate you, hun. It’s him, all over your face. In your walk,
your voice. You sound just like him. Wonder if you can sing like
him too?”

Her confession doesn’t make
me feel better, and it didn’t come with any kind of apology. “I
can’t remember what he looks like.”

“
Find a mirror, sugar,”
she says, her words slurring. Her lids droop and I lightly smack
her cheek. Her eyes pop open. “Maybe it’s better this way. I’m such
a fuck up, Cole. I’ve done you so wrong. Yet you still love me,
don’t you?”

I clench my jaw, tears
blurring my vision. She knows me too well and I’m a hundred percent
sure she’ll use it against me later. “Yeah, I love you. So you
can’t pull shit like this.”

She smirks. “Knew
it.”

I bite the inside of my
cheek so hard that blood fills my mouth. I stare at the door,
willing the emergency personnel to show up. I want out of this, out
of my life. I want freedom from my crap existence so bad that I
don’t know what to do. But I can’t leave Kelly. Not to this monster
for a mother.

The roar of tires kicking
up gravel fills the air and a few second later, who but Officer
Ford comes busting through our front door. He takes one look at us,
my mother practically draped in my lap now. Blood’s everywhere and
his eyes widen at the knife embedded in the wall.

He’s finally got his excuse
to arrest me. I want to laugh at the irony. For once the blood
that’s been shed is not directly caused by me. “Step away from her,
son.”

I blink, wipe the back of
my hand over my eyes and nod. “She needs help.”

He speaks into a speaker on
his shoulder, then says, “E.M.T. is two minutes away.” Walking
slowly into the kitchen, he holds up his hands and focuses his
attention on me. “Just back away and put your hands up where I can
see them.”

Figuring the less drama I
cause, the quicker this entire situation will be over with, I wrap
the towel around Crystal’s arm and then stand. Ford jerks me by the
elbow and spins me, slamming my face into the wall. I see stars and
my cheek begins to throb.

“
Couldn’t keep your hands
to yourself, could you?” he says, spreading my legs with his knee.
He runs his hands down my sides and around the front, quickly and
efficiently, as he checks for weapons. “Knew you were going to go
off on the wrong person.”