Paradise Fought (Abel) (21 page)

“Round two,” he said with a heavy voice. “I can go for a night cap to top me off.” He reached for the bottle with one hand and me with the other. I screamed as my body plastered against his sweaty bulge of a stomach.

“Mom,” I yelled.

“Oh no, honey, that’s not the name I want you to call out,” he demanded. His sour mouth came close to mine. I winced at his disgusting breath. He tugged me tighter.

“Mom,” I strangled out, in a weak voice as I pushed against him. There was no need to keep calling her. She wasn’t going to rescue me. From the moment of Montana’s death, my mother had fallen into a deep abyss, leaving me, a spoiled child, to flounder on my own. I had always been taken care of. I didn’t really know how to care for myself. Every attempt I made failed. This moment was about to be another one.

I woke to murmurs downstairs. Creed brought Lindee home with him, as she clearly had too much to drink at Lennie’s. Maggie had been the designated driver after Elma left, but she and Lucie stayed behind, joining up with Victor Ortega and some other guys in the bar. I heard Lindee’s loud laughter and Creed’s teasing shush, but after that I blocked them out. I didn’t want a repeat of what I’d heard earlier from outside of Elma’s apartment. My earbuds had slipped out. It was the only excuse I had for hearing the voices coming from downstairs. I stood and opened my door to listen.

“You need to call the police,” I heard Creed’s voice travel up the stairwell. Something drew me to the concern in his tenor. I took the two giant steps to the top of the staircase when I heard another voice.

“I can’t,” she sobbed. That sweet drawl was drowning in a river of devastation. I was down the stairs in three large leaps.

Standing at the base of the steps, I saw Elma cover her face and cry out, “No!”

“This is why I didn’t want to come here,” she muttered into her hands. My arms crossed over my bare chest and I glared down at her. Damn her. It was my home. Why was she here anyway?

“What happened?” I asked, sounding bored. I was over Elma’s drama. My guilty kiss with Keli was nothing compared to what I heard from inside Elma’s apartment.

“Let us help you,” Lindee said to Elma, seated next to her. Everyone ignored my question. Lindee’s arm were around Elma’s back, rubbing a hand up and down; her other hand brushed back limp blonde hair.

“You’re coming home with me. No more of this,” Lindee demanded and made to stand, but Creed stepped over to the couch. I remained standing, leaning against the bannister, waiting for an explanation.

“Let’s just calm down. Tonight, no one’s going anywhere,” Creed announced calmly. He bent forward and tenderly pushed back Elma’s hair from her forehead. I shouldn’t have been jealous but the touch was too gentle. Elma hadn’t removed her hands from her face.

“Elma, let me see again,” he pleaded. “You promise he didn’t touch you anywhere else, right? He didn’t hurt you anywhere else?”

“Elma?” I stressed, moving from my stationary spot. “Elma,” I demanded. but there was a strain in my voice. I was instantly in front of her, seated on our coffee table. My hands covered hers and I could feel her tremble.

“Elma,” I warned. “I’m going to pull your hands back,” I said, as I gently pried them from her face. Her head hung forward and her hair tumbled down to shield her face.

“Elma,” I pleaded, scooping up her hair and holding it pinned at the nape of her neck. I used my finger to tip up her chin and was met with a horrific sight. Elma’s eye was swollen shut. A goose egg of a bump on her cheekbone was below the eye socket. Tears streamed down her face. Her lip was fat and split. It looked like teeth marks surrounded tender curves that I knew tasted sweet.

“What happened?” I asked, sucking in a breath. She only shook her head in response.

“Elma,” I swallowed, afraid to ask my next question, knowing it was important, yet scared out of my mind at her answer. “Elma, were you…”

“No,” she snapped cutting me off. “No, he never touched me like that,” she whimpered. That was all I needed to know. I wrapped an arm around her back and another under her knees. Lifting her, I kissed the side of her head.

“Abel?” Lindee questioned, but Creed continued with concern. “Abel, man, what are you doing?”

“I’m taking care of her,” I said, but spoke the words into Elma’s ear.

After I carried her to my room, I laid her on my bed and removed her clothes. She shook, but I used soothing words to let her know each intended movement before I made it. I washed her face and placed a bag of crushed ice in a washcloth over her eye. I gave her ibuprofen for the pain. She lay on her side, staring out at me, but not seeing me. She shifted on my bed at one point, so she could watch the solitary fish in my tank. The soft light from the aquarium was all that lit the room. It was a soothing sight, I knew all too well. Kneeling on the floor next to the bed, I intended to stay that way all night. I’d protect her in her sleep.

“You need to sleep,” she muttered eventually to me.

“I’m not leaving you,” I answered, brushing back pieces of hair that had fallen forward.

“Abel, could you just hold me?” her voice trembled and tears filled her one eye. She closed it while she asked, as if afraid to see me.

“Anything, my rúnsearc,” I whispered, as I stood and crawled over her. I wrapped myself around her and pulled her in tight, so that every part of her was pressed into every inch of me.

I jolted awake, a scream on the tip of my tongue.

“It’s okay, Elma. I got you, my rúnsearc,” he said into my ear. A quick kiss hardly touched under my earlobe. My heart raced, but I attempted to release the tension. I was safe, I told myself. Abel’s arm tightened over me.

“Elma,” he whispered into my hair, “tell me what happened.”

I shuddered as I explained how I was trapped by the man. His mouth came down on mine. I didn’t need to recount the disgusting wetness of his lips or the foulness of his breath. The thought made me shiver.

I bit him, I explained, and he bit me back. I was in pure fight mode when I kneed him in the balls. It broke the unwanted embrace and he released me in his momentary pain. I wasn’t fast enough, though, too stunned to move in my surprise that he had let me go. His large meaty hand slapped me hard, and a ring on his finger caught my cheekbone. I trembled as I recalled the pain that radiated over my face. I couldn’t see and I went down. I scrambled on hands and knees for the direction of my room, when I was caught around the ankle.

We aren’t done yet, scrapper
, I heard the man’s voice growl behind me. When he flipped me with a twist of my ankle, I kicked him in the face. I scampered backward like a crab to my room. The door would never hold against a man that size, but it was a barrier of protection, if only for a moment. I held my breath, waiting for the collision of my door against my back but it didn’t come. I called Lindee when I thought it was safe to talk. She couldn’t come pick me up because she was with Creed. He offered to drive over instead, but I couldn’t wait another moment. I packed a bag with shaky hands and risked another trip across the short living room.

“I didn’t look back. I just ran for the door, my keys out, ready to jab him in the eye if he caught me. Once in my car, I drove here since Lindee wasn’t at her place. I never meant to come here,” I said, my voice faltering and fading.

“Why Elma? Why didn’t you call me?” Abel pleaded behind me. He gently turned me to my back, tucking a piece of hair behind an ear.

“You were with Keli.” I had no fight left in me. Tears filled my eyes again, and I closed the only one I could open to avoid Abel seeing my hurt.

“Elma,” he said softly, his hand covering my cheek and forcing my face to turn to him. “I wasn’t with Keli.” I opened my one eye, but it was a strain to focus with only the one. His thumb caressed my cheek then moved upward to my temple. He gently forced my lid to close.

“Just listen, okay?”

Abel explained how he went outside for air; how he did kiss Keli, and how it meant nothing.

“It always means nothing,” I sighed.

“Not with you,” he said. I tried to open my eye again, but his thumb gently pressed the lid shut.

“It isn’t nothing with you,” he repeated. I couldn’t respond. Abel Callahan was a sweet man. I shook my head and scooted into him.

“I went to your apartment,” he stated. My head shot up, although I couldn’t really see him. He tucked me back under his chin, stroking my hair and gently rubbing down my back. “I heard noises in there. I thought it was you. I thought you were with someone.”

I didn’t know how to respond. My body began to shiver again. This is what a reputation earned me. I didn’t want to talk anymore. I didn’t want to explain my mother. I melted into his hard chest and colorful arms surrounded me, as the soothing trickle of the water tank, with one lonely fish inside, filled the silent room.

I woke alone in Abel’s bed. I was tucked in like a child, with blankets pulled up under my chin. I only wore a bra and underwear, not recalling being undressed. I was sore but comfortable, and I lingered in the filtered light of his room. I noticed my bags were on the floor on my side of the bed, and realized once again, I was going to owe Abel. He hadn’t asked for anything, but he kept stepping up to be my savior.

I didn’t know how I’d repay him. I needed cash. I needed a plan. I needed to let my mother go. She was an anchor dragging me down. I was drowning under the weight of trying to care for her. I didn’t know the first thing about trying to get her some help. The lease was in her name on our apartment. She was still my parent after all, although I was the one struggling to pay the rent. I’d have to talk to her. She had to take care of herself. I was going to ask Lindee if I could live with her. Splitting rent four ways would be a benefit to the other girls. I could sleep on the couch. It would be less than what I paid for that dump with my mother and safer. I couldn’t worry about next year’s tuition or housing yet. I just needed to finish this year.

I also decided I would talk to Jewels. She seemed hesitant after that Friday night weeks ago, and I worried that somehow I was caught on tape with Abel. Her hint was admitting in casual conversation that she’d done some questionable things in her studio when it first opened. She openly admitted she liked me then, and I was so relieved that I hadn’t lost my job. It would have been the end of me. I liked The Dance Academy. It was all I had to look forward to at the moment, and I needed the money.