Fuck me, how the hell do I answer these fucking questions?
“Who’s Mikhail?” I ask him.
“He’s my stepfather,” Levi says, and it’s almost formal the way he says it. Like he’s addressing royalty or something.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” I growl out as I walk away from my son and his questions.
Questions I don’t have answers for yet, but I do have a fucking name to match with the bruises on my girl’s face.
“Po-po’s on their way out, call got tracked before we smashed it,” Grem says as he inspects Allie’s head with his hands.
“Sheriff Jones gonna run interference for us?” I ask as I walk over to see what’s going on.
“Yeah, luckily one of his lazy assholes was the one who grabbed it. They still have to send someone out because of that whole GPS tracking system in the police cars now,” Grem says and stands up from the table.
“Well?” I ask him as I start to wipe some of the sweat and dirt off Allie’s forehead.
“Did she hit her head or somethin’ when you two were fuckin’ wrestlin’?” he asks.
“No, nothing like that,” I say, and my stomach fucking tightens up hard when I smear more makeup off and see that she’s got a full-blown black eye and bruising on her cheek.
“Then I ain’t got a fuckin’ clue, Coy,” Grem says while running his fingers over the small gremlin bell duct taped to his kutte.
“Fuck,” I growl, and look around this fucking shithole of a house.
This fucking place used to be a fucking nice house, almost as nice as a fucking mansion. Time and scumbag renters have turned it into a pigsty.
“Brother, whatever’s going on, I’ll tell you one thing,” Grem says but doesn’t finish until I look up at him.
“What now?” I ask him.
“Somethin’s fuckin’ off about this whole thing,” he says.
The same shit he said earlier.
“Yeah, well, tell me somethin’ I don’t know. We need to get the fuck out of here, fucking house smells like shit,” I growl and rub my hand over my face, trying to get some of the sweat off me.
“Yeah, this fucker hasn’t had the air conditioning run in a while. It’s gonna take all night for it to get in cool in here,” Grem says and points to Allie. “And she doesn’t need to be passed out in all this heat and shit.”
“I know,” I say and then look around for a purse or something. “Find her purse and get her keys. I’ll take her and the kid to my house.”
“Coy, don’t you think she might be better at a hospital?” he asks earnestly.
“What? So she can disappear again? Fuck no. And you saw the way she acted, someone’s after her,” I say and then look toward Poster. “That means my boy is in danger too.”
“Now listen to me, there’s a chance—” Grem starts to say, his green eyes trying to reason with me.
“Go fucking look at him, Grem. You go look at him and tell me what you think,” I growl out at him.
Tossing the wet bandana to a corner of the room, I shout, “What’s the news, Poster?”
“Pappy’s on his way out here and he’s got Darlene headin’ to your house,” he says as he comes into the room.
Levi trails after him, looking terrified, but at least he ain’t freaking out yet. Walking over so I can block off the view of his momma, I squat down in front of him. “Hey, little man, I need you to do me a huge favor.”
Little lip quivering, he asks, “What?”
“Can you take Poster Boy upstairs and bring down your stuff? You and your momma are gonna come to my house for a sleepover,” I say as gently as possible.
I’ve never been around kids though, so I’m fucking hoping I’m not about to set off more waterworks. Fuck, my old man would swat my ass for even daring to cry. I think the last time I cried I was three.
“No,” he says in his little frightened voice.
Well, shit.
“Poster, go get anything that could belong to them. Put it in their van,” I grumble and keep staring at Levi.
“I don’t want to leave mommy,” Levi says and then walks right past me to climb up on a chair next to the table.
From the choking sound he makes, I know today is only going to get fucking worse.
“What’s wrong with her?!” Levi wails as he begins to push at her stomach, trying to get her to wake up.
Grabbing his hands as gently as I can, I say, “She’s sleepin’, Levi. She was so tired she passed right out.”
That’s about all I can guess right now because I don’t have a fuckin’ clue what the hell is really happening here.
“Why won’t she wake up then?” he asks. “I wake up when I’m sleepy.”
“It’s an adult thing,” I say.
Levi gives a huge, aggravated sigh. “Oh.”
Fuck, I know that sigh. He’s heard the adult excuse a lot, I’m bettin’. Probably heard it when Allie would try to explain all the bruises.
I bet she’s had a ton of ‘em.
“Any luck on the keys?” I shout to Grem who’s somewhere in the house now.
Thumping down the stairs, he finally responds, “Yeah, I got her purse and keys.”
“Anything else in there?” I ask.
He frowns. “Yeah, her ID.”
“What’s fucking goin’ on?” I ask.
He tosses the purse at me. “Her last name’s Rastov.”
“Find anything else?” I ask.
“Not that I can tell,” he says. “Looks like we smashed her only phone.”
“Fuck,” I grumble.
I bet she she’s not gonna like that one bit.
“Alright, pull the van as close as you can to the front of the house. We’ll get her situated in it and I’ll drive us over to my house,” I say.
Levi is getting ready to snap though; I can see it and feel it. Ain’t no way he ain’t mine with how I can read his emotions just like my own.
Snapping my fingers at Grem as he walks past us, heading for the front door, I say, “Give me your bandana.”
Pulling it from his back pocket, he hands it to me with his eyebrow raised. “What’s up?”
“Levi’s got a job to do,” I say before turning back to Levi.
Touching Levi’s shoulder to get his attention away from Allie for a moment, I say, “You know all those times things were for adults and you didn’t get to help?”
“Yeah,” he says with a sniffle.
“Well, I’m gonna need you to help me like an adult today,” I say and hold up the bandana. “I’m want you to help me keep your momma comfortable.”
“How do I do that?” he asks, and I can tell he’s slowly pulling back from the breakdown he was about to have.
“It’s so hot, she’s sweatin’ a lot. I want you to gently wipe her forehead and face for a bit. Pull all that long hair out of her eyes so it doesn’t get so sticky there. Know what I mean?” I say as I show him what I want him to do.
“I… I can do that,” he says when he takes the bandana out of my hands.
Reaching out to lift him, I ignore his flinch at my touch and sit him on the table next to Allie. “You take care of her like a doctor would, okay?”