Page 51 of All the Ugly Things
He was smiling as he saw me and that smile quickly turned to unmitigated rage.
“What in the fuck happened to your face?”
13
Hudson
Imoved fast and was in front of her before either of us could blink and then my hand was at her arm, yanking her to her feet.
A gasp of surprise, maybe pain, fell from her scratched and swollen lips but I barely registered it.
“Who did this to you?”
She looked like she’d been run through with a cheese grater, scraped and scabbed, a yellowing bruise swelled her cheek, poorly disguised beneath a heavy layer of makeup.
“Hudson,” my dad called my name in warning. One I ignored.
“Who?”
I barked it out and she flinched, pulling her arm in my grasp.
Her cheeks turned red, and those large doe eyes of hers narrowed. She looked positively furious, and it was directed at me.
“Let go of me.”
Crap. What in the hell was I doing?
I let her go immediately. “Shit. I’m sorry.” I stepped back and scrubbed my hands through my hair. “When did this happen? Last night?”
She shifted her focus to the windows and the river, rolling her lips together.
A fierce strumming beat my chest, pooled blood into my fisted hands. “This happened last night.Afteryou refused to let me drive you home?”
She swallowed thickly, and a gaze filled with ire and fire fell on me. “And what would that have accomplished?”
There was that strength. The hint of her softness quickly fleeing behind cinder blocks and bars. Not that I could blame her, but in this?
“Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”
“Like I can afford a doctor.” She laughed once, so cold it sent ice to all the rage pummeling my body. She turned to Dad. “May I ask where the restroom is?”
“I’ll take you.”
“No.” She held up her hand in my direction, refusing my offer, and didn’t take her eyes off Dad. “Mr. Valentine?”
“Stephanie can show you. She’s at her desk in front.”
She nodded once and started moving toward the door when Dad called her name.
“Yes?”
He smiled, that understanding smile filled with sadness I was so damn tired of seeing him wear. “It’s David.”
There was a quick twitch of the corners of her lips before she left, shaking her head.
“What are you going to do about this?” I demanded of him, hands thrown to my hips once she was gone.
He leaned back in his chair. “I will be there for her. In whatever way she needs me to be.”
