“After all you went through at the hands of our father and his drinking and you end up working in a bar.” He grunted into the phone and I immediately thought of Derek. Would they like him? I shook the thought away, their approval didn’t matter.
It took a few seconds for his words to register. He saidwork innotown. They didn’t know. They didn’t know what Vivian and Jack had left me. But of course not, the owner of the bar wasn’t on public record because the owner of the bar was the trust they had left me. They had truly saved me. Emotionally and financially. All this time I had been worried about them coming back into the picture because they wanted what I had. They didn’t even know what I had. Relief coursed through me.
“It’s slim pickings when you were homeless for years. Oh, but you wouldn’t know about that. It’s slim pickings when you don’t have a college education.” I purposefully left out the fact that I didn’t want or need college. He didn’t even need to know that I finished high school. That would open up a door of questions from them and they didn’t deserve the answers. My eyes caught on the picture frame under the tv and tears pricked my eyes. Why did they have to want me now?
“I didn’t know,” He sounded deflated. “I searched for you. I tried to follow you. I asked around. I printed out flyers.”
I knew he did. That was why I had started with the wigs and colored contacts as soon as I was able. I had been working at the bar when someone had come asking. He was a truck driver that had seen a flyer in Arizona. He had brought it with him that day but I was gone before he made it back inside. I was careful after that. I never showed my true hair color or eyes. Hell, I invested in the best makeup to contour and highlight some of my features away too.
“What do you all expect from me?” I just wanted to know what they wanted. How could I get them to leave me alone?
“We want you to come back. Even if it’s just for a day. I don’t care. Now that I know you’re alive I will never stop. I will never stop calling. I will never stop trying. Aiyanna, you are my family. You are everything to me. I just-” His voice broke in a sob and I had to pull the phone away from my face to keep myself from breaking apart. “I want you to meet my kids. You’re an aunt.”
He hit me right in the sweet spot. The one thing I couldn’t turn down. They had families and I was the only one left out of the picture. “How many?”
“Two,” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Twin girls. They remind me of you. Headstrong and defiant.”
He found my weakness and there wasn’t anything I could do to keep myself from going to the hellhole of my nightmares. I knew I was going to jump on the fastest flight and see my family again. But only under one condition. “If I come, Dad isn’t allowed near me or I’ll put a bullet in him like I should have done ten years ago.”
I was bluffing but I certainly didn’t sound like it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Derek
I finishedmy lap before I peeled my shirt from my body. The southern heat was starting to get to me like never before. Sweat rolled down my skin and I passed Halona’s again. What did I need in there?
A name rolled around in my head and I tried to push it back. I hadn’t called her. I had wanted another date and I didn’t have the balls to do something about it.
I backtracked a few steps and pulled my shirt back on my soiled body. The bouncer watched me from the corner of the room while I sauntered in. I had only come once after a workout and I hadn’t been this nasty then. I popped my earbuds out and leaned against the bar. The usual bartender was mixing up a cocktail and a new girl was popping tops on beers. She smiled at me as she delivered the beers and then made her way to me.
She set down a coaster in front of me. “What can I get ya, good looking?”
“Aiyanna.” I tried to keep the smirk off of my face, I really did but I couldn’t help it. Her lips twisted up and she pulled the coaster back.
“She isn’t here, she won’t be back till next week.” She watched the tables behind me with more interest.
“Is she sick?” That would explain the new girl behind the counter.
“No,” She shook out her strawberry blonde hair. “She is visiting family or something.”
I felt a frown tug at my lips. I turned to leave and the bouncer stopped me. He nodded toward a booth in the corner. I slid in after him and placed my hands on the table. “She’s visiting her dad.”
I was floored. Had they manipulated her that bad that she wanted to go back? When I had seen the pain in her eyes as she told the story that night, I knew she would never go back there. What had changed?
“Why?” He had to know. He cared about her.
He wrapped his hand around his jaw and rubbed the skin there in frustration. “I don’t know. One of her brothers called her and wanted her to come back for some reason. She wouldn’t tell me. She was acting strange this morning.”
“She left this morning?” Why hadn’t I called sooner?
The man nodded. “Yeah, check on her for me, will ya? She thinks she can get away with telling me she’s fine. But I have a feeling you won’t let her do that with you.”
He was right. I slipped my phone free from my armband and was about to click her name when a familiar voice squealed out behind me. I had been home for a few weeks now and had managed to avoid this… I couldn’t anymore.
“Honey!” Alex cried over the music. The bouncer saluted me and then abandoned me to my own problems. I didn’t miss the small smile as he turned away.
I stayed rooted in my spot and didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t get away with calling Aiyanna now, but it could wait a few minutes. She slid into the booth beside me and wrapped her arms around my middle. She stunk like alcohol. How I had managed to sleep with her as many times as I had was beyond me.
