Page 36 of Falling for Her Protector

He steps around the corner, wide-eyed and wondering who’s in his house. My hand covers my mouth as I take in the sight of the man standing in front of me. It hasn’t been long, but he’s barely recognizable. He’s a shell of the strong man he always seemed to be when I was a little girl.

“Ness?” my name falls out in obvious confusion as his hands scratch at his rail thin arms.

“Yeah, Dad,” is all I can manage to get out before my voice cracks.

“You’re...you’re home from school?” he asks and I feel my eyes go wide. No wonder he never came back. He doesn’t even remember he left me there.

Too bad I remember it like it was yesterday...

* * *

I was three when my mom died. It was a car accident during a freak snow storm. We don’t get much snow here, so there are always stories about accidents after a storm. Unfortunately, my mom had gone to the supermarket and was driving home when one hit. From the stories I’ve been told, she got caught in a white out and her car spun off the road before colliding with a tree.

I don’t really remember her, but I always clung to the stories and photos. I think that’s one of the reasons Dad never dated while I was growing up. He wanted so much for me to remember her the way he did, but my young mind just couldn’t. I actually tried a few times to get him to date some of my friend’s single moms, but he always refused. But something changed when I left for my freshman year of college.

I’m sure he was lonely, but why her? I always thought he was happy, but maybe I was just being naïve. The lure of a woman and the escape of what she offered him was apparently more than the love he felt for his only daughter.

In my heart I knew that something had changed when I came home for the holidays that first year and she was here. I wanted to ask him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to really believe that he had sunk so far in such a short amount of time. I pushed the thoughts away, determined to accept that it was all in my imagination.

I went back to school and finished the year, but when I came home for the summer I knew. I had been wrong to leave him and not confront him. She had moved in and their addiction to each other and the high was rampant.

I tried to talk to him, but she was always there. He had lost his job and she didn’t appear to do much more than sit around all day watching daytime TV. My only chance to get him alone was to ask him to drive with me back to school.

He was shaky and fidgety as we started to drive, but he talked and listened...at least for a few minutes. We were almost out of town when he got a text.

“We gotta make a quick stop,” he had said and I remember my stomach rolling.

“No, Dad. I don’t want to stop. I want to get back to school,” I had begged.

He didn’t listen. He drove us down a long dirt driveway, and it was the first time I saw the Red Vipers den. It was a compound, a fortress, like something you'd see in a movie or TV show.

“I’ll be right back,” he had said, but after waiting for almost thirty minutes I'd had enough. I was tired of waiting and wanted to leave. I knew in my gut that I shouldn’t be going inside, but I just wanted to get out of there so badly. If I had only known that I’d be trapped there for three months, I would’ve kept my ass planted firmly in the car. Looking back on it, I probably should’ve climbed in the driver's seat and left him there.

“Who’s this sweet little thing,” Grady’s voice had curled around my skin.

“That’s my Vanessa,” Dad had answered proudly.

“Dad, it’s time to go,” I tried, but I could tell it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“Not so fast. Your daddy owes me some money...but now, I think he might just have something better to offer,” Grady’s grin grew wide making my skin crawl. “You can stay here and keep me company until he comes back with the cash.”

Three months.

Three months I was there and Dad never came back.

Then came that night. The night I found the cabin, and Xavier saved me.

Grady was cocky. He thought he had broken me, but he hadn’t. Sometimes he would talk to the guys in front of me and I would overhear their plans. I knew they’d be out late, possibly all night. It would be my chance and I wouldn't hesitate.

There were other girls there, but they were all there by choice. A bunch of strung-out girls who I knew wouldn’t be able to stop me when it really counted. I waited and slipped out at just the right time. And then I ran.

I ran until my feet hurt and my lungs burned. I ran through trees until I was cut and bleeding. I knew I had to keep moving; I couldn't stop. And I didn't, until I saw the lights.

* * *

“I haven’t been at school, Dad. You left me there. Did you forget? How could you do that to me?” I question as the memory fades.

“Where?” he asks confused, but his eyes clear for a fraction of a second as the words leave his lips, and I know the memory has hit him too. His hand covers his mouth in disbelief.

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