Page 71 of Marlin's Faith

Faith laughed but it was slightly bitter, “Oh and what does Faith do for a living, Dear?” I snorted.

“If that was supposed to be my mama, that was pretty awful,” Faith slapped playfully at my chest.

“Hard to imitate someone you’ve never met before!”

“Hey! Alright, alright, no need to tear a page outta your sister-mom’s playbook; damn!”

Faith laughed, smothering it behind her hand into giggles. I pulled her hand away from her mouth and brought it to mine, kissing the palm.

“Don’t you ever hide that sound from me, it’s my favorite music.”

She gasped softly and I smiled, turning back to the problem at hand, “You can tell my mama whatever you want in that regard, Faith. Hell, you can pour the whole ugly truth onto the table. My mama and daddy aren’t like most folks. They’re true Christians and real salt of the Earth kind of people. Dollars to pesos, you tell ‘em what those fuckin’ animals made you do, my mama will remind you that Jesus hung with Mary Magdalene andshewas a whore by choice.”

We lay in silence for a long time after that, Faith cuddling closer into my side, one leg over the both of mine as she smoothed the sole of one foot up and down one of my legs. She was thinking and I smiled to myself.

“Why don’t you come with me out on the boat tomorrow? Meet my brother Johnny for real; see if he says I’m lyin’.”

“I’d like that,” she said carefully, and the longing in her voice couldn’t be ignored. She finished by confirming what I’d thought I’d heard, “I miss the water.”

I kissed the top of her hair and had to smile to myself, “That more than anything tells me that we really are meant to be.”

She chuckled and kissed my chest, the closest bit of my hide she could reach with her lips.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“For what?”

“For asking me to try the medicine, you were right, this is the most I’ve felt likemein a long time.”

“I’m glad to hear that, I really am.”

“This has been a good day,” she murmured.

“The best day.”

“The best day,” she agreed.

I knew it wasn’t always going to be like this. That her moods would shift like the wind and the sea and some days would be stormier than others, but this was good. It felt like we were finally moving out of some of the treacherous waters we’d been navigating the last couple of months.

Truthfully, she was doing remarkably well, coming out of this thing like a real champ. Moving past all the ugly with some sheer iron will and determination. It was good, but it was also dicey. I just had to have a steady hand and fight the pull when she tried to go back under. It was a lot of patience and a lot of understanding on how this thing worked… trauma, PTSD and the like. I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t done my homework about all of it. Mostly while she was in the throes of that fuckin’ poison. I like to be informed, liked to know what came next, and I’d been just as committed then as I was now to see this thing through to the end with her only now, it was so I could live in a fuckin’ happily ever after with her. I had no intentions of turning her loose and it seemed like we were on the same page there too.

I couldn’t remember a time when I was fuckin’ happier.

38

Faith…

I loved riding on the back of Marlin’s bike, and after the trip to New Orleans and back, the short twenty minute ride to Dr. Sheindland’s office had felt like a sorry consolation prize. The ride to Ft. Royal, at a little over an hour, had felt much better. I was smiling when we reached the marina. Bobby had ridden with us on his own motorcycle, which had surprised me. I just hadn’t imagined that he would ride, I don’t know why. His bike was some kind of classic, a Harley, but from the 60’s or 70’s andloud.It was a bright, deep, sparkly blue, the paint on the tank almost like the nail polish on my toes with metal flake in it, adding a dimension to the color that made it shine like a diamond. It was a pretty machine, and it fit him somehow.

I wondered why he wasn’t a part of the Kraken, but I figured it probably had to do with how busy he was with his orange grove, and the hour long commute. The Kraken didn’t really seem bothered with expanding their borders outside the limits of the town. Maybe that was why. It just didn’t seem like a thing I should ask, and besides, I could almost pick up on a tension in Bobby whenever the club was talked about.

I got off of Marlin’s bike and waited beside Bobby while Marlin backed his bike into the little cinderblock garage that was his on the marina property. Marlin came out to stand with me while Bobby did the same. There was a tension in him, which I think had to do with us being back here without the majority of the rest of his brothers to keep an eye on me. I had the feeling that Marlin was keeping some information back from me when it came to the situation with the men who had held me for two years. I wondered how much of their ire was for me having been freed, versus how many of them had died in the process of releasing me. I remembered the blood, and I knew it would come at a steep cost eventually.

I was worried about it. Worried that cost would come in the form of Hope being sacrificed for my escape. I would worry about that until she was out of that jail full of corrupt men that had been in the hip pocket of the men that’d held me and trafficked my body for their own greed. I hugged myself and shivered in the bright white heat of the day and it had nothing at all to do with being cold.

Marlin put an arm around me and I leaned into his hard body gratefully, drawing strength. He looked down at me but I couldn’t see beyond his sunglasses what he may be thinking, I think it was the same for him because he asked, “What’s wrong, Baby Girl?”

“Thinking about Hope.”

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