Page 38 of Saint
She lifted her brow, “What?”
I looked back up at the ceiling, as I tagged my phone with my free hand that wasn’t supporting Soraya, and snapped a picture of it, “That’s black fucking mold, baby.”
She gasped, “What?”
I nodded, “Yeah, get y’all’s things. Y’all are coming home with me.”
“Saint, we can stay with Harold and Lilly,” she said as she moved to Soraya’s room.
I followed her, and when I reached her, I growled, “Baby. The moment you said yes to a date with me, you gave me part of you. And that part I plan to protect. Same goes for Soraya. I won’t be able to rest easy unless I know y’all are safe and in a place that isn’t dangerous. No knocks to Harold or Lilly. But I’ve got a shit ton more room, which you know. And it just so happens that I got a bedroom already painted almost the same color as Soraya’s room.”
As I was talking, I was also pulling out my phone and sending a text.
The brothers would be here to help move them and all their stuff to my place.
She looked at me and said, “I can’t have a repeat, Saint. I just can’t.”
My heart broke for this woman.
Even though she told me about some of the things that he did or said, I knew there was a lot more baggage there to unpack and put away in a box, never to be opened again, because I would make it so.
I also knew that underneath that baggage was pain from her deadbeat father.
That was why I said without hesitation, “Okay. First thing in the morning, I’ll get your name added to the deed.”
She stopped and stared, then she said, “Saint. Don’t say things like that. We’ve only known each other for like five minutes.”
I moved then, placed my free hand on the side of her neck, and rejoiced when she didn’t even flinch away from my touch, “Baby, don’t give a shit if I’ve known you for a fucking minute. Everything with us is right. Please. Just trust me. I’ll never giveyou a reason not to. I’m going to go lay Soraya down on the couch. You have until the brothers get here to decide.”
I waited after I laid Soraya on the couch and covered her up with a red throw blanket they had on the back of their couch.
I had just moved a blonde curl from Soraya’s face and tucked it behind her ear when I looked up and saw Ophelia loaded down with a few bags.
I moved to take them from her, then she glanced at Soraya and then back at me, “Might be a fool. But yes. After what I watched you do for Soraya, yes.”
The brothers had shown up, and so had the Robbins. Harold was already trying to get out the door to visit her landlord when he saw the black mold.
He hadn’t seen it when he had been here.
Probably because he wasn’t nearly as tall as I was.
After I carried the bags out to the van, the brothers loaded up the rest of her stuff.
I had Soraya in my truck, buckled up, and the heat blasting when I walked to the van, and when I saw that they were done, I looked at all of it and the empty truck beds and asked, “This is all y’all have?”
Ophelia sighed, her eyes showed she was tired when she said, “It’s all he allowed us to take.”
I bit back a few curses and got a lot of growls from my brothers.
That night, after I tucked Soraya and Ophelia in bed, I asked Gavel to stay on my porch as I made a little visit. Well, the first visit of three I planned to make.
But first, I stood there as I stared at the two of them in my bed.
Looking fucking perfect.
Looking fucking right.
And it was that image that remained solidly in place as I left to mete out justice.
