Page 60 of Kid
“Was she going to kill Jeremy?” I asked.
“Nel…” Kid started.
I held up a hand to silence him.
Emmitt, to his credit, couldn’t meet my eyes. “There are worse things than death, Nella.”
Before I could decide if I wanted to know what he meant by that or not, Malik arrived to take over the scene. I worry he could get into trouble for helping us, but he assured me everything would be okay.
“I’m going to have to arrest your mother.” Malik explained. “You know that, right?”
The pain that caused was almost supernatural. I couldn’t breathe until Kid pulled me into his chest.
“I know.” I told him. “I know and even though it hurts, she had it coming.”
Malik nodded. “Take care of her. I’ll come by in a couple of days.”
We left the house and climbed back into Kid’s car. Mamba drove while Kid cuddled me in the backseat.
The truth was I was annoyingly numb to everything. My mother wanted to destroy me by breaking the only person I loved more than life itself. And it wasn’t because of something I’d done to her. T wasn’t because I was a horrible child and somehow her actions were for my own good.
It wasn’t something I’d caused to happen to her, it was because I hadn’t married Emmitt.
It was because of greed.
The pain I was experiencing was so bad, I couldn’t even cry. No matter what I thought, what scenario I could come up with of how much worse this could have ended, the tears didn’t come.
The brothers and Sean lobbied around me. Sean had made Jeremy shower and had dressed his bruises and scrapes.
When I entered the house, Jeremy hugged me and wouldn’t let got. It took some doing to feed him then made him get some sleep.
We compromised with him sleeping on the large sofa in Kid’s living room.
Chelsea and Jia wanted to come to me, but I couldn’t handle that.
Instead, Mamba took Demon and Sean away. Kid poured me a stiff drink and I sipped some and winced at the burning in my throat.
I was never a fan of the heavy stuff—but after the few hours I’d have, it called for it.
Kid showered first then sat watching over Jeremy like some avenging angel until I returned, hair went, body feeling a little better.
We didn’t speak—all night, Kid held me in the sofa at Jeremy’s feet. I kept waking up throughout the night to check on my nephew.
Each time, he’d assure me Jeremy was safe, kissed my brows until I dosed off again.
In the morning, I woke to Jeremy curled up against my side. The blanket was pulled to my shoulders and the smell of an amazing breakfast filled my nostrils.
I scooted from the sofa, covered Jeremy and made my way into the kitchen. Kid turned to smile at me. When he leaned in for a kiss, I covered his lips with my hand and darted into one of the downstairs bathrooms. I rinsed my mouth then went back to kiss him good morning.
“How are you feeling?” He asked me.
I stole a sausage off the pile, blew against it and bit off the tip. “Was hoping what I found out yesterday would be a nightmare. Jeremy is here so I’m going to assume it wasn’t a nightmare.”
“I’m afraid not.”
I hit the sausage again. “I figured as much. But you know something, I have Jeremy now and I’m not letting that woman anywhere near him again. My sister didn’t want that.”
“Okay—how about we take today off?” Kid asked. “I’ll cater to you and Jeremy. Then once you have a little strength again, we tackle your mother and all the legalities of what she’s done?”
