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“See? Wasn’t it nice without a condom?” I eye him knowingly.
“Of course it is. Do you think me some kind of lunatic?” he growls, his eyes lingering on me.
“Watch the road, cowboy. We wouldn’t want to get into an accident.” I touch his leg to tease him, and he purrs like a lion.
The way he looks at me, like I’m the finest piece of meat he’s ever seen… it sends steaming flames from my calves all the way up to my thighs.
He grabs my leg suddenly, which makes me gasp, and then I slap his arm playfully.
“What are you trying to do to me?” I say.
“I’m tempting myself,” he purrs.
“And?” More heat flares up to my face. I must wear it like a shirt.
“Nothing.” He makes a face like I’m garbage, and my jaw hangs open.
We start fighting in the car… Well, mostly me hitting him while he cackles. It’s like we’ve found our own miniature silo to enjoy while the world around us burns. When I think about it, I fall for him a little more. He was just minding his own businessthat early morning with his brown bags of groceries. He didn’t have to involve himself into my insanity.
But he did.
And now he says he has to give everything to make it right.
My playful slaps calm into a hug around his waist. The console is digging into my already bruised ribs, but he has to know I appreciate him.
“It’s going to be alright, Quinn.” He holds me back in a rare moment of comfort.
“Promise?”
“Yeah.”
We pull up to a familiar gate, and my heart starts thumping in my chest. This is it… the stage house where my dad sits tied up like a hog. Today, that all ends. It would’ve been on better terms if my goddamn uncle wasn’t involved, but he is, and because of it, none of us are safe.
Parking the car and heading inside, the air around us grows tense. Is he really going to let me interact with him? It’s been so long. The poor guy.
Silver unlocks the cellar door to fidgeting downstairs in the basement. My heart breaks as the chair screeches—my big bear of a father desperate to get out.
Hang in there, Dad.
It’s almost over.
“Back already? Did I miss another holiday?” my father jokes sadly from down the stairs.
“Pig man always thinks it’s time to eat,” Silver puts on his deadly-accurate Russian accent again out of habit, I hope.
“Well, what, then?” His blindfolded head follows the sound.
I’m silent as a lamb as I descend the steps, holding back my tears. I’m shocked when Silver’s big arm drapes around me,begging me to look up at him. I do, and I see a softness in his eyes that speaks a thousand words.
I raise my eyebrows to make sure he’s telling me what I think he is.
“Go,”he whispers.
It’s like he’s cutting me loose, setting me free. A semblance of my old life.
“Dad,” I cry.
He startles in his chair. “Little Bear?Is that you?What have they done to you?”