Page 96 of Heavy

Placing my forehead to the back of her head, I take a deep breath ofher. “Just calling you what you are.”

We stand in silence for a moment, just taking in the quiet sounds of nature around us. You don’t appreciate it until you’ve been without it for so long. In there it was metal clanging, men yelling, moaning—just constant noise, loud for no reason. Everything echoed, no matter where you were.

I could get used to this, especially with her.

“Would you like to enjoy a cup with me?” She pulls away from me, and I let her go.

“No, but we need to talk.”

She quickly spins to look at me, her eyes widening into circles. Her joy shifted to fear in a split second.

My brows pull together. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, right, um… I wouldn’t tell a girl ‘We need to talk’.”

Genuinely confused, I look away from her, trying to figure out why I shouldn’t say it. But in the few seconds she gives me, nothing comes to mind.

When I look back at her, she smiles, her brows pulled down wearily. “Those words put together are like a girl’s worst nightmare.” She moves around me, and I follow her as she goes to her coffee machine. “As long as you aren’t going to tell me you’re moving out and leaving me here alone, we can talk.”

“Guess that depends on your answers.”

Alright, now her fear is justified. She looks over her shoulder as the machine begins to heat up.

“Serrano.”

When she turns back to the coffee machine, I can already tell I’m not getting anything I ask for. I groan audibly, and I notice her back stiffen, straightening like a board.

“I need you to tell me the truth, Cal. Look at me.”

“Damn, can’t I have my—”

“You’re fully capable of making a cup while you sleep at this point. You can talk to me, at the very least.”

She tugs on her shirt nervously, the one that barely covers her ass. The black cotton panties she has on upset me more, even if I know why she’s wearing them, her period. I’ll teach her how much I don’t care about a natural, monthly thing.

“Okay.” She turns to me, and blinks rapidly.

“Is it the Serrano family? The house or whatever. The bad one?” I’m not sure how to put it. “The drug-dealing one. Yes or no, baby girl?”

She bites her bottom lip and nods.

I suppress a growl, feeling my nose twitch involuntarily. That anger of mine is rising. “Whythe fuckare they after you?”

The high-pitched squeal of the coffee dripping into the cup breaks the silence that follows my question.

“They want something from me that I’m unwilling to give to them.”

My eyes widen, and both my hands clench into fists. “That night after work, when you came home bruised, what did they do to you?”

Her head shakes quickly. “They didn’t… they didn’t rape me. They just got rough, grabbed me. I swear.”

I wish that settled my anger. Theydidtouch her. That’s enough for me.Thatis enough for me to fucking kill a man.

She takes a shaky breath. “My mom… She did something, and they helped get her out of it.”

“What did she do?”

Her bottom lip disappears between her teeth momentarily. “I… I’ll tell you, Ronan, but I want to know what happened to you, too. Please…”