Page 104 of The Souls We Claim

“I think you’d better start from the beginning,” I hear her dad say as I walk down the stairs with Lola in my arms.

“This shouldn’t be complicated,” Ari says. And I’m glad to hear her standing up for herself. “I left Patrick because I’m done with the beatings and the lectures and the verbal abuse. I left without talking to you about it because you’ve always taken his side, because you rely on him so much at the truck stop that anything he does to me is simply collateral damage. And I came here because Mercy died, which I’ve noticed you haven’t even mentioned yet. Your daughterdied, and you haven’t even asked how. So where, in all that, would you like me to start? Because it’s pretty clear to me.”

Her mother leans forward and grabs her cup from the counter. “Please don’t speak to your father like that.”

Ari rolls her eyes. “Then don’t speak to me like a child.”

“We wouldn’t have to if you weren’t behaving like one,” her dad says. “You know better than to agitate Patrick. And who is this Flynn man you are living with?”

Ari smiles when she sees me and pushes a steaming mug of coffee in my direction. Ignoring her folks, I kiss her. “Thank you.”

Then, to her parents, I say, “Mercy lived with my dad.”

Her mom wrinkles her nose. “He must have been twenty or thirty years older than her.”

“Probably,” I say. I take a gulp of my coffee, and it burns the inside of my mouth. But the sensation is preferable over talking with Ari’s parents.

“They were murdered,” I continue. “Ari and I met at Mercy’s funeral and became friends while trying to make sense of their estate. I offered her a safe place to stay because her face was black and blue after she dared to tell Patrick she wanted to go to Mercy’s funeral. This is my daughter, Lola. I’m a single dadand asked Arianne to stay as a live-in nanny for her. She’ll earn more doing that than she did at the diner, and because I’m not an asshole, I won’t be stealing her earnings from her.”

Her mom flashes a look at Ari. “What does he mean?”

“To get me to come back, Patrick went into my account and stole my salary this month so I couldn’t even buy food.”

Her dad leans forward and rests his hands on the kitchen counter. “Someone beat the heck out of Patrick. Guy can’t work right now because of his injuries. We’ve had to help him out financially.” He looks over at me.

“If someone hurt Lola, I’d like to think that as her father, I’d get the pleasure of beating the shit out of the man who did it. I certainly wouldn’t be giving him a handout while lecturing my daughter about how she should keep her face away from his fists. And if you are here for anything other than Arianne’s future happiness, you need to get the fuck out of my house.”

Her dad stands. He’s not a small man, but he underestimates me. I hand Lola to Ari, then walk to the hall, grab my cut, and put it on. The effect when I walk back into the kitchen is immediate. Running a truck stop, her father must have met his share of men like me. And he immediately reaches for her mom’s hand. “We should go.”

Ari’s mouth drops open. “You can’t sit here and even pretend you want to know how I am?” she asks, and it grinds my gears to hear the hurt in her voice.

Lola wiggles in her arms, and I wrap Ari in mine.

“I’m not sure you know what is best for you right now,” her dad says. “Do you even know what will make you happy?”

“It sure as fuck isn’t living with a guy who beats her or listening to parents who defend him,” I say. I’m getting ready to toss them from my home when Ari puts her palm on my forearm.

“Living in a safe house, without fear.” She looks up at me. “With a man who will protect me at all costs. Helping him raise his daughter so she knows she is loved for exactly who she is. Remembering my sister and accepting her as the human being she was. Making friends with the other old ladies of the club.That’swhat will make me happy.”

“Do you love him?” her mom asks.

She turns back to her parents. “More than I ever loved Patrick. And more than either of you love me.”

It’s the closest she’s come to saying that she loves me.

“You’ve got fifteen seconds to get out of our house,” I say. “Another fifteen to make it to the end of the driveway. Otherwise, you better be ready to get your face out of the way of my fists.”

Ari’s father grabs her mom by the elbow and hurries them out without so much as a goodbye to their daughter.

And when Ari shifts in my arms and cries, I wish I’d hurt them both.

31

ARIANNE

“There’s no better feeling than your pussy squeezing the living shit out of my cock,” Jax says finally, when breath has returned to his lungs.

His arms are wrapped tightly around me, pinning me against his chest.