I didn’t reply as I turned and made my way to Farrah’s bedroom. There was a basket of clothes from the Laundromat sitting on her floor, and I’d never been so glad that she refused to put anything away when it was her turn to do the laundry. I left the door open half an inch so I could hear what he was doing, and raced to pull on jeans and a two t-shirts. I didn’t have a fucking bra in there, but I wasn’t about to bring any attention to my room with Will sleeping inside.

I moved silently to Farrah’s dresser, one eye on the door as I pulled out her top drawer. The dresser was tall enough that Will couldn’t reach into it, and I breathed a sigh of relief as my hand wrapped around what I was looking for, hiding underneath a plethora of silk and lace underwear. The .45 was heavy in my hand as I checked the clip, finding six bullets. I was glad as hell that I’d found high-waist jeans in the laundry basket, because the thing was so big there was no way I could have hidden it at my back if I hadn’t.

I pulled my t-shirts down over the waistband of my jeans before swinging Farrah’s door open so I could slide through. He was still sitting on the couch when I got back to the living room, but his knee was bouncing in impatience.

“Can’t say the view’s any worse,” he commented mockingly as he looked at my braless breasts.

“Why don’t I just have Asa call you when he gets back?” I asked calmly, crossing my arms. “It’s been a long night and I’m not really up for company.”

“Well, we both know he’s not coming back,” he answered, shaking his head in mock sympathy. “You kicked his ass out, right?”

My throat closed up as he stood from the couch, and my fight or flight instinct kicked in for just a second, but there was no choice.

My son was sleeping peacefully in the next room. I couldn’t go anywhere.

“If you knew he wasn’t coming, why are you here?”

“Came to get his son for him,” he told me sadly. “He didn’t want to deal with the inevitable drama, so he sent me instead. But I’m thinking… me and you can work something out. I’ll put in a good word for you and maybe he won’t take your kid…”

“Get the fuck out of my house,” I hissed, my heart pounding in my ears.

“No can do, sweetheart,” he sneered. Asa’s endearment sounded like a curse coming from him, and it made me feel like a thousand ants were crawling all over my skin.

“He wouldn’t send you here,” I argued as he backed me into the kitchen. “You’re a goddamn druggie.”

He pulled back his hand, and I noticed a weird tattoo on it before he punched me in the face, sending me stumbling into the fridge.

“You just call me a druggie?” he growled menacingly, punching me in the stomach so hard I bent at the waist as my breath left me.

“Huh?” he asked, using one of my arms to spin me around and press my face against the freezer door.

“N-no,” I stuttered as he pulled my arm so far up my back that my shoulder was screaming in pain.

“I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard,” he whispered into my ear, yanking on my arm until I felt the searing pain of my shoulder dislocating. I bit through my cheek, trying not to scream, and felt blood pooling in my mouth.

He shoved me to the floor and kicked me twice in the ribs before he started pacing, mumbling under his breath to himself. I wasn’t sure what he was on, but he was acting fucking crazy, and I knew it was only a matter of time before things got a whole lot worse. I slowly pushed myself with my legs to the cabinet doors, using one arm to pull myself up to a sitting position while my other arm lay uselessly by my side.

When my back touched the cabinets, I hissed in pain, and my head started going fuzzy.

“You know, I fucking hate him!” he complained loudly. “He thinks he’s so much fucking better than me because he’s part of the Aces, and that’s just not true!” He walked around the kitchen as he spoke, waving his arms in the air. “All the Aces think they’re such hot shit! Acting like we’re nothing, sending piece of shit recruits down to shake us down for money—it’s insulting!”

His eyes dropped to me and I groaned as he kicked me hard in the thigh.

“So we send him into Jose’s to teach them a fucking lesson, and what happens?” He shook his head and started kicking my legs again between each word. “He—survives—it—and—kills—some—of—our—best—men!”

My legs were on fire as I whimpered and pulled them as close to my body as I could. He’d started to breathe heavily, and it scared me, because I could see in his face that he had no intention of stopping any time soon.

“You know, when we killed your parents, I thought for sure that they’d get the picture,” he told me softly, as if in apology. “I saw the way he looked at you, so I knew that using you was the answer, but when we showed up, you were nowhere to be found.”

I stopped breathing as the implications of his words sunk in. He’d been one of the men in my house. He’d been one of the guys searching for me.

“Your mama was one hot piece of ass. Mm mm mm,” he whispered. “Too bad I was searching for you and couldn’t take the time to appreciate it.”

I felt like I was in a tunnel, sinking into that place where nothing could hurt me and I could just float away like I had in the crawlspace. I wanted that place. I didn’t want to hear anything else he was saying, I didn’t want to know anymore.