“Why bother?” she scoffed. “When mom was shooting up and letting junkies into our house, you didn’t ‘make things right for me’. You didn’t do shit when she started whaling on me for no reason. And I’m pretty goddamn sure that you were nowhere to be found when her husband beat the hell out of me—” she pulled the neck of her t-shirt down,“—and used a cigar to burn me.”

Slider’s eyes went glossy for a moment, and Poet ran a hand over his face when she bared the insides of her breasts. When she turned her head away from them in dismissal, Slider pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

“I’m gonna make this right for you,” he repeated, his voice hoarse. “I shouldn’t have left you with your mama. I got no excuse except that I had a wife—”

“Yeah, I’m well versed in married men who fuck my mother,” she replied in a bored tone, never looking his way. “And parents who put their pieces of ass before their children.”

“I know you’re pissed at me, and you got a right to that, but I don’t ever wanna hear you disrespect my wife,” he warned, looking at the back of her head where her hair was still matted and tangled.

“You don’t ever have to hear anything from me,” she answered quietly. “Get the fuck away from me. You’re nothing.”

He was scary, and he had a way of looking at you that made you think that he could kill you at any moment and not feel anything. But the tremble in Farrah’s voice, and the knowledge that she’d hate them looking at her the way she was, had me squeezing her hand and jumping off the bed. I strode to where her dad was standing and stopped right in front of him while Asa looked on with his jaw clenched.

“Out,” I ordered, pointing to the door.

“What?” he asked incredulously, his eyebrows lifting in surprise.

“Out of this room.”

“Calliope—” Asa called in warning, but I waved him off.

“I get that you’re scary, and you could probably snap me in half,” I told him seriously, “but she isn’t yours, she is mine. You gave up your rights. She wants you out of this room, and I don’t care how you feel about that. I also don’t care how I have to get you out of here—I may have to knee you in the balls and drag your crying ass into the hallway, but you will leave this room.”

We stared each other down for a few minutes before he turned abruptly and walked out of the room, mumbling to Asa to control his woman. I flipped him off behind his back, and Poet covered his laugh with a cough as he strode out behind him.

“The fuck, Calliope?” Asa roared at me, as I started to push him out of the room.

“We’re not having this discussion now,” I informed him as I moved him to the doorway. “Your loyalty may be to him, but mine is to her.” I pointed in Farrah’s direction. “Now make sure that those men are in the living room or kitchen and out of the hallway. I’m gonna help Farrah take a shower. She looks like shit.”

I closed the door in his face and swung around quickly at Farrah’s laugh.

“I don’t care if I have to knee you in the balls!” she snickered at me. “That was fucking classic.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled back at her as I tried to find some clothes that wouldn’t fall off her thin frame. “You’d better be thankful. Asa likes to spank me when he thinks I’ve done something wrong.”

She snorted with laughter and climbed gently off the bed. “Dude, I know. We all heard that shit at your party.”

“Shut up,” I griped back, my skin burning. “Grab a towel from the closet, would you?”

We made our way to the bathroom without interruption, but I was helping her undress when there was a knock at the door.

“We’re busy! Pee outside!” I called, causing Farrah to snicker.

“Yeah, I know,” Echo’s voice came through the door, causing both of us to freeze.

I looked at Farrah to get her permission and then opened the door a little to let Echo into the tiny bathroom. His gaze was locked on Farrah as he stepped inside, and I felt like a third wheel as I tried to scoot my way past him.

“Echo will help me, Callie,” Farrah told me quietly, lifting her hand to his face.

“Okie doke! I’ll just, you know, go.” I scrambled to open the door and escape the intimacy I was witnessing. “Let me know if you need anything!”

After I closed the door behind me, I straightened my shoulders and made my way to the living room.

Chapter 47

Grease

I’d been half embarrassed and half impressed as I’d watched Callie stare down Slider and force him out of our room. It was a stupid thing to do, but hell if she didn’t do it in a way that had both Slider and Poet looking at her with respect.

We were standing around the counter, quietly making plans, when Callie tiptoed into the kitchen. She tried to act like she was unaffected by the men in our home, but I could tell that old demons were surfacing by the slightly panicked look in her eyes. I met her gaze and lifted my arm for her as she scooted around the counter and slid in beside me, wrapping her arms around my waist and laying her head on my chest.

“Hey, Sugar. Farrah still in the shower?”

“Yeah, Echo is helping her,” she answered me quietly. “She didn’t need me in there.”

“Yeah, he’ll take care of her.”