Page 100 of Dangle

To remove his focus from Trey, I stepped into Donnie’s line of sight. Half a second later, Trey said, “Don’t kill him. I want more time with you.”

Elation filled my heart and guided my next words to Donnie.

“It’s your lucky day. You come near him again without his express consent, and because I’m certain you don’t know what that fucking word means, then let me make it perfectly fucking clear. If he has not said ‘Dad, I’d like it if you showed your face at fill-in-the-blank-activity,’ then you’re to keep your distance.” I pivoted when his mouth moved like he wanted to say something. “Not a negotiation. And yes, that means calls and texts, too. No randomly showing up. No communicating through third parties, nothing. Oh, and his tuition will be paid, and you willnotbe reporting his vehicle stolen. Understand me?”

The man’s head bounced once, and I turned to leave. Oksana stood at the door, a hand to her throat, tears rolling down her face.

“Ma’am, your son is my priority. I don’t think you should stay here, but it’s your decision. However, should you ever need anything, call me.” I held out a card.

She nodded, taking the card from me. “Thank you for taking care of my son.”

I dipped my head, sent a glare toward Donnie, and followed Trey back to his room.

TWENTY-SIX

SLONE

Two things popped into my brain the moment awareness penetrated the fog of sleep. One, a heavy heat warmed down my right side, spreading over my ribs to my left and coiling around my hip and inner thigh. And two, a frigid foot that cupped the curve of my calf.

The weight was a welcome one. The cold foot…not so fucking much.

How the boy could be fucking cold, I didn’t know. It was nearly eighty degrees outside already, and the forecast said we would hit ninety. But looking down at his head where it rested on my chest, I couldn’t say I minded.

He snuffled and rubbed his cheek—the uninjured one—against my chest, and warmth blossomed like flowers in spring. That sort of shit would’ve once made me gag. I’d never been the poems and flowers sort; instead, it made me smile. Trey slept like the dead with the sleep mannerisms of a toddler. One hand fisted and curled under his chin, the other, whenever I lay in bed with him, clamped around me like a kid strangling a stuffed animal.

The sweetness glowed from him, making him seem peaceful and serene. A complete juxtaposition to Trey Malachek awake. That saying my gran always said about the devil cowering in fearwhen a child’s feet hit the floor upon waking came to mind, and a smile tugged at my face. If ever there was a saying that defined Trey, it was that one.

Especially since he’d confronted his father. It was as if he shed the hair coat that was his fucking father, and the man left standing was the sassy, confident, little bratty cock slut I loved with everything in me.

Yes. Loved. I could no longer deny I’d fallen for the kid hard and fast, in a motherfucking hurry. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The emotional roller coaster of the last few days showed on his face. The sight of the salty tear tracks that fell every night while he slept pissed me off. I knew there were shitty fucking parents in the world. They and their offspring filled the rank and file of the U.S. Armed Forces. Shitty people being protected by military bureaucracy and military bureaucracy swallowing up kids fucked up by shitty parents only for the war machine to fuck them up even more. I’d seen it, lived alongside it, and had to fucking deal with the fallout when it happened.

But Donnie fucking Malachek took the grand prize for shitty fathers.

“You’re thinking way too loud for so early in the morning,” Trey whispered.

I rolled onto my side so we were nose to nose. The bruise…and yes, I knew for sure it was a bruise because I had immediately taken Trey to the emergency room to be checked out. The doctors there took photos, as did I, just in case Donnie Malachek’s reach stretched to the physicians at the local hospital. It wouldn’t shock me, the fucking bastard. Any man who beats his kids and wife—I firmly believe Donnie beat Oksana as well—wasn’t worthy of the name.

“Daddy, let it go. Please. I want to put it all behind me, and I can’t do that if you don’t.”

Tears pooled in my eyes, blurring my vision before trailing out the corners over my nose and dripping onto the pillow beneath me. “I’m trying, baby, I really am.”

“Good. Now, where have you brought me?”

“It’s a surprise.”

Happiness bloomed on his face as he giggled. “If it’s like the last surprise, I will be one happy boy.”

I chuckled and rolled him onto his back, his thighs spreading to make room for me. “You liked being used as a cum dumpster whenever Daddy wanted, huh?”

“Mmm hmm. I loved it. Almost as much as I love…” his eyes went wide, his mouth rounded in a perfect circle. “Oh, shit.”

I smiled. “I love you, too, baby boy. I love you so fucking much.” I kissed him softly, but his mouth never changed shape. So I shoved three fingers into the gaping hole, pushing them in until he gagged. “You leave that mouth open like that, and I’llalwaysfind something to stick in it.”

He warmed the fingers just like I trained him to over that first night together. I still remember how shocked and turned on he was. Kind of like he’d been the morning he spent locked and plugged. It felt so long ago and also as if it had just happened.

Pulling my now drool-drenched fingers from his mouth, I used them to toy with the puckered flesh of his hole. I dropped my forehead to his and whispered, “I want every morning I wake up to be spent just like this with you.”