Page 28 of Meant for You

I didn’t exactly want to think about it either. “Fine by me.”

“Good.”

She hit some keys, and the theme song to Despicable Me started. I grinned. I’d saved some money Cal had given me, kept it hidden, and used it to take Everly to this movie a couple of weeks after I met her. I’d just wanted to make her smile.

I climbed up beside her and shoved a pillow behind my head while she set the laptop up between us.

“All we need now is popcorn,” she said, fluffing her own pillow.

“You always ate all mine.”

“I like popcorn.”

“No shit.”

She giggled and my abs tightened.

We settled back to watch.

I didn’t see a damn thing. All of me tuned in to Everly, the way she breathed, her sweet laughter, every tiny movement. I wanted to freeze this moment in time.

An hour later, Everly was asleep facing me, an arm flung over her head. I closed the laptop and put it on the table beside the bed. I should probably have gotten up and gone but it was nearly three in the morning and I was tired, and it wasn’t like we hadn’t slept in the same bed hundreds of times before.

One of those times started replaying through my mind without my say-so, and like always my reaction to those memories was not only visceral but physical. My heart rate sped up, palms growing sweaty.

“Keep hold of my hand, Eves,” I said, clinging to hers so tight I was probably hurting her. But there was no way I was letting go.

The music thumped through the house while people sang and danced. One woman was passed out on the couch. A guy and another woman were on a chair making out. Another loser leaning over the coffee table was snorting shit up his nose. Sonya was waiting for her turn. I had no idea where Wayne was, probably passed out in the backyard.

“Hey, sweetheart, where do you think you’re going?” someone said behind me. Everly tugged on my hand, then she was gone.

I spun around and Earl, Wayne’s buddy, had Everly in his lap, hands on her ribs, trying to tickle her. Everly tried to fight him off, looking terrified, like she was about to start crying.

I didn’t hesitate. I walked over and leaned in. “Let her the fuck go, Earl,” I said close to his ear so he’d hear me over the music. “Or the moment you pass out, I’ll chop off your fucking dick and shove it down your throat.”

I stepped back, my hand dropping to the hunting knife I was wearing that I’d saved up and gotten a few weeks earlier.

Earl’s gaze dropped to it, then slid back up to mine, and, yeah, he saw I meant it, because I fucking did. He shoved her off roughly, and I caught her before she fell.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Earl said and stumbled to his feet.

I curled Everly into my side and rushed her through the party to my room at the end of the hall, slammed the door shut, and slid across the lock. Everly stood back and I dragged my dresser in front of the door as well, something I’d done so many times there were permanent gouges in the wooden floor.

Everly ran at me as soon as it was done, and I held her tight. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I said against the top of her head, even as I shook so hard from fear and anger I thought I might throw up.

“I know,” she whispered.

There were many nights like that, too many. So many close fucking calls. Nights when we slept in the yard in an old shed at the back of the property when things were really bad. Nights when I was so afraid that someone would hurt her I refused to sleep.

But I think they saw something in me, something they were afraid of, because they pretty much stayed away from me. Perhaps they saw the truth in my eyes, that I’d do anything to protect Everly. Anything.

Wayne often said I had a demon inside me, that he could see it in my eyes. He was wrong, of course. What he saw was straight-up hatred. But I was more than happy to let him think it.

They only had us there for what they could get, so ignored us most of the time, which meant I’d eventually found ways to contact my family. But at the start, when I was first put into the system, Cal had been too fucked up after his accident to do anything for me, and Bull had been in prison. So I’d said nothing about my living conditions, knowing how hard things already were for them, knowing even then that there was nothing they could do.

Then Eves came and we both stayed quiet because we were afraid if we told the truth they wouldn’t believe us and things would only get worse. But the thing that scared us most, that kept me from telling my family, was Everly and me being separated. Sent to different homes.

I rubbed my hands over my face, forcing the memories away, refusing to bring them here. I didn’t want them here.