Broken Road

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Light footsteps rang dully on the polished oak stairs and Winthrop sighed. Apparently it was too much to hope she had gone to bed. He waited for her to come closer to him and speak.

   Before to long there she stood, in his old college sweats and one of his favorite t-shirts. Her long black hair was still a bit damp; she looked both small and frail with her arms hugged tightly around her chest that way. With her back to the fire Winthrop could see the gently curved outline of her body through the white shirt.

   Suddenly her distance from his and her pose made sense to him.

   Good God! She was afraid of him!

   He tried not to let his shock show. About to say something he opened his mouth, but she beat him to it.

   “Thanks you,” she said quietly, watching him closely. “For letting us stay here for the night, I mean,” she added quickly.

   He frowned. “What do you mean for ‘tonight’?”

   She shifted under his gaze. “Um…well, I can’t imagine you want us to stay here for long and I have some people waiting for me in town…”

   Devil had stopped talking as he rose out of his chair and came to tower over her.

   “I said that you and the baby will stay here. You aren’t going anywhere,” he said, eyes glinting like steel.

   Devil flinched slightly at the looked directed in them at her.

   “You don’t have a home do you?” Mr. Canter raised an eyebrow in question.

   Devil frowned slightly. “Well no, but-”

   He continued on as if he hadn’t heard a word she said. “And what about your parents? You most likely ran away from home and you’re still too young to have a child.”

   “Now you wait a moment-” devil said rising to the bait.

   “And then there is no way in hell you’re taking her away from me without a fight. She’s the only family I have now,” he finished with a growl.

      Devil crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin a notch. “If you knew anything about me you wouldn’t have said half the crap that just sported from your mouth. You want answers? Fine, you can all the answers you want, but you better shut up afterward about it. I have no home, I’m eighteen years old, and both of my parents are dead and more then five years gone. I raised myself since I was basically five, so I can care for Lilla better then you. Not only that but she is the only family I have too, since my only living sister is missing!” She hated how her voice cracked and how the tears pored over from her eyes. She hugged her arms around herself and squeezed her eyes closed to block the nightmares of her childhood.

   Winthrop felt so many things at once that it was making him dizzy, but he tried to sort them out. Relief was the one that she was of legal age, worry over the pain she seemed to be suffering alone and he had caused, and guilt at baiting her after all she had been through.

   For the first time in his life he felt like an ass and he didn’t care for the feeling at all.

   “Damn,” he muttered and gave into what his body was telling him to do. He went over to her and folded her into his arms as gently as he knew how.

   She stiffened at the bold contact for a long moment and slowly let her entire body relax against his. Finally she gave in and bawled her eyes out on his chest.