what’s your ability, if it’s not healing?”
“Well, I can manipulate people’s emotions,” I hesitantly told her. I saw when the possible scenarios registered with her.
“So you made me care about you? You made me have… feelings for you?” Again, hurt and disbelief colored her eyes.
“No,” I firmly responded. “For some odd reason, I can’t manipulate you.”
Waiting for her to think about everything, I watched her incredibly expressive face. For a moment I worried that I’d fucked up with what I’d revealed. Then she ran her tongue along her bottom lip and pulled it between her teeth.
When she released it, I was focused on her glistening bottom lip so I missed what she said. Refocusing, I looked her in the eye. “I’m sorry, I drifted off. What was that?”
“So does that mean we’re like soul mates or something?” she repeated with a crease between her brows. “I read something like that in a book once.”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t really care. I want you and our baby in my life.”
Her next words blew me away.
“Freak Flag”—Ice Nine Kills
Guilt started eating at me when he told me everything about him and our situation. If we were going to give being together a shot, he needed to know everything about me.
“I found the background check in your truck,” I mumbled.
“Mmm” was his non-answer to that. It didn’t give me much to go on, so I forged ahead.
“When I’m done with my story, you may change your mind, but I hope not.” I took a deep breath and gave an emotional exhale. Then I sat back on my heels and began.
“Once upon a time I was a good kid. Straight As, held down a job, plans to go to college.” He nodded, telling he was listening.
“My senior year, I met this guy. He came through my line at the grocery store. He was cute, had that bad-boy thing going and all.” At that, Decker snorted, and I gave him a look.
“Sorry, continue,” he said, placing his broad hand on my thigh. It left me momentarily distracted before I shook it off and resumed speaking.
“It started out as smoking a little weed.” My gaze nervously flitted away and around the room. “It quickly progressed. A little Xanax, a Perc here or there, maybe some coke to keep me awake for class. Everything, he supplied. At first.”
The grip on my leg tightened infinitesimally.
“Before I knew it, I needed those drugs. But they weren’t free anymore. There was a price. First, it was stealing from my parents, then my friends. My parents were at a loss. They didn’t know what was going on. I was distant, moody, skipping school, barely graduated. They tried to help me when they found out, but it was a dismal failure because I wasn’t ready for the help. You see, I didn’t think I had a problem.”
A self-deprecating laugh escaped me as I thought about how ignorant I’d been. Decker patiently waited as his hand made soothing circles over the fabric on my thigh.
“Eventually, they washed their hands of me. They couldn’t trust me. By then, I’d lost their backing, lost my friends, hell, I lost myself. He—” I swallowed with difficulty as my mouth went dry. “He started, um, selling me—for money.”
That I’d prostituted myself in exchange for drugs left me filled with such shame that I couldn’t say the actual words.
“By then I’d nearly ceased to exist. My next fix was the only thing that really mattered because it was the only way I could survive what I was doing without losing my mind. It was a vicious circle. Until one day, he went into the gas station for smokes and some food.”
Pressing both palms to my face, I worked up the nerve to finish my shitty story.
“He had me wait at the pump after we got gas. Told me to start the car because it was hot and he wanted the AC on when he came out. Suddenly, he was climbing in and telling me to hurry. I panicked.”
I dropped my hands and tipped my head to stare at the ceiling.
“The next thing I knew, the cops were chasing us. I was freaking out. I was screaming, he was yelling, the sirens, still being a little strung out from the night before, I—” Tears spilled, silently tracking down my cheeks. A stuttering breath calmed me enough to finish.
“I wrecked the car. We got arrested. He’d committed armed robbery in the gas station. I got charged with accessory after