Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,69
edged on satisfaction for whatever accomplishments she’d made before I got out here to bug her.
“Just one,” I said carefully, and she swept around the kitchen island to the dishwasher to unload it.
“What’s that?” she asked, semi-distractedly opening the machine and rolling out the top rack.
“Finishing our conversation from last night,” I said, leaning back up against the wall and crossing my arms, cock wilting, all arousal fled under the knowledge of how unpleasant this was about to get for her.
She stiffened and a pair of glasses rattled rudely, a little sharply, as she handled them, the sound ringing loud in the space between us. I stiffened slightly, ready to dodge if she decided to launch one in my direction because I was going to have to be a dog with a bone here, and when you were actively hurting someone – even if it was ‘just’ emotionally, their behavior tended to lean toward unpredictable. I know I’d had my moments where I would have acted out, said, or done anything, just to get the pain to stop.
I’d outgrown that shit a long time ago, but Marisol? She’d never really been given that sort of room to grow – so I balanced myself to move if I had to.
She gave me a baleful look from across the kitchen and I looked back. I wouldn’t be swayed, and I telegraphed that with my own look that I shot back in her direction. It was a silent battle of wills that I won.
“What about it?” she demanded curtly.
“I need to know how to find him, babe,” I said softly and she turned away from me, rolling out the bottom rack of the dishwasher and plucking out the little bin meant for the silverware, turning, back still to me and pulling open the drawer.
The clatter of the flatware as she tossed each piece in the drawer in the slot where it belonged was loud.
“Can’t you just let it go?” she demanded, and I sighed.
“No, baby. I can’t, and I won’t. This shit’s gone on long enough.”
She stopped, shoulders hunching with her pain, hands gripping the edge of the counter as she fought down a sob. The strangled noise she made, heartbreaking.
I stood still, didn’t move a muscle. Her tears were angry, and I was afraid if I touched her now, she could become volatile and I didn’t need her to suffer more guilt, more pain, when the storm passed.
So, I waited her out some more, and I wasn’t disappointed.
“All I ever wanted was for someone to do something,” she said turning around. “All I wanted was for someone, anyone, to make it stop.”
“And no one did,” I said simply.
“And no one did,” she echoed dully.
“I’m sorry I showed up late to the party,” I said gently, and she shook her head, wiping her face beneath her eyes and sniffing hard.
“It’s not that…” she said trailing off and fixed me with her honey-toned gaze. “It’s just… what’s the point?” she asked miserably.
“Never too late for some street justice, baby. Especially since regular justice just chose to look the other way on you.”
She bit her lips together and stared at me, mutely, for a real long time. All I could do was wait her out. Let her think it through for herself.
“It’s just not that easy,” she said. “You know?”
“For me it is,” I told her. “For you? Not so much.”
“I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” she whispered.
“I don’t get why you care,” I said honestly, shrugging the shoulder that wasn’t pressed to the wall. “None of these people gave a shit about you, so why are you trying so hard to protect them?”
She turned her face, staring vacantly out the kitchen window out over the back, her gaze distant, her expression pinched with indecision as she tried to puzzle it out even for herself.
“I stopped caring what happens to me a long time ago,” she murmured hollowly. “It doesn’t matter anyway… but Mateo. I’m always afraid of what they might do to him if—”
“They ain’t gonna do shit,” I said and pushed off the wall. She jumped at the stormy darkness in my tone and jerked her head around in my direction, hugging herself. “I’m the Hades to your Persephone, babe. You just point and I’ll unleash hell.”
She stared at me long and hard, the wheels whirring and clicking behind her beautiful eyes and I knew I had her. She was smart. It was only a matter of time before she came to