Man of Honor (Battle Scars #3) - Diana Gardin Page 0,59
“Fuck!”
Standing up straight again, he runs both hands over his head a couple of times before turning to face me. He strides back toward the bed and climbs on it, situating me against his chest again.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his voice broken. He turns his head and rubs his nose along my jaw, inhaling me deeply. “I can’t stand the thought of him hurting you. Your father…the man you were supposed to be able to trust above all others.”
Nodding, I wipe the tears away from my eyes. Drake reaches up, helping me to clear my face of the wetness. “Every fucked-up thing about me today is because of him.”
There’s a ferociousness in Drake’s voice when he answers me. “There’s nothing fucked-up about you. I’ve known for a while that there was something beneath the surface that made you who you are. But you are amazing in spite of him. Believe me when I say that.”
His words bring a tiny ray of light to my heart where before it was lost in darkness. “Thank you.”
“Why did your brother’s message say that he’s out, sweetheart? I need to know the answer to that.”
The question brings my terror screaming back to the surface. It wraps around my throat, threatening to squeeze the life out of me. “He was up for parole. I thought there was no way in hell he would get it, Drake. Especially not without his family there to support him. But he did. And now he’s out on parole.”
Drake sucks in a sharp breath. “Are you afraid he’ll come after you?”
“Just the thought of him makes me scared. My nightmares of him are nothing compared to the real, live man. He stole something from me back then that I can never get back. And I can only imagine that years in prison haven’t helped him get better. He was probably thinking about ways to hurt me worse.”
“Baby, it’s okay. I’m right here. He can’t hurt you. He’d have to go through me, and that’s not gonna happen. Why do you think he’d want revenge?”
The word revenge makes me shudder. Is it too much to hope for that my father will get out of prison and start his life over again somewhere new? That he won’t ever try to find Mikah and me? That he’ll just walk away and leave us alone?
“The last time that it happened…” My voice trembles and I hate it. I’ve spent years turning myself into someone strong, someone confident. Someone who couldn’t be hurt because no one would ever get close enough to cause me pain again. And here I am, falling apart at the very thought of my father. “Mikah was only eleven. But he was always this scrappy kid who wasn’t afraid to take on the world. He walked into my bedroom. He knew right away that what he was seeing wasn’t right, and he started yelling at our father to get off of me.”
Drake hisses, the sound slipping through his teeth. “I can imagine his fury.”
“I was so afraid for Mikah after that. Our father was too unpredictable. Our mother couldn’t save us. So I went to school the next day and told a guidance counselor what was happening. We were taken out of our home and sent to live with our aunt and uncle in North Carolina.”
I feel it when Drake drops a kiss on my mess of curls. His hands are so steady on my skin while he comforts me. I never imagined that I could feel this protected while talking about my father and what he did to me.
“Mikah and I both testified in his trial a little over a year later. It sealed his conviction.”
“You changed your name when you moved.” It’s not a question. My mind flashes back to the Emily girl I knew back in Kentucky all those years ago, and who I’d run into again last night.
I nod against his chest. “Yes.” My voice cracks on the word, and Drake’s arms tighten around me.
“Baby girl,” he murmurs so quietly against my hair. “I’m so sorry. I won’t let him hurt you anymore. I promise you that.”
With every heartbeat I hear thrumming in Drake’s chest, I feel the earnestness he experiences when he tells me he’ll keep me safe.
“I know you will. I just have to calm down and keep living my life. Just because he’s out doesn’t mean he’s a threat to me. I just have to keep living.”