a sandwich,” I offer.
“Fuck that, we’re ordering pizza,” Whip announces. I want to correct him on his language, but at this point, I’m scared out of my mind on what these two men are gonna do. “Let’s sit in the living room, I’ll order pizza while you answer questions.”
Great.
How in the world did I not think it would be as simple as showing up and saying, hey this is Isaac’s son will you please help me protect him?
But what am I protecting him from? I mean yes, his mother tried to drown him, and I took him to keep him safe. Then there’s the fact she pretty much threatened me. Yeah, I guess you could say I’m protecting him from his mother.
Nodding, I silently follow Whip into the living room. I don’t sense Venom’s sharp gaze on me as I walk in front of him. Soon as we’re in the living room, Lincoln releases my hand and climbs up on the big couch.
“Dino?” he asks, pointing at the TV.
“No, buddy, not right now,” I murmur with a slight shake of my head.
“What is it he wants to watch?” Venom asks, taking a spot near his son.
“Um, Dino Dan,” I whisper, casting my gaze to the floor.
“Sit down, Amaya, and start talking. Whip, see if you can find this show on TV for my kid,” Venom says. By the tone of his voice, he’s beyond pissed and trying to control it. I know this because I grew up in a home where my father sounded this way a majority of my life. I have the scars to prove you don’t not listen to a man when he’s in this type of mood.
I’d been nine years old when it happened. I went to do something for my mama and when I came back, he’d been ranting about a man being in the house. There wasn’t a man when I left. My dad turned on me and I ended up with bruises to last for days. My mama didn’t do anything but watch as this happened to me. Why? Because it took the mark off her back. She’d been cheating on my father and after that day she decided to continue doing so instead of leaving her husband.
This meant my beatings turned from a whipping with the belt to lashes with a switch. You won’t ever catch me in a tank top without my hair down to cover my back. And you definitely won’t ever catch me in shorts. My legs are where I took a lot of the switch lashes.
I never had a good life growing up. The role models I had were a cheating wife who left the abuse of the husband to her daughter. Meaning I’d been stuck in hell until the day Emilia and I moved away from our homes into an apartment we shared until right after Lincoln had been born.
Then Emilia moved out and I stayed a little longer. I finally moved into a small little house that had been remodeled from when it had been a schoolhouse.
I thought that was pretty cool and the rent hadn’t been out of my price range thanks to my work I do on the computer. I found I had a knack for graphic design and started working on stuff like that for a while, but then I got into working on something else, and now I am a highly sought out cyber investigator. How I got into this is by overhearing a friend of mine talking about some type of auction going on that they wanted to get into to see if it had something on it that was theirs. I’d decided to take a look at it myself and in doing so, I found myself somewhere I shouldn’t have been considering it was known as a backdoor. I ended up making a call to the police with an anonymous tip.
After that, it kind of imploded from there. I didn’t have to go anywhere or speak to anyone in person. So the only thing I had is my laptop I worked on. It’s the only expensive electronic device I need to own. Tablets and e-readers aren’t for me. Sure, I’d love to read, but I’ll buy the book. Phones are too much of a pain, I guess you can say I’m old school and stick with the simplicities in life where I can.
“Amaya, sit the hell down and start talking,” Venom orders, pulling me from my thoughts.
Nodding, I sit on