Keep Her From Harm(4)

The instant he had stared at Mia, he'd known. Everything had faded away,  and all that remained was her, with her beautiful blonde hair, which  cascaded all around her in ringlets, shocking blue eyes that held an  ocean of pain, and also something fierce. She was a fighter.

****

Mia didn't know how tonight was going to end. She hadn't really thought  that far ahead. Deep in her heart she had hoped that Ivan would just  help her out without any nonsense. There was going to be no way that  would happen. He wanted something from her, and the only way to get  something from him was to give him what he wanted.

Enter Damian Denton. She knew nothing of the man who now sat opposite  her in a diner. Now they were able to sit, and she could look at him  properly, she saw the suit. Crisp white shirt, expensive jacket and  pants. He didn't wear a tie, and a couple of buttons at his neck were  undone. His hair was a little unkempt, the length just to his neck. He  looked like a badass, and for some reason, she got the sense that he  would rather shoot his own arm off than hurt her.

She held Reese in her arms, and he had gone to sleep. Her stomach growled, and Damian kept on staring at her.                       
       
           



       

"Food will be here any minute."

"Thank you."

She looked down at her sleeping son, and sighed. Tonight was an epic failure.

"So why won't Ivan let you have a job?" Damian asked.

"He likes to be in control. I'm running out of money that I'd been able  to save up, only now with the stress and everything, I need to take care  of my son."

"I also notice that you keep calling him ‘your son', and not ‘our son', or even ‘Ivan's son'."

She stared at the man opposite, and something just told her that he  didn't deal in bullshit but truths. "Ivan believes that he has a right  to Reese when he doesn't."

"He was there when you conceived him unless you're lying about his paternity."

Mia gritted her teeth. Of course the woman had to be lying about  paternity. Women were just a bunch of lying, cheating whores who could  be used and dumped. Her anger was what made her say the next thing.  "Ivan raped me. Yes, he was there at Reese's conception, and even as I  screamed and begged that he stop, he didn't."

Damian went pale, and he glanced at her, and then at Reese. "He knocked you up."

"Yes, and in his sick twisted mind, we did it because we both wanted it.  I've never been able to stand Ivan, and he can't stand the fact that I  don't want him." She watched as Damian ran a hand down his face. "Some  women may get off on telling the father the wrong paternity or whatever  the fuck it is she says, but I'm not one of them. I'd give anything to  change Reese's father so I never had to look at Ivan's face again."

"Why were you there?" Damian asked.

"Haven't you been listening? Ivan controls everything around here. I  have to live some way, and I don't want to be at his mercy. I don't  think you have a clue what it means to have your life in someone else's  hands."

"Why didn't you go to the cops?"

Mia burst out laughing, shaking her head, and glancing around to see a  couple of the customers looking at her. "You're so funny."

"I'm not laughing."

"Wow, you really don't get it, do you? Ivan controls the cops here. He's  got them eating out of his pocket. I've got no one. No one would  believe me. I bet he had people lining up to say that I was begging for  it or something. So no, I didn't go to the cops. I dealt with it, and I  moved on."

The waitress came back with their milkshakes and burgers. Picking up a  fry, she placed it in her mouth, and rocked Reese in the seat, which fit  into most cars. She had picked it up on the way out of Mary's place.  Reese was inside it, and she rocked him to make sure he stayed asleep.

Sleep wouldn't be easy for her tonight.

"I want you to come back with me," Damian said.

"You're crazy."

He held his hands up. Two fingers were covered in ketchup, which for  some reason she found to be utterly cute, and didn't get it. "Hear me  out. I can't promise you anything here, and I saw that shithole you call  a home. I can offer you a better life. A job, isn't that what you  want?"

Her shoulders dropped. All she wanted was the chance to earn a living.

She looked at him, his expensive suit, the gold watch that she had seen  on his wrist. Everything about him screamed money. "How will you offer  me a job? I'm not a whore."

Damian started to laugh. "You're funny."

"You know Ivan, and he knew you. Does that mean you're  …  business partners?"

"Hell no. That asshole is nowhere near our league. Your work will be  safe, and I was wondering, how do you feel about taking care of my  girl?"

"Your daughter?"

"Yeah, I need someone to help me during the day. My mom is happy taking  care of her, but I'd like to find something permanent. With your son and  my girl, they could be friends, you know. He'd have someone with him,  and I'd pay you. It would be a total live-in position. Also, you'll get  to know my crazy ass family, and they are crazy."

She found herself smiling.

"Do you have any family?"

Mia shook her head. "Mom died three years ago of cancer, and I never  knew my dad, so no love lost. Mom did the best she could with me. I  don't have any siblings either. You?"

"I have too many to count, and what is so strange is more are appearing. It's like I can't stop them from turning up."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a stepbrother come out of the woodwork over six months ago.  Actually, forget that, he's a half-brother. Daddy got a bit frisky  before he met my mother. It hasn't gone down well."                       
       
           



       

"Wow," she said.

"Yeah. So I've got a half-brother that could be the head of the Denton  family, and my oldest brother, Jacob, has always been the head of it."

"Are you allowed to tell me these things?"

"I figured the more you knew about me the happier you would be."

"That is really sweet." She picked up the burger, and took a large bite.  It was heaven, totally bad for her, and yet it was perfect. She had  been used to eating packets of noodles that she could heat up in the  microwave, so this was heaven, and she liked that.

"Has it been that long since you had good food?" he asked.

"It feels like it has been a lifetime. I'm sorry. I don't mean to worry  you with all my troubles. I usually keep them all to myself."

"I don't mind. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that."

"So how do you know Ivan?" she asked. "If you're not business partners,  what are you?" The last thing she wanted to be discussing were her own  problems with Ivan, and everything that had gone on in the past. She  wanted to move on, and just be a good mother to Reese.

"Let's just say we swim in the same kind of ocean, only he's a whale, and we're sharks," Damian said.

"Oh."

"Not scary sharks, just, you know, bigger, faster, deadlier."

"Why were you there tonight if you're bigger and badder than everyone else?"

She stared into his dark brown eyes, and saw the flash of pain in the  depths. "I wanted something, and now I can see how stupid it was."

"What did you want?"

Damian didn't say a word, and silence fell between them. She licked her  dry lips, and wondered what was going through his head. Suddenly, he  opened his mouth, and sounds came out, only it wasn't coming from him.

She turned to see another man, slightly older than Damian, and scarier. "Budge up," the man said. There was also another man.

"Why the fuck did you bring him here?" Damian asked, clearly unhappy with the second.

"This is her?" the man who had sat down asked.

Mia moved her son onto the table, and shuffled along giving the other man some room.

"Answer my question, why are you with him?"

"Come on, Damian, you love me really," the second man said.

"Gabriel, I've spent a great deal of time thinking about how to end you.  I can't fucking stand you, so nah, I don't love you at all."

Mia looked from all three men seeing that they all had to be related.

"Mia, I'm sorry for this intrusion. This here is my oldest brother,  Jacob. I was just telling you about him." She smiled at him. "Then  you've got my half-brother, Gabriel Colton, which I can't for the life  of me think why he'd be here."

"Consider me reinforcements. Your dad-"

"Our dad," Damian said. "The cheating bastard that he is."

"Cheated before he even met your mother. It's not cheating."