Taking The Fall: the Complete Series(51)

“Speaking of whom, she’s right inside. Get your friend and come.”

Helping Jeanette back to her feet, I pull her close.#p#分页标题#e#

“Calm down and think. Your temper isn’t going to help right now. It’s just going to get us hurt,” I whisper.

“Fine. But if they come at you, Lays, I have to draw their attention. We both know you can’t fight them right now,” she whispers back and looks pointedly down at my belly.

I grab her hand and squeeze as I follow my father through the door. Luckily Marco doesn’t try to touch us again.

When we enter the next room it’s completely different from the massive garage. It smells of smoke, musk and sex. The ceilings are at least 30-feet high and the glass windows are too high for anyone to access – no way can we get out that way. There’s a bar to the left where three men are sitting, drinking and openly staring at us. In the center of the room are multiple couches adorned with barely dressed – and some entirely undressed – women. They look strung out. The place looks like it was thrown together and it probably was, if he came to Reno to get me and doesn’t plan stay. My father always likes things to look nice and grand, and this place looks like a hole in the wall.

One of the women crawls from the couch and stumbles towards us. It takes me a minute to realize who it is but as she comes closer I see it’s my mother.

“Jesus, Dean had to go get more girls? Aren’t there enough sluts for you to fuck here already?” my mother slurs at my father. She glares at me and Jeanette.

“Didn’t know you liked them chunky. All those years of dieting wasted, I guess. I could have been packing on the pounds if I knew that’s what got you hard,” she rasps, getting in my father’s face.

Clearly she has no idea who I am. He pushes her back and she stumbles but manages somehow to keep her footing and not fall on her ass.

She looks nothing like the woman I remember. She might have been just as cold as my father, but she always looked beautiful. She was unceasingly at her best – from her hair, to her makeup, to expensive clothes and handbags. Even if she wasn’t going anywhere she would be all done up, but she was always going somewhere – events, parties, concerts, she was always doing something. Things that I could never go to.

My father always said it was because he didn’t want people to know about me, that they would use me against him. My mother said it was because I wasn’t pretty enough. This was often after she had had a drink or two. But today it looks like she’s had more than alcohol. Her eyes look dead, her cheeks sunken. I can tell from her half-naked state she doesn’t have an ounce of fat to spare. Her ribs are poking out.

“Fine! Fuck her for all I care. I like Sam’s cock better anyways,” she smirks at him.

I squeeze Jeanette’s hand tighter as I watch her stumble towards the bar, almost falling on her ass again.

I can’t believe how deluded I was. Or maybe I just lied to myself. I made myself think things had been wonderful before the night I lost everything. They just grew so much worse after that, and what I had before seemed to be more wonderful than it really was in comparison.

“I’m not too inclined to fuck my own daughter. I know I’m into some shit but that’s a little much don’t you think, Claire?” my father says casually.

I hear Jeanette gasp beside me as she finally catches on that this is my mother.

My mother snaps back around and what I think is going to be happiness to see me is quite the opposite. She comes lunging at me. I haven’t seen her in over eight years. She disappeared the same night I was beaten. My father would never tell me what happened to her. Every time I asked, he brushed me off until he finally snapped at me so I quit asking all together.#p#分页标题#e#

“You fucking bitch!”

Stumbling back, I knock into Jeanette who keeps me from falling. My father holds my mother back as she continues to lunge at me.

“You stole my man. He was mine, you little slut!”

“Come take her, Sam,” my father orders one of the men at the bar. I have no idea what my mother is talking about. Stole her man?

“Carter was mine, you fucking whore. We were in love and you took him from me.”

I just stare at her in shock. She and Carter were lovers. I feel the vomit rise in my throat but I push it back – my Carter would never do that.

“Put her in the back room until she calms down. Give her something. I don’t need her running around here in one of her crazy moods,” my father says, passing her off to the guy they called Sam.

“I still don’t get why you brought her here. She’s a fucking nightmare,” Sam grumbles and takes her from my dad.