A Reason (A Reason, Season, Lifetime Series) (2 page)

“I’m in. You keep your mouths shut. I know I don’t have to worry about Robert, but all of you, this is between us. Eva stays out of it as much as possible. Danny
especially needs to learn to keep his mouth shut!” Then I turn to look at him and poke my finger in his chest. “I know you care about me. I appreciate that. I appreciate you turning to these three, because I know they are probably my best chance at besting him someday. I swear, if you run your mouth, or your tears to anyone else, we are done. I trust you, and that trust is hanging by a very thin thread right now.”

“I know, baby. I was just so sad about it. Ryan bullied me into it, and I was glad to tell him. He’s a great guy, and he wants to help. He’s my best friend, I know we can trust him. These guys are two of the biggest guys I’ve ever seen. Robert picked me up with one hand and held me against the locker
to make me talk. I had to tell them, because they already knew. I basically just agreed with what they knew and pointed to this door.”

I sigh heavily and si
t down on the floor. “If this gets out, this could get us killed. At least mom and Eva. His temper is bad. He has held us at gun point before, it would take just one more thing to make him snap enough to pull that trigger. I want this training to include disarming. Can you do that?” I look up, and Ryan kneels down in front of me.

“
You can’t get the bullets out of the house?” He asks me.

“No. He would know. He checks often, and it’s hunting season.”

“Then, we can make sure that if he ever pulls a gun on you again, that if you can get to him, you can get that gun and shove it up his ass.” I look into Ryan’s green eyes, and the moisture in his eyes, the emotion threatening to overflow, surprises me. I refuse to cry in front of these guys, but I know he means what he says. I can feel how he feels about me, and it makes me sure of what he says.

I nod at him.
Suddenly from behind me, I hear a voice I’ve never heard. “I’ll train you in knives and stars as well. If you can’t get close enough to disarm a gun, you can throw a knife or a star. The stars are illegal in this state, but I say fuck that. What he’s been doing is illegal. If we can’t unload the gun, we’ll stab the shooter before he can fire.”

Eva and Ms. Rivers gasp from their side of the room, but I know he is just being honest. That could be a very real
scenario in my future. I turn to Robert, stand up, and walk over and hug him. I have known him all of my life. He is from a horrible home. He is so strong because he had to be. Grant’s family took him in to get him out of his own hell hole. For him to speak to me, to say that, I knew it was hard. It touched me to the core that this young man who had grown up in hell was willing to help me escape the same. Robert picks me up, crushing me to his huge chest and whispers in my ear. “We’ll send him to hell someday, where he belongs. Whatever that hell is, whether prison or death, we’ll end him so he can’t hurt them ever again.” I just nod, knowing I couldn’t talk through the tears.

He set
s me down, and they walk out, headed off to find the wrestling coach. It was just Eva, Ms. Rivers and I again.

“Are you sure about this, Emma? You could get hurt, killed even.”

I had thought about this already. Am I willing to die at my father’s hand to protect my mother and sister? Abso-fucking-lutely. “It’s done, Eva. This is the best plan. Those guys can train me to be able to take him on, to stop him from someday killing our mother. You need to trust me. I will protect you and Mom. It has to be me, and it has to be this way. Having my training done at school, by these people, it could be our best hope at beating him someday. You have to trust me.”

“I’m the big sister, I’m supposed to protect you!” Eva says, through tears.

“Bull shit. By like seven minutes. Where is that a written rule? You concentrate on getting into college, and I’ll take care of training.” I walk over, hug and kiss Eva and Ms. Rivers, and walk out as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Did all of that just happen in a matter of a half an hour?  I have gym class next, and boy am I ready to burn off some energy.

I walk into the gym, and see that it’s set up as a free period. Fabulous. We have the choice of half-court basketball, voll
eyball, or weight room. I walk directly toward the weight room. I love volleyball, but weights would come in handy with my new training.

“Emma!” I hear, and turn
to see my friends waving me over. Great, I had to come up with a line. I sigh heavily and walk toward Brenda and Lena, trying to think fast of a reason why I didn’t want to play my favorite sport.

Behind me I feel someone come up and put an arm around me. I startle and look up to see Ryan, all smiles. He swings me around, picking me up off of the ground, and whispers in my ear. “Just go with it, Emma. This will make it easier.”

He sets me down and I nervously giggle. I’m blushing just from him holding me so close and whispering in my ear. I’ve had a horrible crush on him since he moved here. His eyes make me lose my breath, but when he smiles? He has such a perfect smile that it makes me shiver. I’m dating his best friend Danny. None of them like me with Danny much, but Danny adores me. I hated the thought of telling him no and losing his friendship, so I agreed to date him when he asked me.

I finally manage
to look up, and the girls are all laughing, looking at us.

“I’m stealing Emma to go in the weight room with me. You ladies think you can keep everyone busy out here so I can get some alone time with her?”

Brenda looks directly at me to see what I want. I smile and nod, knowing I was blushing.

“Yeah, you bet. Y’all go on. I’ll go tell the boys I want to play basketball. That should keep eve
ryone out of the weight room.” Brenda moved here a couple of years ago from Texas. She is a pretty blond with big blue eyes and dimples. She is the baby in a family of boys, and loves sports. She started a girls’ basketball team in our little school. She was right, no boys would want to life weights if they could play basketball with her. I mouth “Thank you” to her, and Ryan, with his arms still around me, turns us and walks into the weight room.

There a
re a couple of guys in there. “Guys, Brenda wants to play basketball. Are you in?”

The guys look up, looki
ng from Ryan to me. He still has an arm around me and a big smile on his face. “Hell yeah, we do. You two behave now, ya hear?” Curt says to Ryan. Ryan shakes his hand with some stupid secret wrestler’s hand shake, Curt winks at me, and they leave.

“So let’s see what you can bench and leg press, shall we?”

“Why did you put on that act? Now they all think I’m cheating on Danny with his best friend! I don’t mind being secretive, but aren’t you a little worried about hurting Danny’s feelings with that little act?”

“Tell me this, Emma. Why don’t you kiss Danny in school? Or anywhere for that m
atter? I’ve never seen you kiss him.”

S
hit. Well he has me there. I am not about to tell my boyfriend’s best friend how I really feel about his best friend. “I do kiss him, I’m just not really into pda, okay? You should respect your best friend and not want rumors running rampant in our little town! We have
three churches
, Ryan!
Three!
Let’s not forget that a graduating class is only forty kids. Which means?”

“That our little show will be replayed over and over by tomorrow? Because good Christians
and small towns love gossip.”

I laugh
, but he is so right. “Exactly! By 3pm today, at the bus stop, we’ll be trying to tell a whiny Danny that we were not flirting behind his back!”

“No, we won’t. Because at 3pm, while he is getting on the bus, you will be here for your first training session. Your mom had to have plastic surgery. Knowing what I know about the asshole you call father, he won’t let you go see her most likely. We have no idea how pissed off he is. It’s Friday. You and Eva will stay after school. You’ll call home that you are spending the night with Brenda and you will stay away until he can calm down. Danny told me you
always keep an emergency bag of clothes at school. Does Eva?”

Damn him, he was right. “No, she doesn’t, but I plan ahead. I have an emergency bag for both of us with a week’s worth of clothes. I keep them in my gym locker. Since I’m a lead cheerleader, I get a bigger locker. I hoard stuff in there in ca
se we ever have to run.” Why am I trusting this guy with all of this? Because I trust Danny as my best friend, even though he has a big mouth, and I trust this guy. I trust that Ms. Rivers trusts him, and from the moment I saw the tears threaten to overflow in his eyes in her classroom, I knew I could trust him with everything I am and have. Call it women’s intuition, or something, but I feel like this guy has a reason for being in my life. I can feel emotions coming off of him, and I know he is being honest.

“I don’t know if Brenda has any plans tonight.”

“That doesn’t matter because you aren’t going to her house anyway, you’re coming home with me. Can we get started on the workout? I would love to know if you really are as strong as I’ve heard. “

I punch
him in the stomach, hard. He bends over as air escapes his lungs. “Firstly, no one tells me what I’m doing. Secondly, I am not a shiny toy to be passed from dog to dog, though like a dog, I am loyal. I don’t care how fucking gorgeous you are, or think you are, I am not going to spend the night with you!”

“Well, that’s nice to see, and hear. Though you may change your story in a few minutes. I warned you she had a hell of a punch, dude.” I turn at the sound of Danny’s voice. In he walks, with Ms. Doyle, the Social Worker from the office earlier. Shit. What the hell?

She laughs, and as soon as she does, I know immediately who she must be. I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier. “Are you okay, son? Your mouth got ahead of you again, didn’t it, darling?”

“Yes, it did. You’re Ryan’s mother?” I say, telling her more than asking.

“Yes, I am. He uses his father’s last name. What my darling son meant was that we have known for some time what is going on at your home. Danny has been talking to me, trying to find a way to help. Ryan was so upset and worried after Eva’s arm, that we knew we had to do something. We started talking to Lara Rivers then. We have a large home, as you know, just less than a mile down from your own. It is just the two of us. What he should have explained nicely, after we were all together, is that you and Eva are welcome in our home anytime. We have an extra room that I have put two twin beds in. I know tonight will be scary, we have no idea what set your father off to hurt your mother so bad that she needed surgery. We don’t want you and Eva going home until he has had time to calm down. Your mother is being kept in the hospital for the weekend. I’ve called and checked in there. We are keeping it very quiet that this is a domestic violence case. Only her immediate nurses know. They are adjusting the chart to show a fever and possible infection that will require her to need observation for at least three days. That is all we can do for now, this time. We allow him to calm down, and hope that when you go home he feels bad about what he’s done, and you get a break until something else sets him off again.”

“So, what was this about being the shiny toy shared between two dogs?”

“Shut up, Danny.” Ryan and I say at the same time.

“If you want me to stay over at Ryan’s with you this weekend, I’m there.”

“No, you can’t. You have Holly’s wedding remember? Your sister?” Ryan speaks up.

“Right. Crap. Well you’ll have Eva with you. And Ma here will be there to make sure Ryan behaves himself. I’ll call and check in when I can. You’ll be safe there. Will you go? Please?” Danny is begging me with his big brow
n puppy dog eyes. I suck at saying no.

“Yes, we will. Since you all have gone through so much trouble, we will. I would like to start training this weekend. The sooner I can protect them, the better.”

“I hate that you have to protect anyone. It makes me sick to think what we are training you to do. I hate knowing his hands will hurt you again someday. I am so glad that you trust me enough to trust them. I know you’re angry I told people, but something had to be done.” Danny says, wrapping his arms around me.

“I know. Thank you for trusting the right people. It scares me that more people know, but at least it seems to be the right people to help me this time. We have like twenty minutes left of gym. I want to lift a
bit before it’s over.” I hug Danny back, and walk over and hug Ms. Doyle.

“I know this could risk your job. It must. You’re not reporting what you know to be true, in order to protect us. You’re going behind the crooked cops backs, and you’re opening your home to my sister and me. I don’t know how I will ever t
hank you, but someday I will, Ms. Doyle.”

“Mary, please, and someday you’ll call me Ma like everyone else does. It is my pleasure to be able to do something for you. Now that I know the whole story, from the boys and Ms. Rivers, I know that we were brought here for a reason. If it’s to help you, then by God’s will, so be it. Everything happens for a reason. Thank you for agreeing to let us help you. I hear you can be quite stubborn. The more I hear about you from these boys, and Lara Rivers, the more I love everything I hear. We’ll be old friends some
day, I just know it.” She hugs me again, kisses my cheek, and she and Danny walk out. I sit down on the leg press bench and wipe the tears away. Damn people making me cry today.