Accidentaly Divine by Dakota Cassidy (books to read romance .txt) 📕

struggled, Nina tightened her grip. “Knock it off, Wings, and settle the fuck down. You got it? This isn’t how the kid should see you. Take your baggage off the frickin’ carousel and put it on the shelf for now. The bigger picture is the kid and his mother.”

George immediately stopped struggling because she knew exactly what Nina meant. She was letting her past interfere with the present, and that wouldn’t be good for business or for sweet Justin.

Still, she wanted to see this man dead, and that probably wasn’t terribly angelic but it was her truth in this moment. She wanted to kick him and shame him and see him writhe in agony.

Dex brushed her hair from her face, his eyes warm. “I called the police and they’re on their way with an ambulance. She’s pretty wasted. She needs medical attention,” he said with a grimace. “It’s going to be okay, George. Let this part of it go and do what you were meant to do.”

His words permeated her jumbled, angry thoughts. Relaxing against Nina, she nodded, blowing out a cleansing breath. “You’re right. I’m okay now. Promise. Please let me go to them.”

Nina released her and she didn’t waste any time making her way toward Justin and his mother, who looked like she’d passed out on the gross tabletop.

George slipped in beside her and immediately felt for a pulse, sighing in relief when she found one. Taking her jacket off, she tucked it under his mother’s head. Justin sat across from them, his face bloodied and drawn.

She reached for his hand, squeezing it, and in turn, he clung to her. His pain jolted through her, slicing her veins in sharp jabs of electricity. This child had suffered at the hands of his mother’s addiction in ways only someone who’d been through the same thing could possibly understand.

The weight of caring for her was leaving him with dark thoughts; the guilt of turning her over to the authorities, knowing it was the only way to get help, had left him hopeless—helpless—desperate to get away but afraid to make a move.

Leaving this world permanently had crossed his mind more frequently as of late, and the realization sat with a sick thud in her gut. She needed to act, and she needed to act now before something horrible happened.

“The police are coming, Justin,” she said quietly.

Immediately, his eyes went wide, his face filled with fear. “No! Please, Miss Maverick, you don’t know what will happen. Please, please don’t let them take her!” he cried, his voice hoarse.

Now she gripped both of his hands and willed him to look at her. “Justin, I need you to listen to me, okay? I know you’re afraid. I know what you’ve been thinking about doing because you don’t see a way out. I’ve thought those thoughts, too…only as far back as a year or so.” She let the words sit with him for a moment, knowing he’d reject them.

As predicted, Justin stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She gripped his hands tighter and compelled him to look at her. “You do know what I mean, and I’m here to tell you, that’s not the answer, Justin. The answer is getting your mother help. It’s the only answer.”

He shook his dark head, tears falling down his pale cheeks. “They’ll take me away, Miss Maverick. They’ll put my grandma in a home and put me in foster care and they’ll put my mom in jail. I don’t want her to go to jail. She’s not a bad person. She’s just…she’s not always like this, I swear.”

George nodded with a smile of understanding. “I know you don’t want that, Justin, but remember when I asked you to listen?”

“Yeah,” he said on a shudder of a breath.

Swallowing hard, she was about to share something with this boy, something that hurt so much, she’d never told a living soul, not anyone but Gladys. “I…”

Squaring her shoulders, she sat up straight and remembered this boy, this gentle, animal-loving, tortured boy, needed a wakeup call.

“I come from an abusive home. Maybe not the same kind of abuse you come from. Abuse comes in many forms, though alcohol played a huge part in it, but my father was a horrible human being. A terrible, awful man.”

“But my mother’s not terrible, Miss Maverick. She’s not always this way! I’m telling you the truth. I swear.”

Smoothing her fingers over the back of his hand, she fought to keep him calm and centered. “I know that. We do have differences, but we have a buttload of similarities, too, Justin. My father hurt my mother—all the time. Sometimes he beat her so badly, I almost didn’t recognize her.”

A flash of a picture of her mother, bruised, swollen and battered, flitted through her mind’s eyes.

Justin gulped, but he didn’t say anything.

“And when someone called the authorities, he made me lie and say she fell.”

Justin’s face went pale and he blanched. “What…what happened to her?”

“She died, Justin.”

Because of me.

Because of me.

Chapter 18

“I’m sorry, Miss Maverick,” he whispered.

“It’s not your fault.” It’s mine. “Here’s why I’m telling you this. Maybe she could have been helped if I’d told the truth.”

His eyes searched hers. “But my mother doesn’t hit me, Miss Maverick. She just gets…she drinks…a lot.”

Her smile was one of sympathy. “The type of addiction isn’t the point, honey—not in the way you’re thinking. My father was an alcoholic, too. A violent, raging drunk. Your mother might not be violent, but what she’s doing is just as harmful to both of you. I mean, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, is it? Where she’s put herself in harm’s way because there are jerks all over the place looking to take advantage of her drunken state? This isn’t your first phone call from Lonnie.”

Looking to his mother, his eyes sad, Justin shook his head. “No. It’s not the first time.”

“The point is, if your mother doesn’t get help, she’ll end up dead, and it sucks