Page 53 of Lulu
“I bet if I were to look into it, I’d find pretty much the same shit you’d find in mine.”
He sat back, and I took a breath. Why did it matter to him so much? “Want to fuck?” I smiled, but his darkening expression warned me that his patience was wearing thin. I took several calming breaths and pulled my eyes from his. “Where do you want me to start?”
“How about the beginning?”
I couldn’t explain why I was so reluctant to share with Brody. Therapists always said that talking helps. Of course, I’d never been to a shrink, and I was beyond help. I’d always been a strong woman. Good at working things out in my head. I liked control, and didn’t really owe Brody any explanation, but his persistence, and the way he made me feel, broke down my stubbornness.
Why the hell not?
“Have you ever heard the name Eddie Roth?”
I could tell by his expression that he was searching his memory but drawing a blank. Then a light-bulb went off, and he asked with a frown, “Edward Roth?”
I nodded.
“The serial killer?”
I nodded again. A lump suddenly formed in my throat and I swallowed with difficulty. “Demon knows my story. It was a condition to my staying with the club.”
Brody nodded. “Go on.” He crossed his arms.
“Eddie was my mother’s boyfriend. Of course, we didn’t know he was a serial killer. But apparently that was his hobby of choice while he lived with us. Breaking into houses at night and slaughtering whole families.” I looked away as a cold numbness enveloped me, imagining what those families must have gone through, forced to watch each other being hacked to death while bound and helpless. He’d even killed the babies. None of this I had to tell Brody, thank fuck, because Eddie’s atrocities had been made public during his widely publicized trial.
“I was thirteen when I walked in as Eddie was in the process of killing my mother and sister. I don’t know what made him flip out, by that time he’d already been living with us for three years. It could have been a fight between him and my mom.” I shook my head and continued softly, “I don’t know.” I looked into Brody’s eyes. The quiet fury I saw there caused me to shiver. “Mom screamed at me to run, and I did.”
I closed my eyes, reliving that night as I’d run through the woods with that evil monster right there behind me, breathing his hot, putrid breath on my neck, covered in blood. I’d never forget that night. The helplessness and fear that I’d felt as I’d run for my life, knowing that my family was dead behind me at the house. The only family I had. I shuddered, picturing my mom and sister’s bloody bodies. Soon after I felt a warm hand cover mine. My eyes flew open and I fell into the deep sorrow and compassion that I saw reflected in Brody’s. It gave me strength.
“I barely escaped him that night. I ran through the woods to a neighbor’s house, and they took me in and called the police. Surprisingly they ended up capturing Eddie. He’d burrowed his way into a bear’s den, but the police dogs found him.” I cleared my throat and fought the stinging burn in my eyes. “There was a trial. I testified, and he was sentenced to life plus 265 years.” I’d never understood why the courts did that when a life could never last that long, but I didn’t care. They were going to lock Eddie Roth up for life. “I was put in foster care.”
It was like Brody knew the end of my story. “But it didn’t last.”
I shook my head and exhaled loudly. “No. My foster family were good people, but Eddie escaped when I was sixteen. The police informed my foster parents, and I could see the fear on their faces when they told them. I couldn’t blame them. They had other children to care for.”
He frowned. “They sent you away?”
I shook my head vigorously. “No! I ran away. I was so afraid of what Eddie would do if he were to ever find me, what he would do to them. So I stole some money out of my foster mom’s purse, packed a backpack, and skipped out one night. I thought it would be temporary, that Eddie would be caught quickly and be put back into prison.”
“And that didn’t happen.”
“No. Eddie remained on the run until a year-and-a-half ago.” He’d had fourteen years of freedom while I’d put the life I’d wanted on hold.
Brody nodded. “I recall the news of his capture.”
“It was the happiest day of my life,” I admitted. “All the years of hiding out and being afraid that he’d find me, done.”
He took a deep breath. “So that’s why you prostituted yourself out at sixteen, why you sought refuge with the Desert Rebels?”
“Demon found me at Crystals Palace and knew that I was underage. He pulled me out, and when I turned eighteen a few months later I became a club whore in exchange for the club’s protection.”
“You did what you had to.” He leaned his head back against the pillow he was resting against and shut his eyes, his mouth tight and a muscle leaping in his jaw that even the scruff couldn’t hide.
Yes, I had, and I’d have done it all over again. They’d offered me a home and a family at a time that I’d had nothing but fear and self-preservation to get me through the day. I was sure that I didn’t have to tell Brody that.
His hand was still on me, and then he grasped my hand and dragged me over to him. I went willingly and curled against his side beneath his arm. He squeezed slightly, as if offering comfort, and I couldn’t remember ever feeling so protected. I wondered what he was thinking.
“Once he was back in prison, I felt that it was time to start living my life the way I wanted to live it. Eddie Roth is the only person on the face of the earth that terrifies me. I still have nightmares…” I stopped, deciding that I’d said enough.
It grew quiet between us. Really, what more was there to say? I knew Brody’s demons, and now he knew mine. The problem was that his demons were still around and determined to kill him.