Cadence Reflection (Wheels & Hogs Book 2) (12 page)

“Listen, Cadence. We all have shit in our past and we all make mistakes.  What makes a man a man is if he can learn from his mistakes and become a better person.  I don’t know your past, but I can see that you are hurting, so I want you to remember that I am always going to have your back, no matter what it is, okay?” 

I feel the warmth on my cheeks and can’t seem to find my voice, so I nod my head.  Wolf continues, “Des has always given us room to become who we are supposed to be; no pressure and no questions, so I am going to do the same for you.  My home is always open to you, as you are part of my family, but I will not allow you to hurt that innocent girl sitting in my truck, brother. Figure your shit out before you try to bury it all on her shoulders.  She is fighting her own battle of shit and I don’t know which is worse, but you two have a lot to deal with together and apart, not to mention a baby on the way. Talk to Fern and Doc if you have to, but once again, brother, figure your shit out. You have no right to tell her what she can and cannot do. She has been going through this for months, all alone while you’re out getting your dick wet and living it up without a care in the world. Don’t blame her for the way she feels, she is entitled to it, so let her have it and you take it when she dishes it. It’s what a man does.” 

I wipe my face, trying to steady my shaking hands, “You’re right, I am fucked up.  I’ve known it for a long time but I haven’t done anything to make it right. I can’t let it continue, not with a kid on the way and Trinity needing support, not stress. I’ve made her hate me so now I need to prove to her that I will stand by her and be supportive to her in any way that she will let me.” I look toward the cab of his truck, “Can I have a minute with her Wolf, please?” 

Wolf grins, “I’m going to head back in and get me a bottle of water for the road.” 

I approach the driver side door, open it and climb up behind the wheel.  Trinity looks my way with a smile until she sees it’s me then her smile disappears.  I know I deserve it, but her actions still hurt, “Trinity, I owe you a huge fucking apology,” she just stares at me, not saying a word, “I owe you more than an apology, and soon I’d like to explain some things about me to you, but right now, please know that I am here for both you and the baby. I won’t make excuses and insult you with why I didn’t man up and do the shit I should have done for you, but I truly don’t want you to go through this alone. Please know that from this moment on, you can depend on me.” 

Trinity continues to look at me for a long time, and then she finally speaks, “Have you forgotten that I’ve listened to your pretty words before? Look where that has gotten me – where it has gotten us. I can’t sit here and tell you what you want to hear. Your words have no value to me and you’ve proven that to me without blinking an eye. I think you believe what you are saying to me, but I have always said actions speak louder than words. You have a lot to show me Cadence. I’m not talking about for me, because whatever we had is done, but this baby doesn’t deserve to have a father who only wants to be there when it’s convenient for him. I can’t make you promises that I can’t keep until I see something different in you.”

My head jerks up, “What does that mean, Trinity?” 

“It means that I’m not going to push you away from our baby if your actions show that you mean what you say, that’s all, Cadence.” 

Before I can reply, the driver side door opens and Wolf touches my arm, “Bro, enough for tonight. Both Trinity and the baby need some rest and it is going to take some time once we get to my house to set her up in the spare room.  The sooner we start, the sooner she can sleep and feel safe.” 

I look at Trinity and see the sincerity reflected in her eyes. “I won’t let you down again, sweetie. I swear that to you,” I reach over and grab her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze and then I look to her belly. She places my hand on her belly without me having to ask. I start rubbing it softly as I say “Not gonna let you down again either, Tiny,” I give her a huge smile before I climb down out of the truck as Wolf waits to take my place behind the wheel.

“So did you learn anything?” Wolf asks with a grin on his face.   

“Wolf, actions speak louder than words, dude. Don’t you know that?” As I walk away from the truck, I can hear Trinity giggling softly.

A
s I pull down the dirt access road to my home, I glance at Trinity who is curled up in the passenger seat, fast asleep.  Her head is resting on her cupped hands with her forehead resting on the cool glass window of the door.  I slow down so I don’t rock the truck with all the uneven gravel we are quickly approaching; I don’t want to jar the little girl any more than she already has been.  My temper rises as I glance back at her, or more specifically, her battered face.  God, I would like five fucking minutes with her asshole father – no, scratch that − he is not a father because if he were, Trinity would not be black and blue.  As my thoughts turn dark I hear her start to whimper.  I reach over and lightly rub her leg to try and comfort her.  Immediately her eyes open and stare at my hand on her upper thigh.  I immediately remove my hand, softly stating, “Little one, you were having some sort of nightmare.  I was just trying to comfort you, nothing more.”  Her eyes move from her thigh to look directly into my eyes.  To me, it feels like she staring straight to my soul as the stare seems like forever, but after a minute or two, she nods and straightens up in the seat, lightly moaning, “What is the matter?” I ask. 

“I’m just stiff and really sore, that’s all.  I would kill to soak in a tub for hours.” 

At her comment I look her way and say with laughter in my voice, “Your wish is my command, little one.  I have a claw foot tub in my house so you can soak for however long you want.” 

My breath catches in my throat as she looks at me with an angelic smile on her face, “Really? You have a huge tub?  Can I please use it? Please?” 

God, Cadence, you are such an idiot I instantly think, “Of course you can, Trinity. You can use anything in my house that you want. I ask that for as long as you are here that you consider it your home, also. By the way, is it okay to sit in a hot bath while pregnant?” 

“Do you have internet at your home?  I can look it up.” 

“Great idea,” I reply as I stop in front of my home.  As she turns her head, I hear her gasp and see her smile.  I worked very hard on my home and I know it is breathtaking.  It is an L-shaped, raised ranch made with logs and stonework.  Trinity sits quietly, just staring at the house, “You okay, honey?” 

She shakes her head then looks over her shoulder, “I can’t believe I will be staying here. It’s like a piece of heaven. Never before have I slept, let alone lived, in a place like this.”

I turn off the truck and jump out, walking around to open Trinity’s door.  I reach up to help her down but as she moves to get out, she starts to fall. Grabbing onto her before she lands, I grab her around her ribs, not thinking. I’m just trying to stop her fall as she cries out loudly.  As soon as she’s on her feet, I move my hands to her shoulders to help steady her. She’s biting her bottom lip as tears appear in her eyes, but then I see her eyes start to roll and I know that she’s about to pass out, “Shit” is all I get out before she goes totally limp in my arms and I’m trying to gently hold onto her dead weight.  Fuck!!!! 

I lift her up and approach my front deck, placing her on a wicker lounger so I can reach for my phone.  I dial Doc’s number and wait patiently until Fern answers the phone, “Fern, sweetie, I need Doc if you can spare him. Trinity passed out and I have her lying on my lounger by the front door.  I don’t know what to do, but I do know that she seems to be breathing okay,” I hear Fern speaking to someone and then I hear two male voices, one trying to calm the other one down.  Shit. Cadence is there and now he’s freaking out.  Oh well. He would have found out one way or another.  While Doc tries to calm the kid down, I ask Fern to put Cadence on the phone. 

“What the fuck, Wolf? She hasn’t even been with you for ten minutes and something goes wrong? We’re on our way, shit for brains.” 

I take a deep breath, knowing that when Cadence feels scared he puts up his tough guy act.  I clear my throat and tell Cadence, “You need to calm your shit down, kid. Fern doesn’t need to see you like this, especially right now. You hear me?”  Immediately I hear Cadence take a few deep, calming breaths before I hear him tell Fern that he’s sorry and hangs up the phone.  This is just great. More drama is not what I need any more of tonight, nor does Trinity.

I unlock and open the front door up wide, then I gently pick Trinity up and carry her to an oversized chair as she starts to come to, “What happened?”

I push her hair off of her face and tell her, “You passed out. I don’t want you to move until Doc gets here to check you out.” She nods her head as her eyes start to close, “Try and stay awake, Trin. I don’t need you passing out on me again.”

Her eyes open and she giggles, “You’re the second person who has called me ‘Trin’ tonight. I like the way it sounds.” 

“More than ‘little one?’” I ask with a smile.

“No, I like them both.” 

We both sit in silence for a short while until we hear a door slam and heavy footsteps running up the stairs. The front door is thrown open and Cadence stands there, breathing heavily, “Are you ok, Trinity?”  She looks at him for just a moment and then busts out in laughter. Cadence looks like the devil himself with his hair ruffled by his hands and his eyes are pitch black and spitting fire at me. 

As he continues to stare between Trinity and me, Doc comes in and sits next to her, “Trinity, can you tell me if anything hurts? Do you remember what happened?” 

She shakes her head and groans, “No, Doc. All I remember is losing my balance getting out of the truck and when Wolf caught me before falling, he pushed in on my side. I had immediate pain, and then became nauseous and dizzy.” 

Doc takes a light from his pocket and checks her eyes.  As he moves it around, Trinity starts to sway and moan while grabbing her head.  Doc puts the light down and gently takes her wrist in his hand and checks her pulse.  As everyone watches, Doc checks her glands in her neck and moves her head from side to side.  Trinity closes her eyes and looks like she is about to pass out again.

Doc asks, “Do you have some ginger ale or seltzer water?” I shake my head yes and turn and go toward the kitchen.  I hear Cadence and Fern step closer to Doc as Fern asks, “Gabriel, what do you think it is?”  I listen for his answer as I get some things together from the kitchen, “I’m not sure, but I’m thinking Trinity either has an inner ear infection, or maybe even a slightly punctured eardrum.  We need to get her seen by a specialist ASAP. Kid, would you mind sitting her up in case she needs to throw up? I’ll go find a bucket to keep close.”

I’m already walking out of the kitchen when I hear Doc, so I grab a bucket and make my way back into the living room, carrying the bucket and also a tray with some ginger ale, oyster crackers and saltines.  I place everything on the coffee table and reach toward Trinity as Cadence growls. I immediately step back with a smirk on my face, but then I turn and give Doc a serious look, “How is the little one doing?” He tells me again what I’ve already heard from the kitchen, but continues to give me more information, “She is beyond exhausted and spent. She’s underweight, beaten, bruised and I’m pretty sure her ribs are badly bruised, possibly even broken. They will have to heal on their own because it’s not good for the healing process to wrap them up. Let’s get her hydrated and then off to bed. She will have to deal with everything else in the morning, possibly finding doctors further out of town so her father doesn’t get any idea of where she is,” Doc goes to stand by Fern. He grabs her hand and kisses her forehead.

We all watch as Cadence gets Trinity to drink her water and coax her into eating a few crackers. Once the ale is gone, Cadence asks if he can help get Trinity to bed.  No one is sure of whom he is asking, so no one says anything, waiting on Trinity to reply.  She doesn’t say anything, but she takes his hand in hers and tells him that would be fine.  Cadence immediately gets to his feet and pulls her up from the sofa.

Trinity thanks both Doc and Fern while promising them both that she will look tomorrow for a physician that is not local and make an appointment.  She releases Cadence’s hand and walks to me, hugging me around my middle, her head barely reaching my chest, “Thank you, Wolf, for all that you have done for me tonight.  You will never know what it means to me that you opened your home to me, a stranger, and for once in my miserable life, given me a safe haven. Oh, and not freaking out when I passed out.  You are my newest friend, and my hero.” 

The room is so quiet you can hear a pin drop as I grab her hands from around me and hold them in mine, “Little one, there is no need to thank me for anything. It makes me very happy that you feel that you can trust me and feel safe in my home. I want you to sleep well tonight and know that nothing will harm you here, and we will look into these doctor’s appointments tomorrow after you have had a chance to rest,” Turning her toward Cadence, I tell him, “Help her get settled. Take her to the second bedroom down the hall on the left. I just put clean bedding down last week so it is all ready for her.  There is an extra toothbrush under the cabinet in the bathroom down the hall and she can unpack her stuff tomorrow. I will get her a t-shirt to sleep in.” Cadence just shakes his head in agreement and heads down the hall with Trinity in his arms.

T
he next day, actually, closer to evening since I’ve practically slept the day away, I’m standing in the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror, shocked at my appearance.  My hands continually rise to touch my face as I bounce from foot to foot. The bruising on any visible skin is a dark purple and blue. My father really did a job on me this time, and the amount of alcohol he consumed didn’t help. As these thoughts start to run through my mind, I start to think what could have happened if Cadence and his friends didn’t come and get me out of there when they did. His attitude was getting worse every day and because I didn’t want to involve anyone in my shit, I didn’t seek out the help that was offered to me. I’ve come so close to losing my baby.  It wasn’t bad in the beginning. I didn’t go anywhere; I worked and came home, cleaned and made dinner. It wasn’t until I started getting morning sickness, then he found a pregnancy test that I thought I had hidden deep in the garbage bag, but of course the bag broke when I was taking it out, and with my shitty luck, that’s what he saw. How unbelievable is that?