“I met him when I was seventeen and we ended up in the same foster home. It wasn’t a good environment. Our foster dad was an asshole. He’d get drunk and violent. Would hit our foster mom, and us if we were around. So we spent most of our time out of the house, getting into trouble. Usual shit, taking things that weren’t ours, joy riding stolen cars. Our home life might have been shit, but the two of us had a tight bond. We were brothers.”
“What happened?”
He sighed. “Elise happened.”
She grew tense. “Who was Elise?”
“She was our foster parents’ actual daughter. She was a few years younger than us. Annoying, in the way little sisters can be. Wanted to do everything with us, followed us around, we weren’t that nice to her. We thought her parents treated her better than us, even though they didn’t. In fact, her father was treating her in the worst way a man, a father, can treat a little girl.”
“Oh God,” she muttered.
He let out a shuddering breath. “We didn’t know. Reyes and I. She never said a word. But then, we didn’t spend much time at home. We came home late one night, found a cop car outside the house. Thought he was there for us. Then we heard our foster mom screaming. Elise killed herself. Left a note, telling everyone she was too ashamed to live because of what he did to her.”
“Oh, Zeke. It wasn’t your fault.”
“If I’d just let her hang with us, if I’d been there, paid more attention.”
“Zeke, it wasn’t your fault. It was his.”
“Fucker went to prison, at least. Got out a few years after then he raped another fucking girl. The girl’s father shot and killed him. Thank fuck.”
“Jesus,” she muttered.
“After Elise’s suicide, I sort of fell apart. I blamed myself. I guess I blamed Reyes too. But I never thought he would turn away from me. I thought we were tight. Instead, he started getting into some real shady shit with one of the local gangs. When I tried to get him to leave the gang, he told me to get lost, that I was nothing to him. That he wanted nothing to do with me. I was furious. We got into a fight. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone that much and it kind of scared me. Especially as the person I wanted to hurt was someone I considered my brother.” He shook his head.
“Soon after we half-killed each other, the stupid bastard got caught up in a drug raid and arrested.” He sighed. “I decided my life didn’t mean fuck all if I couldn’t save an innocent kid and if my best friend would rather sell drugs for a gang than be with me. I didn’t think I had anything much to live for after that. Joined the Navy as a way of ending my life.”
“You wanted your life to end?” She gave him a shocked look.
“Thought I did. Turns out that wasn’t what I really wanted. Or at least your brother wouldn’t let me fucking die. I suffered a head injury while we were on a mission, lost consciousness. And your brother picks me up and carries me to our extraction point through enemy territory. When I woke up in the hospital, alive, I nearly killed him.”
She shook her head. “Kent saved you? How have I never heard this?”
He shrugged. “Wasn’t my finest moment. Soon as I realized I was alive and that he was the reason, I yelled at him for not leaving me there to die. He screamed back that I was a stupid fucker because couldn’t I see I didn’t want to die? As soon as I was well enough, he got me drunk and found out everything.”
“Thank God for Kent.”
Yeah. Thank God for Kent. He’d given him purpose. A focus. He’d saved him. If he hadn’t done that then Zeke wouldn’t have this gorgeous girl in his arms right now. “If it wasn’t for Kent, I wouldn’t have found my family. I wouldn’t have discovered I was a Dom. He introduced me to BDSM, took me to my first club.”
No one was more shocked than him when he was drawn to being a Daddy Dom. But he enjoyed the feeling of being everything to a sub. Protector. Nurturer. Disciplinarian. It enabled him to feel closer to someone. To give in to emotions he otherwise kept suppressed.
“Kent is a lot like Clint. Always interfering in other people’s business.” But he owed him everything. He’d given Zeke a purpose. He’d shown him a way out of the darkness. He’d led him to Eden.
She hugged him tight. “Zeke what happened to Elise was terrible, but you weren’t at fault. You were a kid, too.”
“So were you, when your parents died.”
She stiffened in his arms and pulled away. “I’m really tired. I need to go to sleep.”
He sighed as she put that shield back up. Fuck.
16
“Daddy, can we go exploring?”
“Exploring?” Zeke looked up from the compu
ter screen. He’d declared today a rest day from exercise. Thank the Lord. Her arms felt like jello. He’d even promised to give her a massage before her nap this afternoon.