He was so right.

So I agreed quietly, “Yeah.”

“Your other bitch looks fit to be tied and hangin’ on from lettin’ loose by the skin of her teeth. You should be too,” he told me.

“That’s what Viv says.”

“She’s right and so am I.”

I pressed my lips together.

Knight watched, took a drag from his cigarette, blew out the smoke in a thin, pissed off stream then he crushed it out on the ashtray on the railing. Then both his arms curved around me.

“Right,” he started. “Kurt got the full story and the f**k of this is, this guy last night, he’s loaded. Serious as shit. And somethin’ else, he’s had his eye on Sandrine a while. And not to f**k her up and play with her in ways she doesn’t want. The stupid f**k actually liked her. He thought it was him needin’ to prove somethin’ to her. Partier. Player. Big man. High roller. Show her he’s got connections. He’s cool. Hip to the f**kin’ scene. Do not know how this dude makes his money but he has f**k all confidence. He’s never even smoked meth. Why the motherfucker had it is beyond me. Those two smokin’ meth when neither of them knew what the f**k they were doin’ is so f**kin’ ridiculous I can’t even begin to describe it. To have meth at all is jacked. That is not my problem. My problem is, I got a woman who’s got a girl who’s got her head jammed so far up her ass, she cannot f**kin’ see. This guy was her ticket. And instead of just bein’ classy and beautiful and sweet, she put herself out there when this guy only wanted the classy, beautiful and sweet and to lay the world at her feet so she’d take his c**k and, probably, take it long enough to get his ring on her finger, make babies and spoil her until she died. Now, he’s got puke all over his house, he’s had a visit from Kurt and me that was extreme and if she was even together enough to give him her number, he’s probably erasing it from his phonebook right now if he hasn’t already. So that’s my problem, Anya, because you and Vivica don’t pull her head outta her ass, this is gonna stay your problem, and through you mine, for a long time. And I’ll give you this one head’s up, a man f**ks with her which means through her you experience a crash and burn, and I’m talkin’ he date rapes her or we’re takin’ a trip to the hospital for any f**kin’ reason, by association, she gets my services. And that means, the guy who did it is breathin’ through a tube and that’s only if I’m in a good enough mood to leave him breathing.”

I held my breath and held his eyes.

Knight kept talking.

“I am not kidding. I’m also not exaggerating. So save me that hassle and pull her head outta her ass.”

“Okay, Knight.”

He stared at me.

Then, softer but still firm, he told me, “I had a man who saw and heard the entire f**kin’ thing that went down with Nick. She put your ass out there, Anya, and I know it. I wasn’t at the club that night, my man wasn’t close, I do not like to think where Nick woulda taken that with you. You say Vivica is protective, you are too and what you did to pull Sandrine outta that shit proves it. You made the wrong decision then, baby. Don’t make the wrong decision today. In this situation, your protection needs to run the way Vivica’s does. Don’t buckle and be sweet. Don’t swing your ass out there. Don’t swing mine out there. Don’t swing Vivica’s out there. You get me?”

I nodded.

He pulled in a sharp breath through his nose then his eyes drifted over my shoulder.

I watched him get lost in thought then I slid my hands down his chest so I could wrap my arms around him. His chin dipped down and his eyes caught mine.

“Told you about my Dad,” he stated apropos of nothing. “Didn’t tell you he isn’t my Dad. He’s my stepdad. I have no f**kin’ clue who my Dad is because my mother was a prostitute before she met him.”

I blinked and my body went solid.

Oh my God.

“Oh, Knight. Honey,” I whispered.

His hand slid up and curled around the back of my neck but his eyes never left mine.

“She was f**ked up. All I ever knew until Carl came into our lives and sorted her shit out. Nick’s his. He never made me feel I wasn’t. He adopted me legally, gave me his name. I was a little kid but I remember all that shit before Carl. Makes no sense, don’t know how she did it but even f**ked up, she was a good Mom. She loved me, took care of me the best she could. They obviously never talk about it and I sure as f**k never asked but my guess, he was a john, he was a regular and he fell in love with a street walker. Got her off the street. Got her clean. Gave her a good life. It’s jacked but it worked.”

“I’m pleased you’re sharing with me, sweetheart,” I told him softly and cautiously. “I wanna know about you. But I’m wondering why you’re sharing this now.”

“Why is because she had a good life, good parents, good schooling. She went off the rails doin’ stupid shit for men. It got messier and messier until her whole life was mess. I don’t know my grandparents, neither does Nick. They got shot of her and she made them do it in a way where they never looked back. Even for grandchildren. I am not clairvoyant. But I learned really f**kin’ early a lotta bad shit can happen to women. A lot of it. And, you might think I’m wrong but I’m not, a lot of that happens because they do stupid shit and they’re weak. Your girl is weak and not because her Dad thinks she’s beautiful and precious and told her so. Because she just is. It’s time she sorts herself out before, one way or another, she’s beyond anyone saving and protecting.”

“Viv and I’ll talk to her,” I promised.

“Do it until you’re blue in the face and break through. You don’t, I’m gonna keep an eye on this and the time comes you need to scrape her off to protect yourself, I’ll be leanin’ on you to do that. She’s your girl and that’ll be your decision. But I won’t let up. Get me?”

“Get you,” I whispered.

His arms gave me a squeeze.

“Right,” he muttered. “Now, I’m gonna make you and Vivica lunch. Is there anything she doesn’t eat?”

God, God, God, this was a good, kind man even if he calmly talked about making people breathe through a tube.

“Anything green and healthy on the weekends. She keeps to a strict, twelve hundred calorie, heavy on the veggies diet Mondays through Fridays so she can do whatever she wants on the weekend. So, don’t make salad. Viv won’t eat it.”