Yes, at a bar somewhere. “No. My younger brother was staying the night at a friend’s, and Mom went out on a date. Since my plan was to stay home tonight, she wouldn’t think there would be any sort of emergency.”

The nurse still didn’t seem to be buying it, but she nodded. “Okay. Well, we have two very anxious boys outside waiting on you. Is it okay if I let them inside? One is your brother. I think the guy who brought you called him and he got a ride here.”

Oh crap. What had Krit been saying in the waiting room for everyone to hear?

“Sure, yeah,” I replied, with a smile I didn’t feel.

She looked at me one last time with sadness in her eyes. I didn’t need her to help me. She’d ruin everything. I wasn’t being separated from Krit. I had less than two years before I was eighteen. I could save us both then.

Krit walked in first, with relief and worry both etched on his face. “You were walking! Seriously, Trisha. Walking? What if Rock hadn’t driven by? You could have died out there. God! I’m never trusting you again. I won’t leave next time.”

“I couldn’t let anyone know about this,” I whispered, glancing behind him to see that it was Rock who was standing just inside the door, not the nurse.

Krit ran his hand through his shaggy hair, which he was refusing to cut. “You scare the shit out of me. I hate this. I hate living there. I hate her. I wish she wasn’t my mother.”

I hated seeing him like this. Knowing he hadn’t been given a chance to be a kid. He had been trying to protect me all his life, even though it was really me who was protecting him. Even when we were little, he had held my hand after Fandora had beaten me, and promised he would keep me safe and that everything would be okay. I loved him. He was the only person I had ever loved and who had ever loved me. I would do anything for him. Didn’t he get that?

“It won’t happen again. I’m not going to let it.” Rock’s voice filled the room, with a determination I almost believed.

Krit glanced back at him. “You can’t stop it. This shit has been happening all our lives.”

Rock walked over to stand at the foot of my bed. He kept his gaze locked on me. “Yeah, I can. Even if you don’t want me to, I’m going to protect you, Trisha. I don’t care what excuses you throw at me. I don’t care if you ignore me. I will be there every damn time you need me.”

Krit let out a hard laugh. “That’s bullshit. You got a football career ahead of you. Don’t make her promises you can’t keep.”

I was worried Krit was being too hard on Rock. I agreed with Krit, but he didn’t have to throw angry words at Rock for trying to be nice.

“I’ll gain your trust,” Rock said. “Both of you.”

Krit scowled, but behind his anger I could see the little boy who had hope. He wanted to trust in someone. He trusted me, but he needed more. We both did.

“What you did tonight was enough. Thank you,” I told him before Krit could say any more.

Rock held my gaze, and he looked like he was about to say something when a commotion outside the door stopped him. I recognized the voice immediately.

Rock

“Where are they? Did she hurt my baby?” a woman asked in a high-pitched voice as if she were panicked. “She always hurts him. I can’t control her,” she continued.

“No f**king way,” Krit growled as he stalked past me toward the door.

He looked furious. I glanced back at Trisha. I didn’t know if I should go after him.

“It’s her. Our mother,” she said softly.

“There’s my baby! Are you okay? Did she hurt you again? Did y’all check him out?!”

Was this woman serious?

“That’s enough, Mom. Trisha is beat to shit in there. No one believes your farce. She’s too damn nice to hurt anyone. Even you,” Krit roared over his mother’s voice.

“Honey, it’s okay. You don’t have to protect her,” his mother started up.

“WOMAN, ARE YOU CRAZY?” Krit yelled.

“Oh God. Please go stop him,” Trisha begged. “Please. If he tells them, we will be split up. He doesn’t understand that foster homes could be worse.”

I stared at her face, still beautiful though beaten, and swollen. I realized she was right. At least where she was she knew what to expect, and Krit was there with her. The kid was bigger than her and loved her. He could also get in touch with me if they needed me.

Nurses were trying to calm them down, and security was walking up when I stepped outside the room.

“Krit,” I called out.

He looked at me with a furious scowl. “This is it! You gonna fix it? Save her from this shit!” he challenged me.

It was time I started proving myself. I walked over to Krit and put my arm around his shoulders. “Your sister needs you. She’s asking for you,” I told him while glaring at the woman across from him.

He didn’t move at first. Finally he nodded and walked back to his sister’s room.

“Baby, don’t go in there to her—”

“Leave him alone. He’s going where he wants to be. With the sister who loves him and got hurt tonight. And you need to calm down. Too many drinks have you saying shit no one around you believes. It’s obvious Krit loves his sister and she loves him. If you want to keep your family, then you might want to act like a mother and not a drunk, deranged psycho.”

Her eyes went wide as I told her exactly how things were going to go. The painted-on makeup didn’t cover up her hard living. Her skin had seen better days. The stench on her was nauseating. Sour whiskey and cheap perfume.

“Now, you need to go sign the papers to release your daughter. She’s been treated, and she needs to go home and rest. I’ll be making sure that happens. If you f**k with her, I swear to God you’ll lose everything. Do you understand me?”

The woman’s bent shoulders snapped back as she looked at me hatefully. “Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t tell me what to do. Did you hurt Trisha? Are you some loser who she’s running wild and partying with?”

She was trying to twist it so I looked like the bad guy.”

A security guard stepped up beside me. “No, ma’am. This here is Sea Breeze High’s football star. He’ll put us on the map one day. Good kid. Watch him play every Friday. This young man don’t ever cause trouble.”

I glanced over at the man beside me and recognized him as one of the security guards who worked the games. I owed him one.

“Y’all don’t know what she’s like,” the woman started up again.

“Yeah, I do. She’s the mother your son doesn’t have in you,” I replied.

The security guard beside me patted my back. “That’s good, son. Why don’t you go on back in there with the girl? We’ll oversee her momma signing the release papers.”

I shot her one more warning glare, then headed back to the room, where I found Krit watching me from the doorway.

There was surprise in his eyes. He hadn’t expected me to stand up to her. I’d show them both over and over again I wasn’t going anywhere. Trisha’s pretty face had been what attracted me to her. I had watched her for a year, wanting to be the reason she smiled, and making her beam up at me had become a goal in life. Now that I had actually gotten to know her even a little, I wanted more.

It killed me that this beautiful girl who should be cherished and loved didn’t have parents who protected and loved her. She deserved that.

“She’s signing the papers,” Krit whispered in disbelief as he watched his mother from the doorway. “You got her to f**king shut up and sign the papers,” he repeated as he turned to look at me in awe.

It was a start. I had a long way to go to win their trust. But after tonight I was done waiting on Trisha Corbin to give me a chance. If she didn’t want to, then fine. I wouldn’t make her. I’d just be the unwanted friend she couldn’t get rid of. The girl needed someone to take care of her.

“Thank you.” Her voice washed over me. She had claimed me with just a look.

“I’m taking you home. Then I’m staying there,” I informed her. “I’ll need to get my truck back to my dad for work in the morning, so I’ll get Marcus or Dewayne to help me out. But I’m staying with you until Monday morning.”

She had just started to say something when the nurse walked into the room, followed by that bitch Trisha lived with.

The nurse smiled at Trisha, then turned to me. “Will you be giving her a ride home?” the woman asked, but it sounded more like she telling me I was going to.

I smiled. “Yes ma’am. I’ll be giving her and her brother a ride home.”

“Rick is in the car waiting on me. Papers are signed. If he’s giving y’all a ride, I’ll see you at the house,” the bitch said.

“Sure thing, Mom,” Krit said with obvious annoyance.

“You drive safe with my baby in the car,” the woman told me. I nodded that I had heard her, but I didn’t give her a glance. I was too busy watching Trisha as they helped her adjust her arm sling. I saw the nurse’s frown as she watched Fandora leave without a word to Trisha.

Trisha didn’t need her stepmother. She had me. I would be enough from now on.

Trisha

When we had walked into the trailer, Fandora wasn’t there. Her car was out front, but she’d said she was with her boyfriend, Randy. So apparently he had taken her back to whatever bar they had been at when Green’s father had tracked her down. I hadn’t known Green’s dad was in the waiting room, aware of this whole mess.

“Let’s get you to the bed,” Rock said, coming in behind me. I didn’t have it in me to push him away again. He was so sweet, and he had been there through all of this and none of it had scared him away. If he just wanted in my pants, then he sure wouldn’t have faced down Fandora and stuck by me all night.

“If you need an extra pillow, you can have mine,” Krit offered, hovering around me like he was afraid I might break at any moment.

“I’ll be fine with mine,” I assured him.

“Are you sleeping in her room?” Krit asked Rock.

“She and I are going to talk about that. Why don’t you go on and get some rest. Know I’m not leaving and she’s safe,” Rock told him.

I assumed Krit would argue, but he didn’t.

“Yeah, okay,” he replied, then leaned over and kissed my head. “Rest. I need you better,” he said to me.

“I will,” I told him.

He gave Rock one last look, then turned and headed for his room.

It hadn’t taken him long to decide he trusted Rock. But then, after watching him at the hospital I was beginning to trust him too.

“Once you get comfortable I’m going to get you some water, and you need to take one of the pills the doctor sent home with you. It will help you rest easier.”

“You don’t have to stay,” I told him. He had promised that he wasn’t leaving me, but he had a life. I wasn’t his responsibility.

“No, Trisha, I don’t. But I want to stay,” he replied. “I’m going to get you some water. Time for you to take this pill.”

I didn’t respond to that. He stared down at me, waiting on me to argue, before turning and heading to the kitchen. The determined gleam in his eyes confused me. Why was he so bent on staying here? I knew from hearing Rose Mann talk in the restrooms at school that he was supposed to be with her tonight at Marcus Hardy’s party. He had also been talking to her by his locker, and I’d seen him kiss her in the hall earlier this week.

I had walked away from him, and he’d let me. From the looks of it, he had moved on. Now here he was again. I didn’t understand him at all. There was a good guy under all that sexy. Not only had he wanted to help me get to the hospital, but then he had stayed and dealt with Fandora. Why would someone who had a future to think about waste time with me and this mess?