Page 39 of Praying for Thunder

Dio’s reaction to her mood was concerning. “Was he your Old Man?”

In the kitchen, lost in thought, she uttered, “Huh?”

Diablo was standing between the living room and dining room. His jaw was strained. “I said, are you missin’ your Old Man?”

With her dark hair slightly hanging in her face, she blinked. Then Tiger appeared. “I wasn’t permitted an Old Man, you sonofabitch. I was a fucking club whore.”

My eyes left the flat screen on the wall and followed Ani backing up Dio. She was seething to the point she appeared possessed. “I was the sold child who learned men can be sick and so twisted that I would cry myself to sleep, pain between my tiny thighs.”

“Babe, stop—”

“On the good nights, I got to cry in Rosa’s arms, but only if she wasn’t being raped.” Relentlessly continuing on her prowl, her head tilted with a click. “Do you ‘Bastards’ have child club whores?”

His back hit a wall in the dining room. “No.”

“It’s amazing how young you can become pregnant.”

“Anita—”

“I was threatened my girls would be born to the same fate as their mother.”

“Babe—”

“So, Rosa and I ran… Found some help. They turned out to be liars and stole my girls after they were born, then left me and Rosa to be recaptured.”

“I-I didn’t know—”

She sneered up at his tall form. “I was locked up ever since. My blood didn’t tell you that?” In a manic fashion, her head tilted in the other direction. “I was fortunate, or so I was told. Most of us young ones were killed once we got too old, say, seventeen. The man I asked you about claimed to have fallen in love with me. I got to be raped, by him only, beyond seventeen. Isn’t that wonderful? Someone I should ‘miss’,” the S sounded like an evil snake, “after you tell me he’s been killed?”

Peering down at the angry beast he had awakened, he swallowed. “I’m so sorry you went through that.”

In an eerie fashion, she backed away toward the bedroom. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Feel for the man who ever dares to trap me… again.” She backed into the room, appearing positively dangerous.

The door shut.

Dio’s body half-collapsed. His hands braced against his knees as he struggled to breathe.

Sure to not walk too close to the door that shielded me from the scariest side of Ani I’d ever witnessed, I snuck over to Dio. I got on my hands and knees and ducked under his long-hanging hair. “Dio?”

Veins were bulging all over his face. He was breathing through his nose, loudly. “Yeah, Little Guy?”

“Ani is mad?”

His eyes were closed. Tightly. “Oh yeah. You could say that. Careful around me right now, okay?”

I touched his leg to lean on it but quickly changed my mind. “You’re hot.”

Inhale… Exhale… “Fuck. Did I hurt you?”

“You would never hurt me.”

Inhale… Exhale… “I would never want to.”

Pfft! “I know that. You okay?”

Inhale… Exhale… “Not sure.” Inhale… Exhale… “I’m just trying to convince myself I can’t murder a man who is already dead.”

As if I understood that reasoning, which I didn’t, I nodded. “Oh.” Then, I asked, “Are your eyes hazel for Ani?”