Repair Me (Kin #1)(29)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“Is Ford here?”

She looked behind her. “He’s indisposed.”

I looked down so she couldn’t see my reaction. He’d left me to screw his ex after he’d lied and told me that she meant nothing to him.

Men suck!

“I brought his truck back. Do you know how I can get my keys?”

“Hold on.” She left the door wide open and walked over to the kitchen. My keys were on the table, so she picked them up and brought them to me. “Anything else?”

“I need to pay for the repairs.”

She raised her eyebrow. “From what I hear, you already did. Did you really think he was a nice guy? Ford isn’t nice and nothin’ he does is out of the kindness of his heart. You gave him exactly what he wanted.”

I thought about what she said but then felt like I needed to defend myself. “If he’s that bad, why are you with him?”

“We have history.”

I pulled out a hundred bucks and put it in her hand. “Tell you what, you take this money and tell Ford to shove it up his ass for all I care.” When I walked away I felt like I was going to throw up or pass out. I managed to get my car unlocked and started it up before I lost it again.

Had everything we shared, including our chemistry, been some game to him? I felt ill again, considering that I’d been used in the worst way. I’d given him my body without thinking that I meant nothing to him. How had I let my self-respect go out the window like that?

I drove for at least an hour before I pulled over. It was important for me to get as far away from Ford’s town before I broke down. The one good thing was that nobody had to know what really happened between us. I could tell myself that it was nothing and move forward. I could forget about him and hate him, just like I was going to do with Mack.

I’d left for the beach wanting to forget about my cheating ex. I’d come back with a broken heart from a man I barely knew anything about. Men were all the same and it was time that I accepted it.

Ford

From the moment I climbed into my cousin’s car, I missed her. I looked out the window while he drove and thought about the way her smile brightened up the room. I thought about the way her hair smelled when the breeze blew it around. I recalled her tiny fingertips and how they felt when they drug across my skin. Hell, I even smelled my fingers hoping to still have her scent on me.

It was pathetic, I knew, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I didn’t want to.

This convoluted rescue mission was f**king up another part of my life. How much more could my deadbeat mother take away from me?

The place she’d been staying at wasn’t even a real dwelling. On the door were signs that the building had been condemned. We entered through the broken door and walked through a hallway full of people sprawled out. I’d never seen so many junkies in real life before. A part of me wondered if they were going to stick us with dirty needles as we walked by them.

Shayne wasted no time asking a couple of people where she was. We found her moments later in a room with three other women. Two were on the bed with her passed out. A candle illuminated the nightstand and needles, spoons and plastic baggies were all over it. The woman didn’t look at all how I remembered her. She was frail and skinny. Her bones stuck out everywhere. When Shayne called her name, she didn’t even flinch. I almost thought he had the wrong person.

“Ford, we’re goin’ to have to carry her.”

I looked at him, wondering how many times he had said my name. This couldn’t be really happening; it had to be a bad dream. “What do you want me to do? This bitch is stoned out of her mind. Clearly she ain’t too concerned about owing someone money.”

“Damn it, Ford, she’s your mother.”

“No, she’s not. My mother’s dead.” I didn’t care if she heard it. Seeing her like that made me sick. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Shayne punched me in the gut before I could see it coming. “Say that again, you cocksucker. She is your mother whether you like it or not. Pick her up or I am goin’ to kick your ass and leave you in here with all these junkies.”

I grabbed her feet and she started to come to. “What’s happening?” Her words slurred.

“We’re gettin’ you out of here, Aunt Mary. Just hang on.”

The woman’s eyes peered at me and I knew she recognized me from the way they opened. I looked away, unable to face the fact that she was so far gone.

Ashley opened the car door and helped us get her into the backseat. Once she was secured, she passed out again. I had to step away from the car to gather myself enough to make the drive back. Nothing could have prepared me for seeing her in that condition.

Ashley walked over and tried to comfort me. She put her arms around me and hugged me from behind. “Are you okay?”

I let her hold her arms there, since she knew I was dealing with things. Even though I didn’t want to be with her, I appreciated her caring enough to stick around to help. “Yeah. She’s just…I don’t even know what to say. She’s f**ked up. That ain’t my mother, Ash. I don’t know that person in the backseat.”

She let go and came to face me. I felt her grabbing my hand and looked her in the eyes. “We can’t just leave her like this, Ford.”

I pulled away. “This is a nightmare! I came here to relax and instead all this shit started happenin’. Now I have to take my strung out mother home to my dad, who isn’t goin’ to know what to do for her. I could kill my uncle for puttin’ this shit on us.”

“Shayne said that she wasn’t so bad until she found out about Harley. He said it sent her off the deep end. They’ve been tryin’ to keep track of her, but you can imagine how hard it is when she doesn’t want to be found. If she hadn’t messed up and not paid her supplier, they would have never found her.”

“Ash, I hate that woman. She ruined my life. She’s not a mother and I don’t want to hear that she was broken up about Harley. She doesn’t have a f**king right to say her name. She lost that privilege the day she walked out on us.” I ran my hand through my hair, picked up a rock and threw it as far as I could. “That woman is as dead as my sister. You hear me?”

When we got back into the car, I said nothing to either of them. The junkie in the backseat, who gave birth to me, never opened her eyes. I didn’t look back to check on her much, considering it made me sick each and every time. The fact that she’d done that to herself was appalling.