Page 43 of Retribution
“Oh.” Her hushed response fell into the air between them.
“Yeah … growing up with my old man wasn’t fuckin’ great.” Cobra let go of her waist and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Short version, I had an asshole bastard for a father and a traitor for a mother who bolted after the old man was sent to Chino for doing shit to my sister. My brother, my sister, and I all ended up in different foster homes, and I got the fuck outta there as fast as I could. I ran away when I was sixteen and never looked back. There you go—childhood in a nutshell.”
Dakota winced and licked her lips. “How old were you when you went into foster care?”
“Twelve.”
Her heart ached for him. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“What for? You didn’t do anything. Life can be a piece of shit sometimes, but it’s what you do with it that counts.”
“I suppose. Is your dad still in … prison?”
“Nah, the bastard got out after only a few years. I don’t know where the fuck he is, and that suits me just fine. The only thing I liked about growing up with good ol’ Mom and Dad was living in Oceanside.” Cobra twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. “That’s in Southern California. Big Marine base there. I loved sitting on the sand and watching the waves crash on the beach then pull back.” He chuckled. “I can’t tell you how many times I wished I was one of those damn grains of sand the ocean took from the shore, floating away, going to new places … getting the fuck away from the chaos of our house.”
“Is that why you joined the motorcycle club—to get away?”
“Not really. I joined because it was the first time in my life I felt like I was a part of something. The club was the family I never had … the loyalty and trust not one of my goddamn parents ever gave me or my siblings. The club was my lifeline, and it still is. It’s just that after going to prison, I decided to go nomad. I had to sort out a bunch of shit inside me, and I didn’t want to end up back in the pen.”
“Why did you go to prison?” Dakota held her breath.
“Some fuckers messed with me and I fought back. Turns out I was a better fighter.”
“Did any of them … die?”
He nuzzled the side of her neck then kissed it softly. “No, sweetheart. It was just a bar fight. The assholes were clean cut, and I was a member of an outlaw club. Not hard to imagine why I ended up in the joint and they didn’t.”
“That’s so unfair.” Dakota tilted her head back and locked her gaze on his.
A half-smile tugged up the corner of his mouth, and he ran his thumb lightly over her bottom lip. “That’s the way life plays out, darlin’.”
She settled back against him. “Yeah, it seems that way.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t have an ideal home life either.” Cobra gently kneaded her shoulders with his fingers.
“No, everything was fine. It was all good …” she trailed off and glanced into the distance, her vision of what she was seeing fading into old memories that had a tendency to taint everything. “My parents loved us. They worked hard and had decent jobs. My dad was a long-distance trucker so he wasn’t home a lot, but when he was, he always spent time with us. My mom worked hard at the grocery store, and we had enough to afford a decent house and food on the table. I have four siblings—I’m the third kid in a family of five.” Dakota swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat and felt herself pulling away from him, curling into herself as if she was powerless to stop the motion. “Typical childhood. For the most part.”
“Uh-huh.” Cobra’s tone sounded like he didn’t believe her, and she laced her fingers together, unconsciously squeezing as she tried to focus on everything that was happening outside herself while her body reprocessed old wounds. “You’re tense as fuck, sweetheart. Every time I touch you, you flinch backward. Do you think you might want to talk about that?”
Dakota breathed out through her compressed and tightened lungs, her whole body a mess of jitters. She’d never talked aboutitto anyone before. There was so much piled inside her that she’d never addressed, acknowledged, or even understood, and now it was raw and ripping through her whole life.Fuck. Dakota squeezed her eyes shut and tried to ignore the sudden shaking rippling through her body.
“It’ll make you feel better.” His low, calm voice enticed her.
Maybe it’s time. A huge part of herneededto talk about the incident, and Cobra was someone she could count on to take care of her and listen to everything she had to say without condemnation. He was a safe space.
A small whimper escaped her lips and she heard him making small, shushing noises trying to soothe her as she geared herself up to speak about her past.
“Take your time, Dakota,” he whispered, his body heat comforting her. Cobra circled his arms around her waist and gently squeezed.
“When I was fourteen, my older brother’s friend used to come over a lot. We’d known each other since I was little, and he watched me grow up. His name was Taylor.” Dakota choked on her words and took a few minutes to breathe, compose herself, and get back into it. “The summer before high school, things started changing between us. It was so damn hot. It was one of those summers where you could barely breathe because the air was thick with humidity. All us kids lived at the swimming hole that season.” She shuddered.
“It’s okay. I’m here,” Cobra said in a low voice.
After breathing in and out a few times, she rested her head against his chest. “My brother Luke—he’s two years older than me, and his friends would hang out with me and my friends. Taylor always came because he was Luke’s best friend. He was practically a member of our family. Anyway, one time when we were at Monkey Rock, Taylor told me there was something he wanted to show me, and he took me away from everyone to an area surrounded by trees and bushes. He backed me up against a large tree and kissed me. A bunch of butterflies swarmed in my stomach, and I felt weird and good and scared all at the same time. Taylor always told me how pretty I was and how much he liked me. I didn’t know what any of it meant, only that I loved the way he looked at me and how he made me feel special.”
“And your brother didn’t know Taylor was doing this to you?”
Dakota shook her head. “Luke would’ve beaten the shit outta him if he knew. But Ididlike the way it felt when we kissed.”
