Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
“What?” Boone asked, but he didn’t ask Axl.
He was looking at Auggie.
So Axl looked to Aug.
And when he saw the expression on Auggie’s face, he demanded, “You looked into her?”
“Only to be prepared for this very conversation,” Auggie replied.
Mo crossed his arms on his substantial chest.
Mag blew out an audible breath.
Boone chuckled low.
Axl just stared at his brother.
“So? What’d you find?” Boone pushed.
“I don’t wanna know,” Axl said quickly.
“It was ugly and then it was uglier,” Auggie stated.
Fuck.
“Divorce proceedings are on record,” Auggie kept on. “The custody stuff, the mom testified and Hattie was of an age, she could too. Massive control issues for the dad, and he had them with both the mom and Hattie, which was why the mom left. Mental abuse, both, until the mom left. Physical stuff was only Hattie, and it was minor, even if it wasn’t, but in a way a kid might not think anything of it, except that it seriously sucked, and for Hattie, it was constant. Pinching. Shaking. Shoving. Holding her arm or hand too hard. Pulling her hair. The mom never knew about it, because Hattie didn’t report it. But that escalated to what caused the mom to go balls to the wall to get sole custody of Hattie with only every-other-weekend-Saturday-afternoon visits with the dad. He caught her with a vicious backhand when she fucked up some audition for some high school in Chicago. The mom saw it and Hattie never again stayed for any length of time with her father while she was still a minor.”
Axl dropped his head because he couldn’t hold it up and battle the rage of fire in his chest at the same time.
Yeah.
That was ugly.
And it got uglier.
“That’s tough, brother, but it gets tougher,” Aug said quietly.
Axl lifted his head and stared again at his friend, that burn inching up his throat.
“Not just every competition or recital, but every class, which was every day, including Sunday, he was there. He’d videotape it. And from the ride home to repeated viewings of the video after, he’d dissect every second of what she’d done, highlighting the bad. Making her take notes on what she needed to work on. Report back the next day after practice on how she felt she worked on those points. Sometimes even making her do lines, like ‘I will relax my arm,’ and she’d have to write it five hundred times.”
“You’re fucking joking,” Boone growled.
Aug shook his head. “She said to the judge, that when he’d pinch her or shake her, it was a relief. He’d feel bad about doing that, so for a while, he’d lay off the other stuff.”
“So she was glad he’d physically abuse her so he didn’t mentally destroy her,” Axl stated.
He felt all the men’s eyes on him.
He knew why.
His voice was not right.
The huddle became closer.
“Lock it down, Axe,” Mo murmured.
Axl didn’t take his eyes from Aug and went on, “But he mentally destroyed her.”
“I saw that dance,” Auggie said low. “And, brother, she’s way into you. Watching that, it was like watching her say she wants you so bad, it’s killing her. It fuckin’ hurt watching her dance like that for you. So yeah, she wants you that bad and won’t let herself have you, he mentally destroyed her.”
Axl stepped back.
The men shifted to follow.
He stopped and stated, “I crossed that line to creeper. Could not get a lock on what was goin’ on with her, so I followed her. She has a studio. Not to dance. To create shit. When she left, I let myself in. It’s filled with pieces of substance. No watercolors or delicate sculptures. Big pieces. A couple that are even taller than me. They all gotta weigh hundreds of pounds. Her mediums are concrete and steel, iron and stone, marble. Even the soft stuff is hard or jagged. Like copper wire or aluminum. And you gotta have no heart in your chest if you can look at her shit and not need to fight taking a knee to battle the pain.”
“Fucking hell,” Mag whispered.
“I stood in that space and I got up in her face,” Axl told them.
“You want to be a part of her life, a good one, one of the few,” Boone pointed out. “I don’t condone bein’ a dick to her, but you’re only human, brother. Just give her some breathing room and then go fix it.”
“I’ll talk to Lottie and she’ll talk to her,” Mo offered.
Axl shook his head. “No. No one knows about this. Her art. That space. I already violated it. I don’t want to make that worse.”
Mo nodded his concurrence.
“Boone’s right,” Mag put in. “Give her breathing room and then go and fix it.”
“Not much time,” Boone said. “Just don’t give up.”
“How much of a dick were you to her?” Auggie asked.
“I told her she hurt Lottie and I told her I knew what that dance was about and she blew it, with Lottie and with me,” Axl admitted.