The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Fifteen

My answer was met with complete silence as Lloyd, Luke, Caleb and Hailey had their mouths wide open, completely confused and shocked. I darted my eyes over toward David and was pleased to see his face turning red with anger. I could see the murder in his eyes as he glared at me, and I returned the glare. One thing positive about Lloyd is I knew he would protect me, so David had no power over me right now. David finally decided to break the eerie silence that had been casted over the room.

"You're a filthy liar," David snarled. He turned towards Hailey, his eyes softening. "Hailey, sweetheart, if you had a brother I would've told you a long time ago. This is just your sister's way of getting you to stay with her." Hailey looked at David, completely lost for words.

"You think I would lie about something like this?" David turned pale at the sound of my tone. My tone was icy, and my face held no emotion. David's fearful look vanished as he challenged me, his eyes flaring up.

"You are lying. You're messing with Hailey's emotions just because you can't find another way to keep her with you! You are a lying, thieving little--" David screamed as a kitchen knife flew right past his face embedded itself in the wall behind him. My eyes narrowed even more as I straightened up from throwing. My little act, however, woke everyone else up from their shocked states.

"Where did she get that?" Luke asked. Ignoring Luke, I walked over to David until I was about arm's length away from him before stopping.

"Shut up, David," I said darkly. "Go sleep with the prostitute locked up in your closet. She's the only one who'd actually miss you. Hailey asked for the truth and this time, I intend on telling all of it." I grabbed his shoulders and violently slammed him down in the chair he stood up from. His fists balled up and he turned to Lloyd, his face red from anger.

"She can't do this! She can't touch me like this, and she can't decide what is going to happen!" I answered David before Lloyd had a chance to open his mouth.

"Then let me make this as clear as I possibly can, so your brain will be able to keep up. I'm making an argument on Hailey's behalf, which is law. So shut up before I throw another knife at you. I won't miss the next time." Lloyd smiled and crossed his arms, letting my threat go through one ear and out the other. David looked back and forth between us, before huffing and giving in. Mumbling to himself, he sat back all the way in the chair and waited, his eyes narrowed dangerously at me as I walked over to where Hailey was sitting. I took a seat on the floor a few feet from her and looked up at her.

"Hailey, I have to come clean. I have been lying to you, and there is a whole other story you aren't aware of. "

"This has something to do with you, doesn't it?" she quietly asked. "Why you are the way you are."

I lowered my eyes to the floor. "Well damn. That's painful when you put it that way, but yes. The story I'm about to tell you is painful, but it's about time you knew. I didn't want to tell you because then you would know what it felt like to be betrayed by a man you trusted. It won't be easy, but endure it, okay?" I looked back up at Hailey. She had a determined look in her eyes as she firmly nodded at me. Taking a deep breath, and getting myself comfortable on the floor, I began my story.

"This begins long before you were born, but we had an older brother, named Shawn. He was three years older than me and we lived on the edge of Safe Haven City, with our blood parents. Our parents were a bunch of drunks and neglected the duties of parenting. They didn't care what happened to Shawn and I. Some days they would abandon us on the side of the streets, and others they would toss us out of the city, hoping someone would take us or care for us in their stead. Shawn didn't make the easy decision, but we always went back. Our Father would beat us tortuously for hours on end when he was drunk. Shawn was six when he offered to take most of the beatings since my body couldn't handle it. He tried to protect me as much as he could. However, I was traumatized by our Mother who would come at me with the knife when she was drunk. I have multiple scars from those encounters, and is where I learned how to dodge in knife fights. Eventually, I grew tired of seeing Shawn get hurt, so I started taking the beatings for him. We decided to alternate days between our Mother and Father. Finally, you were born after I turned four and of course, our parents left you in our care. They wanted nothing to do with you either. That's when Shawn and I swore to each other; you would never have the horrible lifestyle we had had. No matter what would happen to us, we would provide you with ultimate happiness. We were already ripped apart from the inside, and we believed those wounds wouldn't heal. The night of our promise, our parents were involved in a drunk car crash and were pronounced dead on the scene. The police came and took us to a nearby orphanage. Once we arrived there, we soon realized it was worse than home. The older kids there picked fights with us constantly and I suppose that's when I turned violent. One of them tried to steal a blanket of yours when you were sleeping, and I beat the boy over the head with a plastic toy until his face bled. I was sent on probation to a small room with no windows and complete isolation. The nurses tagged me as one who was prone to violence, which meant I often had police pop into the orphanage to check up on me. This happened more than I like to admit, but every time I got out, Shawn would scold me and had me swear to never act foolish again. We joked around on how I had accomplished in making a fourteen year old pee his pants..."