As soon as I closed the door behind me, Barney took my hand and led me to my bedroom.
"How did you know where my room is?" I asked, sort of stalling, sort of curious.
"Shh," he said softly.
He didn't let go of my hand until he was standing next to my bed. Then he sat down on the edge, grabbed my hips, pulled me so I was straddling him, then swung his legs over so we were both fully on the bed.
"Umm, Barney-"
"What would I have protected you from, Brianna?" he asked in that same soft voice.
I swallowed, resting my hands on his chest, taking comfort from this position and strength from him.
"My dad," I said slowly, tracing invisible patterns on his crimson tie.
"He beat you, baby?" he asked, his body so tense it was frozen solid, his eyes burning, but his voice still gentle.
"No," I mouthed, biting my lip and meeting his gaze.
It took Barney about a second and a half to understand what this meant.
He closed his eyes in pain and a short, clipped, "Fuck," escaped his teeth.
I curled my hand around his neck and stroked his locked jaw with my thumb. When his eyes opened again, they were on fire. Brilliant. Consumed with rage. I could see the anger swirled in with the baby blue. Knowing that all that violence and anger was for me, the solid, warm, safe feeling that I always got when he was around seeped into my bones and I bit my lip against the sudden urge to cry in relief.
His hands were shaking when he lifted them up, one tangling in my hair the other cupping my cheek, his thumb idly running across my cheekbone.
"When did it start?" he asked, his voice straining with a control that he held on to by a thread.
Because of the potency of his rage for me, I hesitated to answer.
"First time, I was six. Bentley's age."
I saw the fragile control he had slip for a second, and his hand tightened reflexively in my hair before he got it back and took a deep breath.
"Is that what happened the other night? It all came back to you at once?" he asked.
I nodded slowly.
I saw guilt and shame cross his features and my eyebrows drew together.
"Don't you dare, Barney," I whispered, leaning down so my face was right in his. "You don't get to feel guilty for the outcome of his actions."
Barney grated his teeth together and stared at me for a long couple of seconds.
"Is he still alive?" Barney asked.
I knew where this was going, still, I nodded.
Barney made a low humming noise.
"Figure, a couple phone calls, I could change that," he murmured, then loudly asked, "what prison is he in?"
There it is. Shoot.
"He's not," I said hesitantly. Barney's head jerked and his eyes narrowed.
"What the fuck?" he whispered dangerously. "How the fuck did the fucking judge not send the sick fuck to a fucking penitentiary?"
I bit my lip at his liberal use of the word 'fuck' knowing my giggling would not improve his mood.
"Never went to court. Night I turned eighteen, I took Bentley, my savings, two suitcases, and my dad's car and got the hell outta dodge."
Barney stared at me with open shock and, surprisingly, respect.
"Just like that?" he asked softly.
"Just like that," I whispered.
He looked at me for a long time before he sat up and took the hand that was on my face and turned it into an arm around my lower back, and he pulled my upper body flush against his.
My knees were still on either side of his waist, my hands at his chest, and our faces were less than two inches apart.
"I don't know how you're going to take what I'm about to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. I've seen your car, babe, wondered how you could afford it, now I know. Seeing that car, I've got a pretty good idea of how your parents lived."
He was right, my parents were loaded. Not that I cared growing up, I would have taken a cardboard box over my father.
"What's your point?" I asked cautiously.
"My point is, that man - no, he can't be called a man - that...fucking...monster does not get to live out the rest of his days comfortable. He does not get to go about his life, doing what he did to you, and not be hurting day to day. I have the resources available to make it so he feels that pain every fucking second," he hissed, his nose wrinkling with conviction.
"What are you saying, Barney?" I asked, even though I had a good idea of what he was saying.
"Say the word, baby, and it's done. You mean something to me, a lot, and you're one of the few people who do. But, beyond that, you're mine. Mine. No one, as in no fucking one, messes with what's mine."
"What happened the last time?" I asked cautiously.
"Last time what, baby?" he asked, thrown.
"Last time someone messed with what's yours." He grinned a slow, wicked grin that I felt all the way down to my toes.
"There wasn't a last time. You're the first person that's ever been mine, because you're the first person I've ever belonged to," he said.
My breath left me in a huff.
"Barney, you don't...you don't belong to me," I said softly.
That grin turned into a soft smile and he gave me a soft, barely there kiss.
"Silly girl," he said quietly, once again brushing his lips against mine, "I've been yours since you felt me up on my motorcycle."
I would have laughed, or flushed in embarrassment, except his expression was tender, I did the only thing that I physically could do at the moment.
I kissed him.
Then I stopped and pulled back.
"You can't kill my father, Barney," I said.
"A, yes I could, if you wanted me to. B, I never said I would kill him, that's him getting off easy, I said he would feel that pain every second for the rest of his life. That life would hopefully be long, and absolutely fucking agonizing."
"Baby, as hot as that makes me, I don't want to spend the next five years visiting you in a prison," I said, only kind of kidding.
He chuckled and ran a hand down my back and onto my ass.
"Please," was his scoffed response before he leaned in to take my lips again.
"I'm serious," I said, pulling back.
"I know you are, Brianna, and that's sweet, but I wouldn't go to jail," he said.
I stared at him for a long time, him staring right back at me, his lips twitching but him fighting back the laughter. Finally, I sighed and shrugged.
"Whatever, it's moot, you're not going after my father."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously, Barney, I'm done with that part of my life. Moving on."
His face got serious and he leaned in.
"What happened the other night shows that what that fucking asshole did to you has left scars, baby. That's to be expected, but it also means that every time something like that happens, he's invading your new life, and that fucking guts me, Brianna. I hate that he still has that power over you, and it makes me want to kill someone. Namely, him."
I brushed my nose against his.
"That's sweet, Barn, seriously, but I'm saying no. I'll get over it and then he'll just be a bad memory," I said with as much conviction as possible.
He didn't look very convinced, so I leaned forward and started on the arduous task of convincing him.
He let me for a few minutes before backing off.
"I don't know how to deal with you, darlin," he said softly, his eyes troubled, "now that I know why you reacted like you did the other night when things went too far, I'm sketchy about going there again."
I was about to reassure him, but I bit my lip, unsure as he was about if I would freeze up again or not.
"Tell you what," he said in a gentle voice, pulling my lower lip from between my teeth with his teeth, making me smile, "we'll take it slow."
"Slow? You?" I asked incredulously.
He looked almost offended.
"I can do slow," he said.
"On our first date, you had me naked before dinner," I reminded him.
His lips twitched.
"You pissed me off," he said as if this explained everything. In his mind, it probably did.
"Are you saying in the future, I piss you off, you're going to solve this by fucking me?" I teased.
His eyes flared with something new, something I liked a lot, so much it scared me.
"In the future," he whispered, and I realized what I had said.
"Yeah, uh, you know, just, um," I stuttered, "if there's a future, you know, between...um...us."
He grinned and his hand on my ass pulled me impossibly closer.
"Yeah," he whispered softly, not giving me a chance to redeem myself before he traced my lower lip with his tongue.
"How long you figure we have before your little monster wakes up?" he asked, his hand not on my ass starting to explore, his mouth and tongue getting creative.
"Five minutes to three hours, depending on how the food settles," I breathed.
"Well," Barney said, flipping us over so his body caged me into the bed, making me feel safe and secure and warm and fucking loved instead of caged, "we better not waste any time, then."
Ten minutes later, I heard whimpering sounds coming from Bentley's room. Barney obviously heard them, too, because he jumped off me and without pulling back on his shirt that had made it to the floor about seven minutes earlier, he went to check on him.
I pulled on a pair of sweats, as my shirt had stayed on, and went after Barney hurriedly.
I froze in Bentley's door frame and blinked, my hand shooting out to brace myself against the wall.
Barney was sitting on the edge of Bentley's bed, holding my baby brother in his arms so that he surrounded Bentley, unconsciously giving him that feeling of protection he gave me. His head was ducked down close to Bentley's and I heard Bentley with his little boy lisp telling Barney about his nightmare.
"...and then they ate me," he finished.
Barney nodded understandingly before taking a deep breath.
"You wanna know what's wrong with that, bud?" Barney asked.
Bentley rolled his eyes.
"I know giant wolf-dinosaur hybrids don't exist," he said.
Barney grinned, too, but continued.
"No, let's say they do. But, you said in the beginning, you were in your room when they got you, right?"
Bentley nodded.
Barney looked at me and Bentley followed his line of sight before looking back to Barney.
"Do you think there's any chance your sister would ever, ever, let anything happen to you?" Barney asked.
Bentley immediately shook his head, no.
"But, these we're giant wolf-dinosaurs, Barney, they would eat her, too," Bentley said earnestly.
Barney wrinkled his nose and gave me an exaggeratedly wary glance.
"Bud, I don't think even giant wolf-dinosaurs could take on your sister. She's kind of scary," he stage whispered.
Bentley nodded slowly.
"That's true," he said slowly.
"And besides, even if your sister couldn't take them, I for sure could," Barney said with a confident smirk.
In the face of that ego, no six year old boy could be doubtful.
"You would take on a giant wolf-dinosaur to save me and my sister?" Bentley asked, awed.
"Psh, that's nothing," Barney waved it off.
Bentley studied his face for a long time before looking over at me.
"Told ya," he said quietly.
Now, knowing what Bentley was talking about, pain slashed over Barney's face before he hid it and gave me a small smile.
"Yeah, monster, you were right," I said softly.
"Are you okay going back to bed, Bud?" Barney asked.
Suddenly, Bentley's face twisted in fear again.
"What if they get me before you or Brianna gets here?" he asked.
Barney twisted his lips in thought.
"Well, then I guess you're just going to have to nap with us, huh," Barney said.
Bentley's eyes lit up and I instantly knew the kid had been angling for this the whole time.
Half an hour later found Bentley sandwiched between Barney and I on my bed, his face turned into Barney's chest one hand behind him clutching mine.
"Don't you have to go to work?" I whispered, propped on one elbow facing Barney.
He had one hand on Bentley's head and when he looked up at me, I swallowed at the absolute contentedness I saw in his eyes.
"There is absolutely fucking nowhere I need to be right now," he whispered back adamantly, his eyes staying locked on mine for a few seconds before turning back to Bentley.