Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2)(20)

“I agree.” Boy, Mary hated to bring up the abuse. “The reality is, though, that your body has been through a lot. It doesn’t mean that you won’t get through your transition and be tall and strong. But what if there’s something we can do now to make sure that happens?”

“Is it because of the broken bones?”

“Yes.”

Bitty fell silent, picking up the hairbrush and running it through the long brown waves that fell past her shoulders—even though she’d already brushed them. And Mary gave the kid space, passing the time looking around the room … and wondering what else they could do to make the otherwise formal surroundings more what a thirteen-year-old girl would be into. Bitty didn’t demand anything, though, and she seemed content.

There also had been a lot of new purchases lately—and it was hard not to give the little girl the world.

Hard, too, to stop the frickin’ Brothers from spoiling her rotten. Bitty had arrived at the Brotherhood mansion with two battered suitcases, a doll head, and her old tiger, Mastimon—and within a night or two, her football team’s worth of overprotective pains in the asses, better known as the BABUs (Bad-Ass Big Uncles), had been laying things at her doorway like offerings to an altar.

Actually, Lassiter called the uncle squad Baboons or Buffoons. And then the beatings occurred. But yeah …

Oh, and that fallen angel was the worst of the bunch when it came to presents. Just tonight, at First Meal, he’d given her yet another copy of the Deadpool DVD and a sweatshirt that had a red and black rendering of Dory with “Where’s Francis?” printed on the front.

“I really don’t want to go to Havers’s clinic,” Bitty said as she looked at herself in the mirror. “I’m scared.”

Mary closed her eyes, recalling Bitty getting treatment there for what her biological father did to her. “Rhage and I are going to be with you the whole time. We aren’t going to leave your side.”

“Can’t Doc Jane do whatever needs to be done at her clinic?”

“I’m sorry, but she can’t.”

“Can she come with us?”

“No, honey, she has her work to do here. But she’s going to talk to Havers herself after all the tests come back. And so will Dr. Manello and maybe even V.”

Bitty put the brush down and ran her palm over her hair. “Okay.”

God, she was so small sitting there, and Mary would have given anything to be the one about to be poked and prodded and X-rayed and imaged. Bitty had been through so much, her poor little body absorbing blows and stress that most adults would have had trouble living through. And the actual experiences had been bad enough. The idea that she was still having to deal with them seemed grossly unfair.

“I think afterward,” Mary said as she got to her feet, “Rhage is going to take the night off and hang out with us.”

“He told me we can have ice cream and watch a movie, if I wanted.”

“You got it.”

When Bitty didn’t stand up, Mary went over. “I’m not going to leave you.”

“Promise?” came the whisper. “I’m scared.”

Mary put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I swear that I will never leave you.”

Thank you, Scribe Virgin. And thank you, Rhage. When they’d decided to move forward with the adoption process, she and Rhage had agreed that even if he died first, Mary would stay with Bitty. Of course, they hadn’t told the girl about all that. There just hadn’t been a right time yet.

Bitty took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s—”

The knock on the door cut her off, and then came Rhage’s deep voice, muffled: “How’re my females in there? We ready?”

“Yup.”

“Yes.”

Rhage opened things up and there he was, big and beautiful, his broad shoulders filling the doorway, his preternatural physical perfection the kind of thing Mary still did a double take on every once in a while. With blond hair that was thick and wavy, eyes that were the color of the ocean in the Bahamas, and teeth so white they looked like bathroom tile—even though they’d never been bleached—he was a legend in the race with the females for a good reason.

He was also totally and completely devoted to her and her alone.

It had taken Mary some time to get used to that, to trust it. After all, he could have had anyone or anything he wanted in a mate—someone blond and tall and gorgeous like him. Instead … he only had eyes for her, a brunette with a nice enough face, and a body that had been rendered infertile thanks to chemo.

Rhage thought she was a beauty queen, however, and funny, when she was around him and he was staring at her the way he did? She sure as hell felt like one.

As Bitty burst up and rushed over to him, he got down on one knee so he was closer to her height. And he took her hands, his larger palms engulfing her smaller ones.

“You ready to get this over with so we can watch Deadpool again?”

Mary shook her head. “You guys are in a serious rut.”

“ ‘So what’s it gonna be?’ ” Bitty quipped. “ ‘Long sullen silence or mean comment?’ ”

“ ‘You got me in a box here,’ ” Rhage shot back.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes …” Bitty curled up her fists and pumped the air as she turned in a little circle.