Read Online Protect and Serve by Gwyneth Bolton - Free Book Online Page A

close the door. “Uh-uh, Brat. Just like that other one brings out the worse in you and upsets you no end, this fool rubs me all the way wrong. I ain’t able to deal with him tonight. He gotta go.”
    Penny walked over to the door.
    “She calls you Carla? You’re her mother. Why don’t she call you Mama or Mom?” The man kept trying to make his way in.
    Carla had gained strength of fortitude and mouth. “Same reason she don’t call you Daddy or Dad! We ain’t never did a thing for her to earn those titles. Now get away from here. I’ll call you if she wants to see you. You gave me the number.” Carla gave the door a hard shove.
    Penny put her hand on the door and started to push with Carla.
    “Oh, come on. I just want to meet her.” The man looked Penny in the eye. “I just want to meet you. Please. You the only child I have.”
    “She the only child I have, too. And I’m the only parent she need. You just gonna go back to jail anyway, eventually. Can’t nobody depend on you.”
    “Why can’t you just let her decide? She grown now. Let her decide.”
    “Just ’cause she grown don’t mean she know what’s good for her. I know best in this regard. You ain’t worth getting to know.”
    “At least I ain’t wasted my life as no junkie.”
    “No. You just a criminal. You wasted yours in jail.” Carla gave the door a heaving push and managed to shut it. She wasted no time clicking the locks.
    The man started banging and ringing the bell at the same time.
    Penny just stared at Carla and then back at the door.
    Carla stood there, breathing heavily, and finally leaned against the wall. When the man kept at his assault of the door, Carla yelled, “If you don’t leave here, I’m gonna call the cops on your ass. You hear me? The cops! You better run. With your criminal history, you ain’t got a strike to play with. Get from round here!”
    “I just want to meet my daughter! Why are you being such a bitch?”
    “Because I am one. And I’ll be the baddest one you ever met, if you don’t leave. I told you I’d talk to Brat, and if she wants to see you, I’d call you.”
    The door actually started to shake then, and if Penny could have managed to move any part of her mouth, she would have said something. But it just hung open, refusing to close. She’d suspected who the man was, and it had been confirmed.
    “Brat, stop standing there with your mouth hanging open!” Carla rolled her eyes. “Go and call the cops on this fool. Let them take his behind back to jail!” she screamed at the door.
    Penny shook her head. “No.”
    Squinting, Carla heaved herself from the wall. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
    Penny sighed, opened the door and let her father in.

Chapter 4

    Y ep. This is my father. Can my little ghetto homecoming become any more stressful?
    Peering into the tall stranger’s face, Penny sighed, stepped aside and let him in.
    He took slightly hesitant steps forward, and soon they were both standing in the den.
    “Have a—” Penny started.
    “Hi, I’m—” The man edged forward and stuck out his hand before running it across his close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and giving a nervous chuckle.
    Penny found herself giggling, as well. “I’m sorry. Why don’t we have a seat? I think I know who you are. I’m just not sure why you’re here. Or rather, why you’re here now. ”
    Did that sound too harsh? She supposed it did. But really, what did one say to a father she couldn’t recall ever meeting and had no memory of?
    Big Mama and Carla had never talked about the man. The times she remembered asking if she had a father, she’d never gotten any clear answers from either one of them.
    Big Mama had only said, “Of course, baby. Everyone has a father…”
    After Penny got older, she’d just figured if he was worth knowing, they would have mentioned him or told her something about him.
    His tall, muscular frame seemed to shrink somewhat as his shoulders hunched and he sank down on the worn