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I struggled to breathe and clawed at his arm.
“Think you’re so clever, huh? Got that old bitch to leave you all that money and you’re just gonna leave us behind?”
“Let me go,” I rasped and continued clawing at his hands.
“Letting that criminal live here. Acting like a whore. Your aunt’s sick to her stomach. What would your mother think?”
I couldn’t answer any of those questions, because he was choking off my air supply.
My vision darkened at the edges.
No.
I kicked out, missing his crotch by inches and he laughed.
“Where you gonna run to, little girl?” He slapped my cheek.
Finally, he released me and I crumpled to the floor, gasping and clutching my throat.
I crawled toward the door.
There was nowhere to run to. He’d just follow me into the street and drag me back by my hair. No one would hear me scream.
“I liked you better when you were little. When you listened to me.”
“I was scared of you. You hurt me,” I spit back.
He tore a vicious hand through my hair and jerked me into the living room, throwing me on the couch.
“We’re not blood-related. My wife is gone for the weekend.” He wrapped his calloused hand around my jaw and squeezed. “I never hurt you that bad. What happens is between us. No one else needs to know.”
Once again, he was trying to make it sound like this was consensual. That I wanted or invited this madness into my life.
I hadn’t.
I never had.
Forty-Four
Roman
“What the fuck!”
I walked in on a nightmare.
Juliet.
My girl beaten. Clothes torn. Hair tangled.
And that motherfucking uncle of hers standing over her, undoing his belt.
I’m not even sure what happened after that. Red vapor clouded my mind, narrowing my body down to one purpose.
Kill.
I struck hard and fast. Two shots to the kidneys. He went down on both knees. I kicked him in the face. Blood spurted everywhere from his broken nose. My next kick landed in his gut.
Juliet’s cries and her little hands tugging on my arm, finally snapped me out of the red fog.
On my knees, I crawled away from Jared’s still body and wrapped myself around her. “Are you okay, baby?”
Shaking with rage and fear, I held onto her as hard as I could without hurting her.
She leaned over and grabbed her bag, dumping it on the floor until she found her cell phone and called 911.
Hours and hours of questions.
“Your aunt and uncle are your guardians but you live here?” one officer asked.
Juliet nodded and didn’t bother to explain the whole situation again.
Dex burst in the door. “What the hell happened?” His accusing eyes found me.
I blamed myself too, so he wasn’t alone.
“And you are?” the officer asked.
“Her uncle. What happened?”
“As long as there’s finally an adult present,” the officer said. “We’ll get going. They can tell you what happened. Mr. Samson will be taken into custody if he recovers.”
“Jared did this?” Dex seethed.
“Stay away from him.” The cop eyed Dex’s leather cut, zeroing in on the Lost Kings MC patch. “Let the system handle him.”
“Absolutely, officer. No problem. I feel safer already knowing you’re on the case,” Dex sneered.
Damn, I liked him.
The officer shook his head and left.
Juliet told her story one final time before I took her upstairs to bed. I stayed by her side until she fell asleep, then returned downstairs.
Dex and one of his club brothers were quietly cleaning up the debris and fixing the front door.
“Thank you.”
Dex turned and nodded at his red-headed buddy. He had a dense beard that made it impossible to tell if he was closer to my age or Dex’s. I suppose it didn’t matter, I was just happy to have someone help me clean up the mess. When Juliet woke up tomorrow, there would be no trace of the wreckage.
“Murphy, this is Roman, Juliet’s boyfriend.”
The way he said boyfriend made me think Dex wasn’t all that thrilled with me at the moment.
Murphy and I nodded at each other. “Thank you for coming over.”
“No problem. If Dex calls, I answer.”
Dex rolled his eyes. “You’re not a prospect anymore. You’re the RC for fuck’s sake.”
Murphy smirked and punched Dex in the arm.
“RC? That’s Road Captain, right?”
Murphy slowly tapped the patch on his cut that plainly spelled out Road Captain as if I was an idiot.
I’d read up on motorcycle clubs since Dex had taken me on my first adventure into the world of vigilante justice. “You plan the trips, right? Maintain the bikes for the club?”
Dex nodded with approval. Like he was proud I’d finally done my homework.
“Yeah.” Murphy seemed to warm up to the conversation. “Dex says you’re turning into a good mechanic.”
I was more interested in Murphy’s trip-planning skills than a job offer.
After Juliet’s graduation, I wanted to take her away. Go on the road for a while and leave all this crap behind. Of course, I hadn’t had a chance to discuss it with her yet.
“I do all right.”
They looked at each other. “You should come hang out at the clubhouse one day,” Dex suggested. “We have a nice spread out in the woods.”
I’d also read up on the way a lot of motorcycle clubs partied at their clubhouses. None of it sounded like an environment I’d take Juliet into.
I narrowed my eyes at Dex. “Is Juliet invited? I don’t go where she can’t go.”
His mouth twitched. “Maybe on family day.” He nodded at the door. “Come help me screw this plate in.”
When we finished, the three of us sat down in the living room. I didn’t have anything to offer them to drink except soda which they accepted without comment.
“What are we doing about this situation?” Dex said to me.
“We aren’t doing anything,” I answered. “I’m going to kill that motherfucker if he gets out on bail.”
“You go at it stupid, cops will be knocking on your door.” He glanced at the stairs. “Then who’s gonna look after Juliet?”
He had a point.
“Cops seemed to be worried you’d do something about it too,” I reminded him.
“We’ll come up with a plan,” Dex said. “One that doesn’t land either of us in trouble.”
Forty-Five
Juliet
I spent a week at home recovering. A week where Roman didn’t leave my side. If we needed something, he called Dex and it was delivered to the house.
“What do you think about a road trip?” he asked me one night.
“Where?”
He shrugged. “Anywhere. Everywhere.” He cast a sideways look my way. “After graduation.”
“How would you feel about selling the house?” I asked. “We can go on the road. Live like nomads for a while. Then pick a place to settle down.”
“What about college?”
“I can go anywhere.”
“It’s your house.”
I glanced around. None of it felt like mine. I was forever grateful to Mrs. Shields, but the home felt tainted now. I couldn’t look at the front door without bile burning the back of my throat.
My aunt still lived down the street. A constant reminder that one day soon Uncle Jared might be in the same house while he’s waiting to go to trial.
