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Then he just stopped talking. His chest rose and fell several times, his muscles were tight. He was struggling to hold his temper. And it seemed as if he was failing.
She quickly pried the half-empty coffee mug from his fingers before it went flying across the room. She set it on the tray, then slid the tray onto the nightstand on her side of the bed, out of reach and safe from him making a mess.
“Trip,” she whispered, and he only blinked in response.
He was back there, standing in his bedroom of a house he paid for, seeing another man fucking his pregnant wife.
He was reliving it for Stella, when he didn’t want to.
He was reliving it for her, when he just wanted her to understand.
He was reliving it for her, so there were no secrets between them.
But she felt his pain, his fury, his disappointment.
He hated liars because he’d been told some big lies. And she waited for him to tell the rest of the story. But like he said, she already knew where this was going. It was an old tale no one wanted to live.
When the silence continued, she prompted, “What happened with the baby?”
He turned his head to look at her. “What do you think?”
“Wasn’t yours,” she murmured, already knowing the answer.
His jaw worked and his fingers curled into fists against his bare thighs. Another sign he was struggling to keep from exploding. “Right. Wasn’t mine. Wasn’t his, either. Don’t know whose it was. Don’t fuckin’ care. Caught a four-year stint in the joint for agg assault with a deadly weapon. While inside, caught two more years ‘cause of my temper.”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “What did you do to him?”
“Pistol-whipped that motherfucker. Totally fuckin’ lost it. Broke his eye socket, a few ribs, broke every one of his fingers for touchin’ my wife. He’s lucky I didn’t cut off his fuckin’ dick.”
“You had a gun but didn’t shoot him.” Thank fuck he didn’t because his term would’ve been a lot longer than the initial four years. It would’ve been a very long time, or even life.
“It was close but wanted him to live with what he did. Know what he did was wrong, even though she lied to him, too. Shoulda known somethin’ was up when she was livin’ large without a fuckin’ job. Shoulda asked how she was payin’ the bills, feeding her fuckin’ ass, drivin’ around town in a decent cage. He didn’t give a fuck. Why? ‘Cause he was all about the easy pussy. Now he’ll think twice before stickin’ his dick where it don’t belong.”
Unfortunately, this was too much of a similar story to Trip’s father. In that nightmare, it was Buck doing a woman he shouldn’t have for years. It was Buck who was stupid enough to fuck a woman when he knew the consequences if he got caught.
He got caught.
He paid the price.
The rest of them in the Fury also paid the price.
Only Razor got shot dead for doing what he did to Buck. Unlike Trip, who ended up in prison for losing his shit. Similar scenarios, which ended up destroying families, but with two different consequences.
Trip probably didn’t want to hear it, but Stella was glad he ended up in prison instead of six feet under. There was an end to a prison sentence, there wasn’t an end to being dead.
“After catching that extra time, I got smart. Began to work on myself. Body and mind. Do my best to control the temper I got from my fuckin’ father. Swore to myself I’d never land behind bars again.”
“Did she have the baby?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. The fuckin’ greedy bitch used me. She begged me to marry her and I did so, thinkin’ she...” He shook his head. “Now I know it was just for her to collect the death benefits if somethin’ happened to me over there. She was hopin’ I wouldn’t come home unless I was in a box. Even told me so to my fuckin’ face durin’ my fuckin’ trial, where she also served me the divorce papers. Death bennies are a hundred grand. That’s how much my life was worth to her.”
Stella reached out, grabbed his clenched fist and squeezed it. He uncurled his fingers and, turning his hand over, intertwined them with hers.
“Don’t ever lie to me, baby. Don’t care how fuckin’ hard the truth is. Don’t care how much it’ll fuckin’ hurt. Just don’t lie. Won’t tolerate that shit for a second. I’ll lose my shit and it won’t be good for either one of us.”
That last part made her chest tighten. “I’m asking you to do the same.”
His brown eyes met hers as he lifted their clasped hands to his mouth and he kissed her knuckles. “Promise you here and now, I’ll be brutally honest. I’ll give what I get. Remember that.”
