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“What’s the matter?” Brown continued. “Boogieman come to you in your dreams? Tell you to hurt that sweet woman? Come on, man. We’ve heard all sorts of shit excuses from abusers like you. Dinner was cold, she looked at another man, she’s always bitching…any shit to try and justify their barbaric behavior. But, a nightmare made you do it?” He laughed. “Now that’s some funny shit.”
Grinding his teeth together, LJ lifted his gaze. Fuck my life. And fuck this guy. The only reason he’d mentioned the nightmare was because he’d been so disoriented when he came out of it to find four large men pinning him to the ground, he’d fought like hell. After they’d tased him and he’d nearly pissed himself, he was wrung out with a foggy mind. He’d let the nightmare thing slip.
No one knew the extent of his nightmares. Not even the therapist he’d seen after being medically discharged from the military. Not a single soul knew how they plagued him. How he woke on the floor in a sweaty, confused panic at least once a week. But now this jackass knew some of it. And his judgmental response was the very reason LJ had kept his mouth shut and suffered in silence for years.
“What about the face? Nightmare make you crack her across the face too?”
Any other time, LJ would have had some choice fucking words for the deputy, but the choking incident was too dark a mark on his soul to be overlooked. The cops wanted to toss his ass in jail for a bit, fine. He fucking deserved it for being dumb enough to sleep next to Holly.
Actions had consequences, and this was his.
A commotion in the hallway had both LJ and Brown turning toward the open interrogation room door.
“Where the hell is he?” came Holly’s frantic shout from somewhere in the building. “LJ? Where the fuck do you have him? I want him released immediately! Do you fucking hear me? This is bullshit!”
A muffled response LJ couldn’t make out was followed by more fury from Holly. The woman swore more in the last twenty seconds than she had since he’d met her. Goddamn, he was so proud of her. Not taking shit, not being railroaded by the police or her father. He sure as hell didn’t deserve her loyalty, but it made him fall just a little deeper anyway.
Too fucking bad. The morning’s incident drove home the lack of future for him and Holly like nothing else could have. Didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate her for the kick-ass woman she was.
Deputy Brown rose and stepped out of the room, leaving LJ alone, cuffed to the table. He hung his head as the weight of his actions settled deeper into his consciousness.
I hurt her.
“No! I will not fucking calm down. You see this?” Holly yelled, and LJ imagined her pointing to her black-and-blue face.
Had anyone gotten her any pain medication? Ice? Did they actually give a shit about the fact that her injury had to be throbbing like a bitch? Or were they all just hell-bent on locking up the biker?
“This was done by Deputy Schwartz last night. He was drunk off his ass and acting like a dipshit. It was mostly an accident, but still, something that never should have happened. I’m more than happy to sit down and give you all the damn details you want, but not until LJ is fucking released.”
“Holly!” The sharp bite of her father’s voice had LJ dropping his head. Fucking helpless to do anything but let this scene play out.
“LJ didn’t do this, Dad,” she said much softer. So much so, LJ had to strain to hear. “Please let him go. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
LJ squeezed his eyes shut. The pain in her voice hit him like knives carving into his skin. He focused on her words, the pitch and volume of her voice. He focused on the cold, heavy feeling of the cuffs around his wrists. The hard, unyielding metal of his seat. Anything and everything to keep him grounded in reality and not let the helplessness pull him back under.
“Holly,” her father said back. “The way we found you—”
“Is none of your business,” she fired back without hesitation.
If only LJ could see her instead of being chained up like a damn animal. She was so fucking strong, so fierce, marching in here and making demands on his behalf.
“Look, Dad, I’m telling you LJ did not hurt me. Not last night and not this morning. I’m not willing to discuss what you walked in on this morning, but I am willing to talk about what happened with Deputy Schwartz last night. However, I want LJ released first.”
The building grew quiet. With no other options, LJ sat waiting for whatever came next. Deputy Brown never returned, but about fifteen minutes later, Holly’s father entered the room. The sheriff shared those light blue eyes and the shape of his nose with his daughter, but that’s where the resemblance ended. The rest of Holly’s features must have come from her mother.
