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Her laughter turned into a fit of giggles.
“Are you talking to Bee?” I heard Lori ask in the background.
“Yeah,” Heather answered.
“Ask her if the twins are there.”
“Seriously?” I smacked my forehead. “Her too?”
“Maybe they’d be into a foursome,” Heather said.
“On that note, I’m hanging up.” I shook my head, unable to stop the smile forming on my face.
“See you later, Buzzkill,” Heather teased.
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled, not liking the nickname they had given me whenever I had to cut my night short. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” both Lori and Heather said at the same time.
When I disconnected the call, I shoved my phone in my back pocket and stood there. Our house wasn’t overly large. That had never been something my parents wanted. Especially when they only had me. There was a main level with no second floor. The basement was completely finished but I hardly ever went down there. Our backyard was my favorite spot. It held a swing set that we had ever since I was a little girl. It was one of those old ones made out of metal.
Trees surrounded the fence, closing in our yard. My mom would spend her afternoons in the summer planting her flowers and cleaning up the yard when she wasn’t working at her shop. Now that I was trained in almost everything she knew about cars and motorcycles; she was able to take more time off to be with my dad. Even though she wasn’t retirement age yet, she was slowly learning how to take care of herself more. Which was something Dad had insisted on.
My chest pained.
I longed for the day I had someone who looked at me like my father looked at her. Mom was much younger than him, but it had never stopped them.
Since they were out until the following day and I was home alone, a part of me considered going back out but then the rational part of me, thought better of it. I didn’t need to ruin my parents’ weekend by having it leaked back to them that their daughter couldn’t follow the rules and take care of herself when they weren’t home.
Swallowing a sigh, I grabbed a bottle of wine from the wine rack on the counter in the kitchen and decided to have a pity party for one. Not like I could do anything else with my cousins breathing down my neck.
A noise from the backyard caught my attention but I had seen enough horror movies to know not to check out the sound. When it didn’t happen again, I let out a breath of relief. But my nerves were suddenly on edge. And I couldn’t figure out why.
***
(Tanner)
All thought control left me as I charged for the bastard who stabbed my dog, but I never got very far when I was jumped from behind. We fell to the ground but no matter how heavy the fucker was, it didn’t stop me from kicking and punching. I knew how to fight but it was like as soon as I saw that knife slide into Trigger’s side repeatedly, my body did its own thing while my mind was trying to catch up.
My fists landed against bone, my vision clouding.
The bastard released Trigger only for him to fall to the ground and roll to his side. A yell forced its way from my lips as I tried rushing for him.
“We’ll tell Tommy you said hi.”
A sharp slice of agony erupted through my shoulder, but the pain didn’t stop me. I jumped the guy closest to me and forced him to the ground. Landing blow after blow, blood splattered my hoodie and face, the skin on my knuckles cracking the harder I hit.
Heavy arms pulled me off the guy.
“You should quit while you’re ahead, Tanner.” The man who stabbed Trigger towered over me, pressing a finger into the wound in my shoulder.
I winced, struggling beneath him.
He pushed off of me. The men laughed, their chuckles sliding over every inch of me and grating on my last nerve.
They grabbed their friend I had beaten and, much to my surprise, left the alley. I wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t finish the job, nor did I care. I would find out who they were and they would be the first I would kill.
I started crawling toward Trigger, sending up a silent prayer to whomever would listen that they would save him. But I wasn’t a good man. I had never been a good man. Not even when I was a kid and stabbed a boy in the hand for hitting a girl. I had always done my best to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. But this time, I couldn’t.
