AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d been missingout for sure.
We’d only met up with the others thirty minutes ago and I was having the time of my life. I didn’t have a clue how to dance but after a few minutes of hiding in my shell, the ladies dragged me onto the dance floor and had me shaking my backside to the beat.
I was sorry Gemma couldn’t come but she wasn’t quite twenty-one yet so she offered to help watch the kids. Besides the couples, Lyric and Rowan had also come out with us.
The guys had found a large table in the corner and they were all talking, as the ladies and I made our way back to where they were. When I approached, Kace snagged me around the waist and pulled me down onto his lap. His warm, muscular thighs under my ass stirred up thoughts of our shower together earlier.
“Between watching you shake your lush, beautiful body and the things you are thinking right now, it may already be time to go home,” he whispered in my ear so only I could hear.
I wasn’t sure that helped, because my face turned scarlet red and that was something everyone could see. If the knowing look Alley had given me from across the table was any indication, then we were an open book.
A slow song started to play throughout the speakers as Rowan stood and headed around to our side of the table. I looked up as his hand came out and he asked if I wanted to dance. I was confused as hell. Not knowing him as well or having tried a slow song I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say, but then a loud, deep growl rumbled from Kace, vibrating my body.
Rowan smirked as laughter roared out of all the men.
“Assholes!” Kace said.
What in the world was going on?
“Backoff Rowan, my woman is dancing with me.”
The man did what Kace asked and flopped back in his seat, a silly grin still on his face as he did. Then Alley was the one to enlighten me on what just happened. I guess my guy liked to tease all the others as they were falling for their woman to get a rise out of them so they decided it was a little payback time. They also said it was a test of how he felt about me and he’d passed.
Kace stood, taking me with him as he did, and grabbed my hand. “We’re going to dance,” he said as another slow song started to play. “You dicks can watch and learn.”
He pulled me onto the dance floor and settled me in his arms. We swayed to the music and he leaned in, kissing the side of my neck. Then he got close to my ear and said, “I love you.”
I melted into him, getting as close as I could, wishing the moment would never end. I was just about to respond when there was yelling from the other side of the room. Looked like I wasn’t getting my wish.
We both pulled back and glanced over to see three drunk guys starting shit with the men at our table. Kace grabbed my hand and pulled me in that direction. Dropping it seconds later, he tucked me behind him protectively as he stood arms crossed ready to help if needed, while Rowan and Lyric stood in a heated conversation with the jerks. The other three men stayed seated by their ladies whom the guys were trash-talking, looking menacing and pissed.
It was loud and so intense. Memories of my father and Thad when they were drunk, bombarded me. I started trembling uncontrollably, my breathing picked up and knew I needed to get out of there. Security from the club rolled up in the mix and things got even crazier. I looked down and saw my purse on the chair next to where we stood and grabbed it. Rushing off without a word, Kace not even seeing me go, I headed to the bathroom fighting for control over the panic that gripped me.
Fleeing inside to the sink, I gripped the edge of the white porcelain and looked at myself in the mirror. One breath, then two. “You have to calm down,” I said to myself. My heart rate slowed and that was when I realized how eerily quiet it was in the restroom, while chaos still rained down outside the thick wooden door.
Frantically rummaging through my purse, I pulled my phone out so things were not so crammed inside and I could find what I was looking for. I slipped it into my back jeans pocket, yanked my shirt down over it, and jammed my hands back into my purse just as the door opened. I heard the voice before I saw the person it belonged to. A voice that sent terror through my whole body. The door was around a wall so it wasn’t clear from where I stood, but I didn’t need the visual to know I was in big trouble.
He’d been waiting for his moment and I had served it to him on a silver platter.
“It’s about time I got my wife alone.” Then Thad appeared, a devilish look on his face. I’d seen some evil looks before from that man, but this one was in a whole different ballpark than anything I’d witnessed.
And I knew he was going to kill me.
I could scream if anything would come out, but the shock and the fear were holding my words hostage. It was likely nobody would hear me with all the noise in the bar and yet I should have at least tried. Then I was too late.
Thad was on me in an instant, grabbing me by the hair in one fist and his other hand on my upper arm, already causing bruises. I cried out in pain and he let out a wicked laugh as my purse fell from my hand, its contents rolling out all over the ground.
“You’ve been bad, honey,” he taunted.
Thad calling me honey made me feel like vomiting. It wasn’t like when Kace said endearing things. No, Thad’s voice was condescending.
Thinking about Kace made me think of my son who was waiting for me at home. He expected his mother to take care of him and instincts kicked in and I started to squirm to break free of Thad’s hold.
“We don’t have time for this. It’s time to go, Wife.” Another sinful laugh erupted from him as he started dragging me toward the door.
Panic-stricken that this was it, that if he got me out of here I would never see anyone again, I grabbed onto his forearm and sunk my teeth into his skin. In a moment of shock and bellowing in pain, he released my hair. But before I could scramble past him, he backhanded me so hard, I went flying backward onto my ass and my head hit the tile floor with a hard thud.
I fought to stay awake but darkness was taking over.
