AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” he said, meeting my eyes.
“See,” the other guy said. “She wants to go back there with us. Her choice.”
“She’s not in a condition to make an informed choice,” Caleb said, completely composed, completely in control. “So she’s not going back there with the three of you.”
I got mad then. Not simply annoyed but angry. “That’s not your job! You’re only supposed to drive me around!”
“My job is to keep you safe. Letting you into that room with these three assholes while you’re high is not safe.”
“Fucking hell with that,” the beefy guy said. “Out of the way now!” Then he went for Caleb, making a lunge like he was going to tackle him.
Caleb elbowed him in the face, and he went down.
The other two guys went for him then. Both at the same time. The fight lasted about five seconds before the other two were on the floor too.
“How dare you!” I was absolutely furious with him. Angrier than I can ever remember being in my entire life. Not because I had any particular attachment to those guys but because Caleb was taking my choices away. “You can’t stop me from doing what I want!”
“I can stop you from putting yourself in danger. Do you have any idea what these guys had in mind for you in that room?”
I didn’t. I wasn’t capable of thinking far enough ahead to even consider possibilities. I just wanted to have fun, and I liked getting any male attention.
Those guys liked me, and I wanted to be liked.
“Bastard,” I hissed at Caleb. I swatted at his chest, but he was too big and hard to make any sort of impact. I tried to slap his face then, but he caught my wrist before my palm connected.
I lost it then. I was half screaming and half crying as I launched myself at him. Wanting to hurt him. Wanting to stop him. Wanting to do anything.
He grabbed me, swung me over one of his shoulders like a sack of grain, and carried me out of the club and into the alley where the car was waiting. I was sobbing and trying to pummel him the whole time.
When he dumped me into the back of the car, I choked out, “You’re going to be fired for this!”
He slammed the back door on me and then got into the front. Looked at me over his shoulder. “I doubt it.”
“You will be! I’ll tell my dad to fire you!”
“Your father isn’t my employer. Your cousin is.”
“But you’re assigned to my dad. He can fire you if he wants! You don’t get to boss me around and stop me from living my life. I was having fun!”
“No, you weren’t.”
My head was starting to clear from the drug, and I suddenly felt sick. I slumped over in the back seat with a whimper.
What made it worse was that I knew he was right. I was trying to have fun, but nothing about what happened that night was fun or enjoyable. It felt like I was always reaching for something and could never quite wrap my fingers around it.
“You’re still going to get fired.” I felt like utter shit—like everything and everyone in the world was horrible—and like Caleb was to blame for all of it.
“We’ll see. If I get fired, I get fired. Until that happens, I’m going to do my job.”
I started to cry after that, and I was still crying when we got home and Caleb dragged me out of the car and carried me up to my apartment.
He put me to bed. It wasn’t the first or the last time he had to do that.
I’m sorry to say that I did whine to my dad and try to get Caleb fired, but my dad wouldn’t do it. Arthur wouldn’t do it. They insisted that Caleb was doing exactly what he was hired to do.
So he stayed. And he took care of me for years until I was finally able to take care of myself.
* * *
