She needed to stand up to Lewis.
“I’m doing it, Bones. For once in my life, I refuse to run away. So let’s do whatever’s necessary to get the papers ready, and then we’ll go together. You can even bring your brothers if you want to.”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t need to bring anyone else to keep you safe. If he goes near you, he’s a dead man.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
OVER THE NEXT week, Bones and Sarah had the papers drawn up for Lewis to sign, and Sarah tried to wrap her head around the fact that they were really going to confront Lewis. She’d talked to Tracey about it, and Tracey had called her brave and stupid. Sarah agreed, but she chose to cling to the brave part. Scott wanted to come with them, but on some undefinable level, he was a reminder of how Sarah had failed Josie. Maybe it was the fact that it had always been the three of them together when they were growing up. She couldn’t put her finger on it and it didn’t lessen her relationship with Scott, but when she thought about her childhood, she felt weaker, and today she needed strength. Today she needed to be impenetrable.
As they drove down the rural Baltimore roads, she eyed the folder with the termination papers on the seat. The plan was to have him sign them at the bank that was ten minutes away. They’d already spoken to a manager, and there was a notary ready and waiting. Her heart pounded harder with each passing landmark—the red mailbox at the end of the street, the road that led to an abandoned farmhouse, and the woods that lined the long road that led to Lewis’s house—and she knew she’d made the right choice. Bones made her feel strong, and being in his massive black truck with the emblem of the Dark Knights on the back made her feel even tougher.
Today I am the Pregnant Woman of Steel.
She glanced at Bones. He was always tough, but nothing could have prepared her for the formidable man sitting beside her. An aura of darkness surrounded him, as if a hurricane of rage was trapped beneath all that black leather and denim. His dark eyes were narrow and supremely focused on the road before them, but she knew him well enough to realize he was strategizing, playing out every possible outcome in that brilliant mind of his. His large hands gripped the steering wheel so tight his biceps pushed against his black leather sleeves. He seemed more powerful than life itself. An unstoppable force. Even more commanding than last night, when he’d been pacing like a caged animal, memorizing the layout of Lewis’s house, asking about weapons he kept, what he was like when he wasn’t high and when he was blitzed out of his mind. He asked about his friends, habits, and a litany of other questions he’d already asked her. But she knew that was all part of his making certain he had his bases covered—and hers, by asking for the umpteenth time if she was sure she wanted to do this.
She wasn’t backing down.
Even if she felt like her heart was hammering so hard it would fly out of her chest.
As they passed the dense woods leading up to his property, she said, “It’s after all these bushes and just before the big tree.”
Bones reached for her hand, squeezing it as he said, “If you change your mind—”
“I won’t. I need to do this,” she snapped.
He turned down the driveway, still holding her hand, and took his foot off the gas, slowing as he scanned the grounds. The grass was all but dead and littered with dried leaves. The trees looked like angry skeletons, dark and withered, with spiky branches and moss growing up the trunks. Sarah wrapped her arms around her belly as the dingy yellow rambler came into view, and bad memories slammed into her. Panic flooded her chest, but she forced herself to breathe through it.
He couldn’t hurt her. Not anymore.
Her instinct was to look away from the house that had enticed her with hope and slaughtered her with hurt, but she forced herself to look at it, to remember. The first time she’d seen his house, she’d been so elated by Lewis’s attention, she’d failed to notice the most obvious things, like dead bushes beneath the front windows and the darkly tinged areas where there once were shutters. She’d asked Lewis if they could replace them, but like everything else, his promises went unkept.
The house looked like it was in a state of dying, just as she’d been. She stared at it, willing herself to finally face all of it—her stupidity as a young girl and her bravery on the day she’d left. She remembered the smell of drugs, sweat, and desolation the last night, the night of the party. The fear that had swamped her when Lewis had opened the bedroom door where she was hiding out with the babies. The anger that had brewed hot as fire as she’d collected her children, cash, and keys, the night she’d left and stood out front tempted to burn down the house with him and his monsters inside it. Would they have woken up and come after her, or would it have ended her nightmare forever?
It didn’t matter, because she wasn’t capable of that kind of evil.
“Three cars. They his?”
Bones’s voice jerked Sarah from her thoughts, and she noticed three old cars parked out front. The back window of one was patched with cardboard and duct tape. The other two were indistinct.
“I don’t recognize them,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky and unfamiliar.
Bones parked behind the vehicles and set those serious eyes on her. They softened a tad as he reached over and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes for a second, soaking in his love. When she opened them again, Bones lowered his hand to her belly, and his face grew serious.
“You said he doesn’t have guns in the house, right?”
“No,” she said, and then she realized it had been months since she’d left. “At least he didn’t when I lived there. He never needed them. He lorded the kids over my head.”
His features hardened. “I will never let him near you. Do you hear me, Sarah? No matter what he does, I’m your shield, your firepower. It doesn’t matter who or how many guys are in that house. I will take them all down to protect you. But you need to promise me something.”
She swallowed hard, unable to nod for the fear gripping her.
“I’m leaving the keys in the ignition. If you get scared or things get out of hand, I want you to get in the truck and drive away. Do you hear me?”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I’ll be fine. Those secrets I haven’t told you about? They’re about this kind of stuff. Getting assholes to do what’s right, protecting women and children. I’m a Dark Knight. I’ve been trained for this shit since I was a kid, and I’ve put it to use more times than I care to admit.”
He pressed his lips to hers in a kiss so tender she wondered if she’d dreamed it after his vehement declaration.
“I’ve never lost a battle, darlin’. I’m not about to lose the war.”
Oh. Shit.
Bones got out of the truck, and the voice in her head screamed, Fuck this! Go home and hope you never have to see his ugly face again. She mulled over how to back out, and she knew Bones would support her decision.
He opened the door with a warning in his eyes. “You should drive away. Let me deal with this and come get me when it’s over. I’ll text you.”
“Fuck that.” She climbed from the truck, having no idea where her strength was coming from, and said, “That asshole raped me. He threatened my children. I’m going to tell him exactly what I think of him, and he damn well better sign those papers.”
DAMN. MY GIRL’S got fire inside her. Bones was so fucking proud of Sarah, but her rapist was behind that door, and neither of them knew what would happen when their eyes met.
He pushed that pride aside to lavish on her later, when she was safely away from this hellhole, and said, “Stay behind me. I love you, and I believe in you, but I want you a safe distance from him, got it?”
Sarah nodded, eyes wide, some of the courage draining from her face.
Fuck. He hated this shit when he did it for strangers. Doing it for Sarah made him want to break the fucking door down and maul the bastard. But that wouldn’t get the papers signed.
As he approached the rickety step that
led to the front door, rock music blared from inside the house. Sarah’s hands were wrapped around her belly, her face a glowering mix of rage and fear. The urge to haul her beautiful ass into the truck and demand she leave was so strong, Bones had to turn away as he said, “Stay there.”
He’d spoken to a therapist friend of his about telling Sarah she couldn’t go with him, but he’d warned against it. His buddy said if Bones could assure her safety, she needed this opportunity to prove to herself—not to Bones or to Lewis—that she could stand up for herself. This was her battle even more than it was theirs.
He got that.
And he fucking hated it.
He filled his lungs and rolled his shoulders back, stretching his neck to either side, loose and ready for whatever went down. With one last glance at his girl, who nodded, suddenly exuding the confidence of Al Capone running a job, he rapped twice on the door—hard. A few seconds later he did it again.
The door swung open, and a shadow of the man Bones had seen online when he’d googled the asshole stood before him, roughly five ten, cheeks sunken, and skin sallow. Stringy dark hair hung over cold, dead eyes, and the identifier Bones was watching for—a birthmark on the left side of his jaw, gave him all the confirmation he needed. Bones looked past him, to two half-dressed, drugged-out women on the couch. The thought of Sarah and her children in that house, with that fucked-up piece of shit, sent him barreling forward.
“Who the fuck are you?” Lewis asked.
“Someone you don’t want to know,” Bones seethed.
Lewis’s gaze moved over Bones’s shoulder to Sarah. A sardonic grin slid into place. “Look who came crawling back for more. What’d you do? Get yourself knocked up the minute you left?”
Bones grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off his feet, slamming his back against the door. “You don’t look at her. You look at me, asshole, and we won’t have any trouble. But you look at her, and I’ll put your fucking head through the wall.”
Bones caught movement out of the corner of his eye. One of the women on the couch reached for something on the table. “Don’t move an inch or he’s dead,” he seethed.
She sank back against the cushions.
He sensed Sarah coming closer and said, “Sarah, stay back.”
Lewis struggled, “What the fuck, dude? You knocked her up and now you don’t want her?”
Bones loosened his grip enough for Lewis to slide an inch forward. Then he crashed the back of his head into the door. While Lewis tried to blink his vision clear, Bones spoke through gritted teeth. “You don’t talk. You listen.” He waited for a beat, giving Sarah a chance to say her piece, and when she didn’t, he said, “We’re here for one reason. You’re going to sign papers terminating your parental rights, and then you’re never going to think about Sarah or her children again.”
Lewis scoffed. “That’s what you want? The way I see it, those dipshits are worth at least ten grand a piece.”
“Motherfucker—” Bones drew back to land a punch.
“Wait!”
Bones stilled at Sarah’s plea, his knuckles digging into Lewis’s chest. It took everything he had not to break the asshole’s jaw. Lewis trembled despite his cocky attitude. His eyes shifted, and Bones shifted with them, blocking his view of Sarah.
“Eyes on me, assfuck.”
“You want money?” Sarah yelled. “You spent my savings. You sold my car. You stole my dignity. You had hundreds of chances to do the right thing, to be someone other than the person your father was, and you fucked it up. Now you want to sell your children? Their only chance at a happy life is without you in it.”
“Ten grand each,” Lewis said, eyes on Bones.
“You’re not getting a penny, you son of a bitch,” Sarah hollered, and Bones heard the tears in her voice. “I thought you might do one decent thing in your pitiful life, but I guess not.”
“I did the decent thing. I took your whoring ass in.”
The crack that sounded when Bones’s fist landed on his jaw was drowned out by the smack of Lewis’s head against the door and the women screaming.
Blood poured from Lewis’s mouth as he lifted his head, his eyes rolling as he said, “Oh, you didn’t know she spread her legs for every Tom, Dick, or Harry who had a few bucks? That’s right. She sold herself for—”
His words were lost in a flurry of punches. Blinded by rage, Bones didn’t think, feel, or care as he landed one punch after another until Lewis lay limp and bloody on the living room floor and the women’s screams broke through his fury. As he cocked his fist for another hit, he realized he couldn’t hear Sarah and forced himself upright and out the door.
He spotted her hurrying down the driveway with Bullet walking beside her. Fuck. He jumped into the truck and sped toward them, grinding his teeth, wondering how the hell Bullet had found out what was going down.
He slammed the truck into park and jumped out.
“I’ll take care of that piece of shit,” Bullet ground out. “Get your girl home, but, man, I think she needs some space.”
Bullet took off toward the house, and Bones put an arm around Sarah, but she shrugged him off. “Sarah, baby, get in the truck.”
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Sarah, get in, please. What he said doesn’t matter.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but sobs burst out. He gathered her in his arms, and this time she didn’t pull away. He guided her into the passenger seat and buckled her in. Then he got them the hell out of there.
When they hit the main road, he reached for Sarah’s hand, but she shrank away from him, huddling against the door. He spotted Bullet’s motorcycle parked in the bushes. Fucking Bullet. How’d I miss seeing his bike on the way in?
He didn’t have time to worry about that. He needed to get through to Sarah. He thought distance would help her calm down, but even twenty minutes out, as they hit the highway, she was still sobbing.
“Sarah, darlin’, please don’t let that asshole’s words come between us. There is nothing that will change how I feel about you.”
She didn’t look at him as she shook her head.
“Sarah—”
“Don’t. Please,” she choked out. “I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry, but I just can’t. I need to be alone with my babies. Please just take me home.”
He didn’t know if Sarah was upset with him for suggesting this fucking debacle, hurt over what that son of a bitch had said about her, or appalled at how he’d lost it with Lewis. Bones had never felt such all-consuming rage in his life. He’d been so fueled by hatred and hungry for blood, had it not been for the frightened screams of the drugged-out women on the couch, he wasn’t sure he would have stopped.
He’d lost his mind.
He just hoped he hadn’t also lost Sarah.
Chapter Twenty-Three
SARAH RAN THROUGH the front door, remembered the kids were asleep, and closed it as quietly as she could, a barrier between her and all that had happened—a barrier between her and Bones. She pressed her hands flat against the door. Her forehead touched the cool wood as tears poured down her cheeks. She closed her eyes against them, but the pain of Lewis’s accusation cut too deep.
“Sarah?” Scott said from behind her, bringing more tears.
She gasped to try to break free from the gut-wrenching anguish, but it just made her cry harder. Scott reached for her, but she shrugged away and ducked her head in a futile effort to hide her sobs.
“Don’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t talk right now.” I need my babies. She stumbled shakily down the hall, the word why repeating in her mind like a plea.
“What happened?”
Still unable to face him, she said, “The other shoe dropped.”
“I’m calling Bones,” Scott said.
Sarah spun around and said, “Don’t. This is my mess, not his. Just…just give me time. Please, Scott.”
She walked into the kids’ room and closed the door, needing to
be near them even if they were sleeping. She leaned back against the door and closed her eyes. If only she’d told Bones the truth, then she wouldn’t be in this mess. But how could she tell him? She hadn’t even told Reagan or Scott.
How much pain and mortification could one person survive?
She tried to slip into mommy mode, her go-to strength builder, but fuck…
She wasn’t sure she could do it.
She ground her teeth together and let her head fall back. Please give me strength. Please. She didn’t even know what or who she was asking. How could there be a higher power when this had happened?
There was no one else to rely on. She’d known it forever. If she was going to survive, it had to come from within. She wiped her eyes, telling herself she could get through this even if she wasn’t sure how.
She went to the crib, where Lila was fast asleep, her hedgehog lying by her legs. Sarah’s heart ached as she reached into the crib and stroked her baby’s cheek. I’ll never let you be in the position to deal with this type of thing. I’ll never let anyone hurt you.
Bones’s voice ran firmly through her mind—I will never let him near you. Do you hear me, Sarah? No matter what he does, I’m your shield, your firepower—bringing more tears.
He kept his promise. He always kept his promises.
How could he ever look at her the same again? She knew she’d never look at him the same. She’d had no idea he was capable of the rage he’d given in to tonight.
For me.
And yet somehow when Bones had come for her after she’d fled to try to escape the humiliation and pain of Lewis’s verbal attack, Bones had been calm and protective, not angry or uncontrollable, despite the blood on his clothing and hands and his corded muscles. He’d protected her, put himself in danger for her, without a lick of hesitation or fear. Knowing what he was capable of should scare Sarah, but it didn’t. She knew how good Bones was at his core. Truth be told, she’d felt brave not only because of his belief in her but because of his will and desire to protect her. And because of the sheer power he so expertly harnessed, the power she’d caught glimpses of over the past few weeks each and every time they’d talked about Lewis and her parents.
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