Protecting Her Heart

by Chance Carter

  “You’re so fucking hot,” he growled.

  I was getting close. I was so lost in the pleasure that I couldn’t even respond to him, except to cry out in rapture. Every grind of my hips a step closer but also a step further away—from my pain, my worries, my reality. We were lost in space together, and it felt so fucking right.

  I found the slope and began to climb, hanging onto his chest for dear life as the sweat prickled on my face. “I’m cumming,” I squealed.

  Jack grunted and grabbed my hips, thrusting up in time with my movements until the room filled with the sound of heavy breathing and slapping skin. I let my head fall back and released a throaty scream.

  I descended into what I can only describe as bliss, coming apart piece by piece until I felt neither solid nor incorporeal. I was sensation. I was emotion. And, like I always was with Jack, I was alive.

  Chapter 33

  Jack

  Being out of prison brought a flood of positivity into my life, but I never forgot who was to blame for my incarceration. Thoughts of revenge had swirled through me day and night the entire time I was locked up, and the momentary reprieve I received from the joy of my homecoming didn't last long. By the morning after my first day back, I was wishing and wondering how I could get Donnie back. Melissa didn't have a clue and I didn't want to tell her. If she knew how much my hatred of her ex-boyfriend dictated my thoughts she'd only be upset. It was something I needed to solve myself. Melissa and Sadie got me out of prison, but the prison of my mind could only be traversed alone.

  Melissa had a job interview in the morning, some bartending job at another place in town. She offered to reschedule it for me but I told her to go. We needed the money and I needed the space to do what had to be done. What I'd been waiting weeks to do.

  I didn't know where to find Donnie, but I knew where he lived and figured that would be a good place to start. Melissa pointed the place out to me once and I burned the location into my memory exactly for this purpose. She took the car to her interview so I walked. It wasn't far. I reached the quaint rancher just as I started to sweat under the morning sun, and stood outside for a minute while I gathered the energy for what I was about to do.

  Then, with my fists tight at my side, I walked up to the door and knocked.

  "Who is it?" called Donnie from inside.

  Good. He was home.

  "Jack Paxton," I called back. "You may remember me as the guy you got sent to prison recently."

  Pounding footsteps approached and Donnie yanked open the door, glaring at me.

  "What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you learned your lesson yet?"

  I evaluated him calmly—the obnoxious way he styled his shit-brown hair, the angry tilt of his mouth and the little snub nose that would have looked better on a rabbit. This person, this pest, was the reason my life nearly ended just as it was beginning. I wanted to lay him out flat and kick him until his kidneys came out this throat. I wanted to snap his bones one by one like toothpicks. And that was just what I wanted to do to him for hurting Melissa. He would never survive if I punished him for all of his crimes.

  "I'm here for an apology," I stated. And then I waited.

  Donnie blinked and stared at me, then broke into raucous laughter. "An apology? You've got to be fucking joking, right?"

  I shook my head. I was dead serious.

  Donnie's shoulders shook and he bent over, gasping for air. He righted himself and wiped a tear from under his eye, shaking his head with mirth.

  "I guess that's why Melissa likes you so much," he said. "You're a funny guy. I'm sure that makes up for the tiny dick."

  "You apologize right now," I said evenly, "and that'll be the end of it. For what you did to me, at least. What you did to Melissa is a whole other ball game."

  Donnie stepped out onto the porch and jammed a finger into my shoulder. I stepped back.

  "You think you can just come over here and demand an apology?" he asked. "You must be out of your goddamn mind. Why would I apologize to you when I'm not sorry for shit? The only thing I'm sorry about is that you're out early. You should be rotting in prison right now like the scumbag you are."

  Irritation prickled down my spine but I didn't react. He was trying to get a rise out of me, probably hoping that if he pushed me far enough, I'd attack him. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me put behind bars again.

  "You know what? You and that bitch deserve each other," Donnie continued. "You're both trash. I don't know why I wasted so much time on you. All that shit with that development took time, you know."

  "What shit?"

  I had a feeling I knew what he was talking about, but I wanted him to say it.

  Donnie rolled his eyes. "Come on. You got the message didn't you? Or are you that stupid? I rolled over that job site you were working on twice. I fucking got you fired. Doesn't that make you mad?"

  It made me furious. All of this might have been avoided if I'd kept that job, if Melissa had kept hers. We might've had enough money to get out of there before shit went sideways. Not to mention the fact that Neil was an innocent bystander in all of it and I was furious that he had to pay for Donnie's obsession too.

  "You're a sad, lonely loser," I replied. "When will you realize that you've lost? It's over."

  "It's not over!" Donnie's face purpled and spittle flew out of his mouth. "It's not over until I say it is! I'm the one calling the shots. You're nothing, prison trash under my shoe. I could have you back in jail in a heartbeat."

  I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. Sure."

  Donnie's frustration continued to grow. I wasn't reacting the way he expected, the way he thought an illegal fighter like me should react, and it was driving him crazy. I was winning and he didn't know how to take the field back. It felt good, even if it would've felt better to bust in his skull.

  "You got away this time. Lucky you," he sneered. "That's only because coming up with evidence for illegal fighting isn't easy. The video of you fighting that your friend Roddy and I doctored wasn't perfect but the police were eager to take you in. Everyone thinks you're a scumbag and it's only going to be a matter of time before something comes up that they can finally put you away for." He smirked, obviously feeling triumphant. "Maybe next time it'll be something a little more serious. Maybe they'll find drugs in your car. Maybe they'll connect you to robbery. I wouldn't get settled for too long."

  There. I could kiss him. Who would've thought that all I needed to do to get him to confess was let him preen about his victories a little?

  I feigned shock and clenched my fists at my sides, giving him the idea that I might retaliate at any second.

  "You forged the evidence against me?"

  Donnie tapped his nose. "I just greased the wheels of justice a little. You're not innocent, so why should you be treated as such by the law?"

  I didn't know how much longer I'd be able to last here without actually hitting him, so I figured it was time to leave.

  "Thanks, Donnie," I said, letting my hands fall limp. "I'll see you around."

  I turned on my heel and started stalking off down the driveway. Donnie wasn't finished with me yet.

  "What?" he sputtered. "That's it? You're a fucking pussy!" His footsteps clattered down the porch and followed me up the drive. I didn't turn around, not until the last second. He wanted a fight and he wasn't going to let me go without one.

  I turned just in time to see him draw his arm back to send his fist careening toward my face. My reflexes kicked in and I ducked out of the way, the skin of his knuckles just grazing my cheek. Then, because he'd already swung at me, after all, I finally indulged the itch in my arm and punched him in the jaw so hard that he collapsed to the ground in a heap of dirty clothes and douchey hair.

  "Thank you, officer." I smiled, one of the many genuine smiles I'd been mustering since I got back from jail.

  "We'll be in touch."

  The young deputy nodded his head at me and dropped the tape recorder into a plastic evid
ence bag. The thing was tiny, but it felt like a twenty-pound weight in my pocket all morning. I still couldn't believe that my plan had worked, unoriginal as it was. The police now had a recording of Donnie's confession, both to the vandalism and the falsification of evidence. Plus, when I originally asked to speak to Sheriff Beringer, I was informed that he was on suspension.

  For the first time in a long time, things in my life were balancing. Who knew? Maybe soon they'd even settle for good.

  Chapter 34

  Melissa

  "Can I get a vodka soda with a slice of lime and two Coronas?" Janine asked, not looking up from her notepad.

  "Sure thing," I responded brightly.

  I grabbed two Coronas from the fridge and dropped them onto her tray. She still didn't look up, obviously consumed in whatever she had scribbled on it.

  "So have you been working here long?" I asked.

  Janine looked up and blinked. "Uh, yeah. A while."

  "What's the crowd normally like?"

  You would think I'd just asked her to come back to my place after work and look at my collection of severed heads. By the time she answered, I'd already begun filling the tumbler with soda water.

  "Pretty standard, probably the kind of crowd you're used to." She shrugged and picked up her tray the second the last drink landed on it. "Thanks!"

  I watched her trundle off and sighed. It was only my first day, true, but I had a feeling my notoriety as Donnie Beringer's ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend of the guy responsible for getting Donnie arrested would make the other townsfolk nervous around me for a while. Even though Donnie was the town's resident douchebag, many still rallied around him like the prodigal son when his time of need came, if only for the fact that his family had a lot of hands in a lot of pies. Not fingers, whole hands.

  My new job was in a place called Virginia that was like a dressed up version of the Alibi, with dressed up prices too. Even so, it looked like the same kinds of people came to drink there. My question to Janine was more about trying to make small talk than it was trying to learn anything about the new place. Too bad she wasn't keen to talk.

  I let my mind slip into silence as my shift ticked away, pouring drink after drink after drink and hoping that sometime soon everyone would stop looking at me like I belonged in a zoo.

  I was so consumed in my work that I didn't even notice the familiar face who sat down across from me until I looked the man directly in the eye to ask him what he wanted to drink. The words died on my tongue.

  "I was hoping to talk with you in private," said Graham Beringer, Donnie's father.

  I swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, sure. We could go out back?"

  I hadn't heard anything from Donnie's family since he was arrested a couple weeks previous and didn't expect to unless I was called to testify at his trial. The fact that the patriarch himself had come to speak with me made me incredibly nervous. Was he going to threaten me? Coerce me?

  Graham and I walked out back together in silence. As the metal door slammed shut behind us, leaving us alone in the humid back alleyway together, I had to suppress a shard of panic working down my spine. Donnie’s father never approved of me and the little time I’d spent time with him had been nerve-wracking.

  That being said, what could he do? Donnie had already tried his hardest to ruin my life and he failed. I was ready to take on whatever the biggest Beringer had in mind.

  "I won't sit here and bullshit with you," Graham began, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. It was graying with age, but I could see how he would have looked the spitting image of his son in his twenties. "My son has caused some trouble for you, trouble enough that you could sue the shit out of him if you wanted to."

  The thought of suing Donnie hadn't occurred to me. Honestly, all I wanted was to put it all behind me and forget about it. I had Jack back and he was the only thing in my life that mattered now. Graham didn't need to know that, though.

  "I would like to kindly ask that you refrain from taking any sort of recourse against him. I also believe that Donald won't be able to settle while you're around. Something about you and your relationship is like an obsession for him, and he simply won't drop it. So, I would like for you to leave Cannon forever and never contact my son again. The second request in particular is less a request and more a demand."

  My eyebrows shot up. Who did he think he was? Just because he owned a lot of real estate in Cannon didn't mean he could eject citizens whenever he got the urge.

  Graham read my expression before I could say anything and held up a hand to stop me. "I know. I am willing to offer compensation if you cede to my requests, but only if you do both and if your friend Jack agrees to do the same. If you leave Cannon and don't cause any more trouble for my family, I'm prepared to write you a check for thirty thousand dollars and call it a day."

  Thirty thousand dollars? That was an insane amount of money. I could only imagine the kind of advice Graham had received from his fancy pants lawyer to come out with that kind of offer. I wondered how much I could take the Beringers for in court if that was the amount they were offering us to walk away.

  "I'll think about it," I said.

  Graham's eyebrows fell together and his mouth turned sour. "I need an answer now."

  "Too bad," I replied. "I need to talk about your offer with Jack. I'll get back to you by tomorrow."

  I took great satisfaction from denying him, especially since I bet I was the first person to do that in some time. Graham was desperate and it showed.

  "Fine," he said finally. "But I expect to hear from you by nine AM sharp tomorrow. Understand?"

  I nodded. "Completely. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

  Jack laughed. It was the last response I would have expected from the news.

  "Don't you think it's at least a little funny?" he asked. "The great Graham Beringer had to come all the way down from his high horse to deal with this. Donnie must be in some pretty massive shit right now." He grinned. "I think it's reasonable to find that funny, after everything."

  I chuckled. "You're right. I guess I was too focused on the very serious issue of deciding what we want to do. Thirty grand is a lot of money."

  Jack shrugged. "That's up to you, sweetheart. He was your boyfriend. He was your abuser."

  "Yours too," I pointed out. "Just in a different way."

  We were cuddled up on the couch, my head resting against his side. I looked up at him with serious eyes.

  "I don't want to be bought off."

  "Then don't be."

  I groaned. "But thirty grand..."

  "We could go for more if we sue," he suggested. "I know this isn't about the money for you, though."

  "It isn't about the money, you're right, but I don't know what it is about, you know? I don't know what I want from all this except outta here."

  Jack nodded thoughtfully. "Either way, we're getting out of here. You just gotta decide whether you want to leave quietly or with a middle finger salute to everyone on the way out."

  I smiled at the thought of me walking down Main Street with my middle fingers high in the air, laughing maniacally. The fantasy was nice, but in reality... I still just wanted to forget about all this. I wanted to start over somewhere new, start a family.

  "Let's take the money." The words fell out of my mouth and I knew the second they did it was the right choice. "I just want to get out of here. If we take the money we can put a down payment down on a place and never look back."

  Jack kissed the top of my head. "I think you're right, sweetheart. This is our chance."

  Our chance.

  The words resonated in my brain. Everything we'd been working toward, struggling for like moonwalking through quicksand, was finally clicking into place. And all it took was a little prison time and trauma. Go figure.

  Chapter 35

  Jack

  I wiped the sweat from my brow and stood back to admire my work. My boss, Marshall, came over and, seeing my smiling face, inspecte
d my project.

  "Yep," he said. "That's an IKEA bunk bed."

  I laughed. "I struggled with this one, okay? The instructions were impossible."

  "You're a man, you're not supposed to use instructions." He playfully smacked me on the shoulder, chuckling. "You did a good job though. I didn't think it was possible to get all the furniture put together in the time we had today. You've got some impressive work ethic, just like Neil told me."

  I bent down and started gathering up all the garbage from my work. "You shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”

  “Funny, too. Just like he said.”

  The burly foreman's face split into a wide smile. "You keep it up and once you're finished getting that GED I can take you off odd jobs and start you on carpentry. I've got a buddy down at the trade school and it wouldn't be hard to get you in there."

  I stopped and stood to my full height, unable to hide the smile on my face. "Thanks, Marshall. That means a lot."

  "Not as much as it means having a worker who's actually worth their salt." He clapped me on the back so hard I jerked forward. I still hadn't gotten used to that. "Aren't you glad you moved out of that nowhere town?"

  I laughed. "You have no idea."

  All Melissa and I ever told anyone about Cannon or why we left was that it was too small and we wanted to be somewhere more connected. She and Melissa spent a lot of time together now that we lived here and I loved it. It was good for both of them.

  Marshall strode off and I finished cleaning up my work area, still pleased with his comments. Neil must have felt pretty bad for firing me, since all three jobs who checked my references offered me the position. In the end I got to choose my favorite of the bunch, and I was more certain than ever that I'd made the correct decision.

  Finishing time rolled around faster than I expected, and my heart started to race when I realized that I was only a ten minute drive away from home and from Melissa. We'd only been here a couple of weeks, but so far the happiness refused to dwindle. I got excited every morning to see what the day was going to bring, and I could tell Melissa was feeling it too. We were different here. Better. We were the versions of ourselves we'd always wanted to be before but didn't know how, and distance and a little time had helped us get there. The money from Donnie's dad didn't made things harder either.