Under The Peaches (Teaching Love Series Book 1)

by Shana Vanterpool

  She shoots the ceiling. Bruce screams. I don’t scream. I want her to shoot him. “Shoot him!” I shout venomously.

  “Did he rape you?” Her eyes are evil.

  I shake my head. That word makes me shake. Makes the fear I’ve harbored over Bruce break free.

  “Go call the cops,” she orders. “I’ll keep the bastard right here while we wait. GO!” she shouts when I just stand there.

  I flinch away from Bruce and then once free I run naked to my bedroom. I’m shaking as I throw some clothes on. I grab my cellphone and dial 911, explaining the situation to them, but they want Mandy to put the gun down. “He’ll kill us,” I warn them, trying not to let the panic get to me.

  Just keep going. Don’t think, just go. I pace my room as Bruce and Mandy scream.

  “Don’t move, you bastard! She’s just a damn kid.”

  “I know, I know,” he fumbles. “I didn’t mean it. It’s her fault. You see the way she looks at me.”

  “She’s a kid. Like I was a kid when my stepdad tried this shit with me. I should kill you!”

  I flinch at her scream, silently begging the police to hurry before she splatters his brains all over the bathroom wall.

  When the cops get there, chaos ensues. A screaming match exudes from the halls. “Put the gun down!”

  “He almost raped her!”

  “We’ll handle it. Just put the gun down.”

  “Why don’t you come outside,” a female officer says, tugging gently on my arm.

  For some reason, I focus on her short brown hair and nothing else. It’s so tough, so strong. Coupled with her uniform, she looks badass. I find comfort in her toughness today. I have none left after Bruce.

  “My name is officer Tory. Tell me what happened.”

  As I do, the cops bring Bruce out. He’s fighting them, shirtless and mean. When he sees me under the moss, he fights harder. “You whore!” he shouts, as one of the officers shoves his head down into the police car. “This ain’t over!”

  When Bruce is whisked away they bring Mandy out. She gives me a nod when they load her into the back of the cop car and I give her one as well. “Why is she getting arrested?”

  “She has warrants.”

  “Will he get out?”

  “If the judge sets a bond and he can post it.” She gives me a look. “It’ll probably be best if you’re not here when he gets out. Do you have somewhere else to go?”

  “Yes,” I lie, because I don’t like the look she’s giving me.

  I’ve been waiting for that look. The one that says you’re eighteen now. You’re finally on your own.

  “Let’s go over what happened again.”

  For an hour, I repeat my story four times. It never changes. Not one word, even if inside I yearn for the memories to change, to alter, to be something I dreamed because it all feels like a nightmare.

  They take pictures of my face and make me sign things. I eventually calm down and my hands stop shaking. The neighbors come out and watch, entranced by the red and blue lights. I’m alone for the first time in Bruce and Mandy’s house when they’re gone. I can’t stand it. I’m drained, both physically and emotionally. And as hard as I try to fight it, my body begins to drag. Part of me is too anxious to sleep, but another wants to do what I’ve always done. Close my eyes and just … keep … going. I lock up the house and fall onto my bed, sleeping soundly for the first time in years. Bruce can’t get me and Mandy isn’t getting beat down the hall. It’s just me and my deep-rooted panic.

  When I wake up, the sun is setting. I lie in bed and try not to imagine what would have happened if Mandy hadn’t saved me. Having Bruce almost take something from me that I could never get back has left me numb. I get out of bed and go into the bathroom, staring down at the puddle on the floor and the upturned bathroom rugs. My reflection catches me in the mirror. My mouth is swollen and puffy. He reopened the cut that Nessa gave me and the side of my face throbs painfully. But it’s my eyes that terrify me.

  I hug myself and walk numbly through the house. I feel it brimming inside of me, threatening to take me down. Something dark and merciless. I notice my phone on the kitchen table where I left it. It’s blinking repeatedly. I pick it up to find that there are ten missed calls from Julian and a million text messages.

  Where are you?

  Why aren’t you at school?

  Answer me!

  Kael, answer me!

  Where the hell are you?

  Please answer me.

  Please.

  Kael. Please be okay.

  Please.

  I don’t feel okay. My mind is trying to compensate for these new memories the way it always does. Don’t think about it. Keep going. But I wonder if that’s how I got here. Pushing the bad aside, trying to forge through despite how I felt, has made me complacent. Made me overlook the darkness in men, because it had existed for every man I met my entire life.

  I don’t want to call Julian and relive what happened. But I do want someone to remind me that they’re not all like Bruce. I call him back with shaky fingers, fumbling over his name as I sit, numb, at the table.

  On the other end, before the first ring is even complete, Julian is shouting.

  “Kaelyn! Where the hell have you been? Are you okay? Why haven’t you answered me? Where are you?”

  “I’m fine. I promise. I’m at home. Something … happened this morning.”

  “What?” he demands. “What happened?”

  My hands tremble as I recall the sight of Bruce in the bathroom.

  “What happened?” he screams, when I don’t answer right away.

  “Bruce,” I begin to explain, but saying his name is the final straw. I break down. I completely lose it. “He tried to rape me.”

  “I’ll fucking kill him.”

  “No.” My faith that he wouldn’t kill Bruce is the only beautiful thing around me. I don’t want that. Julian like Bruce, rough, violent, so far from the sweet caring man I had grown to know.

  “Where do you live?” A cold rage slithers from his end.

  I set the phone down. I can’t hold it anymore. On the other end, I can hear him begging me to tell him where I live. I notice an icon with speakers and press it. His voice booms over my kitchen. A kitchen that has brought me nothing. The cabinets hang from the hinges, bare of food. The fridge is wheezing in the corner, trying to hold on. The floor is greasy and the linoleum tiles are shredded. The place looks discarded and unwanted, the way I felt my entire time here.

  “Kaelyn Jefferies, if you don’t answer me right now I’m going to fucking lose it.”

  “Julian,” I sob, tears blurring my eyes. There’s too much inside, feeling it all at once.

  “Tell me where you live, baby. I’ll be there. I’m already in my car.”

  I manage to give him my address.

  “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” he promises. “Stay on the phone with me.”

  I lay my cheek on the table, unable to stay upright.

  “Are you alone?”

  “Completely.”

  “Not anymore you’re not.” There’s an unshakable promise in his voice. “If this happened this morning where have you been?”

  “I took a nap. I couldn’t stay awake anymore.”

  “Good. I’m glad you slept. Sleep’s good. I’m almost there.”

  “I don’t want to talk when you get here.”

  “You don’t have to say a word.”

  I nod against the table. “Thank you.”

  “Sure, Kael. Breathe.”

  “I can’t.” My lungs are struggling to breathe. “If Mandy hadn’t—”

  I hear a car pull up outside and then a door slam. A second later someone knocks harshly.

  “Let me in.”

  I end our call and get up on shaky legs. When I open the door and see him standing there, I give up.

  I fling myself at him. His arms come around me. He walks us back into the house and kicks the door closed, arms holding me to
his hard chest. I grip him, and bury my head in his chest, holding on so tight I can’t feel or smell anything that isn’t him. My body trembles against him as he holds me together in the doorway.

  He’s so tall he has to reach down when he hugs me, and I must reach up. Together we’re reaching for each other.

  “Let’s go sit down,” he suggests after I finally stop shaking.

  “I like this better.” My grip tightens, but he ignores me.

  He slides his hands down and gently picks me up, holding me around my bottom. I wrap my legs around his waist as I rest my head on his chest. I don’t want him to let me go. I know I’ll fall apart if he lets me go. He navigates my house blindly, settling on the kitchen since its nearest. Sinking down in one of the mismatched chairs, he crushes me to his chest. My legs dangle over the side of his lap and I breathe in the smell of him. He smells like cologne and something I think is just him. Clean skin, softner, and comfort. I skim my nose over his throat.

  “I knew something happened,” he murmurers into my hair. “I could feel it the second I woke up.”

  “I was waiting for it. He’s been waiting for it.”

  He cradles my face tenderly in his grasp. “Is he in jail?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s lucky.” There’s a cold promise in his eyes. “If he were anywhere close I’d kill him.”

  I swallow hard. Maybe he isn’t kidding. “He …” I look down. “He tried to come in on me when I was in the shower. I was naked,” I whisper, feeling exposed and terrified.

  “Oh, Kael.” He presses his lips to my forehead. “You’re safe now, with me. Tell me what happened next?”

  “Mandy, his wife, she caught him. I think she heard me screaming. She threatened him with a shotgun until the cops came. She went to jail for warrants. I want to bail her out. She saved me, Julian. He was going to …” I can’t say it anymore.

  “Shh, baby. Let’s go bail her out. Go pack a bag. You’re not staying here tonight. He might post bond too. And then you’ll be bailing me out.”

  Rising with me on his lap, I unwrap my legs from around him and drop to my feet. I don’t question him right now. I don’t know what to do and he does, so I do it. I fill my backpack to the brim with my things before I emerge from my bedroom. Julian is waiting for me in the hall, fists bunched, legs pacing the short hall.

  I want to comfort him, but I don’t know how.

  “We’ll drive my car. We can come back for yours later.” He takes my bag and opens the front door for me.

  The night is cold. Or perhaps it’s me. Julian’s SUV is parked haphazardly in the driveway, half under the moss and half in the street. He walks ahead of me and opens the passenger side, meeting my eyes as we slip around each other.

  “Thank you,” I whisper.

  With a nod, he closes my door, and then walks quickly around to his end. He shoves my bag into the backseat and starts his car, pulling away from Bruce and Mandy’s. In the night, with Julian, the house looks ominous. The wooden siding is falling away, and my PT sits alone in its spot, like a forgotten shadow beneath the moss. The night backdrops the house, and the darkness looks more like a part of a nefarious whole.

  As he drives, I try not to think, but I can’t stop myself from doing so. Especially when I yawn and my jaw aches. I bring my feet up on the seat and hug my knees to my chest, watching the city of Savannah fly past us as Bruce haunts me. I can feel the steam from the shower wrap around me as he eyed my naked body with nothing but dark promises in his eyes. I shake my head and peek at Julian, hoping the sight of him can bring me back.

  His jaw is clenched and tension radiates from him. Even then, he is a safe place as my cracks spread through my body.

  When we get to the police station, he leans over and opens his glove box, pulling out a checkbook.

  “Go bail her out.”

  I take his checkbook, staring at it as an overwhelming emotion moves over me. It’s foreign, and I think it might be gratitude. Taking a deep breath for courage, I lean across the seat and press my lips to his cheek, kissing him softly. “Thank you, Julian.”

  His eyes widen in surprise. They soften as we lock gazes, and he looks like a tame lion right now. He could attack me, but he won’t. “Anything for you, Kael. Go. I’ll wait here.”

  An hour later, Mandy is a free woman. We both step out into the night, our eyes adjusting from the lifeless bulbs in the police station.

  “You’re all right,” she says, patting my back awkwardly.

  As far as deep emotional talks, that’s as heartfelt as we get. “Do you need a ride?”

  “Nah, you see that bar across the street? I’m going to say hello to the bartender for the next couple hours.” She looks at me, eyes tired. Her bruises are raw and swollen. “You know you can’t stay there anymore. He’ll never leave you alone.” She runs a hand through her messy brown hair. “Damn man.”

  “I’ll leave tomorrow.” I don’t want to go back. “Thank you for saving me.”

  We hadn’t always gotten along, and we weren’t close, but she did something for me I would never forget.

  She smiles sadly. “You want some advice?”

  “I … guess.”

  “Don’t let what almost happened get you down.” She takes a step away, towards the bar, and doesn’t look back.

  I watch her duck into the bar door so quickly it’s like she was never there, like we hadn’t spent the last five years avoiding the other. She and I were both victims of Bruce. Her abuse lasted longer and probably wasn’t over yet.

  Julian takes his checkbook back and returns it to his glove box when I come back to him.

  “How’d it go?”

  “You’re 3,500 dollars’ broker.”

  He absorbs it the way I do unpleasant things; he shoves it down and ignores it. “She saved you. It was worth far more.”

  “I’m going to pay you back.” I harden my tone. He’s overlooked this topic every time I bring it up “You’re going to take every dime I give you and you’re going to put it in your bank account. I’m going to pay you back for the phone and pay my own bill. You got it?”

  He doesn’t answer but with a sigh. He puts his arm over the back of my seat and backs out of the parking spot. His chest is to me and his face is looking behind us. His profile is beautiful. A smooth perfect sight of angles and shadows, breaking up his handsomeness so it doesn’t overwhelm me. An urge to lean over and kiss his cheek again enters my mind, or maybe his jaw. He hasn’t shaved; his dark brown stubble looks inviting. I could only imagine what it would feel like to kiss, to feel, to taste …

  He’s a teacher, I remind myself harshly. The reminder leaves me sullen. He doesn’t feel like a teacher to me. Teachers are faceless people who ignore my existence. He feels like something more. He knows things about me no one else does. He’s been there when I needed him. Although should he know them, should he be the one I call when I break? I’m glad he is, that he’s there, completely undeniably glad, but that doesn’t mean he’s supposed to.

  “Julian? Did you hear me?”

  “I don’t want your money,” he finally answers, pulling into traffic. “But if it makes you feel better we can work out a plan.”

  “That sounds like a plan that might never happen.”

  “Right now isn’t the time. We can talk about money later.”

  I know he’s right, but I’d rather discuss this than the real reason we just left a police station. I roll my eyes at his refusal to take my money, and as I do, I spot a diner. My responsibilities come hurtling back to me. “Work,” I gasp, smacking my forehead. “I forgot about work.”

  “Call them. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  “With what—?” I begin to ask, right when he pulls my cell out from his pocket. I smile sheepishly and take it. “Thanks.” I call the front desk at Bella’s.

  The second Tamryn hears my voice, she sighs. “What happened?”

  “Something. I don’t want to talk about it.”

&
nbsp; “You sound upset. Are you okay?”

  “I will be. I’m sorry I didn’t come in. Are you swamped?”

  “Big time. But we’ll manage. Whatever happened I hope you’re okay and I’ll see you on Monday. Have a good weekend.”

  “You too, Tamryn.”

  When I hang up, I feel relieved. If I forget Bruce, his attack, or the look in his eyes, that is. Which I can’t. I’m not relieved.

  “We’re going to my place, if that’s okay? I want to get you someplace safe.”

  “Does a place like that even exist?”

  “I think so. You’re safe with me. That’s a place.”

  I don’t point out that if I searched, I wouldn’t be able to locate his quadrants on a map, because right now, I need a safe place so badly, I’d make them up.

  Julian lives in a surprisingly nice neighborhood. The houses are on large lots, and when he pulls into the driveway of a gorgeous home, I can’t help but gawk.

  It’s brick and tan stone, sitting between a large expanse of vibrant green grass. In the dark, it looks alive, a breathing warm home surrounded by others. Julian pulls into the driveway and cuts the engine.

  “This is your house?”

  “I’m renting it.” He scratches the back of his neck and looks up at it as well. “I’ll need a roommate soon since Layla’s not here to help pay the rent anymore.”

  My brain and heart crash into each other. Words like safe, Julian, and protection, all bombard me. My mouth opens and my desire spills out before I can stop myself. “I can pay it. I have nowhere else to go.”

  His head whips around. “You want to move in with me?” Then he smiles with the corner of his mouth, his eyes finally letting go of the rage that has existed in them since he came into Bruce’s house and pulled me into his arms.

  “If that’s all right with you, of course.” I bite my lip and wait for him to say no. I know it’s coming. Why would he want to live with me?

  “Not only is it all right.” He reaches over to tuck a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. His fingers trace down my throat and to the bone poking out of the top of my chest. His eyes follow his fingers, watching himself touching me. “It’s preferred. How soon can you move in?”

  I’m breathless in the front seat. “Tomorrow.”