by Brook Wilder
Melody took a step backwards and then another. The smile slowly faded from Enrique’s face.
“Come on, baby. What are you doing? I’m going to take you home. I’ve missed you, if you know what I mean.”
His voice dropped with a lascivious edge that left her no doubt to what he meant, and it had nausea rolling inside her.
“I’m not going with you, Enrique,” Melody said.
Her voice was shaky, her entire body was trembling like a leaf, but she still forced her spine straight and her shoulders back. She’d learned over the past few weeks that she was capable of more than she had ever thought possible.
She hadn’t realized until then how cowed Enrique had made her, how much he had broken her, now that she was standing in front of him, fighting the urge to cower once more.
But that wasn’t her. She was stronger than that now. She was better. And so what if she was still afraid of him? Anyone who knew anything about the man would be. But pride filled her as she met his gaze straight on. She didn’t look away. She didn’t flinch.
He must have finally realized that something had changed in her because his cajoling grin vanished in an instant and in its place was a hint of that black-eyed rage. The precursor to her worst nightmares.
Enrique moved quicker than she could react, his hand snapping towards her, and he grabbed her wrist in his grip so tight that she swore she could hear the bones grinding together.
“Let go of me,” Melody hissed, tugging at her hand.
But she might as well have done nothing. Enrique sneered at her.
“Now, don’t cause a scene, angel. I know you want me. You always want me. Just come outside with me and we can talk about this privately.”
His voice was smooth, but underneath she could hear the jagged threat of violence simmering just below the surface.
Melody shook her head.
“I’m not going anywhere with you, Enrique.” She drew in a deep breath, tilting her chin up as she spoke. “I’m not going with you ever again.”
“What the hell are you talking about, angel?”
“My name is not ‘angel,’” Melody growled, yanking her arm away.
She must have surprised Enrique as much as she did herself by the flash of anger in her voice, because he let her go without a struggle.
He just stared at her for a long moment as if she was some sort of strange animal that he’d never seen before, and then glanced down, his gaze landing on her dropped basket. She’d forgotten all about it in her panic of running into Enrique. But now she watched in horror as he bent down and started picking up the items.
Melody reached forward to grab the things, but not before his hand landed on that little pink box. Shock filled his dark gaze and he looked up at her with a flush of anger and accusation in his voice.
“You’re pregnant?”
“I…I don’t know,” Melody said hastily, reaching for the test.
She was surprised when he gave it up without a fight.
“I haven’t taken the damned thing yet.”
“But you think you might be.”
“Obviously,” she answered, rolling her eyes.
But it was more a show of bravado than anything else. She just wanted to get the hell out of there, right away.
Suddenly, Enrique was back on his feet, the basket forgotten as he stepped so close to her his cologne suffocated her.
“My baby? I’m…I’m going to be a father? And you didn’t tell me?”
“What? No, I…I don’t even know for sure yet, and it’s not…”
She cut off abruptly as he grabbed her, trying to bully her out of the store with him, but she refused. Melody opened her mouth to shout for help but, suddenly… he just wasn’t there anymore.
“Don’t you ever lay your hands on this girl again; do you hear me, you good for nothing asshole? You stay away from her!”
It was Bianca, glaring fiercely at Enrique. But his gaze never left Melody.
“This isn’t over,” he growled in that soft voice of his that always meant the worst was coming.
Melody shivered, huddling in on herself.
“Yes, it most certainly is. Now get the hell out of here before I call the cops on your ass for harassment!” Bianca shouted, waving a package of meat at him. “I swear to god, if you come near her again, I’ll kill you myself!”
Enrique sneered evilly, but even he knew when he was beat, and he wasn’t dumb enough to try anything in public. With a single curse, he turned and left.
Only after he disappeared did Melody feel like she could breathe again.
“Come on, let’s get out of here before that rat bastard gets the bright idea to come back,” Bianca said grumpily as she headed for the door.
Melody didn’t say another word, just left the groceries where they were as she followed the older woman outside to their car, the pregnancy test hidden in her pocket.
Chapter 24
Now that the immediate danger had passed, Melody was shaking so badly that her legs could barely carry her the distance to Bianca’s beat-up old car. She collapsed into the passenger seat and held her silence around her like a cloak to protect her.
Luckily, Bianca didn’t have a word to say either as she slowly pulled the car out of the grocery store parking lot and back onto the road that would lead them back to Christian’s house.
Melody’s mind was oddly blank as she watched the Texas scenery fly by in a blur outside her window. She glanced up at the clear blue sky and the cheerful summer sunlight and wondered how in the world she could still feel so cold, like all the light had been sucked out of the world in those few brief moments.
She had been strong, Melody reminded herself as an old country song crackled over the radio. She had stood up to him.
The wonder she felt at her own moment of bravery glowed inside her just long enough to melt a little bit of the ice that was flowing inside her, but she was still feeling shaken up as Bianca reached Christian’s modest house and pulled into the driveway.
Bianca still hadn’t said a single word. But, as she parked the car and turned the engine off, she looked over at Melody still huddled in the passenger seat and gave her a long, examining look.
In that moment, Melody was sure the woman could read everything about her. Her hopes and fears. Her doubts and weaknesses. Hell, she probably even knew her shoe size.
“I know you’re still shaken up about running into that asshole, but…” Bianca paused for a moment and Melody was surprised to see uncertainty flash across her leathery, normally stoic, face. “I saw what you had at the grocery store. I heard what that bastard said.”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Melody said, stuttering out the words as heat flashed across her cheeks.
“Yes, you do,” Bianca snorted, and the sound was like paper ripping. “Don’t play stupid with me.”
The older woman shook her head, and another emotion Melody was surprised to see appeared on her face. It was terribly close to pity.
“You are still so young. You have no idea what the world…”
“I’m not that young, Bianca,” Melody interrupted, a spark of temper chasing away the last bit of ice that had still held her frozen. “I know exactly how hard life can be and just how unkind the world really is.”
Melody stared back, all the horrors she’d experienced in her life reflected in the depths of her eyes. Bianca’s own gaze widened in surprised, and then that awful emotion was back as she shook her head once more.
“Maybe you aren’t. And maybe you do. But there’s one thing that you haven’t learned,” Bianca said, leaning towards her. Her red rimmed eyes were blazing with something fierce now. “There’s a hell of a lot more to life than just the bad stuff. Bad stuff happens to everyone. But it’s how we find happiness in all the shit… that’s what defines who you really are.”
Melody’s brows furrowed in confusion. Nothing in her life had brought her happiness, not for as long as she could remember. She didn’t know
what to say, she didn’t know how to tell Bianca that she was wrong, so she just sat there not saying anything at all.
After a long, drawn-out moment, Bianca sat back with a gut-wrenching sigh.
“Is it Christian’s?”
“I might not even be–.”
“Is it Christian’s? Or Enrique’s?” Bianca asked as if Melody hadn’t even opened her mouth.
“If I am pregnant, there is no way that it’s Enrique’s.” Melody said quickly. “If I am. I haven’t even taken the damned test yet.”
Bianca snorted again, but it was softened somewhat by the small smile curling around the corners of her mouth.
“Just remember what I said, hun. There is happiness out there in the world. You have to find it, and you have to fight for it. But it’s there, and it’s so worth fighting for.”
Melody still didn’t know what to say to that. She knew the truth. She’d learned it the hard way. There was very little if any kindness in the world, and you were just setting yourself up to be disappointed if you thought that there was.
She pushed open the door of the car and stepped out, feeling the weight of the pregnancy test in her pocket, pulling her down like a ton of bricks. She watched until Bianca had backed the car out of the driveway and disappeared around a turn at the end of the street.
Melody turned to walk inside, but Bianca’s words stuck with her, even though she knew how ridiculous they were. What was worse was that a part of her wanted to believe, and she knew just how foolhardy that would be.
Shaking off the morose thoughts, Melody pushed open the front door and slammed it shut. She was surprised to see Christian rushing from the other room. The frantic look on his face had her panic surging once more.
“Christian? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? I was so god-damned worried about you!”
“Me?”
Christian stopped a few feet away, his blue eyes bright as they scanned her from head to two “I’ve been frantic, Mel. I came home early to grab lunch with you, but you weren’t here.”
“I’m okay, Christian. I’m fine,” Melody said, hurrying to reassure him. “Bianca took me to the grocery store.”
He paused, looking at her again for a long moment.
“You didn’t buy anything.”
Melody swallowed hard and, for a second, she thought of pretending that nothing happened. But she knew that Bianca would tell Hub and then word would get to Christian one way or the other.
Besides, the idea of lying to him, of hiding anything from him, made her stomach twist in uncomfortable ways. She was used to lying to protect herself, but she found herself wanting no lies between them.
“I have to tell you what happened,” Melody started slowly, but as the words came out it became easier and easier to tell him the truth. “I asked Bianca to drive me to the grocery store in town but…Enrique was there.”
Christian jerked in reaction to hearing Enrique’s name before rushing towards the window.
“What else happened? Are you okay? Did he follow you here?”
Christian shot the questions out so fast that Melody had a hard time answering him, but she did, starting with the last one first.
“No. No, it’s safe. Bianca just dropped me off. I…He just…He acted like he always does. Like he owns me. Like I’m some sort of stray dog. He grabbed me, but Bianca tackled him and told him, if he ever tried to lay a hand on me again, she would kill him.”
“Good for her,” Christian growled fiercely.
Then suddenly he was standing back in front of her, pulling her in close for a hug that nearly drove the air out of her lungs. It was exactly what she needed.
“I was so worried about you, Mel,” he whispered roughly against her hair, holding her close against him.
Melody was so surprised by his reaction that she pulled her hands out of her pockets too fast and little pink box fell to the floor.
Melody gasped and reached for it, but Christian was faster. He knelt down and picked up the test, just staring at in in silence for so long she wondered if he was going to say anything at all.
Finally, he looked up at her and she saw something that she’d never seen shining in his bright blue eyes. For the first time since she’d met him, he looked terrified. But underneath that was something else, a warmth and tenderness that made her chest ache and tears prick the corners of her eyes.
Chapter 25
Christian’s mind raced in a million different directions as he looked from the box in his hand to Melody and then back again. She still hadn’t said a word since he’d picked it up and neither had he.
Fuck, he didn’t even know what to say. He didn’t even know where to start. There were so many different thoughts and emotions rushing through him that he couldn’t even begin to tell them apart.
Suddenly he felt lightheaded and dizzy all at once and he found himself dropping hard on the edge of the couch. He couldn’t take his eyes off the box in his hand.
It looked so innocent, so innocuous, with its bright pink packaging and the picture of a baby smiling back at him on the front. But it felt like he was holding a fucking bomb in his hands.
A million questions filled his mind, a million things he wanted to ask Melody, but he knew it wasn’t important. Not yet. Not right now. They would deal with this, together. When the time was right.
But right now he knew that, at that very moment, Enrique could have followed them or had someone tail them back to his house, and Melody might not have even realized. Enrique could be gathering his men and making his way there as they spoke. Or, ah… didn’t speak, as the case may be.
At that moment, all he could let himself worry about was Melody’s immediate safety. And the safely of the life she may be carrying inside her.
That last thought hit him like a punch to the solar plexus, and Christian knew he needed to get his head back in the game if he was going to keep his promise to Melody to keep her safe. He had told her that he would never let Enrique hurt her again, and he had already come close to breaking that promise with her run-in with the man in the store. He wasn’t about to take any chances with her now.
Christian pushed himself back up to his feet and handed Melody the test without saying a word about it. She gave him a questioning look, but she didn’t mention it either as she shoved it back into her pocket.
He spun away, forcing himself to focus on the first problem they were facing. After they had got through this alive, then and only then would they deal with whatever came next.
“I know you said that Enrique didn’t follow you back here, but…is it possible he did, and you didn’t see him? Or that he had one of his men tail you?”
“I don’t…Honestly? I don’t know.” Melody said after a moment, shaking her head helplessly. “Yes. It’s possible.”
He hated the flicker of fear that flashed inside her fathomless dark-eyed gaze. But a moment later her eyes cleared, and he could see the steel core of her underneath. The part of her that couldn’t be broken, not even by abusive, misogynistic assholes like Enrique.
Christian had to fight the urge to pull her into his arms all over again, to tell her that everything was going to be all right. That they would get through this because they had each other.
He knew that time was of the essence. And he also knew exactly who would be able to tell him what was going on with Enrique and his men.
Christian pulled out his cell phone and dialed Craig’s number. As the best bike mechanic in town, everyone in town went through his garage – Devil’s, Grim Riders – and that included Enrique’s men as well.
He let out a hiss of irritation when his friend didn’t pick up and ended the call, jamming his finger against the button before replacing it in his back pocket.
“I’m going to go to Craig’s. His garage is twenty minutes away. I’ll be back in less than an hour, okay?”
Christian was already turning towards the door and grabbing the keys to his motorcycle but was
stopped short as she stepped in front of him, blocking his path.
“I’m going with you.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I’m not going to stay here alone, Christian,” Melody said fiercely.
But then a trembling softness entered her voice and it broke him.
“What if Enrique comes back?”
He sighed, staring at her for a long moment, but he knew it was no use. He had given in the moment she’d spoken. There was no way he could deny her, not when she was looking up at him with fear clouding her eyes, faith in him breaking through like rays of sunlight in a storm.