Fear that the abuse would escalate had caused her to run. She swallowed past the painful tightness in her throat. For all she knew the bastard could have ended up killing her.
During her counseling sessions since, she’d been told she needed to face her abuser for closure. Now the perfect opportunity waited for her in Bisbee. Her hands shook and her heart palpitated. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to face the man without killing him.
Belle guided the car along the highway, glad she had reached the Texas-New Mexico border. Not much longer and she’d make it to Las Cruces. Driving exhausted her and she looked forward to a hotel room with clean linens and hopefully a comfortable bed.
She hated to drive, especially across desolate stretches of land, and Texas and New Mexico had both. It wouldn’t be so bad once she entered Cochise County in the lower southeast corner of Arizona.
Driving gave her far too much time to think, and she didn’t want to dwell on things she couldn’t change. Thoughts of Nate, her stepfather, and Dylan continued to bombard her.
And Dylan being the one to call her—she hadn’t been able to forget the sound of his voice and the way her body had reacted the moment she’d heard it.
She tried to think about good times. Their old hangout had been the Puma Den, a popular pizza joint in San Jose, a subdivision of Bisbee. The pizza place had been named after their high school’s mascot, the puma. She smiled as she remembered the seven of them crowded around a table eating garbage pizza, talking about school, sports, band and anything else that might come up. Nate always insisted on anchovies, which she’d picked off her slices.
Then there were the plans she and Dylan had made for the future…the things they would do and the places they would travel to. They had loved to imagine their honeymoon. They wanted to go someplace with lots of snow and cuddle up in a cabin in front of a fire. Snow didn’t fall often in southern Arizona and it had seemed so romantic when they’d been young.
Everything had been romantic until her life had fallen apart. Her throat ached. She had to stop thinking of Dylan in that way. It had been over long ago.
Belle checked her speed and saw it had crept up too high. She put the car on cruise control as her thoughts remained on the Circle of Seven and Dylan.
The CoS had been an odd group, but they’d been together since their elementary school days. What they had gone through together when they’d been young, thanks to one teacher in particular at Greenway Elementary, Mr. Norton, had sealed their friendships. The vilest of vile teachers, Norton had it out for members of the CoS, for one reason or another. He especially didn’t like Dylan, because of old history with Dylan’s father. Anyone who was a close friend of Dylan was an enemy of Mr. Norton.
The seven had created a tight friendship that survived even the social complexities of junior high and high school. The seven of them were like the Breakfast Club in some ways.
They’d began to call themselves the Circle of Seven and had forged a friendship that had withstood so much over time. Over the years, everything they had been through individually had continued to strengthen the group.
At Bisbee Middle School the school mascot had been the Cobras, the colors purple and gold. When they’d graduated, they’d gone to Bisbee High and had become the Pumas with red and gray as their school colors.
Belle had been a cheerleader at BMS and BHS. Once she’d left Bisbee, she’d fallen into the restaurant business. Over the years, she’d worked her way up from bottle washer to making a decent living in restaurant management.
Christie had kept Belle updated on the other CoS members. Only three of the original seven had children.
Tom had excelled in various high school organizations, as well as being class president and the class valedictorian. He’d divorced recently and had transferred from Tucson Medical Center to take a position at Copper Queen Hospital as a physician. He had joint custody of his son, but only had the boy in the summer because his ex still lived in Tucson.
Leon had been a football hero. He now had a wife and three children and they owned a water well drilling business. He lived a little way out from Bisbee, close to Sierra Vista.
Marta had played varsity basketball. These days she lived with her wife, Nancy, and their fraternal twin sons who had been conceived with donor sperm. Marta was a stay-at-home mom.
Christie had played flute in the band and had been quiet but popular. After marrying Salvatore, she’d started working in his office. They’d attempted to have children but she’d had been unable to get pregnant.
Dylan had grown up as a cowboy and had worked on his father’s ranch when not at school or spending time with the CoS. Now he was in in federal law enforcement and had never married.
She swallowed and had to push thoughts of Dylan away, because thinking about him made her heart ache. No one had ever made her feel the way Dylan had.
Nate had never had a thing for organized activities or labels but had done well in school. He’d driven a hot rod and had been a girl magnet. Even though he’d dated, he hadn’t seemed to realize so many girls had a thing for him.
A smile touched Belle’s lips as she thought about Nate as he had been then. Despite his outward appearance and the souped-up Charger he’d driven, he’d been the quietest of the group. He would interject comments and jokes when they were together that would crack up all of them. He might have been the least talkative, but he’d had an awesome sense of humor and he’d been something of a prankster. They’d always been able to count on him for a little levity.
Like the time when they’d seen their English teacher, Mr. Bishop, smoking pot off campus on the last day of school their freshman year. Marta and Christie were so against any kind of drugs they’d been upset to see their favorite teacher with a joint.
Nate had cracked a joke, which had had them all laughing, even Marta and Christie. They’d headed to the Puma Den, determined to put aside what they’d seen. Who were they to judge?
That one memory of Nate and the CoS shifted to a memory she’d hidden deep for so many years. She swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel, unable to stop her mind from going back to that night.
After they’d left the pizza place, Belle and Dylan had taken off in his truck and driven up to the Divide. It had been the most precious thing in her life, nearly wiping away the pain of the emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of her mother.
She’d lost her virginity to Dylan that night. It had been something beautiful she’d held on to until she had ended up running away.
When her stepfather had begun to abuse her months later, at least he hadn’t been able to take that part of her innocence.
One memory bled into another.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered how her mother, Mary, had died from a drug overdose that summer, leaving Belle alone with her stepfather. One form of abuse had ended with her mother’s death. But a far worse abuse had followed when her stepfather had come home drunk and forced himself on her.
She had taken her mother’s place in her stepfather’s bed whenever he dragged her into his bedroom. The shame and guilt had changed her forever. She had dropped out of cheerleading and been withdrawn with her CoS friends. She had still hung out with them, still dated Dylan, but she’d had to force herself to participate in conversations and struggled to smile moment by moment.
The emotions crashing down on her were overwhelming. The blare of a horn snapped her back to the present and she saw she’d almost drifted into another lane. Heart thudding, she swerved over into the correct one. She braked and pulled off the freeway, into the emergency area, and parked on the side of the road.
Her breaths came hard and fast and she realized she had started to hyperventilate. She pressed the button for her emergency flashers and put her forehead against the steering wheel as she tried to slow her breathing.
When she finally regained her composure, she leaned back in her seat to take a few more moments to make sure she had calmed herself enough to
drive. After another five minutes she switched off the flashers, waited for traffic to clear, and pulled once again onto the highway.
Going back to Bisbee was the second hardest thing she’d ever done. The first had been leaving.
Read more of No Mercy Here!
Also by Cheyenne McCray
(in reading order)
* * *
~Romantic Suspense~
* * *
“Deadly Intent” Series
Hidden Prey
No Mercy
Taking Fire
Point Blank
* * *
~Contemporary Cowboys~
* * *
“King Creek Cowboy” Series
The McLeods
Country Heat
Country Thunder
Country Storm
* * *
“Riding Tall” Series
The McBrides
Branded For You
Roping Your Heart
Fencing You In
Tying You Down
Playing With You
Crazy For You
Hot For You
Made For You
Held By You
Belong To You
* * *
“Riding Tall 2” Series
The McBrides Too
Amazed by You
Loved by You
Midnight With You
Wild for You
Sold on You
* * *
“Rough and Ready” Series
The Camerons
Silk and Spurs
Lace and Lassos
Champagne and Chaps
Satin and Saddles
Roses and Rodeo (with Creed McBride)
Lingerie and Lariats
Lipstick and Leather
* * *
“Armed and Dangerous” Series
Zack
Luke
Clay
Kade
Alex (novella)
* * *
Save by purchasing Boxed Sets
* * *
Riding Tall the First Boxed Set
Includes
Branded for You
Roping Your Heart
Fencing You In
* * *
Riding Tall the Second Boxed Set
Includes
Tying You Down
Playing with You
Crazy for You
* * *
Riding Tall the Third Boxed Set
Includes
Hot for You
Made for You
Held by You
Belong to You
* * *
Rough and Ready Boxed Set One
Includes
Silk and Spurs
Lace and Lassos
Champagne and Chaps
* * *
Rough and Ready Boxed Set Two
Includes
Satin and Saddles
Roses and Rodeo
Lingerie and Lariats
* * *
Armed and Dangerous the Collection
Includes
Zack
Luke
Clay
Kade
* * *
~Paranormal Romance~
* * *
“Dark Sorcery” Series
The Forbidden
The Seduced
The Wicked
One Breath (novella)
The Shadows
The Dark
About Cheyenne
Cheyenne McCray is an award winning, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of upward of 100 novels and novellas. Chey grew up on a ranch in the southeastern corner of Arizona, and enjoys building worlds her readers can get lost in. She lives in a small AZ town with her hubby and a growing menagerie that includes two dogs (Checkers and Nikki), three ducks (the neighborhood celebrities), and a small flock of chickens. She enjoys gardening, crazy quilting, baking, and of course writing.
Find out what Chey is up to these days—cruise her website, follow her on Facebook and Twitter, and even drop her a line or two.
To catch up with Cheyenne
www.CheyenneMcCray.com
[email protected]
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