by Cora Black
He nodded. “At least you’re willing to admit what you’ve done wrong.”
“This is bullshit,” Dom snarled.
Eric tsked, shaking his head from side to side. “Language, and in front of a kid. You’re worse than I thought you were. Don’t talk that way in front of my little girl.”
“I’ll talk any way I want to,” he said.
It was my turn to get him to stop. I looked up at him, shaking my head ever so slightly. All Eric wanted to do was draw him into a fight so he’d have an excuse to kill him or at least do serious damage. I couldn’t let that happen, though I wanted more than anything to watch Dom murder him. I would have paid good money to see something like that.
“Eric.” I turned back to him. “Look what you’ve already done. My mother. I need to call an ambulance for her.” I moved toward the phone, but he made a sharp noise that stopped me in my tracks. No, he wouldn’t let me pick up the phone, would he? I could easily have called the cops instead.
“Yes, I’m sorry that had to happen. She never did me any harm—if anything, she listened to the stories you told her and believed them. Why else would she have gotten in my way when all I wanted to do was collect my own daughter and take her with me?”
“She fought you?” I asked, glancing at Emma. The poor thing shivered.
“Oh, yes. She fought hard. I didn’t think a woman her age would have that much fight in her—then again, they say adrenaline makes a person do crazy things.” He laughed, a shrill laugh I wasn’t used to hearing. Yes, adrenaline made people crazy. And he was the case in point.
“If I leave her like this, she might die,” I said. “She’s bleeding from her head.”
“Oh, stop. I didn’t hurt her that badly. I only knocked her out. It’s probably nothing more than a cut—head wounds bleed the worst. It’s not like I broke her nose or anything.” He glared at Dom, his eyes burning.
Something inside me roared in triumph, even as I shook with something beyond fear. Fear was too weak, too easy a word for it.
“Still, Eric. Please. Call the ambulance yourself if you don’t trust me to do it. But please. I need you to help her now. You have what you want. You have Emma. What do you have to lose?”
He seemed to consider it, and hope leaped to life inside me. If he called the ambulance, there was a chance Mom would wake up and tell the EMTs what happened to her. They might at least be able to call the cops and tell them about Eric’s restraining order, how he’d attacked her. Something. Anything. All he had to do was listen to me and call for an ambulance. It was a struggle to keep my face in calm, neutral lines.
Then he shook his head, and I sobbed again, this time with frustration.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, tears streaming down my face. Dom was ominously quiet, his body shielding mine ever so slightly. If any of them so much as raised a hand, he would have jumped in front of me. Somehow I knew it without having to be told. I felt the raw energy coming from him, and it scared me a little. He would have taken them all on, were it not for Emma. They looked like pretty fearsome men, too. I had faith in him, but even that faith didn’t lead me to believe he would make it out all right.
“If you would’ve been the wife you tricked me into thinking you would be, none of this would be happening. This is all you, honey. We could have had a good life together. We could have been happy, the way we were before we got married. But then you ran off. And I find out today that you filed a fucking restraining order?”
Language, I thought. I didn’t dare call him on it.
“I only filed it because you threatened me,” I said, feeling pitiful. Nothing I could say would change his mind, but I had to say something. I felt like I needed to keep him talking. Otherwise, he would take Emma away from me. Would I see her again? I didn’t think he would let me. I was pretty sure he would do anything in his power to keep my child from me once he got a hold of her.
“I didn’t threaten you,” he said. “You felt threatened. That’s your problem, not mine. Your boyfriend here,” he gestured to Dom, but looked at me, “couldn’t keep his hands to himself. If he had, this might have ended a lot differently.”
“Listen, Eric. I know you can be reasonable. I know it. You just have to control yourself right now, okay? Emma has nothing to do with any of this. Please let her go. Don’t punish her for this.” I tried to go to her again, but Dom planted himself more firmly in front of me. His entire body trembled, but I didn’t think it was from fear. More like the strain of holding himself back.
“This doesn’t have to involve either of them,” Dom snarled. “It only has to be you and me. Let’s be men about this and fight it out the way we both want to.”
Eric laughed that strange, high-pitched laugh he seemed to have adopted since he went crazy. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you? Only a world-class fool would fight somebody like you. Come on. When you were out there making your bones, or whatever it is you biker trash do, I was studying and working. It’s no contest.”
“So that’s why you had to bring four of your friends with you. You probably hired them, though, right? A guy like you doesn’t have friends.”
“Dom, stop,” I whispered. “Please.” All I needed was for him to fly off the handle and kill Emma.
He ignored me. “Come on. Be a real man for once in your life. Or can you only hit women? Are men too much for you to handle?”
“Stop this,” I begged. I could see Eric’s face twitch, the muscles jumping. He wanted to kill Dom. I could feel it.
“Stop,” I said, raising my voice. “Both of you, stop. It doesn’t have to be this way.” I glanced over my shoulder, to where my mother had started to stir. She was regaining consciousness, which was a relief, but all I needed was for her to wake up in the middle of a fight. Just another person to be caught in the crossfire. My mind worked fast, looking at the situation from every angle. I couldn’t believe how sharp I was with everything going on.
“You don’t get to talk right now,” Eric sneered. He looked at Dom. “Fine. You want a fight? You’ll have your fight.” He raised his hand, gesturing toward Dom. Suddenly, all four of his pals jumped Dom. Emma was dropped to the floor, forgotten.
“Baby!” I reached for her, scooping her up, moving away from the fight. Dom did the best he could, but he was quickly outmatched. They hit him with their guns, their fists. They knocked him to the floor. I held Emma in a vice grip, pressing her face to my shoulder. I didn’t want her to see what was happening. I glanced toward the back door, wondering if I could make a run for it. Would I have time to escape? But I couldn’t leave Dom. But I couldn’t risk my baby’s life.
Dom fell to the floor, beaten and bloodied. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to look at what they’d done to his beautiful face. Eric snickered, going to him. I heard Dom grunt, and opened my eyes in time to see Eric pull him to his knees. He pulled a gun from his coat pocket, and I let out a whimper. He looked at me.
“It’s up to you,” Eric spat, pressing the gun to Dom’s temple. “Either you come with me, or I kill him.” He cocked the gun, the click making me jump and shriek before I could hold back. “And I’ll kill her, too, for good measure.”
“No!” I screamed, squeezing Emma tight. She didn’t cry, the brave thing, but she trembled.
“Come on, Kara. It’s all up to you. Either you do what I want, or I’ll take what I want anyway. No matter what you decide, you’ll be mine.”
I thought fast. What would he do with me? Where would he take me? I looked at Dom, half conscious, bleeding from his nose, his mouth, a cut on the side of his face. He mumbled something I couldn’t understand, tried to open his eyes to look at me. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do.
And I realized it didn’t matter. I had to make the choice on my own. There was no choice, not when my daughter was involved.
“Fine.” I stood, still holding my baby. “I’ll go with you.”
“The kid, too.” He wouldn’t look at her.
My heart fr
oze, but I had no choice. “Emma, too,” I replied. Did he even care for her? How could he, when he threatened to kill her if I didn’t give him his way?
“See? None of it had to be this difficult. All you had to do was give me what I wanted right away. That was one lesson I could never quite teach you.” He let go of Dom, who fell to the floor in a daze. I could have wept with relief. Dom would be safe. He would find me, no matter where I was.
Eric looked at his men. “Take care of him,” he said, his voice flat and serious. He grabbed me by the arm, pulling me to the door.
“No! No! You have to let him go!” I screamed, keeping a tight grip on Emma but unwilling to leave Dom.
“That wasn’t part of the deal. I only said I would kill him if you didn’t come. I didn’t say my guys wouldn’t take care of him for me if you did.” He chuckled nastily, giving me one more tug to get me out the door and down the front stairs. One of the neighbors stood on his front porch, watching. I noticed him from the corner of my eye.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked, my voice loud and strong. Let him hear me. Let him call the cops, please.
“You’ll find out when we get there.”
“No, I need to know now. Are we going to your house?” I pulled against Eric’s grip, making sure I went because he forced me to.
“No. We’ll go through the desert and drive to the Petrified Forest. Remember when we took that trip years ago?”
“The Petrified Forest?” It was the last thing I managed to say before Eric shoved me into the car. I refused to get in the front seat with him, preferring the back seat with Emma.
“Yes. Are you deaf now, too?” Eric sneered at me in the rearview mirror when he slid behind the wheel. He was too worked up to notice my neighbor looking right at us. Thank God, I breathed silently. He might be able to help us.
I cast one more look at my mother’s house. Dom was still in there. What would they do to him? All I could do was pray that he’d survive, and find some way to save us.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dom
I heard the sound of cars passing by on the road, but I didn’t know where the road was. I didn’t know where I was. My eyes seemed glued shut. I couldn’t open them. What held them shut? I thought I might have been blindfolded at first, then realized it was dried blood. I had bled so much, my eyes were stuck.
My body started to come back to life slowly. Most of what I felt was pain—in my ribs, in my back, especially in my head. My face felt like a swollen mess. I sensed the ground beneath me, and when I curled my hands into fists, I felt dirt and grass.
I didn’t want to move anymore. I didn’t want to think. I wanted to go back to sleep, where it didn’t hurt. Where I wouldn’t feel anything anymore…
Wake up! The thought raced through my brain like fire, reminding me what happened, what was at stake. I couldn’t just lie there. I had to find Kara and Emma. Every instinct I ever had screamed at me to get up and find them.
But how? And where? I could hardly move without pain searing through me. I couldn’t open my eyes. I didn’t know where I was.
Open your eyes. Open them. I tried, but it didn’t work. Try again. It hurt too fucking much. Try anyway. Try. They need you, damn it. Be a man and do whatever you have to do. Get to them. Start here.
I ran the back of my arm over my eyes, trying to help my eyelids open by rubbing the blood off. It worked, and both eyes seemed to function fine. They weren’t swollen, so those assholes didn’t hit me in the eyes. They hit me in the head. Pistol whipped me until I blacked out. That was where the blood came from.
I tried to look around, turning my head slowly in case I had a neck injury. What the hell did that matter, though, since I had to get out of the fucking ditch they had left me in? I couldn’t stay there forever, hoping somebody drove to the edge of the road and saw me. It would never happen. I would starve to death.
There were trees around me, grass under me, garbage here and there from people tossing it out the windows of passing cars. It stank like somebody died there. Maybe they had. Maybe I had come close, too.
How the hell would I get out of there? How would I find Kara and Emma? I considered getting up, hitchhiking back to the clubhouse. Who the fuck would pick me up? I could only imagine how horrible I looked. And who would drop me off at the clubhouse even if they picked me up? They’d probably want to take me to the hospital instead.
My phone! I patted my pocket and felt the bulge. Thank you, God. They didn’t take my phone. I reached inside, pulled it out, and dialed Jax.
“Where are you, man? You ran outta here like you were on fire,” Jax said.
“I need you, buddy. I need you bad.”
“Dom. Where are you? What happened?”
I tried to look around to give him an idea of where to find me. I sat up, and immediately felt like I was gonna hurl. The whole world spun. No! Do not pass out! If I passed out, I would have to do it all over again, the waking up, the opening my eyes. I would lose even more time.
“Gimme a second, brother.” I closed my eyes again, clenching my jaw to hold back the flow of puke that threatened to pour out. I took one deep breath, then another. Do not pass out. Do not pass out. Stay awake. She needs you. They both do.
“You still there?” I asked.
“Of course. Where are you? What do you need?”
“I need you to come get me, brother. Some guys beat the shit outta me, left me in a ditch on the side of the highway.”
“What? Who?”
“I’ll tell ya later. I need help, please.”
“Where are you exactly? Can you tell me anything?”
I looked around, my head pounding every time I moved. “Uh, there’s a billboard on the other side of the road for a dentist’s office.”
“I know where you mean,” he said. “It’s maybe five miles away. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“And hey, bring backup,” I said. I had to lay down for a minute, to get myself together before he got there. “Bring maybe three guys. There were four guys total who beat me, and that Eric twat.”
“Fuck,” Jax muttered. I heard murder in his voice. I knew how he felt.
While I waited, I came up with a plan. I would go back to her mother’s—I might have lucked out, he might not have taken them anywhere. I didn’t remember anything after Kara told him she would go with him. I wished she hadn’t, but I could see how scared she would be. He threatened to kill his own daughter. How sick did a person have to be to do something like that? There was no way she could have said she wouldn’t go.
Then his guys beat me again, and I guessed they found a way to get me into the van. I was too out of it to remember anything they did. I hoped they left my bike alone. I would have killed them just for wrecking it, if nothing else.
And then it would be a matter of finding Kara. I had to find her. There was no other option. But how?
I must have gone in and out of consciousness for a minute or two, because before I knew it, I heard the sound of motorcycles coming closer.
“Shit!” Jax. Feet running to me. I opened my eyes, looked. There he was, and Spike, and Chase.
“Come on. We gotta get you outta here.” Chase and Jax helped me to my feet. I groaned, biting my tongue to stay quiet and conscious.
“You’ve gotta go to a hospital,” Spike said. He looked horrified.
“Do I look that bad?” I joked. I took a step, then another. My legs worked fine. It was the rest of me that hurt like a bitch.
“Not too bad,” Chase said, but his voice was tight.
“I can’t go to a hospital. He took them. Eric. He took them both.”
“No.” Spike looked devastated. For a big, crusty thing like him, I was pretty sure he might cry. “I was just with her! I was just at the diner a little while ago!”
“Yeah, well, while you were there, he was at her mom’s. Shit. We have to go there. Her mom was unconscious when I got there. She might still be out, or she might need help. Come on
.” For once, I was willing to ride on the back of another man’s bike. I would only have done it for Kara and Emma.
We took off, with me giving Chase directions and the others following us. I could only imagine what people in passing cars and on the sidewalks thought about me. I would look at myself when I got to Kara’s mom’s, maybe clean up a little. The air on my face helped a lot. It cleared my head.
When we got there, the front door still stood open. I went up the stairs, while Chase pulled his gun. “I just wanna be ready,” he muttered, nodding for me to open the door.