A Place to Belong [Slick Rock 14] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 1
Slick Rock 14
A Place to Belong
Will, Frank and Rick Blanchard moved to Slick Rock, Colorado just over six months ago. While spending a night out at the pub with good friends Hank, Barry and David Heritage and their fiancé, Catalina Ball, they see a blonde haired, green-eyed woman they are very attracted to.
When the woman passes out while having a panic attack, all their instinctive protective instincts kick in, but how are they going to convince Sallyanne Darwin that they are the good guys, and would never do anything to hurt her?
The three Blanchard men are gutted and horrified when they find out what Sally has been through, but they also know that she’s the woman they’ve been waiting for and aren’t going to give up.
Sally’s been to hell and back and needs to overcome her fears of the opposite sex before she can move forward into a loving relationship.
Under the loving care of Will, Frank and Rick, she doesn’t stand a chance of keeping them at a distance.
Can they keep her safe when her horrific past catches up with her?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 68,096 words
A PLACE TO BELONG
Slick Rock 14
Becca Van
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
A PLACE TO BELONG
Copyright © 2016 by Becca Van
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-344-0
First E-book Publication: June 2016
Cover design by Les Byerlery
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
A PLACE TO BELONG
Slick Rock 14
BECCA VAN
Copyright © 2016
Prologue
Sallyanne jerked awake when a large sweaty hand covered her mouth. Terror surged through her heart, her blood when she saw Angelo looming over her. Sweat broke out on her face and body when she realized that he was on her bed and straddling her. She screamed but the sound of her voice was muffled by his hand, and when she bucked and twisted, trying to get him off of her, he just laughed.
She formed a fist and aimed at his nose but he caught it with his free hand before she could hit him. The smile slid from his mouth and he sneered at her with malicious intent.
She kicked out but the effort was pointless since his body weight was holding the covers down and restricting her legs. She shifted and turned, bucked and bowed, but still he remained on top of her. When she noticed that she still had a hand free, she curved her fingers into claw-like shapes and dragged them over his forearm. He cursed and rattled off a slew of words in Spanish and jerked his arm back.
Sally drew in a deep breath and was about to scream as loud as she could, but she never got the chance. A hard fist slammed into her solar plexus, robbing her of the air in her lungs as pain lanced through her sternum, ribs, and lungs. Her mouth opened on a soundless cry and tears streamed from her eyes. She couldn’t breathe and her lungs felt as if they were about to be crushed. Finally, the pain began to dissipate but then another fist connected with the side of her jaw.
Agony shot up her face into her bones and brain. Darkness encroached but she tried to breathe through it because she knew if she gave in, she wasn’t sure she’d survive. When she won the battle against losing consciousness, she started to scream, but the sound of her terror was quickly cut off when he wrapped a hand around her throat and squeezed.
She looked into those brown soulless eyes and pleaded for her life. Angelo laughed coldly and then the nightshirt was torn right down the middle.
She wanted to fight, to scream and yell, but she could feel herself fading fast. Just when she thought she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, the grip on her throat eased.
“Don’t make a sound, puta. If you want to live, you’ll give me no trouble. Your brother is wasted in the living room. It would be easy to put a knife to his throat and kill him.”
Sally knew he wasn’t bluffing. The man was evil to the core and way bigger and stronger than she was, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him do whatever he wanted to her without fighting.
He kept his hand around her throat and then lifted up onto his knees and dragged the covers away. Goose
bumps of fear covered her body and while she was cold to her bones and shivering, she was sweating profusely.
She shook even harder when he released her throat and then pulled a switchblade from somewhere. The blade popped out and she whimpered when the tip dug into the skin over her carotid. Warm liquid trickled down her neck and she was so scared he was about to kill her, she nearly lost control of her bladder.
She screamed when she felt one of his fingers or thumbs hooked into one side of her panties and tugged. The sound of material ripping was so loud she nearly laughed. Simon, please wake up? I need you. Please save me?
Sally screamed again, her throat hurting at being used after he’d almost strangled her and though she knew her sounds of terror weren’t very loud, she was going to keep right on screaming until she had no voice left. One of the neighbors might hear her and call the police. Please, God, please let someone hear me?
When her panties were pulled out from under her, Sally knew what was about to happen. He shoved her legs apart roughly with his knees, leaving bruises behind, and began to tug on the front of his jeans.
She hit out, not caring if he killed her anymore. There were things far worse than death. He retaliated by slapping her across the face so hard she was senseless, and as she tried to get her bearings back and not pass out again, the bastard ripped her nightshirt into pieces and tied her wrists to the rails on the bed.
“No, please! Please don’t do this!” She begged in a hoarse voice.
“Shut up.”
Slam. Sally cried out as he hit her face again.
She had no idea how long he hurt her. It could have been minutes but felt as if hours had gone by. She screamed and screamed in agony when the knife he’d held at her throat plunged into her shoulder. The pain was so much she felt as if she was about to pass out. Maybe she had or maybe she’d managed to shrink away mentally from what was happening to her, because the next time she became aware of her surroundings, Angelo roared with pain as Simon stabbed him in the arm. Her stepbrother had somehow managed to wrestle the knife from Angelo, and hurt him back.
Perez cursed, jumped from her bed, shoved Simon so hard that he banged into her dresser and fell to his ass. She heard a crack and realized that it was Simon’s head connecting with the wooden drawers. Angelo stumbled forward and then he must have passed out from the pain of being stabbed because he slumped to the floor.
“Sorry,” Simon slurred. “So sorry.”
Sally rolled from the bed, grabbing the comforter to cover her nakedness, and sank to her knees on the floor next to her brother, keeping her gaze on Perez in her periphery.
“Call the police,” she rasped.
“Yeah,” Simon said before he passed out and fell to the floor.
Sally was shaking so badly she could barely move, but she crawled over to her stepbrother and, after searching his jeans pockets, found his cell phone.
She dialed 9-1-1 and reported her rape to the dispatcher, gave the address, and then curled up into the fetal position on the floor.
Everything that happened after that took a dreamlike nightmarish quality. The police cuffed Angelo Perez just as he was coming around and they carted him off. Paramedics put her on a stretcher and she was taken to hospital. She had no idea where Simon was or if he’d even come around, but she wasn’t sure she cared.
Sallyanne felt numb inside and knew she would never be the same again.
Chapter One
Sallyanne jerked upright, waking from the nightmare from her past, cutting off the scream that had been loud enough to wake her. Her gaze scanned the shabby motel room as she reached over to the bedside table and clicked the lamp on. She heaved a sigh of relief when the shadows in the corners were no longer, and knew it was time to move on. Whenever the dreams of what happened plagued her, she knew she couldn’t stay.
She was lucky to be alive. Angelo Perez had raped her, then stabbed her, but he hadn’t figured on her stepbrother waking up and stumbling around the small two-bedroom apartment as he’d searched for the bathroom before seeing them. Simon had managed to wrestle the knife from the asshole and had stabbed him in the arm, but not before the fucker had taken something from her.
Angelo had been arrested and charged with rape. The lawyer she’d been appointed had also tried to get him pinned for attempted murder but Perez’s defense attorney had been too good at his job and that charge hadn’t stuck. The judge had agreed that the stab wound to her shoulder hadn’t been life threatening. Every time she thought about that she was filled with so much anger, she wanted to scream.
When she’d heard the short sentence that bastard had been given, she’d been infuriated and also very scared. Perez had looked over at her as she’d stepped down from the witness box and she had seen evil intent, and her own death in his eyes. She knew for a certainty that he was going to come for her when he was released from prison.
There had also been a few members of his gang sitting in the back of the courtroom, and the way they’d looked at her, eyeing her up and down, had terrified her. She didn’t think she was going to be safe anywhere.
As she left the courtroom the doctor who’d treated her in hospital had waylaid her. Dr. Lisa Martine had urged her to run far and fast after handing her a wad of cash. She’d told her that some of the cops were in Angelo’s pocket and she hadn’t been his first rape victim. She’d also suspected the sentencing judge had been in that fucker’s pocket and, from the three-month sentence he’d been given, Sallyanne had been inclined to agree.
Simon hadn’t visited her in the hospital or been at the trial. It hurt that his drugs were more important than she was, but she couldn’t do anything to help him unless he decided he wanted it. She’d spent years trying to get him to see what he was doing to himself, but he didn’t seem to care, about himself or her. She couldn’t keep bashing her head against a brick wall anymore. It hurt too much and she wasn’t a masochist, so she’d stopped trying to make him see reason.
She’d told her stepbrother of the rumors she’d heard that Perez and the Red Blades were into anything, from selling drugs and firearms to prostitution, but he’d brushed her worries aside.
Sally was younger than Simon by four years and had had to rely on him when their parents had been killed five years ago. Simon had just finished high school and had taken his father’s death hard, but she had, too. She’d grown to love Hayden Simpson as her father. Her own father had left her mom high and dry the moment she’d told him she was pregnant and it had been just Sallyanne and her mother for years.
When Hayden had set eyes on her mom, Sallyanne had been cautious and also a little jealous, but when she’d seen how happy her Hayden had made her mom, the envy had dissipated.
They’d spent five wonderful years together as a family before that fateful night so long ago, and from that night on Simon had changed. And not for the better. He’d started running with the wrong crowd, and no matter how much she’d tried to keep him on the right path, he wouldn’t and hadn’t listened.
That had been four years ago, and though she’d hoped that Angelo had lost interest in her, she had a feeling deep in her gut that she would never be safe from him. He’d want revenge. He was evil incarnate and while she’d tried to hide inside herself as he’d taken her innocence, some of the words he’d said to her echoed in her mind. “You’re mine. You will always be mine. I will never let you go.”
Sallyanne shivered and wiped at her damp face when she felt the tears roll down her cheeks. The trembling turned to full body-wracking shakes and as her breathing increased, the fear turned to panic and her skin began to crawl. She felt so dirty. No matter how many times she scrubbed her body, she never felt clean. Guilt was another emotion that swamped her after the nightmare. She had no idea what had happened to Simon, and she was filled with anger and guilt whenever she thought about him. After the trial, she’d rushed home to the dingy apartment they lived in and found her stepbrother out of his mind on drugs. She’d tried to get him to leave with
her but he’d just shoved her aside. Even explaining to him that she was scared for his life hadn’t seemed to get through his drug-fogged mind. He hadn’t cared about anything except where his next hit was coming from. She’d tried. She could only lead a horse to water but she couldn’t make it drink.
Her emotions were all over the place regarding her stepbrother. If he hadn’t hooked up with Angelo and his gang, Sallyanne wouldn’t have been on the run for four years. She wouldn’t have had her innocence so brutally taken from her. She wouldn’t have been stabbed. No matter how hard she tried to push that bitterness aside, she just couldn’t do it.
Simon had gone down the path of destruction and no matter what she said or did to try to help him, he’d rebuffed her. While she hoped he’d changed his life around, just the thought of seeing his face again made her feel sick.
She sighed as despondency hit her. She missed having a place to call home. She missed her parents and she missed the wonderful, loving stepbrother she’d once had. Sallyanne had no one. She was emotionally and physically exhausted and she was all alone. She was sick and tired of living hand to mouth. There was no way she could get full-time employment like a normal person. Using her real name could get her into trouble. She had a feeling that Angelo had the cops on his payroll searching for her and if they found her, he would come after her. The only way for her to survive was to take cash-paying jobs working in bars, cafes, or diners. There was no way in hell she was leaving a paper trail.
Maybe she would have been better off if Angelo had succeeded in killing her. Maybe then she would be at peace up in heaven with her mom and stepdad.