Shade had turned back to see Brooke removing her T-shirt and jeans.
“They won’t be back for a couple of hours.” She was wrapped around him the next instant, rubbing her naked tits against his chest. He had jerked her arms away from him, taking a step back.
“I don’t care if they don’t come back until tomorrow. I’m not fucking you.”
“Why not? You fuck everyone else,” she had snapped. “I’m prettier than any girl you go out with.”
“No, you’re not.”
Brooke’s ugly expression proved his words; however, she deliberately softened it in an instant, trying to look sexy. “I can do things for you they can’t.” Brooke had licked her lips, staring down at his jeans before raising her eyes to his. “I’ll even let you hit me if you want to.” She reached down on the couch, picking up a plastic rod that was used on blinds.
“Why do you have that?” he asked, raising a brow.
“Bethany told me how you like sex. I wanted to know why you saw her more than the other girls you go out with.”
“Bethany wouldn’t tell you.” His eyes narrowed on the bitch holding the rod casually in her hand. “Touch her again, Brooke, and I’ll take more than that belt to you,” Shade threatened.
The girl actually shuddered at his words.
“I mean it, Brooke. I’m not going to fuck you. I’m never going to fuck you, but I’ll wring your fucking neck if you touch another one of the girls I see.” Shade went to the door without looking back.
Brooke tried to catch his arm, but he jerked it away, going out the door. Brooke is crazier than I am, Shade had thought then, and he still believed it.
Shade saw Lily was expectantly waiting for him to finish.
“I had several girls I was dating and she would bully them at school, making it miserable for them. One was Bethany. I saw her a little more often than the rest, and that was why Brooke picked on her the worst.
“Prom night, Levi, Evie, Bethany, and I were coming out of a restaurant. Levi and I went to get the car while the girls waited at the door. We weren’t even at the car yet before we heard the girls screaming and ran back. A car had jumped the curb and hit Bethany and Evie. Evie had a couple of broken ribs and a broken leg.”
“And Bethany?” Lily prompted.
“She was paralyzed from the waist down.”
“Oh, my God.”
Shade nodded. “It was a hit and run. It was so quick, the driver disappeared before Levi and I could get back.”
“You believe Brooke did it, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I could never prove it. I left Georgia after graduation, and I haven’t seen Brooke since. Evie was attacked when she was in the service. Levi was dead a month after that; he got in a fight with Evie’s attackers. One of the men had a connection with Brooke. I believe she was responsible for that, also. Evie had come home with me during a short layover, and she had told her mother.”
“It could be coincidences.”
“Maybe, but I don’t believe so. You have to be careful around her. I don’t want you to go anywhere that someone else can’t see you with her in the church,” Shade stated firmly. “I wish you would quit, but I know you won’t,” he added when he saw she was about to protest.
“I won’t, but I’ll be careful. I promise,” Lily said, lying back down.
Shade turned the lamp off, lying back down with her.
Lily laid her head on his shoulder, her hand massaging the tension out of his muscles. “Shade, do you know what happened to Bethany?”
Shade rolled to his side. His angel always was more concerned with someone else rather than herself. She was the one in danger now. Brooke had hurt Bethany for no reason other than he had fucked her more than the others because she enjoyed being dominated by him.
“She’s still living in Georgia, happily married with two children.” He had made sure when he began making money that Bethany had the best care and had given her a sum of money she would be able to live off for the rest of her life.
“Good.” Lily stroked down his arm. “I bet she still misses you. You would be hard to replace.”
“Not so hard. She managed to find someone.”
“I wouldn’t. If you left me, I would still be waiting,” Lily murmured drowsily.
“Angel, me leaving you isn’t going to happen.”
Chapter 77
Shade was facing his wife while she leaned against one of the large oak trees, waiting for him to finish his conversation with Viper and Rider. It was the Fourth of July picnic, which he’d had no intention of attending, nor had he been planning to let Lily until she had told him Brooke had returned to Georgia for a visit with her mother.
Shade thought it suspicious the way Brooke kept going back and forth between Georgia and Treepoint, but he really didn’t give a fuck other than wishing she would keep her ass there.