“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I asked, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her toward me. “I told you to stay. Shit, I locked you in. How the fuck did you get out?”
“I’m not some animal you can cage in! I’m going home! Don’t worry I won’t burden you anymore. I’m going to tell the sheriff what happened, which I should have done in the first place. You won’t ever have to think about me again. You’re off the hook.” She tried to wriggle from my grasp but there was no way in fuck that was going to happen. The more she spoke, the angrier I got and the more my fingers bit into her arms.
“You think it’s that easy,” I said between gritted teeth. “You think you can go home like none of this ever fucking happened? ’Cause, trust me on this one, it doesn’t fucking work that way.” I expected her to show a little fear, to cower, even if it was only slightly, but the girl was bold, breathing through her scrunched up nose like she was about to breath fire, challenging my every word with her stare. “I got news for you, little girl. You can’t go anywhere. You seem to forget that the MC knows who you are and now that you have a connection to me, you’re as good as dead out there by yourself. So like it or not, you’re stuck here, at least for the time being, so get back up to the fucking house before I grab a hold of that crazy hair of yours and drag you there.”
“I know it was all a fucking lie!” she snapped, locking her eyes with mine. Fear and anger radiated from her as she stared me down.
“What?” I asked, threading my hand in her hair I gave her a warning tug and her head snapped backward but she stayed strong.
“I told Chop about your promise to me, about the ring, and he laughed in my face. Then I heard you tell King it was all a joke.” She lifted up her shirt so high she revealed the rounded underside of her breasts. She pointed to the purple black and blue bruises on her ribs. “Does this look like a joke to you?” Then she pointed at her swollen lip and then the butterfly stitch around her eye. “Do these look like jokes?”
For the first time in my life I was caught off guard. I wanted to pummel the girl for not listening to me, but for the first time realized that her injuries would never have happened if I wouldn’t have given her that ring or told her that lie. “I got it from here.” She pushed against my chest but it was useless, I had at least a hundred pounds on her.
She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Just let me go! I want to go home!” she screamed, continuing to struggle, wincing when I’d grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off her feet. I loosened my grip but didn’t put her down.
“Listen to the words I’m saying.” I seethed, leaning down, invading every inch of her personal space. “Did I say that I didn’t want you to leave? Am I begging you to stay? What did I just say?” I asked, trying to make the girl see reason.
Thia gasped and her eyes went wide. “You said…I CAN’T leave.” She stopped struggling, but I continued to hold onto her like she was. “Why? Why can’t I?”
“Reason number one is because I fucking said so. I still don’t know if you’re working for my cocksucker old man…” I started, even though what King had told me made that possibility highly unlikely.
Highly unlikely wasn’t beyond Chop.
“I’m not!” she snapped.
“Shut up and listen. I’m going to show you something, but I need to be able to use my hands. I’m going to let go of your arms. You fucking make a move to run and I won’t be gentle next time,” I warned, finally letting go when I felt the tension in her arms start to fade, setting her back down onto her feet. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the internet where I’d already had the website for the Logan’s Beach News Press queued up. I clicked on the morning’s latest news and turned it around so she could see the screen.
Thia paled. Her already white skin fading to damn near see through as she read the headline.
HUSBAND AND WIFE FOUND SLAIN IN JESSEP HOME
MISSING TEEN DAUGHTER ONLY SUSPECT
POLICE HAVE DEEMED THE KILLINGS
THE ‘ORANGE GROVE SLAUGHTER’
I snapped the phone shut and answered her honestly.
“Reason number two, is because we were too fucking late.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Thia
I was officially wanted.
And unwanted.
All at the same time.
Bear wasn’t going to let me go. Going home to Jessep and confessing to what I’d done to the sheriff was no longer an option. The headline was so damning. Would they even believe me if I told them the truth? Would I face charges even if they believed me?
I couldn’t do anything at all, yet I wanted so badly to do something that would take away the lump forming in my throat and chest, slowly suffocating me with each intake of breath.
Breathe in, squeeze.
Breathe out, tighter.
Breathe in, squeeze.
Breathe out, even tighter still.