Chapter Ten
Doc
The community center looks just as it did all those years ago.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a reason to show up here, and I am surprised by how fondly I remember this place.
The last time I was here, it was for an orientation program for new army recruits.
I was so young and green back then, equally excited and nervous about the next phase of my life, but more than anything, I wanted a chance to escape the poor neighborhood I’d had the misfortune of being born into.
That was ages ago, and yet, despite the events that followed, I wouldn’t change anything in the past as it all led me to where I am now.
It led me to her.
Cara Dupree.
The receptionist flashes me a smile when I walk in, and it doesn’t falter even when she spots the club patches on my jacket.
For all the good we do, the Steel Rebel MC still doesn’t have the best reputation in the city.
Not that we’ve ever cared to clean up our image, but it seems not everyone hates the sight of us, as the receptionist doesn’t seem to mind my presence, or if she does, then she’s hiding it well.
“Hi there, are you here for the cooking workshop?”
I can’t stop the laugh that breaks out. My eyes drop to the nametag and then back to the brown eyes staring up at me. “No, I’m here for the Haven House donations.”
“Right. Cara, I believe her name was, mentioned that someone would show up to help her.” She beams. “Just walk down the hall, you’ll find her through the third door to your left. It’s hard to miss it.”
“Thank you, Maria.”
“You are welcome,” she chirps, and I can feel her eyes on me as I walk away, but I don’t turn around.
She’s a pretty woman, and perhaps a few weeks ago, I might have encouraged the interest I saw in her eyes, but not now.
Not ever again. I already have someone who’s stolen my heart.
Someone I haven’t stopped thinking about since we parted this morning.
I’m practically vibrating with anticipation and excitement.
I can almost smell her perfume and taste the sweetness of her lips.
God, I want her so bad, and I find that I cannot move fast enough.
I’m hurrying down the hall when it reaches me—a pained whimper that stops me dead in my tracks and rips through my excitement.
The sound is not unlike that of an injured animal, and it chills my blood.
I find myself sprinting the rest of the way before my brain can catch up, my legs pumping and eyes locked on the door.
I burst into the room, eyes furious as I look around, and what I see instantly turns my world into a raging inferno.
Pressed against the wall is the woman I swore to protect, and crowding into her is a man in a janitor uniform who looks vaguely familiar, with his hand clamped around her arm. Cara’s face is contorted in a grimace, and those beautiful green eyes are flooded with terror.
My blood turns to ice, then boils over. Rage, pure and unadulterated, floods my veins and all thoughts vanish as I focus on one.
He’s dead.
This man is fucking dead for putting his hands on what’s mine!
My fist is drawn, and I catch the man’s surprise before it connects with his jaw with a sickening thud.
He releases Cara and stumbles back, recovering quicker than I expected as he throws a clumsy punch that I easily deflect.
That is all I allow him to do before sinking a punch into his gut in a spot I know will hurt the most. He howls, bending over in pain, but I’m only getting started on the fucker.
I grab his shoulder and drive a knee into his face, watching with satisfaction as blood drips from the broken nose.
Kill him!
It’s the only thought in my mind as I follow the staggering man, but someone steps in front of me before I get to him. “James,” Cara says shakily, placing a hand on my chest and stopping my movement. “You need to stop.”
“Move aside, Cara.”
“No,” she breathes, attempting to push me back, but I am a rock, and I don’t shift an inch. My eyes are on the man behind her. He’s still breathing. The fucker is still breathing after he laid his hands on what’s mine. He’ll not leave this place with a pulse!
“Cara!”
“No,” she shouts, her voice raw with emotion. “Stop, please! I’m not going to let you kill him. You’d be arrested for killing him. I’d be all alone if they take you away. Please, James… I can’t lose you again.”
She lifts her hand to my jaw and forces my gaze down to hers.
Her touch, her voice, they’re enough to break the spell.
The fear in her eyes manages to lift the red haze clouding mine, and I realize for the first time that we’re not alone in the room anymore.
There is chaos around us as people swarm in, drawn by the commotion.
Someone mentions that the cops are on their way, and another rushes to check on the janitor, but I don’t take my eyes off her.
“No one is allowed to touch you.”
“I know,” she whispers, dropping her head to my chest and wrapping her arms around my waist. “But I refuse to lose you. I…I can’t lose you, James. Not when I just found you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I assure her even as I vaguely register the sound of hurried footsteps and the muffled shouts outside.
Two figures in uniform enter the room, and I watch as they take in the scene, eyes darting between me and the man still on the floor. Someone must have stuffed a tissue in his nose because it’s stopped bleeding. “What the hell happened here?” one of the officers demands.
Cara’s pathetic excuse for a stepfather raises his head at the voice, his wrinkled face seeking the officers.
“That fucking monster,” he croaks, trying to get up but wincing at the move.
His side is going to be hurting for weeks, I made sure of it.
“I was talking to my daughter when that man stormed in here and attacked me.”
His words had me going on alert like a shark scenting blood in the water. “Daughter!” I hiss, regretting that I didn’t kill the fucker after all. “You dare call yourself Cara’s father?”
Recognition finally dawns on his face as I speak.
“You!” There is venom in that one word. “Arrest him, officers. This is the psycho that killed my son, and now he wants to kill me too.” The man limps forward, crying out in pain before pausing to lean against the wall.
He isn’t hurt that badly, but he’s giving the best show he can.
“Tell them, Cara. You better tell these officers the truth!”
Just like nine years ago, I want to shield Cara from all this attention, tuck her away safely, and deal with this on my own, but she pushes back from my embrace and turns to look at her stepfather.
“Eric’s death was an accident,” she says calmly, but her voice carries through the room full of people watching this all unfold.
“James was protecting me. Eric fell and hit his head on the table. It was an accident, not James’s fault. ”
“You lying little bitch. Tell the truth now, or I’ll make you pay!”
I start forward at the threat, but Cara pushes me back, her eyes shifting to the officers. “He attacked me first,” she says, holding up her arm to show the bruise already forming. “James jumped in to help me. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Cara, you don’t have—”
“No, I have to do this, James. My stepfather made me lie all those years ago and got you convicted for a crime you didn’t commit.
I won’t let that happen again.” Her teary eyes shift from me to the man watching us with such hatred.
“You didn’t sacrifice anything for me, you sick, twisted bastard.
At your best, you treated me like a burden, and at your worst, I was your punching bag. I refuse to lie for you again.”
“Officers, I would like to press charges too,” calls out a small voice, and we all watch as a girl, no more than sixteen, steps forward in jeans and a blue shirt with the center’s logo printed on the front.
She points a finger at Cara’s stepfather, sniffing back tears when she speaks.
“That man was harassing me before this lady walked in. He wouldn’t let me leave.
He was trying t-to touch me and make me…
” she breaks off with a sob. The receptionist from earlier, Maria, pulls the girl into a hug.
After a moment, she’s able to collect herself enough to continue, “Other girls have told me that he is creepy and likes to approach them and make inappropriate comments about their bodies.”
What follows after her statement is chaos, and I try to shield Cara from most of it, wrapping my arms around her and guiding her outside.
The donations will have to wait for another day.
I need to get Cara out of here. Fuck, I should have arrived earlier or picked her up from the shelter and brought her here my damn self.
Maybe then, she would have been spared the pain of dealing with her stepfather for God knows how long.
I wait until we’re outside and on the sidewalk before turning to her. “Angel, are you okay?”
There are tears in her eyes she fights to hold back. “Just take me away from here, please.” She sniffs. “I don’t want to be here when they bring him out.”
“Okay,” I say, laying a kiss on her forehead before walking her to the truck I drove here.
I take her hand once we’re settled in the cab, squeezing it once before pulling out of the parking lot.
I catch cops dragging her stepfather out of the building in my rearview mirror, gaining little satisfaction from the sight.
I vow to follow up on the case and get him locked away for every little crime he’s ever committed, even if I have to dig it up damn self.
Cara won’t feel safe until that man is locked away.