Mine Now (The Phantom Vipers MC)

49. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Blake

After the day we have all had, filled with emotions and feelings, we all sit in the living room, enjoying some wine and listening to music. The kids have long since gone to bed and the rest that are still awake can be heard softly playing in the room.

“Anyone want to play cards or dice?” Sam asks, getting up to grab the stuff from the kitchen drawer.

I am exhausted, but as much as I would love to go to sleep, I know it will be a restless night. I would rather just stay up with the girls and bond. “I’ll play cards.” I raise my hand.

“Me too,” Naomi says.

That leaves Candace and two others to decide. But before the game can be chosen, and we get started, there are headlights sitting out front of the house. They shine brightly through the window, and I get up to check who might be out there.

With the headlights pointed directly at the house, it is hard to see anything past them. Suddenly, a loud pounding comes from the other side of the door, and all of us turn to look at it. Candace walks over to it, and before I can tell her to wait, she unlocks the door and turns the knob.

Whoever is on the other side of the door kicks it in the rest of the way, and Candace goes flying onto her ass. Gasps and yells erupt around the room, but I don’t hear them–not really.. Everything around me slows, the air sucked out of my lungs as my body locks up. Because standing there in the doorway is the man of my nightmares. Craig.

My stomach twists so violently I think I might throw up. My ears ring, my vision tunnels, and for a moment I am back there. He looks throughout the room until his eyes land on me, and he narrows his gaze. He points his finger toward me and says, “You bitch!”

I force my feet to move, dragging air into my lungs even though it feels like I am trying to breath through a paper bag. I rush toward him pushing him outside before he can turn this rage on anyone else. I have to protect Charlie from this. I slam the door behind me and walk out into the yard. “What are you doing here? How did you even find me?”

I already know the answer. He will never really let me go.

“What am I doing here? Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he scoffs. “Since when do you hang out with fucking bikers?” He takes a step closer toward me, and I instinctively flinch back. Don’t give him the satisfaction. Don’t let him see he still has the power. But of course he does.

“Have you been sleeping with one of them, Blake?” His voice is a low growl, laced with that same cruel edge I know too well, as he sizes me up. “Maybe it was the guy who paid me a visit?”

My stomach drops. Hunter?

My heart feels like it is going to beat out of my chest. Craig was the friend Hunter paid a visit to the other day? Why wouldn’t he tell me that? I shake my head, but my voice trembles, giving me away. “No.”

He laughs, sharp and bitter. “I know when you are lying to me, you stupid whore.”

His words make my skin crawl, my stomach twist and he isnt going to stop.

“What did you do? Take our child from a loving home, only to shack it up with some low-life biker?” He takes another step toward me., I am frozen. “I knew you were a whore the day I met you. That was the only reason I even gave you the time of day. Figured you would be easy to fuck. It wasn’t for your brains.” He lets out a smug laugh at that.

“Clearly you were too stupid to realize I have tracked you every day of your life. Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you?” He points at me. “Now look at you. Living up to my low expectations.”

Tracking me? Fuck.

I knew he was unhinged but this? The lengths he’s gone to? A fresh wave of panic grips my chest, I am never going to really be free. I bunch up my fist, feeling something underneath the fear. Rage.

“I am not a whore! How fucking dare you!” I clench my fist tighter, my nails bitting into my palm, grounding me.

The words snapped out before I can second guess them, before I can let fear swallow me whole like it always has. Maybe it's because I am not alone this time. There are people inside the clubhouse who will come looking for me. Maybe it’s because Hunter has shown me what a real man is, what love should look and feel like. Or maybe it’s just that I am fucking done being afraid. He is nothing to me now. He has no hold on me anymore.

“How dare I? You're the one who ran off.”

“Only after you nearly killed me! What did you expect?”

He smirks. “You are such a dramatic girl. I didn’t almost kill you.”

I scoff, but this only pisses him off more. He actually believes that. He actually thinks–

Before I can react he lunges for me and smacks me in the face before I can defend myself. Sharp, burning pain explodes across cheek.

“Stop it!” I scream as he snatches me by the hair and begins to drag me toward his car. “I’m not going with you!” No. No. No. Not again.

My feet kick out in front of me as I try and gain the leverage to pull myself to my feet and get out of his grasp. But nothing works. He begins to use his fists now, punching me in the top of the head and in the hands that I keep using to scratch at his arms.

“Let me go!” I plead but he doesn’t.

But this time, I am not alone.

The door swings open and Sam stands out on the front porch and screams, “Hey asshole! Let her go!” Craig turns toward her, as she barrels toward him, fire blazing in her eyes.

For the first time, a spark of something new flares inside me. I don’t have to fight this battle alone anymore.

With his attention no longer on me, I act. My foot catches on a nearby rock and I am able to gain a little bit of leverage. I put all of my force into this one kick and ram my head upward as far as I can reach.

I slam into his chin, and we both tumble to the ground. He yells some absurdity, and I begin to crawl away out of his reach. The only thoughts going through my head are of reaching the woodline so that maybe I can escape him.

But my relief doesn’t last long before he is on top of me. He hits me in the back and knees me in the thighs before rolling me over and sitting on my chest. His body lunges forward as Sam jumps on his back and I watch as she pulls at his hair and punches him repeatedly. But it doesn’t last long enough for me to escape. Craig throws his elbows out in an attempt to buck her off of him and one of them lands on her chin. Her body rears back as she tumbles to the ground behind him. Lifeless.

Did he kill her? Is she going to be okay? My eyes meet her slack face as Craig turns back toward me with a smirk. “You want to stay here so bad, then you can stay here after you die because that is the only way you are getting away from me, Blake.” He wraps his hands tightly around my throat, and the panic sets in.

This is it. I am going to die outside under the stars on this gravel driveway, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

I claw at his hands around my throat. I claw at his arms and his face, but nothing deters him from choking me. His face has a menacing smile as he looks down at me with the hatred I have never seen before on him.

“What did I do to deserve this?” I whisper, as my face turns red from lack of oxygen.

He laughs, leaning into his hands. “You chose me all those years ago. You should have seen what a terrible person I was, but now you will understand.”

He wasn’t a terrible person, though. Not back then. He treated me with kindness. He said he loved me and we were happy. How can anyone turn into this?

Blackness creeps into the sides of my vision as I begin to lose consciousness.

This is it.