Chapter 12 #2
I couldn’t miss the irony of the situation. I’d taken her, too, but she hadn’t fought me quite like that even when the drugs had worn off. It was almost comforting to see she could have.
“Clearly, she doesn’t want to go with you,” I said as I approached. His eyes met mine right as I swung, the satisfying thud when wood met flesh like music to my ears as he dropped to the ground like his partner had.
Sophia ran to hide behind me, her arms locking around my middle.
I craned my neck to the side, gazing at her over my shoulder.
“I’ve got you, remember?” I ran my thumb over her clasped hands, then turned my attention back to the guy groaning on the ground, and pointed my bat at him.
“You got anyone else with you, or was it just the two of you?”
More groaning, but his head shook from side to side.
“Peach.” Reaching into my pocket with my free hand, I unlocked Betsy, then dipped my hand between us to pull the gun from my jeans.
“I need you to take this and run to the truck.” She faltered before slipping from my waist and accepting the gun.
I watched until she got into the truck safely, then locked up Betsy again in case Sophia had been too startled to lock it herself. Better safe than sorry.
I pressed my bat into his leg, applying pressure. “Why are you tryin’ to take my girl?”
“She ain’t yours,” he wheezed through his mask. I knelt down and ripped it clean off his head, then took a step back, biting back my incredulous laughter. Some people just never got it through their thick fucking heads.
“I take it the fucker who got me outside was your brother, huh?” That’s why the voice was familiar.
“I thought I was done dealin’ with you two idiots.
” I cupped the back of my neck, contemplating.
“Y’all just tried fucking up my little sister’s trailer, now you’re out here tryin’ to take what is mine.
I don’t really understand the stupidity here, Tate, so maybe you can help me out. ”
He spat toward my boot, still cowering on the ground.
“Eat dick, Grant.” I smirked and reared my bat back, ready to smash his face in once and for all, until he added, “You really have no clue what you’ve started, do you?
” My brows creased. What I’d started was taking care of what was so obviously and clearly fucking mine.
“Care to clarify before I fuck up your head?”
“It don’t matter.” Tate winced, then craned his neck to face me, looking delirious. “Soon, you’ll get what’s comin’ for ya. You’ve been warned.”
Warned about what? The rest of his family coming after me?
That was laughable. All I did was fuck his sister awhile back, and in my defense, we were both wasted and she practically forced herself upon me.
Not to mention, it was revenge for the shit they kept doing to me. They needed to get the fuck over it.
“Let ’em try,” I said with a smirk on my face as I brought my bat down on his arms, the image of him barring Sophia from running away stuck on repeat in my head.
I hit him enough times to hopefully get my point across, possibly breaking a bone or two in the process.
Wiping the sweat from my brow, I slung my bat back over my shoulder.
“Bo’s next. If I were you, I’d leave my town before I find him and whoever else in your fucked up clan was apart of this. ”
I left him there as I took the stairs back up, leaving my bat at the top of the stairwell while I gathered Sophia’s belongings. I must’ve checked on her through the blinds every five seconds until I’d gotten everything I could find, then collected my bat before heading back to the truck.
Tate was gone, his sedan, too, and Sophia was fast asleep, making it feel like I’d imagined it all.
Sighing, I looked her over, starting with the soft curve of her cheeks, then moved onto her neck and shoulders.
I continued searching, telling myself it was solely for any marks or bruises as my gaze swept down to the gentle strain of her breasts as she breathed, then continued on further to her thighs where the gun was resting under her manicured hands.
I’d told her nothing would happen to her, and although I’d made many promises to women in my life, breaking the one I’d had with her felt like getting the breath sucked from my lungs and filled back up with lead.
It grew heavier, almost unbearable, as I pulled up to my house and carried her inside, then set her down on my bed, leaving the gun on the nightstand.
Sophia gave a contented sigh, a small smile on her sleepy lips as I pulled the comforter over her. I’d taken her to make her safe, to help her out of the terrible situation that the world seemed blind to, and all I’d managed to do was pull her down a path with different monsters at the end.
As I made to stand, Sophia’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, catching me off guard.
“Stay,” she whispered. “Please.” It brought me right back to that night months ago, when I knew so little about her, I hadn’t formed the obsession that was now getting worse by the minute.
Her eyes were still shut, so I held my breath and waited for hers to return to normal.
When I tried to leave again, her blue eyes opened, a soft plea in them I’d never shake from my mind.
“Grant, please.” She shuffled, making room for me on the bed. “Stay with me.”
I pulled my shirt off and laid down.
All the warning bells that rang in my head blared until the moment she pulled my arm to rest around her waist. They went nearly silent as I held her from behind while she drifted off to sleep, and when I pressed a kiss to the back of her head, all bells ceased to exist. No one else had ever made me feel like the world could go quiet and I could feel something like warmth flooding through my veins.
Sophia Pierson might not know it yet, but she was mine, and I’d spend every last one of my days keeping her safe in my arms.