Nova
NOVA
W hat in the hell had she been thinking?
In what world could she take on Brent and win? hadn’t had the nerve to leave him when he started cheating. Nor the balls to run when he started bringing those women to their home and having debauched parties with other men while she worked, and his daughter was right next door.
At some point, realized June was old enough to comprehend some of what was going on, no matter how hard she tried to shield her. Brent’s attitude toward them, and all women in general, was impacting her daughter, and that’s when she grew a pair.
Maybe that was the reason she stole away from Hook’s bed in the night and called Brent to meet her. She’d honestly thought she could win because it was for June.
How fucking stupid had she been? Realization set in. was going to die in the abandoned home they’d shared together. Cowering and with her hands tied in the shirt she’d borrowed from Hook.
The blow to her head throbbed as she came back to her right mind. A drop of hot liquid landed on her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Brent with his blurry dick in hand and jerking off toward her face.
Immediately, she closed her eyes and sealed her mouth. She turned her head to the side and wanted to vomit.
“Uh, uh, uh.” He gripped her chin, the knife hilt bruising her jaw, turning her back to face his dick. “Open your mouth, bitch.”
refused. With the knife in one hand against her face and the other pumping his cock, he couldn’t really force her compliance and hold on to both. He grunted in frustration and let out his release, coming on her cheek and neck.
’s stomach rebelled, and she almost lost the fight to keep the contents where they belonged. She had to let her mind drift away as Brent tucked his dick back in his jeans, or she’d lose the battle not to puke for sure.
Hook.
How I wish things could’ve ended differently for us. You’re a good man who deserves to be loved. I pray you don’t lock your heart away again. Let the light in, or you’ll lose yourself to the darkness if you don’t.
June.
My sweet, not-so-little-anymore girl. I’m so sorry I left you; I love you more than all the stars in the sky. But you’ll have your Jeremy, and he’ll love you fiercely.
Even in this hell, her heart swelled thinking about the two people she loved.
“Tell me where that little bastard is, .”
“You’re the one tracking her. Why don’t you tell me?” It wasn’t wise to goad him like that, but if he tracked her to the RBMC clubhouse, they’d kill him, and June would be safe. Problem solved.
Brent mumbled to himself about the tracker being in Nevada, then poof. He was not happy.
One of the guys must’ve taken the tracker across the state lines and destroyed it during the party. couldn’t help but smile. June was safe, the guys would never let him near her.
“What are you smiling about?” He sounded cross.
Speaking of tracking, she looked around for her phone. She’d set it to record and still had it in her hand when he’d ambushed her. It must’ve fallen somewhere. She hoped it was still recording.
“Guess the tracking tag’s a bust.” Again, she questioned her sanity.
“I knew the little bitch wouldn’t keep her mouth shut.”
“How can you talk about your daughter like that? She’s your flesh and blood.”
“She’s a means to an end, nothing more,” he shouted at , then turned to pace. He was talking to himself more than her.
She realized she was witnessing a breakdown. Brent was losing his mind.
“He said if I turned her over to him, he’d give me everything I needed to start a new life. I could finally get out.” He was worrying one of the nails on his free hand to the point it looked like it was bleeding. How had she not realized how bonkers he was before, or was that a new development?
No way someone gets like that overnight. It must’ve been there the whole time she knew him.
“Why did he have to change things? You do your time, and when you’re too old to make a profit, you find a replacement, and everything works out. Why change it now?”
Oh my god. tried to control her breathing. The things he was whispering to himself were disconcertingly similar to Hook’s story. But there was no way he could be Casey. They’d already established that, but there was a connection.
tried to calm herself, willing her racing heart to slow. After hearing Brent’s words, death was no longer an option. If she could stay alive, she could give Hook some closure.
And if she couldn’t, well, she crossed her fingers her phone was miraculously still recording.
Brent continued whispering to himself. Switching between hitting his face and chewing his bloody finger.
“That’s how he said it would be. He promised, but then he changed the rules.”
needed to know more if she were to understand how Brent tied into Hook’s past.
“Who changed the rules, Brent?” She used her most soothing and concerned voice.
“Casey. Casey did.” She couldn’t control her gasp. Luckily, it didn’t look like Brent heard her. “He took me off the street. Said his brother was supposed to, but instead he killed our mother and ran. That’s why he had to take over and why he had to start with me. It was my destiny.”
His voice was whiny and childlike. Even with all the vile shit he’d done, she mustered up some genuine sympathy for him, or rather the child that he had been. But she needed more information about Casey and why June and just…
“Then why June?”
“Because Casey thought it would be safer to make our kids rather than risk getting caught taking them. But that requires the long game for freedom. He promised me it would be worth the extra years, but it wasn’t.”
Brent slipped back into his right mind again, and she tried to coax him out.
“Why wasn’t it worth it, Brent?”
The look he gave her was withering. Like she was a moron for not knowing. He really was too far gone. Brent stopped pacing.
“Because I was supposed to get to play house for at least a decade. He promised,” Brent shouted. “Experience a real family, my own family. But he lied. As soon as the brat was born, he made me start seeing clients again. Here.” He spun with his arms out, then pointed to his own chest with the knife. “In my home. The only one I ever knew. He ruined it. Ruined everything. You, my house, my play at being a normal fucking man. And you didn’t do anything to stop it, just complained about what I couldn’t do or the bills I couldn’t pay.”
Wow, it just got worse and worse, but she was not giving up. “Untie me, Brent. I will help you now. We can?—”
“Fuck you, cunt. I don’t need your help anymore.” He pointed the knife from her to his own chest. “I helped myself.”
Brent leaned in close to her face. She could see the madness in his eyes. The Brent she’d known was long gone. Just the mad creation of years of abuse was left. She wondered for a moment if that’s what would’ve happened to Hook if he’d not gotten free and then found the club, the family he’d been denied his whole life.
“Do you want to know how?” Brent waited for her to acknowledge his question.
“How what?”
His smile was pure evil. “How I helped myself, of course.” Where just seconds before he had been shouting, his voice was now happy and sing-songy.
“Yeah, Brent. I do want to know.”
“You always were a condescending bitch, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I killed him. Strangled him with my bare hands. Now I can start my own business with June and be free. And when she’s old enough, she will be able to give me a kid a year, and they can make me rich. Free and rich, isn’t that the American Dream?”
lost the fight to pretend complacency at the mention of her daughter. His plan for June was even worse than she’d imagined.
“You’ll never touch a hair on her head. I’ll rip the heart from your chest while it’s still fucking beating if you try.” Now she was the one shouting and sounding like a psychopath. She doubted she’d make it out alive, but she knew June was safe, and that was all that mattered.
“Don’t make me kill you right now, .” Brent held the knife to her throat. She arched her neck toward it.
“Go ahead, kill me. You’ll never hurt my daughter, and that’s all that matters to me.” She spit in the general direction of his face.
The sociopath wiped it with his thumb and sucked it off. Gross.
He was back to calm Brent, and somehow, that felt scarier to her.
“I’m not gonna kill you right away, wifey . First, I’m gonna fuck you. Then I’ll slit your throat.” He drew the back of the knife across her neck to make the point.
“Then, if I’m not satisfied, which I never was with you, I might fuck the wound while the blood’s still warm.” Brent grabbed her leg and stood up straight, pulling her off the couch violently. The carpet burned her bare back.
No matter how hard she kicked and thrashed her legs, he managed to get her leggings and underwear down. She couldn’t fight anymore. Exhaustion and despair had won. resigned herself to the rape and possible desecration of her body. She just hoped the police untied Hook’s shirt from her hands and lost it, so he’d be spared that small detail.
Letting her mind go numb, she wondered why their stuff was still there. The landlord, who was so insistent that he had people waiting, so either pay or get out, hadn’t bothered to do anything about it yet. The house was just as she’d left it. Turning her head to the side, she noticed the blanket she and June had sat on for their indoor picnic the day Hook had swept them away.
She cried silent tears.
Not for herself but for June and Hook. All the things she was going to miss. Bug’s graduation, she wouldn’t be there, but Hook and the guys would, whooping and hollering the whole time. She cried when she imagined Hook walking her daughter down the aisle. Her in a white gown and him uncomfortable in a rented tux.
So lost in happy moments she’d never possess as memories, she barely registered his weight on top of her. felt the head of his cock at her entrance and braced herself for what was next, but it never came.
Instead of him thrusting into her dry body, there was a muted pop. Brent jerked, warm liquid splashed on her face, then his full weight was crushing her. Instantly, she stopped crying and went deathly still.
Comprehension was not hers. still didn’t understand what had happened when he was rolled off of her.
“Jesus, honey, am I too late?” It was a barely audible question. Carl looked at Brent, then down at her bare crotch, before falling into a coughing fit.
couldn’t speak, she just started shaking her head vigorously and bawling. After a few moments, she found her voice.
“No, Mr. Griffith. You stopped him. Thank you. Thank you so much.” She was shaking uncontrollably.
Carl eased her into a sitting position and gently scolded her.
“None of that Mr. Griffith nonsense, child.” Carl fumbled with the shirt on her wrists before finally freeing them. Her teeth were chattering from the adrenaline dump.
Rubbing her wrists, she looked into Carl’s eyes. He was holding Hook’s T-shirt toward her with his eyes averted, and she threw her arms around him, shaking.
“Thank you. I owe you my life. I thought for sure…” She trailed off as Carl gently nudged her back and slipped Hook’s shirt over her head, pulling her arms through like he was dressing a toddler.
He fell back on his ass from his squatted position, reaching for her leggings that were around her calves.
“You don’t owe me nothin’, sweetheart. Let’s get these righted, okay?” Carl’s voice was normally rough, even more so with the chronic coughing. At the moment, it was even more gentle than when he was dealing with June.
managed to get her leggings pulled up with Carl’s assistance. Her hands were shaking so badly, there was no way she could’ve done it alone.
“Carl?”
“Damn it, Linda. Don’t you dare come in here. I told you to stay home and call the cops in fifteen minutes and not a minute before.” He succumbed to another coughing fit.
“Sorry, I had to know that she’s all right.”
Carl looked at , unable to speak between coughs. “I’m fine, Mrs. Griffith, thanks to your husband.”
Carl’s coughing died down, and he spoke to the door. “Go back home, Linda, my love, and call the cops in five minutes now.”
“I love you,” Linda whispered through the half-opened door. heard the sadness in her voice and her feet shuffling away.
“Can you drive, ?”
“What?” She couldn’t understand. There was a dead body, and Linda calling the cops, why would she need to drive?
Before she could ask him why, Linda shouted.
“Carl. The Bastards are here.”
“Even better.”
“Hook?” didn’t realize how much she needed him to hold her and tell her everything would be okay until that was an immediate possibility.
“Yeah, sweetheart, your ol’ man is here. He’ll take good care of you.”
“In there,” she heard Linda say just from the porch.
She stood on shaky legs. The second she caught a glimpse of Hook, she slammed into him so hard he grunted. He wrapped her in his strong arms and didn’t let go. He didn’t silence her sobs or try to direct her emotions. He just let her feel what she felt. He was good at that.
Hook angled them so she couldn’t see Brent, but she watched the other men in the room over his shoulder. Zombie clasped Carl’s hand in his.
“We’re in your debt for protecting what’s ours. We can erase all traces and take the trash out. The gun clean?” She followed Zombie’s nod to where the gun sat on the carpet next to where she’d been just moments ago.
“Gun’s legit, don’t need no cleaners. Get my girl and your club out of here. Linda’s going to call the pigs in about two minutes now. I’ll meet them chin high.”
What?
scrambled out of Hook’s arms. “Carl, no. I can’t let you go to jail for me. I’ll stay and explain. It was self-defense.”
Carl just shook his head.
“Then, then, let them fix it. Go home and enjoy chili night.” couldn’t let Carl pay the price for her stupidity.
“Sweetheart. Look at me.” When she met his gaze, he smiled at her. “I’ve got maybe two months. Two months that’ll cost my ol’ lady the rest of our savings just to keep me comfortable.”
“But—”
“But nothing. The great state of Utah can foot that bill while I’m waiting for a trial that I’ll never make it to. Plus, if I let your ol’ man’s club clean it, you’ll have to pretend the human trash bag is still out there somewhere. And while he didn’t deserve the freedom his death brought, you and that precious child do. Go live the life you deserve, free of that son of a bitch.”
nodded and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for being a father and grandfather to us.”
Carl scooped up the picnic blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders, and led her to the door. He stopped in front of Linda, who was lingering at the threshold as he’d instructed her not to.
“You and June are our family in every way that matters.” Linda nodded her agreement. Neither of them said the rest, but she knew it because they reminded her often. Family takes care of family.
Carl let go of and stepped just outside, wrapping his wife in a hug. stepped back into Hook’s embrace, not wanting to intrude on their private moment. Linda was sacrificing more than anyone. She and Carl had been together for over forty years. She’d often told she couldn’t remember her life before Carl.
Carl cleared his throat. “Go on home, love, open the garage, then make that call before it’s too late.” Linda nodded and turned to leave. Carl watched her from the door for a few seconds before turning back around.
“If it’s okay with you, Prez?” Carl was asking Zombie something didn’t understand, but Zombie nodded. “Hook, pull your sled into our garage, keep it from prying eyes so you can drive my daughter out of here. The rest of you should get gone too. It’s about to get very porky soon.” He chuckled a little.
Hook released and approached Carl. He clapped his hand and pulled the older man into an embrace. “I can’t ever thank you enough for taking care of my family, and not just tonight. I’ll be returning that favor. Linda will want for nothing. She’s our family now too, and we take care of what’s ours.”
“Normally, I’d say you don’t owe me a thing, but I ain’t too proud to accept on Linda’s behalf. It’ll do me good knowing she’ll be cared for.” Hook stepped outside, and she heard his motorcycle fire up and pull into the garage next door.
ignored the conversation between Zombie and Carl about connections on the inside.
“Let’s ride,” Zombie declared, and the club filed out, mounting their bikes.
Hook was leading out the door when she remembered… “My phone. I dropped it, it’s here somewhere.”
“Shit,” Carl declared. “Better find it quick because Linda is obedient, and the pigs’ll be en route.”
The three of them searched frantically, when Carl coughed, “Got it.”
He handed it to her as the sound of sirens in the distance wailed. “Here, go.”
Hook was dragging her out when she ran back and gave Carl a quick hug before they rushed to her car and drove off.
Looking down at the phone, she could see it was recording. When she thought she might die and that a recording would be the only closure Hook might get, she’d hoped for just that scenario.
With it having been under the couch the whole time, she had no idea about the sound quality, but after what transpired with her and Brent and with Carl, she worried it could be used against them. It proved who killed Brent and who was there at the time and after. She also never wanted Hook to hear those words, putting those visions in his head to keep all the others company.
She pressed the stop circle and stared at the phone until the screen went dark. continued to swipe the screen each time it powered down, bringing up the delete option. Her thumb hovered over the trash icon each time.
“Come on, babe.” She was so numb that she didn’t realize they had pulled up at the apartment.
“Why are we here? I need to hold my daughter, Hook, please.”
“I promise, I’ll get you to her as soon as possible. But she can’t see you like this.” He thumbed at the dried blood on her cheek. flinched away. The hurt in Hook’s eyes almost killed her. He dropped his hand and his gaze before helping her from the car.
She wanted to shout that it wasn’t what he thought. She wanted his touch, needed it, and craved it to erase Brent’s, but she had to get the dried semen off her. She couldn’t imagine letting Hook touch that.