Chapter 50
CHAPTER 50
BETH
I haven’t spoken to Casey since the fight, where I told her to come to me if she needed help or if Martin hurt her. I never expected her to actually do it or know where my mom’s house was. I figured she would find me at school or at one of Nigel’s matches, but since she went to my mother’s house, that must mean she’s in real danger.
I know the danger isn’t Martin. He would never hurt her or anyone else, but the question is: What the hell happened?
I don’t know what’s going on or the real reason for the visit. All Aimee said when she called me was that Casey was upset, disheveled, and adamant about talking to me. I would never turn away someone begging for help, but I won’t know what she needs help with until I see her.
I’m not going to give anything away to Nigel until I know how to help or what Casey needs.
As soon as we pull up to my house, I have to beg him to go get some food and coffee for everyone. One, we need space, and two, I’m starving and exhausted.
He finally concedes and leaves, so I hurry to the front door, throwing it open. Aimee meets me immediately and is frantic. It must’ve been so scary for her to have someone pounding on the door when she has no idea that no one is looking for her anymore.
“Calm down and breathe, okay?” I say as I gently press my hands to her arms, and she slowly nods, doing as instructed.
“Who is she?” Aimee presses.
I frown. “She’s your brother’s ex-girlfriend.” Aimee’s eyes snap open wide. “I told her if she ever needed help, I’d help her. Something bad must’ve happened for her to come here.”
“What can I do?” Aimee pleads with her doe eyes, her hands clasped in front of her to show how sincere she is.
“Nigel went to get food. Can you stall him when he gets back? I don’t know how much privacy she needs.”
Her eyes flash with uncertainty, but then they steel with determination. “Absolutely. I’ll guard the door.” She nods along with her words, and my body relaxes.
“Thank you,” I say before dashing down the hall.
Once I enter the living room, the sound of the front door shutting hits me, and I take in Casey pacing the room, chewing on her fingernails.
“Casey,” I mutter her name, and her head snaps around, her body relaxing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…intrude, but you said to come to you if I needed help. I had nowhere else to go. Martin knows me too well. He knows anywhere else I would go, and his father won’t listen to me. He just won’t fucking listen! My body, my choice. My body, my fucking choice!” Her words all run together so tightly that I can barely understand the words coming out of her mouth.
“Casey!” Gripping her arms in my hands, I stop her pacing and gain her attention. “Take a breath and tell me what’s going on. I can’t help if I don’t have the full picture, okay?”
She takes a slow, deep breath, filling her lungs before slowly releasing the air, then her eyes open, pleading with me. “They want me to have an abortion.”
I blanched for a moment at her words. “You’re pregnant?”
She nods. “By Martin.” Her bottom lip trembles.
It’s a knife to the chest as I flinch.
I was not expecting this, but really, what did I expect? I told Martin I was going back to Nigel. We weren’t even dating, not officially anyway. He was fully within his right to start things back up with Casey, but some stupid part of me thought he might wait.
Martin Gray may be one of the best men I’ve ever known, but he’s still just a man.
“I thought he would be okay with it, but he freaked when I told him about the baby. His parents got involved, and they demanded I have an abortion. They said a bastard child was the last thing they needed, and if I ever wanted to be a part of their family, I needed to put them first. I tried reasoning with them. I’m okay with getting married to hide that I got pregnant out of wedlock. I come from a religious family so, I totally get it, but they wouldn’t budge. Nolan said if I don’t do it, he’ll drag me to a clinic kicking and screaming and force them to do it. They want to take my baby away from me. Please, Beth. I don’t know what to do.”
Nolan? Is that Martin’s father?
In this situation, my mother would have a lot to say. She would say abortion is against our religion and a sin, but she would also say it’s a family matter and not to get involved.
I am involved. Casey came to me, and I could never turn her away, knowing how much she needs help. Plus, this is Martin’s baby. My involvement is more than skin deep.
I’m not against abortion, but I do believe that Casey has the right to make that choice herself. No one should ever be forced into something like that, and I’m pretty sure anyone on either side of the Pro-Choice/Pro-Life debate would agree with me on that front.
“Did he hurt you?” I ask.
Casey flinches at my question. “Don’t make me answer that. I love Martin, and I don’t want anything to happen to him or anyone he cares about.”
“Not Martin,” I press. “I meant his father. Did he hurt you?”
She just stares at me, pleading in her eyes for me not to push any more.
I sigh with irritation. All she has to do is tell me and he would be on the chopping block. Then, Martin would also be safe. I get it, though. I have hidden abuse to protect people, too.
Casey grew up in Grove Hill. She may not know what the Bastards do to people, but she knows that something will happen if she confirms that he has hurt her physically. She wants to protect him, and I can’t fault her for that. I did the same thing for my mom.
“Okay. Do you have any family out of state?”
“No. All of my family and friends are here.”
“Give me a minute to figure something out, okay?”
She nods, and I make a bunch of calls before coming up with a plan of action for Casey.
* * *
Teigan’s family doesn’t have much, but they know I’m desperate if I call for help. They agreed to house Casey until she has her baby, and then they’ll help her get her own place. When I explained the situation to Nigel, he demanded more information, but there’s only so much I can give out. I’m not involved other than helping Casey escape the Gray patriarch’s clutches.
If I could help Martin escape, too, I would.
Nigel gave me the keys to his truck so I could take Casey to the bus station downtown, and the drive was uneventful.
“Thank you,” she whispers in the silent cab as we pull up to the Greyhound station, and she hugs the small backpack I gave her with a few essentials since she couldn’t go home to her father’s trailer.
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do. I’ve been nothing but a royal bitch to you, and you didn’t turn me or my babies away.” Her face falls.
Yeah, but I get it. From her perspective, I came into town as her and Nigel were fizzling out and stole him. Then did the same thing to her and Martin. That’s not the truth of the matter, but that’s how it appears to her.
“Did you say babies? As in twins?”
A smile rises across her lips. “Yeah. The doctor said they’re fraternal twins. I can already imagine having a boy and a girl,” she gushes as she lovingly touches her stomach.
“That would be a handful. What will you name them?” I ask, my voice low.
“Connor and Kaylee. I’d give Connor his father’s last name, but my mom was the most important person to me growing up, so I’d want my daughter to have her maiden name. Connor Gray and Kaylee Masters.”
“Such nice names.”
Out of nowhere, Casey throws her arms around me and pulls me into a tight embrace, which I return.
“I’ll send you updates.” Then, she pulls back and climbs out of the truck, waving to me as she disappears into the bus station and leaves me alone.
Even though Delaney and Teigan are still in the area, their parents will be waiting for Casey when she arrives, and they’ll help her get settled.
* * *
I feel bad that I haven’t been spending time with Delaney and Teigan, but I really needed to catch up on my sleep, and luckily, Nigel is working on some sort of business plan to open up a body shop with a friend of his named Frank so he doesn’t need to go into the ring so often.
Once I wake up, I text Teigan, lying about having a horrible bout of insomnia last night to explain my absence. Then, I climb out of bed and slip on a pair of Nigel’s boxers under the shirt of his I’m also wearing.
Glancing at the clock, I note the time before I slip out of the room. It’s ten at night, and the entire house is blanketed in dark silence. It’s so…odd. I make my way down the stairs and welcome the creaking floorboard as the melody to my steps until I make it down the hall on the first floor.
I don’t know why I’m walking this way until I reach the last door at the end of the hall, and blue light peeks out from under the door.
My heart shudders. He’s awake.
Before I can fully comprehend the consequences of what I’m doing, I knock on his door. The lack of noise greets me, and I almost leave until I hear the faint footsteps on the other side. He doesn’t call out to see who is here. It’s almost like he knows it's me and is thinking the same things.
The knob turns, and the door opens as those normally dead eyes stare straight into my soul. Oliver leans against the door frame, a pair of sleep pants hanging dangerously low off his waist, revealing the tempting V in his hips, his tattooed chest on full display.
We haven’t spoken since our talk in the car, and I’ve been avoiding even looking at him since, but now there’s an even bigger pull between us.
I don’t say anything, and he doesn’t need me to.
Without even flexing a muscle, Ollie grabs my shirt and pulls me into him, my body flush against his. Tears fill my eyes as my feet pass the threshold and onto the black carpet of his room.
He pulled me into his room. No one ever comes in here, even the guys, and he let me invade his space. Moreover, he invited me in. The muscle in my chest somersaults as he presses my back against the closed door, blocking me in.
“Oliver,” I whimper his name, and he softly shushes me, running his fingers down my back.
His breath ghosts across my skin, warming me. My fingers investigate his tattoos, testing out the lines and color patterns against my skin, and god, he feels like heaven and hell on a collision course.
I moan as he tugs down the boxers barely clinging onto my waist. He growls, running kisses down my throat as he works my shirt up my stomach, his calloused fingers scraping at my sensitive skin, prickling with awareness.
“Oliver, I lov–” His finger presses to my lips, stopping me in my tracks, as I work at the tie of his pants. My emotions overwhelm me with every moment inside his space and every touch.
“Don’t say it,” he whispers before pressing his lips to mine for a needy kiss that makes my toes curl. “Don’t tell me that right now. Hold onto that until you’re no longer his. Tell me when you’re completely mine, baby.” He takes another commanding, deep kiss as his pants fall to the floor, and his naked body presses against mine, holding me captive.
I want to say it to him and I’ve never said those three little words to any man. I want to tell him, but I’ll give him that one request. I’ll hold it in even though it twists my insides like no tomorrow.
I cling to him as I reciprocate every kiss, every touch, every breath. I feel like I’m floating, yet Oliver keeps me from flying away.
He lays me on the bed and moves over my body without releasing my mouth, settling himself between my thighs.
“You’re just as fucking crazy as I am,” he mutters huskily as he lifts my leg and slides his cock inside me.
My body arches into his intrusion, and I cry out from how good he feels. His entrance irritates my already raw cunts and I fucking love the sensation of stabbing pricks with every inch inside me.
“Definitely, and you’re batshit,” I mumble as he presses inside me again, his body molding to mine like a glove. His mouth hovers over mine as he drives into me, and my jaw slacks with pleasure.
“Fucking certifiable.”
“Yeah–oh, fuuck–that word.”
A smirk covers his mouth before he teases mine with tantalizing licks, his tongue gliding over my bottom lip. His big cock ruts into me again, so hard stars burst behind my eyelids, and I scream from how good it feels. And he hasn’t made me orgasm yet. It’s just so…electric. My entire body is alight with kinetic energy, and I can’t help digging my nails into his skin.
“Kiss me, you fucking psycho.” I can’t take the teasing anymore.
His mouth crashes down on mine as he takes more of me, gaining momentum with each thrust of his hips, and my pelvis rocks into each move he delivers. Grabbing the headboard for leverage, he gets harder and more resilient in his pursuit for closeness.
“Oh, my fucking God. Oliver!” I scream as I wrench my mouth away from his, my head spinning from the ecstasy.
“Be a good girl and come apart all over my cock…Just like that, beautiful. Come like the goddess you are. Fuuuuck!”