CHAPTER ELEVEN
brIAR
Ten Years Ago
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“I still think he was better in Speed,” I say as Aidan takes my hand and we walk out of the movie theater.
“You kidding me? As John Wick, Keanu’s way more badass.” Adian tsks me as if my words are blasphemous.
Which makes sense, as I’m sure he thinks Keanu is a god.
I shiver as the night air hits us, and he glances down, then stops and wraps his leather jacket over my shoulders.
I swear this man makes me swoon with every move he makes. No wonder I can’t get enough of him.
He’s so handsome.
His short, wavy, dark hair frames his bright blue eyes and square jaw. He’s broader, taller, and overall, just bigger than the boys I went to high school with.
He’s just finished college and talking about going into the military.
I am excited for him.
College wasn’t an option for me, but I’m really proud of myself for finding a personal assistant role a week after finishing high school. I’ve been there six months and love it.
That’s how I met Aidan.
One Friday night after work, I went to a local restaurant and he was there. He watched me for over an hour before finally coming over to talk to me.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, leaning on the partition next to me.
“What for?” I asked, praying my cheeks weren’t burning red.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said, twisting to face me and indicating with his chin out across the restaurant. “I was talking to everyone else.”
I frowned.
“I’m sorry. She’s going to fall in love with me, so you all missed out.” He grinned at me stupidly.
What?
The confidence of this man.
But I laughed because he was so damn ridiculous. Lucky for him, he asked me things about myself and the conversation over the rest of the night was interesting and funny.
And I found myself wishing he’d kiss me.
He didn’t.
He saw me home in a cab and asked for my number. Then, we started dating.
For a few months Aidan took me out for dinners, on lazy Sunday drives, to the movies, to meet his mom and dad, to the beach...you name it, we did it.
He kissed me on our first date, and it was everything I ever dreamed of. Slow, delicious, and like an entrée to the best meal you ever had.
We had waited.
Not because I’d wanted to, but because Aidan wanted me to be sure. So there were a lot of one- and two-base nights. But regardless of how far we went, afterward I always found myself lying in his arms, feeling so blissfully happy.
Safe.
Adored.
“Briar,” he whispered roughly to me one night.
I placed my hand over his as our eyes twinkled in the natural flickering light.
“Yes.”
“You’re mine forever. You know that, right?”
“Am I?” I whispered, almost dying from happiness.
“Yes. You wait. I’ll show you.” Then he pulled me closer and took my mouth again.
I knew that night I was falling in love with him.
But there was always this dark cloud. The lie I never told him about who I really was.
A little girl with a secret.
A home I desperately needed to escape from.
I was working hard to save money so I could move out, and it felt like time was running out. Dad had already started asking more questions when I said I was staying at a friend’s place for the night.
He’d seen Aidan’s car, but I hadn’t introduced them. I told Aidan I didn’t want my parents to know about him just yet. That they were quite controlling, and I’d rather wait until we knew we were serious.
Which was not far from the truth.
But we were serious, and I didn’t want my father to scare him off.
“No. No!” I cried one night when my father demanded to meet him. He’d gripped my arm so tightly I thought it was going to break.
So tonight Aidan came to the door to collect me. Dad was sober, and I swear I was trembling.
There’s a reason I chose a Monday night. Because Dad usually didn’t drink on that day. Although he didn’t need alcohol to go into one of his terrifying rages.
It was just how he was.
He told us it was because of the money. Always worrying about paying the bills and that we didn’t understand the burden. What I didn’t understand was why he turned into a monster, but my mom, who also worked to pay the bills, didn’t.
Actually I wondered about that when I was younger. Now I’m older, I think he enjoys it. Enjoys scaring us. Enjoys controlling us.
Moving out is my only focus and I’m close.
Hopefully before Aidan finds out. I’d rather tell him once I’m out of there and can show him I’m not that girl anymore.
So far, I’ve been able to explain all my wounds.
I’ve had numerous broken bones, bruises, and one concussion throughout the years. Mom taught me how to hide the evidence with makeup and clothing.
It’s fucked up, but it’s our life.
I’m about five hundred dollars away from getting my own place. I have a plan. If Aidan joins the military, as he says he wants to, then he’ll go away for training for a few months—so he tells me—and by the time he’s back, I’ll be moved.
He'll never need to know about what Dad does.
I can’t lose him...I’m falling in love with him.
“So, what are your intentions with my daughter?” My father asked when I introduced them earlier tonight. I watched them both grip the other's hand painfully.
Aidan blinked, and I guess he squeezed tighter because my father pulled his hand away.
Fuck.
I bit the side of my cheek and waited.
“Just taking her to the movies and then dropping her home,” Aidan had replied. “Sir.”
Definitely felt like that last part had been forced.
Dad glared at him as my eyes darted between them.
“By midnight.” Aidan then added.
“Make it eleven.”
“Okay, bye Dad. My god,” I said, pushing Aidan down the path. “I’ll be home then.”
Jesus.
I was eighteen.
He never said anything when we drove to the movies or during, but I feel like he has questions. Or at least a point of view about my father’s dominant nature.
But he still hasn’t said anything.
Aidan opens the door to his car, and I climb in. When he circles around and shuts his own door, he immediately reaches over and takes my hand.
Touch is definitely his love language.
I think it might be mine too.
We smile at one another, and he leans in and kisses me.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I smile at him adoringly.
Last week, we finally made love, and it was the most special night of my life.
I know without a shadow of doubt he is the man I want to spend my life with.
My plan has to work.
He starts the car and adjusts the heat, then puts his hand on the headrest behind me.
“Sure I can’t talk you into staying at my place tonight? I can drop you at work in the morning.”
I shake my head and let out a short laugh. “You just met my dad. Do you want him to hunt you down and kill you?”
“Preferably not.” He winks, then turns to the steering wheel and starts to drive. “You are eighteen. Nearly nineteen.”
I know.
But my father doesn’t care about that.
His fist doesn’t care.
“I can say I’m staying at one of the girls’ places again this weekend. Friday. I’m sure you can wait a few more days.” I reach out and run my hand over his thigh.
He stills my hand. “Not if you do that.”
I giggle.
“I’m sorry,” I say after a few minutes.
“Don’t be sorry. I just want you. I want you with me every minute of every day.”
My face heats with joy.
God, this man. I love him so much.
We pull up outside my house and I see the living room lights on. A bad feeling rushes through me, and my instincts are screaming to tell Aidan to drive us both away.
I turn to Aidan as he goes to open his door.
“Do you mind saying goodbye here?” I ask, grabbing his arm.
His brows lift.
“My mother would kick my ass. She taught me to walk a girl to her door. I’m a southern boy, darlin’.”
Don’t I know it.
I smile softly, even while panic thrums inside me.
“Just this once.” I lay a hand on his cheek. “I’ll see you on Wednesday at lunch.”
He reaches out and pulls half my body across the console between us and kisses me like it’s the last time we ever will.
I’ll look back at that kiss a million times, but I don’t know it yet.
“Go, you crazy man.” I slap his solid chest as I laugh and climb out of the car.
I run along the path and up the steps and turn back to see Aidan watching me. Protecting me. Making sure I get inside safely. Little does he know, inside is where the danger lies.
When I turn and open the front door, I hear his car drive away.
The screen door shuts, and before I have time to close the front door, Dad steps out of the living room.
“Got yourself a big boyfriend, did you?” he snarls, and I notice the bottle hanging in his hand by his side.
“Yes. You met him tonight, remember?” I say carefully.
Is he so drunk that he’s forgotten?
“Did you tell him about our family? Is that why he shook my hand so tightly? A threat?”
What?
Oh god. Aidan, why didn’t you just let him have that one thing?
“No. I haven’t told anyone. No one,” I reply and start shaking. “Dad, just go to bed.”
I try to walk around him.
Sometimes this works and he lets me go. Not often, but it’s always a good idea to leave the room and try to escape.
“Don’t you talk to me like that, young lady. You come here. I don’t want you seeing that man anymore. He’s too old for you.” He reaches for my arm as he had a few days before and the pain is more than normal.
I think I pull a muscle.
I try not to make a sound because it just makes it worse, but the contrast of my father hurting me and Aidan loving me is becoming so obvious. I’m starting to see just how bad a man my father is.
Love doesn’t look like this.
“Dad, please. Stop!”
“Stop. Stop? Is that what you said to him in the car when he had his hands on you?” He spits and pushes me against the wall.
“Mom!” I cry.
Being cornered is dangerous. It’s late and she is probably asleep, but I know she’ll have heard him yelling.
“Leave your mother out of this.” He slaps me.
Ouch.
My face burns as Mom appears, looking sleepy and as scared as I am. My eyes plead with her silently.
“Gareth. Let her go. Let her go!” she cries.
I’m sobbing as his hand goes around my throat and he pushes me up the wall.
“Your slut of a daughter let that man touch her. Did he have his hands under your skirt, you little fucking slut?”
Boom!