41. Forty-One
FORTY-ONE
H arley
“Why would you hit her?” Arthur asks.
“Because she kicked me!” Leroy hisses.
I smile, feeling the blood drip from my nose. I did kick him. Despite the way my muscles are screaming in agony, I landed a solid kick right between his legs.
My entire body feels heavy. Sweat drips from my skin and as much as I want to stay alert, I can’t stop my eyes from drooping shut. If it weren’t for the rope keeping me bound to this chair, I’d fall out of it.
Every shallow breath that leaves my lungs is echoed with an even weaker beat of my heart. Leroy had to have given me more of whatever paralytic he used than necessary. It’s the only thing that would explain why I can’t even lift my head.
“Arthur,” my mother croons, his name rolling off her lips in a way that makes me nauseous. “Be a dear and fill my glass, will you?”
I shift my eyes to the right, looking at them in my peripheral. She places her hand on his chest in a loving way, smiling up at him with a pinched smile. My stomach tightens, and I barely manage to lean to the right and puke all over the floor.
“Leroy, please go fetch a maid to clean up Harley’s mess,” my mother sneers at me.
Lifting my head a fraction of an inch, I barely manage to get the words out. “Are you fucking him?”
Arthur stops just before the door that disappears into the kitchen. I don’t look at him, holding my mother’s glare as I wait for her to answer. She rises from her seat, walking toward me with calculated steps.
“Took you long enough to figure it out,” she clips out. “While your father likes to have a flavor of the week, I’ve spent years teaching Arthur exactly how I like it.”
I can’t stop myself from puking again. Only this time, it lands right on top of my mothers feet. Her palm connects with my cheek and blood fills my mouth.
“I just bought these heels!” she hisses.
I drag my head away from her, turning it toward where my father sits at the opposite end of the table. The room spins as I try to focus on him. He stares at me with unveiled disgust. Trying to convince myself this is all a very bad dream, I squeeze my eyes shut.
This can’t be real. It can’t be happening. Any second now, I’ll wake up to the feel of Jax’s arm wrapping around me and pulling me into his chest.
“How much longer?” I hear my father ask absently.
“Maybe fifteen minutes,” Leroy replies.
“Fifteen minutes until what?” I croak.
When no one answers, I jerk my arms against the rope. My hands are completely numb at this point. I’m too disoriented to even comprehend the severity of my situation.
“Fifteen minutes until fucking what?” I demand, peeling my eyes open to look at Leroy.
“Until your little boyfriend and his pack show up to save you,” Leroy states with a sinister smile.
No .
My heart sinks as I realize what they did.
They’ve set their trap.
And they’ve used me as the bait.
“Why would you do this?” I whisper, dragging my attention back to my father.
“Because it’s time you learned your place in this family,” he says with a sneer.
“Learned my place?” I ask, a tear rolling down my cheek. “I never had a place in this family.”
My father sits back in his chair, interlocking his fingers together on the table in front of him. “After tonight, you’ll be dropping out of school. You won’t need a degree. Leroy here requires a wife that will provide him with children and be a homemaker.”
“Y-you want me to marry Leroy?” I rasp. “He hit me! You watched him hit me!”
“And it won’t be the last time. It seems letting the nannies raise you was a poor choice on my part,” he states coldly.
I can feel Leroy’s eyes on me. It makes me want to puke all over again. “Is that why mom set up that date?”
“You mean the date you walked out on after no more than ten minutes?” Leroy mutters.
Baring my teeth at him, I hiss, “The one where you wanted to take my virginity by fucking me in the pub bathroom?”
In a low growl, he says, “Stone is a dead man for taking what belonged to me.”
“I’ll never belong to someone as pathetic as you,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “If anyone is dying for taking another’s belongings, it’s you .”
His lip curls and he snaps, “You better watch how you talk to me.”
“Get me a mirror. I bet it’s a sight worth seeing.”
Leroy kicks his chair back, rounding the table to tower over me. Using every last bit of strength I have left, I lift my chin. He doesn’t scare me, and even if he did—I would never let him see it.
Grabbing me by the hair, he pulls my head back hard enough that I have to hold back a wince. “It’s going to be so fun beating you into submission, Harley Thomas.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see something move outside the window. Hope sparks in my chest. As a slow smile spreads across my face, I murmur, “I’d like to see you try.”
Sharp pain radiates from my cheek down to my chin as his fist connects with the side of my face. Not even a second later, glass rains down on me and all I see is a mass of dark fur colliding with Leroy. They crash down on the table and split the wood.
In the process, they knock me over in the chair. I brace for the impact as gravity pulls me down, but the force of hitting the floor makes it impossible to hold out my cry of pain. My vision becomes hazy, making my stomach lurch again. I can feel blood dripping from my head in tandem with the steady flow coming from my nose.
I squeeze my eyes shut, listening to the shouting and the answering growls. When I force them open, I try to take in as much as I can. I count five sets of paws and two sets of feet. But the chaos unfolding doesn’t last long.
The sound of three gunshots fills the air. My ears ring, barely registering the loud whimper that follows. When I search the floor, I feel the dread sink into my bones. Leroy’s vacant stare is the first thing I see.
The next thing I see is dark eyes and dark fur as Jax pants heavily from the middle of a growing pool of blood.