Release Me – By Vi Summers #5
Beckett scoffed and popped a smirk. “’Cause I am, Merce.”
My focus dropped to his chest, adorned with more ink, some old and some I hadn’t seen before.
“Turn around,” I whispered. “What else do you have?”
He spread his arms wide and slowly turned. “I’m only turning because I trust you.”
The low comment filled my heart with sadness. “Is it as bad as they say?”
“Is what as bad?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Jail.”
His expression said it all: it was hellish. “It’s a burden I won’t ever share with you, baby. I had it bad some days, but definitely not the worst.”
My heart sank. “I’m so sorry, Beckett.”
He shrugged and turned to face me again. “My actions killed someone, Merce. One could say I deserved it, right?”
“We were young and dumb,” I stated. “No one holds it against you, or any of us for that matter. It was an accident. He shouldn’t have been walking down the middle of the road in the middle of the night.”
Beckett rounded the bed and kicked out of his jeans but didn’t climb in. “I know. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I chose to get behind the wheel while drunk. I could have killed everyone in the car too. You. Scout. Alexis. Jury.”
I flicked back the blankets, silently inviting him between the covers. “Did you keep in contact with anyone aside from Scout?”
Beckett’s sharp gaze connected with mine. “How do you know we kept in contact?”
“He mentioned it at the pub tonight.”
His eyes narrowed. “What else did he say?”
“Just asked if I’d heard from you, which I hadn’t yet.”
“Ah, okay. And I’m sorry for scaring you. I just didn’t want you to hear that I was back in town secondhand. In hindsight, coming at you in the dead of night wasn’t the best idea.”
I snickered and lay down as he slid in beside me. “You literally scared the fuck out of me. Not once, but twice!”
“Sorry, babe. You were crazy jumpy though. And what was up with the cop creepin’ around? You in some kinda trouble?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Always is. Talk to me, Merce.”
We turned on our sides, facing each other, and I smiled as Beckett’s hand touched my cheek.
“I started dating Landon last year. I’ve had issues with him since I dumped him three months ago.”
Beckett’s head left the pillow. “You dated Landon Rathband? Babe, what were you thinking?”
“Don’t judge me,” I snapped. “That was my attempt to move on. What a fucking disaster.”
Beckett resettled and pulled me close. “No judgment, babe. I’m just surprised that’s all. He always seemed a little… unhinged.”
As if wanting to erase Landon from my mind, Beckett pulled me in and anchored me against his body. A deep, satisfied sigh deflated his chest when I kissed it, and my fingers trailed along the side of Beckett’s inked torso.
“Apparently I have a thing for bad boys,” I deadpanned.
“Dating Landon started off like dating anyone else, but he soon became controlling and verbally abusive. Despite having good and bad days, his behavior slowly escalated over a year. I left once but stupidly went back when he promised to do better. He hit me soon after that. It was the first and only time, and it was so terrifying that I packed and left in the middle of the night.”
“The fuck!” Beckett roared, sitting up in bed and absolutely seething. His amber eyes burned with hatred I’d never seen before. His body vibrated with a fury so profound that the temperature beneath the blankets shot high.
“He fucking laid his hands on you in anger? I’m gonna fucking kill the bastard. No one breaks what’s mine.”
“I wasn’t yours at the time,” I muttered.
“Doesn’t fucking matter. What’d he do? Split your lip? Bruise your cheek?”
Trepidation-laced tears gathered in my eyes. “Worse. We started arguing over something minor, and he just snapped for no reason when I talked back. He elbowed me in the mouth and busted my teeth.”
Utter devastation echoed through Beckett’s crumbling expression. “Oh, baby.”
Shaking my head, I willed the emotions to settle and confessed: “I lost these two—” I ran a manicured finger along a front tooth and a lateral incisor, “—so I now have to wear a plate with fake teeth. I’ve only just stopped lisping when I talk.”
Beckett unexpectedly hung his head and chuckled.
“It’s not fucking funny!” I snapped.
His eyes met mine from under his brows. “It’s not. But you know what is?”
“What?”
A little smirk formed on his mouth. “We match.” He reached into his mouth and, with a gentle tug, unclipped a denture plate that held three teeth.
My wide, stricken eyes bore into his. “Oh my God! When did that happen?”
“A handful of years ago. Got in a fight, lost some teeth, split my brow pretty bad.” He pointed to the eyebrow that had a healed silver scar above it.
A twinge cut through my chest. “Aww, Beckett. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Shit happens.”
I coaxed him to lie down again and tucked him close. I needed the connection—it helped with confessing what else had gone down.
“Tonight at the pub, Landon assaulted me again. Stupid move, really, doing it on a night when we were at max capacity. Fields choked him out, then stomped on his fingers. Reed has urged me to press charges in the morning. I will this time.”
Beckett’s fingers flexed on my waist. “You didn’t last time?”
“No. I thought he’d learned his lesson by losing me. He’s been stalking me though, and after him turning up at the LP tonight, Constable Locklear escorted me home to ensure I was safe.”
Beckett hummed. “Yeah, I heard him calling out. No way was I going to show myself. That scream of yours, though, could have woke the dead, Merce.”
“I almost peed!”
He chuckled and ran his fingers through my long hair. “I’m glad it was me lurking in the shadows and not Landon.”
“Same, Beck.”
I snuggled closer and kissed the base of his throat. “You smell different.”
Another sleepy chuckle came. “So do you.”
With his fingers rhythmically combing through my dark locks, I soon grew dozy.
Protected and mercifully able to relax after months of being wound so tight it left me with muscle aches, I let out a bliss-filled sigh.
Beckett’s strokes paused. He swallowed thickly before murmuring, “Come to Montana with me, Merce. Let’s start fresh, just you’n me.”
Despite wanting to leave Gatlin Falls for so long, I was also terrified out of my mind. This place was all I’d ever known but had become less heaven and more hell.
“When do I need to decide?” I whispered, mulling it over in my mind.
Beckett’s lips pressed to my temple. “Whenever you’re ready, baby.”
With that, he climbed from bed and went about turning off the music, then all the lights in the house. Once dark, he returned to bed and engulfed me in a protective embrace.
“You’re safe now,” came his whisper through the darkness.
And you know what? For the first time since escaping Landon, I finally believed I was safe in the shadows.
Beckett
I lay awake long after Mercedes fell asleep in my arms, wildly pissed about Landon laying his fucking hands on her in anger.
That motherfucker messed with the wrong girl.
And even though technically Mercedes hadn’t been my girl from the moment I sent her that Dear John letter, I couldn’t change the way I felt about her.
Fuck knows I’d tried to forget her, to let her be free to find a path that didn’t involve me but look where that got her.
Beat up. Scared. Paranoid. And nothing but a shade of her former confident self.
My baby had been broken, and I was gonna a) make Landon pay one way or another, and b) fix Mercedes in any way I could.
My chest ached for what she’d been through.
I’d seen and done shit in prison that I’d take to my grave.
I’d drawn blood, had my own bled, beat a brother up, and held others down during attacks, but what Landon did to Merce turned my gut a thousand times over.
I’d make him pay at the first opportunity I got.
The angel in my arms meant more to me than anyone and anything else in the world. I sure as fuck wouldn’t make the mistake of not fighting hard enough for her a second time.
My arms tightened around Mercedes, and my worries turned into regrets over forcing her into that situation. If I’d just been selfish and not pushed her away, maybe it would have been different. Maybe she would have ended up happy with a guy worthy of her time instead of a deadbeat like Landon.
Predatory arousal began to gather. I’d tried to keep it suppressed—I didn’t come here just for a fuck—but the more my hands slowly traced over Mercedes’s sleeping body, the harder my dick ached to claim her.
As a tortured groan knotted in my throat, I rolled her onto her back and hovered above her, caging her with my body.
A sleepy mumble came from her mouth while her hands grazed down my bare ribcage.
I hadn’t been touched by a woman in so long, and the slightest brush of her fingernails across my skin had me hissing a curse and hankering for her pussy.
“Let me take you, Merce,” I whispered against her neck while peppering kisses.
While inhaling the sweet scent of her skin, the devil inside me sang her praises when her legs shifted and opened wide for me.
“I haven’t had pussy in almost ten years, Merce. I ain’t gonna last long.” I was already precariously close to nutting prematurely.
Her warm hands cupped my face and guided my mouth to hers. “It’s okay,” she whispered sleepily.
My arms trembled as I awkwardly shoved down my underwear. Anticipation had me panting as I sat back on my haunches to remove Mercedes's sleep shorts.
I brought them to my nose and inhaled, groaning in bliss while breathing in her sweet, musky scent.
“Fuck I’ve missed this.” I shoved her knees wide and dived forward, running my nose up her slit and following it up with a long, hard lick.
“Jesus fuck,” I hissed, cock ready to blow. “Do you have a condom, babe?”
“In the bathroom drawer,” she breathed out.
I climbed off her while pressing a hand to her chest. “Stay put. I’ll be back in a second.”