Page 619 of The Tempted
Chapter Thirty-one
I can still hear her pleas for help and the image of her crawling out of the car only for that motherfucker to drag her back in— it consumes my mind. I close my eyes and I can see the tortured expression on her face as Brantley slapped cuffs on my wrists and read me my rights.
I’ve experienced a lot of shit in my life, felt all sorts of fucked up things I wasn’t used to feeling…like sorrow, like remorse, but what I felt when I beat the fuck out of that kid was something entirely different. I wasn’t a man fighting for his club, or an outlaw looking to be a menace. I was a man fighting for his woman and in that instant I was capable of anything.
There was no remorse for my actions.
I’d do it all over again.
And again.
I swore I’d never touch her again, told myself I was no good for her, and she wasn’t safe because of me.
I thought giving her up was the answer.
But watching her with another man, seeing another motherfucker try to take what was mine, made me realize I was wrong.
I might be a degenerate, a dangerous son of a bitch with a shitload of problems but I love Lacey and there’s not a thing on Earth I won’t do for her.
Not a fucking thing.
As long as she keeps needing me I’ll keep showing up.
Shove me in a cell, handcuff me to a bench and throw away the key but I promise you, as long as I’m breathing…if she needs me I’ll find a way out. I’ll always find a way back to her.
Always.
And right now it’s killing me I’m locked up when I should be holding her, reassuring her she’s okay and this nightmare will go away.
She needs me.
And I’m not there.
I tried to pull my arm free, felt the metal of the handcuffs dig into my wrist as I screamed out in frustration.
She needs me and there is no end in sight.
No way out.
No looking into her eyes and making it right.
There’s nothing.
