My cheeks warm with a blush, and I turn my head to look at him. Our noses brush, and tingles shoot from my neck to my toes. A voice in the back of my head screams that this is wrong and not something siblings do.
“I was going to...” I stumble over my words and can’t think straight with him this close to me.
His warm breath fans against my cheek and lips. “You were going to what?”
“I was going to...” I gather my courage and throw caution to the wind. I lunge forward, smashing my lips to his in a quick kiss before I push him aside.
In his startled state, he stumbles back, and I run past him.
“Dahlia!” he yells.
“Be safe, big brother!” I call over my shoulder.
My cheeks are on fire, and my heart won’t stop hammering against my ribs. I slam my door shut and lock it. It still isn’t enough to make me feel safe from whatever repercussions that kiss brought to me, so I run into my enormous bathroom and lock that door too.
I listen for Jaxon calling my name or even pounding on my door, but that never happens. Some time passes, and when I creep out of my bathroom, I look at the clock. Two hours have gone by.
Two hours? It only felt like five minutes.
I leave my bedroom and check Jaxon’s bedroom for him, finding it empty. When I go downstairs, no one is there either. Mom must be in bed already, once again forgetting about me.
I remember what Jaxon said, and I check the locks on the doors, finding them latched. Heading towardthe staircase, I stop when I notice boards over the windows. Why are there boards on the windows?
Chalking it up to it being close to Halloween, I shrug and go to my bedroom. I climb into bed and leave my bathroom light on with the door cracked. I have too many nightmares and see weird things at night, forcing me to resort to something as childish as a nightlight. But it helps me sleep, and I don’t care if that makes me a baby.
The last thing I think about before I fall asleep is Jaxon and the kiss. He didn’t shove me away—not that I left much time for him to do so. I swear I felt him kiss me back, but that has to be wishful thinking.
PRESENT DAY
Igrunt as my back collides with the bricks on the side of the coffee shop’s exterior. My head cracks against the hard surface, and a fiery pain radiates from my neck to my shoulders. My muscles burn and tense, making it hard to twist my neck to look at the jerk who can’t let the past be the past.
“Want to tell me why I heard from a little birdie that you called me an asshole?” Mickey says, his face directly in front of mine. His breath puffs against my face in a thick cloud of cigarettes and halitosis, and it takes everything in me to not gag. Has he ever heard of a toothbrush?
“Get your hands off of me!” I shove his shoulders, feeling a momentary high that I finally did what I’ve been dying to do since middle school.
“Puh-lease.” Mickey snorts and rolls his eyes.
His fingers fist my shirt above my breasts, and then he jerks me around like a rag doll. He acts as though I’m putting up afight, which I mean, yeah, I’m fighting back, but my strength is nowhere near his. I stumble and hurt myself in the process while I hit him.
“I said get off!” I try to slap him, but I miss his cheek and wind up hitting the corner of his chin.
His teeth click together as his head jerks to the side. Pride fills my chest, but that evaporates when he turns his face and glares at me.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he growls.
He grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me further into the alleyway he shoved me into. I stumble and drag my booted heels on the brick path as he leads me into the narrow space between the buildings. I look in horror behind us at the receding people who can save me from this asshole. No one’s coming to my rescue—which isn’t anything new, but it still hurts.
“I called you that in high school, you asshole!” I suck in a terrified breath. Fuck.
Mickey’s fingers tighten in my hair, and he snarls, shoving me against the building again. His eyes darken, and I swear I see the evil in his soul through them.
He draws back his fist and slams it into my cheekbone. I scream, my head whipping to the side from the blow. The whole side of my face throbs, along with my teeth. Tears gather in my eyes, and I barely have time to recover before he punches me again, this time on the side of my throat. My cries die out as the muscles contract, and I fight for air that never comes. Every attempted breath creates a wheezing sound with a deep groan.
I’m going to die, all because Mickey got his little feelings hurt because I told the truth. He would keep the promise he made all those years ago and kill me as payback for Jaxon beating him up.
Mickey holds me up as my legs threaten to come out fromunder me. He punches me right in my ribs, forcing out what little air I have in my lungs. Black dots speckle my vision, and I sway as I struggle to stay awake. He keeps hitting me, calling me names while laughing like he’s lost his mind. I fall to my knees and cup my throat with one hand, the other firmly on the ground to hold me up.
“I kinda like how you look on your knees, rocks,” Mickey says. He grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks my head back. He bends down, putting his ugly face in front of mine, forcing me to look at him through the tears.
