“I’ll let you know,” I tell her, swallowing the tears trying to fight through the wall I built around that part of my life.
Trixie smiles sadly pulling me into a tight hug before rushing out of the door. I’m so shocked by her action that I just stand there staring at the door not moving. The sound of a slamming door brings me out of my head and gets my ass moving.
The rest of the night goes off without a hitch and we get closed up. Khloi and I walk over to our cars. I sit in the driver’s seat of mine and pray and tonight someone is listening because my car starts right up. Khloi smiles at me and pulls out. I slowly start to pull out behind her when I notice my car isn’t driving right. I pull over, get out, and walk around to find that my rear passenger tire has been slashed. I’m going to be sick. This can only mean one thing– he’s found me.
“No. No. No. This can’t be happening,” I mutter under my breath.
I climb back into my car and lock the doors. We have to leave; we can't stay here. Pulling my phone from my pocket I text Ms. Tina and let her know I’m going to be late due to a flat. I practice slow breathing to try to calm down before I have a full-blown panic attack.
I am finally starting to get it under control with my driver’s window shatters, raining glass all over me. I scream in fear as the door is yanked open and I’m pulled out by my hair.
“I told you when your good for nothing father sold you to me that you could never leave,” my nightmare lowly growls in my ear.
I wiggle and fight against his bruising hold. I start screaming for help but there is no one around to hear me. I close my eyes and pray that Khloi would be able to take care of my babies and make sure this ass hat never gets his hands on them.
“Please don’t do this. I’ll come back. You don’t have to do this,” I beg.
“You’ve gotten fat, my dear Little Clover,” he says nastily just before he backhands me, and everything goes black.
Six
Troy
I get back to Trixie’s and can’t settle. Something inside me is telling me to go back to the bar. There is a part of me that knows it’s to get another eye full of Lucky. The other side is that I can feel trouble brewing. About forty-five minutes later, I’m dressed and headed out the door to my truck. As I pull the driver’s door open, Ghost’s words find a pistol in his face.
“Well, well isn’t someone jumpy?” he asks.
“You know you are a complete fucking asshole. What the fuck are you doing just standing around in the fucking dark?” I demand, dropping the gun back to my side.
“I was waiting for you to finally acknowledge the danger in the air around here. And not the mafia man that kept eyes on the bartender tonight. There’s something else I can taste it,” Ghost says not even acknowledging the fact he was almost shot.
“Let’s roll so we might be able to get some fucking sleep. From what your sister has said you have a shit ton to get done before we can get back to the team,” he states, climbing into the truck.
We slowly make our way through town back towards the bar. We pull up and I find the same shitty ass car sitting in the middle of the parking lot sideways. What has the hair on the back of my neck standing on end is the fact that it’s running with the driver’s door open and glass shattered.
I pull into the lot, pulling up behind the running vehicle. Looking at Ghost we don’t say a word, just slowly climb out of the truck. As soon as I open the door, the sound of a woman screaming assaults my ears, and I’m moving before I realize it.
“Fuck, Phantom, slow the fuck down!” Ghost whisper shouts.
I don’t slow down at his words; I just keep going. I make it around the back of the bar to find a man tossing a limp woman onto a picnic table. My vision goes hazy when I see the blonde hair and shirt that Lucky had on earlier in the night.
I raise my gun, taking quiet steps towards the man. A double-tap on my shoulder lets me know that Ghost has my back. I get right behind the man as he reaches for lucky.
Placing the gun at the back of his head I snarl, “If you don’t want your brain to be on the outside of your head instead of the inside, you better take a step away.”
The little piss ant goes statue-still at my words before slowly raising his hands up. I take two steps back, so I am out of arms-length as he slowly turns around.
“Do you have any idea who I am?” he asks.
“To be honest I don’t give two fucks who you are. All that matters is you are hovering over an unconscious woman. Let’s just agree that you are going to walk away and go back to wherever you came from, and we won’t report you to the cops,” I growl.
“Why in heaven's name would you call the cops?” the man asks, standing to his full height and squaring his shoulders. “I have done nothing that heavenly father wouldn’t approve of.”
“Man, I don’t know what god you serve but assaulting unconscious women isn’t okay with mine. I can guarantee you that the police will also see an issue with what is going on here,” I continue.
“This woman right behind me is my wife. That means I have the right to do with her as I please,” he says sternly as if speaking with a child.
His words are like a punch to my gut making it hard to breathe. It lasts for a moment before it’s in a box for me to deal with at a later date.
