by Rye Hart
I hummed softly as I walked into the cabin, nudging the door open with my hip. As I walked inside I noticed that the back door was open. It was a curious thing to see, but not unexplainable. It was spring and the winds were picking up. Sometimes they were strong enough to make the glass in the windows rattle and push open the door if it wasn’t properly latched. I set Gabriel down in his crib and wandered over to the door, closing it and making sure to latch it. I didn’t want any wild animals getting into my house; it was a secret fear of mine that a fox or coyote might make off with Gabriel.
Once the door was secured I turned to grab the basket of food I’d gotten from the market, and when I did I realized I wasn’t alone. The brutish man from the market weeks before stood in the doorway of the kitchen, his frame taking up most of the space.
My blood ran cold and I whimpered, taking a step back. The man just grinned at me and took a step forward, keeping me close. My eyes widened and I turned to run to Gabriel’s crib but I wasn’t quick enough. The man’s hand shot out and grabbed me by the shoulder, yanking me back. I screamed and closed my eyes, turning to dig my nails into his arm.
The retaliation did nothing and he just pulled me closer, lifting me off the ground with ease. Pain burned in my shoulder and tears came to my eyes as I tried desperately to scramble away. Soon my feet were off the ground and there was nothing I could do but scream and kick wildly.
He slapped a hand over my mouth, effectively silencing me as he stared down at me, his eyes narrowed. “You think you can run?” he whispered. “You think you’d get away from me? I’m not going to let that Sheriff make a fool of me. I’ll show him how things are done,” he growled, starting to drag me towards the front door.
Gabriel was screaming his crib, standing up on shaky legs and crying for me. I struggled as hard as I could, but it was no use. He just dragged me through the house and across the yard to a waiting horse. My mind was racing as I realized he planned to take me away and force me to be his wife. My eyes widened at the thought and I pulled against the ropes he began to tie around my wrists. His arm came close to my mouth and I turned my head, sinking my teeth into the tender flesh. He screamed and shoved me away. I stumbled and hit the ground, scrambling to get to my feet.
I ran back towards the house but he managed to grab my long, beautiful curls and pull me back, dragging me toward the horse again. My heart was pounding and I could hear him cursing softly as he started to pull me onto the horse. He tied my wrists to the reigns and I let out a desperate sob.
“We cannot leave my baby! He’ll die! Have you no heart?” I screamed, struggling against the restraints.
“Shut your mouth. I’m not caring for another man’s child,” he smirked and ran his fingers along my cheek. “We’ll have our own child soon enough.”
I let out another shaking sob as the horse turned and set off at a trot. As we rode I managed to find a sharp part of the bridle and started to run the rope along it, weakening it and hoping that soon I’d be able to get free.
We rode away from the town and all hope started to fade. If I could not get out of these ropes soon, my fate would be sealed. We’d been riding for about ten minutes when the loud pop of gunfire rang through the vast plains. The horse reared up, knocking the man off and snapping the rope around my wrists. We both hit the ground hard as the horse took off into the sunset, without a rider.
My captor hopped to his feet and looked around, eyes narrow and aware. Soon enough Jared came into view, his gun pulled free from its holster and aimed right at the man.
“I gave you one warning. I’m not going to do it again,” Jared growled.
Chapter Nine
My eyes widened when I saw Jared approach us, the hammer of his gun pulled back. The man glanced back at me and then at Jared. I knew he was trying to figure out if he could get to me without being shot, but that was clearly out of the question.
“You’re messing with the natural order of things! You don’t know what you’re doing!” the man spat.
Jared just stepped closer, closing the space between himself and the man. “This isn’t the wild. We aren’t animals. Maybe the way you act is acceptable where you came from, but not here,” he growled. “Now you listen, and you listen good.”
The other man frowned, waiting for Jared’s command.
“I want you to get down on your knees and I want you to pray for forgiveness,” Jared told him.
I jumped up. “Jared! What are you going to do? What are you doing?”
“I’m giving this man the chance to repent for his sins before I send him to his maker!” he snarled, eyes raging with anger.
He pressed his gun to the man’s forehead. “Grovel! Beg for forgiveness!”
The man’s eyes were wide and he was pleading for Jared to spare his life, but Jared just stared him down. “I already gave you one chance. Why should I give you another?” he asked.
I ran to Jared and grabbed his arm. “Jared! Don’t do this!” I pleaded, my eyes wet with tears. I dug my fingers into his arm and gave him a little shake. “Please! Please don’t do this!”
He looked at me, his eyes full of surprise and shock. “What do you mean?” he asked, setting his lips. “Don’t you want him to pay?”
“God will make him pay! It’s not our place to decide who lives and dies. I’m here, I’m fine now,” I whispered, holding him close.
He swallowed and closed his eyes, turning to look at me. “I cannot let him get away with hurting you. What if he hurts someone else?”
“God will judge him. God will protect his children. Hasn’t he always protected us?” I whispered. “He brought us together and we cannot question Him. We have to believe that there is a bigger plan,” I whispered, leaning up and kissing his cheek.
Jared’s hands shook for a moment but he finally holstered his gun, clenching his teeth and turning away. “Get out of my sight,” he ordered.
The other man jumped to his feet and ran off in the same direction as his horse. My heart finally started to calm down and I gripped Jared’s arm, looking up at him, smiling shakily. “Thank you.”
He sighed. “No, thank you. I was blinded my own anger and fear,” he said sadly, reaching out and touching my cheek.
I sighed and leaned into him, nuzzling him gently. “It’s okay. We’re okay now. But we need to get home. Gabriel is alone and terrified.”
Jared helped me onto his horse and we rode back to the house where Gabe’s cries could be heard from outside the door. I ran inside and scooped my child up, holding him close to my chest and trying to comfort him with kisses and kind words. Gabriel sobbed for a while, his tiny hands tangled in my hair. When he finally calmed, I set him down to sleep and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. Everything had happened so fast today and my brain was struggling to keep up.
I turned to look for Jared but he’d gone to the bedroom, starting to take off his holsters and uniform. When I entered the bedroom he was down to his shirt and pants and he turned to look at me. I frowned a little and stepped inside the room.
“Don’t you need to-“
“I don’t need to do anything other than be with you right now,” he whispered, walking over to me and wrapping his arms around me. “Everything else can wait,” he murmured, holding me close.
I sighed softly and kissed his neck, resting my head against his shoulder. I leaned into him, allowing myself to feel safe in his arms after this whole ordeal.
“It would be nice if you would stay,” I whispered, finally allowing myself to be weak.
He gripped my shoulders and pulled me away, looking at me seriously. “I have something I need to tell you.”
I looked at him and blinked, unsure of whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I nodded and pressed my hand to his cheek. “Of course. What is it darling?” I asked, almost hesitant.
“I was so scared. When I heard your screams and when I saw him with his hand in your hair. I was so afraid that I might lose you for good and I’d never b
e able to tell you-” he broke off, overcome with emotion.
My eyes widened and my heart fluttered in my stomach. “Tell me what?” I breathed.
He took a deep breath. “I was afraid I’d never get to tell you that I loved you,” he whispered.
Tears came to my eyes and I threw my arms around him, holding him tight “I love you! I love you too!” I said.
He rocked me back and forth for a moment, kissing my face wherever he could. “I promise, I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again.”
“I know. I love you.”
We held each other for what felt like an eternity, kissing and whispering our love to each other. I knew, in that moment, that Richard was smiling down on us from heaven.
Chapter Ten
We were married shortly after that incident. We were planning on waiting until the fall but ended up being married in the summer. After everything that happened, we didn’t want to waste any more time.
The wedding was beautiful and more than I could have ever hoped for. Everyone came and wished us well, offering gifts of food and flowers. Gabriel was walking by the time our wedding came around and acted as the ring bearer. Jared was kind enough to have a small suit tailored for him.
After the wedding, a peculiar thing happened. The man who had tried to abduct me returned. He’d been unable to find his horse and had tried making it on his own in the wild, but it proved too difficult. He returned to the town and begged forgiveness, admitting that he had been shows the error of his ways. After a little nudging from me, Jared offered him a job as a deputy.
The man’s name was Maverick and he ended up being one of the best deputies Jared ever worked with. As he was integrated into our little town, he used his strength and size for good rather than mayhem. He turned out to be a rather mild-mannered man who loved to read and spend time with the horses. We learned so much about him in the time he stayed with us.
One of the young girls in town took an interest in him and despite his past, the two went on to get married. She was pregnant with their first child and looked like she might pop any day now. Maverick was proof to me that the Lord really did work in mysterious ways.
I smiled softly and ran my hand over my belly, tracing shapes with my fingers. I’d only found out about my own pregnancy about a month previous. I was barely showing but Jared was impressed with the tiny baby bump. He would come home every night and kiss it, offering tender, loving words. He was going to be an amazing daddy, even if he was terrified he might mess up.
When Jared started to worry about his abilities as a father, I would point out the fact that Gabriel adored him. Gabriel knew Jared as his daddy and while I wanted to tell him about Richard eventually, I thought it best to let Jared and Gabriel bond as father and son for now.
Marrying Jared didn’t mean I forgot about Richard. I’d never forget about Richard for as long as I lived. He would always be my first love, but I knew I couldn’t hold onto him forever. He wouldn’t have wanted that for me. I knew that if he could have met Jared, he would have wanted him to take care of me.
“What are you thinking about over there?” Jared called, walking over to me from the river.
He was carrying a net and Gabriel tottered along behind him, holding a small bucket that had rocks in it. I smiled and shook my head.
“Just daydreaming.”
“About what?” Jared asked, settling beside me.
I chuckled and leaned in, offering him a kiss. “You,” I hummed.
He smiled and put a hand on my belly, whispering the words that still made me blush. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Those words were so simple, but they gave me so much hope.
The End
Regency Romance Collection
Tough as Nails
Chapter One
Have you ever met someone so royally screwed up that they could lie and cheat without feeling any morsel of regret? Well, if you haven’t - allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brittney Dale and I try hard not to blame others for the way I turned out, but then again, I can’t really take all of the credit myself either.
My mother was, for lack of a better word, a whore for Chaos Theory, the local motorcycle club. She used to tell me stories from before her dark days - stories of my father. She claimed he was a fine, upstanding man with plenty of money and a big house. When I was younger I liked to live in that fantasy, but as I got older I began to realize it was all a lie.
I eventually found out who my father was. His name was Billy and he was one of my mom’s Johns. When she came to him for help after discovering her pregnancy, he drove her to a women’s shelter and that’s where she lived for the nine months she carried me. She always boasted that she stayed clean during her pregnancy, though I didn’t believe that for a second. It was a miracle I had both ears and two working arms.
After I was born, mom got kicked out of the shelter for using drugs and she started wandering from hotel to hotel, turning tricks to try and keep us off the street. For years that’s how it was. We wandered from city to city, scrounging through dumpsters and sleeping on park benches. Sometimes she managed to pool enough money to get us a hotel room for the week. I remember how much I loved that. I would sit in the hot bath water until my skin turned an angry red. It was the only time I felt clean in those days.
I never went to school because we never stayed in one place long enough for the government to catch up with mom. Whenever the local cops came knocking, we took off to another city. We spent my entire childhood bouncing around wandering through the Deep South until we eventually made it to Tennessee.
When we started living in Nashville, I was only about nine. According to my mother I was old enough to take care of myself. She would go away for days and leave me without food or money, so I did the only thing I could. I would go to the local grocery store and take what I needed. No one really suspected that a young girl was coming to their store to steal, so it was always rather easy to just walk in and grab whatever I wanted.
The day I was caught, was the day my life changed forever. One of the stores I’d been frequenting finally caught onto me and the store owner snatched my arm and called the cops. When I explained the situation to the police, they started snooping around. While they never found mom, they did discover my living situation and took me into protective custody.
I was put into the foster system immediately and that began the worst eight years of my life. And considering how the first nine years were, that’s really saying something. They never found my mother and so she never went to jail. I was left trying to navigate a system I didn’t understand with tools that weren't considered acceptable.
My mother, when she was around, never got angry when I lied or stole. There were no repercussions. Now I was suddenly living in a world with incredibly strict rules that I struggled to conform to.
All of a sudden there was dinner time, bath time, and bedtime. I couldn’t take three showers a day like I'd been used to doing, and I had to eat what the foster home made, when they made it. If I wasn't hungry at dinnertime, I didn't eat until breakfast.
Looking back on it, I understand that everyone did their best. They were trying to provide structure and discipline, but that wasn't how I understood it. You couldn't take a kid who'd spent their entire life trying to survive on their own and expect them to just assimilate. That's just wasn’t how it worked.
School was even harder. I started going to classes that I didn’t really understand. I was nine, so they put me with the rest of the nine year olds, but I hadn’t had any schooling up until that point. I read at a very basic level and math completely escaped me. Overall, I was far behind my peers and no one seemed to understand that it was because I’d never sat in a classroom before. My teachers all thought I was stupid or just a flat out bad kid. I tried for a long time, but eventually gave up.
Instead of paying attention in class, I just started slipping away and skipping school. I got in trouble for it
many times, but I didn’t really care. I would go hang out with the older kids who seemed to like me well enough, though it was only because I was willing to steal candies and snacks for them.
The foster home eventually got tired of my delinquency and I started bouncing around from home to home until my mother managed to find me. I hadn’t seen her in eight years, but I couldn’t resist her offer. She would take me away from the school and away from the foster homes. It was an offer that sounded too good to be true. I was so tired of all the fighting and yelling. I was tired of feeling unwanted and stupid. So despite all of the things she’d done when I was young, I happily went with her and joined the biker gang.
It would become both the best and worst choice I’d ever make. Welcome to my life.
Chapter Two
The sun was rising and peeking through the window, warming my tanned skin. My mother was full blooded Native American and I was lucky enough to retain most of her genetics. My hair was long and black as raven’s feathers. I rarely brushed it and just left it wavy or pulled back into a pony tail. Men loved my hair. They always wanted to touch it (or pull it, depending on the situation), and they had a tendency to get lost in my eyes. They were as green as spring grass and with a flutter of my eyelashes I almost always got what I wanted.
I wasn’t alone in the bed. I never was. Just like my mother, I’d turned to selling myself for the basic necessities in life. By the time I joined the biker gang I was seventeen and considered an adult by most of the men, and as an adult I was expected to earn my keep. The convinced me that the only thing of value that I possessed was my body. I was scared at first. The first few times I cried, but soon enough I became numb to the physical and emotional pain and I just sucked it up.
The leader of the gang, Fang, took a particular interest in me. Since he was the highest man on the totem pole, he got his pick of women. Mom and I weren’t the only women they kept around for pleasure. There were a good ten to fifteen women who regularly came around to look for cheap or free drugs. Well, the drugs were never free, but for most of them sex was a small price to pay for crank.
