by Chloe Walsh
The moment Clive Davis noticed me standing in his house, holding his daughter's hand, his entire face turned crimson red. "Out."
Every muscle in my body coiled tight in anticipation; my body's natural reaction to danger. "Not happening." If he thought he could bully me like he did his kids, he was about to get a rude fucking awakening. My eyes landed briefly on Jackson's battered face before refocusing on their shitty father. I'd been waiting to lay this piece of shit on his ass since I was six years old and first saw him put his hands on Jackson.
"Oh my god!" Liv Davis gasped in horror. "I didn’t actually believe the rumors."
I felt Andi stiffen beside me, and it didn’t take a genius to know why.
I'd fucked that up, too.
Being with that woman?
Christ, there were no words to describe the regret I felt for the choices I had made when I was sixteen...
There were so many things I wanted to say to these people; so many insults and home truths I wanted to hurl their way, but I kept it in.
And I did it because I loved their daughter more than I hated them.
I loved her enough to bite my tongue and keep my shit to myself.
"I won't tell you again," Clive snarled, eyes locked on my face. "Get the fuck out of my house, Cole. This is family business."
"Then I'll say it again for all of us," I shot back coolly. "It's. Not. Happening." I wasn’t afraid of him and he knew it. It was why he was keeping a safe distance from me. He knew as well as I did that if it came down to a fight between us, he wouldn’t be getting back up again.
That man had messed with everyone I cared about; Andi, Jackson, my sister…hell, even my ex-girlfriend, Dallas.
"This is your fault," Clive spat, turning his attention – and the blame – on his wife. "Feed rats and you'll never get rid of them. He cast a glance at me and smirked cruelly. "What's the old saying? Lay with dogs and you'll catch fleas?"
"Don’t talk about him like that," Andi blurted out, surprising the hell out of everyone in the room. "I mean it."
"Adriana," her father said in warning. "Don’t."
"Don’t what?" she demanded, teary eyed. "Don’t tell you how I feel?"
"I know this seems fast," she added in a shaken tone of voice. "But I love Nathan. And…and he loves me right back." My heart couldn’t fucking take her words. I didn’t deserve this girl. "And we're… we're together now." Pride blazed inside of me. She was something else. "So you guys will just have to get used to it."
"I'll just have to get used to it?" Clive shot back, eyes locked on Andi.
"Yes," she whispered, eyes wide and tone fearful.
"Huh," her father muttered about two seconds before he flung the glass he was holding at my pregnant girlfriend.
I threw myself in front her a millisecond before the glass made contact, slamming against my back and shattering into pieces on the floor.
"Jesus Christ, Dad!" I heard Jackson roar, but I was too busy checking Andi over. Thankfully, she hadn't been hit. "What the fuck are you thinking? That's Andi, you prick!"
"Speak to me like that again, and I'll ruin you. I mean it, boy. I'm not messing around anymore."
"Don’t sweat it, Jackson," I snarled, bristling with barely restrained rage. "Your father throws like a bitch."
I was goading him and it was working.
Well, good.
I wanted to see this bastard lose his mind.
"I bet that's what your coaches told you, star quarterback," Clive tossed back venomously, "Before they cut your ass from the team."
"Is that supposed to hurt me?" I threw my head back and purposefully laughed. "You'll have to do better than that, asshole." His wife was the reason I was off the team and nothing else. I was the best. I'm still the best.
"Come on, hotshot." Now it was his turn to taunt. "Bet you'd love to hit me right about now."
"And have you throw me in jail for assault and battery?" I cocked a brow and smirked. "I'm broke, not stupid."
"You don’t care about your football career?" Clive sneered, cracking because he wasn’t making me crack. What a loser. "What about your drunk-ass momma? Care about her, boy?"
"Sticks and stones, old man."
I grinned at the bastard.
He couldn’t hurt me with words.
None of them could.
"You can thank my 'drunk-ass momma' for teaching me that life lesson."
Did he honestly think he was first person to throw the alcoholic mother jibe at me?
He was fucking delusional.
Losing his cool, Clive turned to Andi and roared, "You. Get your ass up to your room, now!"
I felt Andi move to take a step before quickly stopping herself. "No," she whispered, sidling closer to me. "I won't."
"What the fuck is this?" Clive roared. "Get the fuck upstairs and pack your shit, Adriana. Now. I warned you what would happen if you broke rank. I called St. Bernadette's this afternoon!"
"There's a space waiting for you right now," Liv piped up.
"So I'll say it one more time, Adriana," her father threatened. "Go upstairs and pack your shit."
"Dad, this isn’t the military," Andi shot back, voice soft and broken. "I'm not a soldier in your fantasy army. You can't command me to do things and then banish me away when I don’t comply."
He took a menacing step towards her and I lost my cool.
Bristling with anger, I edged towards him, daring him to attempt to touch this girl in my presence.
"Ah," he said, grinning darkly, awareness dawning on him. "So my daughter is your breaking point."
"Absolutely, asshole," I shot back without an ounce of hesitation. His daughter was my everything. "All bets are off when it comes to her. My patience. My tolerance levels. Everything.” I took another step towards him, reveling in satisfaction when the coward backed away from me. "She's also the reason I'd gladly do time inside – if it meant beating the life out of your worthless ass."
"Nate," Jackson called out, distracting me from my stare down with his father. "Just go, man. You're only making it worse for her."
"Fuck you. I'm going nowhere without her," I hissed in disgust. "You expect me to walk out this door so that piece of shit you call a father can call one of his contacts and have her sent away? Or knock her around like he does you?" I shook my head, hardly able to stand to look at the guy I once called my best friend. "Over my dead fucking body."
"I wouldn’t let that happen to her," Jackson retorted with a wounded tone.
"You wouldn’t let that happen?" Was he fucking kidding me? "It's already happening to her! It's been happening to her since the day she was born, Jackson." My chest was heaving as I desperately tried to calm myself down. Calmness wasn’t coming easily to me though. "That prick would lock Andi up in a fortress if he had one at his disposal, and the way you've been treating her these past few weeks only tells me that you're just as defected in the head as he is!"
"I am nothing like him," Jackson roared.
I cocked a brow. "Could have fooled me."
"I was hurt, dickhead," Jackson shot back hoarsely. "You're my best friend. She's my sister. You two were screwing around behind my back!"
"Well boo fucking hoo, Jackson," I mocked, not willing to accept his words for anything more than a cop out excuse. "Build a bridge and get the fuck over yourself. You don’t get to know everything about your sister or me. I love your sister. Always have, always will, so you can either get over it or get out of my way, because I'm telling you now, friend, I aint giving her up for you or anyone else."
Jackson glared at me, but he didn’t respond.
"And here's some food for thought," I added, glaring at all three of Andi's fucked up family members. "My family might not be much to talk home about, but at least we're an average shade of dysfunctional. You all are off the fucking color charts crazy."
Wasn’t that the truth.
I turned to Andi. "You okay?" I should have never brought her here. Cupping her cheek
with one hand, I stroked it with my thumb. "You were right. I'm taking you away from here."
Wrapping my arm around her frail shoulders, I led Andi towards the front door.
She was right.
We should have taken our chances on the road.
This prick was never going to accept our relationship…
"You walk out that door with him and I'll cut you off." Clive's voice came from behind us, but Andi didn’t stop moving so neither did I. "Take one step out that door and you're dead to me."
"Dad!" That was Jackson. "You can't be serious."
"Oh, I'm serious," Clive roared. "One more step, Adriana, and you can kiss your credit cards goodbye. Your healthcare plan, your unlimited supply of insulin. All of it. Leave with him and it's over for you."
She hesitated.
Her step faltered.
I could feel her uncertainty; it was fucking killing me.
And then she stopped moving altogether.
My heart had never beat as hard as it was in this moment.
I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and get her the hell out of this house, but Andi had spent her whole life having decisions made for her.
I wasn’t about to take away her right to choose.
I wasn’t her father.
Jesus Christ this was torture.
On the one hand, Andi needed her medication. I couldn’t give that to her. But if she stayed then my baby stayed here, too… and I would rather peel the skin off my bones than give that prick a minute alone with either one.
"That's what I thought, girl," Clive snarled, smirking victoriously, reveling in Andi's fear and confusion. "Now. Move your ass up that staircase before I change my mind and toss you out on your ass."
"Back up," I warned Clive Davis when he took a step towards her. "Now." I was trying my hardest not to lose my shit, but the more that bastard looked down his nose at me, the closer I got to losing what little was left of my self-control.
I had always thought of myself as a pretty together guy.
I didn’t react to bullshit; I'd learned early on in life that if I reacted to every bit of negativity that came my way I would lose my mind, so I observed and used my energy on worthwhile arguments.
But when it came to Adriana Davis, all bets were off. She was my weakness.
Right there, that tiny girl with a halo of blonde hair and eyes the color of the brightest sky, had the ability to knock me on my ass. When she was in pain, I lost myself in a sea of pure fucking rage. I couldn’t see straight when it came to her, and now, it was worse than ever.
Her father was threatening her, trying to force her hand. Worthless piece of shit that he was. I couldn’t stand it.
I'd watched this crap go down for years and the only reason I had stayed was because of her. Because that girl had taken ahold of my heart since childhood and had never let go.
"Back the hell up," I repeated when the prick took another step towards my girlfriend.
I was the one shaking now and Andi's silence only made it worse.
What the hell was I supposed to do?
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place and Andi's health meant more to me than my pride.
I loved her.
Jesus Christ, I loved that girl more than it was healthy.
She was all I'd ever wanted and the guilt I felt for having put her in this position was stifling.
What could I do?
Take her home to my trailer and hope for the best?
Dammit, I couldn’t take risks with this girl.
She was diabetic, and now because of my inability to wrap it the hell up, she was also pregnant.
My only other option was to leave her here with him?
No, fuck that.
I couldn’t do that either.
Dammit to hell…
Goddammit, Clive Davis had me backed into a corner and he knew it.
The only reason I wasn’t coming out of it swinging was because I loved her more than I hated him. I loved her more than I felt emotion for any damn thing else on this planet. It was unhealthy and imbalanced, but it was true and it was real.
Torn, I looked from Andi to her parents and back again.
What the hell was I supposed to do?
Christ, I couldn’t cope with this.
I was drowning in panic, burning in anger.
****
Chapter Two
Andi
MY FAMILY WAS STANDING on one side of me, my boyfriend on the other. Meanwhile, I was firmly planted in the middle, completely torn as to what to do.
I was frightened.
Sure, I was their daughter, but his baby was growing inside of my belly.
My father wasn’t bluffing.
I knew Clive Davis enough to know that he said what he meant.
He would cut me off without an ounce of hesitation if I walked out of this house.
I also knew that Nathan would do his best by me.
He wouldn’t walk away, but how could I do that to him?
How could I put him under that kind of pressure?
"I…" Shaking my head, I looked from my father's face to my mother's and I cringed in disgust.
I didn’t think I could ever get over what she had done with my boyfriend.
Not ever.
Fear like I'd never experienced before consumed my heart as I stood on the verge of a monumental precipice.
If I kept walking, I risked the backlash of my entire family.
If I stayed, I would have to give him up.
In a lifetime of uncertainties, I knew only one thing for sure. It didn’t matter if I had to beg, steal, and borrow for the rest of my life; wherever Nathan Cole went, I would undoubtedly follow.
I was done with the threats and the punishments.
I was tired of spending my life under the thumb of my father's cruel reign.
I had tasted freedom, I had felt the love of a boy, and there was no way I was going back to the me I used to be.
All my life, I had been told what to do. I had been bullied and lied to and forced to conform, forced to live the role of a perfect daughter. An unsullied girl.
Now, as I stood in my parent's lounge with Nathan Cole's hand in mine and his baby in my belly, I was beginning to feel an inner strength inside of me. Something burning white, bright, and beautiful. Something that told me it was okay to be different. It was okay to love him. It was okay to follow my heart...
For the first time in my life, I had someone in my corner, someone who loved me for who I was, not who I was forced to be. I had someone to fight for.
I had him.
"You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Andi," Nate said quietly as he stroked his thumb over the skin covering my knuckles.
I knew he was worried.
I could hear it in his voice.
He didn’t know what I would do.
He wasn’t the only one.
Panic clawed at my gut, my nervous disposition no match for my father's black hearted words.
"I won't say it again, Adriana," my father hissed. "Walk out that door and it's over for you. You'll no longer be a Davis."
"Then she'll be a Cole," Nathan shot back before locking eyes on me. "I'll take care of you," he added gruffly, his words a promise of a better life for me.
Nate was offering me a way out of this.
"I know you will," I whispered, unable to turn off what I felt for him. It was burning bright inside of me, refusing to go away, shining bright and flashing like a neon sign, lighting up my darkness. Being with this boy made me more aware; it woke me up. I was beginning to understand that abuse didn’t always come in the physical form. Nathan treated me so well that I was realizing that the way my family treated me was not okay.
"You pair of idiots," Mom hissed before swinging around and storming out of the lounge.
"I won't let you down, Andi," Nate added, ignoring my mother's dramatic exit. "I promise." He was willing to put himself in harm's way to get me o
ut of this trouble. "I can fix this."
I couldn’t have loved him more in this moment if I tried.
"I'm not putting up with this shit in my own damn house," Dad roared. "Liv, get your ass back here. They're your kids, too." With that, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.
A trickle of fear ran through me.
What if he was getting a gun?
I wouldn’t put it past him.
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t put anything past my father…
"Goddammit, Nate!" Jackson groaned in a pained voice when Dad was out of earshot. "What the fuck have you started, man?" He didn’t sound angry anymore. He just seemed sad… resigned even as he looked at me with a broken expression. "This is gonna end real bad, Andi." Grimacing, he added, "I can't fix this for you… Not this time."
"Your sister doesn’t need you to fix shit for her," Dad barked, returning to the lounge – thankfully without a weapon – and with my mother in tow. Pointing his finely manicured finger at me, Dad hissed, "I'm only going to warn you one more time, Adriana." His face was ashen red, his body trembling with barely restrained anger. "Walk up those stairs now or this won't work out in lover boy's favor."
"Come on, Adriana. Be sensible and think about this, honey," Mom added, playing devil's advocate. Stepping around Dad, she walked towards me. "You're throwing your future away on a whim." Smiling falsely, Mom placed her hand on my shoulder. "It's just a crush, honey. What you feel for Nathan is puppy love." She laughed once, like the very thought of a relationship between me and Nate was ridiculous. "I can assure you that it won't last." The poisonous words rolled off her tongue effortlessly. I guess it was easy to spout poison when you were a snake. "Give it a week or two and that boy will have moved on to the next girl that catches his eyes at school. Trust me, honey, that's how boys like Nathan Cole work."
"Oh yeah? Who's he going to move onto, Momma? You?" The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice about it.
I felt Nathan stiffen beside me, but I was too far gone to hold it in anymore.
"I know all your dirty secrets, Momma," I hissed. "Every last one. And yours too, Daddy." I was bristling with anger as I spoke. "And, Jackson, if you knew the half of what they'd done, you wouldn’t be standing with them and judging me," I added in a shakily. "Our parents are bad people, Jackson."
