“What do you want from me?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“Where’s Hunter?” I asked.
“I…I don’t know. We’ve been having problems again. I took Lillian to my parent’s house so we could try and talk tonight.” A tear fell down her cheek.
“When’s he coming home?” I was getting frustrated.
She shook her head, “Please tell me why you want to see him. Is he in some kind of trouble?”
I snorted, “You could say that. Do you know where your husband was last night?”
“He—he went out to a bar and didn’t come home until about two this morning. We got into a big fight and he left. Said he was going to a hotel.”
“Hank should I tell her?”
“Yep!” he leveled her with a cold stare.
“Last night he went to a club, not a bar, where he proceeded to rape my girlfriend in the alley. He beat her so bad she’s been in and out of consciousness since she got attacked.” I pulled my cell phone out and handed it to her. “There’s my girlfriend before…and after. There’s obviously a lot that you don’t know about your husband.”
“I’m going to be sick!” she bolted to the kitchen and dry heaved into the sink. “How do you know it was him? Has he been arrested is that why he’s not here?” Before I could answer her questions my dad called and told me that they had Hunter in the parking garage.
“Bring him up here, I think his wife needs him to tell her a few things.” I looked at his wife. “What’s your name?”
“Chey—Cheyenne, are they going to hurt him?” she was starting to cry.
“More than likely.” I replied coldly and pulled a chair out and waited for them to walk in. I heard a scuffle outside the door before it was pushed open with so much force the doorknob knocked a hole in the dry wall.
Bryan pushed Hunter inside; it was obvious that somebody had already beaten the living hell out of him. His nose was bleeding, lips were swollen and bleeding, shirt ripped. “Sit the fuck down.” Bryan shoved him again until he was standing next to Cheyenne that was sitting on one of the other dining room chairs. “I said SIT THE FUCK DOWN!” Bryan’s voice echoed throughout the condo.
Cheyenne quickly stood and tried to hug him, “Don’t fucking touch him!” Bryan was holding a gun up, with it pointing directly at the two of them. Her eyes got big and she quickly stepped away from Hunter. “Tell her what the fuck you did.” Bryan was shaking, trying to hold in his anger. “TELL HER!”
Hunter looked at me, I pulled my gun out of the waistband of my jeans and laid it on the table. One wrong word, one lie, one wrong move and I’d kill him before he could take his next breath.
“Hunter please just tell me so they will leave!” Cheyenne cried.
He took a deep breath in and shook his head, “I’ll just start from the beginning I guess.” He mumbled. I watched Cheyenne as Hunter told her everything, leaving no details out. She paled and swayed, dad gripped her elbow before she fell.
“Why…how could you?! You—don’t even deserve to die!” she turned toward Bryan.
“I never knew this was going on I swear, or I would have never let him come home. I would have moved away and never let him be involved in our child’s life. I’m so sorry,” she was sobbing then looked at Hunter, “Is this all from your child hood? Is that why you’re this way?”
Hunter shrugged but said nothing and showed no emotion what so ever.
Silence filled the room, all eyes on Hunter. Dad’s cell phone rang.
“Yeah?”
“Hey you got that prick yet?” Lucifer asked.
“Yep, what’s up?”
“You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. You know that saying, what is, seven degrees of separation?”
“Six,” dad shook his head, “Six degrees of separation. What’s that have to do with this situation Prez?”
“I just found out that Hunters biological dad is Ronnie’s step dad, Peter Thomas. He had an affair on his wife years back. Hunter’s childhood was shit, his momma was a drunken whore that had men in out of the home.”
Dad glared at Hunter, “Thanks.” He ended the call with Lucifer. “Do you know Ronnie?” he asked Hunter.
“Met him a few weeks ago, I thought maybe if I could talk to Peter it would help me a little bit, but, it only added fuel to the fire.” Hunter said with a shrug.
“Apple doesn’t fall far from the fucking tree.” Bryan said through clenched teeth.
“You all do realize that Harley’s just as much at fault as I am, don’t you?” Hunter said. I shot up out of the chair, with the butt of my gun I smashed it across his face. Blood spewed from his mouth onto my shirt and splattered onto the table.
“Fuck you!” I grabbed his shirt in my fist. I wanted to keep pistol whipping him but dad stopped me before I could hit him again.
“Enough!” dad spoke. “Bryan, if you had to choose between letting him die and watching him go to prison where we get weekly updates of the beatings he receives. Which would you choose?”
Cheyenne looked at Bryan, “He doesn’t deserve to die. I’d let the piece of shit go to prison and be ass raped on a daily basis. I’d let him have sleepless nights not knowing when the next beating or rape will happen.”
Bryan’s icy glare settled on Cheyenne as he thought about what she had said, “You know what else happened to Harley in all of this? Your sick fucking husband raped her so hard he killed her baby.”
Hunter and Cheyenne both gasped then Cheyenne fell to the floor in tears, “I’m so sorry, oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Her face was buried in her hands and her shoulders shook fiercely with each sob. Then she jumped up and tried to take Bryan’s gun from him. “I’m going to kill him, give me the gun!” she wasn’t going to get if from Bryan but she continued to struggle until she went limp against him. Clutching onto his leather vest she hugged him and apologized repeatedly. Bryan raised his gun and pointed it right at Hunter.
Hunter’s eyes widened. “Boom—boom--mother fucker. If you don’t die within the first year in prison, I’ll personally see to it that you do.” “Ryder make the call.”
Hank stood there shaking his head, “Dude you’re going to wish he ended you. But if you had done this to my baby girl I’d have to agree with his decision. We have a few minutes before the PD gets here. I think the wife should get the first few hits, the cops already know to bring an ambulance.”
Thirty minutes later there was a knock on the door, in walked the two detectives followed by two paramedics pushing a stretcher. One whistled, “I can tell he’s still breathing and in some serious pain but I think we are fresh out of pain meds for the ride to the hospital.”
Hunter was beaten so bad he was barely recognizable. They hastily put him on the stretcher. His moans of pain only got worse as they pushed him out of the room, hitting every door jam and wall possible on their way out. One even suggested taking the stairs—but they decided that would be too much paperwork having to explain how they managed to let a stretcher go for so many flights of stairs.
Chapter 22
I stayed in the hospital for a week and two days, the day before I was released my mom told me about the baby that I had miscarried. I cried the entire day, the doctor told me that I would be able to have children since there was no permanent damage done. To which I was very thankful for. Ryder never wanted to leave the hospital but I made him go do the work he needed to.
Instead of staying at Ryder’s house my dad insisted that I stay with them. Ryder went to his house and packed a suitcase so he could stay with me. I wasn’t sure if dad was going to let him but was relieved that he was okay with him being at the house.
As the days went by the physical pain went away, the bruises faded, and the cuts healed. But the memories didn’t go away, every night was the same. I would flinch when Ryder tried to climb in bed with me, and, I’d cry when he left the room to go sleep on the couch because I had asked him to. The nightmares were horrible, I couldn’t sleep
at all. The vividness of the attack would wake me up and I would get sick. Ryder would come running in my room, with mom and dad right behind him. I felt like a child that was scared of the monster living under my bed and in my closet. I felt horrible for Ryder, he wanted to help and so did my parents but my mom was the only one that seemed to understand.
Sydney visited with me numerous times and told me all about her incident in college. We cried together and she held me as I sobbed with anger and frustration that this ever happened. She finally convinced me to go see the same counselor that she had been referred to.
Doctor Beth Knight was absolutely amazing to talk to. My sessions usually lasted for only an hour, most of the time I would cry and ask “Why? Why did he have to do this, how many others has he done this to?” The thought that he could have possibly done it to others would make me sick. Nobody should have to go through this kind of physical or mental pain and the challenges that come with the healing process.
I grew frustrated pretty quick that I wasn’t ‘getting better’, no matter how often my therapist told me I was. I didn’t feel like I was. What I wanted was something that I missed the most, Ryder’s arms around me, his lips on mine, his body against mine, and to hear him tell me how much he loved me.
One night he kissed me on the forehead, “I love you Harley.” He told me then turned to leave my room.
“Ryder, stay, please?”
“Are you sure?”
“I—I need you in here.” He nodded his head, shut my bedroom door, then walked over and gently climbed into the bed with me. I was curled up on my side with my back to him, before everything happened to me he would always curl his tall toned body around mine and brush his thumb back and forth across my stomach until we both fell asleep. “Please…please cuddle with me Ryder.” My voice shook. He didn’t try to get me to change my mind, he gently moved under the covers and cuddled behind me like he use to do. I wasn’t able to stand total darkness so I always slept with my bedside lamp on. “I can’t turn the light off yet.” I whispered.
“You don’t have to, I just want to feel your body against mine and smell your beautiful skin until we fall asleep. God I’ve missed this.” He breathed out against my shoulders. His hand was resting on my hip so I moved it to my stomach, I flinched slightly when his hand touched me and he tried to pull away. But I held his hand there; I needed to fell his touch. He slowly rubbed his thumb against my skin like before and for the first time in months I started to feel relaxed. That didn’t last very long though, about four o’clock in the morning my nightmare came back. I jolted out of his arms and ran into the bathroom. I dry heaved and my body broke out in a cold sweat, just like all the other nights. I stripped my clothes off and started the shower. I hated feeling like I couldn’t get clean, when I looked at my hands and knees the scars made me feel disgustingly dirty. I sat down in the tub and scrubbed at my body just like all the other nights, my skin turned bright red but the scars always stood out more. I was staring at my hands when I felt the cold air from the shower door being slid open. I jumped and wanted to cower in the corner until Ryder spoke my name softly. He still had his boxers on when he stepped in.
“It’s just me Harley, let me in baby.”
“I can’t…I can’t Ryder.” I started shaking.
He sat down behind me, “Yes you can, I’m never going to hurt you. Please just try—for me.”
I started crying, “I—think you should go home. You need to find somebody new Ryder…”
He kissed my shoulder, “I’m not going anywhere, if you’re hurting I’m hurting.” For some reason that one sentence made me calm down. I leaned back against Ryder, the shower spray creating a mist around us. Ryder was humming a song that sounded familiar but I couldn’t figure it out. “What are you humming?” I asked and relaxed a little bit more.
I felt Ryder’s body shake with a laugh, “You don’t want to know, it’s been stuck in my head for days.”
“Sing it to me—please?”
“You sure? It’s kind of…”
“Please?”
He cleared his throat, “Do you want to build a snowman, or ride our bike around the halls? I think some company is overdue, I’ve started talking to the pictures on the walls,” he tried to hit the high note. “Hang in there Joan,” then he clicked his tongue.
I started laughing, actually laughing. We had watched the movie Frozen about a month ago. I had showed very little interest in it but Ryder never took his eyes off the TV. “You and your Disney movies!” I laughed and cried at the same time as some of the stress left my body.
He laughed, “Sing it with me.” We tried to sing it together but Ryder insisted that I was singing the wrong lyrics, “Oh my God surely you can sing this one.” And he started singing ‘Let It Go’, but when he tried to hit the high note I couldn’t hold in my laugh anymore. What I didn’t think about was my parents hearing us. My bathroom door flew open and there stood my parents, unblinking and mouths hanging open. Dad blinked a few times before he spoke.
“What in the hell are you two doing in here?”
Mom’s shoulders shook with laughter, “Let it goooo, let it gooooo…” she grabbed dads hand and continued singing the song as they walked out of the bathroom.
“That wasn’t the least bit awkward.” Ryder chuckled.
I turned around and faced him, his silver eyes locked with mine he lifted his hand and brushed strands of my wet hair away from my face. “I love you.” I whispered.
He grinned, “I love you too.”
Slowly without taking my eyes off him I moved in and placed a kiss against his lips. We both inhaled with a shaky breath, my eyes fluttered shut. “Open your eyes Harley, I want you to see it’s me kissing you.” He whispered. The kiss didn’t deepen, he was able to cup my face in his hands and place kisses around my face. Hot tears fell down my cheeks with each kiss, slowly Ryder was putting my broken pieces back together—sliver by tiny sliver.
The following morning I was in the best mood I had been in since everything had happened. I talked to Sarah on the phone first thing that morning, she had left college too and signed a modeling contract with Michael. She was excited to tell me about the clothing line she was working on too. We talked for half an hour before she had to leave for a photo shoot. “I’m going to come see you in a week. I miss my Harley.”
“Okay,” the smile that stretched across my face felt great.
I helped mom clean up the breakfast dishes, I still wasn’t use to Ryder coming downstairs. But today was different, I really looked at him. He grinned as he walked toward me, “Morning.” He stared into my eyes. I rose onto the balls of my feet and kissed him, he smiled against my lips.
“Morning.” I smiled back.
Since it was Saturday he didn’t have anything planned at his shop, “What are you going to do today?” he asked.
“I want to go get a tattoo.”
Mom and dad both looked at me, Ryder’s eyes got big. “Ohhkay?”
“Will you go with me? Please?”
“Well yeah.”
“Good! I’ll go get changed.” I kissed him again then went upstairs.
~~~~
Since the weather was turning cold we took Ryder’s pickup into town. “So what are you going to get?” He smiled at me then looked back at the road.
My eyes burned with tears but I swallowed the lump in my throat, “I want to get shooting stars over my heart and have them in a rainbow of different colors.”
He nodded his head, “I think I’ll get something too.”
We walked into the tattoo shop that luckily wasn’t busy for a Saturday. A bald headed guy with gauges in each ear looked up, “What can I help you with today?”
I explained my tattoo idea, “It’s for a friend of mine that passed away, her name was Star.”
He smiled, “I’m sure she would love it. Are you wanting something today Ryder?”
Ryder placed his hand on my shoulder, “I want to show her something firs
t then I’ll let you know.” He pulled his cell phone out and showed me a picture. It was a couple, the woman had a heart tattooed on her rib cage with a missing puzzle piece in the middle. Her boyfriend had the missing puzzle piece tattooed in the same place on his ribs. “I don’t want the heart shape though I want to have a stop sign on the inside of my arm with the words Together We and on the inside of your arm is the missing puzzle piece with the words Are Unstoppable.”
I smiled, “I’d like that!”
Jimmy the tattoo artist suggested having a flaming heart in the middle, “I can draw it up, if you don’t like it we’ll do what you suggested.”
Ryder and I both agreed, twenty minutes later he brought out a drawing that was perfect. Another tattoo artist name Kyle was the one that would be doing the tattoo on Ryder. After we had the placements figured out we each went to a small room. I was expecting the pain to be unbearable but I found that the sting of the needle was almost soothing to me. “You doing okay?” Jimmy asked as he finished up the last star below my collar bone.
“I’m tired.” I tried not to laugh.
“That means you needed this.” He winked and wiped the ink away. “Ready for the missing piece?”
Not even ten minutes later I was finished. My eyes swelled with tears when I looked at the shooting stars and I smiled when I looked at the missing puzzle piece. He handed me my care instructions then I followed him out of the room. Ryder was talking on his phone but hung up when he noticed me. After we paid and left he asked if I wanted to go have lunch so we went to the diner that had opened a year ago. They served the most amazing hamburgers on the planet.
Ryder was acting strange but I figured it was something to do with a client so I didn’t ask him if he wanted to talk about it.
We didn’t go back to my house when we finished eating, instead we went to the Rail Riders clubhouse. “What are we doing here?” I asked.
“Dad and Bryan wanted me to bring you out here.”
Inside we walked back to the ‘Church’ room. My parents, his parents and grandparents were all seated around the massive table. I sat down and Ryder sat beside me. “What’s going on?” I asked. Dad looked down at the table and cleared his throat.
Unstoppable Page 17
