by Becca Van
She wished she could go back in time and accept a couple of those invites, but she hadn’t thought of anything but schoolwork and looking after her younger sister. Her mom would have been pissed at her if she’d gone out to have fun instead of looking out for Erica.
Now, here she was again, at home all alone with nothing left to do. She had the schoolwork ready for the next day, and since she was the only occupant of her one-bedroom apartment and she wasn’t a slob, it was spick-and-span. She wasn’t the type of person to watch TV because she’d rather stick her nose in a book and read.
No wonder all the kids in high school had called her a Goody-Two-shoes and made fun of her, but there was nothing she could do to change what had been or who she was.
However, she didn’t have to sit inside all alone either. It was a warm spring night, which was perfect for her to go for a walk. Cindy had never been able to afford a car on a waitress’s salary, and while her mom had had an old beat up station wagon, it was now in Denver with her mother and sister. Nevertheless, walking had never bothered her, and in fact, it had helped her to stay in shape.
Although she liked her little home and was finally independent, right now Cindy felt as if the walls were closing in on her. She needed to get out into the fresh air so she could breathe. Plus, the exercise might just make her tired enough to sleep without being disturbed by the recurring nightmare.
Decision made, she glanced down at her favorite pair of worn comfortable jeans and T-shirt. While her clothes weren’t the height of fashion, she didn’t care since she was only going for a walk. Instead of grabbing her purse, she put a twenty-dollar note in her pocket and her cell phone in the other, snatched her apartment keys from the hook in the kitchen, and headed out.
Her apartment building was four streets back from the main road, which had been great when she’d been working at the diner, but now that Kat and Niki had hired her on as a teacher, she was going to need her own transport. Tears of frustration burned her eyes, but she kept them at bay by blinking rapidly. She wasn’t going to give in to tears now. The only reason she was feeling so emotional was because exhaustion was catching up with her.
What worried her though was how the hell she was going to continue to pay rent, her student loans, and bills, and buy a car to get her to and from Safe Haven.
She was already on a strict budget, and while she was going to be earning significantly more than she had as a waitress, she wasn’t sure how far her weekly paycheck would stretch. If she couldn’t buy a vehicle, maybe a push-bike would be a better and cheaper option.
Cindy shook her head. If it rained, all the papers would get drenched and so would she. She couldn’t show up to teach her kids looking like a drowned rat. After her walk, maybe it would be a good idea to head to the internet café and use one of the computers to look for secondhand cars for sale in the area. But that just brought up another problem. She was no mechanic or expert on cars and was worried she was going to end up being ripped off and buying and lemon.
She hadn’t realized how much she’d sheltered herself from the real world. Cindy had thought she was smart and independent. She wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn’t street savvy either. She’d spent the last fifteen years with blinders on. She’d been so tunnel-visioned about getting a good education so she could help kids just like her sister, she hadn’t learned how to deal with the real world.
Sometimes she wished she could go back to being a kid so she wouldn’t have any other responsibilities other than schoolwork, homework, and looking after Erica.
Cindy admired her mother to no end even though she’d been destroyed after her father had left. She had done everything she could to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. She’d even worked two and three jobs just to make ends meet. That was one of the reasons Cindy had decided she’d wanted a career instead of a low-paying job. She’d hated seeing how exhausted her mom was. She didn’t care that her mom hadn’t finished her high school education or that the jobs she’d had were low minimum wage.
She’d wanted to make a difference and be able to pay her own way.
Cindy snorted. She was in debt up to her eyeballs and would probably be struggling for years to come.
When she realized how depressing her thoughts were, she pushed them away and decided to enjoy her walk. Sometimes stopping to smell the roses was the only pleasure she got, and she was going to savor those moments even if she was all alone.
A shiver rippled up her spine when she realized how dark and quiet it was. Nervousness took flight in her belly, and she hastened her pace.
Cindy needed a mode of transportation, and she needed one fast. There was no way she was going to rely on other people to ferry her to and from her place of work. She’d even take out a small bank loan if she could.
She was on a mission, and no bitching or whining was going to change her circumstances.
She tried to ignore that being watched feeling as she quickly walked toward Main Street and the internet café. With a sigh of relief she grasped the door handle and just before she turned it and entered the store, she gazed about again. When she saw that no one was even looking at her, Cindy put her disconcertion down to her thoughts and paranoia at being alone.
After leasing a computer for an hour, she sat down and started searching for a car. There were only a couple within her budget, which was really nonexistent, but one of them looked as if it were about to fall apart because of all the rust.
Clicking on the better-looking car, she took down the details to call the owner and inquire about the vehicle later when she got back home. Her stomach rumbled, and though she’d eaten dinner, she’d only had a small bowl of noodles that hadn’t been that satisfying. She also hadn’t eaten any breakfast or lunch, and right now her body was lamenting the lack of food she hadn’t consumed. With a sigh of frustration, she thought about the twenty-dollar note in her pocket. Thankfully, she’d had some change in to pay for leasing the computer and hadn’t had to break the twenty. She had more than enough money to buy herself a meal at the diner, but if she did, she’d have to live off noodles for the rest of the week and maybe even a little longer. Until she got her first paycheck, she was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Deciding against buying a cooked meal, she cleared her search history from the computer, stood, and headed out.
The sun had set before she’d decided to walk into town, and while it wasn’t hot, it was cooling off quickly. After glancing longingly at the diner diagonally across the road, she gasped when she saw the Kenny brothers eating and talking in one of the booths. Cindy was very attracted to the four men, but since she’d never had a boyfriend, or even been kissed before, she didn’t have any confidence in her own femininity. She was painfully shy and wasn’t a go-after-what-you-want type of woman. If she hadn’t worked at the diner, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to have an intelligent conversation with anyone. Not because she was stupid but because her coyness sometimes made her an incoherent, stuttering fool.
Plus the four men probably thought she was too young for them and maybe they were right, but she wanted a long-term, loving relationship just like all of her friends had. However, not just yet.
The Kenny men no doubt had women throwing themselves at them everywhere they went since they were all handsome, tall, and muscular.
What would they want with a little nobody like her?
Pushing her dejected thoughts aside, Cindy turned away and started walking.
She had a feeling she was meant to live a lonely life of solitude. Maybe when she could afford to, she’d think about adopting a rescue cat, or two. At least she wouldn’t be going home to an empty apartment anymore. Yet having a pet was costly. There were vet bills, food and pet beds. She could barely feed herself let alone an animal.
She snorted at her thoughts and picked up her pace.
When the hair on her nape once more stood on end, she looked behind her and nervously eyed the man strolli
ng yards away, but he wasn’t looking at her. She’d seen him in the internet café, but had quickly glanced away when he made eye contact.
His hair and skin appeared greasy as if he hadn’t bothered to shower, but thankfully she hadn’t sat close enough to him to find out. She frowned when she remembered that his eyes didn’t seem quite right. Although she hadn’t looked close or long enough to make out the color of his irises, there had been a haze over his eyes. He’d gazed at her, but she wasn’t even sure if he’d really seen her.
Cindy shrugged and tried to push him from her mind as she walked.
She’d just crossed the second street and had another to cross before she reached her own road. As she stepped up onto the curb and the pavement, she heard the scuff of a shoe or boot close behind her and went to turn around, but she only made it halfway.
The dirty-looking guy from the internet café grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her head back. She cried out and reached up to claw at his wrist, trying to get him to release her. When she gasped and got a load of the stench wafting off him, she gagged. Her summation of him being unclean had been accurate.
Why the hell are you thinking about that right now, you idiot? Fight him!
“Let me go, asshole,” Cindy yelled, as she curled her hand into a fist, ready to punch him in the face and escape his clutches, but before she could, she felt something being pressed hard into her side over one of her ribs. She winced with pain but swallowed back her cry.
“Give me your money, cunt,” he ordered in a hard voice.
“I don’t have any money,” she stated calmly, hoping not to aggravate her assailant any more than he was. Cindy bit the inside of her cheek when he shoved the gun into her side even harder. It hurt, badly, but she wasn’t going to cry out and make his night.
She gazed about from her periphery, hoping to see someone walking down the street, but they were the only two people around.
Cindy knew that if she was going to get out of this situation without harm, she was going to have to do something. She needed to fight, but if he shot her, she could end up dying.
So be it, she thought.
Fighting was better than doing nothing at all. While he was inches taller than her, he was thin and didn’t look very muscular. Hopefully, he wasn’t one of those wiry, deceptively strong men.
All her life she’d only really had herself to rely on, and this was no different. Her mom had tried her hardest, and while she’d been a good mother, Cindy had had to grow up fast. She’d been the one to clean up her sister when she’d taken a fall and dried her tears. She’d fed her, bathed her, clothed her, and had been there for her more than their own mother hadn’t been. While she didn’t begrudge her mom having to work since she’d had no other option, Cindy wished things had been different. Nevertheless, she couldn’t see anything changing in the near or the distant future.
Once more, Cindy had to pull her big girl panties up and fend for herself.
There was only one way she was going to take this asshole down, and that was to go for his balls.
Sucking in a quiet, deep ragged breath, she moved without overthinking things.
Instead of lifting a knee since she was so much shorter than he was, she tightened her grip on his wrist as he pulled at her hair to distract him, curled her free hand into a fist, and shifted on her feet, pushing the pain in her burning scalp away as some of her strands were ripped out, and she slammed her balled up hand into his crotch as hard as she could.
He groaned, tore his fingers from her hair, and sank to the concrete on his knees.
Cindy lunged away from him, just as a loud bang echoed through the night air.
A stinging, burning pain seared her side along her ribs, and she stumbled. Even though she tried to remain on her feet, she staggered when her knees buckled, and she hit the ground, face down, hard.
The air was knocked out of her lungs, her chin smacked into the pavement, and she saw stars.
She tried to breathe through the agony ripping into her side, chin, and jaw, but the quickly encroaching darkness blanketed her vision until all she could see was black.
With a weary, pain-filled sigh, she gave into the gaping ebony maw and floated away.
Chapter Four
“That was a fucking gunshot,” Jake said and took off running. Shane, Grant, and Curtis were right behind him.
They’d just left the diner after eating dinner, and he was so glad he had because it sounded like someone was in trouble or creating havoc. As he sprinted, he heard Shane on his cell phone and knew his big brother had called 9-1-1.
Jake saw two shadows up ahead. It looked as if there was a kid lying on the ground, and the dude hunched over on his knees, wobbled to his feet, and raised his arm. When he saw the guy was holding a gun and aiming it, he put on a burst of speed and leaped the last few yards between him and the asshole. He didn’t even think about putting his own life in peril when he jumped on the fucker, knocking him to the ground. Luckily for him, the bastard hadn’t been gripping the gun too tightly, and it flew from the prick’s hand before he could shoot.
He drew his fist back and punched the motherfucker in the jaw, knocking him out cold. Jake grimaced at the stench coming off the bastard and wondered when the last time the dick had had a shower. Pushing himself up so that he was straddling the gunman, he tugged at his belt, pulled the leather from the loopholes on his jeans, pulled the man’s hands behind his back, and tethered them together.
“Shit, it’s Cindy, and she’s hurt,” Grant said from between clenched teeth.
Jake gazed over and gasped when he saw Cindy lying face first on the cold, hard pavement with her eyes closed. Fear that she was dead tried to take hold, but when he saw her upper body rise as she took a breath, some of the tension eased from his muscles. He shoved to his feet and hurried over to his brothers and Cindy. “Has anyone called an ambulance?”
“Shane did,” Curt replied angrily. “Do you think it’s safe to turn her over?”
“Wait until I make sure she hasn’t broken anything,” Shane said, and then quickly ran his hands up and down her arms and legs. “Grant, support her neck as I turn her over.”
Grant cupped her neck and her head, and with Jake’s and Curt’s help, they gently eased her onto her side.
“We need to slow that bleeding down.” Grant tugged his T-shirt up, wadded it into a pad, and pressed it against Cindy’s chin.
Jake pulled his shirt off, and after raising Cindy’s top, he folded his shirt and held it against her side.
Cindy flinched and groaned.
“You’re okay, sweetness,” Jake said as he applied pressure to her wound.
“Can you look at me, Cindy?” Shane asked.
Jake sighed when he heard the wail of sirens, thanking the stars that the sheriff’s department and the hospital weren’t that far away.
Moments later, tires squealed as two cars screeched to a stop on the road. Brax and Ajay Rhodes, Jaylynn’s husbands and deputies, as well as Cree and Nash Sheffield hurried over.
“What the fuck happened?” Nash asked angrily as he took in the scene.
Jake shook his head, took a deep breath, and told the deputies his part in the situation. “You’ll have to ask Cindy what happened before we arrived, but she needs medical treatment first.”
Thank fuck the ambulance arrived as he finished speaking.
Brigg and Tane Tremaine, Shyann’s men, were on the ground beside Cindy seconds later.
“You all need to back off so we can see what we’re dealing with,” Brigg stated.
Jake didn’t want to move from Cindy’s side, but if he didn’t, she was just going to keep losing more blood. He scuttled back out of the way and gained his feet. Shane, Grant, and Curt moved aside, too.
“We think that asshole shot her.” Jake pointed to the smelly guy on the ground just as he groaned and started coming around. Cree had secured the prick with handcuffs, and after gazing at his and his brothers’ hips, he passed Jake�
�s belt to him. “Thanks.”
“Her vitals are good, but she’s going to need stitches,” Tane said. “Her chin is split open, and the graze from the bullet over her ribs is too deep.”
Jake turned and scowled at the fucker who’d hurt his and his brothers’ woman, but he was too busy spitting profanities at Cree and Nash as they wrestled him into the back of the patrol car to notice him.
“Who the fuck is that guy?” Grant snapped.
“I think he might be homeless,” Brax said. “One thing is for sure, though. He’s as high as a kite.”
“Fucking bastard,” Curt growled.
Jake nodded in agreement. He was so fucking angry right now he wanted to haul the motherfucker out of the car and beat the shit out of him, but instead he took a few deep steadying breaths, trying to control his fury.
Cindy drew his gaze when she whimpered, and he was relieved when her eyelids fluttered open. Her lids were droopy as if she were struggling to keep them open, and when she saw everyone watching her, she frowned.
“What…” She licked her lips, and then gasped. “He’s got a gun.”
Shane stepped toward her, sank to his knees near her shoulder, and brushed the hair off her face. “It’s okay, baby. He’s been taken care off. You’re safe, now.”
“I need to shine a light in your eyes, Cindy,” Tane said. “Can you tell me what happened? How did you get hurt?”
Jake and everyone else moved closer as Cindy told Tane what had gone down. He ground his teeth together as he tried to rein his anger in. His brothers were just as pissed as he was. Although Shane was being gentle with Cindy, his shoulders must have been aching because he kept rolling them. Grant rubbed at the back of his neck, and Curt’s hands were balled into fists.
