by Jadyn Chase
Scorched
A Dragon Shifter MC Romance
Jadyn Chase
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Copyright © 2019 by Jadyn Chase
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
* * *
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Contents
1. Isabel
2. Francisco
3. Isabel
4. Francisco
5. Isabel
6. Francisco
7. Isabel
8. Francisco
9. Isabel
10. Francisco
11. Isabel
12. Francisco
13. Isabel
14. Epilogue
More books from Jadyn
1
Isabel
The smash of breaking glass startled me out of a sound sleep. I bolted upright and stared into pitch darkness. A cat hissed in the street beyond my window, but I couldn’t see anything.
Another crash shattered the stillness, followed by several loud thumps. My heart leaped into my throat when heavy footsteps clomped up the stairs to the apartment door. I scrambled out of bed in a flurry of activity, but not fast enough.
The front door slammed aside. The knob punctured the sheetrock and made a hole—another hole. This apartment suffered the tortures of the damned since I moved in, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now.
A monstrous figure blocked out the streetlight from outside. Two massive shoulders occluded the opening, and big hefty tree trunk legs towered from the floor. I gaped at the horrific sight, but I couldn’t move. Terror petrified me to the spot. I couldn’t breathe.
Just then, he collapsed in a flaccid rubbery blob wobbling across the living room. His knees caved so he could barely hold himself upright. He staggered to the couch and pitched across it. His skull thumped against the couches arm, but he didn’t seem to notice. Fumes of reeking alcohol assaulted my nose even from this distance.
I did my best impersonation of a marble statue. Maybe he didn’t see me in the dark. Maybe I could slip away unseen before he noticed me. Maybe….
“Where’s my dinner?” he boomed out.
I jumped and whipped around. Dinner? The red clock next to the bed glowed, 3:30 AM. He’d been gone for over seventeen hours and he came in at this time of night asking for dinner?
He lunged upright faster than I expected for someone that drunk. Then again, he drank almost every day so he could hold his liquor better than most. “I said, where’s my dinner!”
I didn’t say anything. I learned a long time ago not to say anything to him when he got like this. I scurried to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. The light pierced the darkness.
His hand flew to his eyes. “Aaargh! What are you trying to do, you filthy whore—blind me? Turn that thing off!”
I shut the fridge, but now I had another problem. If I couldn’t open the fridge, I couldn’t make dinner, could I?
My mind when into a whirl. I had to think of some way to placate him before this turned against me. I moved down the counter to the coffee maker and took hold of the pot. I ran it under the tap to fill it up.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he thundered from the couch. “I said make my dinner, not coffee. I don’t want coffee.”
“Sorry,” I stammered and shoved the pot back into its place.
I had an idea. I returned to the fridge, cracked the door, and slithered my hand inside. I pressed the light button double-quick to turn off the light. I held it down while I retrieved a pan of enchiladas.
I got the fridge closed without too much light escaping and put the tray on the counter. I took out a plate intending to heat up some of the food when, out of nowhere, he grabbed me from behind.
I didn’t see him coming. That was what came of turning my back on him even for a fraction of a second. He might be drunk, but he wasn’t dead yet. Nothing would make him less dangerous.
He seized me by the hair and wrenched my head back hard enough to make me scream. “You stupid fucking bitch,” he snarled into my ear. “I told you to have my dinner ready when I come home at night. What part of that are you too stupid to understand?”
My hands flew to my head. “Please, Diego,” I cried. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You didn’t mean to,” he sneered. The stink of rotten alcohol burned my sinuses. “You never mean to do anything. That’s always your excuse. How many times do I have to tell you? I want a hot meal on the table when I come home from work at night. What does it actually take to get that through your head?”
“I’m sorry, Diego.” I heard my voice rising to a shriek. His grip pulled hair out of my scalp, but I couldn’t break free. He overpowered me by brute strength. “I would have, but I didn’t know….”
“You didn’t know.” He snorted. “You didn’t know because you’re too stupid to know anything. You’re too stupid and ornery to do anything I say. Tell me this. What’s the use in me keeping you around if you can’t follow the simplest instructions? All I asked is to have a hot meal on the table when I come home from work. Is that too much to ask? Is that too complicated for your idiot brain to comprehend?”
“Diego….” I began.
He cut me off by kicking my legs out from under me. He smashed his steel-toed boots into my knees and dropped me. I hit the floor and he yanked my hair to flip me on my back.
The instant I landed, he pounced. His enormous fist came flying out of the clear blue sky. Before I could stop it, he pounded it into my left eye. My cranium bounced off the tiles and stars exploded in my head.
Sheer instinct took over. This shit happened way too often nowadays. I got so used to it my arms went up by themselves to protect my face and head. His third strike punched into my shoulder. Pain splintered through me from all sides, but he didn’t care how much I tried to defend myself.
The second I got my arms up, he straightened and started kicking me. I pivoted onto my side and his toes crashed into my ribs and back and legs. He braced both burly arms against the counter to give himself extra support.
“You stupid fucking bitch!” he roared between kicks. “I’ll teach you to do what I tell you. You make my dinner. Do you hear me, bitch? When are you gonna learn? Huh?”
I didn’t hear much between the drumming impacts pounding me all over. My skull throbbed and my body screamed in pain, but my mind shut down. I retreated into a hollow, silent void where nothing could touch me. That was how used to this I got.
All at once, the fog blasted apart. He must have noticed his kicks not producing the desired effect. He could be surprisingly astute when he was blind drunk. He slapped both hands on my shirt and hauled me to my feet. He whipped me around and slammed my back against the fridge.
Now I had no choice but to face him in all his spitting, grinning horror. He pulled me off the cold metal and shoved me back one more time. The fridge rocked on its pedestal.
“I’m talking to you,” Diego bellowed. “I told you to make my dinner.”
I tried again to lift my arms, but his powerful biceps blocked me. His lips curled back from his teeth in a hideous mask of deadly hate. His black eyes narrowed to slits and his dark hair hung loose and menacing around his chiseled features.
&n
bsp; “I’m trying to….” I stuttered.
He slapped one meaty palm across my face and backhanded me going back the other way. When I jerked to get away, he delivered two more sharp strikes to get my attention. “If you can’t make yourself useful around here, I’ll just have to get rid of you. I’ll get myself a decent woman who knows how to treat a man. Is that what you want?”
I opened my mouth, but I never got a chance to say anything. He spun me away from him and crammed my face down on the counter. My ass pointed back toward his hips. So that’s what he really wanted.
To my horror, he didn’t do that. Instead, he leaned over me and lowered his voice to a threatening whisper. When I opened my eyes, a shiny, sharp blade gleamed in front of my face. “Is this what you want? This is what we do around here with useless women like you. You’re too lazy and stupid to pull your weight. The kindest thing to do is to get rid of you. Then you won’t drag some other poor vato down with your slack-ass attitude.”
I froze staring at that knife. He moved it to my cheek and rested the tip just beneath my eye. He dragged the needle edge down my cheek to my lip. Did he cut me? I couldn’t tell. It hurt enough, but I was too blinded by fear and adrenaline to tell.
All at once, he grabbed me by the hair again. “I’ve had enough of you. I would rather come home to an empty house than to a woman who doesn’t respect her man. You never respected me….”
I didn’t hear any more. I had to get out of here. He really planned to kill me. I had to stop him. I never should have let this nightmare go so far. Now I might not get out of here alive.
He yanked me off the counter. For a fraction of a second, his grip on my hair slackened. That would have been the perfect time to break free, but at that moment, he bumped my foot with his boot. He didn’t mean to, but he knocked me off balance. I slipped and fell to the floor, and my hair pulled free from his fingers.
For one heartbeat, I knelt crumpled and devastated on the icy floor. He stood behind me seething with murderous power. That was the moment I should have bolted for the exit. The apartment’s front door loomed before me. The streetlights lit up the night outside. The fresh air beckoned me to a cleaner, more forgiving world than the Hell inside that apartment.
The next instant, Diego laid hold of both my shoulders and wrestled me to my feet. He turned me around to face him. He still crushed his dagger handle in one iron fist and clubbed me across the cheek with it. He flailed that fist back and forth two more times, and his knuckles pulverized my face to smithereens.
Through the haze of confusion and panic, I watched in slow motion as he turned the knife around in his hand to aim the point toward me. The next time that knife flew, he wouldn’t hit me with his knuckles or the handle. The blade would penetrate my body and that would be the end of me. I saw it all as clear as day.
The world slowed down enough for me to raise my hand. His arm sailed through space and collided with my wrist. The weapon flopped, but he didn’t drop it. The realization dawned on his addled mind that he missed his target.
He fell back one step and kicked his booted foot at me. I couldn’t move fast enough to stop it. His heel smashed into my solar plexus and I pitched backward scrambling for my balance.
The blow sent me hurtling through the door onto the landing outside. That inviting summer air hit me, but it didn’t welcome me the way I hoped.
Diego stormed after me. Before I could do anything, he swung and punched me one more time in the side of the head. I spun like a top and folded over the railing. I found myself teetering between Heaven and Earth. I stared down at the concrete parking lot two stories below.
I pawed at the railing for any shred of hope to stop myself falling to my destruction, but before I could do that, my heart sank when Diego caught me again. He bent over to take hold of my hair for the last time. I wouldn’t get away now.
I screamed to the world. I didn’t care if the neighbors heard. I didn’t care if God heard me in my hour of death. I opened my throat and gave a vent to all my grief and terror. I squandered my pathetic life with this wolfish loser. Now he was going to kill me.
His hand tightened in my hair. I was done for. He started to haul me up onto the landing again, and I went into a frenzy. I fought with everything I had and screamed myself hoarse to stop him.
He growled under his breath and wrenched my head back, but at that moment, he lost his footing. The liquor must have finally caught up with him. He misjudged the angle over the railing. His feet skidded on the surface and his weight vaulted over me.
He almost propelled me the rest of the way over. I struggled with might and main to hold on. Somehow, my fingers caught the slightest purchase on the railing as Diego’s massive body careened over my head.
He yelled in surprise and scratched my neck trying to hold onto me. His arms windmilled in all directions for any way to arrest his fall. He caught a single lock of my hair. The force of his weight falling whipped my head back.
The next minute, my hair tore free from my scalp and he fell. I couldn’t stop screaming. I clamped my eyes shut and held on with everything I had.
All mixed up in the chaos, I became aware that nothing was happening. Diego wasn’t coming after me anymore. I squeaked my eyes open. I dangled from the railing by numb fingers. I cried out at every ragged breath, but I was alone.
No, I wasn’t. There he was, down below my feet rotating in mid-air. He lay flat on his back on the concrete. He had his eyes closed.
It took me at least five minutes to wrap my head around the fact that he wasn’t going to get up and start threatening to kill me again. If anyone heard me screaming, no one came out to check on the reason. I don’t see how they could miss it with apartments all around, but whatever.
I couldn’t feel my arms. I couldn’t move them to pull myself up. It took all my strength and will just to hold on. Just then, Diego gave a heavy sigh on the ground below me. He took a deep breath and groaned letting it out. He sounded like he was asleep, but he shifted in his sleep like he was about to wake up.
That gave me the impetus to get the hell out of there. I couldn’t wait around for him to open his eyes. That would be my worst nightmare come true.
I still couldn’t figure out how to get off this railing. The only thing I could think of was to swing my leg up and hopefully hook the iron bars in front of my nose. I kicked to one side and didn’t even come close.
I tried a few more times, but I only succeeded in loosening my hold on the cold metal. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let myself fall. If I did, I would fall right on top of Diego.
I whimpered in agony. My whole body hurt. Nothing worked right and now my shoulders started to weaken, too. I sobbed under my breath. Every move hurt worse than I could bear.
I hung there in despair until Diego sighed again. He moved his head from one side to the other. A blast of terror ripped through me. Without thinking, I flung my leg up and slotted my foot through the railing. I caught the bar and held.
I howled in misery dragging myself up, but I did it in the end. I clawed my way onto the landing and slumped over the rail. I collapsed in a puddle of tears on the cruel concrete.
Diego coughed and I rocketed to my feet. I peered over the side. Through my tears, I saw him tense once, but his eyes didn’t open.
I didn’t think. I couldn’t go back inside that apartment, not if my life depended on it. I had nowhere else in the world to go, but I couldn’t stay here.
2
Francisco
I plugged the speaker cable into my laptop and hit Play. Jumpy dance music started rocking across the yard. I snapped my fingers along with the beat and strutted to the fridge set up outside the warehouse.
My brothers and sisters in Los Diablos bopped around the yard. They smiled at me from all sides. Julia sat on José’s lap on the couches lined up around the fence. Tina leaned her long body against Martín where they made out by the warehouse entrance.
The big roll-up door stood open to the breeze
with all our Harleys lined up in gleaming rows inside. The weather was too nice to stay indoors. Floodlights brightened the yard and created a halo of happiness over the club. All the guys and most of the women wore their colors. This was the one place where we didn’t have to hide who and what we were.
A few couples migrated into the center of the yard to dance. I looked around for a willing victim. We didn’t have many free women to choose from, but that never stopped me.
I hustled up to Tina and grabbed her arm. I dragged her away from Martín. “Come on, baby. Come dance with me.”
Martín tried to hold onto her wrist. “Hey, Ese! What do you think you’re doing?”
I didn’t give up. I hauled her off him toward the dance floor. “Sorry, man. You can’t stop the music.”
Tina laughed. She shot Martín a wicked grin and followed me. She started sashaying her hips the way she always did. She danced toward me with that mischievous glint in her eye.
“Hey!” Martín barked. “That’s my woman, Ese!”
I swiveled Tina away from him and called over my shoulder. “She was my sister long before she ever laid eyes on you, Ese, and we all know you can’t dance. Go get yourself a burger and let the experts show you how it’s done.”
Tina laughed again. A few more people who overheard the conversation joined in the joke and came out to join us. Martín threw up his hands and spun away. He marched off to the barbeque wafting its savory smoke over the party.
Tina gyrated toward me and laid one arm on my shoulder. “Thanks. I needed rescuing.”
