by V. Theia
With a head full of thoughts it felt like his skull would erupt.
He turned immediately to Rider when the call ended. “Smoke will call back. You wanna take a seat or keep wearing a track in my floor?”
“Can’t sit down, Prez. I need to go see my girl, but I got no idea what to say right now.”
“You’re angry.” Rider noted. Those astute blue eyes on Reaper.
Reaper stopped, inhaled and shoved his jittery hands down into the front pockets of his jeans.
Was he angry?
Yeah, he was. It bubbled beneath his skin.
He’d asked her not to do that stupid interview.
Okay, told her, was more like it. And what woman liked being bossed around in that way? None that he ever knew that was for damn sure, but at the time he hadn’t been able to help himself from issuing his crazy demand.
“I am. This bullshit has been going on too long.” Yet he was still prepared to do what he needed to do. “Thanks for the call, Prez.”
“You don’t say much, Reap. You’ve never said much, but you know we all have your back, right? If you wanted to fill the others in, they’d have your back when trouble came.”
He knew that. He just wasn’t much of a sharer. He’d gotten used to keeping his trap shut so he didn’t say something he shouldn’t.
He didn’t go to Paige as he wanted to.
Not with the anger simmering beneath his skin. He didn’t wanna say something he’d regret.
He waited for the call coming back from TN to let him know Sargent was right there being his usual dickhead self and giving off no signs of going nowhere but his own front yard with the broken-down trucks.
Reaper took his first breath in hours.
He thanked Rider and then climbed into a bottle.
The unease stayed with him through the burn.
That night his nightmares returned.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“I’d die for him.” Wife
Then
He’d noticed the weird dynamic with her family that first introduction just five days after meeting his ladybug. She’d been nervous to take him home, had even tried to put him off for a few weeks but he wanted them to know he was the guy in her life and how much he cared for her.
What he knew right away? The house reeked of weed, he got a contact high just stepping through the door.
Bug’s mom was a flirtatious drunk draped in her armchair watching TV, not giving a second’s worth of attention to her daughter.
Almost instantly her father tried to assert his alpha status in front of Jud by letting him know he was the man to come to if Jud needed to buy dope.
And her stepbrother? What a piece of shit he was.
It was the brother Jud got the creepiest vibes from. It took all of a few seconds to realize her stepbrother had no sibling relationship with bug, in fact, his eyes clung to her in a way that had Jud’s stomach lining bursting into flames.
“Who the fuck is this?”
“Sony!” It was clear his girl was embarrassed from the way her eyes widened; cheeks flared with color. He could have told her it would take more than a jackass to embarrass him. Jud squeezed her hand; he could give a fuck seeing as how he’d decided in three seconds he would hate this guy. More so when he strode across the living room and bodily lifted ladybug into his arms, squeezing her with her feet dangling off the floor.
It took everything in Jud to remain seated.
He definitely wasn’t seeing things, watching that hand move on her ass. Luckily for all concerned she pulled from the tight grip and retook her seat next to Jud.
“You brought a boy home, rainbow?”
“I told you not to call me that stupid name.”
The brother only had eyes for the girl in front of him, a hungry feral look that congealed Jud’s stomach and had his back teeth ground to sawdust. He deliberately took her hand and let it rest on his thigh, his fingers relaxed over the top of hers.
Oh, that angered the asshole, but he needed to know off the bat that he was here to stay, no matter what hate he got from her family, of that he was sure.
“Did ya tell him how many guns your brother owns?”
As intimidation goes, it was weak. Judson could have bragged to the simpleton with his backwards cap and baggy sweatpants that he too knew how to use firearms, especially the long lens rifle kind.
“Can you just quit it and try to act normal, so Judson doesn’t think we’re all crazy.”
“Don’t worry, baby,” he leaned in and kissed her cheek, “I don’t think you’re crazy at all.”
She turned a lovely smile on him. A smile that angered dear brother because he stomped off, but he didn’t stray far that day.
Nor any other day when Jud was around.
And the more Jud saw of him, the more disturbed he became by his weird stalker behavior.
One night he mentioned it while he drove his girl home from a movie date. She was curled up into his side, dozing off with her fingers locked into the front of his shirt. They’d stopped for ice cream after the movie and then they’d fucked in a secluded parking lot not far from her house. Now she was quietly humming along to the radio and Jud wanted to turn the rental car around and head back to his motel.
Her father’s one rule had been to always have her home before 1 am.
Jud would find out the reason much, much later. And be fucking horrified.
“Has Sony always been a little creep?”
She laughed, sneaking her hand under his t-shirt to lay flat on his belly.
There was no point in time since they got together that they weren’t touching some part of each other. Even holding her hand was a thrill. Laying a chaste kiss on her cheek became an addiction.
“Dad left us for about two years when I was seven. When mom took him back he had Sony in tow with him. His own mother didn’t want him, according to dad. And yeah, he’s always been that way, overprotective.”
There was no protective instinct in that weirdo.
Crazy possessiveness? Sure. He saw a lot of that. But it was more than that and he was increasingly becoming more worried every night he dropped her off at home.
Now he was relocating permanently, he’d be working soon, and his time would be limited, unable to spend all day with her, shielding her from what his gut was warning him about.
“You should just move in with me.” He announced and she reared up on her seat as he took the turning to her street. Her house in sight, he swallowed his sigh.
“Judson … are you serious?”
He confirmed he was and the second he said it he knew that’s what he wanted. There was no doubt in his mind she was for him. She belonged to him; he was hers. Fifty years from now he’d regret not asking her ten minutes after meeting her.
“Yeah, why not?”
Because he was broke, new to the country, she was eighteen and a virgin until a few nights ago and her family were psychos.
None of it mattered.
“I can think of at least three things,” she laughed and went back to cuddling him, in no rush to get inside. He’d noticed that, how she lingered every night. He’d asked if everything was okay at home and she’d told him yes. He was far from convinced.
“Think about it.”
“I will.” Another snuggle and she was practically in Jud’s lap the moment he turned off the engine. Lights were blazing from her house, like they had a party going on. “I wish we could stay right here.”
“Come back to my motel.”
“I can’t. Dad would freak. I don’t want Sony coming looking for me.”
Jud ground his teeth and pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap, burying his face in her neck. “Mine.” She giggled at his growl. “You’re mine. Say it.”
“I’m completely all yours, Judson.”
It went some way to calming him down but not all the way.
There was just something about that guy, her whole family in fact, that put his teeth on edge.
/> “I want you with me, ladybug.”
He saw his future right there in her lovely eyes.
Marriage. Kids. Taking her home to meet his family. The whole nine yards.
“Can we talk about it again when you get settled and I find a decent job?” She’d decided against college … her father’s doing no doubt. That prick wouldn’t pay for her to go to catering school even though she was passionate about it. Jud decided there and then as he watched her walk up the pathway, to work his ass off to get the money to send his girl to college.
He was in love, truly in deep.
It was crazy he was thinking long term. His brother would have a shit fit to know how deep Jud had fallen so quickly. He’d take care of everything she needed.
“You are the best thing I’ve ever seen. So fucking beautiful.” He told her the following night.
She gave him her shy smile and nuzzled his cheek with her soft lips. Her voice was barely audible when she whispered. “I didn’t think it would be you, Judson.” He didn’t need clarification of what she meant; he knew. “I knew it had to be you, ladybug. I took one look at you and fell just like that. My heart was all fucking yours.”
She laughed. “You swear and make it feel so romantic.” And then. “Make me feel good? Before I have to climb into my lonely bed without you.”
The reminder that he too would sleep alone tonight sent him a little wild when he situated his girl on his lap, so she was facing the driver side window. It didn’t give him much room at all, but he’d make do.
Kissing along to her ear he whispered. “How am I to know my girl wants me when her knees are locked tight together?”
“Oh…” she dropped them open and he slid a hand up her silky thigh, she was already whimpering into his mouth and he’d yet to reach the summit.
He wouldn’t either.
Not when a jackass thumped on the passenger side window.
She jumped and Jud kept tight hold of her so the fucker looking in wouldn’t see anything.
Her damn brother.
“Dad wants her inside now.” he growled, glaring hard at Jud. “Now!”
Fucking hell. If ever he’d wanted to smash someone’s face in, it was now. She sighed and climbed back into her seat, looking apologetically at Jud. “Sorry.”
“Hey, none of that, ladybug. We had a great night, didn’t we? And I’m picking you up for lunch tomorrow. You can help me apartment hunt.”
“Yay.” She grinned and started to climb out of the truck.
“Wait, let me come around to your door, I’ll walk you in.”
“You don’t have to.” The way she bit on her lower lip told Jud she didn’t want him anywhere near the house and that didn’t sit right with him at all.
“I’m walking you to the door, ladybug. It’s what your man does for you.”
Shit didn’t get any easier as the days and weeks went on.
But they were more in love than ever.
* * *
“Drugs! Are you fucking insane? You’re his goddamn drug runner, bug!”
For weeks she needed to be home before 1 am, and every night she became increasingly more fidgety to get back in time. At first, Jud thought it was because her dad was strict, but that was bullshit, he could barely give a fuck about her when she was around. He didn’t care if she ate that day or that week. He didn’t give any fucks if the power was cut off while he was absent for days on end. The only time he noticed she was alive was when he was making her ferry drugs across four fucking towns in a little beat up Ford car.
Jesus Christ. Jud’s guts were about to blow up, he was beyond furious.
Instead he paced back and forth the length of his shitty apartment.
They loved that place and had loved each other on every square inch of it. But right then, he was crawling out of his skin with anger to jump into his truck and run that motherfucker over repeatedly.
Fucking drugs.
His girl, who was crying quietly with her arms locked around her knees, head laid on top of them was a fucking drugs mule for her old man. The danger she’d put herself in made him feel sick.
He’d had suspicions, when she’d blatantly try to pacify him with lies every time he tried to get the truth out of her. And hours ago when she’d been in a hurry to leave their warm bed after screwing his brains out during a marathon of the Terminator movies, he’d had enough of the shady behavior and he’d parked around the corner and lo and fucking behold, his little girl bundled into a black hoodie had climbed into her car, her old man tossing bags into the trunk and she’d driven off.
He’d followed for a while until he’d finally saw his chance to speed up ahead and cut her off. Demanding to know what the fuck she was doing at 2 am.
It all came tumbling out then in her broken sobs.
Her dad had been using her since she was twelve… fucking twelve years old, to deliver his drugs to goddamn strangers who could have easily raped and passed her around like fucking candy.
No one suspects the sweet little girl, her father told her. Certainly not cops.
If she wanted to eat, have clothes on her back, a bed to sleep in, she had to do his deliveries. What a damn swell dad he was.
The more he listened, the angrier Jud became.
Hours later with her safely back in his apartment he wanted to kill her family.
“Please, you can’t do anything. I’ve tried to tell him I can’t do it anymore; he threatens to throw me out.” The way her shoulders hunched in; told him it wasn’t the first time she’d heard that.
He’d thought they were just neglectful parents; he couldn’t have in his wildest nightmares thought it was this bad and for the length of time. Her whole fucking childhood.
“Sony has tried to help me a few times by telling dad I can’t do it.” I just bet that fucker has. He was selfless brother of the year. “He said I could live with him when he got his own place this summer.” Oh, did he now? That was it. Fireworks exploded in Jud’s belly, he about ran over to where she was sitting, plucked her out of the chair.
Her eyes went wild. “Please don’t end it with me, Jud!” she cried. “I won’t always live there, I swear. I know it’s wrong. I hate myself. I’m so scared I’ll get caught…”
“Stop.” He grated and watched two fat tears roll down her flawless face. “You think I love you so little I’d leave you to deal with that fucking circus alone? I’m taking you to pack your shit, you’re moving in here with me and never, I mean fucking ever, carting his drugs around again.”
Hair, long as Rapunzel’s dangled over her shoulder, teeny denim shorts hung on her hips, tears glistened on her pale lashes. This was the woman he wanted to marry and have a million kids with. But goddamn if he didn’t want to lock her up for her own good right now.
“Dad will be mad…”
Jud’s eyes flared holding his hand out to her, she immediately clasped it and he felt twenty percent calmer. “He hasn’t seen mad yet, bug. Threaten my girl and turn her into a drug fucking runner? Yeah, the asshole hasn’t seen mad yet.”
As he thought, while his girl was in her room packing—with the strict instruction of take everything she wanted because she was never coming back to this house again—her dad almost foamed at the mouth, yelling for her to sit her stupid, ungrateful ass down.
Jud stood in the doorway and told her over his shoulder. “Keep packing, baby.” And then to her piece of shit father. “This stops now. She’s not ferrying your fucking drugs another fucking day. Get that creep of a stepson to do it.”
“Who the fuck do you think you’re talkin’ to, boy?”
“Not a boy. And I’m the only one looking out for her. You could give ten fucks for the danger you’ve been putting her in.”
The older guy scoffed. “She’s been fine, hasn’t she? Don’t listen to her whinin’, she’s like her mother.”
It was then the creep came in and sensed the tension, he asked what was going on and dear old dad gave his twisted version of events
making out like Jud was stealing her away into the night. Sony turned a glare on Jud who stared back just daring him to try anything.
He was hurting to put a fist in his face.
“You are not taking her from this house!” he screamed, spit flying out of his mouth, his two fists balled at his sides. “TELL HIM, DAD! HE’S NOT TAKING HER ANYWHERE!” The volume increased and Jud heard his girl’s gasp behind him. “Keep packing, baby.” He said calmly, his eyes on Sony.
Anyone else, Jud would have assumed it was a brother’s concern, but not Sony. His deranged attention was way off. Jud himself had seen more than once how he’d tried to touch her or pick her in a bear hug but slide her down his body. Not to mention the too fucking dirty glances the guy lingered on her.
Jud couldn’t get her away from this monster house fast enough.
“I’m ready.” She said behind him, touching his back and he turned with a smile, grabbed the roller suitcase, noticing how little she was taking with her.
It was fine, he’d buy her anything she needed.
They had a life to build together, she needed nothing from this house, or these people.
“Don’t think you can come crawling back, you ungrateful little bitch, when this one fucks you over and climbs onto the next willing whore. Me and your ma are done with you.”
Jud slipped her hand into his and squeezed, kissed her temple, showed her she always had someone who loved her more than life itself. “She’ll never need to come back to this place. Stay the fuck away from her.” He warned, glaring at Sony most of all.
Jud took her from that shit life, from a houseful of people who didn’t care if she ate that week and they made a life together.
Four amazing married years together.
And then it all changed.
In minutes he lost his whole fucking world.
Because monsters never stay gone for long.
They looked for a crack of light to slip out into so they could strike.
* * *
As blissful as their lives were, it sometimes showed signs of not being so perfect.
