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Judah
Don’t do anything stupid, Puffin. If you run this time, I will chase you.
I smiled, despite the somber feeling that settled in my bones. He fought for us, why shouldn’t I? Closing my eyes, I sighed and came up with a decision. I’d stay, and whatever came from Judah’s mother, we’d fight it. She was powerful, but so was he.
I replied to his message.
Tav
I won’t. I’m staying.
Judah
Good. You wouldn’t like it if I had to follow you. Next time, I’ll handcuff you to the bed permanently.
Tav
Kinky.
I added a devil emoji to the message and snorted.
Judah
I’ll show you how kinky I can get.
I laughed through a few tears and shook my head, clicking off my phone. If I wanted to stay, I needed to check on my trailer. I hadn’t been back since Ellis and I’d left with Judah, and if it was obvious I hadn’t been there, then someone might try to break in. Which, to be truthful, wouldn’t be a problem because I didn’t have any valuable belongings, but if they ruined something I’d lose my security deposit.
I gave my empty bag one more glance before I took a deep breath. This wasn’t happening. I refused to run again.
I headed downstairs and grabbed my keys. Once I was inside my truck, I turned the ignition and the old beauty rumbled to life, shaking so hard that it rattled my teeth. It’d been a while since I’d used my truck, and I’d forgotten how old it really was after driving Judah’s new Honda.
Twenty minutes was all it took for me to get to the park, and I pulled into the driveway slowly, making sure Virginia, our local little girl who liked to wander with her white pit bull, didn’t come out of nowhere. Her mother worked a lot of hours and usually her big brute of a brother, Moose, watched her, but there were times she slipped away from him.
To my relief, I saw her in front of her trailer. She waved enthusiastically, and I returned the gesture out the window with a wide grin. “Hey, Ginny!”
“Hey, Tav! Welcome home!” She giggled and twirled her finger in her brown ringlets, and her innocence made my smile falter. Children like Virginia weren’t meant for this type of trailer park. This lifestyle was too rough, with too many criminals who hung out around here, which was what made Moose so protective of her. But people like Virginia’s mother didn’t have a choice. The price of living was too high and places like Lakeview were their last option.
I pulled my truck up to the front of my trailer and turned off the ignition before I froze at the sight before me. The front door was wide open, and the sound of banging inside reached my ears even though I was still sitting in the cab of my vehicle. I jumped out of my truck immediately and raced forward, meeting a man taller and wider than me right at the moment I reached the door. He shoved me, and I went careening backward, landing hard on my arse while the stranger fell on top of me. He thrust his fist into my gut, and I grunted in pain.
“You fuckin’ arse.” I curled my fingers and managed to knock the stranger in the cheek with my swinging knuckles, causing him to cry out in pain. He was big, though. The fact that he had width and height on me was new because I’d always been larger than the average person, and that meant the punch to the face would’ve hurt, but it didn’t move him.
His fist came back down, this time striking my jaw, and my head slammed sideways. My face smacked against the ground, and I groaned, dizziness hitting suddenly with the urge to vomit. I closed my eyes when he raised his hand again, but someone grabbed the stranger, yanking him off me.
There was the sound of a scuffle as I rolled onto my front, my head spinning. I managed to get to my hands and knees before I realized Moose was holding the man down in the dirt, using his bigger body to keep the stranger still.
“Who the fuck are you and why are you in our park?” Moose hissed. The fact that he was defending me, despite the many Lakeview rules or the more specific ones related to this event?—
Rule two: Don’t bring the cops to the park.
Rule four: Keep drama to yourself.
—meant a lot to me. He could easily get his family kicked out if the owner thought he was starting shite.
I stumbled to my feet and closed my eyes, taking a moment to catch my breath and stop the dizziness, before I opened them and walked over to Moose. The stranger he had trapped on the ground struggled a bit. I squeezed Moose’s shoulder as a thank-you and focused on the other man.
“Why were you in my trailer?” I asked, because apparently he wasn’t going to answer Moose’s question about who he was.
Now that I had the chance to study him, I confirmed he wasn’t anyone I’d met. His face was nondescript and plain, a sickly pale man with short dark hair and furious brown eyes. He had a wide nose and large ears, and while he was boring, to say the least, he also didn’t look like he fit around here. The jeans he wore were Diesel and the leather jacket he had on wasn’t that fake shite, it was the real deal.
