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Ciara shakes her head. “It does, but then you get round and fat and can’t walk anymore.”
Janine pouts. “Max never made me this sick.”
“Maybe it’s a girl,” I point out. “Skye had me vomiting at the mere mention of nausea.”
Janine smiles, rubbing her belly. “I hope so.”
I hope so, too.
“So, our girl here is up to no good,” Ciara tells the group, and points a finger right at me.
The thing about us ladies is that we keep nothing from each other. We’re closer than family, and we’re a team. If one of us is in, we’re all in.
“Yikes, Ciara,” I say. “Just drop me in it.”
Grinning, she proceeds to tell them everything.
I guess I’m not doing this one alone.
4
Cade – Then
Blood splatters as I drive my fist into his nose, over and over, until the cracking stops and his body goes limp. Throwing him on the floor, I stare down in utter disgust at my sister’s boyfriend. One who just beat her within an inch of her life. Nobody lays a fucking hand on her and gets away with it.
“You ever fucking touch her, come near her, say her name, or even breathe in her direction and I’ll gut you like a fish. Do I make myself fuckin’ clear?”
Coughing blood, the man rolls to his side with a groan.
“I said,” I roar, “do I make myself clear?”
“Yes,” he spits out.
Good.
Turning, I stomp through the blood on the ground and past the onlookers, watching but not daring to intervene. They wouldn’t want to, because I’d have their fucking heads. Reaching my truck, I get in and turn the key, getting the fuck out of this shit part of town. Clara is going to get herself killed. The crowds she is hanging with are trash, and that’s putting it nicely. She’s going down a bad road, and it doesn’t seem to matter what I do, she won’t stop.
Arriving back home, I don’t pause as I head to her room where she is resting after arriving home from the hospital.
Swinging the door open, I step in, my hands still covered in blood, my shirt no better. Turning her head, she looks at me, and her eyes widen as she croaks out, “Tell me you didn’t go and hurt him?”
“He’s lucky he isn’t dead. What the fuck were you thinkin’ Clara? To let that motherfucker into your life. You need to do better. You deserve more than those fucking scumbags.”
Pushing up, she winces as she glares in my direction. “Don’t tell me who is good for me, Cade. It’s my life. It’s my choice. I’m eighteen now, and I can be with whoever I want. He was just upset, that’s all.”
“He nearly fuckin’ killed you,” I roar. “That isn’t upset, that’s fuckin’ abuse. He will do it again and again. Why can’t you see that?”
“You don’t know what I’m like,” she snaps. “I pushed him, made him angry.”
“It shouldn’t matter. He should never lay a fuckin’ hand on you. You don’t have to worry; he will never speak to you again.”
“What have you done?” she cries. “Cade, I love him.”
“That ain’t love, it’s fuckin’ trauma bonding. You will stay away from him.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she cries, and it breaks my heart.
I’ve always protected her. Always had her back. When she was a little girl and she was scared, she could climb into my bed and hold my hand until she stopped trembling. We grew up with abuse, and I’ve always tried to keep it from her. I can’t stand back now and watch her walk right into the life we are so desperate to escape from.
