Raegan

One year ago…

“I want that shipment by the end of the day. I don’t care what you have to do to get it.”

I listened from the bedroom as Xavier talked with his supplier. He was into dealing weapons and over the years I had known that, but I had looked the other way because I thought I loved him when we first got together. Of course, he had been different then. When he started getting into dealing, he had changed into a different man, one that liked to keep me in line with his fists. If I hadn’t been so weak, I would have walked away, but I waited too long and now he knew exactly how to keep me in line. Unfortunately, I let my mouth get away from me a time or two and had paid the price. I just couldn’t help myself sometimes. I tried to keep my mouth shut, but sometimes my thoughts just slipped out. One of these days it was going to cost me my life.

Like I actually had a life the past few years.

But I couldn’t stay now. He was making a deal with his supplier to try and overthrow his largest competitor, a man that I had only heard of, but knew that he wasn’t someone that you messed with. Anyone who did, died a very slow, very painful death. And that was only the beginning. He sent messages to his buyers that he wasn’t to be fucked with by using families as examples. I had seen it with my own eyes. Women and children had been literally burned at the stake when someone double crossed him. That was what Xavier was planning on doing, and if he was caught, he would be the least of my worries.

“I’m not willing to put my ass on the line unless I get a bigger cut. You know that if you get caught, I’m going down too. Taking weapons from this guy is as good as signing our death warrants,” his supplier said.

“Not if you do it right. Get rid of those asswipes you use and get some real men to do the job.”

The supplier sounded irritated, but even he knew that he could only push Xavier so far. They were both playing a dangerous game.

“I’ll have it for you by the end of the day, but you need to find a different location for the drop. We have to assume that any place we’ve used in the past could be known.”

God, these guys were fucking idiots. They were going to get everyone killed.

“Fuck,” Xavier laughed. “The payday off this is going to be incredible.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? This guy has eyes everywhere.”

“I’ll have people all around watching. If they see anything unusual, I’ll know immediately and take care of it.”

Famous last words. God, he’s such an arrogant prick and it’s gonna get him killed. Not that I cared. I’d be happy to be rid of him at this point, but that was easier said than done. I couldn’t just walk away from him and too many people knew that I was his girlfriend. If I ran away, anyone would snitch on me just to get a better deal on their weapons.

His supplier didn’t seem like he really believed him, but he agreed and continued to make plans with Xavier. I crept over to the other side of the room and pulled the burner phone from the back of the closet. It had been slipped to me by someone that stopped by once after Xavier had beaten me. He was concerned for me and knew that I wouldn’t be able to make it out on my own. I hadn’t used the phone yet, but I was going to now. The only people that I knew would help me were my parents. I didn’t want to put them in danger, but they were my last hope. I dialed the numbers that I still knew by heart and waited for someone to answer. My heart thumped wildly in my chest and when my dad’s voice came over the line, I started to tear up, I was so choked up over hearing his voice after all these years.

“Daddy,” I whispered. I gasped as my breathing seized in my chest. I had to hold it together.

“Raegan?” The shock and hope in his voice came through loud and clear. I hadn’t talked to my parents in years and the last time I had, they begged me to leave Xavier. But I knew that would likely never happen. “Baby girl, are you okay?”

“Daddy, I need you,” I plead. “Xavier is doing something stupid.” My voice trembled with anger as I thought about what I had overheard and the danger he was putting me in. “He’s doing something dangerous and…” I swallowed down the fear that was causing me to choke up. “I don’t think I’ll make it out of here if he goes through with it. I don’t want to die here.”

My voice broke as I spoke the words, knowing the truth of the situation was staring me in the face.

“Baby, tell me where you are. I’ll make sure you get out.”

“Uniontown. It’s on 7^th Street and Harris Street. It’s the brown house on the corner.”

“Hold tight, baby. I’m coming for you.”

I nodded, trying to convince myself that he could make it in time to get to me, but deep down, I was pretty sure this was the last time I would speak to my father. “Daddy, if this is it, if I don’t make it, tell Momma I’m so sorry. Tell her that I love her and I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you.”

“Baby, I will make it or I’ll find someone that can get to you. I swear, I’ll get you out.”

“I know, Daddy. I love you,” I whispered. The phone was yanked from my hand and I yelped in surprise. I hadn’t heard anyone come in because I wasn’t paying attention, and that was my biggest mistake yet. Xavier backhanded me and I flew against the closet wall, trying to hold in my scream so I didn’t scare Dad.

“Who the fuck is this?” His eyes shifted as he listened and then he glared down at me, his fists clenching in anger as he stared at me. “She won’t be contacting you again.”

He threw the phone against the wall and it broke apart, crashing to the ground. My last lifeline was gone. All I had now was hope that my Dad could come save me. Xavier cracked his knuckles and bent down on his haunches, his jaw hard as steel as he looked at me.

“So, you thought you’d try and leave. That’s never gonna happen, bitch.”

“Better to die escaping than stay here and die because of your stupidity,” I snapped.

He grabbed my hair, yanking me to him. My eyes watered and my scalp burned as he pulled me from the closet. I tried to crawl out so that I wasn’t dragged, but I couldn’t get my hands under me as he hauled me up higher. I felt my hair being ripped from my head as he threw me against another wall. My skull cracked against it with a sickening thud. Everything in front of me went blurry and I tried to blink my vision back, but before I could, his fist caught me in the jaw, sending me back against the wall again.

God, I was stupid. I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I cowered away from him, knowing this could be the worst it had ever been. His foot connected with my ribs and I gagged and then threw up on the floor. He kicked me again and again until at least a few of my ribs were broken. I was wheezing and sucking in air as best I could, but black spots were forming from lack of oxygen. When his foot struck out and hit me in the face, my nose broke and blood gushed into my mouth. I started choking on my own blood. I pulled my knees up, ignoring the pain in my chest, doing anything I could to protect myself.

When he didn’t hit me immediately, I thought maybe he had left me and my beating was over. I slowly opened my eyes just as he walked into the room, shoving his brass knuckles onto his hand. I whimpered in agony as his fist came toward me again. Two hits was all it took and I was out.

✯✯✯✯✯

I thought I heard voices, but that couldn’t be right. I was dead. I couldn’t possibly still be alive after what Xavier had done to me. Something touched my face and I moaned, jerking away from whatever it was. I knew I hadn’t moved far, but my instincts were to get as far away as I could. The problem was, I could barely move. I felt myself being lifted and prayed that someone was here to help me. Either that or just shoot me and take away the pain.

As I moved through the air, my arm hung limply next to me. I tried to pull it into my body, but I didn’t have the strength. My head was resting against something, but as we moved, it flopped backward, straining my breathing. My strangled breaths became too painful and just when I thought I would pass out, I was moved again in a more comfortable position. I heard what sounded like gunshots and then there was bright light behind my eyelids. The voices were back, but they were so muffled that I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I couldn’t focus on anything and I kept floating in and out of consciousness, not sure what was real and what was a dream.

I wanted to call for my dad when I thought I heard his soothing tone, but I couldn’t make my voice work. Something touched my face again, but this time I didn’t flinch away. I could feel rough fingers brushing my hair from my face, but I wasn’t scared. Either I felt safe with these hands or I was too far gone to care at this point.

“Hang on, Raegan.”

The male voice was fierce, but comforting, and I wanted to beg him to stay, but I was too late. He was gone. I could feel it.

✯✯✯✯✯

Something wet dripped down my cheek and something soft was swiped across my face. It felt so good, so refreshing that I moaned in appreciation. My body felt light, almost like I was floating. For all I knew, I was lying on a cloud in heaven right now. I vaguely remembered my last encounter with Xavier, but I couldn’t be bothered with the outcome right now. I wasn’t in pain like I thought I would be. Yeah, there were some aches and pains, but overall, I felt pretty good. I tried to open my eyes, but it was like they were stuck together. I raised my eyebrows and lowered my jaw, hoping that it would help peel apart my eyelids.

“It’s okay, Raegan. Just give me a minute.”

Wetness coated my eyes and slowly, I felt my eyelids starting to loosen from the attachment they had to each other. I sighed my contentment as the gluey substance was cleared from my eyelids. After blinking a few times, clouds appeared in front of me. But the more I blinked, the more I realized that I wasn’t actually surrounded by clouds. My vision cleared enough to see people. There was a woman sitting on the bed beside me.

“You’re so pretty,” I sighed. “You have really nice hair and your teeth are really white.”

She was holding a cloth in her hands and smiling down at me. I felt really good, kind of loopy, but it felt so nice.

Another figure appeared behind her and I gasped. This man was terrifying, with black hair and the darkest eyes I had ever seen.

“Psst.” I struggled to lift my finger and motioned her toward me. “Don’t look now, but there’s a really scary man behind you. I think he might be a killer, but he’s also kind of hot,” I croaked. God, had I become a frog? Was that possible?

The woman chuckled slightly and the man just raised an eyebrow at me.

“Do you think he’s any good in bed?” I blinked a few times and narrowed my eyes to see him better. “Nah, I bet it’s all for show. Look at the size of his muscles. He’s compensating for something.”

I winked at her, which was actually more like blinking at her. “That’s my husband,” she laughed. “Raegan, meet Hudson.”

“Hudson? That doesn’t fit him. Shouldn’t he have some badass name like O’Roark or The Butcher?”

“Well, everyone calls him Knight,” she chuckled. “And I’m Kate.”

“Ah, Knight definitely fits him better. He’s like the Black Prince,” I said dreamily. “His name was Edward, which definitely doesn’t fit you, but he was a knight. Get it? A knight named Knight.” I attempted to laugh at my own joke and Knight shook his head at me. “But he died of dysentery, which I would think would really suck because diarrhea in the 1300s couldn’t have been fun.”

“Diarrhea would suck, but death was okay?” Knight questioned.

“Hey, Doc, tell the Black Prince about infectious diseases in the 1300s,” I whispered conspiratorially.

“How about instead we get you over to my clinic and get you some x-rays?”

“Do you know how they went to the bathroom back then?” I said to the Black Prince. “They built garderobes on the outside of castles and their excrements fell down into a hole. Imagine walking under that and diarrhea falling on your head,” I laughed.

“How about we talk about this on the way to the clinic?” Kate said. She held out her hand to me and pulled me up into a sitting position. The room tilted around me, making me feel drunk.

“And people hung their clothes in the garderobes because the smell kept the moths away.” I grimaced and feigned gagging. “I think I’d rather have moths than smell like shit.” I stood and leaned heavily on Kate. “That’s where wardrobes came from. Such a lovely picture.”

Kate started walking with me toward the door where another man was standing, leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his jeans pockets. I stopped where I was, smacking Kate in the arm. “Do you see him?” I hissed. “He’s so gorgeous.”

A smirk spread across the man’s face and he shook his head, walking out of the room.

“What’s with all the really good looking men? Are we at a hot man convention?”

“No, that was Jackson and we’re at his house.”

“Why?”

“Because he pulled you out of your boyfriend’s house today. Is it hurting you to walk?”

“Doc, I gotta be honest. I’m not feeling much of anything right now.”

“Well, then the drugs are doing their job.”

“How much further? I kinda want to take a nap.”

I started to plop down on the floor and Kate quickly helped lower me to the ground. I sighed as I laid down on the rug that covered the hardwood floor and closed my eyes.

“Jackson!”

I heard Kate call for the handsome man and I yawned sleepily. The floor shook like an elephant was running toward me and then I felt a hand on my arm shaking me. I batted it away and brushed at something that was tickling my nose.

“Go away,” I grumbled.

Arms lifted me and I opened my eyes to see who it was. The handsome man that was in the doorway was carrying me. I blushed and snuggled against his chest, feeling his heart beat wildly against my cheek. I could get used to being around this man.

“You okay, Raegan?”

The deep rumble of his voice reverberated through his chest, sending tickles down my spine. “As long as I’m in your arms,” I replied. I heard him sigh and smiled. He obviously loved me in his arms as much as I loved being there.

✯✯✯✯✯

I groaned as I tried to roll to my side. That obviously wasn’t happening, so I flopped onto my back, a move I instantly regretted when pain shot through my body.

“Are you in pain?”

I blinked drowsily, trying to figure out where I had heard that voice before. It was a low rumble that sent tingles down my spine. A man came into my vision, a look of concern on his face. It almost seemed like I was seeing double and that’s when I realized that one of my eyelids would only open halfway. What the hell had happened?

“Are you in pain?” he repeated.

“Yeah. Where am I?”

“At my house. I’m Jackson. Do you remember me from yesterday?”

Yesterday? What the hell happened yesterday? Did I get drunk and pass out at some guy’s house? That would definitely explain the headache and the pain in my stomach.

“No, sorry, did I sleep with you?”

“No,” he said, looking at me funny.

“That’s good. Xavier would be pretty pissed.” I closed my eyes and let my head sink into the pillow again. At the thought of Xavier, I popped up in bed, yelping in pain when my whole body screamed. The man quickly grabbed me from behind, supporting my back as he lowered me back to the mattress.

“Take it easy. No one’s going to hurt you.”

“Where’s Xavier?” I asked in confusion.

“He’s dead,” Jackson said. His eyes were almost cold as he gazed over my body. Had I done something? I glanced down, making sure that I was dressed, which I was. Well, that was a relief. Although, I had no idea where I got a man’s dress shirt from.

“What happened to Xavier?” It was practically an afterthought. I didn’t really care about Xavier anymore. Years of him treating me like a punching bag really marred my opinion of him.

“He beat you within an inch of your life. We were there to get you out and one of my team shot him.”

“Huh.” That was interesting. He was dead and I didn’t have to worry about him anymore. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and the world had opened up to me. I was free. I could do whatever I wanted.

“That’s it?”

Jackson broke through my thoughts, drawing my gaze to his. “What more is there?”

“I don’t know. I guess I expected you to cry or…hell, I don’t know. Fall apart.”

“Is that what I’m supposed to do? Because he was kind of a bad person and I can’t say that I’m actually sorry that he’s dead.”

And I wasn’t. Xavier was nothing like he used to be and the furthest thing from my mind was whether or not Xavier was okay.

“No, you’re not supposed to do anything. That’s just what I thought would happen. I guess I thought that a woman that gets assaulted regularly would be on edge.”

“You would think,” I snorted. “But after you get beat up for the hundredth time because you opened your mouth, you just learn to roll with the punches. No pun intended.”

He smirked at me, his lips twitching in such a way that his eyes seemed to sparkle at the same time. The light blue of his eyes pierced me like steel and I couldn’t look away from their hypnotizing color. A flush crept up my neck the longer I stared at him. I was watching him like a schoolgirl watches her crush. Only I was an adult and that just made me look creepy.

I quickly averted my gaze, clearing my throat uncomfortably. I tried not to think about his dark hair that looked silky soft or the muscles that were obviously trying to escape the sleeves of his shirt. And I really tried not to think about the tattoos that made me want to rip off his shirt just so I could get a better look. “You said that I was beat up?”

“Yeah, when I got to you, you pretty much looked dead.”

“That would explain why my body hurts so much.”

“I’m gonna grab some pain pills for you. I’ll be right back.”

He stood and walked out of the room, giving me an opportunity to breathe and take stock of my body. I lifted my arm and grimaced when I saw all the bruises and cuts that marred my skin. Pressing against my face, I felt more cuts and the swell of my skin around my eye. It must have made me look like I had a tiny orange sticking out of my eye.

“Lovely,” I muttered. And I of course looked like this in front of the most gorgeous man I had ever met. Wasn’t that just my luck.

“Here,” he said as he walked into the room with a bottle of water and some pills. I went to sit up, but quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a good idea to sit up yet. “Yeah, I wouldn’t try that on your own. You have four broken ribs.”

“One more and I’ll have a basketball team,” I quipped.

He grinned at my wry humor and slipped his hand under my back to help me sit up. He shoved another pillow behind my back so I was propped up and then handed me the pills and water. I drank down the water because I was so thirsty, but then wondered if that was a good idea since eventually I’d have to get up to pee. That was gonna suck.

“So, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why’d you stay with him so long if he was hitting you all the time?”

I shrugged and smiled at him. “I was going for the world record for the number of beatings I could take.”

He shook his head, scrubbing a hand across his face. “Do you take anything seriously?”

“Sure, hygiene is very important. Not washing hands after using the bathroom is my biggest pet peeve. Also, I’m very serious about my pictures all hanging straight on the wall. If they’re off even a skosh, I seriously lose my shit. And then there’s general courtesy to others. People can be so rude nowadays and that really bugs me.”

He studied me, leaving me fidgeting under his scrutinization. I didn’t like anyone watching me so closely, afraid they would see who I really was underneath, an idiot that hadn’t left when I should have. Who was I kidding? A man like Jackson probably thought I was some crazy woman that thought I could change my man. Which I wasn’t. I knew as soon as Xavier started to change that nothing I did would make him who he once was. But I didn’t leave. I loved him too much. So, yeah. When a good looking man like Jackson started asking me personal questions, I was going to use my best defense mechanisms to ensure that he didn’t see the pathetic woman that hid beneath all the armor.