Chapter 1
Julie
“I know you’re lying, Sam. Just tell me the truth. I saw the cryptic messages between you and whoever Amanda is. How long have you been cheating on me?”
His hand flies back and whips across my face so fast that I don’t even process what’s happening until my cheek stings. Heat rises up my back and my stomach drops as I hold a palm to my flaming cheek. He hit me. Sam actually fucking hit me. I’m stunned as tears slide down my face. This man I thought I loved stares at me with pure venom in his eyes.
“I told you never to touch my phone.” He takes a step toward me and I take a step back.
“You hit me. You coward.”
Sam grabs my upper arms and shakes me. “You’re a stupid cunt, aren’t you?”
I know it’s a mistake the moment I do it, but I gather my spit and pucker my lips letting it fly right at his face. “I hate you,” I seethe.
“Oh yeah. You fuckin’ hate me so much but you beg to ride my dick like it’s made of gold.” He smacks me again. This time splitting my lip. “You do nothing for me. I’m not attracted to your fat ass. Maybe if you’d lose some weight, I’d want to fuck you.”
Fight or flight grips me and I know if I don’t make a plan to leave him now I never will. He won’t let me. Sam has a reputation to uphold. He’s a prominent attorney and in his cop daddy’s eyes he can do no wrong. But Sam has developed bad habits lately. Cocaine and heavy drinking. He’s changed. I have too. “I’m sorry,” I lie. The only thing I’m sorry about is the fact that I ever thought I could love him. That I ever let him touch me. “I didn’t mean it, honey. I don’t know what came over me.”
His eyes narrow on me, searching my face. His jaw unclenches. He strokes my cheek, then my lips, wiping the drops of blood away. “Go clean yourself up. We have dinner plans with Dan Ritchie and his wife Mary.”
“Okay.” I nod and he leans in for a kiss. My stomach lurches and it takes all my self-control not to vomit on his two-thousand dollar shoes.
**
One week later
“You can’t tell me you’re just going to sit here by yourself and watch the ball drop. That’s so depressing, Jules.” Pam stands in front of the Tv blocking my view hands on the hips of her black leather pants. My sister is a total bad ass biker babe. Her old man, Link, short for Chain Link, belongs to a motorcycle club, Royal Bastards MC.
“I don’t even know anyone here.” My friends are back home celebrating in style with my ex. There was no way I was going to tag along and watch him make out with his new girlfriend who also happened to replace me in my circle of friends. Some friends they were. The moment I broke things off with Sam everyone turned their backs on me like I had an infectious disease. I spent a few nights in a hotel. No one offered me a place on their couch. It was him or me and he won. He’s the asshole who put his hands on me and everyone acted like I was crazy for being upset. Everyone wanted to make excuses for him. Saying he had too much to drink. That I shouldn’t have smarted off to him about staying out late the night before when it was Christmas Eve and all I wanted was to spend the holiday together. I shouldn’t have gone through his phone. They were right about going through his phone. I should have broken things off the moment I started keep tabs on him. I knew I couldn’t trust him. He was deleting messages and keeping secrets.
Turned out he had been cheating on me for months and
they all knew it. I should have known. It had been months since we had been together intimately. I confronted him and when he smacked me a switch flipped. No one had ever treated me like that. It was the last straw.
Pam had been begging me to come stay with her and Link, and I had some vacation time to cash in at work before the end of the year so here I am camped out on her couch hiding from my life. It was either use the time or lose it and I’ve missed my big sister. I haven’t told her the truth about Sam. I told her we broke things off because neither of us were happy which is mostly true, but we still share the apartment. I spent the rest of the week sleeping in the guest room and avoiding him at all costs. I’ve been looking for a place but haven’t found something I can easily afford on my own. I rent a stylist chair from a salon in the mall. I’m not exactly rolling in money as a color specialist. I wouldn’t have been able to come visit Pam if she hadn’t offered to pay for my gas.
“You know me. That’s all that matters. The club’s throwing a huge party. You’ve got to come.” She pouts her dark red lips out making a sad face. “Please, Julie. It’ll be fun. Promise.” Pam only calls me Julie when she’s trying to mom me.
I roll my eyes. “Fine, but I don’t exactly have anything to wear.” I look down at my bleach stained yoga pants and Mickey Mouse t-shirt.
“Leave that to me.”
“You swear you won’t make me look like one of those what did you call them, club rabbits?”
Her head goes back as she laughs. “Oh, sweet sister, I have so much to teach you tonight.”
“That sounds like a warning.”
“Oh, it totally is. The guys are going to love you.” I don’t like the mischievous glint she has in her eye. Pam has always been a wild child party lover and what some might call loose. Well until she got with Link a few years back the loose part changed, but she still loves a good party.
Pam ushers me to her bedroom. “Sit.”
I drop my bottom on the round seat of her vanity already feeling the pangs of regret. When we played dress up as kids, I swear she made me look like a clown on purpose. Who knows what she will do with me tonight.
“Plug this in.” She hands me the plug end of her flat iron. Pam and I both have dark naturally curly hair. I never wear mine straight. “It’s time to spice things up and take a walk on the dark side.” My sister smirks at me through the reflection of the mirror.
“Oh god,” I groan. “I’m going to look like a two-bit hooker, aren’t I?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You saying I look cheap?”
“No. You look wicked cool, but I don’t know the first thing about being a biker babe.”
“You’ll learn fast. But the guys will behave. I’ll tell them you’re off limits.”
“Might as well hang a sign around her neck that says virgin.” Link chuckles from the doorway of the bedroom.
“Oh, hush, you.” Pam smacks at him with her hairbrush.
“Well hello to you too,” he says on a grunt.
“Don’t be a grump. You know I missed you, honey.” She goes up on her tiptoes to kiss her husband.
Link is exactly the kind of man I pictured my sister running off with when we were growing up. He’s tall and big with tattoos on his face that say, ‘Yeah, I did time, what of it.’ He’s bad ass and not the kind of guy you want to piss off. But if he likes you, he can be a big ol’ teddy bear.
Link folds his arms over his chest. “You coming to the clubhouse you gotta know the rules.”