Unbroken

“Don’t touch me,” he snapped, pushing her hand away to look at me. “That man was dismembered, Skye, his parts were found everywhere—not his head, though. They haven’t found hisfucking head!” He took another step, towering over me until I could feel his breaths against my face. “Do you see why I don’t want you around that fucking boy? DO YOU SEE WHAT HE’S PART OF?”

I shook my head, sputtering, “He’s not part of anything—”

“He’s a fucking Warlord.”

“He just works at the garage they own—”

“Don’t be fucking naïve!”

Mom pushed between us. She settled her hands on his chest, urging him to step back. “Enough, Kurt, you’re scaring her—”

“I’mscaring her?” he shouted at her. “What about the savage she’s hanging around? Shouldn’t she be scared ofhim?”

“Calm down, baby—”

“She’s got a dead man’s card in her drawer, Maddie.”

“I know—”

“And I can’t say or do nothin’ because they’ll turn up at our door. They’re fucking dangerous, and we CAN’T SAY A FUCKING THING!”

Mom kept nodding, placating him while I stood there, trembling. My eyes darted to the window, but it was locked, so I couldn’t flee. He was still standing in my way, so I couldn’t run around him, could I?

All I knew was he wouldn’t leave. He was going to stand there the next couple hours, screaming in my face, and he somehow thought I’d just take it like I always did.

“Go away,” I found myself saying. “Get out of my room.”

“I’m not leaving—”

“Leave me alone.”

“Kurt,” Mom continued. “Please, give her space—”

“Why do you keep defending her?” Kurt growled at her. “I am not the bad guy here! Our baby girl is slaving away, putting money aside to help some fucking biker kid—A FUCKING LOSER! She’s going to ruin her life, don’t you see that, Maddie? We have to stop this, we have to do something before she winds up in the fucking ground!” His eyes went raw. “I don’t want to bury my little girl, Maddie!”

She started crying, and now they were falling apart before me.

He wouldn’t stop shouting.

I was positive everyone could hear every word he was saying. He needed to calm down, but he was so riled up, I’d never seen him lose it like this before. I sat on the bed, covering my ears as tears fell from my eyes.

Because it was so fucked up.

He was right to be mad.

If that man was dead—dismembered—oh, my God…

But I didn’t want to hear it. This was Hunter. He would never touch me if I didn’t want him to or hurt me out of anger. He just worked at the garage. He wasn’t part of them; he would have told me if he was! And he was too young, anyway.

But if he chose to one day?

It changed nothing.

Except Kurt wanted it to. He kept shouting. Kept telling me to stop hanging around him. To leave him be. To live a clean life. To be happy without my boys.

He kept coming at me:

This is unhealthy, Skye!