“Mine,” I shout at the whore who is Chuckie’s girlfriend. “Mine!” I shake her head like she’s a rag doll.
“Dolly,” he yells, and I keep saying the only thing my mind can process.
Mine.
I scratch her cheeks as she screams for help like the scared bitch she is. I’m going for her eyes when a hand that is so familiar stops me. I reach down and bite it.
“Jesus, stop. Enough,” he roars.
I turn to him and snarl, “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you both.” I thrash trying to break free. My feet connect with the nightstand and a lamp topples over.
The stupid cunt is still screaming for help, but I get one great kick in straight to her stomach and she topples to the floor gasping for breath.
Then I kick her in the face, but it’s not hard because I’m being lifted and held tightly in his arms—arms, which, an hour ago, were my future but now are my hell.
“What the fuck?” The room explodes with an energy that wasn’t in it before. I think it’s Chuckie as I twist and bite at whatever I can reach.
“Stop, Dolly. Fucking stop, baby.” His voice sounds tortured as he shakes me. My teeth snap against each other. I hear a noise. It sounds like a wild caged animal, wounded and scared. It fills the room, drowning out Edge’s soothing voice while he tries to restrain me.
“Don’t touch her,” Edge yells at someone who has my legs. He turns me to his chest and shakes me and the noise stops.
Was that sound coming from me? Everything stops. I stare in shock at what has happened.
“Fuck, baby. I’m sorry.” He grabs my hair and pulls my head next to his chest. His heartbeat sounds rapid. I whimper.
A loud pop makes both of us look up. My dad stands not three feet away holding his Glock. The ceiling is dumping all kinds of drywall on us as if we’re in a snowstorm. That’s because he shot his gun at the ceiling.
“Vice P… man, this is my room.” Chuckie looks around as if someone is going to back him up. My heart is being broken and he’s worried about a hole in his stupid ceiling?
My dad takes a step forward, his dark eyes focused on my face, then Edge, and finally Crystal who is being tended by some old ladies.
“I told you, Dolly.”
My ears are ringing. I shake my head as tears drip down my chin and say, “Mine.”
“No. This is exactly why I said no. You aren’t some club bunny. He’s not for you.”
“You have no idea, VP. I have done everything you asked,” Edge yells.
I can’t seem to stand, so I slide to the floor. In what seems like a nightmare, I watch, almost detached, as Edge’s voice fills the room.
All my dad does is shake his head. Reaching down, he scoops me up like I’m five instead of seventeen.
“Stop crying.”
“Dolly,” I hear Edge plead. I even feel him reach for me, though I think Jason is holding him back, or maybe it’s Chuckie.
“I need her. Tell her it was a mistake.” But I close my eyes, trying not to see anyone. If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.
“You happy, Misty? Why would you bring her here?” My dad sounds disgusted, almost tired when we get outside.
“I opened her eyes to what this life is like. She wants Edge, then she needs to know.”
She opens the Jeep’s door and for a second, I don’t want to let go of his neck. He’s my dad and even though he can be gruff and awful to my mom, he’s my dad and I love him.
“I have things to take care of. I don’t know when I’ll be home.” He sits me in the passenger seat, shuts the door, and glares at my mom.
“Wait, you’re leaving me to deal with this?”
“You brought her here,” he says. “Go home and be a mother, Misty.” My mom starts the Jeep and it’s then that I realize she’s crying. She reaches for my hand. I’m too raw not to hold it, too confused about what happened to pull away.
“I will never get over this,” I croak out, my throat so tight it comes out like a hiss.
“Neither will he, but don’t kid yourself. Edge will be a Disciple. You’re only his whore until he puts ‘Property of’ on your back.”
We don’t talk after that. She pulls into our driveway, opens the front door, and hands me a Valium.
“Go to bed.”EDGE
Seventeen years oldMy cheek is killing me. Licking my lips, I bolt up then brace myself as the sun blinds me and my head throbs with a pulse.
“You need a ride to school?” I stare at black biker boots and wipe my mouth with the bottom of my T-shirt.
“What the fuck? Why am I in the dirt?” I move my jaw around and try to spit the dust out.