Tainted Bastard (Tainted Knights 4)

The sound of my phone going off had my eyes snapping open just as I was drifting off to sleep. Groaning, I released her and hurried to find my jeans so I could grab my phone before it woke her up.

Seeing Gray’s name on my screen, I muttered a curse and walked naked into the living room to answer it.

“What?” I growled as I shut my bedroom door behind me.

“Holy shit, bro. Why didn’t you tell me you could sing like that?” my best friend demanded with a drunken laugh. “Jace is over here sweating bullets that you’re going to take his place and we’re gonna kick his ass out.”

I snorted as I dropped down onto the couch. “No, he’s not. I don’t want his place. I’m happy right where I am.”

“If you’re deep between Roanna’s legs right now, then I know you’re happy.”

“Shut the fuck up, dickhead,” I growled at the same time he groaned in pain, and I heard Kassa scolding him.

“Ouch, Kas! That fucking hurt, babe.”

“Good!” she snap

ped at him.

“Shit,” he grunted. “I gotta go. She’s pissed at me.”

“You’re lucky it was her hitting you. If you said that shit to me and I was beside you, your ass would be on the floor right now.”

“Like you haven’t said the same shit about Kas—”

“I haven’t. Fucking ever. I have more respect for her than that. You should learn some too. Go sober your ass up before I come find you and knock your teeth down your throat, douchebag.” I disconnected and tossed the phone onto the coffee table. Leaving it there, I walked back into the bedroom just as Roanna started crying.

“I don’t want to be here,” she whispered, shifting restlessly under the covers. “I don’t want to be here.”

It took a few seconds for me to realize she was dreaming. I climbed into bed behind her, wrapping my arms around her. “Ro, baby wake up.” I kissed her cheek, and she jerked back.

“I don’t want to be here!” she sobbed, sounding so scared and heartbroken, my pulse started racing. Whatever she was seeing in her dreams, I wanted to fucking destroy for her.

“Ro!” I shook her shoulders, and her eyes finally blinked open.

She was shaking, glancing around the darkened room with pure terror on her face. “S-S-Sin?”

I kissed her forehead. “It’s okay, sweet girl. I’m here. I got you. Nothing’s going to hurt you as long as I’m around.”

Slowly, she began to relax, and I moved to lie beside her. She turned so she was able to pillow her head on my chest and hug my waist. I stayed quiet, letting her get her head straight while I rubbed her back. If she wanted to tell me about it, that had to be her choice. I wouldn’t make her tell me if she wasn’t ready.

“It’s the same dream every time,” she whispered once her shaking finally stopped. “And it’s so scary because…it’s a memory.”

I kissed the top of her head, telling her without words that I was there, that I was listening.

“Almost every night, for months, Sicko Stan would come into my room. I hated it. I hated—hate—him. But…as long as he was coming into my room, that meant he left the other girls alone, y’know?”

“Yeah, baby. I know. You wanted to protect them.”

“Yeah.” She blew out a tired sigh. “Genesis and London were already living in the house. The week before, he’d tried to go into London’s room, and she puked all over him. Her ability to puke on command came in handy that night. It saved her, and he didn’t try again. I was kind of jealous of her after that.”

“The dream—is that the night it stopped? Is that when Aubree and the others saved you?”

After a small hesitation, she nodded. “He came into my room, and I was so tired, so sick of everything. I kept crying, begging to be anywhere else but there. He was drunk, though, so he didn’t seem to care that I was screaming. Maybe that got him off or whatever, I don’t know, but he didn’t seem too worried that I would wake up the other girls or even his wife. Normally, he would put his hand over my mouth if I started crying.”

My gut clenched as those visuals filled my head. Fuck, I wanted to kill that monster with my bare hands.

“His drunkenness made him rougher, and he hurt me that night. I was…bleeding.” Her arm tightened around me, her face burrowing in my chest. “He laughed because he thought I was pregnant and that he was killing the baby. Getting rid of the proof of what he’d been doing to me.”