My hand shakes as I touch my cheek, and I wince. It’s where I scraped it on the cement when he dragged me back, but all of my face hurts. My eye where he punched me. My jaw where he squeezed. The scrapes. The back of my head when I hit the building.
Curling up on myself, I hug my knees and rock back and forth. There’s only one person I want right now, and I’m not sure if he’s even here.
“Motherfucker!” Butch huffs out, and I hear a loud crack.
My eyes widen as an older man walks in front of me and into the darkness. “You attacked her? You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“Zep…” I manage to get out. “Can you… I want Zep.”
My voice is barely more than a whisper, but the scarred man nods. He stands and shouts into the alley. “Zep! Misty needs you!”
Wait, Zep’s in the alley? I turn toward the darkness like I’ll magically have night vision, but I see nothing. How did I miss him?
“I want his bones fucking broken,” Zep shouts and runs to me. The moment he comes into the light, I burst into tears and reach out for him. “Misty, oh my God!”
He pulls me into his arms and rocks me as I scream and cry into his shirt. I was told not to go out at night alone, and I thought I was okay. That it was just a warning I didn’t need to worry about now that Zep and I aren’t together anymore.
Turns out, Butch doesn’t actually care. He’s a monster.
“Baby, I need to look at you, okay? It’s okay. You’re okay now,” Zep whispers and pulls me back to look at my face as he brushes the hair from my cheeks. “Jesus Christ, we should take you to the hospital.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to… No. I’m okay.”
His fingers gently touch the areas of my face I can feel swelling. My skin is tight and hot, and I can only imagine how terrible I look.
“Did he…?”
The pain in his eyes makes me cry, but I shake my head. “No, you… someone… pushed him off before…”
“Why were you out here alone?”
“I worked late, and I just… I wanted something to eat. And I… hoped to run into you,” I say between sobs. “We aren’t together, so I thought… but then he offered me a smoke… and… and…”
“Shh,” he says and runs his hand over my hair as he pulls me against his chest again. “It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay.”
Butch cries out as another crack sounds, and Wylie runs out with a few others wearing Venom leather. I cling to Zep but see Wylie’s eyes widen when he looks at me in his half-brother’s arms.
The look he gives me lasts only a second before he runs into the alley after his dad. It was sympathy, I think. Maybe he’s not as much like his father as he seems.
“Get off me, asshole!” Butch shouts.
“What the fuck is going on?” Wylie shouts and uses a flashlight to light up the darkness that was just my own personal hell. “Are you fucking kidding right now?”
“Look what he did to her,” the man with the scar says, pointing at me. “Proud of your daddy? Huh? That’s what you want to be when you grow up?”
Wylie glances back, and I see that look again. But then his face hardens and says, “Probably asked for it.”
Zep tenses, but I cling to him, stopping him. I get the feeling Wylie doesn’t mean it, but he can’t disrespect his father. Or the president of his club.
They help Butch out, the others wearing rival leather holding knives to keep Zep’s club back, and I push Zep away as I throwup. Butch’s jeans are still undone with his now-soft cock hanging out.
Holding my hair, Zep rubs my back. “You might have a concussion.”
“Or seeing that crusty willy did her in. I know it’s making me nauseous,” a man with dark blond hair says.
Nancy storms out with a baseball bat in hand. “What the hell do you think—Oh my God, Misty! Are you okay?”
“Butch tried to…” Zep trails off, unable to finish the sentence.
