Beyond the Cut (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #2)(68)
“Cade … no.”
Overwhelmed by a tumult of emotion, he stepped away. “You may not want my help and protection, but you will have it. Even if it means going against my club so you never have to face Mad Dog again.”
SIXTEEN
I will show no mercy when mercy is not deserved.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Dawn waved to the bus driver as the city bus lurched out from the bus stop and into the street, somehow working its way past a black cat that had bedded down for the night on the asphalt. Exhausted from a late shift and the emotional upheaval of the day, she wanted nothing more than to fall into bed, and she was profoundly grateful to Cade who had arranged to have her bed replaced, and the damage to her home repaired by a small army of junior patch. Maybe tomorrow she would be able to think clearly again and decide just how deeply she wanted to get involved in the Sinner’s Tribe. As if she weren’t drowning already.
She unlocked the front door and then stepped inside, closing and bolting it behind her. But as she reached for the light, her skin prickled in warning.
Too late. Maybe she shouldn’t have made that wish the other night.
“Welcome home, love. Come give your old man a kiss.”
Ice flooded her veins and she turned to see Jimmy sprawled on a chair in her darkened living room. “How did you get in here?”
He gestured for her to approach him, scowling when she didn’t move from the door. With his face half in and half out of shadow, his hoodie bunched around his neck, and his all-black attire, he looked every inch the monster she knew he was.
Run. She should run. But dammit, this was her house. Plus she knew he wouldn’t let her get away that easy. There would be some trap lying outside: Brethren hiding in the bushes, a gun in his hand hidden by his side.
“You know me. I can get in anywhere.” He leered and she recoiled at the double entendre, wishing she could erase every minute she had spent in his bed.
“Get out or I’ll call the police.” She pulled her phone from her pocket with one hand and reached into her purse with the other, feeling for her weapon. She’d loaded the gun after Cade dropped her off at work, never thinking she would have to use it so soon.
Jimmy pushed himself out of the chair and ambled toward her, seemingly unaffected by her threat. “I want my f*cking money. Then you’re gonna come home where you belong and I’ll teach you again what it means to be mine.” He struck her with his closed fist, sending her flying sideways across the room. The purse fell from her grasp and she landed on her back beside the coffee table.
Stunned, slivers of pain shooting up her back, her face throbbing, she could only watch as he tugged open his belt and closed the distance between them.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out you stole from me? Or that you’ve been parading around town in a Sinner cut? Did you think Shelly-Ann wouldn’t tell me? I’ve put up with your shit far too long.” He whipped off his belt with a crack and Dawn’s breath caught in her throat. Jimmy had left her alone for the better part of three years. Why did he want her back now?
“Time for a reminder about how this relationship works. Then you’ll get that money and come home with me so you can be reminded of it every day.”
“I don’t understand. I thought we were done. You have someone new.” Grimacing at the pain, she pushed herself to sitting and searched for her purse.
Jimmy tugged open his fly and scowled. “I’m sure you’ll understand just fine when it’s my dick inside you instead of that f*cking Sinner’s dick. Shelly-Ann saw you playing happy families in the park.” His face twisted and spittle bubbled at the corner of his mouth. “I saw you,” he screamed. “I saw him kiss you. I saw his f*cking paws all over you. You’re my old lady. My wife. And you’re a f*cking whore and a thief.”
Every alarm bell in her body triggered in warning. He was past the point of restraint, past the point of rational thought. The few times he’d been like this she’d barely managed to get out of their apartment alive.
Dawn rolled, her arm outstretched toward her purse, but Jimmy was on her before her fingers caught the handle. He straddled her hips, his weight pinning her to the floor.
“You got two choices, bitch.” He caged her jaw, forcing her mouth open with his thumb as his fingers pressed against her windpipe, cutting off her air and making it impossible to scream. “You can lie nice and quiet and take what I’m gonna give you, or you can put up a little fight and I’ll whip you and f*ck you and beat you and f*ck you again.”
Dawn’s heart pounded so hard she thought it would crack a rib. How had she ever looked into those cold, dark eyes and seen a savior? How had she ever thought Jimmy cared? She inched her fingers toward her fallen phone, fighting the darkness threatening her vision.
“Tsk. Tsk.” Jimmy released her and snatched the phone from her grasp. “You thinking of calling for help? Do your new Sinner friends know how you earned your keep for the Brethren, little whore? Does your damn Sinner? I’ll bet he’ll lose interest pretty quick when he finds out just what a skanky bitch you really are, when it’s my cum filling your *. Maybe we’ll make some more damn brats. He’s not gonna want you all knocked up. I sure didn’t.”
Dawn sucked in a breath of cool, clean air and tried to stop the trembles racking her body. She closed her hand into a fist and remembered the moment she hit Stan and how she’d imagined he was Jimmy.