Heartache and Hope (Heartache Duet #1)(46)

Now the two guys are restrained, and I stand between them, not knowing what to do or how to act. “I swear to God. I don’t give a fuck who you are or where you’re from, you so much as look at her again and I’ll end you,” Connor seethes, his face red. I stand in front of him, but he doesn’t see me through the rage flaming inside him. He spits blood from his mouth, his chest heaving beneath his shirt.

“Connor,” I cry, trying to calm him.

“Get out of my way, Ava.”

His dad tightens his hold. “Connor, that’s enough!”

Sirens approach, and when I look around, I see our neighbors outside their homes, all watching us, some with their phones out.

The Insane Asylum.

The Looney Bin.

Tears flow, cascade. I lower my gaze, cover my mouth to muffle my cries. “You need to leave, Connor,” I beg.

His heavy breath hits the top of my head, and I look up to see him watching me. Beaten and bruised, his eyes hold mine. “Ava,” he whispers, shaking his head.

“Please,” I urge. “Just go home.”





Chapter 31





Connor





I’m locked. Trapped in my own fucking home—my own nightmare—while outside, Ava and Dad speak to the police as if I don’t have a voice of my own. An hour passes, and Dad still hasn’t returned, and I’m losing my damn mind. I pace. Three steps one way, then three steps the other because it’s all the room this shitty house has to offer.

I’m pissed.

Beyond it.

Because she didn’t ask him to leave. She asked me.

Finally, Dad enters, and I stop pacing. Arms down, chest out, I’m ready for it. “I convinced them not to press any charges against you,” he says.

“Me?” I shout. “What about that fucker?!”

“Watch your goddamn mouth, Connor!”

I draw back. “You’re kidding, right? He’s the one hurting her, and you’re in here blasting me?”

“He didn’t touch her!”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was there, okay! I’m the one who treated her!” he yells. My stomach drops, and everything inside me stills. I take a breath. And then another. I start to speak, but he beats me to it. “Whatever it is that’s going on with you and that girl, it ends now.”

I shake my head, defiant. “No.”

“You think this is up for discussion?”

I start to walk away.

“I’m serious, Connor. I forbid you from spending time with her.”

I turn on my heels, an incredulous laugh bubbling out of me. “You forbid me?”

“Yes.” He stands in front of me, arms crossed, standing his ground.

I try to calm my thoughts, try to settle my breathing. “You forbid me?” I repeat, then take a step forward, tower over him. “For seventeen years I’ve done nothing, not one damn thing, to ever disobey you. You’ve never had to punish me or set rules for me. I’ve always tried so fucking hard to be the perfect kid because I was so afraid you’d abandon me, too—”

“Connor—”

“No!” I scream. “This is the first time in my entire life that I’ve ever needed your help, and this is what you do? You take away the one good thing I have in my life and—”

His sneer cuts me off. “You’re acting like an ungrateful brat. You have plenty of good things in your life!”

“Like what?” I shout. “Basketball?”

“Yes!”

“It’s just a game! It’s not—”

“It’s more than a game! It’s a ticket out!”

“For you, Dad! It’s a ticket out for you!”

His arms unfold, anger pulling at his brow. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I open my mouth but stop myself from saying something I’ll regret, something I’ve held on to for years. It means that he wants me gone, to a college far, far away, so he doesn’t have to deal with me anymore. So he can get rid of the unwanted burden that was left to him. “Nothing.”

“If you have something to say, say it!”

“I don’t,” I mumble, looking down at the floor. “But you can’t stop me from seeing her.”

“Bullshit, I can’t,” he says, his voice raised again. “She—that family of hers—they’re bad news, Connor. And you don’t need them in your life. Not now. Not ever!”

“I need to get out of here.” I step into my room and grab my ball, then shoulder past him to get to the door.

The moment my hand’s on the knob, Dad yells, “That girl is nothing but a bad distraction! She’s got problems, problems too big for you to shoulder, and she’s tearing you down with her! Look at you! Look at what she’s made you do! She has nothing good to offer you, Connor! Not one damn thing!”

I open the door.

Freeze.

Solid.

Ava’s standing on my porch, her fist raised, ready to knock. I slam the door shut behind me, my anger deflating. “How much did you hear?”

Eyes glazed, she slowly looks up at me. “All of it.”

I sigh. “If you’re here to tell me how much of a fuck-up I am, you can save it.” I drop the ball, lean against the porch railing. “I’ve heard it all already.”