Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(53)

She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn’t even see him coming. Campbell grabbed her and shoved her against the wall—hard. Lana didn’t have time to scream before his dirty hand covered her mouth.

“Don’t you dare make a sound, got it?” he hissed in her ear. Lana nodded, if only to get him away from her.

His stench made her gag as he rubbed against her and groaned. “Hm, you’re a big girl.” Then he had the audacity to roughly fondle her breast before backing away.

Now he was angry again. Talk about mood swings.

Lana was pissed. Any other time she wouldn’t have stood for that kind of behavior from a man, but this one just so happened to be holding a knife in his hand. Maybe things were worse than she thought. She could handle being groped. Hell, she could even handle being roughed up, but she wasn’t sure if she was up for whatever he was planning. She shivered in fear, thinking of the worst case scenario.


She began to speak but shook her head, thinking better of it. Sometimes talking got her in more trouble than it was worth. Maybe if she kept her trap shut he would leave her alone. But the likelihood of that was slim to none. This time she wasn’t able to get away.

“You stupid bitch, you should have stayed out of it. Cameron knew what he was doing. And now they’re after me.” Campbell jabbed his knife in her direction as if he were going to stab her. Lana didn’t fear many things, but in this case she certainly wasn’t feeling confident about her chances. An erratic man with a sharp weapon wasn’t a good mix—ever.

“He wouldn’t have gotten the time I would,” he continued, as if that explained it all.

She nodded, slowly understanding. Cameron was going to take the rap for his older brother. She already knew the two were only fifteen months apart, and they were closer than anyone could ever imagine. She shuddered. The things she had come across sickened her. They definitely weren’t your everyday ordinary family.

Cameron planned to do whatever punishment he got. He’d be out of jail and back on the streets before Campbell was able to commit another crime.

Maybe.

That was loyalty, and Lana shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. She couldn’t imagine taking the blame for something she didn’t do, no matter how much she cared about the person.

She held up her hands in surrender. “Let’s calm down, Mr. Marks. I haven’t told anyone anything, and I won’t. I’ll forget about it all, and then we can go on with our lives like nothing happened. Okay?”

Campbell laughed wildly. “Yeah, like I believe that shit for a minute. I’m not stupid, you condescending bitch.” He ran a shaky hand through his dirty blond hair. “And people actually believe the shit you spew?” He stepped over her, and she cowered against the wall. As he leaned his face against her cheek, his hot breath whispered against her ear, “You’re going to pay for messing this up for me.”

Lana shuddered and gagged. The feel of his breath on her skin turned her stomach. “Please,” she said. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was asking for. At that moment she only knew that she wanted him away from her.

Conner’s beast roared, and his body shook with rage. His bear tried to break free, but even though he was still out of it from his injuries, he knew that couldn’t happen. All he knew for sure was that he needed to get somewhere and he needed to get there fast. It was the whole reason he left the hospital.

He wasn’t sure why he had felt the urgency to come this way, but even with no memory he knew not to ignore the bear inside of him. Instinct alone led him further into the city to a parking garage.

Really, what the hell?

But his other half paced inside his head, pushing him to hurry. He sped down to the lower level of a parking garage, and it wasn’t until he heard a woman’s plea that he knew why he was there.

He didn’t know shit, except right at the moment it didn’t matter. The sound of her voice tightened his gut. His beast pawed at him, urging him to follow her voice. Otherwise, he drew a blank. He didn’t know what happened before he ended up in the hospital. The doctor said his memory would return in time and it could be a little at a time or all at once. Right now, that didn’t matter

The woman cried out, and something inside him snapped. He rounded the corner to see a man standing over a beautiful, plump woman. Both man and beast wanted to kill.

Mine! his beast cried in despair.

Conner shook his head in shock.

My mate.

He took a deep breath, inhaling her delicious scent and then narrowed his eyes on the man who was touching her. The man stunk of sweat, marijuana, and alcohol. He was also very sick, but the biggest problem was his waving a knife at Conner’s woman.

Conner barreled towards the man and swung a meaty hand at him, knocking the knife to the ground. The man hadn’t even seen him coming. He was too engrossed in scaring the woman. She gasped, and when he looked down at her, he saw a tear slide down her cheek. He wanted to reach down and wipe it away, but the man had shaken out of his daze and dove for the fallen knife. But Conner wouldn’t let him get that far. In one quick move he grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck and held him up, feet dangling in the air.

“You dared to touch her!”

The man paled and lost control of his bladder. The stench of urine filled the air, and Conner held him further from his body. Shaking him again, Conner felt disgust for the puny excuse of a man.