Hard to Fight (Alpha's Heart, #1)(35)

“Even though she was a brat, she had something going for her. She was smart as hell and she loved to write. At night, no matter what home we were thrown into, she would pull out an old pen and paper, and she’d write stories. She had so many of them, and all of them were good. She used to tell me when she got old enough to live on her own, she’d become an author and change everything for herself.”

His face drops.

“Then she met him.”

“What happened?” I ask softly.

“I knew right off the mark he was no good. They met at a club one night and he wooed her, swept her off her feet. She was pretty, f*ckin’ sweet, and totally crazy. He liked what she gave, so he came back for more. They moved in together after two months, and I knew when shit started to go bad because she became withdrawn. She stopped writing. Stopped talking to me. Stopped trying to save herself.”

“I’m so sorry, Raide.”

“Should have done something,” he says, and I can see his fingers tightening around the wheel. “Should have pulled her away, made her stop, taken her as far away as I could.”

“Honey,” I say softly, “it wasn’t up to you to be her dad.”

“I was all she had, Grace. The only f*ckin’ thing in her life she had that was stable. I might not have been her dad, but I was her protector, all the same. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t interfere. Then she called me that night, hysterical. She told me he had lost it, and that he’d hit her. I got in my car and sped over there, but by the time I got there she was gone. He was just standing there, staring at her like he’d done nothing wrong.”

I flinch.

“He looked up at me and grinned. He knew, he f*ckin’ knew what she meant to me. I saw red, lost it. He was on the ground in front of me before I even realized what I’d done. He was beaten, and I had the damned knife in my hand. I guess the neighbors must have heard all the noise and reported it. The cops show, he starts screaming like a girl, sobbing and crying, actually looking like he was terrified.”

“God, Raide, I’m so sorry.”

He shrugs. “Justice will come to him.”

“In the right way, though—”

His jaw tics. “He killed my sister, Grace.”

“And if you kill him, you’ll go to prison for life. Is it worth that? Is that what she’d want for you?”

“Is she around to tell me what she f*ckin’ wants?” he barks.

I stop talking. Right now is clearly not the time to lecture him about not killing the man who took his only family away. I can’t even begin to understand what he’s going through. He’s lived through a nightmare no one understands. My family might drive me crazy, but if they were ever taken away from me, it would destroy everything. His sister was the only person he had. I can’t pretend to understand his pain.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

He clenches his jaw, then his shoulders slowly relax. “Not your fault, Gracie. I’m sorry.”

I force a smile and we ride in comfortable silence for a while. I watch as the countryside changes and the trees start getting closer together, thicker, prettier.

“Tell me about your family,” Raide finally asks.

I sigh and stare out at the road whizzing by. “My dad is great. He’s the most important person in the world to me. He always understood me. He always supported me. I love my mom and two sisters, but they’re the beauty queen type.”

“Jesus,” Raide mutters.

“You’re telling me. From the day my sister Gretchen was born, she was enrolled in every pageant. She’s pretty, the perfect little showcase Barbie doll. Then my other sister, Stacy, decided to get involved, and suddenly Mom’s time was gone. I never fit in. I hated anything pretty. I was always out fishing with my dad, hanging with his friends, and playing with boys instead of girls.”

Raide chuckles. “I can see that. I’ve seen you take down a fully grown man.”

I smile for real this time. “I know how to protect myself.”

“What do you do?”

I flinch. Shit. I haven’t even thought of an answer to such an obvious question. My mind twists quickly for a lie, and I give him a job typical for most girls my age. “I’m a waitress.” Ugh.

He raises his brows. “A waitress?”

“Yeah.”

“A waitress?”

I laugh. “Yeah, Raide, a waitress. Is that so surprising?”

“Absolutely.”

It’s my turn to raise my brows. “Why?”

He shrugs. “You ain’t the waitressing type, lady.”

“There’s a type?”

He grins and my heart flutters. “Yeah, baby, there’s a type. You ain’t it.”

“Care to elaborate?” I ask, removing my foot from the open window and turning toward him.

“Nope, I just know it ain’t you.”

“Well, it’s what I am.” This guy knows how to read people. That’s scary. “Any reason we’re going away for a few days?” I ask after another long moment of silence.

“Need time away.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I frown. “You don’t seem like the ‘go away for no reason’ kind of man.”