Running Free (Woodland Creek)(33)

“You watch Minnie and I’ll sneak in there and get the key,” I tell Jase.

“No, Frances, you can’t.” His green eyes flicker with the need to protect me but I frown at him.

“It’ll be easier for me. He hates you, Jase. If I get caught, I’ll lie and he’ll probably let me go. If you go, he’ll beat you up again. Your back is still bruised from last week.”

I hate that Joe picks on him but don’t really know what to do about it. I’m twelve. What can a twelve-year-old do to stop a grown man from beating up someone? Not much unless I want to get beat too.

Not waiting for Jase’s approval, I slip out of the living room and tip-toe barefoot down the hallway to Joe’s room. The television is playing in the background but other than that, I don’t hear any signs of life. My heart is in my chest as I creak open the door and push through at super slow pace. Once inside, my eyes flit over to his gigantic bed and I breathe a sigh of relief. I’ve barely made it to the little table where the key sits on top when I think I hear a noise.

I still and attempt to hold my breaths from rushing out of control. With one more step, I’m near enough to pick up the key. I snatch it up with shaking fingers and just turn to rush back out when something cold grasps my ankle.

A scream is lodged in my throat but I’m too panicked for anything to come out. Seconds later, I’m jerked from my feet and my butt hits the carpet with a thud.

Something is under the bed and it has me!

I start hysterically crying and kicking, not worried anymore that Joe will hear me as I attempt to escape the monster under his bed. But it’s stronger than me and drags me right underneath with it.

Black warmth blankets my mind and I reach for it — anything to get away from the all-consuming terror — but it’s jerked away the moment a large, stinky hand covers my mouth.

“Shhh, Little Frankie. They’ll hear you.”

My wide, teary eyes meet the bloodshot ones of Joe’s. He darts them all around, his pupils dilated, nearly making his blue eyes seem black. I want to ask him who but his hand brutally keeps my mouth shut.

“Fuckin’ aliens,” he explains with a hiss, “they’re everywhere, Little Frankie.”

I start crying so hard I can barely breathe. All I wanted was the key. When I realize it’s still in my hand, I hold it like a weapon and stab at Joe’s chest. My jab must not be powerful because he easily grabs my wrist and twists it painfully away from me.

“Did you hear me, ya stupid kid?!”

Gripping the key with a death hold, I nod at him. His paranoid stare changes for a moment and I go cold from the way his eyes wash over me almost hungrily. My whimpers only seem to egg him on and his eyes darken with some twisted mental decision I want no part of.

Just when I think it’s all over — that I’m going to be consumed by the monster under this bed — a warm hand encircles my wrist holding the key and drags me back out from under the bed.

Jase!

I scramble away from him and Psycho Joe, not stopping until I reach the pantry door. In the background, things clatter to the ground as Jase and Joe struggle. I want to go to him but I’m so freaked out.

Minnie jumps out from her hiding spot in one of the cabinets and into my arms.

“What is he doing to him?” she sobs.

Holding her close to me, I choke down my own tears. “I don’t know but—”




“Hádanka.”

The warmth and love coming from the voice is such a stark contrast from my nightmarish memory, that I latch onto it and let it drag me away from the horrors of my past.

“Gun,” I murmur once I open my eyes.

His dark brows are furrowed in concern but I don’t miss the relief in his expression at having me there with him again.

“Nightmare?”

I nod and snuggle against his bare chest. My fingers slide along the small thatch of hair between his pecs.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not much to say. One of my foster parents, Joe Harrison, was an evil sonofabitch. I was having a memory of one time when he was high on drugs and was hiding from the ‘aliens.’ I’d stumbled along and he’d forced me under the bed with him. If it hadn’t have been for my foster brother, I’m afraid of what he would have done to me. I was only twelve at the time.”

The growl in Gun’s throat is low and menacing.

“Shhh, you’re safe now here with me. Thank f*ck you came back to me. I was scared out of my f*cking mind, Frankie.”

Guilt infects me and my throat aches from being on the verge of tears. “I’m so sorry. I got scared. A lot was going through my head. Then, the animals were going wild. I bolted and I shouldn’t have. Please give me another chance.”

He palms my cheek and presses his lips to mine before answering.

“I never give up on a puzzle, Frankie, which means I’m not ever giving up on you.”





Gunnar

She came back to me.

I’m not sure how the hell she got in my house while I slept but I’m not f*cking complaining. Warm, in my arms as I kiss her, is exactly where she belongs.

She’s mine.

“I guess we have to have make-up sex now. Our official first fight,” I tell her with a grin before trailing kisses down her neck and along her chest.