Bile rose in her throat.
“I just wanted to see you, to show you how good we are together, how much I want you,” he ground out. He cupped the side of her face in a painful hold.
With all her strength she shifted and tried to kick him between the legs, but he moved before she made contact.
“Why’d you have to go and do that?” he said in this low, frighteningly calm voice.
“Craig, please,” she said softly, her voice barely a whisper. “Craig, you don’t have to do this.”
But despite knowing she could have said those words all day long, she also knew they fell on deaf ears.
“I do have to do this, because if you don’t want this, if I can’t have you, no one will either.”
The fear coursing through her was like nothing she’d ever felt before. She glanced down at where her cell was, still lit up, still connected to Vengeance. Could he hear her, did he know what was going on?
She had one chance to try and make it known before Craig went even more off the deep end.
“Vengeance, Craig has me. I’m at the flower shop right now.” She screamed the words, hoping they were loud enough he could hear her on the phone.
Craig cursed and turned to see the phone on the ground. He brought his foot down, smashing the cell, and turned back around to face her. His expression was dangerous.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” And then he brought his fist to her face, and the darkness was the last thing she remembered.
21
“Did you call your sister?” Weasel asked.
Vengeance stared at his friend. “Why do you want me to call her so much?”
“I figured you should. She’s your family, after all.”
“You’re serious? After everything she said, and the shit she was talking about. You’re fucking crazy.” Vengeance shook his head even as he felt a spark of guilt. Renee had said some shit and so had he. There had been some regrets along the way, which he’d expected. Releasing a breath, he glanced around the clubhouse.
The only guys around were the ones that didn’t have wives. He was waiting for his own woman to arrive. They had found a small place a couple of days ago and were waiting for the go ahead to move in. He’d been saving up enough money to move out of the clubhouse for a long time now.
Constance had kept her job at the florist shop as Julie hadn’t wanted to let her go. The call had come as a surprise to her, and they had been enjoying a picnic when the conversation had happened. Afterward she’d been so happy. “I like working at the florist shop because I love the people that come and go, the customers who need me for something. It’s not something I want to spend the rest of my life doing, but I really do enjoy it.”
So she’d been able to do what she wanted to do he’d paid for her to have a brand new car that he didn’t have to worry about breaking down.
Thinking about their place and the plans he had filled him with excitement. Even though he was a fully grown man, he felt like he imagined a kid at Christmas did. Only his wishes were going to come true, and be a whole lot dirtier.
He had known deep down that there would come a point when he wanted his own space, and that time was now. The moment they got their place, and moved in, he intended to fuck her in every single one of the rooms, on the work surfaces, to have the entire place covered with memories of them. When they did eventually have kids, and he felt they were in his future sometime soon, he didn’t want Constance to forget how much he loved her. Just the thought of a future with Constance was enough to make him smile. Never had he felt this kind of love for another person. It was consuming.
“Don’t you want Constance to get to know your sister?”
“I don’t know. Constance doesn’t need that shit.”
“Call your sister, Vengeance. You know you want to and you know you need to.”
Vengeance sighed. There had been many times over the past couple of years when he had wanted to call her, to find out if she was okay, and of course that had never happened. There was always some reason not to, some excuse to keep him from doing it. “I’ll call her when I’m ready, and not until then.”
Shaking his head, he was just getting up about to head out to surprise his woman when his cell phone rang.
Hearing her screams scared the shit out of him. “Vengeance, Craig has me. I’m at the flower shop right now.”
Looking at Weasel, he saw the brother had heard. “I knew there was something fucking shady about that bastard.”
He didn’t wait around for Weasel. Craig was about to know exactly who he was fucking dealing with.
Pain exploded inside Constance’s head as she tried to open her eyes. The feeling made her moan even as she knew she had to be quiet.