Page 118 of Not Your Little Girl Anymore

“Go outside, Summer,” Alec demands.

“Yes, Summer. Go outside. Wouldn’t want you to see pretty boy here go down so brutally.”

I ignore my father. He’s only trying to get under my skin.

“I’m not leaving you,” I tell Alec.

Dad’s laugh is louder. “Look at you two. Disgusting. You know, Summer. He’ll only do what your mother did to me. Word travels fast. Alec Sokolov will follow his father’s footsteps.”

Alec’s body tightens, the muscle in his jaw twitches. That’s all it took as another fire went off. My body jolts backward, my hands flying to cover my ears as my eyes force themselves closed. A scream goes off, echoing through my head, followed by a loud thud.

“You fucking bastard!”

“Word has it… I follow in my father’s footsteps,” Alec repeats my father’s words, cocking the gun once more.

My eyes slowly open to see a pool of crimson red gush out of my father’s thigh. My chest heaves.

Breathe, Summer.

I try to process what just happened, but I’m struggling. “You shot my father…”

A knot forms in the pit of my stomach. Panic working its way through me. I’m startled by a hand on my shoulder, and I swerve around fast to face Allen. My chest eases up as he pulls me into him for a hug.

“Get outside now,” he orders.

I nod, petrified, but I can’t get my feet to move as a SWAT team barges through the house. Four travel upstairs, and three surround my father with guns aimed at him. Officer Brentley takes the weapon from Alec’s hand, shoving it into the back of his pants.

“I told you to wait. Five minutes, that’s all I needed,” Brentley says to Alec, then pulls out his cuffs.

“If I waited longer, it would’ve been worse,” Alec points out. “You’re not the one who had to listen from the outside. I couldn’t sit back and do nothing.”

“That’s exactly what you could’ve done,” Brentley bites back. “I came as fast as I got the call.”

What call?

Allen walks toward my father who grips his thigh in an attempt to stop the blood from oozing out. He pulls both of my father’s arms to his back. “Charles Raleigh, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law.” He clicks the cuffs so tight, Dad’s teeth clench.

“You’ll regret this,” Dad says to Alec specifically, but I don’t miss the way he stares at me with so much cruelty, like he’s planning his next attack. The rage in his voice only makes my stomach flip again.

Brentley tugs him off the floor and pushes my father toward us. “Shut up, Charles.”

Alec wraps his arm across my stomach while I hold onto his shirt. He swivels his body so he’s closer than I am as my father and Brentley walk right past us. A knot forms in my belly when my father is forcefully shoved past us. He stares at me like he wants me dead. I turn away, crinkling my eyes shut tight, and swallow down the sobs.

“All clear,” one of the men upstairs shouts, and the remainder of the SWAT team scatters out the doors following Officer Brentley and my father.

It doesn’t take long for Alec to turn and face me after my father is escorted out of the house. He grabs my cheeks carefully in his hands, his eyes trailing over the cut on my face. His jaw tightens but there is softness as his thumb brushes away the bloody tears drooping down my face.

“Please tell me you’re OK.”

“I’m OK. I’ll be OK,” I reassure him, but I know in my heart that’s not true. “Are you OK?”

“Never better.” He presses his lips to mine making sure he’s careful around the cut on my cheek. “Let’s get you checked out.”

For the first time, I don’t argue.

Chapter Forty-three

Alec

---