Page 18 of Out for Blood

“Like fuck, Sher,” he said. “You either tell me what the fuck is going on, or I go and find that useless twit of a husband of yours and start punching his face in..”

“Please don’t,” I begged him. “It’ll only make things worse for everyone.”

Casey ran his hand over his face, aggravated. “Fuck, Sher. Your kids know he does this to you?”

“I try to shelter them,” I told him, feeling my eyes burn with unshed tears. “But they’re old enough now to know what’s happening. The only saving grace is he doesn’t go after them, only me. I can take it, Casey.”

“Fuck that,” he said again. “You pack your fucking shit. Pack their shit. You’re coming back to the clubhouse with me.”

“No,” I told him. “I can’t. He’s the fucking chief of the police department, he won’t let me take them from him.”

“He’s going to turn his anger on them. They are old enough now, right? So you look after them. I won’t tell anyone, you’ll stay with me. No one fucking knows.”

“The girls have school,” I told him. “He’ll know.”

He hesitated before he opened his mouth again. I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “Why didn’t you call Ace?”

I sighed. “I didn’t want him to hurt him, then again, I doubt he would care. He hated me earlier.”

“He could never hate you,” Casey replied. “He was shocked that you didn’t tell him, and then his worst fear was realised. You weren’t his.”

Tears ran down my cheeks, Even though it hurt, I welcomed them. “I was always his, Casey.”

It came out quiet, but he heard it judging by the way his shoulders slumped, the tension gone from them.

“Sher, I’m not fucking leaving you here. No fucking way. I’ll rip his fucking dick off. How long has he been doing this to you?”

I looked away, not wanting to lie to his face, but the words wouldn’t come out. I sobbed, feeling the years of pain, of abusetearing me apart. My door opened, and I looked over at my girls, both crying as they saw me fall apart.

“It’s been happening for years,” Shauna told him. “Please, don’t make us stay here.”

“Baby,” I turned to her, wiping at my eyes. “You know I can’t take you. He will find us and take you back and it’ll be worse for you. You girls only have a couple more years before you can leave. He won’t hurt you.”

“No,” Shauna bit back quickly, holding Ryleigh, the blubbering mess that she was, in her arms. “You don’t understand what’s been happening since you left.”

Fear shot through me at those words, and the resolve in her eyes. “No.”

“He doesn’t touch us, but his friends look at us in a way that…well, it scares us. One night he was having a poker night and I came down for a glass of water…one of his friends came in to feel me up. I kneed him so hard, he almost threw up.”

“That’s my girl,” I said, horrified that Neal would allow this to happen to his own children. I was filled with all consuming outrage followed by grief that I’d never been able to fathom. How could I not have known this?

“Dad told me that I couldn’t say anything, that if I told you…”

I immediately grabbed her and pulled her to me, holding her tight so nothing else could ever hurt her again. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could come to me, baby. I’m so sorry.”

“Because Dad told me that if I told anyone, he’d send you to prison for drugs,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “He said he’d set you up, especially since you and Orla used to spend time with the MC.”

I saw Casey shift next to the bed, his tensed form looked ready to leave and kill Neal. I wanted to kill Neal for this. How the hell hadn’t I known?

“He told us that the day we turned sixteen, things were going to change and we needed to shape up or ship out.”

“When are you sixteen?” Casey asked them.

I felt myself tremble, the anguish taking over. “In a week.”

Casey turned to me, the look I’d seen a million times when he’d rescued me from my drunken father’s beatings coming over his face.

“That’s it. Girls, pack your fucking bags. We’re leaving.”

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