Page 619 of The Tempted

Chapter Thirty-one

I can still hear her pleas for help and the image of her crawling out of the car only for that motherfucker to drag her back in— it consumes my mind. I close my eyes and I can see the tortured expression on her face as Brantley slapped cuffs on my wrists and read me my rights.

I’ve experienced a lot of shit in my life, felt all sorts of fucked up things I wasn’t used to feeling…like sorrow, like remorse, but what I felt when I beat the fuck out of that kid was something entirely different. I wasn’t a man fighting for his club, or an outlaw looking to be a menace. I was a man fighting for his woman and in that instant I was capable of anything.

There was no remorse for my actions.

I’d do it all over again.

And again.

I swore I’d never touch her again, told myself I was no good for her, and she wasn’t safe because of me.

I thought giving her up was the answer.

But watching her with another man, seeing another motherfucker try to take what was mine, made me realize I was wrong.

I might be a degenerate, a dangerous son of a bitch with a shitload of problems but I love Lacey and there’s not a thing on Earth I won’t do for her.

Not a fucking thing.

As long as she keeps needing me I’ll keep showing up.

Shove me in a cell, handcuff me to a bench and throw away the key but I promise you, as long as I’m breathing…if she needs me I’ll find a way out. I’ll always find a way back to her.

Always.

And right now it’s killing me I’m locked up when I should be holding her, reassuring her she’s okay and this nightmare will go away.

She needs me.

And I’m not there.

I tried to pull my arm free, felt the metal of the handcuffs dig into my wrist as I screamed out in frustration.

She needs me and there is no end in sight.

No way out.

No looking into her eyes and making it right.

There’s nothing.

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