Page 30 of Aftershock's Fury

“Whatever. Come on, Marnie, you want to come? Maybe Harley will babysit so you can have some fun.”

I turn and see Marnie standing there watching. My brother is holding Oly in one arm and has his other around Marnie. She’s trying to pull away, but he won’t let her go. I’m shocked, but then Crue pulls me into him.

“I want you to leave Harlowe and Marnie alone. No going to the bakery. No bothering them again. You’re done,” Crue growls.

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Jerry tries to stand up to him as his buddies walk up.

“Yeah, I can. But I’m not the one who’s going to give the order.” Crue points to Rylan.

“No, I will. You see, we don’t like assholes who beat the shit out of women who say no. Bet your friends don’t know that about you.”

The guys who were standing around Jerry hold their hands up and back away.

My head is swimming with everything I just heard. Jerry beat up a girl?

“I didn’t do that. I don’t know what you’re talking about. You got the wrong guy.”

“Do I?” Rylan asks as Crue pushes me behind him. Rylan signals the guys to join us.

“Jerry, right?” Crue acts like he doesn’t know his name when I know he does. “These are my friends. They want to talk to you.”

Jerry holds up his hands in defense and backs off. “No thanks. You have the wrong guy. If I did something like that, the police would be here, not you guys.”

Icarus stops him with a firm hand on his shoulder. I’m not sure what is going to happen, but I don’t like how Jerry talkedabout the girls at the bar, and I don’t like that he would have hurt someone.

“If we have the wrong person, where were you last night?” Crue asks him, and I watch the color drain from Jerry’s face.

“That’s what I thought.” Icarus says. “She’s alive, by the way, and my friends and I will make sure she stays that way. As for the police, be lucky they didn’t get you, because we’ll get you even if you’re behind bars.” He smiles darkly before turning to GB, who grabs Jerry and walks him off, despite his continued protests.

“Now, as for you two ladies,” my brother starts.

“I’ve got this one. We are done. You’ve had enough time,” Crue says.

“I have,” I agree. “See you later.” I’m thrown over Crue’s shoulder and he heads for my truck.

“Wait! We came with her,” Marnie starts to protest.

“I got you, babe,” Rylan says and holds up his hand. Icarus tosses his keys to him, and I watch as my brother and his guys clean up our beach party.

I’m tossed into the passenger seat of my truck, and the door is slammed before I can ask him where he’s taking me and why we are leaving.

I look around and see that GB and Jerry are gone.

“But Olympia’s car seat?” Marnie yells. Again, my brother says something to her, and she nods.

I look over as the back door is opened on the driver’s side and Fezzik jumps in. Crue climbs into the driver’s seat. He leans over me and pulls the seat belt. His hands brush my nearly naked body as he buckles me in.

“You wore this to test me, didn’t you, Starlight?”

I can’t deny that was my original thoughts, but now I’m going to deny it because I don’t want him to know he gets to me.

Aftershock

Iwatch her eyes and know she’s going to lie. She can’t lie to me, no matter how hard she tries. When I got the picture of her in this bikini with the extra strings around her back and the gold rings, I was done. I’ve been really trying to let her and her brother have more time after he begged me for it and asked me to make sure she really wanted to give her virginity to me.

I hated every time I didn’t do more than kiss her. I’ve been hard as stone for weeks while I waited for her. I knew she was frustrated, but she hadn’t begged me or pushed me until today with this bikini. I dropped everything I was doing and jumped on my motorcycle. Kodiak told me when we pulled up, he would have someone take care of my bike. Same with his, because I know he’s not leaving that beach without Marnie and Oly in his hands. The moment he saw her in the pictures and I told him who she was, he only said one word.

“Mine.”

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