Page 94 of Snow in Texas

“Be good for you,” Riley declared. “Learn a few things from a professional.”

The rest of the guys burst into raucous laughter.

Shit, Karly wasn’t just a groupie, but one of the porn stars Riley was auditioning for his newborn studio business.

“Come on,” he urged, glazed eyes tracking across Jenny’s face, looking for signs of resistance. “Let’s go.”

Keep things together, Candy had said. Don’t get him angry, don’t tip him off that anything was about to happen.

She needed to slide up under his other arm and go back to his favorite dorm, have a three-way with her abuser and a porn star…

She was going to gag.

And apparently it showed in her face.

Riley frowned. “What?” He reached to tangle a hand in her hair.

She winced.

Oh no…oh no…

His hand tightened. “What?” Harsher now, anger burning away some of the alcohol haze.

All she had to do was cooperate. Just do what he wanted, and maybe he wouldn’t hurt her so badly.

But the idea of one more violation, when her brother was on the way, when help was so close…

He spotted her phone on the bar, and that was when she knew it was all over.

She made a grab for it, but Riley was quicker, even drunk, even holding onto a porn star. “Who you been talkin’ to?” he demanded, thumb gliding across the buttons. The harsh blue light of the phone illuminated his face, all the lines and wrinkles and mysterious little bruises.

“Riley, please. You wanted to go in the back, right? Let’s go.” She made an unsuccessful reach and he stepped back. “Riley…”

“Candy,” he said, and the whole room fell silent. “You talked to Candy?”

“He’s my brother. We talk.”

Riley shoved the blonde away from him – she yelped – and closed the gap, bearing down on Jenny with a black-eyed glare. “About what?”

She tried to catch a breath. Wet her lips. She hated him right then, almost as much as she feared him. “I – I–”

“What?”

“He’s on his way. He knows everything, Riley, and he’s coming.”

The first slap knocked her off the stool. The second took her consciousness.

~*~

Now

That night boiled around her now, bringing with it the old rising tide of panic, the taste of blood in her mouth, the high whine of dread in her ears. How was this happening again? At Riley’s mercy and Candy on the way, but too late, always too late.

She choked on a few breaths before she finally drew a decent one down into her lungs. Held it, concentrated on it, let it out slowly through her mouth.

Through the course of their marriage, Riley had slowly, systematically stripped all the Snow from her, chipping away her identity until her parents wouldn’t have recognized her had they been alive to witness the horror of her unmaking. It had taken seven years to find herself again, scrape off the film of Riley’s wife and lock her hands around Jennifer Snow once more, the true parts of her he hadn’t been able to break.

She wasn’t going back. Not on her life. Not even on her baby’s life.

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