Page 102 of Resurfaced Passion
Reaper took his first breath in hours.
He thanked Rider and then climbed into a bottle.
The unease stayed with him through the burn.
That night his nightmares returned.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“I’d die for him.” Wife
Then
He’d noticed the weird dynamic with her family that first introduction just five days after meeting his ladybug. She’d been nervous to take him home, had even tried to put him off for a few weeks but he wanted them to know he was the guy in her life and how much he cared for her.
What he knew right away? The house reeked of weed, he got a contact high just stepping through the door.
Bug’s mom was a flirtatious drunk draped in her armchair watching TV, not giving a second’s worth of attention to her daughter.
Almost instantly her father tried to assert his alpha status in front of Jud by letting him know he was the man to come to if Jud needed to buy dope.
And her stepbrother? What a piece of shit he was.
It was the brother Jud got the creepiest vibes from. It took all of a few seconds to realize her stepbrother had no sibling relationship with bug, in fact, his eyes clung to her in a way that had Jud’s stomach lining bursting into flames.
“Who the fuck is this?”
“Sony!” It was clear his girl was embarrassed from the way her eyes widened; cheeks flared with color. He could have told her it would take more than a jackass to embarrass him. Jud squeezed her hand; he could give a fuck seeing as how he’d decided in three seconds he would hate this guy. More so when he strode across the living room and bodily lifted ladybug into his arms, squeezing her with her feet dangling off the floor.
It took everything in Jud to remain seated.
He definitely wasn’t seeing things, watching that hand move on her ass. Luckily for all concerned she pulled from the tight grip and retook her seat next to Jud.
“You brought a boy home, rainbow?”
“I told you not to call me that stupid name.”
The brother only had eyes for the girl in front of him, a hungry feral look that congealed Jud’s stomach and had his back teeth ground to sawdust. He deliberately took her hand and let it rest on his thigh, his fingers relaxed over the top of hers.
Oh, that angered the asshole, but he needed to know off the bat that he was here to stay, no matter what hate he got from her family, of that he was sure.
“Did ya tell him how many guns your brother owns?”
As intimidation goes, it was weak. Judson could have bragged to the simpleton with his backwards cap and baggy sweatpants that he too knew how to use firearms, especially the long lens rifle kind.
“Can you just quit it and try to act normal, so Judson doesn’t think we’re all crazy.”
“Don’t worry, baby,” he leaned in and kissed her cheek, “I don’t think you’re crazy at all.”
She turned a lovely smile on him. A smile that angered dear brother because he stomped off, but he didn’t stray far that day.
Nor any other day when Jud was around.
And the more Jud saw of him, the more disturbed he became by his weird stalker behavior.
One night he mentioned it while he drove his girl home from a movie date. She was curled up into his side, dozing off with her fingers locked into the front of his shirt. They’d stopped for ice cream after the movie and then they’d fucked in a secluded parking lot not far from her house. Now she was quietly humming along to the radio and Jud wanted to turn the rental car around and head back to his motel.
Her father’s one rule had been to always have her home before 1 am.
