Page 30 of Property of Prowler
Was.
Done.
“No more help. I told you. Forget you even know me, Travis. Don’t come to my work, my home, hell, don’t run into me in public. You see me on the street, turn and walk the other way.”
“Not going to happen. We’re family, and family is forever, Taylor. Like it or not, that’s facts.”
“Family? FAMILY?” She yanked her arm from his grasp. “That’s rich coming from you. Family doesn’t treat each other the way you and Dad treated me. So no, we are not family. I choose my family now, and you are not among them.”
“Like that biker trash you’re fucking? The one with a hot piece of ass daughter? They’re who I need help with actually, so it’s perfect that you’ve sunk so low.”
Taylor didn’t hear anything but noise after he called Prowler trash and made a comment about Cass that turned her stomach.
“Leave now, Travis, or I’ll make you.” She spoke with a calm, steady voice.
“You.” He laughed as he stroked her cheek. “You’d never hurt me, sweetheart.” When his hand started to trail down her neck, she didn’t think, just reacted.
Grabbing the offending appendage, she bent it back until Travis screamed and went to the ground. But she didn’t stop there. After driving the heel of her other hand into his nose, she raised her foot and planted it hard against his chest until he ended up flat on the concrete.
“DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN.”
Everything started to blur. Taylor had finally fought back, and she felt … amazing. Adrenaline shakes aside, there was an exhilaration to finally fighting back. She had been training for a day like this since she ran from Billy, but she never thought she’d have to guts to actually fight back. Not to mention, she thought it would be Billy, not Travis, but still.
When he’d touched her, she was right back in her childhood home around the time her dad stopped coming to her room, and Travis started. She’d known then it was only a matter of time before one or both raped her, so she ran.
Then she found herself in a toxic pattern. Going from one abusive relationship to the next. Each time, she ran. Never fighting back, never standing up for herself, just getting the hell out of Dodge. But Taylor was done running. She was fighting back from now on.
It barely registered that another man was lifting Travis up by his armpits and loading him into the SUV beside her.
“Fuck.” Travis shook off the assistance as he stepped up into the SUV. “Took you long enough,” he yelled at the other man before turning to her through the open window.
“You fucked up, Taylor. Remember, you left me no choice. I just needed a little help, and everything would’ve been fine, but now, you’ve forced my hand.”
When she met his eyes, the look on his face was blank. Emotionless. It was disturbing. More so than when he looked at her with lust. With a bloody nose and a sprained wrist at best, his features should’ve been twisted in agony or something, but they weren’t. He was simply there. It was creepy, no emotion at all.
“Enjoy your life while you can,sister.” Even the words he meant as a parting shot were monotone. She couldn’t decide whether that made them more threatening or less.
In a daze, Taylor got in her car and headed home.
She didn’t remember much of the drive. Thank God she didn’t get into an accident. Donning a sports bra and shorts, she headed to her garage.
It wasn’t his threat that occupied her mind or even the flat tone he delivered it in. It was the fact she’d stood up for herself that did it.
An overwhelming sense of power pushed all other thoughts to the background. She wailed on the heavy bag for well over an hour before deciding to run a few miles. She still had some adrenaline to burn off.
She’d stood up for herself.
Ear buds in place and Carcass blasting in her ears, she set a punishing pace. She opted to exit their neighborhood gate to change the scenery a little. Around the back side of the neighborhood, just on the other side of the wall behind her house, she noticed an old beater parked along the road. She had to run past it on the sidewalk anyway, so she slowed her pace to have a look inside. As soon as she came alongside the back bumper, they peeled out, spraying road debris on her legs.
“Rude much?” she shouted toward the taillights.
Finishing up her run, she headed back through the gate, which now hung open.Ugh.
She walked up to the keypad and started punching numbers like that would fix the damned thing, or something. It was perpetually broken. The HOA had replaced it twice in the last year, and yet it was still only secured fifty percent of the time. Of course, they still collected one hundred percent of their dues each month. The only thing their two hundred bucks a month went to was landscaping, the five private roads in the community, and the damn gate.
You’d think they could do better. “Maybe I should run for president and make the damn gate a priority.” She muttered to herself as she entered her neighborhood.
The events of the morning and lazy HOAs aside, she was determined to enjoy tonight.
