Page 5 of The Awakening
Chapter Three
Gavin
Aloud banging shook me from my peaceful slumber. Who could be awake at this hour? Who cared? I nestled back into my pillow, my arm tightening around something—no, someone.
I cracked one eye open, the realization that I wasn’t alone overcoming me. I had an armed wrapped firmly around Ellie, and she was snuggled up tight against me.
Looked like I was the big spoon, after all.
It had been so long since I’d held anyone, and she looked so peaceful in my arms. Maybe needed to be held as much as I needed to do the holding. I didn’t care who was at the door. They hadn’t banged again, so maybe it had been a dream.
Just as I closed my eyes again, ready to soak in the feeling of a beautiful woman in my arms, the door flew open with a bang. Ellie startled awake, looking between her father and me in a half-awake state of confusion. I pulled her closer.
“Morton, what are you doing to my daughter?” His voice boomed out.
Guess it wasn’t a dream.
“Hank, what are you doing breaking into my home?”
He put his hands on his hips, pulling back his jacket as he did and revealing a holster on his hip. I didn’t dare move. The bright metal grip of his gun shone in the moonlight.
“Elyse, get out of that bed at once.” She twitched in my arms but didn’t move. The man was a force. He was as wide as he was tall, the skin on his cruel looking face ruddy. Word had it he ruled his home with an iron fist, and anyone on the mountain who was outside of his twisted community had the sense to avoid him.
Anyone except me.
“Now, Hank, come on, let’s talk about this. No need for shouting.” I took care removing my arm from Ellie and rolled out of bed to stand face-to-face with the man as two other men appeared behind him.
“Elyse, get up, you’ve had your fun.” He spat. “Ray told us you were gone. Said you’d be out sleeping around. I almost didn’t believe him.” He shook his head as Elyse sat up in the bed. “I thought I taught you better than this. A man needs his woman at home waiting on him hand and foot. Not off sleeping with some makeshift city boy out here flashing his cash and pretending to be a rancher.” The man puffed out his chest. “Like your mother. Now she’s a wife. Come on you trash, get out of that bed.”
He could trash talk me all he wanted, but as I looked back at Ellie, the sadness in her eyes broke me. I’d promised her she could stay for as long as she wanted. I thought she’d be safe out here.
“Don’t talk to my wife like that.” Who was speaking, and why did it sound like my voice?
“Your wife?” He repeated, as startled by my words as I was.
“Did I stutter?” I took a step toward him. There was no backing down. Either I’d just had the biggest stroke of genius, or I was about to get a chest full of lead. “Now, get out of my homeand away from my wife.” There I went, saying it again. “If you ever set foot on my property again, or make contact with Ellie, I’ll have you arrested.” I kept stepping until I had him backed into the living room.
“Her name is Elyse, not Ellie.” Her father growled.
One more way he controlled her, I figured. “I don’t come into your home and tell you what to call your wife, now do I? Besides, Ellie rolls off the tongue so much better than a stuffy name like Elyse.”
“It was my mother’s name.” He said through gritted teeth.
“I’m sure your father called her Ellie in the bedroom, too.” A chuckle escaped as I imagined this big man thinking about his parents.
Flicking the light on as I went by, I saw there was a fourth man. These must have been his sons. All three were carrying hunting rifles, and they were pointed at me, but all they were shooting was daggers as they stared at me.
Ellie was hot on my heels, and I held out my arm, keeping her behind me. These assholes weren’t going to intimidate me into anything. They’d picked the wrong man. I had nothing left to lose. And I wasn’t about to offer her up to them when she’d made it so clear she needed to escape.
“Married? Shacking up is more like it.” One of her brothers mumbled loud enough to hear it.
“Just so you’re aware, Ellie and I eloped. Where did you think she’d been these past few days? Hiding out at a hotel on the highway?” I didn’t bother to suppress my smile. “We just got back from our honeymoon.”
I looked over my shoulder at her from the corner of my eye. Her mouth was open wide enough to catch flies. As long as it stayed that way, and she didn’t contradict me, we’d be all right.
Her father waved his hand at his minions, signaling them to lower their weapons. I turned, wrapping my arm around Ellie and pulled her tight to my side.
No time like the present to make them squirm more.
