Page 24 of Harper's Song

I’ve heard enough horror stories of what can happen when a woman is left alone with a man who doesn’t hear the word no, to know I should be careful. I don’t want to live one of those stories.

I stop again, turn to him and ask for my things back. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Manny.”

“Stop playing with me,” he snaps and for the first time tonight real fear snakes through my stomach.

I shake my head. “I’m not playing. I want to go to sleep. Alone.”

“You expect me to just believe that after all the flirting?” he asks venomously, sobering me up some more. I hadn’t realized I was doing that. “Women playing hard to get annoy me more than anything else.”

“I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea—”

“Yeah, sure,” he interrupts, then drops both my guitar and my bag onto the pavement.

My guitar makes a hollow, thudding noise and a muffled chime.

The guitar my dad had specially made for me and paid a fortune for the moment I expressed a desire to learn how to play. That guitar is my most prized possession. The protective case had better have saved it.

“Who do you think you are?” I snap at Manny, and just thinking of my father lends enough sharpness to my voice. “Just take a fucking no for an answer and leave me the hell alone.”

My shyness hides it, but my true nature is rough, wild and fierce.

I bend down to pick up the guitar. He grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me back up making me gasp for air, not from the pain but the surprise that he dared.

“You need good girl training, don’t you?” he asks hissingly. “A beautiful girl like you has no business having such a filthy mouth.”

Fear and the adrenaline it brings is making my whole body rigid, but I do also have an uncontrollable urge to laugh. This guy is such a wannabe bad boy. Even now, as he threatens me like this there’s a certain softness in his eyes. All those tats and piercings covering his arms, neck, and face are just hiding a soft little nerd. I’ve known enough truly hard men to know that. And I suppose that’s why I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by him all night. I also thought I was safe since he was only drinking water. But now I think I might have misjudged Manny horribly.

And I don’t have a lot easy ways to get out of this now.

I bring my knee into his groin, but he’s ready for that and blocks my attempt very efficiently. He was ready for it because he’s done this before, I’m sure.

Nothing about this situation is funny anymore. I yell out for help, but he clamps one bony hand with abnormally long fingers around my throat so hard I can’t breathe let alone make a sound. His hands are ice cold and covered as they are with black tattoos it feels like a corpse is touching me. What a fucking nightmare! He towers over me with his six foot eight frame, and he might be skinny and lanky, but he’s damn strong despite it. He’s completely pressed against me now, his hard cock jabbing me in the stomach. I can’t move.

“Oh, I’ll enjoy taming you,” he hisses into my ear.

I try to wriggle free, try to kick at him, try to make a sound but all that does is make him grip my throat harder.

Go for the throat. The eyes. The knees. Anything soft. Use your elbow. Your knee. Your nails.

All the advice about how to protect myself are all jumbled up in my mind as my vision starts blurring and huge black dots start popping in front of my eyes. I’m clawing at his hand, but I have no nails to speak of and the way he’s holding me leaves me no room to move the way I want to.

Then something hard slams against Manny’s side. The next thing I know I can breathe again and he’s not pressed against me anymore.

He’s on the ground trying really hard to get a punch or a kick in, but Jax is too good at fighting for that to work.

Jax?

Did I pass out? Am I dead? Or dreaming?

But no. Jax is straddling Manny’s chest, punching him in the face so hard I hear bones crunching.

“Don’t kill him, Jax!” I yell as loudly as I can because my throat is raw and it’s painful to use my voice.

I rush to them, laying my hand on his shoulder.

Now I’ll find out he’s just a mirage. My hand will just go right through his shoulder and I’ll know he’s just a figment of my imagination that I called up in this, the scariest moment of my life.

But my fingers wrap around his strong hard shoulder. He’s not a mirage, he’s really here. Even though it’s impossible.

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