Page 94 of Bound By Temptation

“Fuck calm. Tell me what’s goin’ on or you’ll be droppin’ me off at Indie’s and dealing with Nick’s bullshit yourself.”

I felt my heart pick up speed and the knot in my gut tightened.

“He’s dead. She fuckin’ killed him Ax.”

This caught me off guard. My little Indie killed someone? Holy shit. How the fuck did I not know this. “Keep goin’.”

“Older man she met in college and dated for a while.” This made me growl low, but Raid said nothing and kept on going. “She dumped him, he didn’t like it. So much so the cops intervened several times and she had a protection order against him. He didn’t follow it. Sent her these fucked up rhyming letters and gifts daily. It came to a head in her apartment right after she graduated college. He hadn’t been around for weeks and she must’ve thought she was safe. He showed up, beat the shit out of her, but she somehow managed to knife him in the side until the fucker bled out on top of her. Ruled self defense and she came home soon after that.”

The entire time my brother spoke my heart was splintering and crushing. My girl went through all this shit and every day I saw her smiling at every customer that came in through her door. Watched her pour coffee and create cakes with not a care in the world.

Yet through all of that, she had to save herself by killing someone. It wasn’t something I ever wanted her to have to do. Killing wasn’t a thing anyone took easily. My beautiful happy Indie had to do it and no one would ever know the pain she had to go through.

Including me. I had no fucking clue. If I had, I honestly didn’t know what I would do. Right now I wanted to murder the man again. Knowing it then, I wouldn’t have waited for Indie to give me that sliver of an opening.

“He’s dead?”

“Yep. Saw the certificate, autopsy, and pictures. She fought hard while he died laying on top of her. But yeah. The fucker is dead.”

“Anything else happen to her?”

His head shook. “Self-defense. No question about it. How she got through it? I have no clue. But she did.”

“And she did this shit by herself?”

“Her family was there for her. If I’d of known you really wanted to be with her, I would’ve told ya, but she’d been back for a while and you didn’t have any balls to go to her. Thought it was for sure over.”

“Fuck you.” I barked back. “I don’t need your shit.”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Indie’s number just wanting to hear her voice. I wouldn’t tell her I knew, but just wanted to make sure she was safe.

The phone rang and voicemail picked up. I tried again, this time leaving a voicemail.

I switched to my mother who answered on the second ring. “How’s it goin’?” She asked immediately.

“We’re good mom. Is Indie with you?”

“No. She wanted to go home. She needed some time to wrap her head around what happened tonight.”

“She’s not answering her phone.” I told her.

“She’s probably asleep Ax. She was wiped. What’s goin’ on?”

My mother knew me well and I couldn’t hide the feelings inside of me. Fucker dead or not, I wanted eyes on her.

“Can you run by her house and make sure she’s good?”

“Why wouldn’t she be?” She asked.

“Raid just told me some shit from her past. It’s over with but raw for me. So I just want to make sure she’s good.”

“I’ll go back and make sure. But you will tell me what the hell is goin’ on later.” She hung up the phone and I felt myself breathing heavy.

“Brother I’m sure she’s fine. That shit was a long time ago. He’s dead. Can’t come back from dead.”

My hand wiped my mouth and felt clammy. She was so much stronger than I ever imagined and just made me have so much more respect for her. And I’d thought I couldn’t have any more but this, just ratchet it up tenfold.

Fuck I loved her. Loved her more than my next breath.

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