Bound (Bound Hearts #1) (2 page)

Then
, I heard the sirens. No fucking way.

“Man, this is some fucking shit.”

The cops pulled up near the truck and I shook Adelaide awake and told her to just stay quiet and listen to them.

They started asking questions about why we were here and when I tried to speak
, the officer took a good look at me and saw the tattoos. Yeah, that’s all it took. Any niceties went flying just like the planes overhead.

They weren’t playing and threw the cuffs on our wrists quick. Bu
t did Adelaide listen? Sweet-as-pie she is and she tried charming her sweet little preacher’s daughter charm on the officer, but they didn’t fall for it.

But I sure as hel
l did. If I survived this night, I sure as hell wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

They put her on the right side and me on the left. “Do you think we could make a run for it? It would make for a really great story.”
She smiled bright and beautiful, with her eyes sparkling.

Say w
hat? I stared wildly at her and there was a freedom and fire in her eyes that made me laugh with gusto.

“Be quiet!” The officer hit the top of the patrol car.

I whispered, “I doubt it, babe.”

She truly was something else. If we
could
make a run for it, I would take her away from all this. Go somewhere neither one of us would have to deal with our crap pasts nor some crap in our lives now.

She smiled and winked at me
before saying, “Then let’s have a good laugh.” I lifted an eyebrow and shook my head with mirth. She turned to the open door and got the officers attention.

“Yes, young lady.”

She put her hand up to her mouth as if she had an actual cigarette and asked, “Do you have a light?”

Growling, the officer slammed the door in our faces.

She didn’t smoke and I thought it was funny as fuck. I was falling in love with her. Right in the backseat of a cop car. We sat there talking about nothing and everything while the cops were taking their time with our ID’s and I knew with my background it didn’t look great but right here, sitting in the back with Adelaide. I didn’t care. She made me feel more alive than anything in this world.

Right then I knew. I was already gone.

‡

Adelaide

“Gram, why did I decide to do the book convention in Houston?” I was packing to go home for the first time in over three years. Before that, it was seven. After dad picked me up from the jailhouse in our little town, I spent the rest of the summer feeling abandoned by Courtland. I saved up every penny I made at the part time job I had at the YMCA four days a week
, to buy a one way ticket to Georgia.

Where my grandparents on my mom’s side, took me in. They were the best thing that
ever happened to me. Showing up, literally on their doorstep, was a surprise for them, but they welcomed me with open arms. When Grandpa Grant passed, I promised to take care of Gram, and become what I always dreamed of being. An author. Only I used a pseudonym, Phoenix Houston.

After the first twenty rejections, I ended up friending a few indie author
s on social networking sites. With so much help from them, and a will and determination I didn’t think I had, turned myself into a bestselling author of over thirty books. In multiple genres too. One of those friends came from Houston and had invited me to a week-long convention, where they did critiquing conferencing, panels, book signings, dinners, and the works. It was over in The Woodlands, so I didn’t have to ever stop anywhere near my folks place. At least until Aunt Maggie’s birthday BBQ.

“Baby girl, I’m going with yo
u. Your mama barely talks to me. Maybe we can finally settle our differences. Maybe you and your dad, well both Peggy and Geoff, can bury the hatchet as well. If they don’t want to see us? That’s their problem. Won’t keep us from having our fun. Will it?”

Laughing
, I knew Gram meant well, but sometimes intentions don’t turn out so well. Dad and I still didn’t seem to get along. No one knows what he did that night, or any time before. Not even Uncle Chet, JR, or
him
. Courtland.

Never did I think Courtland would have abandoned me the way he did. Just a few days in jail and then bam. Gone. Just like that. No good-bye, hope you’re doing okay. Nothing. Which left me a little bitter
, but then I was seventeen and he was twenty-two. I was nothing but a kid sister to him. That’s one reason why I had to leave. The other reason? Too horrifying and twisted for words. Escaping was my only option. I had been so close to committing suicide by the end of summer. If I hadn’t saved enough to travel to Georgia, I just might have. I had just enough to get a bus fair to the closest town and then hitched a ride to Gram and Grandpa’s house. Anything to get away. I couldn’t live like that. I wasn’t strong enough to endure more of the sick, depraved and shameful monstrosities that happened during that last summer in Granville.

Granted, JR, Uncle Chet and Aunt Maggie loved having me over and had no problem with me staying there, but dad always found a way for me to be miserable. I never told Gram or Uncle Chet about the beatings or what dad did to me or mom. Especially
, before I left.

When I got to Georgia
, I didn’t have any more bruises and I did my best to keep myself quiet and out of dad’s radar, so when I left, all I had to do was pack up when he was at the church and leave.

Agh. I hate going down memory lane.

“Gram. Nothing is going to keep us from having fun. We can go, visit and I guarantee that dad will have issues. He doesn’t know what I do, or that I have ink covering my body and the piercings. He would have a bitch fit and a heart attack. Which isn’t a bad thing-HEY!”

Gram smacked my arm in jest.

“Not nice. True, I never liked Geoff, but that’s not nice. Sorry baby-girl, I know he’s your daddy-

“HA!”

“Your daddy, but he always rubbed me the wrong way. Even for a man who claims to be a man of God. He just didn’t sit right with me. Even your Granddaddy, God bless his soul, didn’t care for him.”

Granddad. We lost him seven years ago. Mom didn’t even come to the funeral. I didn’t know him that well, we only vacationed here when I was a small kid and it was for one week. The first three years I was here, he became the father figure I longed for. Gram called him a good ole country boy with charm a mile wide
with pride and honor twice that.

If only I could find myself a man like that, I would be happy. Twenty-seven, single, and no prospects. Not that men didn’t try but I just couldn’t bring myself to stay with them. That and sometimes I felt as if I couldn’t. With all the bad shit that happened before coming out here, I didn’t know if I could share that with anyone besides my doctor. I had finally stopped
taking anti-depressants. Sometimes I had bad days but I could normally stop myself from going into that dark place where all I see is my worst nightmare. All that shame, guilt, ugliness and dirtiness would cloud everything in front of me and drown me. I was so glad I could work from home.

If I told guys what I did for a living, most just laughed and thought it was just a hobby. Which made for a swift good-bye. Any man who didn’t appreciate that, wasn’t worth my time. It took three New Adult genre novels before I made it onto the bestsellers list and Gram and Granddad threw a party for me. They were so proud of me.

I always loved writing. In college, I got my degree in Creative Writing.

“You’re gonna have lots of fun Gram. Are you all packed?”

I would have thought even though Gram just turned seventy, she would want to stay here, but she was as active as any twenty year old. More active than myself. I was still curvy, a size eight and even though I had a nice hour glass shape it took me using my elliptical every day to maintain some sort of shape. My weakness? Cupcakes. One of my only friends here, Susie, owns a sweet Shoppe. She keeps me supplied in sugargasms, and I keep her in ready supply of steamy, sexy reads. She reads all my books before I published them. That was our trade-off.

I had asked her to come with me but she said she was going to try and reconcile with her boyfriend. I thought he was a complete douche. Only from my past experiences, he seemed like a bad guy. But she
was adamant, so it was me and Grams and the wide open road.

Lovely.

‡

Over the drive, Gram persuaded me to go and at least let them know I was here.

Ugh.

I tried getting her to come with me to see mom and dad
, but she begged out saying she was ‘tired’. I dropped Gram off at the hotel and drove towards Granville.

That woman must think I’m hoodwinked if she though
t I believed her, but I’ll let her be this time. I did
not
want to go alone to my parents’ house, but I guess that’s what it looks like I’m doing. My parents live in this small town right outside of Houston, where there’s one of everything. One grocery store, a Wal-Mart, one barber, one beauty shop, one jail, one bar, one mechanic shop and one church. Where mostly everyone went to. If you didn’t go, you were an outcast and if you did, well you were certain to go to Heaven.

Driving past these
and entering the neighborhood, I drove past the church and I didn’t see dad’s car in the parking lot. Must mean he’s at home, and doing something I probably don’t wanna know. I imagine he hasn’t changed in the last three years.

∞ Three Years Previous

“Dad, I just came home to see h
ow Uncle Chet was after having his heart attack. Have you been to see him? I haven’t talked to Uncle Chet, or JR, yet. Mom didn’t answer my calls. I just wanted-

Smack!

He backhanded me. I made a promise I wouldn’t let no man manhandle me again. Or even think about striking out at me. Fuck. Looks like I can’t get out of this merry-go-round of hell.

I held my hand up to my cheek and he must’ve clipped me with his wedding band
, because when I took my hand away, there was a droplet of blood. I ran my tongue around my lips and tasted that metallic copper of blood.

Not this time.

“Don’t you ever raise your hand to me again. I am a grown woman and I sure as hell am not that woman you beat on a daily basis. Where is mom? Speaking of her, where is she? Nursing any bruises? Or do you force your-AGH!”

He had caught me off guard with
a sucker punch to the stomach. Coughing from having the wind knocked out of me, I stared at Geoff incredulously.

“I will press-

“Get out of this house, you fucking cunt.”

I held up my hands in surrender and said, “Gladly, oh BTW I hope you don’t kiss the cross you pray to with that sick fucking mouth of yours.”

His face was blazing red with anger, and I knew I was dangerously close to getting into a fist fight with him (in which I knew I would probably lose-he always fought dirty). I turned and hurried out the door. Before pushing the screen door, I heard him say, “No, but you did. Didn’t you, little girl? Loved every second of me pushing it in that sweet mouth of yours. Want a quick taste before leaving? I bet you missed having a good cock in your mouth.”

I made the mistake of looking down
at his crotch and the noticeable bulge and my stomach turned over. He was getting off on talking to me like that. I had to get away. I threw up a little in my mouth and turned away.

Fuck. I slammed the front door behind me and walked away. He knew the one thing I couldn’t den
y. Even though I didn’t want to and it only happened when he forced me, I did the things he said. I never liked it though, as he assumed. The tears pooled in my eyes, but I didn’t shed not one. I waited until I got home to Hankerton. Then, I’d let them go.

∞

I had foolishly gone back to Granville because Uncle Chet had a heart attack and I wanted to be there for
JR and Aunt Maggie. I had stupidly thought that maybe I could see if things were different at the home front, but damn was I wrong.

I remember going to the hospital that night
, sporting a blazing red cheek, busted lip and my eye had already begun turning black and blue. And not to mention, a killer bruise on my ribs. Thankfully, JR and Maggie weren’t there. I had went into the recovery room and it was dark enough that Uncle Chet either didn’t see anything or too much on meds to recognize. I didn’t stay long and I told him I had a redeye flight back to Georgia that night. I was sorry I couldn’t stay. I missed him. JR. Aunt Maggie. They were the only family I had when I was here. I didn’t even have a chance to talk with them. I said my good-byes to Chet senior and never looked back. Granville was always such a difficult pill for me to swallow.

Being a pastor’s daughter, there was so much I couldn’t do, and if I disobeyed, the punishments were severe. I have never step
ped inside another church after that How could he teach the Word of God and then treat his family like we were possessions and slaves, among other things. The only good times I had was when I was with JR, (he hated Chet Jr. or junior so he made everyone call him JR) and Courtland. I tagged along with them because I didn’t have friends and even though he had very strict rules, dad allowed me to go to Uncle Chet’s, but I still had a curfew. Trust me when I say, if I went over curfew, I ended up black and blue. Hence why I didn’t have friends. I was locked in my room more times than I can count. I had to wear dresses every day or skirts and they had to be so long or else I was a ‘whore’ or ‘tease’. Yeah. How a father could say that to his daughter was beyond me. The saying ‘spoil the rod, beat the child’ was a motto in our household. Mother was too afraid of him to say anything, so I had to just take whatever came to me. That and she didn’t really seem to care enough.

Uncle Chet told me once
that his dad, a pastor before dad, was commanding and demanding of his sons. Uncle Chet didn’t know anything about Geoff and his tendencies to be more than just commanding. They were twins and he knew my dad was very similar to their dad, but in private, he had no idea what he’s done to me or to mom. I had wanted so many times to tell him but dad always promised me I would get it worse if I told anyone. Under his roof, it was his rules and all that bull-shit. Who would believe me when he’s the Pastor in this town? He was a ‘man of God’ and all that.

Ha.

What a fucking joke.

If he didn’t like what you were saying, you got backhanded. If you did something he didn’t like, he took a thick leather belt to you. You didn’t make the kinda grade
s he wanted, you got a switch. When I turned a certain age, the abuse changed. I turned sixteen and he would do things to me that made me want to die. I was made to take him in my mouth whenever I did something ‘wrong’. He would tell me whenever I did something that it had to be this way. God wanted him to punish me this way. I didn’t really believe that. I read the Bible. Of course I did. When I tried threatening him, it was so much worse. My mother didn’t do anything to stop him. She had to have known. Our rooms might have been on different sides of the house, but there was no way she couldn’t have figured out why he didn’t go to their room until late at night. When I was arrested, and I got home, I could say things turned for the worst. He had told me before I ran out that he wasn’t my birth father, and as soon as the front door shut, was the first time he raped me. Taking my virginity.