His hands touched my thighs and I prayed to God that he would knock me out before any more of him touched me.
With one final surge I tried to buck him off me scratching his face and whatever else I could do. He hit me repeatedly across the face until it no longer hurt.
My head fell to the floor. The strength was gone. I couldn’t fight. My brain told me to, but my muscles wouldn’t work.
He pulled my skirt up past my waist.
I prayed again.
Phoenix blew me a kiss and then moved his hands to my underwear.
Something pounded the door and then I heard cursing. My eyes were blurry from tears, my face swollen from being Phoenix’s punching bag.
Two blurs entered the room shouting and threw Phoenix off me.
Chase was immediately by my side. He threw a jacket over my exposed body and tucked my head into his shoulder while Nixon threw Phoenix against the wall.
“I’ll kill you for touching her.” Nixon seethed. “You low life.” His fist sailed into Phoenix’s stomach. “Piece of shit!” His other fist connected with Phoenix’s jaw and then Nixon pulled a knife from his back pocket and kicked Phoenix in the stomach. As he bent over in pain, Nixon used his knife and jammed it into Phoenix’s right hand.
Phoenix screamed.
Everything happened in slow motion until someone else entered the room — Grandpa.
His gaze took in the mess and me lying in Chase’s arms. Murderous rage reflected in his eyes as he slowly walked up to Nixon who had just pulled his knife from Phoenix’s hand.
“Get a place ready,” Grandpa said to the man who had followed him in. He nodded quickly and left.
Grandpa and Nixon were both circling Phoenix. Crumpled on the floor, he was still holding his one hand, and blood poured from the wound.
“Your decision, Nixon.” Grandpa said, his voice cold.
“Hammer.” Nixon didn’t flinch, didn’t even think about it.
Grandpa nodded and looked to me and Chase. Chase pointed to one of the cupboards. Within seconds Grandpa located a hammer and brought it back to Nixon’s outstretched hand.
“You should close your eyes,” Chase whispered into my ear, his arms so tight around my body I almost couldn’t breathe. I also couldn’t look away, even though I knew I should.
Grandpa grabbed Phoenix’s hands and tied is wrists together. “You look at her without asking — you lose an eye. You touch her with your dirty hands?”
A pregnant pause caused me to gasp.
Nixon held the hammer over his head. “You lose your hands. And I promise, this is just the beginning.” The hammer came down and smashed against Phoenix fingers. The sound of bones crunching almost made me puke. I did look away then. I tucked my head into Chase’s shoulder and blacked out.
Chapter Thirty-two
“Trace, look at me.”
I moaned and shook my head.
“Trace!” The voice was frantic.
My eyes fluttered open to see Nixon leaning over me. “Trace, I need to…” Nixon’s eyes were wide with panic. “I need to know if anything happened if he—” Nixon swore, biting down on his lip as his eyes pleaded with mine.
“No,” I said in a scratchy voice. “You guys came just in time.” I wanted to yell and scream that even though nothing happened, that I was so traumatized, so scared that I didn’t know what to do. My entire body felt numb. I was torn between wanting Nixon to kiss me and tell me everything was okay, and wanting to cry myself into a pitiful coma in order to erase what just happened.
I tried to calm my shaking body. But it had been close, so close to being something irrevocable.
I gave another involuntary shudder as Nixon said something in Sicilian to Chase who apparently was still holding me.
Grandpa stood over us. Nixon stood, spoke to Grandpa again in Sicilian. Grandpa nodded once in agreement.
“Trace, baby girl, I—” Grandpa’s eyes welled with tears as he knelt down. “I should have done better. I don’t know what I would have done if Nixon and Chase—” He swallowed. “I can’t lose you. Do you understand? I can’t, Trace. You’re my life.”
I gave him a shaky smile. “I’m not going anywhere, Grandpa.”
He sighed in relief and stood. “Nixon, would you please stay with her?”
Nixon looked as shocked as I felt. What happened to wanting to kill him? He nodded once. Grandpa looked over to Phoenix who had passed out from the pain. “I’ll have everything ready for your arrival… sir.”
It was the first time I heard my grandpa address anyone younger than him as sir and actually put the respect behind the name. The shock must have hit Nixon too, his eyebrows rose just briefly before he gave Grandpa a curt nod and a handshake.
“Family sticks together,” Grandpa said, shaking Nixon’s hand.
“I’ll protect this family until I breathe my last breath, to that I swear.”
“I know that now.” Grandpa’s nostrils flared. “Tracey, I love you, sweet girl. Please listen to Nixon in my absence, I’ll be only a phone call away, but as you can imagine, I have something to take care of.” His gaze flickered back to Phoenix. Two men were lifting his body into their arms.
“When you’re ready.” Grandpa slapped Nixon on the back and walked off.
“Ready?” I asked, voice still hoarse from exertion. I wasn’t even that curious. It was just that I needed something else to focus on. If not, I was pretty sure I was going to lose it.
Nixon swallowed. “Ready to rub him out.”
My eyebrows furrowed in exhaustion as Nixon chuckled darkly and leaned down to the ground, his knees popping in the process. “Kill him, when I’m ready to end his life, Trace.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I mean, I knew he was bad. I knew he would have raped me and possibly killed me, but did that make killing okay? A life for a life?
I struggled to my feet and nearly toppled over. Nixon caught me and motioned to Chase.
Chase paused for a second.
Nixon’s brow furrowed. “Chase, you can go.”
“But…” Chase licked his lips, his hand reaching for my back.
I sighed and stepped back into Chase’s arms. It was Nixon’s turn to look confused and a little pissed off.
“Thank you, Chase.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes. “I love you.” Yes, Nixon had helped save me. But Chase, he had literally saved my life with his perceptive question. Tears burned at the back of my throat as Chase’s blue eyes warmed.
“Love you too, Farm Girl.” He pulled away and held my chin in his hand. “You call me if you need me, okay?”
I nodded as he stepped back and walked out of the room.
The minute the door closed, my body started slumping to the ground. Nixon’s strong arms came around me. In an instant he was lifting me and carrying me to the bathroom.
“No, please, no I just—” I fought against him as he carried me to the room and gently placed me on one of the small benches in the bathroom.
“Trace.” Nixon cupped my face. “Look at me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
He exhaled. And finally with tears streaming down my face I opened one eye, then the other. Nixon had tears in his eyes as his thumbs rubbed my falling tears away. “Thank God, I don’t have experience in this sort of thing…” His nostrils flared for a brief second. “But I figured you’d want to take a bath or shower or something.”
I nodded and broke down into more sobs. Everything hurt on my body, even my skin. Again, I wanted Nixon to touch me, to tell me that I was still pretty that what happened to me wasn’t my fault, that Phoenix’s ugliness hadn’t tainted what I had.
“You’re beautiful, Trace,” Nixon murmured as he kissed my forehead. “And Phoenix is a monster. You know that, right? What he did — it’s unforgiveable, and I promise you, I will make it right.”
“By killing him?” I asked in a small voice.
Nixon shook his head. “It’s your call, sweetheart. I don’t want to upset you more, but believe me when I say your family and mine won’t let this slide without a severe punishment. We don’t typically turn people over to the authorities, but if you want him to rot in a hell hole all his life, just say the word. I’ll link his accounts to prostitution and a drug ring in five seconds. Hell, I’ll frame him for murdering a politician. Just say the word.”
I chewed my lower lip and slowly lifted my arms toward Nixon. If he rejected me — I’d be broken forever. I needed him more than I needed to shower, more than I needed to deal with Phoenix. I just wanted to forget. And though I told my heart to stop loving Nixon — it never listened. He was all I wanted, all I cared about.
My arms went around his neck. He stiffened, then hugged me back.
“Will you help me?”
Nixon sighed. “Whatever you need. I’m here, Trace.”
“You aren’t going anywhere?”
“No.”
“You aren’t going to pretend to like me today and hate me tomorrow?”
“Hell no.”
“You aren’t going to say you love me and then take it back?” My voice dripped with emotion as new tears found their way down my face. What the hell was wrong with me? I knew I was stronger than that! I looked at Nixon and waited.
Nixon jerked away from me, and his gaze met mine. “Listen to me because I don’t want you to ever forget this.”
My body swayed in his arms as he tightened his grip around me. “Remember what I said about making promises?”
I nodded.
“I promised, Trace. As a man I promised your grandfather that nothing would happen to you. He believed the longer I was with you, the sooner Phoenix would put the pieces together. He already blamed you for everything. If he saw us together…” He swore and looked down for a brief second before meeting my gaze again. “I had to make you believe me. I didn’t know what else to do. I thought the day before when we’d talked — damn, Tracey, I thought you knew me better than that. I’ll protect you until the day I die, even if it means I have to protect you from myself. Because in protecting you from me, I was protecting you from them.”
“But you weren’t.”
“I know that now. And I’m not leaving, but Chase—”
“—I love him too.” I shrugged. “He was there for me when you weren’t.”
“Do you love him like you love me?” Nixon asked.
“Who said I loved you?” I fired back.
“You did.”
“When?”
“That night when—”
I smirked.
“Glad to see you still have your sense of humor.” Nixon rolled his eyes as he leaned his head lower. “I’ll understand if you’re not ready. Shit, I don’t even know if I’m ready, but Trace, I really want to kiss you.”
I nodded. “First a bath, I don’t want any part of him on me when you touch me.”
Nixon nodded and backed away as I stood in front of him. He gently helped me take off the jacket Chase had given me.