Prologue
He was a weak man. The sort who needed to crush a woman to feel powerful.
John Mark Green
Natalie
Last Christmas . . .
“Mum?” Sorcha is screaming in front of the tree, crying her bloody eyes out. Davina sits beside her, not understanding why St. Nicholas didn’t stop at our house last night. Even though she’s disappointed, she’s doing her best to console her baby sister.
“Mum?” Aggie repeats. She’s the oldest of my three girls, at eleven years old. She’s still very much a child and yet is wise beyond her years. It’s evident in her tone that she knows something isn’t right. I turn my neck to the side and look directly into her deep green eyes.
“Yes, love?”
“Dad did this, didn’t he?” She keeps her voice low so her sisters can’t hear her.
“I’m not sure, nugget.” I mutter, looking to our tree. I wrapped tons of gifts for the girls and all David had to do was go out to the back shed and get the presents. It’s what he does every year. I buy the presents through the year and wrap them a month or so before the holiday hits. I gave him the key to the shed yesterday, keeping it hidden securely so the girls don’t go rummaging about. Aggie’s asked me if her father had something to do with this and I gave her an answer I don’t believe. He’s the only person who could’ve been responsible for this.
I saw him bringing in the presents last night before I went to bed . . . or at least I thought he was bringing them in the house and setting them under the tree.
Fucking piece of shite.
The back door to our small cottage creaks, signaling someone is pulling on it. I rise up but turn back and look at Aggie. “Watch your sisters for me.”
Making my way through the kitchen I go through the mud room and come face-to-face with the bastard. David, who I’ve been married to since the ripe age of twenty-two. Now here I am in my mid-thirties and I don’t have anything to show for it but my beautiful doting girls. I deal with David because he’s the girls’ father and I do want him involved in their lives, but I won’t have him fucking up their childhood.
“What in the bloody hell did you do?” I hiss, opening the door. I walk out onto the back patio and force him away from the door. “Answer me, David. What did you do!? What happened to all the presents?”
His face is flushed with red, showing me he’s already been drinking. Fuck. It’s not even nine in the morning. “I had to sell them.”
“What?” I interject, fury running through my veins.
“I had to sell them, dear. I lost a bet at the pub two months ago and my competition has been hassling me to get him the money. I didn’t have any money to give him since you handle the finances—”
“I handle them because you can’t budget for shit. If everything we had was in your hands, we’d be homeless and starving.” I grit, balling my fists up at my sides.
Out of nowhere a crashing sensation hits me in the shoulders and I go flying back against the patio. I’m able to catch myself, but the windowsill dug into just below my ribs. “You wouldn’t be anything without me. You know that, don’t ya? Who pays all the bills, huh? Me? You sit on your ass all day and take care of the kids. Ungrateful bitch!” David whips his hand back and strikes me across the face.
The force was so strong that a burning sensation is shooting down my neck. Everything is happening so quickly that I can barely keep up with it. I put my hands underneath me to help me get back up, but David kicks me in the head.
He puts his foot on my hand, applying more pressure until I start groaning in pain. “David, stop this. The girls are inside.”
“It’s best they see what happens when a woman is disrespectful. I’ve had enough of your shite, Natalie. You always think you’re better than me. Fuck, your father even told me so the day we were married, how you should’ve married someone on his level, not a fisherman like me. Well, now I’m showing him.” Christ. David’s gone and lost his fucking mind.
I try to move again, and he’s put his other leg on my forearm and slams his leg down on it. The cracking of my bones registers before the pain, but as it does, I scream bloody murder. We live in a small Scottish town on the coast and the neighbors come running out, all seeing David standing over me.
“Mum?!” Aggie screams, sounding distraught.
“Keep your sisters inside!” I tell her, not wanting her to see me like this, nor her father being a monster.
“Back away from her, David!” Richard, our neighbor snarls. Chester, our other neighbor comes up beside him and helps to ensure David backs off the patio. Alice, Chester’s wife comes up beside me and calls a medic.
“Oh my God, Natalie . . . what has he done to you?”
I don’t know what he’s done, but the only thing I do know is I’ll be getting my girls out of here. My parents just moved to Montana and told me if we ever wanted to come visit, we could. They might regret that decision when they know I don’t plan on coming back to Scotland.
Chapter One
Pay attention to what people say out of anger. They’ve been dying to tell you that
~ Live Life Happy
Grim
11 months later . . .
“You’re going to be alright, okay?” Shiloh tells me, taking my hand as she sits beside my hospital bed.
I rip it from her, not even giving the slightest fuck. Why is she even here in the first place? She made her choice. She said she wanted more . . . and now she’s here. It doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense to me. She made such a big thing about wanting more than being shared between the three of us, how she wanted to be an ol’ lady and all of that. What she never took a second to realize is I would’ve made her my ol’ lady in a heartbeat ‘cause I loved her.
Shit, I still love her. Even after she ripped my heart out . . . I’ll still care for her. Sometimes, I think I will until the day I die.
“Shi’,” I call her by a nickname I hadn’t called her since she was in my bed the last time, which was years ago at this point. Fuck, I just got over my heartache, the knife in my heart always being twisted a little more as I see the way she constantly smiles at one of our club prospects, Hammer. He’s a good dude, but it doesn’t make anything any easier. “I need you to leave. You haven’t given two fucks about me, and I don’t want you here. You’re only gonna piss me off.”
Her expression falters into a look of sadness and I see the way her eyes begin to water. “You could’ve died today, Grim. What the fuck? Are you serious . . . you want me to leave? You could’ve died!” She repeats it like it makes a bit of difference, but it doesn’t.
“Yeah, I could’ve . . . but I didn’t.” I retort, rolling my eyes at her.
“Damn, you’re feelin’ a bit salty today.” Axel, my brother, speaks up from the corner of the room.
I went out on a ride after I got in an argument with him, then add seeing Shiloh all flirty with Hammer and I got pissed. I left, sped a little more than I should’ve and didn’t pay attention to the way it was just starting to snow. Combine the slick roads, what I thought was only a bit of rain . . . and here I am, lying in a hospital bed with scrapes and bruises all over my body. I have some nasty cuts, but I was damn lucky. This shit could’ve been so much worse.