Drowning to Breathe by A. L. Jackson Page A

and now he looks like the good guy who was attacked by some deranged delinquent out for blood.”
    I pressed on with my explanation, doing all I could not to spit the words. “We were supposed to come to some kind of bullshit terms. My attorneys thought I could pay off the asshole, he would dismiss the charges, and I’d get a lesser sentence…fines and community service or some shit like that. But the bastard hates me as much as I hate him. Things escalated at the mediation we had last week and there was no keeping my hands off him. He warned me I’d regret fucking with him.”
    At the time, I’d wanted to laugh in his face and just beg him to bring it on, that any consequence I had to pay would be well worth it.
    Now I knew that debt was too steep.
    Not if Kallie was the cost.
    Guess I’d thought I couldn’t hate him more until I saw that pompous ass driving off with her. Stealing that baby girl from her mother.
    From her home.
    From me.
    “He was after revenge tonight,” I confessed. The words were so choppy they vibrated in my chest.
    “On both of us,” Shea said.
    “That douchebag is nothing but a narcissist. Can’t believe he’d use a little girl as retaliation. Fuck him,” I gritted out, my rage threatening to boil.
    Shea blinked slowly, like she didn’t want to hear her own words. “He’s a sociopath.” Her voice grew desperately quiet. “A psychopath.”
    I pushed up onto my elbow so I could see her better, and Shea rolled onto her back. Her face pinched up in pain as if fighting whatever she was feeling inside.
    “Tell me.” I couldn’t stop the same earlier demand from leaving my mouth.
    “I’m not ready.”
    This was what was haunting me most. What was written all over Shea. Her outright fear of the man I hated most and the possibilities of what had put it there.
    “Know you told me you weren’t ready to give me details, but, baby…just…just tell me one thing. Did he hurt you?”
    Everything shook—my spirit and my body and my words.
    She squeezed her eyes closed. A thousand shadows played across her features. A horror of memories. A nightmare that had been her past.
    I saw all of it there, marring that gorgeous face.
    The rage I’d been fighting took hold.
    My hands curled into fists as I watched tears seep free at the corners of her eyes. They raced into her hair.
    Shea nodded tight, as if it could block what should never have to be remembered.
    Or maybe she was just passing them on to me. Because my mind seethed with them. With the idea of Jennings hurting my girl.
    I’d seen it.
    Witnessed it.
    The malice in his eyes.
    The greed fed by something vile.
    An unknown fury slammed me.
    I’d kill him. If he hurt either one of them again, I’d kill him. This time there’d be no one there to stop me.
    Slowly, Shea opened to me, staring up at me while I stared down at her. I felt as if I were coming unhinged, coming apart, torn between bolting from this bed and tracking Jennings down and forcing myself to stay here with her wrapped in my arms.
    I knew if I succumbed to the first, it would be the end of me and Shea. I’d lose her forever because there wasn’t enough money in the world to keep them from locking me up and throwing away the goddamned key.
    Every part of me rejected that idea while all of those same pieces knew any sacrifice would be worth keeping them safe.
    Shea fluttered her fingertips over the scar cut deep into my ribs.
    Another battle I’d fought for my family.
    A lash I’d been happy to take.
    In her touch, I felt as if she were tying herself to me. Telling me to stay. The girl saw right through me to that place where the truth of who I really was reigned. She knew what I’d be willing to do.
    What I was capable of.
    She was keeping something from me not because she wanted to hide it. But because she wanted to protect me.
    Observant eyes searched mine with both hope and dread, as they trailed down to where the memory of Julian had been permanently etched onto my