The Marine (Black Hawke Security #3)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

brIAR

Ten Years Ago

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“I still think he was better in Speed ,” I say as Aidan takes my hand and we walk out of the movie theater.

“You kidding me? As John Wick, Keanu’s way more badass.” Adian tsks me as if my words are blasphemous.

Which makes sense, as I’m sure he thinks Keanu is a god.

I shiver as the night air hits us, and he glances down, then stops and wraps his leather jacket over my shoulders.

I swear this man makes me swoon with every move he makes. No wonder I can’t get enough of him.

He’s so handsome.

His short, wavy, dark hair frames his bright blue eyes and square jaw. He’s broader, taller, and overall, just bigger than the boys I went to high school with.

He’s just finished college and talking about going into the military.

I am excited for him.

College wasn’t an option for me, but I’m really proud of myself for finding a personal assistant role a week after finishing high school. I’ve been there six months and love it.

That’s how I met Aidan.

One Friday night after work, I went to a local restaurant and he was there. He watched me for over an hour before finally coming over to talk to me.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, leaning on the partition next to me.

“What for?” I asked, praying my cheeks weren’t burning red.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said, twisting to face me and indicating with his chin out across the restaurant. “I was talking to everyone else.”

I frowned.

“I’m sorry. She’s going to fall in love with me, so you all missed out.” He grinned at me stupidly.

What?

The confidence of this man.

But I laughed because he was so damn ridiculous. Lucky for him, he asked me things about myself and the conversation over the rest of the night was interesting and funny.

And I found myself wishing he’d kiss me.

He didn’t.

He saw me home in a cab and asked for my number. Then, we started dating.

For a few months Aidan took me out for dinners, on lazy Sunday drives, to the movies, to meet his mom and dad, to the beach...you name it, we did it.

He kissed me on our first date, and it was everything I ever dreamed of. Slow, delicious, and like an entrée to the best meal you ever had.

We had waited.

Not because I’d wanted to, but because Aidan wanted me to be sure. So there were a lot of one- and two-base nights. But regardless of how far we went, afterward I always found myself lying in his arms, feeling so blissfully happy.

Safe.

Adored.

“Briar,” he whispered roughly to me one night.

I placed my hand over his as our eyes twinkled in the natural flickering light.

“Yes.”

“You’re mine forever. You know that, right?”

“Am I?” I whispered, almost dying from happiness.

“Yes. You wait. I’ll show you.” Then he pulled me closer and took my mouth again.

I knew that night I was falling in love with him.

But there was always this dark cloud. The lie I never told him about who I really was.

A little girl with a secret.

A home I desperately needed to escape from.

I was working hard to save money so I could move out, and it felt like time was running out. Dad had already started asking more questions when I said I was staying at a friend’s place for the night.

He’d seen Aidan’s car, but I hadn’t introduced them. I told Aidan I didn’t want my parents to know about him just yet. That they were quite controlling, and I’d rather wait until we knew we were serious.

Which was not far from the truth.

But we were serious, and I didn’t want my father to scare him off.

“No. No!” I cried one night when my father demanded to meet him. He’d gripped my arm so tightly I thought it was going to break.

So tonight Aidan came to the door to collect me. Dad was sober, and I swear I was trembling.

There’s a reason I chose a Monday night. Because Dad usually didn’t drink on that day. Although he didn’t need alcohol to go into one of his terrifying rages.

It was just how he was.

He told us it was because of the money. Always worrying about paying the bills and that we didn’t understand the burden. What I didn’t understand was why he turned into a monster, but my mom, who also worked to pay the bills, didn’t.

Actually I wondered about that when I was younger. Now I’m older, I think he enjoys it. Enjoys scaring us. Enjoys controlling us.

Moving out is my only focus and I’m close.

Hopefully before Aidan finds out. I’d rather tell him once I’m out of there and can show him I’m not that girl anymore.

So far, I’ve been able to explain all my wounds.

I’ve had numerous broken bones, bruises, and one concussion throughout the years. Mom taught me how to hide the evidence with makeup and clothing.

It’s fucked up, but it’s our life.

I’m about five hundred dollars away from getting my own place. I have a plan. If Aidan joins the military, as he says he wants to, then he’ll go away for training for a few months—so he tells me—and by the time he’s back, I’ll be moved.

He'll never need to know about what Dad does.

I can’t lose him...I’m falling in love with him.

“So, what are your intentions with my daughter?” My father asked when I introduced them earlier tonight. I watched them both grip the other's hand painfully.

Aidan blinked, and I guess he squeezed tighter because my father pulled his hand away.

Fuck.

I bit the side of my cheek and waited.

“Just taking her to the movies and then dropping her home,” Aidan had replied. “Sir.”

Definitely felt like that last part had been forced.

Dad glared at him as my eyes darted between them.

“By midnight.” Aidan then added.

“Make it eleven.”

“Okay, bye Dad. My god,” I said, pushing Aidan down the path. “I’ll be home then.”

Jesus.

I was eighteen.

He never said anything when we drove to the movies or during, but I feel like he has questions. Or at least a point of view about my father’s dominant nature.

But he still hasn’t said anything.

Aidan opens the door to his car, and I climb in. When he circles around and shuts his own door, he immediately reaches over and takes my hand.

Touch is definitely his love language.

I think it might be mine too.

We smile at one another, and he leans in and kisses me.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I smile at him adoringly.

Last week, we finally made love, and it was the most special night of my life.

I know without a shadow of doubt he is the man I want to spend my life with.

My plan has to work.

He starts the car and adjusts the heat, then puts his hand on the headrest behind me.

“Sure I can’t talk you into staying at my place tonight? I can drop you at work in the morning.”

I shake my head and let out a short laugh. “You just met my dad. Do you want him to hunt you down and kill you?”

“Preferably not.” He winks, then turns to the steering wheel and starts to drive. “You are eighteen. Nearly nineteen.”

I know.

But my father doesn’t care about that.

His fist doesn’t care.

“I can say I’m staying at one of the girls’ places again this weekend. Friday. I’m sure you can wait a few more days.” I reach out and run my hand over his thigh.

He stills my hand. “Not if you do that.”

I giggle.

“I’m sorry,” I say after a few minutes.

“Don’t be sorry. I just want you. I want you with me every minute of every day.”

My face heats with joy.

God, this man. I love him so much.

We pull up outside my house and I see the living room lights on. A bad feeling rushes through me, and my instincts are screaming to tell Aidan to drive us both away.

I turn to Aidan as he goes to open his door.

“Do you mind saying goodbye here?” I ask, grabbing his arm.

His brows lift.

“My mother would kick my ass. She taught me to walk a girl to her door. I’m a southern boy, darlin’.”

Don’t I know it.

I smile softly, even while panic thrums inside me.

“Just this once.” I lay a hand on his cheek. “I’ll see you on Wednesday at lunch.”

He reaches out and pulls half my body across the console between us and kisses me like it’s the last time we ever will.

I’ll look back at that kiss a million times, but I don’t know it yet.

“Go, you crazy man.” I slap his solid chest as I laugh and climb out of the car.

I run along the path and up the steps and turn back to see Aidan watching me. Protecting me. Making sure I get inside safely. Little does he know, inside is where the danger lies.

When I turn and open the front door, I hear his car drive away.

The screen door shuts, and before I have time to close the front door, Dad steps out of the living room.

“Got yourself a big boyfriend, did you?” he snarls, and I notice the bottle hanging in his hand by his side.

“Yes. You met him tonight, remember?” I say carefully.

Is he so drunk that he’s forgotten?

“Did you tell him about our family? Is that why he shook my hand so tightly? A threat?”

What?

Oh god. Aidan, why didn’t you just let him have that one thing?

“No. I haven’t told anyone. No one,” I reply and start shaking. “Dad, just go to bed.”

I try to walk around him.

Sometimes this works and he lets me go. Not often, but it’s always a good idea to leave the room and try to escape.

“Don’t you talk to me like that, young lady. You come here. I don’t want you seeing that man anymore. He’s too old for you.” He reaches for my arm as he had a few days before and the pain is more than normal.

I think I pull a muscle.

I try not to make a sound because it just makes it worse, but the contrast of my father hurting me and Aidan loving me is becoming so obvious. I’m starting to see just how bad a man my father is.

Love doesn’t look like this.

“Dad, please. Stop!”

“Stop. Stop? Is that what you said to him in the car when he had his hands on you?” He spits and pushes me against the wall.

“Mom!” I cry.

Being cornered is dangerous. It’s late and she is probably asleep, but I know she’ll have heard him yelling.

“Leave your mother out of this.” He slaps me.

Ouch.

My face burns as Mom appears, looking sleepy and as scared as I am. My eyes plead with her silently.

“Gareth. Let her go. Let her go!” she cries.

I’m sobbing as his hand goes around my throat and he pushes me up the wall.

“Your slut of a daughter let that man touch her. Did he have his hands under your skirt, you little fucking slut?”

Boom!

Everything happens at once. The screen door bounces against the door in a metallic grind, and Aidan comes flying inside.

His clenched fist strikes my father on the side of the head as he screams. “Get your fucking hands off her!”

Mom screams and comes flying along the hallway as I begin to crumple to the floor, but not before Aidan catches me.

I clutch at his arms, scrambling to right myself.

“Briar! Fuck. Tell me you’re okay. Breathe, sweetheart.”

I’m gasping for air, my throat burning and aching as I try to nod.

“I. Och. Ay.”

“Jesus Christ. Has he done this before?” Aidan cradles me against him, holding me away enough to watch that I keep breathing.

“Oh, my god he’s unconscious.” Mom cries on the ground beside my father.

“Good.” Aidan growls over his shoulder. “Why didn’t you stop him? He was killing her.”

Oh god. I never wanted him to see any of this. But the truth is, I am not sure if my father was going to stop. I’m still seeing stars from the lack of oxygen.

“You were just fucking standing there!” He keeps yelling as he scoops me up into his arms.

Mom leaps to her feet. “What are you doing?”

“Taking her to a fucking hospital.”

“Dad,” I rasp out, barely able to speak as I stare down at his lifeless body.

Oh, god.

“I’m calling 911.” Mom flaps around and grabs the phone, punching it.

“Is he alive?” I half whisper.

“Unfortunately.” Aidan replies angrily, glancing as my father’s legs twitches.

Relieved, I take Aidan’s face with my palm. “No hospital. I will be okay.”

I know how this goes. The pain will be horrible but with some pain meds and resting my voice for a week or two, it will be fine.

I watch the realization start to sink in and tears start pouring down my face.

He knows my shame.

I want to beg him not to leave me, but I won’t.

“Hey, hey,” Aidan says and carries me into the living room. He sits with me on his lap and keeps cooing me.

This is where he starts planning his exit. Where he says goodbye.

“Sorry,” I rasp.

“What the hell are you sorry about? Thank god I came back for my phone, which is in your purse, or you could be fucking dead, Briar.”

“He wouldn’t.” I reply, sounding pathetic, and we both know it’s a lie.

Aidan shakes his head, disappointed in me, and it just cuts deeper. Then he gently places a hand on my face.

“How long has this been going on?”

I try to avert my eyes, but he grips me a little tighter. Not hard. He wouldn’t do that. I know this about him.

“Sweetheart,” he prompts.

A choke on the tears which swamp me and collapse on his chest. I can’t tell him. Shame consumes me along with grief, knowing this is the end.

I don’t deserve a man like him.

I never did.

Suddenly, I just wish he wasn’t here.

“You should go,” I rasp and attempt to climb off his lap as Mom cries into the phone.

I hear the sirens in the distance.

Then Dad groans something and Mom has apparently only just realized he wasn’t dead.

“Oh thank god. Oh god. I thought you were dead. That boy nearly killed you.”

Aidan holds me tight on his lap, as if not wanting me near the man who gave me life.

My life is so fucked up.

“Come home with me,” he says, and I glance up at him through soaking wet eyes, surprised. “Come home with me. Move in with me. I don’t want you here.”

“Aidan,” I sob, filled with so much love I think I’ll explode.

He still wants me?

After seeing all that.

“Briar. I love you. I will damn well kill him if he fucking touches you like that again. Do you understand?”

I wrap my arms around his neck. My throat burns like a bitch as I sob and tell him I love him back.

Then the paramedics arrive and everything changes.

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AIDAN

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T HERE’S NO RUNNING from this and I wouldn’t, even if I’d thought about it three minutes ago.

Sirens fill the air, and I hear the emergency vehicles as they pull up outside.

“Aidan,” Briar’s scratchy voice from my lap pulls my focus back to her.

Not that it was ever gone.

“I’ve got you.” I hold her tighter and keep my eyes on her father as he sits up. It’s going to take him a little while to get his bearings. Not that I’ve knocked a man unconscious before.

But if anyone was going to make me do it, it’s someone trying to strangle the woman I love.

How fucking long has this been going on?

I know the answer. I just don’t want to hear it.

Forever.

That’s probably how long, by the looks of the fear on her mother’s face. She looks like her world is crumbling apart.

Someone has seen their biggest shame.

The paramedics burst through the doorway and take in the scene. One of them stares at me while the female crouches and drops her large bag.

“Sir, can you hear me? Can you understand me?” She’s pointing a light into his eyes as she takes his stats.

Briar’s mom is crying and telling them that I hit him. That I tried to kill him.

Not yet, lady, but I might.

The male drags his eyes down to Briar.

“Ma’am, I’d like to examine you. Are you able to walk? Can you come over here?”

Fucking hell. He thinks I’m dangerous. In truth, I’m a big guy, and I probably look a little insane holding onto Briar like she’s my everything.

She is.

So yeah, I’m probably a little terrifying right now.

Good.

No one is touching her.

Even though I know they need to take a look at her.

Briar clears her throat and looks at me.

Shit.

No way I’m letting anyone think I’m the guilty party here. I shift on the sofa and move her, waving the guy over. “She does. Her father was strangling her,” I tell him.

He glances at me quickly as he makes his way over with some medical equipment. He takes in the deep red mark on her neck and crouches, reaching to gently touch it.

Again, his eyes dart to me.

Fuck this.

I hold up both hands and step away.

“I saved her. She’s in no danger from me.” I growl.

“Sure. Can I get you to sit on the chair over there, please, sir?” He points to an armchair.

“He didn’t hurt me.” Briar tells him. “It’s...he didn’t...it’s okay.”

I glare at her.

Why isn’t she telling him her father hurt her?

“The police will be here any moment now, so you can give statements. Were you hurt anywhere else?” he asks.

“...then that angry big man flew in the door and punched him. For no reason,” Mrs. Sutton says.

What the fuck?

I stand.

Then sit again as the paramedics both flinch. It’s subtle, but I saw it.

When the cops arrive a few minutes later, I stand once more, thinking here comes a bunch of sound-minded people who will understand what’s really going on. When they ask me to go down to the station thirty minutes later, reality sets in.

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I T TAKES THREE hours , but eventually I leave the station, making sure I clarify I was never arrested.

“No. You are free to go,” the cop says.

I glance at the clock on the way out. It’s after two in the morning.

Mr. Sutton didn’t press charges, and the policeman I was dealing with said he had no former record of domestic abuse. The fact my record was clean as a whistle meant he was happy to let me go.

“This time.” He clarified, telling me to keep my nose clean.

When I reiterated what I’d seen, he explained without Briar making a statement or filing a complaint, there was nothing he could do.

His advice? “Get a new girlfriend, pal.”

I got a little angry at that part and he finally looked at Briar’s medical records when I insisted.

Pushing my luck.

“Jesus,” he muttered.

When I finally got a look, it was clear she’d been abused all her life. I’m no expert, but it looked like she had way more broken bones and injuries than the average kid.

“Fucking hell.” I wiped my hand down my face after draining the last of the god-awful coffee the cop gave me. “I need to get her out of that house.”

“You need to stay away. If her father decides to press charges, it’ll mess up your future,” he said, and I figured it was because I told him I was about to join the Marine Corps.

I don’t care. I love her. I’m not standing by and letting her father hurt her again.

That’s not who I am.

I want to marry this woman. What sort of fucking man and husband would I be to just sit back knowing she was being smacked around by some middle-aged asshole?

A shit one, that’s what.

I flop down on my bed when I get home and set my alarm for eight. I’ll get three-and-a-half hours' sleep if I’m lucky.

That’s if I can get to sleep.

I want to know how Briar is, but I am not going to go over there, obviously. Nor message her in the middle of the night if she has been able to sleep.

My car is still there, so my plan is to call into work sick and convince her to move in with me.

Like immediately.

I’m not the kind of guy who runs from difficulty and if that means I need to marry her right damn now, then I will.

She’s mine.

Mine to protect.

Even if it’s protecting her from her own family... and her own limitations.

The next day, everything fucking changes.