hunting his brother. Years after closing the door on that skeleton in his closet, it was boney and rattling, a shadow come home to roost in a painful way.
When he'd caught up to Ray, Reuben discovered Mica had left. Running; hiding from the demon populating her living nightmare. She’d gotten away, thank God , but not before it got worse. Reuben found her, protected her. Got her on the club’s radar and organized safety for her. Since then, he’d been protecting her, even before Mason loved her. But he knew her time with Ray was so much worse than what he had seen. In the beginning, Reuben might have run like a coward, but at least he had sucked up enough courage to circle back around and make sure she was okay.
No one had done that for Lisa.
It wasn’t until she’d miscarried and had to be hospitalized that anyone knew what Ray was doing to her.
The local ER doc called her father as soon as he got an inkling of what was going on. Her daddy was a good man, one who had to stand by and witness what was done to her. Had to look every day at the scars she bore. A good man who’d held her hand as she lost her baby.
Reuben’s thoughts turned to Molly, Mica’s little sister. She was another woman he knew Ray had raped and gotten pregnant. Molly’s outcome was far sweeter than Lisa’s, because her child was loved by her husband, J.J. Rupert, as if Tomas was his own son. Precious mother and son both loved and protected by every Rebel member, because she was Mica’s, which made her theirs.
Lisa didn’t have that. She didn’t have anything like that. She had a widowed father, who struggled on his own to deal with what happened, never quite finding his way to help her.
What Lisa did have was a small town, which enjoyed gossiping entirely too much, and a Nelms’ sized skeleton in her closet attracting the chatter.
Chelsie and Lisa were best friends, so Transom, Chelsie's father, knew the story from that side of the equation. He knew how Chelsie’s heart hurt for her friend, watched and listened from the hospital room door as she'd cried with Lisa for the loss of so much.
But, Transom was also friends with Kennwort, so he knew the story from that side, too.
Transom had sat with a sorrowful, raging, drunken father, holding Kennwort up as he seethed in impotent fury. Listening to his wrath and anger against the way the high and mighty Nelms men acted, and how they had treated his baby girl.
Like father, like son.
Apple don’t fall far from that wicked tree.
Those boys will always be trouble.
Transom recounted Kennwort’s furious rants, and Reuben learned his father’s appetites had not gone unremarked in their not-large hometown. Where they were widely known as the Nelms , a family of bastards who seemed to ruin everything they touched.
Memories flooded him, things he hadn’t thought about in years. Women, paraded up and down the stairs of the house Brenda now lived in with Eli. The walls of the house soaking up the pain and humiliation delivered by his father. And then, by Ray. Next generation of evil. Growing up, some of the women he recognized around town. Some he didn’t, but he knew they saw him. Distressed and disturbed, his skin crawled with the fear that he might have stumbled on them like he had Lisa today, never knowing how his presence might be affecting them.
All of that, Reuben got from his chat with Transom. Now… God …now, he knew his walking into that store today had cost Lisa and her father something. Those emotions as painful as the day it happened, barely-healed scabs torn off by his boot falls through the door, exposing their still raw wounds to the caustic atmosphere being a Nelms brought with it. The cost to them might be intangible, but it was real . And he knew the something it cost them didn’t stop there, because he knew it could cost him…everything.
Ray had done that.
Apple don’t fall far from that wicked tree.
His father had done that.
Like father, like son.
His
When he'd caught up to Ray, Reuben discovered Mica had left. Running; hiding from the demon populating her living nightmare. She’d gotten away, thank God , but not before it got worse. Reuben found her, protected her. Got her on the club’s radar and organized safety for her. Since then, he’d been protecting her, even before Mason loved her. But he knew her time with Ray was so much worse than what he had seen. In the beginning, Reuben might have run like a coward, but at least he had sucked up enough courage to circle back around and make sure she was okay.
No one had done that for Lisa.
It wasn’t until she’d miscarried and had to be hospitalized that anyone knew what Ray was doing to her.
The local ER doc called her father as soon as he got an inkling of what was going on. Her daddy was a good man, one who had to stand by and witness what was done to her. Had to look every day at the scars she bore. A good man who’d held her hand as she lost her baby.
Reuben’s thoughts turned to Molly, Mica’s little sister. She was another woman he knew Ray had raped and gotten pregnant. Molly’s outcome was far sweeter than Lisa’s, because her child was loved by her husband, J.J. Rupert, as if Tomas was his own son. Precious mother and son both loved and protected by every Rebel member, because she was Mica’s, which made her theirs.
Lisa didn’t have that. She didn’t have anything like that. She had a widowed father, who struggled on his own to deal with what happened, never quite finding his way to help her.
What Lisa did have was a small town, which enjoyed gossiping entirely too much, and a Nelms’ sized skeleton in her closet attracting the chatter.
Chelsie and Lisa were best friends, so Transom, Chelsie's father, knew the story from that side of the equation. He knew how Chelsie’s heart hurt for her friend, watched and listened from the hospital room door as she'd cried with Lisa for the loss of so much.
But, Transom was also friends with Kennwort, so he knew the story from that side, too.
Transom had sat with a sorrowful, raging, drunken father, holding Kennwort up as he seethed in impotent fury. Listening to his wrath and anger against the way the high and mighty Nelms men acted, and how they had treated his baby girl.
Like father, like son.
Apple don’t fall far from that wicked tree.
Those boys will always be trouble.
Transom recounted Kennwort’s furious rants, and Reuben learned his father’s appetites had not gone unremarked in their not-large hometown. Where they were widely known as the Nelms , a family of bastards who seemed to ruin everything they touched.
Memories flooded him, things he hadn’t thought about in years. Women, paraded up and down the stairs of the house Brenda now lived in with Eli. The walls of the house soaking up the pain and humiliation delivered by his father. And then, by Ray. Next generation of evil. Growing up, some of the women he recognized around town. Some he didn’t, but he knew they saw him. Distressed and disturbed, his skin crawled with the fear that he might have stumbled on them like he had Lisa today, never knowing how his presence might be affecting them.
All of that, Reuben got from his chat with Transom. Now… God …now, he knew his walking into that store today had cost Lisa and her father something. Those emotions as painful as the day it happened, barely-healed scabs torn off by his boot falls through the door, exposing their still raw wounds to the caustic atmosphere being a Nelms brought with it. The cost to them might be intangible, but it was real . And he knew the something it cost them didn’t stop there, because he knew it could cost him…everything.
Ray had done that.
Apple don’t fall far from that wicked tree.
His father had done that.
Like father, like son.
His
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