SEIZED Part 1: New Adult Romantic Suspense (Seize Me Romance Fiction Series) by JC Coulton Page A

decide to become a cop. I thought you hated cops?”
    He looks so thoughtful, as though he’s deciding what parts to share and what to leave out.
    “We left because of my dad. He was a drunk. My mom finally had enough of his bullshit, and left us all. After she left, he only had me and Brenda to take it out on. He used to drink himself blind, and do stupid shit. Lose the car, lose all the food money, get in fights, or just pass out somewhere. He was a prick when he was sober, too. Not one of those enigmatic guys who go too far. An all-around stinking asshole. I hated him, and I think he hated me. I was always in the way when I was younger, and he resented the responsibility of having kids.
    “Moving to Cedar Rapids was my Mom’s last attempt at saving us all. She was sure she could make my dad behave one way or another. Shrieking at him, following him to the bars, trying to control what he could spend. Trying to take his keys away, and tell him who he could socialize with. He was her project. He was more her child than either of us ever were. She was obsessed with straightening him out. Every time he drank, she took it as a personal blow to her ability to be a good wife. They were unhappy for years, but he’d just get boozed to drown her out. She’d get madder and madder, hunting down the bottles he’d hidden around the house, and smashing them in front of him.
    “Brenda and I just tried to avoid them, but it was harder for her than me. We looked after ourselves, and we knew it was a matter of time that we would leave too. It was in senior year, Mom had gone, school wasn’t going well, so we both dropped out, stole his car, got ourselves some fake ID so no one would question our age, and came to New York.
    We stayed in some shitty places in those first few months, but we both got jobs. She was a barista, and I started working security in night clubs. I was taller by then, and one of the guys I met owned a gym, so we started working out together. It became my thing, work and gym, and we partied pretty hard for that first year. Brenda had a few boyfriends, and I tried to meet girls but it always went wrong. I know it was because my drinking was out of control, but it had to get really bad before I did something about it.
    “By then, I had started working the bar. I was good with the customers, so they moved me off the door and closer to the action. I drank to sell booze, but I also had a steady supply to keep me going from the start to the end of the shift. Mostly scotch and bourbon, but it got to the point I was putting vodka in my coffee, and taking anything a customer offered. Shots, champagne, it didn’t matter. I felt like a star when I was in that place. I had beautiful women, I was friends with everyone, and more alive than ever before. Then shit got worse. It got so I had to drink in order to crack a smile, and if I didn’t, I’d be a zombie. I was turning into my dad, and I hated myself for it, but I couldn’t stop.
    “One day, Brenda woke me up in the hallway. At first, I didn’t know who she was, and I scared the shit out of her, nearly punching her because I thought she was trying to take my wallet. It was ten in the morning, and I hadn’t made it in the door the night before. I stank of piss, and realized I’d wet myself and lost a shoe in the hallway. She got me inside, and sat me down, and told me she was pregnant. The father was a guy she’d been seeing, and they were trying to work it out, but she was going to have the baby anyway. She cried and told me I looked like Dad. She told me she needed me more than ever. It was like we were replaying the early scenes that happened between my Mom and Dad. It was less than a year since we’d left. She was seventeen, and I was eighteen by then, but we were twenty years older on the inside, and on our fake ID. I knew I had to grow the fuck up. So I did. I started going to AA. It sucked, but I met some good people and they helped me.”
    I interrupt him