He was the dream of the life I’d never live, and it hurt to know that I wouldn’t even have my dreams now. But it needed to be done. I simply had to move on with my life and leave those dreams in the dust.
4
The next six weeks were some of the easiest and hardest of my life. Easy because Blake was gone a lot so I was left alone, but hard because I wasn’t able to go out of the house at all and I knew there was no night with Dylan on the horizon to ease the pain.
I was an addict in need of my fix, but thankfully, deleting and blocking his number really helped with that issue, no matter how many times I wished I could text him one more time.
“Brooklyn, are you ready, sweetheart?”
It was the morning of my first day of boot camp, and Mary was at my door.
Dragging myself up, I caught sight in my dresser mirror of how bedraggled I was. One thing about having nowhere to go… no need to brush your hair or get dressed.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I said before clearing my throat and rubbing my eyes.
I felt her hesitate at the door. “Your bags are already packed. The camp requires you to stay there, but your brother ensured you’d have a private room.”
“Okay, great,” I called.
The door clicked open then, and my chest froze until her face appeared in the gap. “Sorry to just enter,” she said in a rush, “but your brother insisted that you wear this bracelet while you’re there.” She held up a fairly plain silver chain with a square clasp. “He said it’s for your protection and that if he finds out you’re not wearing it, there will be a punishment for… everyone.”
“I’ll wear it,” I promised, and she dropped the surprisingly heavy piece into my outstretched hand. “I’m sure it’s just a tracking device.” Or an electric shock chain that would zap me every time I ate something with calories in it.
“Don’t worry about us,” she told me. “Just take care of yourself.” She kissed my cheek, helped me get the bracelet on, and then left the room. Running out of time, I hobbled into the bathroom to shower and change.
I was sporting new bruises from Blake’s last overnight stay here three days ago, but the shower helped ease some of the aches. There was nothing to be done for the bruises that splotched across my ribs and down my side, but I was used to it.
Anger wisped through me, but it was so brief. Blake had been at it for so long that I was numb to the abuse now.
Once I was dressed in torn jeans, a simple white shirt, and tennis shoes, I made my way downstairs. Grabbing a bagel, plain because no Lawsons are fat, I was ushered into a car idling out front. Jonnie was already inside waiting for me, and I tried not to flinch as he smiled.
It was not a nice smile, flashing gold from his right central incisor. Small, beady eyes that were too close together and a long nose gave him a ratlike profile. Jonnie was one ugly motherfucker, but worse than his face was his personality. The only thing I liked about him was that he wasn’t as huge as most of the guys Blake employed, which gave me the smallest sense that I might have a chance at fighting him off.
He was sneaky though, always touching me just a little too long to be polite. The thought that I would have to spend the next however long at this camp with him was giving me heart palpitations.
“Good morning,” he drawled.
Forcing myself not to react, I stared straight ahead. “You’re not staying in my room.” Fuck making polite conversation.
Jonnie’s grin grew, and now I could not only see the gold but also multiple missing teeth. “Are you giving me orders, Brooklyn?”
He loved dragging my name out, really accentuating the Brooook Lyynnnn. Mostly because he knew it drove me fucking insane.
“No,” I said quietly, picking my battles because I was required to show Blake’s men the same respect I showed him. Thankfully, my possessive bastard of a brother had one rule for them when it came to me: No touching me unless I tried to escape.
Pretty sure that rule was the only thing that had saved me from being raped multiple times. They all feared that one day Blake would turn on them—especially