A Monster's Beauty (In the Arms of Monsters #3) - Sam Crescent Page 0,84
feet, she grabbed her bags, knowing she had fucked up tonight. She should have walked away without a backward glance, allowed them to push her, call her names, shove her. Do whatever they wanted but not attack.
By attacking, she’d given them the perfect ammunition to hurt her, to strike at her, and she wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Rushing to her mother’s car, she climbed in the passenger seat.
There were a few seconds more stare off between her mother and Alfie before she finally got in the car.
Chloe noticed her hands shaking and quickly sat on them. Lily, though, she looked calm and collected.
Chloe had been so lost in the moment with Alfie, she’d not even heard her mother drive up to them.
“Your father’s not going to hear the end of this,” Lily said. “I’m tired of his bullshit.”
“You don’t have to worry about it, Mom,” she said. “Please, don’t say anything.”
Lily glanced over at her. “You don’t want me to say anything about that club brat doing stuff to you?”
“No. It’s fine. You know it’ll only make it worse.”
“I don’t care. Alfie thinks because of who his father is, he’s above the law.”
“Isn’t he? If it was a cop driving past, they’d just keep on going.”
She noticed her mother clenched her fingers around the steering wheel.
“It’s the way it is in Satan’s Croft. We can’t do anything about it,” Chloe said. “You know that.”
“It doesn’t make it right. Fuck!” Her mother slammed her fist against the steering wheel. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
“I’m fine. Really.”
“Really? Your father didn’t come and get you. You need new boots, and you’re fine. No, you know what, I’m done with this bullshit.” Right there in the middle of the street, her mother spun the car around.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Chloe asked.
“Something I should have done a long time ago.” Lily pressed her foot on the gas, and Chloe’s heart raced.
She felt sick to her stomach as she realized exactly where they were going. They drove past Alfie, Ian, and Riley, and she tried to avoid looking at them, but failed.
Her cheeks were on fire, and her breast felt scorched from Alfie’s hand on it.
She had to put that memory away.
Nothing good could come from reporting him, and most likely, no one would believe her anyway. That was how this town worked. They made up their own rules to suit themselves, and everyone else, regardless of if it was right or not, had to fall in line.
“Mom, I know you’re being a badass and all, but you’re kind of scaring me.”
“Good. I mean, no, it’s not good that you’re afraid. I don’t want to scare you. Believe me, sweetie, I don’t. But I’m sick and tired of all this bullshit with them all the time. It’s time for me to stand up, and I’m going to. They don’t own us, and we don’t owe them anything. We’re not going to allow them to come between us and our family.” Lily nodded her head.
Again, Chloe looked at her mother’s hands.
They weren’t shaking at all.
Lily Decker was normally a calm, collected person. She was sweet, caring, nice, hardworking, and she put up with a great deal. The woman before her right now looked ready to chop men into little pieces and hide them in walls. Maybe a little exaggeration, but not by much.
The closer they got to the clubhouse, the more her nerves picked up speed. This wasn’t what she wanted to do, or to happen. She was terrified of what this could mean. Her mother was a fierce woman, protective, loving. It was why Chloe tried so hard in school, to make her mother proud.
When it came to her father, she put in as much effort as he did into their relationship, the bare minimum. She knew her mother and father fought repeatedly about the same old stuff. There was never any break in their arguing, and it was always about one thing. Her father’s need to be accepted by the club was a constant heartache to her mother.
It was driving a wedge between them all.
By the time Lily pulled up into the parking lot, Chloe felt sick to her stomach. Men and women were making out. Most of them had leather cuts on, and the women, well, she was lucky they at least wore underwear.
Her hands shook as she followed Lily into the main house. The scent of smoke and alcohol was heavy in the air.