Easy Sacrifice (3 page)

People started talking about me behind my back, labeling me a liar, a snitch, and a prude. I didn’t care—nobody was ever my friend aside from Kat anyway—but it still hurt that people, especially other girls, were so quick to judge me.

Ty never came back. I didn’t see him after that day, and as far as anyone could tell, he’d vanished. My dad used what resources he had to find him, but since he was apparently in a group home at the time, it was easy for him to run away unnoticed.

I think about him constantly. His beautiful eyes and the way he cradled me in his arms. How I never felt more happy and secure than in those few short minutes with him carrying me. God, I want more of it, too.

Regardless of what happened that night and no matter what everyone called me, I know that he believed me. Ty believed me, and he saved me. If it weren’t for him, who knows what would have happened. I know I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to play the what-if game. I just want to move on.

Kat and I get into our cars, and she waves as she drives away. I put the key into the ignition and get nothing when I turn it.
What the hell?
I try again with the same result. I take out my cell to call Kat to come get me, but I have no reception here in the lot. Climbing out of my car, I move around trying to find service. As I’m almost to the sidewalk, a man jogging comes close.

He’s tall, wearing gray sweats and a gray hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves ripped off to show off his large biceps. His head is down, but when he senses me, he looks up.

“Ty,” I whisper, my heart stilling in my chest, and goose bumps cover my skin.

He slows his jog and stops in front of me, his heaving chest inches from mine. He’s not a boy anymore. I knew he would grow up nice, but I didn’t expect him to still be so beautiful.

His eyes trace over the features of my face, they glide lower to my breasts, which have grown since the last time I saw him, and then slide down to my shiny pink toenails before they come back up. I suck in a breath and rest a hand on my chest, willing my heart to beat again.

He has to feel that. The connection. The spark. It’s undeniable, and it’s something that I don’t think will ever be comparable with anyone else. How can it when it’s stayed with me for years?

“Why did you disappear?”

“I’ve been around.”

“Where?”

“Why are you here?” he asks as an answer.

“Stop being so mysterious, Ty. God. I just want to talk to you. You can’t tell me I’m the only one who knows there’s something here.” I motion between us.

“Nah, you’re right.” He nods. “But a sweet, innocent little girl like you and a guy like me don’t belong together, babe.”

“How do you know I’m sweet and innocent?”

His tongue darts out and moistens his lips, and then he takes a couple of steps toward me. My breath hitches, and when he runs a finger down the side of my face, I close my eyes. He lowers his head and runs his nose along my ear before his lips replace it. “Damn, you smell good.”

I swallow loudly, and he chuckles. “Nervous?”

“No.”

He sighs and steps back then runs his hands through his hair. “Why are you here?”

“Why did you leave me that night and never come back? I missed you.”

“I need you to trust that it’s better for you if we’re not together, okay? Hell, I missed your beautiful face so damn much, but fuck … Just, why are you here all alone?”

I cross my arms over my chest and give in. I might be attracted to him, but he’s probably right. He screams naughty boy while I’m the naïve girl. But that doesn’t mean I still don’t want to get to know him. Something exists between us on a level I don’t understand quite yet. I need more time with him. “My car won’t start, and I don’t have reception in there.”

He nods and walks to my car, leans in, and then pops the hood. “Try to start it again.”

I don’t question him, since he seems to know what he’s doing, and I turn the key with the same result.

“It’s your spark plugs. I can change them. Just gotta go to the shop and get them.”

“Okay.”

He slams the hood then starts to walk away. I watch him, not sure what to do. He’s so intriguing, so quiet, yet so evasive. The reasons my heart pounds. He’s the bad boy with the soft heart. The guy your parents don’t want you to date. The man who would protect you until his last breath.

He turns his head so he can see me over his shoulder. “You coming?”

Locking the door behind me, I hurry and catch up, having to practically run to keep up with him. My flats are much more comfortable this time, and when we get to a shady neighborhood a half a mile away, I automatically reach for his arm.

He glances down at me. “Don’t be scared.” His Adam’s apple moves slightly, and his eyes darken before he looks away from me. Again, his eyes are all over the place, looking for something or someone. I don’t know — don’t want to know — but whatever it is, I wouldn’t want it to be me.

With a quick stop, he opens the door to an old beat-up pickup truck and ushers me inside, holding my hand to help me. I get in without hesitation. Normally, I’d be skeptical of any other guy, but not him. I feel like I’ve known him my entire life. He comes around to the other side, grabs a key from under the floor mat, then climbs in and starts the big rumbly truck.

“Where are we going?”

“To fix your car.”

“How have you been?”

As he’s turning a corner, he grunts.

“Really?” I reply sarcastically. “That’s fantastic. I’ve been swell myself, thank you so much for asking.”

His lips tilt up on the side, and I sigh at how handsome he looks when he’s happy.

“You should smile more often,” I suggested.

“I didn’t smile.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Whatever.” He smiles even bigger.

I do an exaggerated raise the roof motion. “You totally did. I love it, though. Makes you look less of a criminal when you do.”

In a millisecond, the mood changes in the cab, and the small upturn of his lips has transformed into a hard line. Fuck, I’m an idiot.

I shut my mouth and look out the window. A short five minutes later, he pulls into an auto body shop and kills the engine. I hop out of the truck with him and hurry to his side since we’re in a worse neighborhood than before.

He unlocks a door and then hits some lights to illuminate the place. I stick by his side as he grabs some tools and car stuff, and then follow him back out to his truck. He sets his stuff on the bench seat between us as we climb back in, and we take off.

By the time we get back, the sun is beginning to set, and a chill is in the air when I jump down from his truck. He nods at the hood, and I unlock the door with my key fob, and then pull the lever to pop the hood.

I sit on the curb watching him work. He’s quick and confident, only stopping to grab a different tool or set something down. After about forty minutes, he slams the hood, picks up his stuff, and then tosses it back in his truck.

“Keys,” he says, holding out his greasy hand.

I toss them at him, and he leans in to start the car. He steps back and points in the general direction of my vehicle. “You should be good now.”

“Thank you.” I stand up, bend down to pick up my purse, and then turn to ask him if I can see him again, but he’s already in his truck.

The roar of the engine echoes as he pulls out of the garage, and when I blink, he’s gone.

I feel like shit for upsetting him but also infuriated and frustrated that he just left — again. So I go back to where we got his truck from, assuming it’s his house, but it’s not there. I drive to the garage, even though being alone in this neighborhood scares the shit out of me. Of course, he’s not there either.

My heart sinks and tears burn my eyes. I thought I’d never see him again, and when I do, he saves me for the second time and then takes off as if I don’t mean shit to him.

* * *

Ty

God, she’s fuckin’ pretty. With her big blue eyes and long blond hair that frames her angelic face. The freckles that dance across her angelic face make me want to kiss every one of them. Her pouty lips beg for mine. Her skin pleads for the tips of my fingers to trace every inch of it.

But I can’t. I’ll never be able to. She’s too good. Too pure. Too innocent.

I’m nothing but a liar. A thief. A hustler. A criminal … just like she said.

My world and hers don’t mix. I’m not bitter about it, not crying about the fact I’ll never get the taste of heaven. I’ll never know what purity feels like.

My life is my own, and she doesn’t belong in it. For her own good, she needs to stay far away from me and not look at me with those eyes. She wants more than just me; she looks at me and sees beyond the exterior. She burns a hole straight to my stone cold heart, and I can’t have that. She can’t distract me if I want to stay alive, or if I want my mom to stay alive. Because they will kill us.

But fuck me, Jessa makes me want to say screw it all to everything else and run away with her. Take her someplace where I can be with just her. Where it’s only us. Nobody but the two of us. No drugs, no money, no lies.

Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I can do nothing but stop someone from raping her behind a hotel and change her spark plugs. I haven’t stopped thinking about her since that night. Hell, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since the first time I laid eyes on her.

No matter what I’ve been through and no matter what’s to come, I know I’ll never feel the level of ferocity I felt at that moment I first saw it was her again.

The moment I had sat down in my seat in class all those years ago, she made her presence known to me. She stared holes into the side of my head. I thought she was looking at me because she was wondering about the new kid … but she wasn’t like everyone else. When I finally glanced at her, she didn’t look at me with disgust and repulsion.

Not like I’m the dirt poor kid whose mom taught him to steal when he was five and who lived in a car for four years.

Not the little boy who had to clean up his mom’s puke and stay up all night to make sure she didn’t die.

Not the kid going through puberty who shot a man in the knee when he tried to force his dick in my mouth.

Not the teenager who had to kill a guy when he was fucking my mother in the ass while she was passed out with a needle in her arm, then clean her up afterward and burn the guy’s body to get rid of the evidence.

Not the man who now runs drugs to keep his mom’s debt low enough so that her pimp won’t kill her.

No, Jessa doesn’t look at me like that man. She looks at me like the man who could be the daddy to her babies. The one who would hold her every night and wake up with her every day. The one who would stand out at the grill while friends and family hung out in the backyard. The guy who would bring her a puppy home as a surprise anniversary present.

I wish I could be him. But I’m not, and if I make her think I am, I’d only let her down. And I can’t have that.

Chapter 3

Jessa

22 years old

“This seat taken?” A man puts his hand on the seat across from me.

“You can have it,” I answer without looking up. I’d rather continue staring at the text on my phone and wallowing in my own misery.

“Can I sit with you?”

“No,” I snap. When I raise my head to warn him off with daggers, he holds his hands up in surrender.

Once he turns his back to me, I take another sip of my cranberry vodka. I rest my forehead on the table and allow my hair to act as a shield while I cry. My tears fall silently, and the sound of the chair sliding out and a body plopping into it makes me snap my head up.

I’m not in the mood for stupid men tonight. Assholes. Each and every one of them.

When I snap my head up, though, Ty’s green eyes bore into me from across the table. He chews on a toothpick, and like his usual MO, he doesn’t say anything.

When he raises an eyebrow at me, I snap at him. “What do you want, Ty? Gonna swoop in and save me then vanish without a fucking word again?”

“Who made you cry?”

“Why do you care?

“You know why.”

“So you can go beat him up?”

He shrugs. “Among other things.”

“Why are you here?”

Another shrug. “In the neighborhood.”

I’m not even surprised to see him anymore. He manages to just pop up like a Jack-In-The-Box. I sip my cocktail and grab my phone when another text goes off.

Del:
Don’t be a bitch.

My fingers fly furiously over the keyboard.

Me:
Fuck you, you fucking asshole. You wanna see me be a bitch, try to keep my dog away from me.

I toss my phone back on the table and then slam my drink. Ty reaches for my phone, and I don’t even try to stop him from grabbing it. His brows scrunch when he reads the words. “Who’s this prick?”

When I moved back here two years ago, I did it for the sole purpose of finishing school. I tried to tell myself that wanting to see Ty again had nothing to do with it, but after a year and a half went by with no sign of him, I finally accepted Del’s offer and went to dinner with him. “He was my boyfriend up until about two hours ago.” I wave at the waitress and hold up my empty glass. “But when I walked into his apartment and found him balls deep in his neighbor, that was the end of it.”

Ty grunts. “He’s a fuckin’ idiot.”

“Yup.”

He tosses my phone back on the table and turns his ball cap backward. “What about the dog?”

“My dog. Mine. My baby. She stayed there sometimes, and in my haste to get away earlier, I forgot to grab her since she was in a different room. When I got here, I texted him to make sure he’d be gone tomorrow so I could get
my
dog, but he’s trying to say I can’t take her.”

“I’ll get her for ya. Just tell me his address.”

Of course. Why wouldn’t he be the damn knight in shining armor again? I’m sick of talking about Del. I’d rather talk about Ty, the man I can’t stop thinking about. “Ty, what’s going on between us?”

He sighs and waits for the waitress to set down my drink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”