BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (72 page)

“What? What the hell is wrong with you?” I
gasped for breath. “I never touched either of them!” I stopped to catch my
breath, before I wheezed desperately, “You’re delusional!”

“You’re the one who is delusional! Valerie
was just upset and you took advantage of her!” I felt his weight continue to
bear down on my back as he arched himself closer. “You hurt her and for that, I
am going to hurt you.”

“No!” I insisted. “Dalilah’s a liar!”
While I spoke, I continued to try to wriggle out of the hold that he had placed
on me, but since I wasn’t too good at fighting and it seemed as though each
time I took a breath and exhaled, his weight made it even harder for me to take
another one, it was to no avail.

I was still convinced that he was crazy
and therefore, I didn’t want to yell out. I didn’t want to draw any attention
to the fact that I wasn’t alone. If he didn’t know that Valerie was here, I
wanted to keep it that way.
 
But when he
threw a hard jab to my side, it caused me to yell out involuntarily, and the
sound of that incited a terrible sense of panic inside when I heard the bedroom
door open and Valerie’s voice call my name.

Chapter
33

Valerie

I stared at the phone for a really long
time. Even though I was excited about calling my mother, I was also extremely
nervous.

This would be the first contact I had with
her since I was thrown out and I really wanted it to go well, but I wasn’t
completely sure how I was supposed to make that wish a reality.

Regardless of whether or not Shawn was
telling the truth about my mother and what exactly it was that my mother said
to him, it was still sure to be awkward. However, I knew that no matter what, I
had to try to call her, because if he was telling the truth and I didn’t call
her, she would probably think that I didn’t want to talk to her. Then again, if
he was just trying to get me to call her to break the ice, things could be made
so much worse.

I continued to look at the phone, with her
contact information glaring back at me, just waiting for me to hit send in an
effort to try and mend our broken relationship.

I sighed and thought;
Shawn would never let his mother out of his life, no matter how hard
she tried to get away.
It only took a moment to look around at the dingy
apartment where I was staying in order to prove my point.
Maybe he is just trying to get me to do the same.

Then, again, if he was being genuine with
the whole thing, it would be terrible for me to lose time with my mom because I
didn’t believe Shawn, potentially worsening the situation.

Besides, there were so many questions I
was owed an answer to and since not contacting my mom had not answered any of
them, I figured now would be as good a time as ever to get some of those
answers, even if they initially hurt.

I finally decided that anything had to be
better than not knowing. Before I could change my mind, I hit send and put the
phone to my ear.

In the split second before it rang, I
almost chickened out and hung up, but I stayed strong and kept the phone
pressed to my ear.

“Hello?” I heard my mother pick up on the
third ring and tears automatically began to fill my eyes.

“Hi, Mom…” I said cautiously, hoping that
she would be as willing to work things out with me. “I just want to start with,
I’m sorry.”

I heard her gasp and when she spoke again,
her voice was shaking slightly. “Oh thank God you are all right!”

There was a part of my soul that was
immediately relieved. I was so happy that she was at least worried about me and
that also gave merit to what Shawn was saying. With hope, I thought that maybe
he was telling the truth.

That truth would incite a lot of
questions, but I could live with that. It was the fear of the unknown and being
cut off from my family that was driving me crazy.

I smiled. “Yes, Mom…I’m all right.”

“What happened? I couldn’t get ahold of
you and Shawn told me that you were given a note from me that told you to leave
with all of your stuff packed?”

Even though I knew she couldn’t see me,
force of habit caused me to nod before I answered, “Yeah, it was really weird.”
I pulled the note out of my bag and read it back to my Mom, explaining that it
was typed, not written.

When I was finished, I could tell that she
was crying. “Valerie, I didn’t write that.” She insisted, “I might have been a
little shocked and disappointed that you had given into temptation with Shawn,
but I certainly wasn’t all that surprised and once the shock wore off, I was
going to sit down and talk to you about it, but what you did was in no way
grounds for being kicked out of the house.”

At that, I thought I heard a scuffle
outside my door, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it, since I was too
involved with the conversation with my mother.

“This doesn’t make any sense. I don’t
understand.”

“Neither do I,” my mother answered
solemnly. “And why couldn’t I get in touch with you?”

“I don’t know. My phone was on the whole
time…”

“Wait a minute Are you calling from your
phone?”

“Yes,” I answered, covering my ear from
yet another bang outside of my door. I glared at the door and wondered what
Shawn was doing out there, but paid little mind to it.

When she spoke again, my mother’s voice
was uneasy. “Valerie, I believe that someone tampered with my phone.”

I felt my heart speed up a little. “Why do
you say that?”

“Because your phone number isn’t saved
into my phone, but I am looking at your contact right now…And the number is
different.”

Wondering what could possibly be going on,
I told her, “Mom, I think you need to come over. We need to figure this out and
I don’t know how safe you are in your house. I’m getting a bad feeling.”

“Me too…” my mother said. “But I think I
am perfectly fine here. How about we meet somewhere and talk?”

“Can you come here? I think that Shawn
should be a part of this conversation too. Every little bit of input helps.”

“Okay,” she said, slightly hesitant.

With another thud and what I could have
sworn was the sound of Shawn yelling out, as though in pain, I assured my
mother quickly, “It’s just us here. Shawn’s mother is literally never home…but
he sleeps on the couch.”

“Honestly, we have far bigger issues right
now,” my mother said.

“I think we do,” I responded carefully,
now getting up and listening out of the door, hearing voices, but I couldn’t
make out what they were saying. “Hey, Mom, can I call you back with a good time
to come over?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you…” I replied, now beginning to
get worried. The sound of the voices were not pleasant and I was afraid that
something very wrong was going on outside the door. “I’ll call you back soon. I
love you.”

“I love you too. We will work this all
out, Valerie. We will get to the bottom of it, I promise.”

I smiled. “I know. It will all work
out…Bye.”

Once my mom said goodbye, I hung up the
phone and pocketed it, in case I needed it, before I carefully opened the door
and called, “Shawn? Are you okay?”

There was a surprised silence that
infected the apartment now and when his voice came back, it was mixed with
another that I also recognized.

“Get out of here, Val!” Shawn answered,
sounding as though he was short of breath and in pain.

Instead of listening to him, I made a
straight course to Shawn’s aid. But another voice broke over Shawn’s and it
stopped me in my tracks. “Valerie? Wait! Don’t listen to him. Stop…”

Hearing Zachary’s voice automatically made
me angry, but when I came out into the living room and saw the blood, as well
as the position that Zachary was holding Shawn in, I started to panic.

“Zachary, stop! Let him go!” I screamed,
glancing around for a weapon.

“You’re safe now,” Zachary answered
calmly.

“I was safe before!” I exclaimed. “Get the
hell off of him!”

As I ran toward him, fury seethed through
me. All I wanted him to do was to let go of Shawn and get out of his mother’s
house. I had no interest in hearing a word that he had to say. Still, I heard
him as he yelled over me quickly, “Dalilah told me what happened! I am so
sorry…I came to get you away from this monster!”

I still had no interest in what he had to
say and so, I continued to run at him, until I was close enough to ball up my
fist and throw my weight into a punch that actually meant something.

I heard Zachary yell out as he barreled
backward and Shawn yell as his arm was twisted even further, before Zachary had
to release him.

Shawn quickly rolled away from him and got
to his feet while I continued toward Zachary and pushed him down when he tried
to get back up. I was so angry with him, that I could hardly even see straight.
I was wild with rage and so when I raised my hand to smack him again, he
covered his head, while trying to put his hands up in surrender.

I stopped and screamed, “Get the hell out
of here!”

He looked up at me and answered, “It’s
okay. You don’t have to stay with him. You don’t have to take this from him. I
can help you.”

I glowered down at him. “What are you
talking about? I’m fine and I know that I don’t have to stay here. Did you hit
your head?”

At this, Zachary stopped and looked up at
me. “No matter what he tells you, you have a choice and you are the victim.”

I narrowed my eyes as the pieces of what
he was talking about began to take shape in my mind. “Wait a minute…Do you
think that…Shawn…that I…” I began to laugh, ignoring his confused expression.
“No! You obviously know how hard he hits. He isn’t forcing me to do anything…”
I paused, feeling slightly awkward admitting this out loud to anyone, but
especially to my ex-boyfriend; still I thought that it needed to be said.
“Every time that I had sex with Shawn, it was completely consensual. And I
loved it. So, don’t believe everything you hear.”

“But…Dalilah told me…”

“Yes, and if you knew anything about Dalilah,
you would know that she is nothing more than a lying bitch. The only abuse that
went on during the relationship between her and Shawn was from her. Shawn would
never hurt a fly.”

With almost perfect timing, Shawn ran up
and smacked Zachary so hard that it almost knocked him out.

I immediately glared at Shawn and sighed,
before looking back at a recovering Zachary. “Well, that wasn’t necessary,” I
told him flatly before I rolled my eyes.

Shawn laughed dryly. “Yeah…like hell it
wasn’t.”

Chapter
34

Shawn

Valerie might not have thought that it was
all that necessary, but I certainly did.
 
I was sure once the truth was wedged between those meathead ears of his
and he finally understood that I wasn’t about to do anything to hurt Valerie,
at least not intentionally and certainly not like that, he would understand
too. However, if he didn’t understand, I was more than happy to let him know a
second time…and this round, I would be more than ready.

After he recovered from the punch, I told
him to get the hell out and never come back, so he did.

Once he was gone, I locked the door and
turned around to meet Valerie very close to me. Before I had any time to react,
she embraced me in a hug. She grasped me tightly and rocked with me for a
moment, before she pulled away and asked frantically, “Are you okay?”

I smiled at her and even though literally
every bit of me hurt, I told her, “Yeah…I’m fine. He really didn’t hurt me.”

“What was that all about?” She glowered at
the door after Zachary.

I sighed. As much as I thought to turn her
against the asshole even more than she was already and knew that this would be
a perfect opportunity, I sighed and lamented as I replied in his defense, “I
don’t think it was him. Dalilah told him a lie and trust me, she can be very
convincing. She knows how to manipulate people and…she did it to get back at
me.” I shrugged. “She threatened to call the police, but I guess she figured
this would be easier and would leave less of a trail.”

My argument in her stupid ex-boyfriend’s
defense didn’t hold up too well with her, because she answered, “That might be
true, but he still came over here and just attacked you. He didn’t even bother
to find out the truth.”

“He was angry,” I replied, realizing that
the truth was better than trying to agree when I didn’t. “In fact, I think that
seeing him do that makes me respect him a little bit more.” I breathed a short
laugh.

“Why?” She demanded, now seeming to be
angry.

I knew then that I had completely backed
myself into a corner and I knew that expressing what I was thinking was really
the only way out of it. I looked at her with a genuine expression, wrapped my
arms tightly around her waist and sighed. “Well, because I know that if the
roles were reversed, or if I had thought anyone hurt you, I would have done the
same thing.”