“Ah fuck Dog, I’m not sharing with you. I don’t wanna see your hairy balls while I’m fucking her cunt,” said Tommy. This, too, caused a roar of very loud laughter and more lewd comments to flow from Tommy and his friends.
By now, Charity was shaking from extreme fear of what Tommy and his friends might do to her, in what was clearly an inebriated state of some kind. She didn’t say a word, just lay there with the blankets pulled up to her neck, listening to them as she desperately tried to think what she would do if either Tommy, or his friends, tried to attack her.
When the laughter died down, Tommy reached down and gave the blankets a yank, pulling them out of her hands and yelled, “get the fuck out of bed you cunt and go make us something to eat.” Then as quickly as they had entered, they all left the room. Tommy was the last to leave, knocking pictures off the wall as he slammed the door shut.
Chapter 1
The following morning, with surprising calmness, Charity told Thomas she was taking the day off from the restaurant saying she was tired from the late night they’d just had. Because Thomas really didn’t care about
Sweet Charity’s
, she knew he wouldn’t care whether she went to work or not. As she expected, Tommy, always wrapped up in himself, showed no signs of suspecting anything was any different this morning than any other.
As soon as he left the house for work, Charity she called her best friend. “Hi Faith, it’s me. Are you working a shift at the hospital this morning?”
“No hun. What’s up? You’re not finally taking a day off are you? I can’t believe it. Good for you!”
“Faith I need your help. Can you come over to the house as soon as possible?” she asked.
“Sure honey,” Faith answered. “Charity you don’t sound good. What’s wrong?”
“I promise I’ll tell you when you get here. Just please hurry if you can Faith,” she told her.
Fifteen minutes later, Faith was knocking at the door of Charity and Tommy’s house. When Charity answered, she looked exhausted and stressed. Faith was extremely concerned the minute she saw her. “Okay Hun, now that I’m here you need to fill me in on what’s going on. I can tell you’ve been crying and you look stressed out. I’ve never seen you like this before Charity,” she told her best friend.
Charity proceeded to fill Faith in on everything that happened last night when Tommy and his club brother’s showed up during the middle of the night. She couldn’t hold back the tears that fell, as she recalled how scared she had been that Tommy and his brothers might have raped her last night. She thanked God that he had answered her prayers and had them all leave after they ate the huge pasta dinner she had whipped up for them at 3 A.M. She told her about finding out Tommy was a member of The Red Aces MC a while back, and how she had been worrying herself about that for some time. She also told her about Tommy’s volatile temper and his threats of physical violence. When Faith asked her why she didn’t tell her before, Charity told her that she really felt that Tommy would never hurt her, until recently, when his moods seemed to be getting increasingly more unpredictable. But last night was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for her. She now knew that she needed to get out of this house and away from Tommy, before something terrible happened to her.
Faith immediately went to work helping Charity pack up all of her belongings. Fortunately, most of the things that had been left to her by her late parents, were still stored in large plastic totes in the basement. There just hadn’t been enough space in Tommy’s small house for them all. She had hated having to store these precious momentos from her life growing up with her parents, but now she was thankful she’d never been able to unpack them.
She was also very thankful that Faith, and she, both had SUV’s with fold down back seats which enabled them to load all of her things into their vehicles and be gone from Tommy’s house, all within three hours. For now, she would be able to stay at Faith’s house until she found a place of her own. Thank God she had such a good friend in Faith, she thought.
When Tommy arrived home later that evening expecting his dinner to be hot, fresh and on the table, he was surprised to walk into the house without the smell of Charity’s awesome cooking greeting him. When he walked into the kitchen, rather than a fancy table all set for dinner, he saw an empty table with an envelope sitting in the middle of it. As he opened the envelope, he found a handwritten note on some of Charity’s girlie stationary.
Tommy,
I’m sorry that things need to end this way but after last
night, I know that you and I are no longer meant to be
together. I was afraid of both you and your friends last
night and I cannot live with the threat of violence at your
or anyone else’s hands anymore. I truly did care about
you at one time Tommy, but you have changed over the
past several months and you are not the man you showed
yourself to be when we first met. I will always care about
you Tommy, and I want only the best for you, but this is the
end of our story. Please take care,
Charity
“Fucking cunt,” he yelled as her bunched the note up into a crumpled ball and threw it across the kitchen. “Always knew you thought you were too good for me,” he ground out. “End of our story...fuck! We’ll see about that Charity. We’ll just fucking see about that!”
Chapter 2
Six months later
After Charity finished unpacking the last box of her belongings and storing the flattened box in her storage closet, she plunked herself down onto her new sofa and smiled to herself. She felt so good with the direction her life was now taking since she had broken things off with Tommy. She had spent the time since she moved out of Tommy’s house, living with her best friend Faith and it was like having one slumber party, after the next. They had so much fun living together and if it wasn’t for the fact that Faith’s condo was so small and that she worked shift work at the hospital, Charity would likely still be living there. It was time though to give her friend back her space and her privacy.
Truth be told, she was happy to have a place all her own once again. One that she could decorate the way she wanted, have her friends over whenever she wanted, and just in general do whatever suited just her. Living with Tommy had been so stressful on her, never knowing when he would be in a bad mood and threaten her, always living to please him. All the time, making meals on his schedule, with little concern for what she wanted to do. The list could go on. It wasn’t until she had moved out, that she realized the strain living with him had caused. Never again would she have to worry about him and his Red Aces brothers showing up and terrorizing her during the middle of the night.
This new house was tiny, only two bedrooms, but it was so cute. It was a single story in a charming older part of town and it was close to downtown and
Sweet Charity’s
. It was also armed with a good security system so that she could feel safe without worrying, should Tommy try to contact her now that she was once again living on her own. She didn’t really think that, after all of this time, she would ever hear from him again, but just in case she wanted to be safe.
During the past several months, the renovations on
Sweet Charity’s
had also been completed, and she had just opened for business in the new location a week ago. She was due to have her grand opening in another week, and she was so excited. Her contractor, Jackson, and his team had done such a beautiful job on the renovations of the old library building, maintaining so much of its original features and charm. Jackson appreciated the exposed brick and roughly hewn wood beams every bit as much as she did, and he constantly asked for her input as the work was under way, making sure that she was happy with the outcome. He ensured that the new modern decor only complemented the historical building’s interior and exterior. Charity absolutely loved the new
Sweet
Charity’s
.
It had become a daily routine for Charity to leave
Sweet Charity’s
former location next door after closing, only to bring Jackson and the guys special treats for their afternoon break. She would spend an hour or so talking with Jackson about the morning’s progress and what was on the agenda for the afternoon. She had also spent a couple of weekends helping him paint the inside of the new location. She enjoyed spending time with Jackson and they always found something new to talk about, developing a good friendship along the way. She was going to miss seeing him every day, now that the work was complete and the new
Sweet Charity’s
was open for business.
During the time they had worked together, he continued to treat her with respect and, although she couldn’t have asked for a better friend, she secretly wished for more. Her attraction to Jackson was strong, but since that day in his office, when they had been reviewing the plans for the work to be done on the restaurant, when she thought that he might have wanted to kiss her, Jackson McKay had been a perfect gentleman, always professional. Despite this, she still continued to dream and fantasize about him, and on more than the one occasion, she had brought herself to orgasm just thinking about him.
Working as part of the crew completing the renovations at
Sweet
Charity’s
, were two of The Black Maverick’s prospects Rocker and Rebel. They were both good young guys that Jackson felt would make great full patch members, once they had paid their dues. They weren’t immune to Charity’s charms, and they also weren’t blind to the fact that Jackson was very into her. They were her biggest champions and quite frankly, had no idea why Jackson hadn’t put some serious moves on her already.
If Jackson didn’t already love these two young prospects as brothers, he would have fired their asses for the ribbing they gave him over Charity. Jackson explained, on more than one occasion, his reasons for not pursuing Charity were that: one, she had a boyfriend even though he was slime, he was still her boyfriend; and two, he believed that despite personal feelings, you should try to maintain a level of professionalism with your clients. Doing so, might have been killing him, and he may have headed home at the end of many days only to jerk off to the many images of Charity ingrained in his brain, but he was determined to wait until Charity moved on from Tommy, before he let her know how he felt about her. He really didn’t know what it was about this beautiful woman that made him give her the space to decide she didn’t want Tommy in her life, but he respected her far too much to pressure her into, or out of, any relationship.
Chapter 3
Jackson distractedly took a seat at the lunch counter at
Sweet Charity’s
restaurant. He couldn’t help the feeling of pride that came every time he walked through the door, knowing that his company, McKay Construction, had completed the renovations for the expansion of
Sweet
Charity’s
. When the space next door to the small cafe became available, and Charity decided to expand her business to the existing cozy surroundings, Jackson really wanted the opportunity to take on the job. He had always loved this old building when he was a kid, and fondly remembered his grade school class would come to the library for field trips. He loved the architecture with its high ceilings, complimented with high transom windows, and he really wanted to be the one to bring new life to this old building that had sat empty for several years now. He had even considered buying it and moving his contracting office here. To his surprise when he was about to make a move and put in an offer, a sold sign went up in the front window.