Nicolette
“Nicolette,” Jack growled. “What the fuck are you doing, huh? You dumb bitch! I told you, don’t leave the stove on!”
“Jack, I’m still cooking,” I argued. “I’m making your dinner! Would you rather I stopped?”
Jack stepped closer, his hands already balled into the telltale fists. “No,” he said. “But I wanted you to have it on the table when I got home. Didn’t I make that real fuckin’ clear when we moved in together? As soon as I get home, dinner’s on the table. That’s a fuckin’ rule, Nicolette. Don’t fuck with me!” He swung his fist back in the air and I ducked, but it caught me on the side of the head and I cried out in pain.
“Jack, I’m sorry!” I cried loudly. “Jack, I didn’t know you’d be home this early! It’s only six! Most of the time you’re not back here ‘til nine! And if I had dinner cooked early most nights, it’d be cold when you got home. What am I supposed to do?” I knew I was being bad, talking back to him like this. But sometimes I just got so frustrated. Being with someone as heated as Jack was enough to make me feel like no matter what I did, it wasn’t good enough.
“You’re walking a thin line, bitch,” Jack snarled. “I want dinner in half an hour. Any more than that and I’ll beat you so bad you won’t be able to sit down for a week. You got that, cunt?”
Miserably, I turned back towards the stove and prayed the water would boil as quickly as possible. I didn’t even understand why Jack was acting like this – after all, he was mostly indifferent to my cooking. I wasn’t that good. I knew I wasn’t that good. Mom and Dad had always favored really simple meals: egg noodle casserole, tuna melts, that kind of thing. Sometimes salmon cakes with canned salmon if Mom was feeling fancy, or during Lent.
I was making spaghetti and meatballs. When I pulled the package of ground beef out of the fridge, my hands were shaking so badly that I almost dropped it. My thoughts were racing, no matter how calm I tried to stay, I couldn’t. I kept thinking about what Jack would do to me if I ruined dinner again.
I shouldn’t have been so scared. After all, I’d been through some bad beatings. Jack beat me almost every day of the week, for reasons known only to him. It had gotten so bad that I’d had to quit my part-time job. I basically only lived as his housekeeper and cook now. Sometimes his girlfriend, at least, in front of the other Steel Gods. But Jack had taken to smacking me around in front of the men, too. I guessed it made him feel like a real man.
Just as I’d gotten the meatballs together with breadcrumbs and herbs, I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder. I spun around and Jack was standing right there. There was alcohol wafting off his breath and white powder caked on his nostril. As soon as I saw that he’d been doing coke again, I felt my heart sink.
“Bitch, where the fuck is my food?” Jack’s voice wasn’t yelling, yet, but he was close. “Where the fuck is my dinner, bitch? I told you to have it ready!”
“It hasn’t been a half-hour yet,” I replied, my voice trembling. I began to shake and shiver and closed my eyes, anticipating a fist against my cheek. “Jack, I’m trying, I’m really trying. I’m sorry!”
“Try harder, you stupid cunt,” Jack snarled. He leaned toward my face until I could feel his breath hot against my cheek. “Try harder! Do it right now!”
I turned back around to the stove and suppressed a sob as I put my hands into the bowl and began squeezing the meatballs together. My hands were shaking so badly that I dropped a clump of meat onto the floor.
I almost felt the punch before it happened. Jack socked me hard in the cheek, so hard I heard something crack in my inner ear. I let out a yelp of pain and felt myself falling to the ground. Before I could block my fall with my hands, I crashed onto my knees and cried out again. The kitchen floor was hard concrete under a thin layer of linoleum, and it felt like I’d fallen from a two-story building.
“You’re such a fucking cunt!” Jack yelled. “I do everything for you! I give you a place to live, and protection, and I take care of you! And this is how you repay me, you fucking bitch!” He kicked me and the blows started raining down on my body.
I couldn’t even count how many times he hit me – after a while, it all blurred together. “Jack, please,” I begged, curling into a ball and covering my face with my hands. “Please stop!”
Miraculously, the punches and blows stopped. I dared to breath, peeking between a crack in my fingers. My body was swollen and aching and I could feel that I’d broken a tooth. Blood was oozing down my throat, making me nauseated. Jack reached down and grabbed my shoulder. I tried to push him away but he tightened his grip and yanked me up until I was standing on my feet.
“You’re a cunt,” Jack said. He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled – he actually smiled! – at me like it was some kind of cute joke. “You know what happens to cunts?”
Painfully, I licked my lip. My jaw was throbbing and the broken tooth was cutting into the side of my mouth. It was already swollen and sore – I knew I’d probably have to have surgery, or at least have the rest of the tooth yanked by some cheap dentist.
“Answer me,” Jack growled. “What happens to cunts?”
“I don’t know,” I whimpered. “Jack, I’m sorry! Just give me ten minutes and I’ll have dinner ready for you, okay?”
Jack shook his head. “I lost my fuckin’ appetite,” he snarled. “But you’re gonna eat. Come here.”
On shaky, steady legs I walked towards him. Jack shoved me down to my knees and I yelped again as a shock of pain flooded my body. He unzipped his pants and shrugged them down to his knees. His cock was already hard, and I sighed when I realized what he wanted me to do.
“Jack, please,” I begged softly. It hurt to talk and my words sounded mushed up, like I was drunk. “I think I broke my tooth. I can’t put anything in my mouth right now.”
Jack chuckled. “Too fuckin’ bad,” he said. “I think you want to pleasure me, Nicolette. I think that’s what good little cunts do when they’ve been bad.”
My stomach sank as I wrapped my hand around his member and began to slowly pump him up and down. Jack groaned with pleasure and stepped forward. He tangled his hand in my hair and forced my head towards his cock.
When it was over, I swallowed his cum and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I expected Jack to turn around and ignore me, but instead he watched, smiling, as I stood up off the kitchen floor and brushed the dirt off my knees.
“I don’t think you’re done eating, yet,” Jack said. He grinned and I felt my stomach turn. What the fuck was he going to do to me now? Bring over the other bikers and have me blow all of them? Maybe one of them would see I had a broken tooth and tell him to quit it.
“Sit down,” Jack ordered. He grabbed me again – more roughly this time – and dragged me toward the kitchen table. As he pushed me down in a chair, I felt the air rush out of my lungs. Jack reached towards the counter and grabbed the bowl of raw hamburger meat that I had been using for meatballs. He put it in front of me. The smell of raw meat was enough to turn my stomach and I gagged, turning away and putting my face in my shoulder.
“Don’t be a bitch, Nicolette,” Jack said. He grinned again and put his hands on his hips. “I wanna make sure you get your dinner. Eat!” When I didn’t make a move for the bowl, his eyes turned dark and angry. “Eat it all, you cunt.”
With a shaking hand, I reached into the bowl and picked up a small ball of raw meat. The juices dripped over my fingers as I lifted it close to my mouth.
“Jack, please,” I begged. “I’m going to get sick! This is dangerous, Jack. Please don’t make me do this. I’m sorry I didn’t have dinner ready for you! I’m sorry! I’ll do anything! I’ll make you anything you want!”
“Eat it,” Jack thundered. “Don’t make me hit you again, you cunt. You fuckin’ hurt my hand! I ought to beat you black and blue for that!”
My skin crawled as I slowly brought the handful of raw meat to my mouth and took a nibble. My broken tooth throbbed as I chewed quickly, trying to swallow the meat before the flavor penetrated my taste buds. I gagged and coughed and almost threw it up, but managed to keep it down.
Jack stared at me, disgusted. “You’re fucking pathetic,” he said. He grabbed the bowl of meat and threw it as hard as he could. The bowl hit the wall and shattered into a thousand pieces while the huge lump of meat dropped to the floor. I felt the vomit rise in my throat and leapt out of the chair, running to the sink and throwing up.
“Help!”
“Nicolette? Nicolette? Are you okay?”
My skin was clammy with icy cold sweat and my heart was pounding. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was. I was in a small room, with a window. Then it hit me. I wasn’t in Carlsbad. I was in St. George, Utah, with Charlie. The man who had saved me.
“I had a nightmare,” I said. Before I could take a deep breath, I was hit with a wave of uncontrollable sobs.
Charlie wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “What happened?”
I bit my lip. “I was back with Jack,” I whimpered quietly into Charlie’s chest. “And he was hitting me again.” I sniffled and wiped my eyes on the sheet. “Please don’t ever let me go back there, Charlie. Please protect me. Please keep me safe from that monster!”
“Shhhh,” Charlie whispered. He stroked my damp hair with one hand and kept me close with his other arm. “You’re right here. You’re not going anywhere.”
I shifted closer. We were still naked, and I slowly began to remember that I’d fallen asleep in bed with Charlie after having sex with him. The nightmarish visuals of Jack’s angry face were still floating through my head. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, breathing in deep. Charlie’s calming, masculine scent washed over me with every breath and soon I felt my heart rate slowing.
“Just try to sleep, okay?” Charlie whispered. He slid his hand down my arm and found my fingers before squeezing them gently. “I promise, we’re safe here. Jack’s not going to find us. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I didn’t sleep very well for the rest of the night. Thankfully, I had no more horrible dreams about Jack, but I drifted in and out of a thin sleep until dawn had broken.
Charlie was gone by the time I finally woke up for good. It felt weird to be alone in his room. I’d never even stepped foot inside before the previous evening, and here I was, sprawled out in his bed like I owned the damn thing.
I pulled on my clothes and put my hair up into a messy bun. When I walked into the living room, Charlie was sitting there with a cold slice of pizza and a bottle of beer.
“Hey,” I said shortly. “I’m…I’m really sorry about last night.”
Charlie nodded. “Look, Nicolette, I’m really sorry I didn’t listen to you sooner.” He closed his eyes and balanced his slice of pizza on top of the open beer bottle. “I should have. I should’ve listened to every fuckin’ thing you ever said about Jack, but I was a stubborn asshole and I thought I knew better than you.”
I snorted. “Glad you listened,” I said. “I’d probably be dead by now if you hadn’t.” I put a hand on my belly. “And I don’t think this little nugget would be here, either.”
The silence between us felt awkward for a moment. Finally, I scooted closer and put my hand on Charlie’s shoulder.
“I want to talk to you about something,” I said slowly. “I want you to quit the Steel Gods.”
Charlie frowned. “I mean, I can’t really go back,” he said. “Jack is probably onto the fact that I ran. He’s been calling me every day, for weeks. I don’t answer, but….”
I paled. “You have to call him and tell him you’ve quit, and then do something about your phone,” I said. “He could be tracking us!”
Charlie snorted. “Babe, if he were tracking us, he would’ve found us by now.” He rolled his eyes. “I know, I know, you’re paranoid about him finding us here. But you don’t have anything to worry about! We’re safe, and everything’s gonna be okay.”
I glared at him. “I don’t think that’s true,” I said softly. “Jack could be waiting. He could be biding his time, waiting for you to leave me alone. Or waiting for me to go into the hospital, so he can fuck you up when I’m not around to call the cops.”
Charlie shook his head. “Nicolette…You’re sounding a little crazy right now,” he said softly. When he saw the look on my face, he backed down. “I mean, not crazy,” he said diplomatically. “And I know you’re afraid. But Carlsbad is hundreds of miles away. He’s not stalking us! I promise.”
I shook my head. “I don’t believe you,” I said stubbornly. “I want you to call him and tell him you’re out. Please,” I begged. “Please do this for me. I don’t want him showing up and killing you because he says you still have some kind of obligation to him! That’s not fair, Charlie.” I glared. “And you’re not going back to the Steel Gods after this baby is born. You can form your own MC, I don’t care. But I’m not ever seeing Jack again. I can’t handle it. It would kill me,” I said softly. A tear came to my eye and I wiped it away. “Please,” I added. “Please do this. Please do this for me.”