Little did I know just what that trouble was and what it would bring.
Chapter One
Brielle
Present Day
“You stupid bitch. Open the fuck up,” Titus, my ex-boyfriend and the father to my boys calls out as he slams a fist on the door.
How did he find me?
I escaped him nearly a year and a half ago and I figured Marcus, Micah and I would finally be okay. I guess I was wrong because he’s out there banging on my door.
Even though I hadn’t been with Titus since the boys were born ten years ago when I was seventeen, he’s controlled my life. To him I was nothing but a possession that he wanted to control. Every time I’ve tried to escape his hold on me, he always found me and brought me back.
This last time I escaped I’d thought I’d been smart about it. I ran taking the boys with me, like I always have, in an attempt to give them a better life. Titus left to handle business for his uncle, Louis Pelletier, leader of one of the most profound gangs back home. The Péché Mortel also known as the Deadly Sinners. Titus is Louis’ right hand man so when he’d been sent to go handle whatever it was he did, I packed up the boys, ran to my best friends who had her cousin, Ice and his club the Toxic Warriors MC help me. They’d made sure to cover my tracks and for the last six months I’d been able to stay in one place with my boys.
I’d even been able to relax somewhat with Micah and Marcus being out of my sight. Well not completely out of my sight but next door when the hottie neighbor is out there. For some reason my boys love going over there and sitting with him on the porch or watching him work on something in the yard or his bike.
I’ve yet to speak to him. Probably out of fear. He’s a big guy and the last guy I’d been with pretty much kept me captive for years. Stupid mistake going for the bad boy my senior year in high school. I’d luckily managed to finish school before the twins were born. If not for the school having had their classes set up to do certain courses the first semester and another set of courses the second semester, I’d have been screwed. The way it was, I’d graduated right before they were born.
Now Titus is banging on my front door, I wish Ryder, my neighbor, I’d learned his name from Marcus and Micah, was home. If he were, I might have been able to slip out the back door and make it to his house without Titus seeing me.
“Won’t tell you again, Brielle. Open the damn door or I’ll break it down,” Titus shouts and right now I’m grateful to have put the boys in school. At least there, I know they’re safe eight hours a day.
Taking a deep breath, I think of what my options are as Titus’ pounding on the door becomes relentless. Open the door, have Titus get his hands on me or make it out the back door and hopefully to my car without him seeing me.
Mind made up, I grab my keys and the burner phone I’d kept by the back door just as the front door is kicked in and Titus spots me. A wicked smirk crosses his features, “You think you’ll make it out that door?”
My fingers begin to tremble clutching the keys and phone in my hand.
I grip the doorknob tightly in my hand at the same time keeping my gaze focused on Titus.
“Uh, Brielle?” he chuckles.
“P–Pl–Please leave us alone, Titus,” I plead, tears choking me.
“Not happenin’, ma vilaine. You belong to me Brielle, so do those boys, granted I could give a rat’s ass about them. But they are the only thing I have as leverage over you to keep you in check. Now come here like the good putain you are,” Titus snickers, wagging a finger between the two of us.
Gripping the handle on the door tighter, I release a shuttered breath and flip the phone in my hand open and press the one key that is programmed into the phone. I put everything down on the counter and move toward Titus. I don’t want to, but I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my boys.
Marcus and Micah are the only two people in this world I give a damn about, and I’ll die protecting them from the man who helped create them.
Chuckling, Titus snatches ahold of my left arm the instant I’m within reaching distance. “You have caused me quite a bit of trouble, ma vilaine. I want nothing more than to put you out of your misery, unfortunately it seems you have protection wrapped around you this time. Meaning I can’t kill you right now. Not without causing a war between us and the fuckers you decided to gain help from. Doesn’t mean I won’t teach you a lesson.”
The first impact of Titus’ hand against my face has me seeing stars as I cry out. I’d have fallen to the floor if it wasn’t for the grip he still had on my one arm.
“Stupide move, Brielle, thinking I wouldn’t find you. You screwed up when you put those two fuckers in school.” I know I shouldn’t have but damnit they need an education and to be able to be around kids their own age.
Titus releases his hold on my arm as another slap of the back of his hand meets the side of my face. This time I stumble backwards into the counter. He doesn’t say anything else
