Page 73 of Ravaged By the Dark (The Righteous 2)
Renee burst out through the main doors, her legs not able to move fast enough. Arek stood up straight and looked around, his relaxed demeanor vanishing until he saw the smile on her face. As she reached him, she leapt, wrapping her legs around his waist and crashing her lips to his. He stumbled back with the impact until they were pressed against the side of the vehicle.
She didn’t care if everyone in the world saw her kissing this man. He had just made every one of her dreams come true with a single phone call.
“Thank you.”Kiss.
“Thank you.”Kiss.
“Thank you!”
Arek laughed as she broke the kiss for the fourth time. “So things went well?”
“Oh my god, I was scared to death. I seriously thought I was going to faint. My heart was beating so fast.” She slipped down his body to stand, but her legs refused to stop shaking. “But once I got in the room and they turned on the music, all the fear washed away. It was just me and the music and….”
She stopped and looked up at Arek, her eyes shimmering with waves of emotion she couldn’t express.
“They said I need work, but that I have excellent raw talent, and they already have a few jobs they want me to audition for—can you believe this?” She twirled in a circle, her cheeks aching from smiling so hard, but she didn’t care.
“I knew you had this.”
Her face sobered, and she gave him the once over.
“You didn’t tell them to take me, did you?”
Arek raised his hands in surrender.
“Nope, I called in the favor. I did ask them to take a look at you, help give you a start, and train you if they felt you had something. But I told them to be honest with you, so if they liked you, it’s because you’re good, Renee. No other reason.” The smile returned to her face, and she had the strongest urge to drag him into the car and show him exactly how thankful she was, but that seemed a bit tacky considering the location.
“Come on.” Arek grinned. “We can grab some grub and head back so you can give J.J. the great news.”
Renee slipped into the passenger seat, unable to contain her enthusiasm on the drive back to Arek’s house. She was probably boring him to tears as she went over every single detail of the audition, but he never let it show. He even asked her questions. Little by little, she was falling for this man.
As they pulled into his driveway, Renee’s phone rang. She pulled out the cell, expecting it to be Francine, but instead, it showed her mother’s number. Her good mood slipped away as quickly as her smile.
“Who is it?”
“My mother.”
“What do you think she wants?”
Renee snorted.
“I don’t know. You never know with her. My best guess is that the bank has reached out to her about the house, and she’s probably pissed off that I put a stop-payment on the mortgage. She has some nerve if she thinks that I’m going to feel any guilt over stopping payment when she’s trying to sell it out from under me and J.J.”
“Then don’t answer it.” The phone picked that moment to stop ringing, and Renee sat there staring at it. “You don’t have to call her back,” Arek said, and she nodded, deciding not to let her mother’s call upset her.
But it started ringing again.
“Shit, give me a minute.” Renee stepped out of the car and answered the FaceTime call. It took a moment for her brain to register what she was seeing. A dark bruise covered the left side of her mother’s face, her eye was swollen shut, and blood trickled down her nose. But the gun pressed to her mother’s head and Cody holding the weapon was what made her freeze.
“Cody? What the hell is going on?” She gripped the phone until her hand hurt. She could feel Arek’s presence, his heat pressing into her from behind.
“You have been very naughty, Bambi. Very naughty indeed.” Tyson’s disturbing voice could be heard off-screen. She almost dropped the phone as her blood turned to ice water in her veins. “I told you, you’re mine. I warned you not to run, or the ones you love would pay the price, and like the spirited little animal you are, you go and run off with a stranger.”
“You don’t own me, Tyson. I’m a person, not an object. I keep telling you that—I think you are the one that is hard of hearing.” She amazed herself with the steadiness and strength in her voice. She was so sick of his bullying and mind games.
“You see, Bambi, here’s the thing. Your dear old ma here has run up quite the debt with me, to the tune of eighty-five-G.”
“Eighty-five grand! You’ve got to be kidding. Mom, tell me he’s lying?” Renee stared into her mother’s eyes, and even though the regret she saw there told her the answer, she still needed to hear the words.
