Page 10 of Crucified By the Dark
“Morry, why do you do that?”
She turned to look at him and wished she hadn’t. He looked so fucking hot with his fists balled and his jaw set. He stalked toward her, and all she could think about was that she wanted to lick every square inch of him. She was messed up in the head. She blamed it on growing up with her father and four brothers, who were all army brats. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father remained single, so the growling and overbearing, dominant male was what she was used to.
Subsequently, it also became what she craved. The thought of Jeremy pushing her up against the wall was fixed securely in her mind as he stopped in front of her. Jeremy’s blue eyes snapped with anger that she didn’t understand, but damn, he could look at her like that any time. It made her feel hot in all the right places.
“Do what exactly,” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Push me away like that,” he said, his hand swinging back to point at the room they’d just left.
“I’m not pushing you away,” she said, and one of those eyebrows of his shot up as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Oh yeah? Then what exactly would you call it?”
“Keeping you at arm’s length. I don’t do hugs for support and looks of sympathy, Jeremy. I stand alone for a reason.”
His face twisted in confusion. “I’m pretty sure that is the same fucking thing. You just said it like it makes you a badass.”
“No, if I were pushing you away, it would mean I didn’t want you near me. Keeping you at arm’s length is making sure you remain on the other side of the boundary line so that our relationship stays where it should. But it’s not because I don’t want you near me. See the difference?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he growled and veered around her to march off.
Flirting and men were not exactly what she would call her strong suit. Andrew was a fun night at a bar that ended up with her pregnant. Not the best way to start a relationship, and probably why their marriage ended the way it had. She was pretty positive Jeremy was jealous or something. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Whatever it was, she wasn’t happy about it.
She was grooming him to take over as her number two and one day be the number one when she was ready to hang up her boots. So whatever this was, he needed to get his shit right, or she needed to figure out another plan.
Judd was not a good leader. He followed orders and made sure things got done, but she wasn’t stupid. The man would ruin everything she’d built. His first order of business would be to accept and fuck every woman that knocked on the door, and drink all the profits away.
Morry followed the same path Jeremy walked and pushed her way out into the bright sunshine to find him sucking face with the nurse from earlier. She ground her teeth together but turned in the other direction and marched to the Hummer. Morry slammed the door as she jumped in the driver’s seat. Firing Lady Luck up, she backed up and peeled out of the parking area, punching the dash hard before shaking out her fist.
“Fuck, I hate emotions. Bunch of useless, motherfucking things that made you weak. That was all they did, made you a weak sobbing mess that left you broken,” she snarled out.
She flew down the dirt road toward the main highway with no real direction in mind. Morry needed some distance from the safe house and Jeremy. Of course, she found her mind traveling back in time.
Her computer started to ring. She tossed her cards on the bed and rolled off to answer it. She hoped there wasn’t something wrong with Kyle because Andrew was the only one with the link to call her, and it wasn’t their designated day. She hit the answer button and was about to say hello when the screen filled with the sounds of sex like she’d flicked on a porno movie.
TK and Dean were closest and turned in her direction, smiling like she’d just put on the most exciting show on the planet. But she couldn’t quite make out what the hell she was staring at. It was too close to the screen. Her mind reeled as she tried to piece together what was going on. Had her computer been hacked? Did she somehow download a porno, and it rang?
No, none of that made sense. Even as the voices registered and Morry heard her husband say her best friend’s name, she tried to deny it. No way. Andrew wouldn’t do something like that. Sure, they had their differences, and he hadn’t been impressed that she joined the army but…to cheat.
“Yes, Andrew, right there. Fuck.”
Dean stood and came over, and TK was by her side a moment later. The couple onscreen moved farther away from the computer, and that’s when she realized that the computer had come on in error as Andrew fucked Lindsay on the desk. Morry’s hand went to her mouth as the two people came fully into view, and her stomach plummeted through the floor.
Morry tried to form words and figure out the best thing to say in this scenario, but she only had a pounding heart and rising blood pressure. She was breathing so hard that she thought she might pass out.
“What in the ever-loving fuck.” TK yelled as he slammed his hands on either side of the laptop. “You worthless piece of shit. When we get back, I’m cutting your fucking dick off.”
Andrew dropped Lindsay on the bed and spun around to stare at the three faces peering back at him. The look on his face—shock that he was caught, but zero remorse—was what she would remember forever. It wasn’t the sounds of the sex. It wasn’t the betrayal itself. It was the look that screamed as clearly as TK had that he’d never loved her.
“Fuck, Morry. It was a mistake. It’s not what it looks like,” Andrew started as he rushed for the computer, but she’d seen enough.
She’d gotten good at masking her emotions. Becoming one of the guys, whether in her male-dominated home or the army. It was an unspoken code to shove your shit down no matter your gender or what was going on in your life and live solely for God and Country. That was what she’d lived by her whole life.
She marched for the door, not really seeing it as Andrew’s face flashed before her eyes. She could hear TK yelling obscenities at her husband as she groped for the door, the need to escape the small sleeping quarters riding her.
Her hand slipped on the handle, and she could feel the emotion bubbling inside her as her shaking hands tried for the handle again. It was Dean who put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. His eyes were thankfully unreadable as he turned the knob and let her out. She ran across the open area to a quiet corner by the fence and dropped to her knees. A strangled gasp wracked her body as she clenched the dirt under her hands. There was so much pain, yet no sound came out. It seemed like it had been locked up so long that her body didn’t know how to cry properly.
“Morry, you okay,” TK asked softly as he squatted down beside her. She didn’t want to be weak in front of him, but some things left a person weak and unable to fight. “Come here,” he said and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side.
