Page 118 of The Promise Of Rain

He scoffed.

I roared.“Do you fucking hear me?”

Jenny cried out behind me.

He held up his palms.“I hear you.I hear you.”

I sprang up to my feet as he backed up to the door and followed him out.Once he cleared the door, I spun the lock and walked slowly back to Jenny.

She ran past me, straight out into the rain.

23

Soft

Jenny

I barely had a half a second to register the bleak look on Deacon’s face as I ran past him, but it punched me in the gut just the same.

My heart urged me to throw caution to the wind and launch myself into his arms, but the rest of me desperately wanted to run away.

And I was thankful he didn’t try to stop me.

Sobbing, I ran around the back where the steps led up to my apartment, then flew past them, unable to wait to get into the shower.Viciously yanking my hair away from my neck, I exposed my skin to the rain.I scrubbed the spot on my neck where that man’s slimy mouth touched me but only managed to transfer his touch to my hand.

Moaning, I wiped my fingers off on my dress, contaminating that as well before going back to scrub my neck some more.

What was I thinking putting on a pretty dress?

My stomach churned at how easily he could have taken what he wanted.

Adam didn’t see me as a person deserving of basic decency and respect.He was so many of my mother’s boyfriends.

How many of them had tried to grope me over the years?

Some of them before I even reached my teens.

It never mattered what I wanted, what I said, how far I ran.

I always had to go back.

One thing my mother had done right, at least until I turned eighteen, was protect me from those men.As soon as they tried, she gave them the boot.

But at eighteen?

I became competition.

I stopped at the back of the lot and wrapped my arms around my torso.

I tipped my head back, a silent scream scorching my throat as I let the rain lash away the tears on my face.

Was Deacon the rest of her boyfriends?Explosive anger and swinging fists coming out of nowhere?

It took him less than a minute to leave Adam bleeding on the floor, and Adam was a large man.

What could he do to me?

I shivered and it wasn’t from the cold.