Read Online Hawk by Abigail Graham - Free Book Online Page B

like jelly. I pulled it to my side and threw myself at his legs, hit him, and he went down on top of me. His fist hit my nose and blood splattered on my face, thick and hot, and filled my mouth with the coppery taste of my own blood. He grabbed my head, pulled, shoved it against he floor. I twisted out of the way and his fist barely missed my face in another ringing blow. I yanked my leg up and drove my knee between his legs and got him right in the balls.
    He howled, rolled off me, but recovered. I kicked at him and went for the door, fell as my leg went out from under me, got up again. Lance was standing at the top of the stairs.
    My father stepped out of the office and kicked me in the ribs. Something popped as I smashed against the far wall and fell, clutching my stomach, trying to breathe. He kicked me again, his foot hitting me under my ribs. It hurt like nothing I'd ever felt before. Not even the time I broke my ankle at the swimming hole and had to lean on Alexis to walk back to town. Lance was still standing there, watching.
    My father looked up at him.
    "Go to your room and close the door."
    Lance stumbled backwards and disappeared.
    "Help me," I called after him, "Call somebody!"
    My father took me by the collar in one hand, by the belt in the other, and threw me. I didn't even know he was that strong. I went up, and for a sickening moment I was in the air, then came down on top of the massive slab of a mahogany coffee table in the living room. In movies, tables break when you hit them. In real life, the table breaks you. I though the pain was bad before, but it was otherworldly. I started to roll off and he finished the job with his foot.
    I tried to get up, but I just laid on my side while he kicked me in the stomach again and again and again until I wretched and loosed a burning hot wad of vomit onto the floor.
    Then, very calmly, he took out his phone. I could barely understand what he was saying.
    Four men came to the house and walked inside, and didn't say a word.
    I remember two of them. One was enormous, like a gorilla in a business suit, his arms like overstuffed sausages in the sleeves. The other was tall, skinny, and he was a goddamn cop . They picked me up by the arms and dragged me outside, my feet sliding over the gravel in the back yard, and lifted me into the bed, and not gently. It hurt like hell when the metal rails in the bed of the truck hit my side. The other two were Amish , I thought, except one was driving the truck.
    My father talked to the men alone, then walked over to the bed and stood over me, looking down, the sun behind his head. He was like a great, wavering shadow.
    "Listen to me very carefully," he said.
    "Fuck, you," I choked out.
    "Are you picking up your little girlfriend tonight, or is she coming here?"
    I froze, icy terror in my chest, spreading down my limbs. Oh God, Alex.
    "She's not, she's…"
    "Shut up. This is the deal, Howard. These men are going to take you away. There you’ll stay, and you won’t come back here. You won’t call, write, email, text. You’ll have no contact with anyone from Paradise Falls, that annoying little cunt included. Do you understand?"
    I stared up at him and wheezed.
    "If you do, I'll have half a dozen men fuck her to death and leave her in a ditch. Are we clear?"
    "Where… where…" I choked out.
    "Anywhere but here, Howard. Anywhere but here. You stay away, she'll be just fine. You don't, and I'll make sure you see her before you join her."
    He slammed the tailgate shut. Two or three of them got in the truck, I can't remember.
    They drove to Philadelphia like that. I was in hell. Every bump carved new trails of agony through my body. By the time we got there, I thought I was going to die.
    It was the cop who dropped the tailgate. I didn't know where I was, beyond Philadelphia.
    I passed out while they were carrying me.
    When I woke up laying on a mattress on a cheap, rickety metal bed, I had nothing but my bloodied, stained clothes, and