Family Comes First

Chapter 18: Clarifying the Truth

Breathing became harder and harder as Tommy's hand slid higher up over my mouth. His hand was soon covering my nose too. My chest was burning as I tried to gasp for air. I grabbed Tommy's hand and tried to pull it down. Tommy was distracted as his hands continued to rub up and down my thighs. I curled my fingers around his and dug my nails as deep as I could into his skin.

Tommy gasped in pain, and he slid his hand down to my chin. He grabbed my face and turned my head at a painful angle so that I was looking up at him. I had no idea why he would do that. I had the blindfold on and could not see.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I couldn't breathe," I said.

Tommy grunted. He threw my head back so that I was looking straight ahead. He rested his chin on my shoulder and his hand went back to my thigh. He slid it up and until he was under the material of my dress.

"Jimmy would be so angry with me if I killed you," he said.

He started to move his hand up higher. My lips trembled, and I prayed that the officer would leave soon. I didn't know how far Tommy would go and I was terrified to find out.

"He would be angry if he knew what we were doing right now," Tommy whispered. He moved his hand up higher so that he was touching my hip. "So you're not going to tell him, are you? He'd be angry at me for touching you and he'd be angry at you for letting me touch you. You don't want him to be jealous, do you?"

My body was shaking as I shook my head from side to side. More tears were rolling down my cheeks. Jimmy would be furious if he knew this was happening. I did not want to be punished again.

"You better not," he said before planting a kiss on the side of my head.

The door opened and my heart pounded in my chest. Tommy quickly drew his hands out from under my dress and let me go.

"He's gone now," Charles yelled down the stairs.

Tommy grabbed my elbows and pulled me up onto my feet. My knees buckled.

"Remember what I said," Tommy warned me.

I nodded my head and that sharp pain returned to my stomach. He had thrown me over his shoulder again and carried me up the stairs. When my feet were back on the ground, I heard the basement door click shut. My blindfold was taken off and I blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision.

Jimmy was standing in front of me. I threw my arms around his waist. I nuzzled my face in his chest and tried to forget about everything Tommy just did to me. Jimmy rubbed my back with one hand, and he put his other hand on the back of my head. I tried my hardest not to cry. Tommy wanted to see me completely lose it, and that was not going to happen.

"It's alright," Jimmy said. "It's all done now."

I shook my head. This wasn't over. I had to spend the rest of my life in this house with Tommy. I thought back to what Jimmy told me last night about our future. I wanted that house down the street, so that I would be away from Tommy/ I really did need Jimmy to protect me.

"Let's go upstairs," Jimmy said.

His hands slid down my arms as he tried to push me away from him. He laced his fingers through mine and we went up to our room. As soon as he closed the door, I let go of all the tears I was holding back and sobbed. Jimmy snaked an arm around my waist and made me sit down on the bed next to him.

"It's alright, Julie," he said. "They weren't here for you. The corner store a couple of streets away was robbed, and they wanted to know if we saw anything."