Slingshot by K.L. Savage

“How could you?” Papa yells at me. “How could you sleep with the likes of him? He is nobody!” He slams his fist against the wall, and I flinch. I’m still wrapped in the sheets from the truck, and I pull them tighter. I can still smell Noah on the sheets, and even though he isn’t here, his scent calms me.

“I love him, Papa. You can’t change that.”

“I can’t believe what I saw.” He rubs his temples. “I never wanted to see my daughter like that.”

“You could have knocked.”

“Do not get smart with me.”

“It’s true,” I raise my voice at him, something you never do. “You don’t treat me like an adult. You treat me like a child. And we argue like that because you don’t respect what I’m saying. I’m a grown woman. I’m allowed to have sex with who I want to have sex with. You are a hypocrite. You have Nora. Who is my age. Who was just a girl in school. Was she someone rich? High status?”

“You are my daughter—”

“I am a human being. I am a woman. A woman.” I yell while holding back my anger, but it just drips from my eyes anyway. “I have feelings. I am allowed to love and feel the things you feel with Nora. I am not some…prize you can keep locked away.”

“You deserve better than a biker.”

“And Nora deserves better than you,” I say, and he flinches as if I hit him. “I’ll never forgive you for this.

“You’ll thank me later. When you have a different kind of life than the one he can give you.”

I hurry away from him, my feet patting against the floor. I pause in the middle of the hallway and look over my shoulder. “I’ll never thank you for taking away the life I always wanted. Being with him was better than any day I spend imprisoned here.” I run up the steps and pass the family portrait of us he just had made.

I’m in a white dress sitting down in a massive throne-like chair, and he’s standing behind me in an expensive suit with his hand on my shoulder. I wish I could yank it off the wall and throw it on the floor, but he has it bolted.

When I get to my room, I pull a childish antic and slam the door, locking it for good measure. I need space. I need time to think.

I know I need to shower, but I’m not ready to wash off what happened between Noah and me. On a broken breath, I fall to my bed and clutch the sheet to my chest. I’m doing my best not to cry but that all comes to an end when I see bars outside my window.

Bars.

I am in prison.

I turn my face against the pillow and sob. I unwrap the sheet and bring it to my face. I can smell him and what I smell makes me smile.

I swear I smell tacos.

And that only makes me hurt for him more. My heart has been ripped out of my chest, and Papa is to blame. I cannot believe he showed up like that, threatened Noah with a gun, manhandled me….there are so many things I am in shock about and as much as I wish I could forgive him, I can’t.

What he did was unforgivable.

What if Noah doesn’t want anything to do with me now because my Papa is too much to deal with?

A knock at the door interrupts my pity party and the metal of the knob twists in an attempt to open it.

“Go away,” I grumble, wiping my cheek on the pillow.

“It’s me,” Nora says.

“I love you, but I don’t want to talk to you right now either. You’re too close to the devil,” I spit.

Yeah, as of right now, my Papa is Satan. I don’t care if it’s dramatic of me.

“I don’t want to talk to him either. He was wrong, Natalia. He should have never done what he did. Plus, I grabbed your purse from the guard before Mateo could get his hands on your phone.

That has me lifting my head off the pillow and rethinking not answering the door as I stare at it. I could talk to Noah.

That’s enough for me to swing my legs off the bed and hurrying to the door. I unlock it and peek out the crack to make sure she’s alone.

“It’s just me,” she confirms.

I open the door wide to allow her in, close it, lock it, then flip it off for good measure. I’m not one to curse a lot, but when I do, I fucking mean it.

“Here,” she says, handing me my stuff.

So Papa and his guard had to go into the clubhouse first to look for me. My purse was on the couch.

I try to turn it on and groan. “It’s dead.” I hurry to the charger, plug it in, and then wait for the screen to automatically turn on.

“I’m so sorry. I kicked him out of our bedroom, you know. He’s in the guest room. What he did…that wasn’t okay.”

I wipe my cheek and sniffle. “I don’t know why that makes me feel better, but it does.” I’m glad Papa has to sleep alone. Now he can know how I feel.

Nora grins. “So….” she bounces on the bed. “Just a sheet, huh?”

I blush. “Papa caught us in the middle.” I slap my hand over my face and blush.

“I heard, but I don’t want to talk about Mateo. He’s on my shitlist. I want to talk about you and Noah. Give me the dirty details!” she nearly squeals. “So… was it?” She crawls up the other side of the bed and gets comfortable.

“Was it, what?”

“Too big to fit in there.” She slaps my lower belly and laughs.

I glance away, shy, not wanting to discuss my sex life with anyone.

“Oh my god.” She gets to her knees. “It was, wasn’t it? You animal. Was the sex good?”

“So good. Perfect.” I touch my throat, remembering as he wrapped his hand around it.

I think about never having that again, not having what he can give me without me even asking for it. He just…knows. He understands me. There is no apprehension, no humiliation, no doubt, and that soothes a part of me that’s more damaged than I thought.

Noah is so thoughtful, and I need that because Papa is not. He saves his thoughtfulness for Nora. I need my own love. And Papa is so consumed with the idea of me being his little girl, he has no idea how thoughtless he is truly being.

Little girls grow up to be women.

And at some point, Papa’s have to learn to let go.

“Yeah? Did you orgasm?”

“Nora,” I scold her as I grin. “That’s personal.”

“That’s a ‘fuck yes’ I did. More than once?”

“Nora!”

“Yep, more than once. Damn, girl. Good for you. I knew Slingshot was a freak. Someone that goofy always has surprises.”

“He isn’t a freak,” I snap at her. “He’s wonderful and kind. He’s smart and ambitious. He’s handsome. He’s perfect, and you don’t know him like I do.” I’m yelling at her now, falling apart all over again. “He’s not a freak. He’s….he’s mine.”

“Oh, Natalia. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.” She rushes toward me and pulls me into a hug.

“I don’t know what to do,” I mumble against her shoulder as the emotions hit me from all angles. “I love him. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I feel very raw and cut open right now.”

“I know you do. God, I’m going to kill Mateo for doing this. His temper is something else. We’ll figure out a way for you to get back to him, okay?.”

“Papa will kill Noah. He nearly did earlier.”

“Well, a few days should cool him down, but I think any father seeing his daughter getting railed is going to upset him, ya know?”

I snort and hold my hand over my mouth when I find that funny. I’m a terrible person. “Nora, I was. Completely railed and ruined.”

“Yes, girl!”

“I just hate that Papa had to see it.”

“Serves him right for not knocking. That could have been any member in that taco truck.”

I deadpan her.

She rolls her lips together and flares her nose to make a funny face. “Yeah, I guess not just anyone would be in a taco truck. Which reminds me, a taco truck? Really? Why not the bedroom?”

I sigh like a teenage girl caught in a wistful dream of the boy she’s crushing on. “Because he planned an entire night for us. I didn’t want to go out because of my bruises from Brock. It’s important to me people don’t think Noah hits me.”

“I get that,” she understands.

“But he blindfolded me—”

“—kinky,” she teases.

“Nora, listen.”

“Sorry. Okay, I’m serious.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Cora and Faye too much,” I say lightly, tapping her shoulder with mine.

“Probably.” She sits on the bed and crosses her legs. “Now, talk to me.”

I hurry back to the bed too and jump on it, snagging a pillow to hug to my chest. “There were these twinkling lights strung around and attached to the truck, a buffet of tacos, and music playing. It was so romantic. We ate and talked, and we danced.” I gasp when I remember how erotic the dancing was.

“I see the dancing led to a horizontal tango?”

“Not at first. He likes to be teased, so I didn’t wear panties.”

Nora gasps. “You minx.” She shoves my knee, grinning. “I’m glad you did that after what happened. That you got to share that with Noah.”

“Me too. I pulled away from him, teasing him, of course.”

“Duh.”

“And then it starts to rain. My dress is sticking to me, my hair, but he tells me to strip. And I listen without a fuss. I just do it, and then it started to thunder, and he pulled me to the back of the truck, which had blankets and pillows. He totally planned it.” I flop onto my back and exhale. “And the rest is history.”

“Girl, you got it bad.”

“I know I do.”

“If there’s one thing I know about the Kings, it’s that when they get serious about someone, they’re all in. He isn’t going to give up on you, Natalia. He cares about you. He’s faced men as dangerous as Mateo more than once. You think a few bars on your window, and a gun to his head will stop him? Not a chance. Nothing stops a man in love, Natalia. Nothing.”

“I hope you’re right.” The thought of living my entire life without him makes it hard to breathe.

“Listen, I love Mateo. So much. I can’t be without him, but I will say this to you, you can be without him. You don’t have to live under his thumb. He will be pissed, and he might try to capture you again, but you continue to fight for yourself and what you want. It’s okay to want more, even if, in Mateo’s eyes, you wanting Slingshot means less. You understand he feels like he’s losing you? He knows you’re growing up, but he’s afraid too.”

“He is losing me because of his actions. His choices.”

“I know,” Nora agrees. “I’m not saying understand him today or tomorrow, but I am saying you don’t stop fighting for what you want because you’re afraid you’re going to upset him. Girl, you’ve peaked at him getting mad at you. I’m pretty sure seeing his daughter have sex is at the top of the list of things to make him want to kill.” She holds her hand above her head to show the top of the list.

My phone dings and I launch myself across the bed, I forgot all about it since I was talking to Nora. “Stupid phone.” I slam it down when it says, ‘updating.’ damn thing is constantly updating. I want to talk to Noah so badly it hurts. Is he okay? He got shot. Again.

Something else to be pissed at my Papa for.

“I’m going to go talk to your dad. Just relax, okay? Take a nap. Things will work out. I’m happy for you for finding someone that makes you so happy.” She hops out of bed and vanishes out the door.

I roll out of bed, and the sheets drag behind me as I walk to the door, locking it. I really don’t want to risk Papa coming in here. He obviously doesn’t know how to knock.

Nora is right about one thing; I can’t think of this as being over. Papa can’t stop me from being with Noah.

No one can.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after being kidnapped by my uncle, nearly sold, and almost ganged raped, it’s how to defend myself.

I hope Papa is ready for the fight of his life because I am not giving up that easily.