HIS: Book 1 in the HIS trilogy Read online

  "Ernie stop it." Winnie warned playfully, "I don't even know him."

  Placing the dishes in the sink filled with soapy water she quickly washed her hands and dried them before giving Ernie a fake warning look and heading back out to her final customer of the night.

  Walking back out she quickly hurried to the door to flip the sign to closed to prevent anymore last minute stranglers entering.

  Then she made her way back to the counter where her last customer sat.

  Taking a deep soothing breath she went to him pen and paper in hand.

  "Can I get you something to drink?" she asked; looking into his eyes and for the first.

  Winnie felt her world tilt... his eyes were gorgeous and mercurial.

  A weird greyish color they seemed to be staring into her soul looking for all her deeply leashed secrets.

  "Coffee...black." his voice was deep with a sexy melodic tone and hinted at an accent, British it seemed.

  How did a guy whose father ran a biker gang in Alabama have a son who sported a British accent.

  "Okay." Winnie sat her pen and paper down on the counter in between them and made her way over to the coffee maker.

  Emptying out the old cold coffee she set about making a half of a pot just for him.

  After the coffee brewed she removed the carafe and filled one of the restaurant cups with the hot bitter liquid.

  Setting the cup down in front of him she reached down under the counter and placed a menu down in front of him and asked if he needed a minute.

  "No I am not hungry I just came here for the coffee and the entertainment.

  Winnie was confused at this, "Entertainment?" she asked.

  "Yes, you seem very entertaining to me... especially when you talk your thoughts out loud and assume no one but you can hear them." he took a sip of coffee a smile on his lips as he did so and his eyes never leaving her face.

  Blushing Winnie shook her head in agreement.

  She was glad he found it amusing rather than be offended, amused he was not complaining to her boss and getting her fired for her rude comment.

  Turning to tell Ernie he could clean up the grill now she was stopped by a hand on her wrist,

  "Did I say you could go." his voice was deep and sounded menacing.

  Ice went through Winnie's veins as she turned back to Jax.

  "Let go of my wrist please." Winnie asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  "I said no to the food but I still need my entertainment." Releasing her wrist he held his hands up palm up fingers wide in a I am no longer a threat manner.

  "What do you want?" Winnie asked Jax.

  He smirked before lowering his right hand back down to his coffee cup his left hand however reached out towards her and snared a stray piece of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail earlier

  "I just wanted to talk... so will you talk to me pretty girl?"

  Even though he asked she knew he was not really asking her.

  "Yeah sure what do you want to talk about?", she asked stepping back out of his reach.

  The strand of hair he had twined around his finger slowly unraveled from his finger.

  At first he was quite, almost like he was ignoring the question but then he shifted a little on the barstool he leaned back some and looked her over from head to toe.

  "Why don't we start with who's been working you over?" He smirked like it was a joke, like someone being worked over was funny to him.

  Not wanting Ernie to hear their conversation Winnie tried her best to appear nonchalant as she shook her head in denial.

  "I don't know what you're talking about." she said.

  She felt so many conflicting emotions; the biggest admittedly was fear, fear that somehow her stepfather would hear about this conversation and kill her for talking to someone, yes she was definitely afraid but a part of her was screaming inside of her head for her to talk to him to tell him everything and pray he would help her, in the end though fear over ran the hope that someone might save her so she kept denying her nightmare for the sake of making it to her eighteenth birthday.

  Finishing his coffee in one single gulp he placed the cup back on the counter.

  Digging in his back pocket he removed a chained black wallet he then yanked out a twenty dollar bill.

  He threw it on the countertop; replacing his wallet he mumbled Keep the rest before he headed back to the door.

  Right as he pushed the door open and as he was still looking outside at the others from his gang who were apparently waiting on him he spoke.

  "I started noticing about two months ago, the random limping, the slight hesitation before you made certain movements, and the heavy poorly done make up days when you were trying to cover up bruises... Up until then I was like the rest of them too caught up with my own shit to notice." Turning to face her he smiled, it was neither a pleased smile or a conspiring one...it was kinda of knowing.

  "It was when you were going home and you went to remove your apron I noticed you couldn't reach back for the ties, you had tears in your eyes so I reached over and slipped the string loose myself...you never noticed but since then I promise I have not been so blind I been paying lots of attention and I have decided to play white knight. A novelty for me but not a free act for you."

  He went to exit but Winnie for all her fear couldn't let him leave without answers.

  "What price?" She asked her voice trembling.

  "Entertainment luv. You're going to become my own personal entertainment."

  Chapter 3

  Winifred had spent the next two days nervous and on edge.

  She was only half afraid that Jax would show up and do exactly as he warned her.

  He said he would play the white knight but at a cost, what cost?

  Her real fear was centered on her Stepfather Mark, the man was insane and out of control.

  He had lost his temper with Winifred's mother the night before and unleashed a whole new level of pain on Winifred's body.

  Her mother had forgot to pay the light bill so when he came home the house was dark, his food had not been cooked, and his beer was hot.

  Her mother of course played the I am a simpleton and it's not my fault card leaving only one other person in the house to shoulder the blame; Winifred.

  Mark had roared in rage before he slammed Winnie's head into the wall effectively sending Winifred into the dark.

  When she woke up she had a broken arm, bruised ribs, and a bloodied eye that was swollen.

  Sitting in that hospital bed she feared what would happen when her mother came to take her home, she knew Mark would be pissed at her for being so weak that she required a hospital thus putting him under heat and forcing him to hold back on his beatings for a few weeks.

  Mark hated to cage the monster within and it made him a hellish beast when he first really let it loose.

  Winnie was sitting pensively on her hospital bed; hands folded in her lap when her mother walked in and for the first time ever she didn't appear perfectly poised.

  No her mother had a black eye of her own.

  "Mom what happened?" Winifred squeaked out.

  Her mother shook her head and looked about the room nervously paying close attention to the chair situated at Winnie's bedside.

  Winifred glanced at the chair half expecting to find someone sitting there because of her mother's reaction.

  No one was there of course, brows now drawn together in concern Winifred feared her step-father was in the building somewhere and had done that to her mother because she had taken Winifred to the hospital.

  "Mom did Mark hurt you?" Winifred asked, her voice was pleading; she needed answers.

  Her mother shook her head again before clutching her purse close to her chest.

  "No Mark is not to be blamed for these bruises." her curt and sharp answer made Winifred's own hackles rise.

  She had asked out of concern and her mother had thrown her concern back with an unspoken order to not tell on Mark.

/>   Grinding her teeth in an attempt to regain control of her temper Winifred snapped back a response of her own.

  "I am done protecting that ass, I can't take much more of this." Winifred's voice came out as pleading; pleading for her mother to finally smarten up and save them both.

  "I am not protecting Mark, Winifred Marie I was not lying when I said Mark had nothing to do with the bruises that cover me."

  Winifred took note of her mother's words this time; bruises she said but Winifred only saw the one.

  "What other bruises." she asked.

  Lifting her shirt Winifred's mother showed the large black bruise covering her ribs then she pulled her shirt back down before she lifted the sleeve that covered her right arm.

  "Well if it was not Mark who was it?" Winifred asked.

  Her mother snorted a most unladylike noise that Winifred never thought to hear her mother make.

  "You tell me Winifred; you tell me about the boy. He said he was yours after all."

  Winifred frowned, who could it be? She had no one who could say they were her's, it was such a personal way for them to say such a thing.

  "I don't know who your talking about mom. What did he look like?"

  Her mother's eyes flared in anger.

  "Are there so many Winifred; can you not recall the names of all your lovers."

  "MOM I am a virgin and you know it, now what did he look like?" her voice was as cold as ice but she didn't care she wanted answers and no more of her mother's insults.

  Sitting her purse on the floor next to the chair her mother crossed her arms over her chest a defensive action.

  "He was tall and he had these tattoo's on his left arm hideous things..." she paused as she tried to bring up more details, "he had a British accent but the worst part was the rest of them... he was not alone there were several men with him all of them on motorcycles and covered in tattoos." her mother finished on that note before she shuttered.

  It was Jaxxon, her mother claimed Jax had done this to her mother why?

  The most important detail though was why Jax had told her mother that he was Winifred's.

  Winifred felt a small smile cover her lips he had played the white knight as promised.

  "Mom start from the beginning why did Jax do that to you?" she asked.

  "He didn't it was this big goon with him that man handled me." her mother began.

  "Right after you passed out Mark just went blind with his anger; you know he can't help it that's just how he is, he just kept hitting you until you were covered in blood and I was so scared you might bleed to death right there in our living room..." she paused there to add, "can you imagine what the neighbors would think of us had you DIED in our living room." it was a statement not a question.

  Winifred felt her heart break when she didn't think it could be broken anymore.

  Her mother was the heartless one, a heartless thoughtless bitch.

  "Then I rushed you out into the car and brought you here. They took you back immediately so I was forced to sit out in that hideous waiting room with all those disgusting sick people. Well I had not been there long when that Jax you spoke of came barging in demanding to know about your condition and to my surprise they told him...that's against the law you know, then he turned to me and demanded I follow him outside for a "Word" I had no intention of following but this big bearded goon just picked me up and carried me outside." shaking her head in anger Winifred's mother made her was over to the window.

  Her arms still crossed she continued with Winifred hanging on her every word.

  "That bastard was holding me so tight he bruised my ribs and my arm, granted I was not going to make it easy on them to carry me off where they might possibly to kill me but he was so... oh he was a nasty booger, then that Jax demanded I tell him what happened well I had to protect Mark so I told him you fell down the stairs but he called me a liar and then his goon smacked me so hard he nearly knocked my head off my shoulders... I can't believe your hanging around with such scum now Winifred that man HIT a woman what kind of man does that?" she asked.

  Winifred glared at her mother and held her hands up before moving them down to indicate her own body in a way that said hello look at me your man did this.

  "Continue." Winifred demanded.

  "Well then I told them out of fear and they went to our house. Mark had been asleep in our bed. They didn't even knock they just plowed the door down and rushed Mark... he didn't stand a chance that Jax nearly beat him half to death... Marks two doors down." she paused getting choked up over her wounded husband, but what about her daughter a daughter who had never seen her mother choked up over her while she sat in a hospital bed beaten and broken.

  "They left and I called the police but the cops claimed they could do nothing, NOTHING. They said that my brain had overloaded and was confused by so much tragedy that I must have misinterpreted that Jax and his hoodlum friends. They said that Jax was helping me instead of attacking Mark, that the true attackers had gotten away. The cops covered for them. Well anyways I came to the hospital with Mark and after seeing him taken care of I came here to check on you only to find that horrible young man sitting in your bedside chair. The minute he saw me he yelled at me and Winifred he made me leave you he wouldn't even let me see you."

  Her mother finally seemed slightly concerned for her but Winifred didn't care anymore she had a bigger worry on her mind now.

  Jax had said he would play the white knight but that it would come with a cost... what cost would she be forced to pay?

  Chapter 4

  It was close to midnight and the random sound of shoes shuffling in the halls and the comforting beep of the monitors was all that filled the atmosphere of the hospital.

  Winifred didn't know why she was lying there awake, of course the pain in her body didn't help, but her mind would not settle enough for her to sleep.

  For as long as she could remember her life while tragic had a steady rhythm that now was no longer present.

  What would the coming days bring, what would Mark be like when he was released?

  The big question plaguing her was Jax, what would he want; if he truly wanted anything.

  Closing her eyes and forcing her mind to calm as much as possible she did her best to sleep but after thirty minutes passed with no luck she hit the red button on her bed rail to call for the nurse.

  Laura was the nurse on call; a twenty two year old mother of three with the sweetest heart.

  It took maybe five minutes for Laura to pull open her curtain and step into her room.

  "Yes Winifred sweetie, what can I do for you?" Laura asked her smile on high beam.

  "I know I said no more meds but I am in agony," Winifred indicated her ribs, "and these babies are screaming at me for relief so can I go ahead and get that pain shot and the pill to help me sleep you offered?" Winifred's smile was weak and strained.

  Laura smile got even bigger, brighter if that was possible.

  "Yes baby I will be back real quick like." Laura turned and headed back out the room drawing the curtain back together in her wake.

  The sound of her soft sole shoes squeaking down the hall a strange comfort to Winifred.

  Winifred was turning on her side to try and find a less painful position to lay in when she heard the sound of her curtains rustling, looking up she was expecting to see Laura and her bright smile but the person standing before her was anything but bright.

  Jax stood before her in his black leather jacket over his black t-shirt.

  On his feet were his black biker boots full of leather and metal and his jeans were a pair of diesel washed material that cling to his muscular thighs and outlined his impressive package.

  "Well if you can check me out like that then obviously that viscous cut over your eye hasn't in fact tarnished your eyesight." his voice was deep and heavy in the silence of the hospital.

  He removed his jacket and placed it gently over the bedside chair before flopping down on the fold out co
uch near the window.

  "You can't be here this late Jax...its past visiting hours." Winifred's voice was barely a whisper in the dark.

  He was now palming the TV remote she had placed on her small table earlier, Winifred hadn't even seen him move to grab it so she was surprised when the bright light from the TV filled the darken room.