Free Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) by Laramie Briscoe Page B

this gang.” Lauren screamed, pressing her finger into his chest. Fear tightened her throat and tears streamed down her face.
    William had the audacity to smile. “We’re motorcycle enthusiasts.”
    “You are criminals – getting worse by the day,” she accused. “I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.” It had gradually been getting more and more illegal, the stakes getting higher and the risk becoming more deadly. She wanted to take her kids and run as far and as fast as she could, but she knew it would never be far enough that he couldn’t find her.
    He grabbed her around the wrist and hauled her so close their noses touched. His grip tightened until she groaned aloud and more tears spilled from her eyes. “You leave this club, and you leave alone. The kids stay with me, and that’s final. You’re not taking them.”
    She sobbed. “You can’t keep me from my kids.” The worst feeling was that she knew he could and would take them from her. There was absolutely nothing he wouldn’t do to prove his authority over her. The secret she kept so closely hidden wouldn’t even help her.
    “And you can’t keep me from mine. You need to make a decision here, wife of mine.”
    Lauren had never been so conflicted in her life. She couldn’t stand by and watch this man ruin her son, the one that was so kind hearted and climbed into her lap every night asking for a bed time story. He was the most precocious five-year-old she had ever seen.
    At the same time, she felt like she couldn’t leave, and if she tried she would be dead.
    Lauren remembered those days so clearly. At five years old she had known that he would be such a good man. The glimpses she’d seen of him throughout the years had shown her that despite all the heartache, he had grown into an amazing man. No thanks to her.
    “Mommy, look at what I did today.”
    Lauren looked up from where she stood cooking hamburgers for their dinner to see William and the kids returning from the store. “What did you do?” she grinned at the little boy who had stolen her heart.
    “Got a candy bar.”
    “How did you do that? I didn’t send any money with you.” Immediately her stomach dropped. She knew what this was, and it was the beginning that would never have an end.
    His eyes sparkled, much like his father. “I stole it, and nobody caught me. Dad said I earned my keep.”
    “You did what?” she asked, her voice calm. She was trying to keep it together – to not scream at a little boy who just wanted to make his dad proud.
    “I stoled it.”
    He was so proud and William had such a hold over him, she knew in that moment she had to leave. She couldn’t stand by and watch this little boy turn into the man that his father had become. Her heart couldn’t take it.
    The water finally warm, she adjusted it to a temperature that she could stand. Stepping in, she let it flow over her, allowing it to wash the sadness away from her body. The pain of missing her family had recently manifested itself as a physical ache, and she hoped to one day wash that pain away. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and focused on the small tasks at hand. That was the way she had lived the last twenty-seven years, putting one foot in front of the other and focusing on small tasks. At least then she felt like she had accomplished something with her life instead of failing as a mother.
    She hoped and prayed that one day she would be able to make Liam understand the reasons for what she had done. That all the pain and suffering they both had gone through had been the only solution she had seen at the time to an unforgiving problem. To a man she had been deathly afraid of. She had been witness to things that she hoped one day to forget. If she was ever lucky enough to get that second chance, she would make sure it counted and that William Walker would never have a hold over her again.

Chapter Twelve

    “T he club needs your help.”
    Denise winced as she heard Liam’s deep voice