Free Bisexual: Desired by the Tigers: Bisexual Menage Romantic Suspense (Menage, Shifters, Tiger, Romantic Suspense, Romance, Short Story) by Summer Cooper

him. Maybe a little time in jail would have scared him straight. She sighed and closed her eyes, she just couldn't do that to him. If only she didn’t care so much maybe she could do the right thing. She just couldn't seem to stop caring.
    The cops fed her while they were taking her statement. The tall brown haired officer who brought the food said she looked as if she was about to fall over from hunger. He wasn't far wrong. She hadn't left Axel's side while he was recovering. She hadn't really slept or eaten for more than two days now.
    "Why didn't you go to the cops when this guy turned bad?" asked the interrogating officer. "They've got good cops in the city."
    "He would have killed me," she said. "It was easier just to leave town. I didn't think he knew where I was from. I was wrong."
    She sat in the interrogation room for a long time after she gave her statement. Finally, the two men who'd questioned her came back in.
    "The City PD raided his house. What they found matched what you said, so we're letting you go. I expect you'll have to testify."
    Julie nodded and they led her out to the waiting room. Her mother and father were there, waiting for her. Julie and her mother burst into tears. Her father said "None of that," in an especially kind tone and took them home.
    Julie spent a couple of days just eating and sleeping, until one day she woke and finally felt normal. She went downstairs to the kitchen where her mother was drinking a cup of coffee and talking to the dog.
    "Well you look much better," her mom said. "How about some coffee cake?"
    Coffee cake was her mother's food of choice when she wanted to discuss something. Julie sighed inwardly, she wasn't in the mood for a lecture, but she sat obediently.
    "Mom," Julie said when her mother set the cake and coffee in front of her. "I think I want to go to college."
    "Oh thank God," her mother said. "I've been so worried about what would happen to you. What will you study?"
    "I was thinking maybe law, so I could help women like me." She saw the frown on her mother's face and forged on. "You know. Women who are abused and don't know how to get out of bad situations. But I'm just going to start by going to community college and seeing where it takes me - education wise. I don't plan on moving out of here again for a long while."
    Her mother smiled. "I think that is a lovely start, Julie," she said. "Go to college and meet some nice normal people. Your father will like that."
    After breakfast, Julie told her mother that she was going down to the community college to see about registering. She felt guilty as she pulled the mini-van out onto the street. She was going to the college, she hadn't lied about that, but she also should have told her mom that she was going to look for Axel. She wanted to thank him and tell him good-bye. She still really liked him, in fact she thought she was probably in love with him, but she couldn't live that life. She couldn't spend her life running from the law and seeing Axel get beaten up by rival gangs.
    Julie couldn’t tell her mother that. There was no way she'd understand Julie's need to see Axel. She wouldn’t understand her need to have closure.  Julie kept an eye out for Axel as she drove through the town and onto the highway, but she didn't see him. She drove 30 minutes south to the slightly larger town, San Markle, where the community college campus was housed.
    Julie parked near the admissions building in a parking lot. It had rows of trees separating the rows of spaces. The whole campus was green and forested, big lawns with trees dotting the common areas. Her heart was beating with anticipation and nerves as she walked into the air-conditioned admissions building. There was a pretty blond woman behind the counter who smiled and encouraged her; the next thing Julie knew she was in a friendly office with a college advisor.
    After an hour meeting with an advisor Julie, was set up with her classes. A returning student showed her