A Reason (A Reason, Season, Lifetime Series) Read Free

says.
    I nod at him. Suddenly from behind me, I hear a voice I’ve never heard. “I’ll train you in knives and stars as well. If you can’t get close enough to disarm a gun, you can throw a knife or a star. The stars are illegal in this state, but I say fuck that. What he’s been doing is illegal. If we can’t unload the gun, we’ll stab the shooter before he can fire.”
    Eva and Ms. Rivers gasp from their side of the room, but I know he is just being honest. That could be a very real scenario in my future. I turn to Robert, stand up, and walk over and hug him. I have known him all of my life. He is from a horrible home. He is so strong because he had to be. Grant’s family took him in to get him out of his own hell hole. For him to speak to me, to say that, I knew it was hard. It touched me to the core that this young man who had grown up in hell was willing to help me escape the same. Robert picks me up, crushing me to his huge chest and whispers in my ear. “We’ll send him to hell someday, where he belongs. Whatever that hell is, whether prison or death, we’ll end him so he can’t hurt them ever again.” I just nod, knowing I couldn’t talk through the tears.
    He set s me down, and they walk out, headed off to find the wrestling coach. It was just Eva, Ms. Rivers and I again.
    “Are you sure about this, Emma? You could get hurt, killed even.”
    I had thought about this already. Am I willing to die at my father’s hand to protect my mother and sister? Abso-fucking-lutely. “It’s done, Eva. This is the best plan. Those guys can train me to be able to take him on, to stop him from someday killing our mother. You need to trust me. I will protect you and Mom. It has to be me, and it has to be this way. Having my training done at school, by these people, it could be our best hope at beating him someday. You have to trust me.”
    “I’m the big sister, I’m supposed to protect you!” Eva says, through tears.
    “Bull shit. By like seven minutes. Where is that a written rule? You concentrate on getting into college, and I’ll take care of training.” I walk over, hug and kiss Eva and Ms. Rivers, and walk out as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Did all of that just happen in a matter of a half an hour?  I have gym class next, and boy am I ready to burn off some energy.
    I walk into the gym, and see that it’s set up as a free period. Fabulous. We have the choice of half-court basketball, voll eyball, or weight room. I walk directly toward the weight room. I love volleyball, but weights would come in handy with my new training.
    “Emma!” I hear, and turn to see my friends waving me over. Great, I had to come up with a line. I sigh heavily and walk toward Brenda and Lena, trying to think fast of a reason why I didn’t want to play my favorite sport.
    Behind me I feel someone come up and put an arm around me. I startle and look up to see Ryan, all smiles. He swings me around, picking me up off of the ground, and whispers in my ear. “Just go with it, Emma. This will make it easier.”
    He sets me down and I nervously giggle. I’m blushing just from him holding me so close and whispering in my ear. I’ve had a horrible crush on him since he moved here. His eyes make me lose my breath, but when he smiles? He has such a perfect smile that it makes me shiver. I’m dating his best friend Danny. None of them like me with Danny much, but Danny adores me. I hated the thought of telling him no and losing his friendship, so I agreed to date him when he asked me.
    I finally manage to look up, and the girls are all laughing, looking at us.
    “I’m stealing Emma to go in the weight room with me. You ladies think you can keep everyone busy out here so I can get some alone time with her?”
    Brenda looks directly at me to see what I want. I smile and nod, knowing I was blushing.
    “Yeah, you bet. Y’all go on. I’ll go tell the boys I want to play basketball. That should keep eve ryone out of the