Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) Read Free Page B

meant going against his dad, but he would do it to keep her safe.
    She didn’t believe him. How were they going to pretend like this never happened? There was no way they would allow her to say no and she knew it, but still she asked. “Can I have some time to think on it?”
    He almost gave it to her but knew that if she thought about it too much she might turn him in or run. “No you can’t think about it. You need money and the club needs you.”
    “How do you know I need money?” she asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Granted, she had grabbed the money quickly the night before, but she had hoped desperation wasn’t completely apparent on her face.
    Intimidation was the only thing that would make her do it at this point, and he knew it.
    “There’s nothing the club doesn’t know about you. I know your house is in foreclosure. I know that you’re having a hard time feeding your children. I’m offering you a way out. Do this for them if you won’t do it for anyone else.”
    His words were completely below the belt, but they were also completely true. “Promise me that my kids won’t be hurt.”
    That was the one thing he could promise her. The children would not be hurt on his watch.
    “I can promise you. I will protect them with my life.”
    Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.
    “Tell me where and when.”
    The deal was made, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to back out. If she backed out, she knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be able to protect her children. Just like everything else in her life up to this point, she would do it for them. That would help her sleep at night.

Chapter Three

    “I ’m fucked,” she said out loud. No one was there to hear her or to see her break down, but for the first time since this had started, she sobbed. Really sobbed. It was full body and it was ugly.
    Denise sat on her couch, her head in her hands. The last year and a half had taught her many things about herself and about life. She had come to some grim realizations and some new revelations.
    She wasn’t as strong as she had once believed. When she had been a teenager having twins, she had taken the world by the balls and dared it to talk back to her. This time, when the economy had tanked and she had lost her job, she had cowered. For months she had sat on her living room couch, just knowing the factory would call her back and tell her to come to work on Monday morning. When that hadn’t happened, it had taken her a few weeks, but she dove headlong into looking for something else. It had taken months for her to find the minimum wage job she now worked at. Gone were most of their DVD’s and any jewelry she’d had. Lately she’d taken to switching coins out of the cash registers at work, getting the oldest coins she could in order to take them downtown and sell them to the local coin store. That wasn’t getting her very far now that her hours at work had been cut.
    In the middle of her complete freak out, she heard a knock at her door and she tensed. The last three times someone had knocked on her door, it had been a disaster. She wondered if she should just act like she wasn’t home. Maybe the person on the other side would just leave.
    “Denise, I know you’re in there.”
    It was her neighbor from up the street. Meredith Rager, the local television reporter. They had become acquaintances, perhaps friends lately, and Denise really didn’t want to be alone anymore.
    “Coming,” she coughed, struggling to disguise the pinched tone of her voice. Mopping up her cheeks, she opened the door.
    “Hey, I saw Liam Walker leaving here,” Meredith started before getting a good look at Denise’s face. “Did he hurt you?” she asked, sharply.
    “He didn’t hurt me.”
    “Are you sure?” Meredith asked, walking into the house. “I’ve dealt with these guys a couple of times when I interviewed them in front of the jail. They aren’t nice people. I’m pretty sure they all have a little