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It seemed like forever before I could soothe Hunter back to sleep. After the fight, Jimmy made us all go up to our room. He sat on the bed, cleaning his nails with his pocketknife, while I paced across the room trying to sing to Hunter. Jimmy was staring at me intensely.

Charles was getting Tommy his girl tomorrow night. I needed to tell Jimmy the rest of Tommy’s plan.

I carefully placed Hunter down into his crib. Jimmy put down his knife as I crawled onto the bed next to him. I slid my arm across his chest and nuzzled my head into him. I could feel his warmth spread to my body.

“Jimmy,” I started. I made sure that my voice was low enough to not wake up Hunter.” I need to tell you what Tommy told me today.”

“No, you don’t,” he told me.

I looked up at him to see that his jaw was clenched tightly. His lip was still stained with blood and his nose was slightly swollen.

“Jimmy, it’s important,” I said.

“Julie, I don’t want to hear it,” he said.

“Jimmy, please,” I whined.

“No,” he snapped. He grabbed my wrists and flipped me onto my back. His grip tightened and I had to bite down on my lip to stop myself from yelping out in pain. “Julie, it’s done.”

“Tommy is planning on—“

Jimmy let go of my wrist and covered my mouth. I grabbed the back of Jimmy’s hand and started clawing at him with my nails. He wasn’t listening to me and he had to hear this.

“Stop it,” he warned me.

I shook my head and continued to try and rip his hand off of me. He removed his hand and I took in a deep breath. Before I could say anything, Jimmy raised his hand and slapped me. I could feel the sharp tingle in my cheek.

“Why won’t you listen?” he snapped. “I haven’t cut you in months, but if I hear you say one more thing about Tommy, I won’t hesitate to do it again.”

I shook my head as the tears began to burn my eyes. My lip trembled as I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. Jimmy let go of my wrist and I wiped them away with the back of my hand. Jimmy leaned his face in so that the bridge of his nose was up against mine. I felt the warmth of his breath against my skin.

“Don’t cry,” he told me. “You’ll wake up Hunter.”

“I won’t,” I said softly.

I watched Jimmy’s lips curl into a smile. He leaned in and pressed his lips up against mine. He rolled off of me, but kept one arm around my waist. He pulled me closer to my chest and he kissed the back of my head.

Jimmy spent the night sleeping peacefully. I was happy whenever I heard Hunter start to cry. I couldn’t sleep and it was an excuse to get out of bed. After his screams would stop, I would rock him and sing to him quietly.

Either tonight or tomorrow night would be my last chance to do this.

--

It was pouring rain in the morning. The wind blew the rain up against the kitchen window. I had pulled Hunter’s crib from the living room and into the kitchen so that I wouldn’t be alone. I had a bowl in the crook of my arm as I was quickly whisking the pancake mix. I didn’t get any sleep last night, so I thought I might as while get up early and make breakfast.

The sweet aroma filled my nose as I poured the batter into the pan. I was a little afraid that the sizzling of the butter in the pan would wake up one of the boys. It was barely audible over the pelting of the rain.

The sun hadn’t risen yet, but I had a stack of pancakes in the pan. I placed them in the oven to keep them warm.

“Wow, smells good, Juliet.”

I spun around on my heels to see Charles at the bottom of the steps. He was rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he walked towards me. He leaned over Hunter’s crib and picked him up with one of the stuffed monkeys. Charles sat down in his chair and cradled Hunter and wiggled the toy in front of him.

“Thank you,” I said as I pulled out the dishes out of the cupboard.

I began to place the plates and cutlery out on the table. I couldn’t stop my lips from curling into a smile when I looked over at Charles. It was easy to tell he was looking forward to when he had grandsons.

“By tonight it’ll be a full house,” Charles said.

“For sure,” I agreed. I ignored the knot in my stomach.

Maybe I could tell Charles about Tommy’s plan? He would punish him for sure. He wouldn’t go out tonight to go get Tommy’s girl.

“Smells good down here.”

I turned around to see Tommy walking down the steps. I let out a deep breath and rolled my eyes. I definitely couldn’t say anything now. It would cause another fight and Jimmy would punish me. He didn’t want me to talk about yesterday. I couldn’t disobey him.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

I watched Tommy as he walked over to Charles and ran his fingers down Hunter’s cheek. He looked over his shoulder and smirked at me. I bit down on my lip. I didn’t want to think about what he was thinking.

“Tell your brother to get down here so we can eat,” Charles told Tommy.

“Alright,” he said, still smirking at me. “I can’t wait to eat.”

Tommy ran up the steps and I pulled the pancakes out of the oven. I could hear Tommy banging on our door upstairs.

“Dad says get down here,” Tommy yelled through the door.

“Yeah,” I could hear Jimmy. “I’m coming.”

I placed the pancakes on the table and Charles handed Hunter over to me. I sat down in my chair and I watched as Tommy and Charles began to fill their plates. Jimmy soon came down to the table and began piling the food onto his own plate.

“Aren’t you eating?” he asked me.

“No, I’m not hungry,” I said bouncing Hunter in my arms.

“Eat one,” he told me.

“I’m really not hungry.”

My stomach never managed to untie itself out of a knot. I could feel the bile rising in the back of my throat. The thought of eating caused my stomach to twist even tighter.

“Julie, you need to eat. You’re not leaving this table until you eat one,” Jimmy told me.

I just nodded my head and slid one onto my plate. I used one hand to cut it with the side of my fork and then I began to chew it slowly. I forced myself to swallow it.

“Jim, I need that case with the syringes,” Charles said.

“You got more of the tranquilizer?” he asked with a mouth full of food.

“What?”

“The tranquilizer. I told you when I first got Julie that I ran out of it.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did.”

“James, I would have remembered that. You never told me that we ran out.”

“He actually did, Dad,” Tommy piped in.

Charles let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his thinning hair. I looked down to see that I was almost half done the pancake.

“My memory is getting worse,” he said. “Boys, I need you to cover all of the chores after breakfast. I’m going to head out early. I know the rain is going to slow me down, but this just made it worse.”

“You’re going to get her without the tranquilizer?” Tommy asked.

“Yes, let’s just hope that she’s not a fighter like Julie was.”

Jimmy looked at me and I felt the heat rush up to my cheeks. I remember that night walking home from the club. I sprinted through the forest and attacked Charles once he caught me. I was terrified, but only because I didn’t know how much they were going to save me.

“She’ll love it here,” I said.

“Of course she will,” Jimmy said, giving me a smile. “You will just need to help her see that.”

Charles wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and pushed his plate forward. I shoved the last piece of food into my mouth.

“I should be heading out,” he said getting up out of his chair.

I got up and placed Hunter back down in his crib. I cleared up the table as they finished eating. Charles pulled his arms through his jacket and we all said our goodbyes. I washed the dishes and Jimmy and Tommy went outside to do the chores.

They were quickly back inside once they were finished. They changed out of their wet clothes and came back down to the table. The pulled out a deck of cards and started to play.

They made a few jokes, but they didn’t say much else. They were awkwardly silent as they played. I cleaned the house and cooked dinner. Neither of them said I word to me.

Charles wasn’t home by the time dinner was ready. I had no idea when he would get home so I served it anyways. They continued to play while they were eating. It wasn’t until I had finished washing the dishes that I heard a girl’s screams.