Promises to Keep by Nikki Sex, Zachary J. Kitchen Read Free Book Online Page A

decided that there might actually be a nice
guy out there for her after all.
    Now
Bob was gone, and it looked as if nice guys had an expiration date, where
assholes kept turning up, over and over again. Just why was that? If only it
could be the other way around.
    "We’re
over?" Jonah snorted derisively. "You said it back then, but now I
hear you're single again. I figured we might get together or something—you know—for
old time's sake or somethin’."
    "Single
again?" Laura said through clenched teeth. " Single again? My
husband was killed. That makes me a widow. You make it sound like I just broke
up with somebody."
    Jonah
shrugged and reached out to touch her ear lobe.
    Laura
flinched and recoiled.
    "What's
the difference? I'm lonely—you're lonely. Two lonely people like me and
you." Jonah wobbled as he sang the last sentence to the tune of a once
popular song. He might've thought it was charming, but it reminded her of the
times he'd get messed up on something or another and start acting out.
    Laura
looked into his eyes and saw that his pupils were tiny, barely there pinpricks
in the center of his blue irises.
    Pinning. That's
what 'pill-heads' called it when their eyes looked that way. Laura knew from
sad experience that it meant that Jonah was on a butt load of OxyContin. It was
something about how the narcotic messed with a person's system. Their eyes got
all weird and their pupils shrunk to almost nothing.
    She
always thought it made him look possessed, like someone in a cheesy horror
flick.
    Drugs
can affect people in different ways. Some people just got stupid on oxy. They'd
curl up and fall asleep—not Jonah, unfortunately. Oxy fired him up, made him
act as if he was invincible and could take on everybody and anybody. It also
made him mean .
    Laura
pressed herself back against the door, and she felt the knob dig in even
deeper.
    "That's
not happening, Jonah. I’ve got nothin' to say to you. You'd better leave."
    "I
wasn't plannin' on talkin'." Jonah pressed closer, invading her personal
space. "We don't have to do no talkin' if you don't want to."
    Laura
pushed her bags in front of her, using them as a shield of bargain basement
vegetables. The stiff brown paper crackled as he pushed into her. She glanced
down and saw her carton of milk—on sale that day only—warp under the pressure.
    For
a second, she was sure it was going to explode and squirt a white stream up
into her face and all over her hair.
    The
waxed paper held.
    Jonah's
hot rancid breath was in her face and she tried not to breathe it in. His
stench sickened her.
    “Jonah,
you're messed up. Back off."
    "No
Laura, I'm tired of backing off."
    He
brought his fist down hard into the bag of groceries that was in her arms. The
brown paper gave way and everything went flying—like a fruit and vegetable
shrapnel bomb. The dented milk carton fell down, and Laura could feel the cold
liquid splash over her foot, as it finally ruptured.
    A
cacophony of dull thuds sang in her ears as her groceries bounced all over the
wooden floor. Shit!
    "I
was tired of standing back and watching while you played with all of those
little boys in their fancy uniforms. I was tired of standing back when you
shacked up with that Navy pussy. What? You think he wouldn't figure out that
you're nothing but a while trash whore? You think he'd take you away from here?
From me?"
    Laura
was fully pressed back into the door. The knob was really beginning to hurt the
small of her back. The pain was nothing. Right now, she was scared.
    "Please,
just leave," she said through frightened, angry tears.
    "You
think you're better than me? You think you gonna rise up and be better'n what
you are?"
    Without
the bags to shield her, Laura was fully exposed. She felt so vulnerable, scared
and helpless. Jonah reached up and grabbed her left breast. She winced as he
squeezed it hard.
    Her
reaction was instinctive—using both hands, she pushed him off her. At the same
time, she raised a knee as