Uncaged Love: Volume 6 (Uncaged Love #6) by JJ Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

come in with a situation like this to my stepmother Retta, she would have screamed and thrown things and told me to leave the house.
    Despite the fact that my mother felt she couldn’t raise me, and had a lot of missteps along the way with my brother, she seems to have turned out to be a decent mom. Maybe there’s hope for me.
    My breath catches as I realize I’ve let this wayward thought enter my mind. Kids. A family of my own. I can’t really see that future. I picture a miniature Colt running around, and I swing between adoration and pure panic. I have zero experience with small children. I would never figure it out.
    Mom stops washing carrots and shuts off the water. She turns to Hudson and folds him into her. It’s awkward as he stands a solid foot taller than her, dwarfing her petite frame. But she’s sturdy somehow in a way that he is not, not yet. Despite his height and his muscles, he’s vulnerable next to her calm strength.
    She pulls back and wipes her eyes with a dishcloth. “I guess you two kids are probably hungry,” she says. “I’ll make a salad.”
    And just like that, the whole episode is over. Hudson sits back at the table. I reach over and squeeze his wrist. “I don’t think Akoni is going to take it quite as well,” I whisper.
    Hudson’s wide eyes tell me he knows it too.
    A crashing sound outside makes us all jump.
    “What in the world?” Mom says.
    We all head to the living room at the front of the house. This time we hear the ring of metal on metal, then a crack, then another crash.
    Hudson lunges for the door, but Mom holds him back. “The window,” she says.
    Both Hudson and I jump on the sofa to look out the window behind it. The curtains frame the glass, and we can see a rusting truck parked behind Hudson’s old car. Two boys are on the street, one holding a tire iron.
    For a second, I flash to that night when Colt and I were shot. One of the men slammed a tire iron across Colt’s shin, but Colt simply took it away and threw it over a fence.
    But my breathing comes rapidly anyway. Mom puts her hand on my back.
    One of the boys smashes a taillight. The headlights are already broken, the bits scattered on the road.
    “I’m going out there,” Hudson says, and leaps up from the sofa.
    But our mother stands in front of the door. “Oh, no, you’re not,” she says. “Those boys have a weapon.”
    “You want me to call the police?” I ask. I jerk my cell phone from my jeans pocket.
    “Yes,” she says. “Let them handle these hooligans.”
    I dial and watch out the windows, then quickly snap a shot of them and their car. It’s odd they are willing to do this in broad daylight when anyone can see. They notice us and get back in their car. With a roar, they take off down the street. Their license plate number is covered with something.
    But this is an island. There will only be so many beat-up red Dodge trucks.
    “They’re gone,” I say to Hudson and Mom.
    I tell the operator that I want the police as Hudson goes outside to inspect the damage. Mom stays in the doorway, squeezing the dish towel. Her face is tight with concern. She turns to look at me.
    “I’m on hold,” I say. “Good thing it’s not an emergency.”
    Finally I’m patched through. I tell the woman about the vandalism and she says she’ll send an officer along. I look out the window. Hudson is kicking at the pieces of broken plastic.
    “Why would they do this?” Mom asks. “They already beat him in the match, right?”
    I don’t answer. I know exactly why they did this. It has nothing to do with Hudson, and everything to do with me.

Chapter Nine

    Hudson decides to face Akoni alone, so I stay with Mom. She’s spooked about the incident, even though the officer who came along said she was “pretty sure she knew exactly who was responsible.”
    I don’t have a speck of faith that anything will come of that. Breaking out some headlights is a pretty minor charge. Silly thing to do, really, although