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Juice and I had been fighting all day. Hell, all week if I wanted to really admit to myself how messed up things were. I knew that his heart was in the right place; I was his friend’s sister and he just wanted to make sure that I was kept safe like everyone else involved with the club. But still, there was something about being told to “stay put” every time he left me that rubbed me the wrong way.I opened the door to Opie’s house, peering inside to see if it was truly empty. The Caddy was gone, indicating that Lyla had likely taken the kids to her mom’s or out to eat. Opie was at the clubhouse with the rest of SAMCRO as they scrambled to figure out how to rescue Abel.“Thank fucking God,” I whispered when I was met with silence.I pushed the door shut, turning the deadbolt behind me as well as locking the handle. If there was anything that living in LA for most of my life had taught me, it was that locking your doors was always the best idea. Even in small towns like Charming, there was always the thought looming in the back of my mind that even the nicest of people were capable of darkness.I walked into the empty house, dropping my bag on the floor by the end table near the couch. All I had wanted to do was go to the clubhouse after work and hang out with Juice and Opie, but that plan had been squashed. I knew that the club was on edge with Abel having been kidnapped, but that didn’t give Juice the right to treat me that way he had been. He was being a controlling asshole.Shaking my head to clear the thoughts away, I trudged into the kitchen in hopes that I might feel like eating. It was strange coming home to an empty house. Kenny and Ellie—my niece and nephew—were usually always running around with Lyla’s son Piper and causing a ruckus. It was nice to come back to something less chaotic.As I pulled open the fridge, though, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Goosebumps pricked up on my arms giving me the feeling that something was…off. Slowly, I closed the fridge and began to turn around. It wasn’t unlike Kenny to try to sneak up on me to scare me. He and I had clicked almost immediately when Opie and Lyla let me move in. It seemed the kid and I were cut from the same cloth, in a sense.When I fully turned around, though, I was not met with the sight of a pre-teen trying to get the drop on me, but one of a person that I thought I would never see again.“Dominic,” I breathed, fear edging into my voice.A cruel smile was plastered on his handsome face, lighting up his green eyes with a terrible mischief that I knew too well. His blond hair was slicked back in its usual greaser-style pompadour. His hands were in the pockets of his jean jacket, giving him a nonchalant air as he took a few slow steps forward.“Hey, Natalia,” he said, danger thick in his voice.I took a step back, hitting the closed fridge door almost immediately. My eyes darted around the kitchen as my brain suddenly struggled to remember where the knife block was. I’d been in this position before, and this time I was determined to fight my way out of it. Well, that was assuming that my body would listen to my thoughts.“What’re you looking for, Nat?” Dominic asked, taking one of his hands out of his pocket and placing it on the counter so he could lean on it. His nonchalance was the scariest thing of all. He followed my line of sight and cocked his head before saying, “You’re not going to try to hurt me, are you Nat? I made sure to move the knives before you got home. Just in case.”I swallowed and slowly shook my head. “N-No,” I managed to say. “I w-would never d-do that to you.”Dominic’s smile widened as he pulled his other hand from his pocket and took another step forward. He kept moving forward until he was inches from me. He reached up and trailed his fingers along my jawline from my ear to my chin. Once his hand was at the bottom of my face, his grip tightened, and he turned my jaw sharply to make me look towards the kitchen window. It was ajar.“I thought I taught you better than that, baby,” he whispered, his breath spread over my neck as his face moved closer. “You never know what kind of degenerates could be lurking around. You should always keep the windows locked.”I swallowed and tried to look back at Dominic’s face. He had my head turned so far that all I could see was the top of his head. “I know.”“Good thing I showed up to help out,” he said as he finally pulled back and moved my face again. His eyes moved around the parts of the house he could see. “Looks like you got a nice setup here. Playing house with your new man, huh? It’s a shame your biker boyfriend isn’t home. I’d love to meet him.”I took a deep breath, trying to shift into a less uncomfortable position. Dominic’s body was only a few inches from mine. His knee was pressed between my legs with the hand that wasn’t gripping my chin bracing himself against the fridge behind me. I was effectively trapped. He felt me shift against him and took the moment to move closer, his grip on my chin tightening and his face coming closer to mine.“H-He’s not my boyfriend,” I stammered at last. “He’s my brother.”Dominice chuckled and nodded. “That explains the blonde then,” he said. “I know you’re a wild one, Nat, but I didn’t take you as the type to let your man fuck another girl.”“Unless it was you?”The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Dominic’s eyes flashed and he reared back, his free hand balling into a fist. I flinched as he brought it down hard against the fridge, hearing the plastic crunch in as he left a dent.“That was different and you know it,” he hissed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were the one that went back to that strip club after I told you not to?”“I was a fucking bartender, Dom,” I spat, leveling my own glare at him.Dominic rolled his eyes and let out a sardonic choke of laughter. “Like that was supposed to make me feel better.”“I wasn’t fucking dancing anymore and you know it. Chris asked me to bartend, and I needed a job. I had student loans to pay off.” I knew reasoning with him wasn’t always a good idea, but sometimes I could get through to him. I was hoping this would be one of those times.Dominic shook his head, hanging it briefly before his eyes flashed back up to mine. That dangerous look was back; one that I knew all too well. This was going to end terribly for me unless I could either get out or get help.“That’s all in the past now, baby,” he said. He closed the distance between us, gently kissing my jaw in a way that used to drive me crazy. “We can move on.”He moved his mouth along my cheek until his lips were on mine. The kiss was sloppy and one-sided, but he didn’t seem to care. As far as he was concerned, I was his again. The hand that wasn’t clutching my face still moved to my waist, pushing up the tank top I was wearing to expose my stomach to his touch.When he finally detached his mouth from mine, I was breathless. That seemed to do something for him. Dominic pulled away, his hand falling from my face, with a smirk on his face that told me all I needed to know about what was about to happen.“Dom,” I said trying to catch his gaze. “Please don’t.” My voice was desperate. I knew that would only turn him on more, but I had to try to get out of this. “I’m beginning you.”“Begging, huh?” Dominic said slowly. He pulled back slightly and turned his head to look down the hall towards the bedrooms. “I don’t think I believe you, Nat.”This was my chance.While his head was still turned, his grip on me had loosened slightly. With a loud grunt of effort, I took the opportunity and shoved my entire weight forward. I brought my hands up to add to my momentum as I shoved against his chest as hard as I could. A shocked cry escaped his lips as I shoved forward again, this time knocking him off balance so he fell against the counter behind him.“Fuck!” Dominic exclaimed as he crumpled to the ground.I had to act quickly if I wanted to get out of this situation alive. As quickly as my body would allow, I lunged to the side and dove towards the living room. I stumbled over my own feet, narrowly avoiding Dominic’s hand as he grabbed at my legs. My boots hit the carpet hard as I ran down the hall to my bedroom. I glanced back towards the kitchen, bouncing off the wall in the hallway and knocking down a few of Opie’s pictures. I heard them crash onto the floor as I scrambled to get to my room.“Natalia!” Dominic roared from behind me. I could hear him sprinting to catch me.I had just barely made it into my room and slammed the door shut before I felt Dominic slam against the door. The door bucked against my weight, but I managed to hold it closed as I gripped the handle to keep him from turning it. I don’t know how, but I was able to lock the door. Frantically I looked around for something to wedge against the door to buy myself time.“Nat!” Dominic’s voice sounded from the other side of the door, interrupted by the sound of the handle jiggling. I watched it as it moved, telling me that he was trying to get in. “Open this fucking door, Natalia!” The door bucked again as Dominic slammed against it.“Leave me alone, Dominic!” I yelled back through the door, still trying to find something to keep him at bay.I hadn’t had a chance to move much of anything into the room, despite having been living with Opie and Lyla for going on three months. Opie had moved some of the old furniture in from the garage for me, one piece being an old dresser that still had a bunch of Donna’s old clothes in it. I hadn’t had the heart or the time to put my things in it. Still, it was close enough to the door where I might be able to push it with minimal effort.“Nat! Nat, let’s talk about this,” Dominic said from outside my room, breaking my train of thought. His voice sounded much calmer, but still angry. “Nat, I’m sorry. Can you open the door so we can talk?”I grunted with effort as I shoved my body weight against the dresser. It wasn’t the heaviest thing I had moved by myself, but the time crunch I was under made it feel as if it were. The dresser was moving painfully slow and felt like it was made of steel.“I don’t want to talk, Dom!” I yelled, hoping that the surge of adrenaline I got would help me move the dresser. “Please just go away and I won’t call the cops!” Dominic had violated the restraining order the second he had come into town. Obviously, he didn’t care, but maybe the real threat of police would scare him at least a little.It didn’t make much of a difference, but it did slow him down a little bit as I continued to push the dresser towards the door. In truth, it had maybe been a minute since I’d locked myself in the room, but time felt as if it were going so slow. I was moving through molasses until I was finally able to get the dresser in front of the door enough to feel safe. At least for a few minutes.The door lunged again, knocking against the dresser. I flinched back towards my bed, waiting for the door to burst open like the dresser wasn’t even there. I watched as the door handle continued to jiggle with Dominic’s efforts to get in. I still had to act fast, but I had bought myself some time.“Natalia,” Dominic said from the other side of the door, his voice suddenly soft. “You know I love you, baby. That’s why I get so out of control. You’ve always driven me crazy and you know it.”There was a pause, as if he was giving me time to respond. I stared at the door with wide eyes, my mouth clamped shut as my mind raced through the possible ways for this situation to play out. I knew that if I conceded now that things would not end up in my favor. There was a reason I had gotten a restraining order against my ex-boyfriend.“Dominic, please leave,” I said at length. My hands went to my back pocket, where—luckily—my cell phone still was. I pulled it out and pulled up my recent calls, scrolling down until I found the number for the burner phone I knew Juice still had. “I’m going to make a phone call and you need to be gone by the time I’m off the phone. I’m not calling the cops, I swear.”Dominic threw himself against the door again, an unintelligible shout sounding from the other side of the door. “Don’t you dare call anyone, Nat! We need to talk about this!”I turned my back to the door as I pressed the dial button, quickly bringing the phone up to my ear. I listened to it ring, hoping to whatever god or gods were out there that Juice didn’t decide now was a good time to avoid my phone calls. I was just about to give up hope when I heard the soft click of the phone being answer, followed by sound of his voice on the other end.“What?” He sounded annoyed, but there was something else there too that my terrified brain couldn’t figure out.“Juice!” I exclaimed, not hiding the excitement in my voice. “Please, you need to get to Opie’s.” I could hear just how frantic my voice sounded as I spoke. “There-There’s someone here and I’m locked in my room.”“Woah, woah, Nat slow down,” Juice said, his tone switching to one with more concern. “What do you mean someone’s in the house? Who is it? Do you know them?”“My crazy fucking ex broke into the house and trapped me in my room! Please, Juice, the window is painted shut and I can’t—”My words were cut off by the sound of Dominic throwing his full weight against the door, causing a loud bang as the door broke free of the frame. I screamed, dropping my phone and whipping around to see the dresser moving as Dominic continued to assault the door. I could hear Juice’s faint voice from the other end of the line, but there wasn’t much else I could do. I dove to the floor, grabbing my phone and looking at the screen to see if Juice was still on the line. It had reverted to my home screen, letting me know that he’d hung up. All I could do now was hope that he was on his way. Maybe with reinforcements.“Nat who the fuck did you call?” Dominic yelled through the door. He rammed against it again and I watched the dresser tip. I was running out of time.“Dom, you need to leave! My brother and his friends are on their way, and you can’t be here when they get here!” I yelled, backing up towards my closet.At this point, there wasn’t much I could do besides hide. There was no way I’d be able to get out of this room before Dominic was able to break in. I stole into my closet, closing the door behind me. Luckily for me, it was a walk-in and had a hinged door instead of a sliding one. I placed myself on the ground against the door, pushing my full weight against it in an attempt to brace myself for the inevitable.I could hear Dominic slamming against the door as I sat, cowering, in the closet. He was speaking, but the blood was pounding in my ears and muffling the words. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, pressing my forehead down into the tops of my kneecaps. I could feel the tears streaming down my face and didn’t stop the sob that ripped from my throat. If Juice didn’t get here in time, there was no telling what was going to happen.The next sound I heard made me flinch and let go of my knees. Dominic’s efforts seemed to finally pay off as I heard what I could only assume to be the dresser tipping over. I screamed and pressed my back to the closet as hard as I could, as if that might help.“Please, Juice,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Please, for the love of God, save me.”I felt the closet door buck against my back as Dominic threw himself against it to get to me. I screamed against, scrambling to try to gain some leverage to give myself more power to keep the door shut. My legs were just slightly too short to press against the wall in front of me. All I could do now was hope.A chorus of rumbling sounded from outside the house. I was surprised I could hear it between Dominic’s roars of frustration and my own erratic heartbeat. The sound of the Harleys approaching was a welcome one for me, though, and I let out a sob of relief. Dominic seemed to realize it, too, and stopped pounding on the door.“This isn’t over, Natalia,” he hissed.The silence that followed was the longest silence that I had ever endured. My body was shuddering against the closed door, and I couldn’t even hear my sobs or my own heartbeat. The panic didn’t want to let go, so it was a wonder that I heard someone calling my name. My heart skipped as I realized who it was.“Juice?” I called from the closet.There was a pause before I heard his voice again. It was soft, calming almost, as it sounded from the other side of the door just by my head: “Natalia, can you open the door?”I shifted clumsily, rolling onto my knees and turning so that I could reach up and open the door. I pulled it open a crack, peering out to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I nearly collapsed when I saw Juice’s dark eyes and concerned face through the crack.“Oh, thank God,” I breathed as I shifted away from the door to allow Juice to push it open farther.Juice was crouched down, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands hanging in front of him. Opie and Chibs were standing behind him, guns drawn as they all stared down at me. I could see the worry on both of their faces, but it was nothing compared to the look on Juice’s.He slowly reached forward, offering me his hand. I swallowed hard and slowly took it. Juice pulled me up as he stood, wrapping me in his arms in the same motion. He rested his chin on the top of my head and squeezed as I pressed my face into his chest. I began to sob then, wrapping my arms around Juice’s waist in an attempt to steady myself.“You’re okay now,” Juice said softly. “I’m here. You’re okay, Nat.”We stayed that way for a few minutes, until my sobs subsided, and I pulled back slightly. Juice looked down at me, lifting one of his hands to wipe the tears from my face. I tilted my face, letting him cradle my cheek as I tried to steady my breathing.“What happened?” I heard Opie ask.I opened my eyes and tilted my head back up, looking at Opie as he walked into my field of vision. “Dom—m-my ex—he, uh, broke in through the kitchen window. He was here when I got home from work,” I said quietly.“Where are Lyla and the kids?” Chibs asked from the other side of Juice.“They’re at her mom’s for dinner,” Opie said.“I was the only one home,” I said. “I…I think he was watching us.” I glanced between Juice and Opie before leveling my gaze at Opie. “He thought you and I were…together and that Lyla was your side piece.”Opie scoffed. “Fuckin’ ridiculous. You’re my goddamn sister.”“I know,” I said, pulling away from Juice a little more. I still left my hands wrapped around his waist, wanting to keep as much contact as I could. He was keeping me grounded. “I don’t think he’s been in town for long, though.” I looked back to Juice. “I don’t think he knew about…us.”Juice nodded and turned his head to look at Opie and Chibs. “We should check the neighborhood. Make sure he isn’t waiting for her close by.”Opie nodded and motioned for Chibs to head out. The Scot nodded before he moved forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. His eyes were comforting as he gave my shoulder a small, fatherly squeeze.“We’re gonna get him, little sister,” he said before he turned to leave.Opie nodded in agreement. “He’s not gonna get away with this, Natalia. We’re gonna find this asshole and make him pay.” He stepped forward and grabbed the back of my head, pulling it forward to place and gentle kiss on my forehead. “I promise.”I nodded and leaned my head against Juice’s chest again, watching as Opie walked out of the room after Chibs. There was a minute or so of silence before I heard their bikes start back up and pull away. I waited until they were gone to look back up and Juice and speak again.“Thank you,” I whispered. “I didn’t think you would answer your phone.”“I’ll always answer when you call,” he said, seeming to be confused as to why I thought he wouldn’t answer.“I just thought…because of our fight earlier…” I trailed off, biting my lip.Juice nodded solemnly and looked towards the door. “Because I told you to stay put at the compound.” He paused and ran a hand over his face, pulling away and breaking my grip on his waist. “I wish you would have listened to me, Nat.”I looked up at him incredulously, dropping my hands to my sides and taking a step away from him. “Are you saying this is my fault?”Juice rolled his eyes and scoffed. “No, that’s not…All I’m saying that you would be safe, and your bedroom door wouldn’t be broken if you had listened to me.”I balked at him, crossing my arms over my chest. “What the fuck Juice?”Juice took a more defensive stance as he looked at me. “What, Natalia? What do you want me to do? I tell you to stay in the compound because shit’s hitting the fan and you told me that you can handle yourself. Hell, I’ve seen you break a dude’s nose just for grabbing you. How the fuck was I supposed to know that you can’t handle yourself like you say you can?”“Are you fucking kidding me?” I nearly yelled, throwing my hands up in the air. “There’s a difference between teaching a drunk idiot a lesson and what happened tonight, Juice. Did you not hear me? He broke into the fucking house and caught me off guard.”Juice rolled his eyes again. “And what happened tonight? Please, enlighten me. Because all I know is that you called me, frantic, asking for help after you told me that you didn’t need me to protect you.”My hands balled into fists at my sides. God, I wanted to hit him so bad.Juice leveled a hard gaze at me, glancing down at my hands quickly before tilting his head to the side. He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded to my hands. “Nothing to say?”I took a deep breath, rolling my shoulders and flexing my fingers as I released my hands. I knew I needed to tell him the whole truth, but I only had so much resolve and a lot of it was gone due to the events that had just passed. Still, I’d kept so much from him already. He deserved to know why this particular person terrified me so much.“I…” I paused, swallowing down the lump in my throat. I looked up at Juice, shifting away and wrapping my arms around myself as I whispered, “The last time I saw Dominic, he tried to kill me.”I didn’t need to see Juice’s face to know that he was shocked and disgusted. Seeing it, though, just cemented in my mind that telling him may have been a bad idea. “What?” he asked, a strain on his voice that I had never heard.“Before I came up to Charming looking for Opie, I wasn’t in the best spot mentally. I met Dominic after college when I was stripping. I’d graduated from UC Irvine with a bachelor’s in dance and I was trying to get into a company, but nowhere was hiring. Dom and his friends were regulars at the club. He was nice…at first.” I paused and regarded Juice’s face; his expression was hard to read, but I didn’t need to wonder very hard about what he was thinking. “It wasn’t until a year in, after my abuela passed, that I realized just how mean he could get.”Juice made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded halfway between a growl and a scoff. “What did he do, Nat?”I breathed in deeply through my nose. There weren’t a lot of people who knew what I was about to tell him, so it still felt like it was a secret. Telling him, though, would make it that much more real.“He, uh, tried to kill me after I broke up with him. I’d gone back to the club I’d been stripping at to bartend, and he was pissed. He hit me, I hit him back. He…” I trailed off, memories flashing back into my mind of him forcing me into our bedroom and literally ripping my clothes off.I felt Juice’s hand on my bicep and met his gaze. His look had softened to one of sorrow, but I could still see the confusion there.“Juice, he raped me and then when I tried to run, he hit me with his car. I was in a coma for two days and…there’s no way I would have been able to join a company even after I healed. He broke one of my femurs and it didn’t heal right.” I looked up at him, tears in my eyes as I looked into his burning ones. “He ruined my fucking life, Juice.”“Jesus Christ, Nat,” Juice breathed, finally letting his guard down and pulling me into another hug. “Fuck I am so sorry, Nat. I-I didn’t know. If I did I never would…Fuck!”He dropped his arms from around me and turned abruptly. He brought his hands up to his head, running them over his Mohawk the way he did when he was deep in thought. Once again, I didn’t need to think very hard to know what was going through his head.“Juan,” I called softly. My use of his real name always broke him out of his thoughts.Juice turned slightly to look at me. “You know I can’t let this go. He’s gonna have to pay. And not just for what he did tonight, Nat.”I nodded and stepped forward. I reached up to grab his hands, bringing them to my lips and placing a gentle kiss on his knuckles. “I know,” I whispered. “But can it wait? I just want to be with you tonight, Juan.”Juice leaned down then, pressing a firm kiss to my lips as he pulled me forward into his chest. His lips were warm and soft against mine and the kiss was tender, so much the opposite of the one Dominic had forced on me earlier. That was the different between him and Juice; Dom wanted to own me and Juice wanted to love me.Juice pulled away slowly, keeping his lips close to mine as he spoke. I could feel his breath fan over my mouth and his lips brush mine as he said, “Come on, baby. Pack a bag and we’ll head to my place. I’ll come over tomorrow and help Ope fix the door so you can have your room back.”I nodded and pulled away reluctantly. Juice left the room, stepping around my tipped-over dresser and broken door. It didn’t take me long to pack an overnight bag. I had some things at Juice’s apartment already so all I really needed were clean clothes and underwear and a jacket to wear on the bike. I heard Opie and Chibs pull back up, their bikes sounding just a little more sharp than they had when I was hiding in the closet.I found Juice in the living room, sitting on the couch next to Opie, when I came down the hall. Chibs was standing in front of them, arms crossed over his chest and a stern look on his face. All three men lifted their heads to look at me and Chibs moved forward towards me. He wrapped his arms around me in a hug, that fatherly way he had about him shining through more than ever.“I’m so sorry, darlin’,” he said quietly. “Juicy told us who that was. Don’t you worry, Natalia, we’re gonna hunt him down like the dog he is and make him pay.”“Why did you tell us, Nat?” Opie asked from the couch. “The club could have done more to protect you.”“I couldn’t, Ope,” I said, pulling away from Chibs to look at him. “You didn’t know I existed until four months ago. How was I supposed to tell you that I came looking for you because I was running from my ex-boyfriend?”He nodded slowly and looked down the hall towards my broken door. “We’ll take care of him, Nat. He won’t get away with it.”“Thank you,” I said quietly. I looked to Juice. “I’m ready to go.”Juice nodded and stood up. He gave Chibs and Opie quick hugs before ushering me outside. I looped my arms through the straps of my backpack before I took the extra helmet that Juice was handing me. Before he started up the bike, Juice turned to me and took my face in his hands again. He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.“I love you, Natalia,” he said.I smiled softly, pushing up to give him a peck on the lips. “I love you, too, Juan Carlos.”