Fight for Me Corinne Michaels Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Epilogue Books by Corinne Michaels Acknowledgments About the Author Fight for Me Copyright © 2020 Corinne Michaels All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-942834-47-2 No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher. Cover Design: Sommer Stein, Perfect Pear Creative Editing: Ashley Williams, AW Editing Proofreading: Michele Ficht & Janice Owen Cover photo © Brian Kaminski For Natasha Madison, there is no overrated without you … meh. Chapter One Declan ~Eight years ago~ “What the hell do we do now?” Jacob looks at me, wanting answers I can’t give. “I don’t know,” I say, staring at the wreck in front of me. My heart is pounding, and I feel as though I’m watching a movie instead of the horrible reality. “He has to pay for this,” Connor says, his hands are still shaking. None of us thought the night would go this way. It was supposed to be filled with celebration and laughter. Finally, all four of us would be out of this godforsaken town and away from our drunk, abusive father. I was finally going to ask Sydney to marry me. She’s the only reason I breathe. She’s all that matters, and now, I have to let her go. One moment was all it took. That car going into the ditch, the sounds, the smell of death. I can’t stop replaying it in my mind. Staying on the side of the road isn’t an option. My brothers will take the fall for what he did, and I can’t let that happen. “We go.” Three sets of eyes turn to me, all filled with disbelief. “And leave them here?” Connor yells, his hands pointing at the wreck. “We have no choice, Connor! We can’t stay. We weren’t driving, and it’ll look like we were!” I yell, gripping my youngest brother’s shoulders. “We’ll come back. We’ll make sure that, tomorrow, he confesses.” “No.” Connor, the one with the biggest heart, shakes his head. “No. We weren’t driving, and we can’t leave these people.” Jacob sighs and touches his shoulders. “Declan is right.” Sean looks to me, realization flashing in his eyes. “My car was the …” “I know, that’s why we have to go. It was your car that hit them.” Connor seems to just catch up with what the issue is. My father may have been driving the car, but he was in Sean’s vehicle while he did it. Who will it most likely lead back to? Sean. “Dec …” Sean’s voice shakes. “We can’t leave these people. Connor’s right.” I nod. “We go home and tell him we’re going to turn him in. Connor’s right. He pays for this. But we can’t be here.” I feel sick to my stomach. Everything has gone wrong. My father was drunk, trying to pick a fight with Connor, but since my brother isn’t a kid anymore, Dad was put in his place. As much as he wants to start with the rest of us, he won’t do shit in front of me. Not because they can’t hold their own but because he knows I’ll fucking kill him if he touches any of us again. However, right now, it feels like the first time he beat me. I’m paralyzed by the fact that someone I came from could be so awful. I look to the car, wheels up, smoke coming from the undercarriage, and I have to fight back the nausea. One instant and my entire life has changed. “Let’s go,” Jacob says, dragging Connor toward the car. “This is wrong!” he yanks his arm away and heads back. I feel the same, but I have to protect my brothers. “We can’t do anything, Connor. They’re dead, and we are the ones standing here. It was Sean’s car, and we have no idea if Dad made it home. We have to go after him, damn it! What if he’s hurt? I promised Mom. I have to go.” He looks torn, and guilt assaults me so hard it hurts to breathe. All of this could’ve been avoided if we hid the keys like we always did, but it’s been almost four years since I’ve lived full-time in Sugarloaf. I was careless. We all were. I should’ve known my father would take the car. I’m the oldest, the one who has always saved my brothers, and now I failed them. However, I will not ever allow any of my brothers to suffer the consequences for my stupidity. After a few seconds, the four of us get back into the car. No one speaks. What could we say? I think about the people we left behind. Were they someone’s mother and father? Were they good people who my father took from this world? When we get back to the house, the four of us are somber and unsure. We find our father passed out on the couch as if he didn’t just kill two people. I kick him because I’m so angry and I don’t care, but he grunts and goes back to sleep. “Now what?” “Now, we stay here until he wakes, and then we send his ass to jail.” The morning comes, and I’m the first to rise. I feel restless, so I head out of the house and to the cars, checking to make sure I didn’t dream the events of last night. But there are the scrapes and the dent on Sean’s bumper, the red paint has blue streaks down it, and the bumper is hanging off. I close my eyes, hating
