Escaping Trouble Read online

  Escaping Trouble

  by

  Dee Bridle

  For questions or comments about this book, please contact the author at: [email protected]

  Escaping Trouble

  Ivy is on the run from a dark and painful past and has been in hiding for years. Living with a mother who is addicted to drugs and abusive boyfriends, she is forced to live her days in constant fear. Her only hope is college where she is trying her hardest to make something of herself and to better her future.

  A hot tattooed fighter with a heart of gold was not in her plans. For the first time in years, her dead heart is starting to warm again, and she will do anything to stop it. After all, guys are trouble and not worth the pain.

  Noah is at college, trying to do something with his life, as well as enjoying the delights of what college has to offer in the hot girl department. He didn’t plan on falling for the beautiful, tattooed, and secretive girl who continually keeps her distance. For someone who has never been rejected by a girl in his life, it’s a hard pill to swallow.

  Once walls are broken down and dark secrets are revealed, Noah will have to do everything to keep Ivy safe from her past. He will have to rise up and fight the troubles that have been holding them both down forever.

  It’s Noah and Ivy, against the world.

  This is the second book in the Trouble series.

  ESCAPING TROUBLE

  Trouble Series – Book Two

  Noah & Ivy

  Dee Bridle

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  COMING SOON

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Emily (11 years ago)

  I had friends at school who thought I was fortunate. From the outside looking in, it probably looked like I was.

  I lived in a big house.

  I had a mother and a father.

  We had staff that took care of most mundane things.

  I had a brain and enjoyed school.

  I loved to learn, but school was also used as an escape. At school, nothing could get to me. I was safe for at least six hours of the twenty-four.

  The big house? Yes, it was a beautiful mansion, full of hidden doors with brass door knobs that would turn in the dead of the night, allowing the creation of dirty secrets.

  The staff? They did everything for us, even turning a blind eye at the most opportune moments.

  My mother and father? Yes, they had those titles, but that’s where the similarities ended from the other mothers and fathers whom I knew. Those well-known boundaries that every child was given had been blurred in my life.

  I was sure I was the only twelve-year-old in my class who knew what it felt like to get a fat lip from the smack of a back hand. I was sure I was the first to use makeup, not to look pretty, but to hide the bruises.

  Not many of my friends were locked inside their basements as punishment, sometimes for full weekends, without food or water.

  Many were not punished for making chewing noises at the dinner table, coming home from school a few minutes late, or expressing an opinion. Or, for hiding in the night from the real monsters in the dark.

  I was sure I was the only one in my class to have experienced other things. Things that should have only been shared between two consenting adults who love each other. My rights had been taken away, smothered by someone’s cruelty and obsession with their own dirty needs.

  I still couldn’t understand why I was different. Why did I get the parents who blurred the lines? What had I done to be so unlucky?

  It was my fault that he did what he did to me. I asked for it with my eyes and the way my body was made. That’s what he said, anyway. It made me pray for a different body, one that wouldn’t make him want to use mine.

  I believe my mother knew, but like the staff, she turned her attention on other, less dark things. It was easier that way.

  I hate him.

  I hate them all.

  But I hate him the most.

  He is a despicable, filthy animal.

  Chapter One

  Noah

  I wasn’t usually a morning person, but there was just something pretty awesome about being woken up by a girls tongue and warm mouth. It wasn’t the first time I had woken up with a girl between my legs and I hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

  In my drunken state, I had let this one sleep over last night, instead of calling her a cab before she fell asleep, like I did all the others. I hated the next morning conversation and the empty promises of a call or another night out together. It just wasn’t my thing. I loved girls and would never get enough. I just didn’t want to settle down with just one.

  I looked down at her and she smiled, like she was totally enjoying having me for breakfast. I couldn’t for the life of me, remember her name but she was too busy for conversation anyway.

  I heard a car horn and tuned it out. I was too occupied to care what it was about. It was way too early for Zac to be here and I knew Will was in the living room on his couch with my girl’s friend.

  I heard the car horn again.

  I closed my eyes, feeling close to the end, wanting the horn to fuck off.

  The horn went off again.

  I swore and sat up, her mouth making a popping sound as she released me. I left her on the bed, knowing that whoever was disturbing my morning fun was going to get hurt. I looked out the window to see my father in the driveway, standing next to a brand new black Jeep Wrangler.

  “What the –

  He leaned in through the open car window and pushed down on the horn again, clearly wanting me to go out there. With a frustrated sigh, I grabbed my jeans from the floor and pulled them up.

  “Where are you going?” the girl asked.

  I picked up my phone and noticed the time. Fuck. I had a lecture in twenty minutes.

  “You have to go,” I said, pulling on a t-shirt quickly and ignoring the naked beauty in the middle of my bed. “I’ve got to get to class.”

  “But I haven’t finished,” she said in surprise.

  Tell me about it, I thought, adjusting myself as the horn sounded again.

  “Sorry, gotta go,” I said grabbing my back pack and heading out of the bedroom.

  “So you’re just leaving me here?” she asked, following me out, still naked.

  I tried not to lose my balance as I shoved my sneakers on by the front door. I looked back at her and let out a quick shout to Will on the couch. He was his usual naked self, with a girl wrapped around him. He squinted over at me in a sleep daze.

  “Call them a cab, I have to get to class.”

  He gave a nod and closed his eyes again. Then both eyes opened as he focused on my girl’s naked body. I left them to it as I opened the front door and closed it behind me. It wouldn’t be the first time that Will had used his charm to add another girl to his already full couch.

  With my pack over my shoulder, I headed down the steps, trying my hardest to ignore the dissatisfied member in my pants and the bone-crushing headache between my ears.

  “I was wondering if you were still in bed,” said my father, clearly annoyed that I had kept him waiting.

  “Just in the shower,” I lied, heading towards him.

  As the blood slowly ret
urned to my brain, I focused on my father, wondering why he was still home at this time of the morning and standing next to a Jeep. We hardly spoke anymore and when we did, it was always full of unspoken tension.

  “This, my son, is yours,” he said running his hand over the hood.

  “Come again?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “Your mother and I are very…pleased that you are attending college. We wanted to show you by buying you this,” he said straightening the cuffs of his business shirt.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” I said going over to it and touching the gleaming back metal.

  “There is more from where this came from, son,” he said with a firm smile. “Keep working hard toward your future. You could be in your own apartment by the end of the year.”

  I didn’t move my gaze from the car. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that everything he said was loaded with more meaning. Nothing was ever for free. My father hadn’t awakened this morning to become a good-natured dad who wanted to make his son smile. He gave things and expected a hell of a lot more back.

  I hadn’t existed to him for the last few years. With no future prospects and no degree, I was considered hopeless—a tattooed, no-hoper who was pissing his life away with fighting, drugs, and girls. Now that I had been going to college for the last six months, I was obviously his son again.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Thanks, she’s a beauty,” I said.

  “Good,” he said curtly, passing the keys to me. “Remember, there is a desk waiting for you, Noah. There are kids younger than you, vying for a position in my company. It’s yours for the taking. You can make something of yourself, just like your brother has.”

  And there it was.

  I swallowed down a lump of anger and nodded, unable to say anything nice. The comparisons between my brother always hit a raw nerve. I hated it. I had been compared to the golden boy all of my life. The chasm between us had widened over the years, with the more tattoos I got and the more lies my perfect brother hid behind.

  “Enjoy,” said my father walking over to his Mercedes.

  He opened the car door and glanced back over at me.

  “You could have all this one day, Noah. Think about it next time you make a wrong decision. College was your first right decision in a very long time. Don’t let me down.”

  I felt the involuntary need to laugh and shout at him at the same time. I had been one big letdown for years according to him, and my unspoken words were bottled up in my throat, choking me. I tried to swallow them down as I watched him leave in the car. I couldn’t say what I really wanted to say, because he had just given me a car for fuck’s sake.

  I opened the car door and looked inside at my new present. I didn’t want the life my father had, and he would never understand that. I didn’t want to work for him or for my brother. I didn’t want a desk job. I had no idea what I wanted, but it wasn’t that. I was going to college for me, to further myself. Who the fuck knew where I would end up? I’d worry about that in a few years when it was all over.

  I climbed into the car and turned the engine on. Fuck me, it was a beast of a thing. I hated everything my father stood for, but I really liked my new car.

  I turned the stereo on and pressed for my favorite station, a metal band now blaring out of the speakers.

  Nice.

  I threw my pack onto the seat beside me and shut the door. I revved the engine a little and then reversed out. I’d have to show Zac and Will later tonight.

  Ivy

  The alarm on my phone pierced my dreamless sleep, and I quickly shot out my hand to turn it off. With a yawn, I opened my eyes and looked up at the dirty ceiling above me. The apartment was quiet except for the people on the other side of the wall arguing about something.

  I climbed out of my sleeping bag on the floor and stretched my back with a wince. I looked at my phone, noting the time. I had managed to get three hours sleep and now I had a lecture to get to in exactly one hour.

  I searched for some clothes that were not waiting to be washed in my bag and realized I would have to wear what I had on. The jeans and T-shirt would stretch at least another couple of days until I could get to the laundromat.

  There was a sudden scream and then a thump, and I cringed at the neighbors. This place was the pits, an old council estate that had been left to rot with the worst type of lowlifes scattered around inside like cockroaches.

  I tried to block the noises by focusing on my college bag, my only hope. I was going to get out of this life. My life was contained in this one bag, with notebooks from my classes and textbooks from the library. I was going to make myself a better person with a brighter future, and I refused to stay in the hell that my life had become.

  I lived out of my bag, in a dirty used sleeping bag that had seen better days on the floor in my mother’s boyfriend’s place. He was a pig of a man, only ever thinking of himself and where to get his next high. Very much like my mother. Drugs had ruined her, had ruined everything.

  I longed for something different. I longed for safety, for protection from her boyfriend’s wandering, abusive hands. Every night when I got home from my night job, I yearned to fall asleep in my own warm bed without bracing myself for terror. I used to have a warm bed when I was a lot younger but even then, it had never been safe. Bad things happened in the dead quiet of the night…

  I pulled my bag over my shoulder and pocketed my phone, listening for any noise coming from the other side of the door. They were either in a drug-induced sleep or hadn’t come back home yet, and I flinched as my stomach grumbled loudly in the silence. I hadn’t eaten properly for a couple of days, and it felt like my stomach was trying to eat itself. I headed out silently, seeing the untouched messy mattress in the room across from me, knowing they hadn’t come home yet. I quickly headed out, closing the door and the mess of our lives behind me.

  Old cooking smells hit me in the hallway, and I scrunched my nose and tried not to breathe. They were mixed with the scent of chemicals, and I knew there was a meth lab nearby. It did great business, especially from our apartment.

  I headed out of the apartment block as fast as I could, focusing on my destination—my saving grace. College would help change my life, and I would make something of myself. I would not end up like my mother and rely on shady boyfriends for the rest of my life. I had a brain, and I just needed an opportunity to use it.

  I jumped on a tram and looked for ticket inspectors, seeing I was fine until the next stop at least. I had my transport card in my bag and never used it unless I had to due to the cost. I used the opportunity to run my fingers through my dark red hair and blunt fringe that I cut myself. It was the best I could do under the circumstances.

  It wasn’t long before I was at Shelborne College and joining the crowds, happily losing myself amongst them. Here, during the day, I was just another college student. I wasn’t the girl who slept in public housing, who shared air with my mother’s sleazy boyfriend and his disgusting friends. I wasn’t the girl who worked all night in a bar for some cash to pay for college supplies and the rent of the rat hole.

  I was just a girl.

  No one knew me, no one bothered me, and for the daylight hours, I had a certain peace.

  My stomach rumbled again, and I knew I had to fix it before the lecture, hoping it didn’t make me late as this particular professor hated tardiness. I dug into my money stash, which was a space carved inside the pages of a text book and took out some money. It hurt to waste it on an overpriced muffin at the cafeteria, but I had to eat on the run. I hid the money I made from the bar in the text book as it was the only place my mother and her boyfriend wouldn’t look when they went through my things. They would always try to steal my money to pay for their drugs, beers, and cigarettes.

  Taking a bite into my muffin and holding a small coffee in my hand, I rushed to my first lecture, knowing I was now going to be late. I had wasted money to shut my stomach up, and I was annoyed with myself because of it.
These two items would have to last me until tomorrow now. I weaved my way around the students who seemed to be everywhere, walking to classes, chatting about their weekends, shouting out to each other, and getting in my way. I got through as quickly as I could and reached the double doors to the lecture theatre that were now closed.

  “Damn it,” I muttered, my hands going out to open it while they were both full. I shoved the muffin into my mouth and held it there with my teeth as I went to open the door with my now free hand.

  “Here, I got it,” said a deep voice behind me as a tattooed hand went over mine and pushed the door handle down. I flinched from the touch, and the muffin fell from my mouth and rolled to the floor.

  “Shit,” I said under my breath, looking at the muffin, now sharing the floor with at least a hundred different footprints from this morning alone. I knew I couldn’t pick it back up, even though it was my only food for the rest of the day. I glanced up to see the owner of the hand looking at me and I paused. I was sure my heart actually skipped a beat as I became lost in deep brown eyes that seemed to encase me. He was standing so close, that it felt almost intimate and I had no idea why I wasn’t moving or pushing him out of the way.

  “Sorry about your breakfast,” he murmured, his lips starting to curve into a smile.

  The annoyance over the muffin dispersed quickly, and I felt like I had been hit over the head with something heavy. He was at least six-foot-three and deliciously good-looking as he stared down at me. I couldn’t move as I gazed up at him; he was mesmerizing. His light brown, dirty blond hair was messily disheveled on his head and his arms were intricately covered in tattoos. Broad, muscled shoulders stretched under a fitted T-shirt, making me suddenly want to see the rest of him. I felt anticipation tingle over my skin, like the moment just before getting a tattoo, when the needle hovered over the skin. He smelt…nice, like expensive aftershave, and for a split second, I instinctively wanted to move even closer into him.

  “I’ll get you another one,” he offered, his hand still on the door.

  His voice broke my gaze, and I cleared my head instantly. This wasn’t me, I didn’t do this type of thing. No one here interested me and I sure as hell didn’t have time for anyone in my life. I was here to learn and better myself. No guys. They only ended up hurting you. I felt the familiar frown return to my face.