Bella's Beast by LeTeisha Newton

BELLA’S BEAST
     
     
    LeTeisha Newton
     
    Copyright © 2015
     
     
    Chapter One
     
    The
music was too loud and her feet were aching, but she just couldn’t sit down.
The rhythm pulsed through her like a living, breathing thing. Her heart pounded
as she shook her hair out and writhed to the thumping base and the pluck of the
guitar strings. “Catch Hell Blues” were the realest words she’d ever heard in
her life on a song, and she kept them close.
    Isabella
Thomas, better known as Bella, was sick to death of bullshit and fuck ups in
her life. Tired of asshole men who didn’t know how to treat her right, and
whiny men who didn’t need to have a dick, because they were way too much of a
pussy.
    Unfair, maybe, but so damn true.
    She
twisted around, dropping to her knees on the dance floor, and bent backwards.
She sang with the music, letting all her cares free as she shook her hair
around her, the strobe lights her dancing partners. One, two. One, two. As the bass beat came back she stepped with
it, laughing as others around her circled around her and watched.
    Yes, that’s
right. Watch me. Wish you were this damn free.
    “I’m
gonna catch hell!” she yelled to the other dancers and they whooped, flinging
their hands up into the air. Funny to think, just an hour before, she was
crying her eyes out, wracked with pain like she’d never known. Why? Because her
stupid, immature, and nerve-wrecking brother had, once again, taken money he
couldn’t repay. And, once again, she was going to have to pay it all back.
    For
now, though, she could forget about her brother’s gambling addiction, and the
loss she’d felt every time. Forget that he’d sent their mother into an early
grave. Their mother hadn’t been able to deal with Nathan’s gambling trouble.
Nathan had always been the problem child. He’d struggled in school, not because
he hadn’t been intelligent enough, but because he preferred the easier way out.
Momma had pushed him through, and got him into college, and it had only served
to flame Nathan’s rebellious nature. He’d leeched every dime he could from
their mom until she hadn’t anymore to give. Their father had died a hero,
taking a bullet for his partner while in the line of duty as a police officer.
He’d left them the house, and his pension. When Nathan took the house from
under her, betting against the deed he’d talked her into signing over to him, that had been the last straw. Anger at her brother
hadn’t stopped Bella from fending for him when she could. He was all she had
left, and she’d always felt, as his only living relative, she was responsible
for him. Their mother had asked her to, at the end.
    One
to always to take the blame, Bella had paid the first loan shark off, and then
others had circled around her. Like the cold-blooded animals they were, they
smelled blood, and she was a damn leaking faucet. Her savings, checking
account, and liquefiable assets were all but gone to save her brother’s life
because—God help her—she couldn’t live with his blood on her hands.
    And
Lord knew she’d seen plenty of it to give her nightmares.
    Tonight,
though, she was going to breathe easy and dance her troubles away. Because
tomorrow she was going to the one man that the loan sharks feared—one that was
a one man army, and she’d have to sell her soul to. She knew it, but if she had
her brother under his protection they wouldn’t dare to hurt him. Wouldn’t dare to come after her again. It was a last ditch
effort, but, this time, she didn’t have the money to pay for Nate’s release. If
she didn’t pay over two million dollars, a sum larger than it had ever been before, he’d die.
    Irritated,
though she may be, she loved her brother.
    She
smacked her gloss covered lips and flung her dark brown hair over her shoulder.
Drenched in sweat, it pelted the small of her back. Her jeans clung to her
thick thighs and rounded hips. She might be closer to a size sixteen than a
size ten,