22. Holly
22
HOLLY
The worst of winter gave way to the early signs of spring. With the snow melting and sprigs of grass peeking through on my lawn, I had mixed feelings of eagerness for warm weather and the dread of how ugly it would look with all the mud coating the ground as the snow melted all over.
Asher had removed the plow from the front of his truck and stored the snowblower in his garage, insisting that we didn’t need to take up space in my garage. Not that I needed to worry about ever having a cold vehicle. Every morning, Asher would open the garage and start my SUV so it was nice and warm by the time I had to leave for work. I insisted it wasn’t necessary, but that never worked on him. My comfort was all that mattered to him.
And I had to admit, I liked that about him.
“I am so late!” I cried, running through the house in my boots, grabbing my keys as I tossed my purse over my shoulder and grabbed my work bag from the floor.
“Slow down,” Asher grumbled, still drinking his coffee.
“I told Noelle I would be there early, and I’m already late!”
“She has a key.”
“I know, but she never uses it!”
He held out my travel mug for me as he stood by the garage door, waiting with the door open. As my heels clacked on the floor, I grabbed the mug and pressed a kiss to his lips as I hurried down the steps to the garage, nearly tripping in the process.
Asher grabbed my arm, keeping me upright as my ankle wobbled. “Can you please slow down?”
“I am so late.”
“You’ve already said that much. Just don’t twist your ankle trying to get there on time.”
I would have saluted him if I had a free arm, but I didn’t, so I hurried to my SUV and tossed my things inside. Asher had already moved his truck since he knew I had to leave early today. He was thoughtful like that. I was on the road just a few seconds later, flying down the road to work.
I hit way too much traffic and nearly every stoplight along the way, but the real kicker was when I was on the highway and suddenly felt a decrease in speed.
“What the hell?”
I looked down at my gauges and cursed every other car still moving when I saw I had a flat tire. How was it even possible to not feel I had a flat tire? I pulled to the side of the road and turned on my blinkers, then got out to check out the damage to the passenger-side rear tire.
“Holy shit.” It was completely flat.
I knew how to change a tire, but hadn’t done it in years. I doubted I could get it done in less than a half hour. Truthfully, it would probably take longer. And I did have a big, strong boyfriend who would probably kill me if I didn’t call him first.
I hurried back to the driver’s side and hopped in, calling him.
“Baby.”
“Hey. Um…I have a bit of a situation.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a flat tire.”
“Why didn’t you go to the gas station and get it filled?”
“Because there was no low pressure light. It just…died.”
“The tire died?” he said sarcastically.
I ground my teeth, trying not to let my irritation get the better of me. “Yes, it just died.”
“Baby, I hate to break it to you, but tires don’t usually just die.”
“Well, this one did.”
He sighed dramatically. “Alright, stay where you are and lock the doors. I’ll be there soon.”
“Wait, I haven’t even told you where I am.”
He chuckled, amused by that somehow. “Remember, you shared your phone location with me?”
“No.” That didn’t sound familiar to me at all.
“Well, I may have gone into your phone and done it for you.”
“You did what?”
“Hey, you have mine, too.”
“Oh.” Well, I guess that made it a little better. Still…
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Anything for you, baby.”
I hung up and locked the doors as he asked, waiting on the side of the road with nothing better to do at the moment than flip through the radio stations. I sent a text message to Noelle, pleading with her to grant me mercy for my lateness. I promised her hot cocoa every day for the rest of the month and a date with Wyatt—even though I swore I wouldn’t set them up.
Apparently, Asher had already let it slip that Wyatt was interested.
Sighing, I checked my phone, trying to find this locator thing Asher was talking about. I had no idea how any of it worked, and it took some Googling to figure out how to find it. But finally, after about ten minutes, I was pleased to say that I was in the know about this locator thingy and could see Asher was just minutes away.
“Look at that. I can see him moving and everything,” I chuckled. “It’s like it’s in real?—”
Glass sprayed across my lap as the driver’s side window was shattered. I screamed, flinching away from the figure looming outside the window, but even as I moved, I knew it was too late. I unlatched my belt, scrambling to get into the passenger seat, but whoever was out there grabbed me by the coat and then the hair, dragging me back. I screamed, kicking and thrashing with everything in me as I was pulled through the broken window.
Glass scraped across my skin painfully, cutting into my stomach. But I didn’t think of the pain as I tried to hook my boot into the steering wheel to keep from being taken. “Help!” I shouted over and over, crying out desperately to anyone who could hear me. My throat was raw from the savage abuse it was taking, but I couldn’t stop, not when it might save my life.
“Stupid bitch!”
My body was torn from the vehicle, my foot no longer able to hold me to the vehicle. The man tossed me to the ground, then grabbed a fist full of my hair and slammed his meaty fist into my face several times before I blacked out and hit the ground.
Rough hands grabbed at me, tearing at my coat, but I was too out of it to move even the slightest bit. My body jerked and I was rolled over. I pried my eyes open, staring into the horrifying, soulless eyes of my attacker as he searched me for God knows what.
And then…and then he was gone. Swept off me in a flash. I thought maybe it was all a dream until I heard grunting and a pained cry. Mustering strength I didn’t have, I rolled myself to the side and rested my head on the ground. But what I saw couldn’t be right. Asher was here, but he was unlike the man I knew.
Angry and terrifyingly strong, he picked the man up and tossed him against my SUV with such ease that I wondered how he hadn’t broken my body during sex. Each time he hit the man, my attacker’s head snapped to the side. A tooth went flying, blood filled his mouth, bones cracked…I had to close my eyes to fight the nausea swirling in my stomach. I wasn’t sure if it was because of what I was witnessing or because of the massive amount of pain I was in.
Then I heard the sirens and my heart stopped for just a second.
Asher .
My eyes flew open and I pushed up with everything in me, crying out when my body protested the movement. But it was enough. It caught Asher’s attention and he dropped the man to the ground, leaving him in a bloody heap as he raced over to me.
He was on his knees in seconds, his face slanted in worry as he held me up, cradling me in his arms. “Baby, tell me where it hurts.”
I couldn’t speak. It hurt everywhere. I just wanted him to stop hitting that man before the cops showed up and he got arrested. I buried my face in his chest and took a shuddering breath, trying my best not to panic at what I had just witnessed. I shoved the attack to the back of my mind and focused on the man holding me because whatever I just saw, I knew there was something about him he was hiding.