Chapter Thirteen – Chuck
I emerged from the bedroom to see her sitting on her couch, Cinnamon climbing all over her as she stared off into space. I could tell at a glance that there was something up, and it worried me.
”Hey.”
Her head snapped around as soon as she heard me speak, eyes widening, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was just me.
”Oh, sorry,” she murmured. ”I’m just...kind of on-edge, that’s all.”
”Why’s that?” I asked gently. I had noticed when I had come around the night before that something seemed off with her. She was carrying herself differently, shoulders hunched up towards her ears, like she was hiding from something. I wasn’t used to seeing her like that. Normally, she had this bright, easy confidence to her that seemed to light up every room she walked into, but now? Now, something was bothering her. And I didn’t know exactly why she hadn’t told me about it yet.
”It doesn’t matter,” she sighed, shaking her head. ”I don’t want to...I mean, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate already...”
”Yeah, so it’s not going to ruin my day if you tell me what’s going on with you,” I said pointedly. She glanced up at me, smiling slightly.
”I guess so,” she admitted with a sigh, running a hand through her hair. ”I just...I don’t know where to start...”
”Wherever’s easiest,” I suggested, sliding down on to the couch next to her. Cinnamon instantly climbed into my lap, bumping his head against my hand insistently. Abbey’s lips curled up into a brief smile. I knew she liked seeing us together. I had never been much of an animal person, but this little cat was changing my mind.
”I spoke to this...girl,” she explained haltingly, tripping over her words, like she didn’t entirely want me to hear what she had to say.
”A girl?” I repeated, encouraging her to elaborate.
”Yeah, this girl who used to be involved with Franco,” she admitted, dropping her head slightly. ”Before...before he was with me, I guess.”
I stiffened. I didn’t like the way this was going. The thought of her delving back into her past, sifting through the pieces that her ex had left behind, didn’t sit right with me.
”Why?” I asked sharply. She sighed.
”Because...because I thought there might be some way to make sense of what was going on if I knew what he had done before me,” she admitted. ”When I came back from the Kennels the other night, when it was just me, I found there was another graffiti thing on the wall outside the apartment.”
”You didn’t mention that to me, he replied, voice even.” he ....
”I didn’t want to worry you unless I had a good reason,” she replied. ”I thought it might just be a coincidence. I talked to one of my friends from Lilyvale, and she put me in touch with his ex. I thought...I don’t know what I thought. I guess that I could actually get a better understanding of why he did all the shit that he did to me if I just...if I just listened to her and talked to her and shared it all with her.”
I leaned back in my seat, observing her quietly. I wasn’t pissed at her, but I was worried – worried there was more stuff she wasn’t telling me, and, if that was the case, just what else she might have been hiding.
”And did it help?” I asked. She shook her head.
”It just made me feel worse,” she admitted. ”I...she told me that the only reason that he stopped coming after her with all this shit was because he found me, and I started thinking, is that the only way I can leave this behind? If I wait for him to find some other woman to attach himself to? That doesn’t feel right.”
”Because it’s not,” I replied firmly. ”You shouldn’t have to just hold off until he finds someone else he can put all of this shit on to. You don’t deserve that.”
She swallowed heavily, and I reached out to take her hand, flipping her palm over on my knee and tracing out shapes against her skin. Her shoulders began to relax slightly as she watched my fingertips play on her hand, as though she could finally unwind.
”I just don’t know what to do,” she confessed, shaking her head. ”It all feels so...so messy.”
”That’s what he wants you to feel,” I replied. ”But you don’t have to let him get the better of you, you hear me? You don’t have to let him control you. You can stand up to him. You can fight this.”
She sighed.
”Yeah, maybe...”
”Not maybe,” I shot back, my voice hotter than I had intended it to be. ”You need to stand up against him. And I know you can. I know you can.”
Her eyes met mine finally, those soft jade irises burning into mine.
”And I know we can,” I assured her. ”I know the Dogs can handle what the cops can’t. That’s what we’re here for.”
”What, helping damsels in distress?” she asked, only mostly joking. I shook my head.
”You know that’s not how I see you,” I assured her. ”I never would. But...I know how it can be, how the cops can just let this shit slide. You don’t have to worry about that when you’re with me, you hear?”
She smiled.
”Yeah,” she murmured. ”I hear you.”
I squeezed her hand tightly.
”I’ll send my men out on patrol around the city,” I promised her. ”You give me his description and I’ll pass it on to them. There won’t be a damn place this fucker can hide, I promise you.”
The fervency in my voice caught me off-guard, and she tilted her head to the side.
”Why do you care about it so much?” she asked me.
”Because I care about you, Abbey.”
”No, but I mean, before the two of us...started this,” she replied. ”As soon as you found out about Franco, you wanted to help me with it. What happened? Did something go down in the past that made you...made you sensitive to this stuff?”
There it was, the chance to tell her about my sister. Some part of me wanted to just come out with it already – I knew I had hidden so much about my past from her, and this would have allowed her to string the pieces together, make it all fit in a way that made sense.
But, at the same time, when I looked into her eyes, I could see the exhaustion there – I could see how tired she was after everything she had been through, and I didn’t want to put more on her plate for her to handle, not now, not yet. She didn’t deserve to have to wade through my shit as well as hers.
I shook my head.
”I just knew you needed help,” I replied. ”It’s what I would have done for anyone.”
”And would you have done the rest of it for anyone, too?” she asked, smiling slightly. I grinned and pulled her in close to me.
”No way,” I promised her. ”Just for you, Abbey.”
I pressed a kiss against her temple, and she closed her eyes and rested her head against my chest. I smoothed my hand down her back, trying to get her to relax, though I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.
I wished she would have told me what she had done with that other girl, but I got it – there was still a part of her that wanted to handle all of this by herself, though she shouldn’t have had to. She shouldn’t have had to put herself through this alone. That was what Franco was counting on – what he was planning for. The last thing he expected was for her to get help from someone like me.
But when he was faced with a real threat, real trouble, he would think twice about the shit he was trying to pull. He would understand that he couldn’t just do whatever he wanted to these women in his life, use and abuse them as he saw fit. His bullshit was coming to an end – whether he liked it or not.
”Thank you,” Abbey mumbled against my chest, and I pulled back so I could hear her properly.
”What did you say?”
”Thank you,” she replied, reaching out to cup my face. ”I...I know this is a lot to take on. And I know I’m not good at asking for help. But I...I don’t think I would have been able to make it this far without you.”
I snorted.
”I think you’d have found a way,” I remarked. She shook her head.
”No, I...before we started all of this,” she admitted, her voice dropping slightly. ”I had just convinced myself that I had to go through all of this alone. I had told myself it was the best I could hope for. But...but having you around, I actually feel like I have a hope in hell of getting through all of this. Thank you.”
”Any time,” I replied, planting a kiss against her cheek, and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close to me again. I knew there was still so much we had to get through, so much we had to do to bring that psycho ex of hers to justice – but whatever it took, I was willing to do it.
I was in. And when I was in – whoever I was up against didn’t stand a fucking chance.