Chapter 12
ALEX
The hardwood under my feet burned through my skin, as if Zach’s presence in the cellar had the power to set the cabin on fire. Restless energy zinged along my nerve endings. I hadn’t thought of calling the cops. Instead, I’d called Jax from Rafe’s phone an hour ago.
Several more would slip by before he arrived, because he and Angel were in California.
I’d taken a shower in the bathroom on the main floor, desperate to wash Zach off from last night, but I hadn’t found the courage yet to venture upstairs to the loft bedroom to search for clothing.
Too many memories.
Some amazingly good, others horrifyingly bad.
Closing my eyes, I drew in a breath and held it, envisioning climbing those stairs. The idea of entering my own bedroom shouldn’t cause so much anxiety, but that room held so much pain within its unassuming walls.
Rafe and I had consummated our marriage within that space.
And Zach had destroyed the memory by raping me.
With a shake of my head, I exhaled in a rush.
This was ridiculous. Zach was locked up downstairs, incapable of hurting me.
Hell, he could be dead by now for all I knew.
It wasn’t like I’d checked on him in the last hour.
I was sure Jax would have words for Zach when he got here, but until then, I didn’t care if I ever set eyes on Zach again.
But I did care about covering my nakedness.
After spending the past several days in the nude, the idea of clothing was a luxurious concept.
Pulling another breath deep into my lungs, I climbed the first step, unsure of how I’d handle the first sight of the loft bedroom now that I’d broken free of Zach.
My heartbeat tripled at the threshold, hands clutching the doorframe for support.
Thankfully, a blanket of numbness shielded me from emotion, allowing me the few precious seconds I needed to find a change of clothing in the unlocked drawers and return downstairs.
I dressed in haste as the sun beamed on my head through the windows in the living room.
How the sky could be so bright and blue on a day like this, I didn’t know. The absence of Rafe was a tangible entity haunting me, causing a crushing pain in my chest. I slid to the floor next to the windows and watched the sun slowly sink toward the horizon.
That’s where Jax and Angel found me hours later, hollowed on the inside.
“What happened?” Jax crouched in front of me, his hand covering mine.
I lifted my head and met the inquiry in his blue gaze. “He destroyed everything.”
Jax blinked before gazing around the cabin, confusion drawing his brows together. His eyes settled on me again in silent question.
“Inside me,” I rasped through the lump in my throat. I laced our fingers and brought our entwined hands to my chest, where my heart throbbed underneath. “He destroyed me here.” My lashes fluttered, dispensing despair down my cheeks. “We were so fucking happy, Jax. So happy…”
Sucking in a quick breath, Jax pulled me into his arms. “Zach’s in the cellar?”
Through my sobs, I nodded. “I don’t kn-know where Rafe is.”
Jax inched back, and I noticed Angel standing behind him with a steaming mug gripped between her hands. “I made you some tea.”
“Th-thank you,” I said, accepting the mug as Jax settled beside me.
“I’ll bring Rafe home. I promise you that.” Jax brushed the shaggy hair from his forehead. “I need you to tell me everything you know.”
I told him how I’d awoken the morning after the wedding and found Zach in the kitchen. Told him everything Zach had bragged about—Shelton, Rafe’s son, Zach’s plan to take me off the island.
Every fucking detail except for the rapes.
But Jax didn’t press me for those, and for that, I was grateful because recounting what Zach had done would likely send me into a worse breakdown.
Digging his cell out of the pocket of his jeans, Jax rose to his feet. “I’m going to make some calls.” He nodded in Angel’s direction. “Will you stay with her while I go downstairs?”
“Sure.” Angel’s soft voice whispered through my head as she took the spot Jax had just vacated. “Do you need anything?”
“I just need my husband back.”
“Jax will find him. I know he will.”
“How…how long has it been since the wedding?”
She raised a perfectly arched brow. “You don’t know?”
“I lost count.”
“It’s been six days.”
Six days.
It felt longer.
It felt like a fucking lifetime. Unable to speak, I took a sip of the tea, hoping it would sooth the ache in my throat.
She drew her knees to her chest. “How long have you been sitting here?”
I glanced through the windows at the dark sky. The sun had set long before Jax and Angel arrived. “All day, I guess.”
We sat in silence for a while, and that’s one of the things I liked about her. We didn’t need words to fill the endless space between us. She’d been through her own brand of hell, so she knew more than most people about the horrors of trauma.
She knew that sometimes the best thing you could do for someone was offer silent support.
“Are you hungry?”
I didn’t feel hungry, but there’d been a dull cramp in my belly for days from lack of food and the stress of Zach’s mind games. “I guess I am.”
She rose to her feet and held out a hand. “C’mon. I’ll make you something.” Her blue gaze lowered to my abdomen. “You should eat. If not for you then for the baby.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she nibbled on her lip, brows furrowing in concern. “I didn’t even ask if…if everything’s okay?”
“The baby’s fine,” I said, using her offered hand to hoist myself to my feet. “But I haven’t told anyone yet.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
She’d told me as much the day I’d taken the pregnancy test, and she’d been with me. There were few people in this world I trusted, but Angel was definitely one of them.
We entered the kitchen, and she skidded to a stop, attention zeroing in on the floor where I’d spilled Zach’s blood. “What happened here?” she asked, lifting her gaze to mine, eyes wide.
“It’s Zach’s. I hit him over the head with a skillet.” I paused long enough to let out a shuddery breath. “That’s how I got him into the cellar.”
That was how I’d saved my own ass, and probably Rafe’s as well, because if he were capable of coming home, he would have done so by now.
It was that disquiet realization, sneaking up on me with the power of a semi, that weakened my knees.
Stepping over the blood, I crumpled onto the bench seat before I lost the strength to stand.
“Do you have a mop? I can clean it up.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know where everything is. Just leave it.” Besides, that crimson-smeared floor was evidence of my survival.
Evidence that this wasn’t a dream.
Angel didn’t say anything as she began perusing the cupboards and the fridge, but I didn’t miss the stricken expression taking hold of her features, gaze landing on the blood every few seconds.
But I’d made it. I was sitting here, about to eat dinner, fully clothed and free of Zach. On the outside, I didn’t look any different.
The inside was a whole other matter.
Zach had left his imprint, seared new scars into my soul, pulled off scabs from old wounds I thought had healed.
“I’m not very good in the kitchen,” she said, filling a pot with water.
“That’s okay. Neither am I.”
She made boxed mac and cheese, and nothing had ever tasted so good—that’s when I realized how starved I was. I’d finished off a second bowl when Jax appeared from the cellar.
I dropped my fork, and Angel froze.
He stood in the archway, face spattered in blood, bruised knuckles forming fists at his sides.
“D-did you kill him?” I asked, shifting on the bench seat.
His jaw hardened. “No, he’ll live…for now.” With a kind of nonchalance I didn’t feel, Jax sauntered to the sink and washed his face, as if he’d come in from working in the yard. “But I know where to find Rafe.”
My heart did a jig in my chest. “Zach told you where he is?”
“Asshole wants to live, so he spilled.” He switched off the faucet and turned, leaning against the counter. “Help will be here in the morning. By this time tomorrow, we should be close to getting our guy back.”