Chapter 31
Did everyone lie and keep secrets? The question looped in my mind as I unstrapped Eve from her car seat and helped her to her feet. She took off running toward our doorstep, and I scrambled to catch up with her, despising my state of distraction.
“Eve, wait for mommy.” I felt sick on the inside, disoriented, as if someone had turned me upside down and let all sense of reality tumble out. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. It was all garbled words and phrases coming together in my head, and none of it made sense.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?”
Even she could pick up on my chaotic state of mind.
“Nothing, baby.” I faked a smile for her sake and pushed the door open into our dark apartment.
I flicked on the light, so distracted that I didn’t realize anything was wrong until it was too late.
The cold, hard barrel of a gun pressed into the back of my head, and though I couldn’t see him, I immediately recognized the familiarity of his body pressing against my backside.
“Go to your room, Eve,” he ordered. “I need to talk to mommy for a while.”
Her wide eyes met mine, much too knowing for a three-year-old. A tear fell down my cheek as I forced another smile. “It’s okay. Go. I bought you a doll. It’s on your bed.”
She hesitated, but the promise of a new toy lured her to safety.
Neither of us moved or said a word at first. The scent of his cologne, tarnished by the stench of whiskey, burned my nose. I swallowed the vomit rising in my throat. “What do you want?”
“What do you think I want?” he snapped.
“I don’t know.”
He snorted. “Don’t play dumb. You know I can’t stand it when you lie.”
“I’m not lying. Please…don’t hurt us.” He nudged the barrel into my scalp, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I’d never hurt my daughter, but you’re gonna pay.” He pushed me further into the living room, but a knock on the front door halted him. “Fuck.” Changing tactics, he tugged me in the direction of the door and folded his large body in the corner, keeping the gun trained on me. “Expecting someone?”
I shook my head.
“Good. Get rid of them.” His gaze, colorless in a face that was too quick to deceive, leveled me. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
I turned the handle and peered out, and as I met Gage’s stare, every part of me froze. I wanted to beg for his help, but Rick still had his gun pressed into my back.
“We’re not done yet, Kayla,” Gage leaned forward. “You’re nuts if you think you can show up on my doorstep and pretend it didn’t happen.”
I raised my hand to ward him off. “I just got home with Eve. Can we talk about this another time?”
His eyes narrowed and then traveled the length of my body. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
His attention darted behind me, and he scanned the small space of my foyer.
“You need to leave.” I slammed the door.
“Smooth move,” Rick admonished. “You suck at acting normal.” He pushed me into the living room and toward the couch. “You better hope he doesn’t come back.” Knocking me to my knees, he muttered, “Stubborn whore.”
“Don’t do this. Please.”
“Shut up.” He bent me over the cushion and jerked my hands behind my back.
“Please, Rick.”
Blinding pain exploded at my temple. “I said shut up.”
“Please,” I begged again as he secured my wrists with rope.
He whacked me on the other side of the head and grabbed my hair, pulling tight. “Did you enjoy fucking him?”
“He forced me.”
“But you liked it, didn’t you? You keep going back.”
I struggled to breathe, but my fear was too intense.
“Did your fucking vows mean nothing? You think you can forget about me so easily?”
“No,” I choked. “I haven’t forgotten you.”
He laughed, a sound that struck more terror in me than any strike from Gage.
“I’ll make sure you don’t forget me.” He got up, and his shoes thudded across the carpet.
He dragged a chair to Eve’s door and wedged it underneath the handle.
“You didn’t think I’d miss my daughter’s homecoming, did you?
” The floor vibrated as he neared. “You and me are gonna celebrate all right. You owe me three years of fucking, Kayla.”
He kneeled behind me and wrenched up my skirt, and I started sobbing, barely able to see through my tears. “Don’t do this—”
“Did he fuck you in the ass? I hear he has a thing for that.”
He shoved my face into the cushion, smothering my cries, and suddenly the memories flooded me.
I’d almost forgotten how many times he’d choked me, how he’d smothered me with a pillow on a nightly basis.
So many times I thought I was going to die, but then he’d allow me a gasp of air before continuing his suffocation methods.
“I bet he did do you up the ass.” He pushed my legs together, tugged my panties down, and I heard the slide of a zipper.
I struggled, my lungs burning for life as the futility of my situation fisted my heart.
He pulled my head up, allowed me a shallow breath, and then forced my face into the cushion again.
I was going to die. The certainty of it gripped me, and I was no longer scared of being raped.
Death was far worse. Death would take me away from Eve.
Eve.
Would he leave me like this? Lifeless for her to find?
Or would he disappear with her?
Head up…another gasp of air…then lightheaded darkness.
A loud, splintering crash tore through the apartment, and his hold on my head lifted.
With a hoarse sob, I jerked my face up and sucked in air.
Sucked it in until my lungs were full and near bursting.
A grunt sounded, followed by a bang against the wall, and I rolled around to find Gage and my ex locked in a struggle.
Eve screamed from her bedroom, tiny fists pounding on the door, and the chair shook under the force.
I yanked at the rope binding my wrists, desperate to get to her, but the binding wouldn’t budge.
“Stop it!” I yelled as the barrel inched toward Gage’s head.
They were engaged in a war, both exerting their strength to gain control of the gun.
Gage was taller, but Rick had some bulk on him.
He managed to kick free of Rick’s hold for a moment, and Rick jumped to his feet and swung the gun in my direction.
Time stopped as I stared past the barrel into his cold eyes.
Nothing lurked in their depths; no regret, no anger. Just…nothing.
How had I missed this side of him all those years ago? The side of him that ignored his daughter’s screams as he prepared to kill me once and for all?
“Please,” I whispered, one last plea for mercy.
He cocked the gun.
Gage leaped into action, face distorted in the scariest mask of rage I’d ever seen.
He charged Rick, a bull with red in his sights.
They fell to the floor again, rolling, fists pounding, frantic fingers scrambling in a tug-of-war for the gun.
The blast tore through the air just as the blaring sirens became noticeable.
Rick got to his feet and staggered back. He focused on the blood swallowing the front of his jacket, and for a moment he was entranced by it, the gun dangling from his fingers in distraction. And then he focused his attention on the broken door. The screeching sirens grew louder with every second.
He bolted, and I took in Gage’s still form lying a few feet from me, watched the crimson spread across my carpet, and the sirens drowned out the hysterical cries of an innocent three-year-old.
And I welcomed blackness.