Chapter 8 Sera #3
“Respect? Like ditching me and then acting like I should apologize? And doubling down on insulting my family.”
Weeks—months—of small resentments bubble up, and my vision blurs.
“Yes,” he snarls, advancing. “Respect.”
My gut senses the threat before my brain, and I take a step back, palms lifting. “You’re being crazy.”
His hands grab my arms, fingers digging in hard enough to hurt. He yanks me forward, momentum throwing me off balance, and then he throws me backward. My back hits the sofa, breath knocked out of me in a sharp gasp.
“What the fuck?” Panic spikes in my veins as his heavy weight lands on me. “Get off!”
I kick furiously, trying to dislodge him as he leans down, breath hot against my ear, grip tightening.
“Yeah,” he murmurs, voice suddenly vicious. “Fight me.” His eyes hood as lust lights his eyes.
My skin crawls, and I want to throw up. This can’t be real.
“This isn’t funny,” I gasp, trying to shove him away.
He grips my shirt, yanking fabric so hard I hear threads tear. “You love this,” he whispers. “You love pushing until I snap. Big bad bitch. Show me how tough you are now.”
Fear slams into me full force. Oh my god, he’s not playing.
“Stop,” I shout, bucking frantically.
He presses closer, words hissing against my cheek. “You belong to me.”
My heart is hammering so hard it feels like it might burst, and then his mouth crushes mine, grinding the skin against my teeth until I taste blood.
The world narrows to what my senses tell me—his weight against my chest, the way my lungs burn because I can’t get a full breath, the pain in my wrist where he’s twisting, the blood in my mouth.
My thoughts fracture.
Clamping hard on his lip with my teeth, I lock my jaw until he screeches with pain and rears back enough for me to get the angle I need. My free fist catches him hard in his Adam’s apple, and as he reels back choking, I’m already off the sofa, my heel catching him in the sternum as he falls back.
I scramble sideways, heart pounding, every nerve on fire. Survival is my driving force.
Aaron lunges again, anger flashing across his face, as I race past him.
I don’t think. Diving for my purse, my fingers are clumsy. My breaths are coming in short, panicked bursts, but when my grip closes on my gun, the world slows. I spin, bring it up, aim it at Aaron’s chest. The safety flips off with a loud click.
He freezes, blood flowing freely from his lip.
For a long moment, the silence is deafening.
My arms tremble. Tears stream down my face, hot and unstoppable. My whole body is shaking, but I’m so fucking grateful in that moment for the hours of training Vincent and Brady insisted on.
“Get out,” I whisper.
“Sera,” he says.
Yeah, he’s worried now. Motherfucker.
“I’m sorry if I was rough. I got carried away...”
The words make my stomach twist violently.
“Get out.”
His eyes are wide when he takes a step toward me. “Let’s just take a beat, don’t do something you’ll regret… I’m sor—”
“Get the fuck out,” I scream. “Or I will shoot you. I’m not playing, Aaron. Get the fuck out of my house!”
I try to process the confused expression on his face, but I keep my gaze on his chest, recalling my lessons.
“Center mass—any shift tells you which way they’re going.”
I’d thought my brother’s constant drills were overkill, but right now… I suck in a deep breath and narrow my eyes.
Aaron must see I’m serious because, with his hands still up, he backs away slowly.
Not two seconds after the door closes, I’ve crossed the room and locked it.
I set my alarm and then run through the house checking the windows and doors—heart still racing, hands still shaking.
I can hear him outside my door. “I need my keys, Sera.”
“If you’re not gone in fifteen seconds, I’m calling the cops. Let’s see how that works for your family’s legacy.”
“Sera…”
I don’t answer. I don’t know how he got home, but in the morning his car is gone.
I sit upright all night with the gun in my lap, my mind replaying every second, trying to understand how the last year came to this.
Did I miss something? Do something wrong? Did I overreact?
He loves me. I didn’t misunderstand that… He wanted me. He could have anyone…
He tried to rape you, Sera. My rational brain kicks in. You need to call the police.
I pick at my cuticles, staring at my phone.
I have no proof. My brother had been a cop, so I know how things work.
There’s nothing they can do. Other than a red mark on my wrist, I have no proof he assaulted me.
It will be a he said/she said situation.
And with the connections and money his family has. ..
Call Brady.
The skin at the edge of my nail tears.
No, I’ve spent my whole life watching him rescue our mother. I won’t be that for him.
Angrily, I swipe tears away. I’m not helpless. I know what to do.
“But it didn’t matter. I got the restraining order.” My voice is hoarse. “He threatened me with vile things over messaging apps. I knew to take a screenshot. But I foolishly thought the piece of paper would be enough to stop him.”
Angela, one of the older women, offers me a tissue. “You did everything they tell us to do. There wasn’t anything else you could’ve done.”
I give her a weak smile. She means well even if she doesn’t know how wrong she is. There is more I could have done. I have resources most don’t.
I have my brother and an entire security firm willing to cross any line to make sure Aaron never hurt me again. But I’d been so embarrassed, so determined to handle it on my own, I hadn’t told anyone what was happening.
The first my brother knew about Aaron’s stalking was when the first responders called him from my phone. After that… Brady did what I’d always known he would. But Aaron’s death doesn’t weigh on my conscience.
But it was the part of the story I couldn’t share with these women.
“What happened to him?” Hannah asks quietly. At some point she’d taken my hand in hers, and I squeeze, grateful for the support.
I make a face. “The same thing that always happens when rich men are accused. He’d been smart enough to cut the power to my security system, and he wore a mask, so I couldn’t say for sure it was him.
By the time the police went to his house to question him, his brother was there offering an alibi.
” I shrug like it doesn’t matter. “With their money, they put up a wall of lawyers. He was attacked in a parking lot, and his parents were convinced I was behind it. He left town soon after.”
“I’m so sorry,” Bree, a thirty-year-old mom, breathes. “About…”
I can feel her eyes on my scars, and I feel my walls click back into place.
“It’s okay,” I assure her with a brittle smile.
“Could have been so much worse.” A phrase I’ve repeated dozens of times.
“It was cold out, so I had a coat on. And I heard him at the last second, so I had time to throw my arm up, and my neighbor was letting his dog out and rushed over with the hose. If not…”
I try not to think about how much worse my injuries would have been if Diego hadn’t been letting Zeus out and heard my screams.
Most of that period of time, just before and after the attack, is blank, but I’ve been told that it was Diego’s quick intervention with the garden hose that saved me from even worse disfigurement.
Dr. Swan meets my eyes and gives me a small nod. I’m sure she’s pleased with herself. It’s taken me almost two months to open up. The altercation with Joelle knocked something loose. And though I didn’t want to admit it… I feel better having shared it.
I listen as the other women give brief updates on their lives, but my word vomit took up most of the allotted time, and soon we’re back in Hannah’s car.
“I want to say I’m sorry that happened to you, but I don’t think you want to hear it,” she finally says into the quiet of the car.
I think about it for a minute. In the past, those words, even with the best of intentions, rubbed me raw.
Maybe it’s because Hannah has suffered, too, or if after tonight, it feels like the wound has finally been lanced and some of the poison has drained away.
It doesn’t bother me the same way it usually does.
“Thank you.”
She flicks the stalk next to her steering wheel, and the click of her turn signal sounds unnaturally loud as she prepares to turn into my parking lot.
“You don’t seem like you’re still afraid of him.” Her voice is careful. “I wish I could get that peace.”
“I’m not.”
When she pulls to a stop under the portico, she looks at me. Her eyes show more understanding than I expect. “You said he left town.” I hold still. “He’s not coming back, is he?”
I make my face blank, and she whispers. “Super-secret ninja shit. Good for you.” I stop breathing. Her hand rests on mine in my lap, and it takes everything in me not to recoil. “It’s okay. If I could get rid of...”
“I didn’t get rid of Aaron.” I say firmly, pulling my hand free and unlatching my belt.
She rolls her eyes. “Your brother?”
Fuck. I rack my brain trying to think what I’ve let slip. I won’t let anything happen to my brother, for what he did for me.
“I understand why you’d jump to that conclusion, but it’s not true.” I say evenly and meet her eyes.
“And none of the guys you work with did anything when they found out he hurt you?” She looks at me like ‘come on’.
I keep my tone even. “No.”
She arches a brow, unconvinced.
“Maybe they wanted to, but Aaron left town. There wasn’t much to do after that.”
“Convenient.”
“I don’t know where Aaron is or what he’s doing. Last I heard, he’s bopping around the globe on his trust fund. His family might think I’m behind some scheme to keep him away or whatever, but it’s not true.”
“Hang on a sec,” Hannah says as I reach for the door handle.
I don’t want to talk about this anymore, but I quickly realize it’s not me that has her attention. She’s staring at Liev as he walks toward the car.
I can understand her hesitation. He looks scary as hell. But also, hot. Really, really hot in a grey sweater, jeans, and a pea coat.
Yes. Please.
“It’s okay, I say, pushing the door open. “I know him.”
“You know him?” Hannah looks at me with wide eyes before going back to Liev as he grows closer. “That tattoo on his neck means…”
“From work,” I interrupt quickly. But now my gaze takes in the three bars above the crown that covers the side of his neck, and for the first time, I wonder what it means.
A strange expression crosses her face, but I say a quick goodbye.
Liev glances at the car before his lips lift in a smile and discreetly flips me off with his hand in front of his thigh.
A warm rush of something rushes through me, and I grin before raising my own middle finger. I’m sure Hannah will have questions about this odd greeting, but I feel giddy, and it’s so unusual I don’t care what she thinks.
It suddenly occurs to me that there is no reason for him to be here unless…
“Is everything okay?”
“Can I come up?”
Well, that doesn’t exactly relieve my anxiety.
“Sure.”
With a little wave at Hannah, I punch my code into the front door, and do my best not to inhale his cologne when he reaches over my head to hold the door open, letting me enter first.