13. Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Lina
Ipull up fast, tires crunching against the curb, headlights washing over him like a spotlight he never asked for, but I see he expected.
Cole rocks back on his heels, squinting through bleary eyes. Then he smiles—relieved, as though seeing me makes everything right again.
I cut the engine and get out of the car. “What the hell are you doing here?“ I demand.
He sways slightly, hands lifting in a gesture meant to calm me, though it does the opposite.
“I went to your house first,” he slurs. “You weren’t there. So I figured you’d be here.” He taps the door behind him like it’s obvious. Like this makes sense. “You always come here.”
My chest tightens. “You can’t show up like this, Cole. You’re drunk, and it’s late. This is my business.”
“I needed to see you,” he says, voice cracking in that familiar, irritating way. “I need to talk. I’d like you to come home with me.”
I laugh hysterically. “Are you serious right now?” I move nearer, softening my tone but not my anger.
“It’s been five years! I left you for a reason. My God. You’re engaged, and having a baby soon, dipshit.” I say with anger.
“She doesn’t mean anything. She wants to marry me for my money. I’m only doing it so she doesn’t fuck me over in child support,” he snaps, defensive. “I want you back. I need you back. It’s just—“
“No,” I cut in. “Un-fucking-believable. You’ll never change. You are so fucking pathetic.”
He reaches for me and misses. “We belong together, Lina. We were supposed to be together forever. You will always be mine.”
I sense something inside me go cold and steady. “Never again,” I say flatly. “Not now. Not ever. You’re a narcissistic drunk who wanted to control me for the rest of your life.”
His face hardens. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s more than fair,” I say. “Look at you! Your drinking and drug abuse caused the accident.”
The words hover between us, substantial and irreversible.
“You don’t get to pretend you don’t remember,” I continue, my voice shaking now despite myself.
“Our baby is gone because you were drunk and drugged up. You lied when you told me you barely had anything to drink that night. You always lie. You made a choice, and our baby paid for it.”
His mouth opens, only to swiftly close. For once, there’s nothing clever or cruel to throw back at me.
“I buried that loss,” I say. “I lived with it. You drown yourself in alcohol and excuses. You will always be like this.”
I take a step back, creating distance I should’ve demanded years ago. “You need to leave. Right now. If you don’t, I’m calling the police.”
For a moment, Cole stares at me, like he doesn’t recognize who I am anymore.
He scans my face, and then his gaze drops to my clothing.
The short black trench coat. The heels.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” He asks, his voice shifting, suspicion bleeding into something darker.
I freeze, abruptly mindful of myself, which makes my skin prickle. The coat is tied closed, but the truth lands anyway. Lingerie. It strikes me like a spotlight.
“Cole…just leave,” I snap, already turning away.
I don’t wait for his response. I quickly head for my car.
He follows.
I hear him before I sense him, footsteps uneven and fast behind me. My back slams into the side of the car, the impact stealing the air from my lungs. Pain rattles through my spine.
“Cole—stop!” I scream.
His hand cups my jaw, fingers digging painfully into my cheeks before both hands turn frantic, grabbing at my coat, my waist, my hair, like urgency has burned away every ounce of reason left in him. The sting of whiskey floods my senses. Panic detonates in my chest.
“Don’t fucking run from me!” he snarls.
I shove hard against him. “Get off me!”
He doesn’t.
His face twists, rage and desperation bleeding together until I can’t separate one from the other. He can see the lingerie.
The insults start spilling out, vicious and familiar. The same poisoned words he used to sink into me until I believed them.
“You fucking whore.” His grip tightens. “Fucking slut.”
His forehead presses against mine with bruising force.
“You think you can leave me? Huh? You think some other asshole’s going to take you from me?”
I twist away from him, but he pins me against the car with a violent shove.
“You’re mine,” he growls. “You’ll always fucking be mine.”
Instinct takes over and hesitation disappears.
Fear burns away beneath something hotter. Meaner.
I bring my forearm up between us and jam it into his throat, pushing with everything I have. His breath catches in a strangled sound as I force space between us, the way my self-defense instructor once showed me. Just enough to move.
Cole curses violently and yanks my arms down. “You bitch!” he screams in my face, spit hitting my skin.
I react before I can think. I throw my knee upward, aiming for his groin, but my heel slips against the pavement. Instead, my knee slams awkwardly into the inside of his thigh.
It’s enough. Cole stumbles back with a grunt.
I run. Or try to in these fucking heels. One step. Two. Three—
Pain explodes across my scalp. I scream as he grabs a fistful of my hair and jerks me backward so violently my neck snaps with it. The world tilts. Pavement tears into my palms and explodes in my head as I hit the ground seeing sparks burst behind my eyes.
Then he’s on top of me. Heavy. Drunk. Furious.
His weight crushes me into the asphalt while he shouts words I refuse to let myself hear, refuse to absorb, because if I do, I think they’ll break something in me all over again.
“Stop!” I scream, thrashing beneath him. “Get the fuck off me!”
I kick blindly. Shove at his chest. Try to buck him off, but he pins my wrists with one hand while the other crushes my jaw in an unforgiving grip.
“You fucking belong to me!” he roars.
Rage detonates inside me. I stop thinking.
I pull my arms free and claw at his face, skin to tear beneath my nails.
He jerks back with a curse, and I slam the heel of my palm into his nose.
Agony tears through my hand. For one panicked heartbeat, I’m sure I’ve broken something. Then blood pours from his nose.
Cole howls. As he brings his head back down, I drive my forehead upward into his face.
The crack of impact makes my vision blur. Pain erupts through my skull so violently I nearly black out with it, but it works. Cole falls backward, giving me the opportunity to twist beneath him.
It isn’t graceful or skilled. Pure adrenaline and desperation let me roll him and shove him off balance.
I scramble away on shaking hands, sucking in ragged breaths as I force myself upright. My heels wobble uselessly beneath me. I kick them off without stopping, one flying somewhere into the darkness.
Run.
I lunge for my car, fumbling for the handle with trembling hands.
He’s right behind me.
Before I can open the door, his fist tangles in my hair again. He yanks, and my head dives backward, a cry ripping from my throat as he spins me around and slams me against the car so forcefully it rattles the entire frame.
Suddenly, he’s vanished.
One second he’s there, the next he’s lifted clean off the ground like he weighs nothing at all.
Holy shit. Alex?
Alex has Cole by the throat and arm in a single fluid motion, then hurls him aside with brutal precision. Cole slams into the pavement, the impact knocking every ounce of fight out of him.
Alex steps between us without a word. Solid and unmoving. A wall.
I sag against my car, shaking so violently I can barely breathe.
But I’m upright.
I’m free.