My chance to run.
Except he doesn’t release me.
Lean forward, Adelyn, and throw a reverse elbow to your attacker’s head. He’s bigger. Stronger. Maybe even faster. But also completely unprepared for what is about to come his way. It’s as though I’m hearing Willie’s voice in my head. And I obey.
I lift my left heel from the ground and turn so my right elbow can catch Martin directly in the nose. And it does.
“Stop it, kitten.”
I repeat the jab a second time. And a third. I will not stop until he releases me. Or my arm breaks. And even then I’ll turn and use the other arm.
Martin releases his hold on me and I stumble forward, nearly losing my balance and then falling on all fours on the asphalt.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Russ?”
I look back at Martin. His face is red. He’s struggling to free himself from Oliver’s grasp but it’s no use. He’s holding Martin in a chokehold from behind, and he isn’t letting go. If anything, his grip is growing tighter.
“What the fuck, man?”
“She’s… mine,” Martin manages to squeak out.
Oliver looks at me, total confusion on his face. “What’s he talking about?”
“Russ Martin.” I say his name and that’s all it takes for Oliver to understand.
I never called him Russ because he was my boss, Mr. Martin. And then just Martin.
Ferocity. A look I’ve never seen on Oliver’s face and then his bicep bulges as he squeezes tighter. “You like beating up on women who can’t defend themselves?”
I watch Martin’s face go from red to purple to a shade of ash.
“Oliver, you’re choking him.”
“Oli… ver.” Martin is barely able to squeeze out his name.
I watch the life slowly drain from Martin’s eyes and it scares me. But not for him.
“Stop, Oliver. Please. You’re going to kill him and then where would we be?”
No two ways about it. Martin is dying before my eyes––by Oliver’s hand.
“Baby, please. Don’t do this to yourself. To us.”
Oliver is like a dog who has gotten a taste of blood and doesn’t want to let go, so I move closer. “Look at me.”
He ignores me and I pat my chest. “Look at me, Thorn.”
He does but I can tell he doesn’t want to. “You have to stop. Please.”
I see his grip lessening. “That’s it.”
“I’m letting go, you son of a bitch. Make one move toward Adelyn and I will end you.” Oliver’s jaw is clenched. His teeth gritted. His voice a deep snarl.
What I see in Oliver’s eyes tells me his words aren’t a threat. He means what he says.
Martin falls to the ground, panting for air, holding the front of his throat. “Fuck, Oliver. It feels like you crushed my windpipe.” His voice is little more than a rasp.
“You’re a lucky fuck I didn’t.” He puts both hands in his hair and fists the top. “I can’t believe this. Russ Martin.”
He bends over and puts his hands on his thighs. He looks like he may throw up. “All this time I’ve been imagining this Martin guy was some kind of inhuman monster. Turns out he’s my client. Someone I considered my fucking friend. How? How could I have not seen that?”
Oliver straightens when I approach him. I wrap my arms around his waist and press my head to his chest. “I’m sorry.”
He strokes his hand from the crown of my head to the end of my hair. “Fuck, Adelyn. This isn’t on you.”
I lift my head from his chest. “Please just get me out of here.”
“We have to call the police. You need to press charges against that fucker.”
I look at Martin stretched out on the pavement, still working to catch his breath while holding his throat. Doesn’t look like he’ll be getting up anytime soon. “No.”
“Come on, Adelyn. You can’t be serious. He assaulted you. Tried to kidnap you. And he would’ve been fucking successful if I hadn’t come back here.”
It’s too late for help from the police. I’m in too deep. “I’ve been blackmailing him for four years. You think he won’t rat me out if I have him arrested? Financial records will prove what I’ve been doing. All the money I’ve taken from him. If he goes to jail, I go too. Except he’ll probably get off while I’ll rot. Everything that happened here tonight is hearsay. No proof other than what we claim. Please tell me you understand.”
I’m totally backed into a corner and it’s my own fault.
“Looking at him makes me sick. Can we just go now?”
“Yeah, baby.” Oliver takes his phone from his pocket. “This is Oliver Thorn. I need a pickup at Bridge Street Gallery and Loft. ASAP.”
No two ways about it. I’m fucked.
And not in the way I want to be.
15
Oliver Thorn
Leaving Russ safe and sound in that parking lot fucking killed me. Killed. Me. I wanted to do to him what I did to Jimmy. Make him pay for all his wrongs.
Or truth be told, much worse.
I lost it. In that moment when my arm was locked around his airway, I wanted nothing more than him dead. But then Adelyn made me look at her. Made me hear her. And I knew I’d lose her if I didn’t stop and take back control.
Adelyn isn’t saying a word. I hope it’s because she doesn’t want to have a conversation about Russ in front of the driver from the car service. Not because I scared the fuck out of her or because she’s going to shut down on me.
I want her to feel safe so I wrap my arm around her shoulders and hold tightly. She burrows into my side, much like a baby bird being protected by its mother’s wing.
I lower my mouth so it’s over her ear and speak in the softest voice my vocal cords will allow. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. But—” She stops and I know in my heart something bad will follow that pause.
“You can tell me.”
She presses her face into my shoulder. Her voice is barely a whisper, and I must listen carefully to make out what she’s saying. “I didn’t see him because he came up behind me. I could only feel him and I thought he was you.”
The dam holding her tears bursts, and she fists my shirt, clinging to me as though she’ll be swept away in their current.
He touched her, maybe more, and she let him because she thought it was me. I can barely contain the rage within me. “What did he do to you?”
Her only answer is her body shuddering against my chest. Lawry used to do the same thing when she’d retreat into that world inside her head where no one could hurt her. But I can’t let Adelyn go to that place. I need her here with me.
“It’s okay. You can tell me. It wasn’t your fault.” I cup my hand around her head and kiss the top of her hair. “We can tell each other anything. I know your darkest secrets. You know mine. It’s what we do. It’s who we are.”
She breathes in deeply and exhales over several seconds as if stringing out the moment before she has to say the words. “I thought you were pinning me against the van. Maybe exploring your newfound dominance over me. It never crossed my mind that you weren’t the one grinding behind me. Or the one pulling up my skirt and putting your hand in… my panties.”
She pauses and shudders. “I screamed so loud for you when I realized it was his fingers inside of me.”
Fucking. Son. Of. A. Bitch.
“You don’t have to say any more.” I know exactly what the fucker did with his fingers. To my girl.
“Please don’t be angry with me. I swear I had no idea it was him.”
“I know and I’m not angry at you.”
I should have killed that motherfucker.
I kiss the top of her head again so she’ll know I don’t blame her. “You’re staying with me tonight.” And the next night. Maybe the one after that too. I may never let her be alone again.
I don’t see her nod, but I feel the movement against my chest. “I’d like to grab some things from home first.”
“Of course.”
I enter Adelyn’s house first, just in case Russ isn’t smart enough to stay away from her. Once we’re in her bedroom, she walks around in a daze. She occasionally stops and goes completely still, her face grimacing. I’ve no doubt her mind is revisiting his attack, and I want to kill him all over again.
“Just get the necessities for tonight. If you think of something you need I’ll come back for it.”
“Okay.”
She’s still standing there like a zombie so I feel like she needs a little coaxing. “Toothbrush. Hairbrush. Something to sleep in.” We’ll only be next door. No need to take a lot of stuff. “That should do for tonight, don’t you think?”
“Almost.” She goes to her dresser and takes out a tank top, boxer shorts, and a pair of panties. “Do you mind if I use your shower?”
“I don’t mind.”
She’s stuffing her things into a duffel and I notice the black lacy lingerie set on the bed.
“I was going to wear that tonight. My birthday gift for you.”
That fucker ruined everything. I should have killed him.
“It’s very pretty.”
She needs to understand skipping sex is fine with me. But I also want her to see what the fucker did doesn’t change the way I feel about us.
Going to her, I wrap my arms around her shoulders. “I will give you as long as you need.”
“You are a very sweet and considerate man.”
“I’m also a very tired man. Do you think you have everything you need?”
“Enough to do me tonight.”
Adelyn follows me through my house and into the master bathroom. I put her duffel on the counter. “Need anything?”
“Towel and washcloth?”
“Right. Sorry.” I open the closet and take out one of the fancy towel sets Lawrence bought for special guests. I’m pretty sure Adelyn qualifies. “Lawry’s doings.”
She smiles as she takes the embroidered linens from me. “I figured as much.”
“I think there’s plenty of shampoo and stuff but call out if you need anything.”
“I will. Thanks.”
I change into sleep pants and a T-shirt while contemplating how to ask Adelyn what she prefers in sleeping arrangements. Does she want to sleep with me in my bed or take the guest room? I have no idea but I’d like to have her by my side tonight.
I pull back the covers, toss all the frou-frou pillows into the corner of the room, and lie on the bed, waiting. Adelyn stays in the shower a long time. A really long time. I’m at the point of thinking about calling out to her when I finally hear the water stop.
She comes out wearing her tank and boxers, her wet hair twisted into a bun on top of her head. “Do you mind if I come to bed with wet hair? I don’t feel like drying it.”
I guess I have my answer. She’s sleeping with me. “I don’t mind.”
I get into bed, and she follows suit on the opposite side. “Thank God your ceiling fan is on; I can’t sleep without one.”
“I have to run it for the noise. Creature of habit.”
I lean over, turn off the lamp, and settle into bed, unsure of what Adelyn needs from me right now.
Do I avoid talking about it? Keep things calm for now? I think so.
“You did a great job with the party.”
“I had a lot of fun planning it. Lawry let me do whatever I wanted.”
“Kelsey and Ivy were impressed with you. That’s not easily achieved.”
“Oh my God. Those two are hilarious.”
“Those women are ridiculous when they’re together.”
“Ivy, Kelsey, and your sister are an odd trio. Lawrence seems so different from them.”
“Lawry is different from everyone.”
“I can see that.”
I love hearing the fondness she feels for my sister.
“My parents were glad to see you again.”
I hadn’t told them anything about my relationship with Adelyn. I was planning to see where things went with us first. But all of that was shot to hell when Mom saw us together. To say she’s happy is a gross minimization of her response.
“I didn’t get to talk to them as much as I would have liked.”
I’m certain Mom feels the same.
“We’re having lunch at Lawry’s tomorrow. The family, Porter, Kelsey, and Ivy. You should come.”
“I would love that. Thank you for the invite.”
She can’t possibly love it more than Libby Thorn. She’ll probably try to arrange our marriage over dessert.
“My pleasure.”
It’s late, or early, depending upon the way you look at it. It’s been an exhausting night. Sleep is calling my name, screaming it in my fucking ear, but tonight’s incident needs to be discussed before we go to sleep. The Russ Martin chapter is nowhere near being closed, and I’m fearful that Adelyn and I won’t be able to move forward until it is.
“I don’t want to go to sleep without talking about what happened tonight.”
“I know it’s something we need to discuss, but damn, I don’t want to.”
“I need to know where your head is and how those feelings are affecting you.” And if that fucker is going to have an impact on our relationship.
“I’m angry as hell. That’s how it affects me.”
“I want to know everything that happened.” I need to know even if hearing it guts me.
“I figured out it was Martin so I screamed for you. But he covered my mouth with his hand.”
I wasn’t there. Instead, I was shooting the shit with people who don’t really even matter to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“It isn’t your fault. There was no way you could have heard me.”
It doesn’t feel that way. I should have gone with her to the van. She had no business being out there alone.
“I went on stage to make an announcement before you and Lawrence arrived. Martin was in the crowd and saw me.”
Fuck. His connection to me brought him back into her life.
“He told me all the shit you would imagine someone like him might say. He misses me. Told me to come back. Wants to marry me.”
“Marry him?” I’m not in a place where marrying Adelyn is on my mind, but fuck if I want to hear that another man is telling her to marry him.
“He said we’d start over. It would be like our old life never happened. He’d give me everything my heart desired, including babies.”
“Marriage and babies?” What the fuck?
“Something in me snapped. I couldn’t not tell him he’d already given me one baby and then killed it before it ever had a chance to live.”
“I didn’t realize you hadn’t told him about the baby.” But that makes sense now since she didn’t know about the pregnancy until after she miscarried. I’m sure the only conversations they had following her recovery were the ones involving blackmail negotiations.
“I couldn’t stand the thought of him taking pleasure in knowing he actually had the ability to father a child. I kept it to myself as my own way of hurting him.”
“Why tell him tonight?”
“I wanted a new way to hurt him. And I did. Martin longs for a child. It’s an obsession. He’s in his forties now and I’m sure that his desire has only grown since we were together. Learning he had killed the only one he’d ever been able to conceive wrecked him. And I enjoyed his pain.”
Adelyn rolls on her side and faces me. “Do you think that makes me a monster?”
“Fuck no. He’s the monster.”
“As much as I enjoyed seeing him in pain, I’m afraid it may have been a mistake to tell him. He immediately started talking about how he was going to… God, I don’t even want to say the words.”
“I have to know, Max. It will make me crazy if I don’t know everything that happened.”
She hesitates a moment. “He said he was going to put another baby inside me.”
I knew that was what she was going to say a
nd still, hearing the words makes my head feel like it may blow off of my shoulders. “Fuck no, he’s not. He’s never, never, never touching you again.”
“He told me I was going home with him where I belonged. That’s when he picked me up and tried to take me to his car.”
And that’s where I entered the picture. I don’t even want to think about what might have happened if he’d been successful in getting her to his car.
I sit up and turn to put my feet on the floor. “I’m going to that fucker’s house. He may not go to jail but he’ll damn sure wish he had when I’m finished with him. And he’s gonna know to not come near you ever again.” There will be no future confusion about that.
“Please don’t.”
“You’re afraid I’ll provoke him into doing something to me?”
“No. I’m afraid he’ll provoke you and you’ll lose control again.”
Adelyn’s not wrong. I lost my mind earlier. I saw what he was doing to her, and there was only one thing in my line of vision. Red. I put my arm around his neck and all I wanted him to see was black.
“He needs to understand that you’re mine and he’ll never have you again. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe from him.”
“I think he got the message when you nearly choked him to death.”
It doesn’t feel like enough. “I’m not done with him.”
“Can you at least be done with him tonight? For me?”
For her? Yes, anything for her. “Okay.”
She rolls over, nestling her back against my front, and her hand pulls my arm so it’s wrapped around her waist. “Is it okay if we lie this way? At least until I fall asleep?”
“I will lie this way all night with you if it’s what you want.”
She lifts my closed hand to her lips and kisses my knuckles. “Thank you, Oliver.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”
“You were there when I needed you most. That’s all that matters.”
She twists and kisses me over her shoulder. “Good night.”
“Good night, beautiful girl.”
Adelyn is asleep on my arm and the damn thing is numb. I hate like hell to wake her but I’ve gotta have some circulation. “Max, lift your head.”