they can hurt me so badly. Why?
Brent attacked me in front of my baby, and he would have raped me right there in front of her. The others too.
A sob escapes my lips and I start to cry again. It hurts but my heart is weeping and I’m terrified. I don’t know what the hell to do. I thought of leaving Rosie to sleep and going over to Jenny’s house, but what if I don’t make it?
Brent lives around the corner on this same floor. The guy who was holding me down lives next door. I’m right in the den like a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
They could get me. They could easily get to me if they wanted to before I could make it to the elevator or the stairs.
If they attacked me and kill me, what would happen to Rosie? She’d wake and look for me and there would be no one to look after her.
I can’t allow myself to think of such things. It’s too horrible.
But am I going to do?
What is best?
What is safe?
I grab a face towel, turn on the cold water tap and soak it. I then place it over my face and lightly pat over the bruises. I tried ice earlier, but I seemed to make it worse. It hurt more.
Rosie screams out and I nearly jump out of my skin. I rush into our room and see she’s crying again.
“Mama,” she mumbles.
“It’s okay baby, it’s okay. Go back to sleep.” I soothe her but she pants and starts crying.
She only behaves like this when she’s really upset. In her little life she’s had a lot happen to her. she might not understand some of it, but I know she can feel when something is wrong.
I start singing Twinkle, Twinkle, little Star. It’s her favorite lullaby and used to be the only thing that would get her to sleep. Sometimes it helps to calm her down.
I just get her back to sleep when there’s a knock on the door. My heart stills and I look on through the bedroom door. I can see the front door from here. There’s not a whole lot to the place so you could stand anywhere and see everywhere.
I set her back down and move to the door, hoping it’s Mr. Allen.
If it’s him, I’ll tell him to call the cops.
I look through the peephole and nearly jump out of my skin when I see Brent and two of his thugs standing on the other side.
“Come on baby, open the door. My dick is hard for you,” he calls out in his thick Russian accent.
I grasp my chest, holding my heart in so it doesn’t leap out from the fright.
They’re back. They came back for me. Jesus. The door is barely able to close. It wouldn’t take much for them to knock it down and come in.
“I can hear you,” Brent says. “Hear you breathing. Don’t worry I like games. Mr. Allen and his sons are gone for the next few days. There will be no one to save you when I’m ready for you baby.” He laughs out loud, and the tears drop from my eyes like weights falling to the ground.
Oh my God.
I’m not going to be able to get out of this.
What am I going to do?
How am I going to keep Rosie safe?
What will happen to me?
Rosie starts to cry again but I’m too frozen to move from the spot. My mind goes to Christian.
I can’t call him.
I can’t call anyone…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Christian
I was worried last night when Louise told me Lilly wasn’t coming in.
But when we got no call from her tonight, I thought it was odd. It’s reasonable to assume that if you have a bad cold you might be away for a few days. I just pegged her to be the cautious type who would check in.
It just seemed weird.
I haven’t called because I don’t want her thinking I care about the money because I don’t, and I don’t want to disturb her if she’s sick.
I also don’t want to overstep boundaries.
I try not to, and I even decide to head home for the evening at eight.
Since it’s still early I swim in the pool for half an hour doing some laps. When I get that nagging feeling come back to my mind, so I decide to be Christian Giordano and call her.
When the phone goes straight to her voicemail that nagging feeling comes back and along with an uneasiness that settles