Belonging to Them - By Brynn Paulin Page 0,24
seats around the room.
“Tell us about Antonio,” Jamie urged. “What’s he done?”
“We can tell he’s a slimebucket,” Patrick added. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be terrorizing you by screwing with your bank account access and disconnecting your cell phone.”
“He’s violent,” she confessed. “There were little things I ignored or excused at first. Never physical things he did to me or other people. Just a maniacal streak I didn’t recognize. Looking back, I realize he was verbally abusive at times. I didn’t recognize that either. I just thought we were arguing. But he was hurtful in the things he said. I felt so stupid when I found out that that’s one of the first warnings of an abuser.”
Jamie stroked her back. “It’s not like they wear signs.”
“It was after we got engaged that things escalated. He wanted to script my every move, know where I was at and what I was doing at all times. Sometimes he got rough, but he didn’t hurt me. Then one night, he beat the crap out of me. I reported him to the police and broke it off.”
“Asshole,” Patrick ground out, his fingers white on the arms of the chair where he sat. Sean and David were similarly tense. Jamie just continued to stroke her back. He lowered his forehead to her shoulder so she wouldn’t see how enraged he was.
“He kept calling,” she told them. “Apologizing, pleading, telling me how awful he felt and how he hadn’t meant it. He wanted me back. He was so convincing, but I kept saying no even though I wondered if I was making a mistake. When he couldn’t get me to say yes, he got violent again. He stalked me, did little things to make my life inconvenient or to scare me. He broke into my house the day before I left. I called the cops but he still managed to knock me around before they got there. He threatened to hurt me bad. The police called it a domestic dispute and hauled him away, but I knew he’d be out the next day—which I was right about according to Kelsey. So I packed up and ran in the dead of the night. And now he’s been fired. I know he’s coming here, and I know he intends to do something bad.”
“Over my dead body,” Jamie growled, finally looking at her and letting her see how serious he was.
“Don’t say that,” she whispered.
“He’s not hurting you,” he vowed.
“Damn straight,” Sean said. “Let him bring it on. He can find out what it’s like to have the shit kicked out of him.”
“No,” she protested. “I don’t want him anywhere near any of you. I need to leave. I need to go somewhere where he can’t find me. He’s not going to stop. You might teach him a lesson this one time, but he’ll just regroup and come up with something else. He thinks I’m his, and he’ll be damned if he lets anyone else have me—that’s what he told me.”
Rage clenched in Jamie’s stomach, deeper than any anger he’d felt toward the suicide bomber who’d changed his life. He was on the same page with Sean, and he was sure Patrick and David felt the same.
“Guys like him trip up,” Patrick said. He looked at Jamie. “You called Joe?” he asked, referring to the sheriff.
“Yeah, I called him right away.” Jamie grinned at Rayna. “He wants your friend to get the names of the other women he’s harassed. Do you have a picture?”
“No, but it’s on the web. Some award he won.”
“Joe wants it. He used to be FBI. If there’s dirt to be found on your friend, Antonio, he’ll find it. Joe loves small town life, but trust me, something like this gets his blood going. I think he’d like a little more action, but he’s not willing to go back to the city.”
She gave him a small smile. “I’ll call Kelsey and see what she can get. She seems to know everything that happens at that bank. That’s why I wanted her to help me with this.”
Getting up, she went into the front hallway to call.
“What now?” David asked.
“We keep her safe. That shit’s not gonna take long to surface,” Jamie said.
“Probably tomorrow,” Patrick said. “I wish I had time to call Sim, but he wouldn’t get here fast enough.”
Jamie wished the same. Before taking over the garage, his brother had done a stint in the Navy, and had been a SEAL for years before he retired. He