in love before. And when I was in love, I loved fully and completely. It was how I was built.
She pulled back and struggled to get up, swiping at her eyes. “Where’s Mary?”
“Becky. Stop.” I readjusted, so I had a better hold on her. I wasn’t ready to let her go. “Mary’s fine.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, she cowered into me, tucking her neck into my shoulder, sobbing again.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to swim, and it was stupid of me … I’ll go. If you want to fire me … I’ll leave.”
She was talking nonsense now. Fire her? I didn’t want her to leave—ever. I wanted to hold her, keep her, care for her.
I held her for minutes that felt like hours. Eventually, I stood, tightened my hold on her, and marched into the house, past the kids and Brad, whose eyes widened as I proceeded up the stairs and into my room, dropping my ass on the edge of the bed.
Who knew how long I held her? But I held her until her sobs subsided. Until those cries eventually ceased. Until the sun set through the blinds in my window.
I kicked off my shoes and backed us into the headboard of my bed, pulling her into me, her head still tucked in the crook of my neck. We were both soaking wet, so I pulled the blanket over us.
As I took in my room, I realized this was the second time she’d been in this room, and the thought brought me back to Natalie’s death. The feeling of unbelievable heartbreak hit me in the gut, and I pulled Becky tighter to me. She was comforting me now, without even knowing it.
I listened to the even sounds of her breathing. Though I couldn’t see her face, I knew she was still awake.
“He tried to drown me,” she finally said, her voice a light croak.
Every muscle in my body tensed. My breathing slowed, and I needed to know that I’d heard her correctly. “What?” My fingers went to the base of her neck, massaging.
“When I tried to leave him the second time, he tried to drown me in the lake. He took me to the place I feared the most, and I was helpless.” A sob escaped her, and I held her tighter. “That day, I thought I was going to die. And I almost did. I was almost there … until he hit me so hard, punched my back to get the water out.” She paused again and then uttered, “I wanted to die.”
The fury almost choked me, and my temper flared. I gritted my teeth as I squeezed her against me. My lips thinned into a straight line, and my body numbed with increasing rage and shock.
“I was with him when I left foster care. He was the first guy to come into my life and love me. At least, I thought it was love … it was the only love I knew.”
I swallowed the bile in the back of my throat.
I want to kill the bastard.
“The first time he hit me, I was in shock. He apologized and cried and begged me up and down that he didn’t mean it. And the cycle would repeat again. Where love and fear were distorted in my head.”
My body battled to stay still. I had an uncontrollable urge to get up and find this guy and teach him a lesson for ever touching a woman this way.
“The first time I left, he stabbed me in the ankle. Third try was a charm though. I got away. But I had to. I knew I would never live to see a fourth.”
I pulled back, unable to take any more, framing her face in my hands. “No one will hurt you again. Ever.” I leaned in, our faces a breath apart. “I never want you to be scared, okay? I never want you to worry if he’ll find you ’cause he won’t. He won’t.” My thumbs brushed across the apples of her cheeks.
“He said he’d find me.” Tears fell from her cheeks again, harder this time. “And I’m just afraid that … that the people around me, the people I love, will be collateral damage.”
Love.
“He won’t. I live my life to protect my family.” Out of all my qualities, this was my strength. My innate need to take care of the people around me. It was what I loved to do; it was what I had been born to