Chapter 15
“The nightmare is over.” He holds me tight. “I’m never letting you out of my sight.” He tightens his grip when I begin to shake. “Shh, I’ve got you.”
“Don’t you see? I’m living the nightmare day in and day out. I can’t wake up from it. No matter where I go or what I do, he’ll always be there waiting to ruin me.”
“I won’t let that happen.” He takes my face in his hands. “Look at me.” He orders. When I look up, my eyes meet his. They’re a deep brown pair of eyes filled with tears that are staring right into my soul. “From this day forward, I will be by your side. You will not be left alone again until this fucker is caught. I promise you that.”
“Jaxon, please don’t make promises you cannot keep.” I wipe the tears from his cheeks. When I want to continue, there’s a knock on the door. Ben, Sofie and Brad are all standing at the entryway.
“Mind if we come in?” Brad asks. I know he wants to ask me a million questions, which is fine.
“Sure. You’re family after all, right?” I try to make light of things, but I’m sure I’m failing miserably.
Sofie is the first one to embrace me. “Don’t you scare us like that again.” She cries.
“I’ll try not to.” When she releases me, Brad’s standing at the foot of the bed. Jax has shifted so he’s sitting next to me. “I know what you want. I’m going to assume he wasn’t there when you got to the cabin.”
“Correct.” He sits on the edge. “The only person there, was Ben. He was in the spare bedroom. I’m sure you already know we found Sofie in her house.” I nod.
“She filled me in.”
“But you haven’t filled me in.” Sofie chimes in. “Who was that man?” My eyes travel over to Ben, but Sofie interrupts. “Don’t worry about him, he’s just as much part of this as everyone in this room. Especially since he was bound and gagged like I was.”
“I’m so sorry for that.” I move and nestle closer to Jax. I need his comfort more than anything right now. “The man who did this to us, his name is Frank Morris. Frank is my husband and I am so sorry for all the problems he’s caused to everyone.”
“First of all, he’s soon to be your ex-husband and second, you can’t help what happened.” Jax chimes in.
“Like falling in love?” Sofie adds.
“Exactly sis, like falling in love. Lanie was sent to me by Brad. She was supposed to be hiding. The falling in love part wasn’t part of the plan.”
“I always told you that it would happen when you least expect it. And once true love hits you, you’ll never find another.” She’s looking at Brad as she says that last part. He blushes and looks down. There’s something obviously going on there.
“Can we get off the love crap and back to this Frank guy?” Ben adds.
“Ben, long story short. Frank is abusive. He’s beaten me on many occasions and if it wasn’t for Brad, I wouldn’t be alive today.”
“How did he find you?”
Brad answers “I think he found her when they went away to save her sister. Somehow, he must have found out who she was staying with. I’ve had my guys watching Frank since I brought Lanie to Jax. He must have figuted it out and somehow got away from our team. I figured he was coming here, but was hoping I would have made it before he did. Looks like I just missed him. I’m so sorry Lanie. It won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t.” I can’t let this happen again. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I have to make sure that this family doesn’t get hurt anymore.
“Do you want them to leave so we can discuss what happened? The sooner you share the information, the better. The longer we wait, the more you may forget and we need as much information as we can get.” Brad pulls out a tape recorder and places it next to him.
“It’s okay. They can stay. They were involved too. They deserve to know what happened.” I rest my hand on Jax’s leg to calm him.
“I was in the bathtub. The radio was on and the water was running. At first, I heard a door slam. I didn’t think anything of it, because I knew Jax was set to come back. I figured he was upset about the fire and was trying to let off steam before coming to me, I’m still edgy when people get upset around me. The noise seemed to die off, so I shut the water off and began to relax again. It only lasted a few minutes before I heard another door slam. It didn’t sound right so I began to get up.” I have to stop for a second to regain my nerves. There is a knot that has grown to the size of a grapefruit in my throat.
“Take your time, sweetheart.” Jax whispers in my ear.
“Just when I was pulling myself up, the door opened harshly, causing me to fall back down. It wasn’t Jax all along. It was Frank.” I wipe the tears that are streaming down my face away, but it doesn’t help.
“He charged at me. Oh God. I thought he was going to kill me this time.”
“Are you okay? Do you need to take a break?” Brad asks, reaching for the recorder to stop it.
“No. I need to get this out. Just give me a second.” This is harder than I imagined. I’ve never truly shared specifics with anyone. Even with my parents, I never really went into detail.
“He rushed for me, grabbed me by the hair and pushed me down into the water. I can’t tell you how long I was down for. He did it a few times, only giving me a second between dunks. I struggled at first. Then I reached up and dug my fingernails into his skin to release his hold on me. It worked, because he let go.”
“Good. I’ll have the nurses pick under your nails so we can get his DNA.”
“He jerked me out of the water. I don’t remember, but I think that’s when he struck me before pulling me up and dunking me again. I think I swallowed a good amount of water then.” I take a deep breath to try and calm my shattered nerves.
“Brad, look at her. She’s shaking. Don’t make her do this.” Sofie says.
“I wish I didn’t have to do this, sweetheart, but she has to get this out.”
Swallowing down the knot again, I try to continue. “I thought to myself that this is it. I knew that he would finally get what he wanted and he would kill me. At that moment, I really wanted to die. I actually think I prayed that he would get it done and over with already.”
“God.” Jax shivers.
“I couldn’t breathe. I kept choking on water, which only made me swallow more. He finally had enough and lifted me to my feet. He dragged me into the bedroom and he threw me against the dresser.” I take Jax’s hand and look at him. “That’s when I heard your voice. Remember when we went to that first defensive training class and the trainer took me from behind?”
“Yeah. I saw you freeze up and I told you to fight. I said for you to fight with all you have.”
“That’s what I did. I fought. I found your knife on the ground by the dresser and grabbed it.” I turn back to Brad. “Something inside me told me to fight. So I did. He came after me and I used the techniques to protect myself. When I was done, I shoved the knife in his leg.”
“Do you remember which side?” Brad asks.
“Right. I grabbed it with my left hand, and had just enough time to put it in my right hand before stabbing him.”
“What happened after that?” Ben is curious.
“I ran. If I had known you were there, I would have come to get you. But I ran. I was naked and afraid for my life, so I ran as fast as I could to get away from Frank. Someone saw me running and pulled over to help me. I had them bring me here. Sofie saw me and she tried calling Jax. Then I told her that I had your number memorized, so she called you.”
“I’m sorry. I should have answered.” Jax mentions.
“So that’s pretty much it. Except that he’s still out there and we don’t know where he is.”
“Thank you, Lanie.” Brad pats my foot. “We will find him. I’m going to have someone with you twenty-four seven until he’s caught.”
“Like the last guy that was there?” Jax snaps in a cocky manner.
“Jax. You and I both know that that was a fluke thing. Between myself, you and the extra, I think Lanie will be perfectly safe.”
“Where do you expect her to ‘be safe’ at?” Jax puts his fingers up in quotations. “He knows where I live. He knows where Sofie lives. Thank God Pops is out with Zane at the moment.”
“I think I need to go see my sister for a while.”
“No.” Jax argues.
“Jaxon. I’m not asking permission. I can’t stay here.”
“You think he’s going to be stupid enough to come back? I said no. You’re not leaving my side.”
This is going to be much harder than I imagined it would be. For now, I will satisfy him, but eventually, I need to talk to Brad in private and do whatever it takes to keep this family protected.
We pull up the drive to his father’s place. “This place is amazing, Jax. Did you do all of this yourself?”
“More or less. When I’m not focused on my own house.”
“You never mentioned you had another property.”
“Actually, I did say I had property and a garage. You just chose not to ask about it.” He winks.
Jax takes my hand and we walk inside. I release his hand when I begin to get lost in the photos on the wall. So many of him and his sister. “How come there aren’t photos of your brother? They’re all of you.” He shrugs and carries my bag upstairs. Hmm. That’s odd. I won’t drill him about it, but I would love to know why they don’t talk.
“There you are.” Sofie comes out of what I assume is the kitchen since she’s wearing a robe. “What took you so long?”
“Your brother and Brad were arguing.” I roll my eyes.
“It was his fault.” Brad says, stepping through the front door with his bag. “He doesn’t want me to talk to Ben. I don’t want to miss another minute with my son. I’ve already missed out on eighteen years.” He leans in, giving Sofie a kiss on the cheek and then drops his bag by the stairs.
“Okay. Let me get this straight.” We’re all sitting at the kitchen table when Jax comes to join us. “You two were high school sweethearts, correct?” Brad takes Sofie’s hand and Jax rolls his eyes at the affection.
“That’s correct.” Brad acknowledges.
“And you left, breaking her heart in the process.” When Brad grimaces, Jax chuckles. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright, I deserved it.”
“And while he went off to private eye, detective or whatever school they keep secret from society, you fell pregnant with Ben and never bothered telling him about it? All the while, your brother decides to follow Brad’s footsteps, leaving the family high and dry without any notice at all?”
“Sounds about right.” Sofie nods.
“And now you two are back together?”
“I have always loved Sofie. I remember when we were ten and at the public pool in town, something happened and I knew right then that she was the only one for me. And believe it or not, even though there has been a few, and I mean few, women in the past eighteen years, none of them ever lasted because not one of them compared to Sofie.”
I begin to giggle. Everyone at the table is watching me and smiling. Then my giggles turn into laughs and finally Jax asks me what’s so funny.
“Here I thought I had a fucked up life.” I continue laughing, followed by Brad and Sofie. Jax doesn’t find my half assed joke funny until the entire room is laughing so hard, tears are running down our cheeks.