I’m cold, shivering. The covers are pooled around my waist, but Echo’s gone. His side of the bed is warm but empty.
Irrational tears well in my eyes. He’s pulling away from me.
The first tear runs down my cheek and is quickly followed by a second and third. Echo and I crashed into each other’s lives, but in a short space of time, he’s become completely vital to me.
Tears are pouring freely down my cheeks when Brandi appears in the doorway. Rushing to me, she cocoons me in her arms. “Oh Liv, come here, sweetie.”
I sob, words pouring from me. “He’s gonna leave me. I can see the look in his eyes. He doesn’t want me anymore, and I don’t know what to do. All he sees when he looks at me is the bruises, and I need him to touch me. I love him.”
I pull in a deep breath before I look up into the sympathetic eyes of my friend. “Sweetie, calm down. Echo loves you. He hasn’t left your side since the attack. Those psychos really did a number on your face. He just needs some time to figure out how to deal with this,” she says, her hands stroking my hair. “Now, how you feeling? You need some pain meds?”
Her genuine concern heats my cheeks and tears pool in my eyes again. We may be new friends, but we’ve forged a connection that will last long after I leave Archer’s Creek. “No, I’m fine. It looks worse than it is.”
She smiles sadly and sighs. “I doubt that, honey.”
I wipe the tears from my cheeks and pull in a deep, calming breath. “Where’s Echo?”
“He had to go deal with some club stuff, so he asked me and Sleaze to come stay with you till he got back,” Brandi tells me, as she fusses around the room, picking up my discarded clothes and folding them onto a chair.
“Oh, okay,” I say quietly. My shoulders slump, my disappointment obvious.
“He wasn’t happy about going, but he was the only one who could sort out whatever the problem was,” she assures me. I nod, unconvinced.
I pull on my shorts and follow Brandi downstairs. Sleaze is watching TV in one of the BarcaLoungers. Seeing me, he jumps up and pulls me into a tight hug, kissing my hair. I cling to him, a few more tears escaping before I can pull back and wipe them away. Sleaze doesn’t speak, just returns to his seat and carries on watching the TV.
Brandi and I walk into the kitchen, and she fills the kettle, searching the cupboards for tea. My phone sits on the counter, charging. I grab it and see the message icon flashing wildly. There’s several texts from friends back home and one from James.
James: Hey Liv, how goes the biker sex? I want lots of hot stories when you get home so get kinky baby lmao!!! xx
A laugh bursts from me, and Brandi turns in question, so I show her the message. She laughs. “You need to call home, baby girl, let them know what happened,” she says, as she rubs my shoulder.
Sobering, I nod. “I’m not sure where my parents are, but James is going to lose his mind. He’s going to want to come here, or for me to go home.”
She hands me a cup of camomile tea and lifts her own to her lips, blowing at the steam that billows from it. “What do you want to do, Liv?”
I tip my head back and pull in a breath. “I want Echo.”
Brandi smiles warmly then steps back. “Well then, you call your friend, tell him what happened. Then you tell them that the big bad biker you love and your friends here are taking real good care of you,” she says with a smile.
Feeling brave, I excuse myself and walk into the garden. I sit down on one of the chairs on the back patio and dial his number. The phone rings out for a few minutes before James answers. “Hey Liv,” he says brightly.
“Hey.”
“What’s happened, what’s wrong?” James asks quickly. He can tell just from my voice that something’s happened. I pause, silently steeling myself to tell him. “Liv, I’m freaking out here. What the hell’s going on?” he shouts, his voice filled with concern.
I pull in a deep breath and speak quietly. “Something happened.”
“Was it that fucking biker, Liv, because I swear to God, I’ll beat the shit out of him if he did something to hurt you,” James explodes.
“No, never. Echo would never hurt me. Something else happened,” I quickly blurt out.
“Fuck, are you pregnant?” James says.
“What? No!” I shout. Then I inhale deeply, exhale, and say. “I don’t really know how to say this. I was attacked.”
Silence.
“Are you still there?” I ask.
“Yep, I’m booking flights. I can get a direct flight to Houston, and I’ll be with you by tomorrow night. Can you get to the airport?” James asks, his voice filled with emotion.
“Sweetie, I’m fine. You don’t need to come here,” I say, tears pooling in my eyes.
James scoffs. “Liv, you’re daft if you think I’m not coming to get you.”
“James, I’m fine. I’m out of hospital, and it’s just bruises left,” I assure him.
“Hospital!” he roars. “Right, I’m booking it now.”
“No, James, honestly, don’t come. Echo and my friends here are taking care of me. I’m fine.”
“What happened, sweetie? Oh fuck, did someone rape you? Please don’t say you were raped.” His voice trembles.
“No, no, I wasn’t raped, I promise.” My voice cracks.
“So what happened?”
“I met this guy, Wyatt, and he asked me out. It was his aunt who owned the guesthouse I was staying at. Anyway, he was a dick and the date didn’t go well, so I was leaving when Echo turned up and went all alpha on him. I hadn’t seen him since, not once in weeks. Then I got home the other day and he and his aunt kidnapped me. It was all kinds of fucked up. They beat me up pretty bad. But Echo and Gus, the guy from across the street who comes into the bar, they saved me. He’s dead, the guy who attacked me. Gus killed him,” I say. Tears stream down my face.
Even though I wish James were here right now, I’m not ready to leave Echo. James is my oldest friend, but he wouldn’t understand why I need to stay.
“Fucking hell, Liv. Be honest, are you okay?”
I clear my throat and try to sound as okay as possible. “I’m fine. I mean, I’m not, obviously I’m not fine, but I’m going to be okay.”
“I really want to come get you, Liv. I need to see that you’re all right.”
“I know you do, but I have Echo, and he’s looking after me,” I say, desperately wanting, needing to reassure James that I’m safe and cared for.
“Is he there? I want to speak to him.”
I balk. “Er, no, he’s not here. He had to pop out.”
James voice hardens. “Sounds like he’s taking great care of you, Liv, leaving you alone.”
“I’m not alone,” I say quickly. “He had Brandi and her husband, Sleaze, come stay with me while he went out.”
“Oh, yeah, well I suppose that’s okay,” James reluctantly concedes.
“It is, it’s fine.”
I hear James’s anguished sigh. “I want you to FaceTime me, Liv, not once a week, but every day. If not, then I’m coming to get you. I don’t care what you say, sweetie.”
“Okay, I’ll FaceTime you starting tomorrow. I promise, if I need you, I’ll ask you to come, or I’ll come home. But this is where I need to be right now, okay?”
I can hear how unconvinced James is when he finally speaks. “Okay. I love you, Liv. Thank God you’re okay.”
“Love you too, speak tomorrow,” I say, then cut off the phone. I hold it in my hand and breathe out a sigh of relief. I pull up the photos of my friends back home and feel torn. A part of me wants to go home. James and Dan would look after me, or my mum and dad would come home. But my chest hurts just thinking about leaving Echo; we don’t have that much time left together, and I want to make the most of every moment.
I just wish I was still sure Echo felt the same way.
My bruises are almost gone; the vivid purple has faded to sickly yellow. Soon there’ll be nothing left to say that I was attacked. Small scars mar my arms, stomach, and legs, but the plastic surgeon assures me they’ll fade with time.
Wyatt and Mimi fill my unconscious mind. If I fall asleep alone, I fight for my life every night until Echo crawls into our bed and protects me from my nightmares. His touch shelters me, and I sleep dreamlessly until he leaves every morning and the dreams wake me up soaked in sweat and screaming.
Weeks have passed since the day everything changed. I feel caged in this house, living with the man I love who’s become a stranger.
Brandi’s been my sanity; at Strikers or here, she listens to me babble and vent. “Liv, sweetheart, it’s only been a few weeks. Just give him some time,” she says.
“I can’t do this anymore. He doesn’t want me here, he just hasn’t got the balls to tell me to go.”
Brandi scoffs. “That’s ridiculous. The man’s obsessed with you. He loves you.”
“Brandi, he hasn’t touched me in over a month. We don’t sleep together. We don’t kiss. He’s more like my jailer than my boyfriend. He’s gone from sexy controlling to insane controlling.”
Brandi rolls her eyes. “Liv, you’re being dramatic.”
“I’m not,” I say and throw my hands in the air in frustration. “I haven’t had a minute’s privacy since the day I came back from the hospital. He’s never here, but he sends you and Sleaze or Smoke or Daisy to babysit me. Puck and Blade were even here the other day. He doesn’t want to be around me, so he’s palming me off on anyone he can.”
“Liv,” Brandi says doubtfully.
I turn my eyes at her imploringly. “Brandi, I wish it wasn’t true. But it is. I don’t want to leave, the thought of never seeing Echo again makes me feel like I can’t breathe. But with the way things are between us, I think leaving’s the best thing for both of us.”
Her arms wrap around my shoulders and pull me in for a tight hug. “I don’t want you to leave, Liv. You’re my best friend,” she says quietly.
Tears pool in my eyes. “I feel the same way. I’m really going to miss you,” I say, sniffling.
Dropping her arms, she moves back. “So don’t go. I don’t want you to go and I promise you Echo doesn’t want you to go. If you leave, you’ll regret it.”
I slump onto the sofa. “I can’t live like this anymore, Brandi. He used to constantly have his hands on me, and the sex was out of this world, but now he doesn’t touch me. He holds my hand and strokes my hair, but that’s as intimate as we’ve been since the attack. To start off, I was okay with it. I hurt and I was still a bit freaked and he always cuddled me as I slept, but that’s stopped too now.”
I stand up and start to pace, frustrated and angry. “What I don’t understand is, if he doesn’t want me here, why he isn’t giving me the opportunity to leave. My bossy alpha man is gone, and instead he’s a distant control freak. I just wish it was the control freak that was telling me to take off my clothes and spread my legs. He’s cold and growly. When I kiss him, he pulls away. God, one night I was so frustrated I jumped on him and straddled his lap. He lifted me off him and left the house, saying he had club business to sort out. He sat on his bike in the driveway till Daisy got here.”
Brandi sits silent, her eyes wide with shock.
“He doesn’t want me anymore, but he’s more jealous than usual. If I’m working, he sits at the bar intimidating anyone who looks at me the wrong way. It’s like he doesn’t want me but no one else can have me either.”
Sympathy floods her eyes. “Have you tried talking to him about it?”
Defeated, I slump onto the sofa, my head in my hands. “I’ve tried asking him what’s going on, but he evades my questions. He says I’m still delicate and need more time to fully recover.”
Her arms surround me, and she pulls me into a tight hug. “Oh Liv, I had no idea things were this bad.”
I cry silent tears against her shoulder. “I can’t do this for much longer. The pretence is exhausting. I’m not running, but I need to get away from him and give us both a chance to move on with our lives. I just need to figure out how I’m going to leave.”