CHAPTER 29
CINDY

“I thought I told you not to come back,” I said to Paul as he stood on my porch.

“Cindy, you’re just not thinking clearly,” he said.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the anger rising in me. “I’m thinking just fine Paul. I know what I want and it is for you to leave us alone.”

“But Cindy –”

I held up a hand to cut him off. “But nothing. I don’t know how much clearer I can make myself. I don’t want to cut you out of our lives completely, but you are making it very hard for me not to do just that.”

“I swear I’m only trying to protect you and Lily,” he said, raising his hands in mock surrender.

“I can protect my daughter just fine, thank you,” I said, my anger starting to show through in my tone.

“Listen Cindy, as long as that man is your neighbor, you aren’t safe. I’ve already told you what he’s done,” Paul said.

“Graham is not the problem. You are,” I said. “Paul, I think you’re mistaking the nature of our relationship. You’ve been getting a little obsessive recently, and it’s making me uncomfortable.”

“If checking in on you is obsessive, then I’ll own that,” he said.

“I was married to Bradley. You were his best friend. And now that he’s gone, your actions are coming off as if you might …”

I looked up into Paul’s eyes and sighed as I shook my head. My anger was not going to be what stopped his behavior, he’d just buck up against it. I needed to try to reason with him instead. I calmed my voice and tried a different tactic.

“It seems like you’re trying to start some sort of romantic relationship with me, but I don’t feel that way about you. I need you to understand that,” I said.

“I’m not following,” Paul said.

“Following me to work? Wanting to stay the night? Coming over all the time and offering to take Lily and me to lunch? Through an obsessive lens, it looks like you’re trying to take Bradley’s place. And that isn’t a place you will ever hold. I’m not into you that way. I never have been. You were my husband’s best friend, and I cherish you, but not in that way,” I said.

“Cindy, you don’t know what you’re saying. You're scared, and I get it.”

“No, I’m not scared. The only thing I’m scared of right now is you. I don’t trust you around me anymore. Around Lily. Your actions have grown overbearing, and if Bradley was here, he would be telling you the same thing.”

“You have no idea what Bradley would say,” he said.

“I do. I was married to him. I loved him dearly. Had a child with him. Saw a future with him. He would be worried about you, Paul, like I am.”

“You’re worried about me?” he asked.

“In a friendly way, yes. But this relationship you’re trying to forge between us? I don’t want it. I never have. It’s freaking me out, and you need to stop. Okay?”

I watched a fire spark in his eyes, and I took a step back from him. He charged me, his hands outstretched for my waist. He pinned me to my couch, and I tried to get him off me, kicking and yelling out for help.

“Stop it! Paul! What are you doing?”

“I was there through everything,” he said through clenched teeth.

He flipped me over on the couch as his hand slid up my side.

“I watched you fall in love with my best friend at the bar that night. After I sent you that drink instead of him,” Paul said.

“What?” I asked breathlessly. “Paul, get off me. Please, Lily is sleeping right down the hall.”

I felt his knee press into my back, cutting off my ability to breathe as cold metal clicked around my wrists.

“What are you doing?” I asked with tears in my eyes.

“You were supposed to be mine that night, and he stole my thunder. He saw those beautiful green eyes of yours and those thick curves, and he dove in on what I had already claimed.”

“I’m not someone’s property, Paul! Stop it!”

He wrenched me up from the couch, and I stumbled onto my feet. Where the hell was he taking me? He shoved me out onto the porch, and I fell to the ground, skidding my cheek on the pavement.

“Paul, stop,” I said through my sobs. “Please. Lily. I can’t leave her here alone.”

“I watched you marry that man. I watched you have a child with that man. And when he died, I saw my chance, a chance to be with the woman who was rightfully mine in the first fucking place!”

“Graham! Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“He can’t help you now,” Paul said. “He was arrested for his crimes earlier this morning.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said breathlessly. “I don’t believe a word of it!”

Paul opened the back of his car and tossed me into the back seat. I knocked my head against the seat and screamed out as he shut the door. I leaned up with my hands cuffed behind my back and kicked at the door. I tried to reach up and bang my heel on the glass, seeing if I could break it so someone could see me.

But the glass was fully tinted, and nighttime had fallen.

No one would be able to see me in this behemoth of a vehicle.

“Paul! Stop it! Lily’s in the house! What is wrong with you?” I asked.

“Lily will be taken care of. Don’t worry,” Paul said.

“If you lay a fucking finger on her, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and rip you limb from limb!”

“It hurts that you think I would hurt your daughter. I love Lily. In time she’ll forget all about him, and I’ll be her new daddy.”

“You motherfucker. There isn’t a chance in hell I would let that happen!”

He slammed on the gas, and my face went flying into the car door. I fell to the floorboard and groaned in pain as blood trickled from my mouth. It felt like I was on fire. I could hear the road rumbling beneath the tires of the car.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“You think Graham could treat you like I could? Fuck you like I could? Make you come like I could? I have a stable job. A bigger house. A nicer car. No ties to a dead family to carry around with me. I’m better for you, why can’t you just see that?”

Tears clouded my vision as my cheek pressed into the floorboard of the car. Paul was speaking gibberish nonsense now, more to himself than to me. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I knew now that he was completely unhinged. I was afraid that if he thought he couldn’t have me, he’d just kill me and dump my body. Then what would happen to Lily? She’d already lost so much already in her young life. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone, especially with this monster who claimed to love us.

I looked around me for something I could use to defend myself. A tire iron, a crowbar, anything I could use to get the upper hand on him. Lily was at the house alone, no one knew I was gone, and she was going to wake up in the morning terrified and think I had left her. I couldn’t – wouldn’t – let that happen. If I had to fight with my dying breath to get back to my little girl, I would.

That’s when I saw it.

My cell phone was sitting in the corner of the trunk. In his haste to get me out of the house, Paul hadn’t checked to see if my phone was on me.

“You awake back there, princess?” he called from the driver’s seat.

I grimaced at his nickname as I slithered my way to my phone. I propped myself up and leaned heavily against the car. We were in the woods. I could tell by the shadows of the trees rushing by the part of the window I could see. I prayed I still had cell service as I reached for my phone, and then I craned my throbbing head back as I unlocked it.

I hit redial, watching as Graham’s number popped up onto the screen.

I wanted to cry tears of joy when the call picked up and the seconds started ticking.

“Graham would never kidnap me in the middle of the night,” I said, trying to alert Graham to what was happening.

“Graham this, Graham that. I can’t believe you would choose that murderous asshole over someone like me,” Paul said.

“He’s not a murderer. You’ll never convince me of that,” I said.

“Then I guess you won’t believe me when I tell you he had a hand in killing his own family?”

“You’re a liar, and a disgusting excuse for a man, Paul. Now take me home and back to my daughter now!”

“You are an ungrateful bitch who wouldn’t know a real man if he slapped you across the fucking face! I did everything for you. I planned your husband’s funeral while you were wallowing in pity. I took Lily to and from his parent’s house because you were too doped up on sedatives and antidepressants to drive. You enjoyed my presence then, when it was convenient for you. I gave you my heart, Cindy.”

“You gave me nothing but the promise you said you made to Bradley! But it was a selfish whim, Paul. You didn’t make that promise because he was your best friend. You used that so-called promise as a way to stay close to me after he died and try to weasel your way into our lives to get what you wanted.”

“I’ve got a bigger dick than him anyway. And before I’m done with you, you’ll know it,” he said.

The car came to an abrupt halt, and I looked down at the phone. The minutes were still ticking so I knew Graham was still on the line. I shoved the phone underneath the seat as Paul flung his door open, and then I listened as he made his way around the car.

“Paul, you stay away from me,” I said. “Why did you drive me here out to the middle of the woods?” I asked, trying to give Graham a location to go on in case he wasn’t able to track my phone.

“I cleaned your house before you moved back to Bend,” he said. “I checked up on you and made sure you and Lily were adjusting okay. I ran background checks on everyone you came into contact with so you could be safe in the bubble of a life you live in, and you want to throw it back in my face like a selfish little bitch?”

He reached out for my hair and yanked me out of the back of his SUV.

“Paul, please,” I said through my sobs. “I have a daughter. What in the world are you going to tell her?”

“I’m going to tell her that her mother couldn’t swallow her grief. That after finding out some asshole she was whoring around with was nothing but a dirty, rotten mobster, you couldn’t cope. You killed yourself in the woods, and I decided to take Lily in because I loved you and her. So much.”

“You will never be my daughter’s father,” I said.

“I should’ve been the father of several children with you,” he said as I heard him fiddle with his buckle. “But I’ll settle for a bit of fun now. You like it rough, right? That bite mark on your neck tells me you do.”

I threw my knee at him and nailed him right in his crotch. He buckled to his knees, and I stumbled back into the car. My hands felt around behind me for my phone, and I took off, hoping I was heading for the road and not farther into the forest. My lungs were heaving for air, and I prayed Graham could hear this. I prayed he could figure out where I was and come after me.

Or at least get Lily out of town before Paul killed me and went back to the house.

“I can hear you!” Paul said.

My lungs were burning as twigs and branches cut open my face.

“You can run, but you can’t hide, beautiful.”

He was echoing off every corner of the woods, making it hard for me to pinpoint where exactly he was. My legs were carrying me as fast as I could, but I could feel them buckling from exhaustion. I kept imagining Lily, waking up and running to Paul as he announced I was dead. I saw Graham arrested and in prison for something I knew he wasn’t capable of.

I saw Bradley the night I met him, smiling while standing next to that disgusting son of a bitch.

I had to get back to them.

I had to get back to Graham and Lily.

“Gotcha!”

Paul leapt out of the woods and tackled me to the ground. A searing pain ricocheted up my shoulder as I cried out into the night. I heard my cell phone crunch, destroying whatever hope of rescue I thought I had. I could feel him pawing at me. His hand groping my breast, while the other worked to get his cock out of his pants. His lips were on my cheek, and I turned to bite him. I bit down so hard, I could taste his blood on my tongue.

“Ah, so you do like it rough. What about this?”

His hand cracked against my cheek, and I wailed, screaming for help when I knew no one could hear me.

“Scream all you want,” Paul said. “It’s a beautiful sound.”

I felt my pants being ripped down my legs before Paul grunted. I heard him fall to the ground and the sound of punches being landed. Bones cracked, and twigs broke. Leaves rustled as I tried to sit up. My head was pounding, and blood was still pooling in my mouth. I was shivering on the cold forest floor as my shoulder burned with pain.

Then the fighting stopped, and I heard someone scrambling for me.

“Please. No. Paul, just stop. Please stop,” I said.

“Cindy. It’s me. Sh, sh, sh, listen to my voice.”

“Graham?” I asked.

“It’s me. I’ve got you. I found you. Paul’s unconscious.”

“Graham,” I said as tears rose to my eyes.

“It’s okay,” he said.

“H-h-he tried to … Lily. Is Lily okay?”

“Lily’s fine. Daniel’s at the house with her. Your screaming woke her up,” he said. “She came running over to my house and as soon as I realized you were gone, I called the police.”

“My baby girl,” I said breathlessly.

“I’ve got you,” he said. “Oh, Cindy, I’ve got you.”

I leaned into his body as sirens sounded in the distance. I felt my body being lifted into his strong arms as he cradled me against him. Cop cars came careening down the dirt path and surrounded Paul’s body, and his groaning caused me to flinch.

“He’s never going to touch you again,” Graham said. “I’ve made sure of that.”

And for the first time in days, I felt a blanket of peace settle over me.

Graham was my protector, and I knew, if nothing else, I could trust that.