Ethan
Three hours earlier.
The second Lexi walked out of my apartment, I was on the phone with Jackie. I have no idea what's going on with Lexi, but I know there's one person that does.
She agreed to have dinner with me, and said she has been busy all day and hasn’t gotten to Lexi’s email yet, but will read it before we meet up. I told her that no matter what Lexi said, she wasn’t going to be anyone else’s call girl.
My meeting with London went well. For the first time, something is going right with it. I let them know Travis would now be heading up the project and to contact him if they needed anything. I told Travis if he messed this up, he would lose his bonus at the end of the year. He wasn’t happy about it, but I don’t care. I want this closed by the end of the month.
Walking into the restaurant, I go straight to where Jackie is already waiting for me. As I pass the waiter, I order a whiskey, then make my way to the table and pull out a chair.
“Did you read the email?” I ask Jackie as the waiter places my whiskey on the table.
“Hello, Ethan,” Jackie says in typical Jackie style. She has been around me my whole life and tries to not so subtly tell me to relax a little. Life doesn’t have to be about rushing all the time.
“Hello, Jackie.” I take a swig of whiskey and start the conversation properly. “How was your day?” I know what she is doing. She’s trying to calm me down before we start talking about Lexi.
“Busy. I had to drop a client for getting a little too handsy with the girls. It's the reason I have all these rules in place to begin with. So, how about you tell me what's happening between you and Lexi,” Jackie asks.
“Nothing is happening. I want something to happen, but Lexi… She's a little less willing to let it happen. I get the feeling it'll take some time to convince her that she wants the same thing I do. I know she wants more with me, but something is stopping her. I’m not sitting here saying I want her to be my girlfriend or anything. I won’t go there again, but I want her for maybe a little more than just company.”
“Something sex or something relationship?” she asks.
I haven’t become the businessman I am today without learning how to read people. My answer to this question will determine whether or not she tells me what was in the email Lexi sent her. “Something more.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t ask, but have you had sex?”
“Yes, but what does that matter right now? Did you read the email or not?” I ask again.
“I did. I understand why Lexi feels this way, and for now, I’m going to give her the space she’s asked for, and I think she—”
“Who's the he?” I ask. I know she was talking to Jackie about him, so she knows who it is.
She breaks eye contact with me and I know she knows what’s happening. But, I also know she's extremely loyal to her girls and that's the biggest reason I respect her.
“Space? A day? A week? Longer?” Lexi’s lucky I haven’t gone to her house to ask what the hell is going on in her head. Jackie stays quiet. “Until she's ready?” I add.
“She's coming into work tomorrow, and I'll talk to her. I’ll ask her what’s happening, and what she wants to do,” Jackie tells me. I think even she doesn’t know exactly what's going on with Lexi, and tomorrow is her finding out.
***
We spent the rest of the evening talking about Jackie’s work, and how she and my mom have a spa weekend planned. Things that don’t interest me very much, but I was hungry and needed to eat.
I’m sitting in Jackie’s car waiting for her to drive me home when I hear her phone ring and see Lexi’s name appear on the screen.
Jackie answers, putting the call on the car’s Bluetooth. “Ms. Jackie, he’s here. He’s found me,” I hear her whisper. You can hear her shaking just by the sound of her voice.
“Ethan, call the police!” Jackie shouts at me. I just stare at her for a moment, confused about what's going on. “Lexi, listen to me. I’m on my way.” Jackie continues talking to Lexi in a calmer voice. What the hell is happening?
Calling the police, I give them Lexi’s address as Jackie speeds off toward Lexi’s house. All I can do is sit there and wonder what the hell is going on.
I look at the screen when I hear Lexi scream, and I’m terrified for her.
“No! Ms. Jackie. Please, please, please!” I hear her screaming. “Please,” she begs, before the phone goes dead.
“Jackie, what’s happening?” I shout at her as she goes through the contacts on her phone.
“Ethan, not now.” I feel the car speeding up a little more. “Dan, get to Lexi’s house… He’s found her,” she shouts into the speaker.
“What?” Dan yells, and I’m beginning to get angry because no one is telling me anything.
“Get there, now.”
As Jackie is disconnecting the call, I look around and see we are only a few minutes away. I’ve never seen her looking so scared in all the years I’ve known her.
Quickly putting the car in park, Jackie jumps out and runs up the stairs. She stops as she sees the front door open a little, and looks over her shoulder at me. The distress on her face worries me.
Slowly opening the door, I follow her into the house, and look around. This is what I thought her house would look like. There's a little bit of edginess to the style in the house, yet the artwork on the wall shows the family side of her.
Walking into the bedroom I hear Jackie calling out. “Lexi, it’s Ms. Jackie.” Looking around the room, I see the bed all messed up and the lamp broken on the floor. "Remember when you told me that if anything happened you wanted me to use a special word, one that only you and I would know?" I stop in my tracks, looking at the blood on the carpet. “Daisies are your favorite flower because they remind you of home and make you smile.” She stops, and we both look at the closet as it opens.
I’m going to kill the man that did this to her. She walks out, and from where I’m standing you can see her body trembling. I go to walk over to her, but Jackie stops me.
“Lexi, do you want to give me that?” Jackie puts her hand out. I look over and see the gun hanging from Lexi’s hand. Why does she have a gun?
“He found me, Ms. Jackie, he found me.” She sounds so broken, so lost, so hurt.
“Lexi.” I turn to see Dan and Jon walking into the room. Dan wraps his arms around Lexi. “I knew I should have come with you,” he says, pulling her into the tight hug.
He pulls away and cups her face. “He found me, Dan,” she says.
“What happened?” He leans down to make eye contact with her. Her eyes look so defeated.
“I-I…” She takes a step back from him. “I was in the kitchen and saw it, and knew he was here.” Dan looks back at Jon who walks out of the room. “I called…Ms. Jackie, then went to hide in here.” She walks over to the closet as Jon walks back in with a magnet in his hand. Walking over I see her wedding picture. She was married? What's happening here?
“What happened after that, Lexi?” Dan tries to calm her down, as she begins to hyperventilate.
“He pulled me out… Got on top of me… I scratched him, and then he hit me…” She stops and looks at the floor. “I think he hit me. My face hurts.” She walks over to the bed. “He threw me on the bed. He said he wanted to have sex.” She takes a deep breath, “He…was…going…to… No, he wouldn’t… I hit him… Reached for my gun.” She rubs her forehead. “Then he was gone.” She looks down at the gun and her hand starts to shake.
“Lexi, listen to me. You need to give me that gun,” Dan tells her, but her hand is clenched around it and her eyes are glued her hand.
“He’ll be back. I’ll need it,” she whispers to herself.
Jackie looks at me. The outright worry she has etched on her face worries me more than anything else.
Walking slowly over to Lexi, I speak in a low, hushed tone. “Hey, beautiful.” I’m trying to get her to look at me. “How about we let Dan run you a bath and you can take a soak? Then you’ll feel a little better. No one will leave, I promise,” I say in a calming voice. “Would you like that?” I ask, still trying to get her to look at me. I want the fire back in her eyes that she had yesterday.
“I have to sell my house. I have to move again,” she says, and I look at Jackie behind me, then at Dan.
“You don’t have to move again. We’ve got you. I’ve got you.” Slowly moving the hair away from her face, I look her in the eyes. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.” I move my hand down her arm to her hand. “Do you want to give me the gun?” I ask.
She looks down at her hand, then places the gun in mine. Passing it over to Dan, I turn back to Lexi, “How about that bath?” I ask her.
She gives me a nod. I hear someone walking behind me, but I don’t turn around. “Jackie will pack you a bag, then we'll go back to my place.” She doesn’t say anything as she walks away from me and into Dan’s arms.
I walk to the bathroom that’s joined with her bedroom. I want to take her out of this house right now. But, she isn’t ready to leave yet, and pushing her to go isn't what she needs. If I want her with me, I need her to say she wants to be with me.
Looking around for something to put in the bath, I hear Dan behind me. “In the basket,” he tells me. I pick up one of the balls and look at it. “She loves her baths and bath bombs.” I stand there wondering what I’m supposed to do with it now. “You just have to throw it in.”
“Thanks.” Throwing the thing in the water, I turn and look at him.
“If you had to choose between money and life, which would you choose?” Dan asks, and it makes me look long and hard at him to see if I can read him.
“Life.” I lived before without money, I can live without it again.
“Your life or my sister’s life?”
He wants to know if he can trust me. He wants to know if Lexi being with me is right, or if it’s a mistake.
“Dan, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I get that you're worried about Lexi, and no matter what I say, you have already made up your mind about me. You don’t think I can keep her safe, but let me tell you something. If someone wants to get to Lexi, they'll have to shoot me first,” I say, turning the tap off and walking out of the bathroom.
I understand where Dan is coming from. If it was Tanya, I would be asking the same questions. I wouldn’t trust anyone to look after her but me. Walking into the bedroom, I see Jon kneeling in front of Lexi, rubbing her legs. I turn to Jackie, who’s putting the last of Lexi’s belongings in a suitcase. I told her to pack a bag, but Jackie is taking everything she can.
“I’ve called Adam. He’s going to help me take all of Lexi’s clothes to…” she stops as Dan walks over to us. “Wherever, and then I’ll call the mover to empty the whole place and put it on the market. If he's still around and sees it empty, he might think she left already.” Jackie looks at Lexi walking over to the bathroom, then closing the door behind her.
“Jon’s dad said we could use his storage unit for all the big items. At least until we know what her next steps are going to be,” Dan says, as Jon walks over to us.
“And it’s a good hour away from here. Might help if he sees the truck leaving the area,” Jon says, and the four of us look at each other.
“I’m the only one that doesn’t know what’s going on. You can wait for Lexi to tell me, or you can give me the bullet points.” I look at them all. I don’t care if they want to wait for Lexi to tell me. I need to know a little about what's happening, so I'll know how to look after her a little better.
“She got married to an asshole who beat her. She left. He found her. Some things happened. She left again. He found her. She left again, came here and was happy. And now, he’s found her again. There are your bullet points,” Dan says. I can tell that’s all the information I’ll be getting from anyone.
“Dan, where am I taking Lexi’s clothes?” she asks him while looking at me.
“Can I talk to you, Jackie?” Dan and Jon walk out of the room. Jackie looks at me, and I nod to let her know it’s fine and I understand.
After Jackie walks out, I pull an empty box over to the closet and start putting all her shoe boxes in it. She wasn’t lying when she said she loved her Jimmy’s. She could easily open her own store if she wanted to.
Looking down, I see marks where Lexi tried to dig her nails into the floor to stop him from pulling her out. If I ever get my hands on this man, I’m going to beat him until there's no way he’ll be able to walk again.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, so I pull it out and answer it without looking at the screen to see who's calling.
“Hello.”
“Ethan, we—”
“I’m not in the mood to talk to you. I’m hanging up before I lose my temper,” I tell her.
She keeps telling my lawyer she needs to talk to me about something important. My attorney told her she needed to go through them because I’m not interested. She told them she needed money and if I would just talk to her so he could explain, I would understand.
“Ethan—”
I end the call because the only thing I care about right now is Lexi and making sure she's safe.
“Ethan, can I have your keys?” Jackie asks, putting her hand out for me. I look behind her at Dan and Jon. What did she say to get them to agree to this?
“Here, I’ll go ahead and call the front desk to let them know you’re coming,” I say, taking my keys from my pocket. Jackie comes a little closer to me. “They agreed?” I whisper as I place the key in her hand.
“Don’t make me regret taking your side on this. That asshole hurt my girl. I want her staying with the one person I believe won’t let anything happen to her,” Jackie tells me, then walks away to continue putting things in the box. As I’m walking over to the bathroom, Dan stops me. “You hurt her or let him get close to her, then so help me God, I'll—”
“I won’t,” I say, knocking on the door. “Lexi, you’ve been in there for a while now. Are you okay?” She remains silent. “I’m coming in.” I slowly open the door. I leave it open a little so Dan can see. The way the bathroom is the laid out, he can only see her back.
Kneeling next to the bath, I put my hand in the water and swish it back and forth making gentle waves. “Are you about ready to get out? The police are here and want to talk to you.” She turns her head to look at me, and for the first time since I got here, she looks me in the eyes. “I won’t let anyone touch you again. I won’t let you out of my sight.”
“I can’t let you get hurt,” she whispers.
“How about you let me worry about that? Now, let’s get out of the water,” I say, gently.
I grab a towel and wrap it around her as she steps out of the tub. I hold her still for a moment, kiss the top of her head, and listen to her cry softly. She needs to let it out, and I need her to know she can trust me to be there for her as she gets through this.