CHAPTER TWENTY
Cat
I woke with arms wrapped around my body.
At first, visions of the night before clouded my judgment and I’d almost jumped out of bed screaming. Then I realized the arms that held me were Seth’s. I sighed and sank back into him, loving the feel of him. All of him. Though, as I felt his morning erection pressing into my butt, I thought about the faceless man as he cupped my pussy. If Paul, Seth and even Bryce hadn’t come into the room at that exact moment, there was no telling what would have happened—other than the obvious.
“Good morning, beautiful.”
A tear slid from my eye.
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe,” Seth whispered, kissing my shoulder.
“I know,” I whimpered. I thought he was sleeping, but even with a sleeping aid, I was certain I hadn’t slept more than a few hours too.
“It will take some time. You’ll never forget, but it should get better.”
“I hope so.”
Seth leaned his chin on my shoulder. “What if you talk to Joss and Autumn?”
“Autumn?” I rolled onto my back, looking up into his eyes as he hovered over me.
“I don’t know all the details, but before she was with Gabe, Paul said she was abused by her ex-husband.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “I had no idea. She seems so happy.”
“Time heals all wounds, right?”
I shrugged. “I guess.” Though I never got over Seth breaking my heart. Except now I realized I was equally at fault since I didn’t let him explain anything to me.
Seth pressed his lips to mine. “Just know I’m here for you every day, and I’m not letting you sleep alone.”
My eyes widened. “Oh shit!”
He jolted, startled by my outburst. “What?”
“My parents—my office, they’re probably wondering what happened to me. Shit, Nathan too.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. Nathan knew I was staying an extra day, but since then, I hadn’t called anyone. Not like I could. My phone and belongings were taken when I was.
“We’ll call them.”
I sat up and tried to leave the bed. “I have patients. They’re all probably wondering where I am.”
“Hey …” Seth grabbed my wrist, preventing me from leaving. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll take care of it.”
I held out my hand. “I need your phone.”
He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed it. “Make your calls. I’m going to make us some breakfast. I gotta go to the bureau today and do my report and get briefed, but everything will be okay. We’ll get through this.”
I smiled tightly, not sure if he was correct. After he left, I sat back on the bed and dialed my office.
“Stone Dental,” Corinna answered.
“Corinna, it’s Cat.”
“Oh my God! Where are you? We’ve been worried sick and have been calling you non-stop.”
“I’m sorry. Something happened—”
“Are you okay?”
I looked at the window, noticing the sunlight was trying to peek through the blinds. “I am now.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll tell you once I get back. Is my dad there?”
“Yeah, just a second. I’ll get him.”
“Okay. Can you also reschedule all my appointments the rest of the week? I’m not sure what day I’m flying back.”
“You’re still in Vegas?”
“Yeah. Like I said, something happened.”
“Okay, no problem. Let me get your dad.”
“Thanks.”
I stared at the sun shining through the cracks, and a sense of relief washed over me. I was safe. I wasn’t in the windowless warehouse that I’d been in. I was in Seth’s bed. I was with the man who’d always made me feel safe from the moment I’d met him.
“Catherine!” Dad bellowed. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I sighed. “I don’t want to tell you over the phone.”
“Are you hurt? Why didn’t you call?”
“Stuff happened, but I’m okay now. I’m with Joss and Seth.”
“Good.”
“I just wanted to call and tell you that I was fine, and sorry it took me a few days to call you. My phone was stolen.”
“We’ve all been worried sick.”
“I figured, and I’m sorry.”
“I’ll figure out your patients with Corinna and Kelly. You just come home, okay?”
I bobbed my head. “I will soon.”
“I love you, Ruthie.”
I smiled at the nickname my father had given me when I was a kid because I loved the candy bar Baby Ruth. It was to the point where I’d steal his change from his change jar and ride my bike down the street to the gas station every day so I could eat one. “Love you too, Daddy.”
I set the phone down on the nightstand as Seth walked in carrying a tray with plates of food and coffee. I needed to jump on Facebook and message Hannah and Nathan because I had no idea what their numbers were. I’d always had them in my phone. I was lucky I knew my office number, and that was only because my dad had worked from that office practically my entire life. Though I guess I could have Googled it if need be.
“Paul made breakfast. I guess he does that every morning.” Seth smiled and handed me a plate.
“That’s nice of him.” I looked down at the plate full of bacon, over easy eggs, toast and coffee.
Seth sat next to me, and we both propped ourselves against the headboard. I didn’t even remember the last time I’d eaten. I guess it was breakfast with Seth before my nightmare.
“Joss went to get you some clothes.”
“Okay.” I took a small bite of the toast.
“I’m going in to finish what needs to be done with the case. Joss said she’d call Autumn and you guys can go get coffee or something when she gets back.”
“Wait.” I looked over at him. “Does she know we slept in the same bed last night?”
Seth stopped moving his fork full of egg to his mouth then set it on his plate. “She knows more than that.”
“She does?” My eyes widened.
He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kitty Cat, but after everything that went down, I told her about us last night.”
I stared into his emerald eyes for a few moments. “How did she take it?” I thought I’d be upset that he told her without me, but I was relieved. Relieved that it was out and we didn’t have to hide our relationship any longer.
“She took it much better than I thought she would. It was as though she didn’t care. In fact, she scolded me for going on a date with Annie. She thought I was playing you.”
“So, she’s cool with us dating?”
“Pretty sure she’s cool with it.”
I took a few more bites of my food. “You told her that it started years ago?”
“Yep.”
Joss was okay with us dating. Joss was okay with us dating. Wow.
Seth shoved a bite of toast in his mouth. “I gotta get going. You wanna grab dinner tonight?”
“Yeah, but it might need to be an early night. I need to figure out my flight home for tomorrow.”
“Stay. Give me a few days, and I’ll go with you.” Seth slid off the bed and moved to the closet.
“I have a dental practice at home—patients. My dad needs me back.”
He moved to my side of the bed and sat at my feet. “I know you want to get back to your life, but I’m not ready to let you out of mine.”
I blinked at his words. “We’d break-up if I left? That wasn’t even the plan before all of this shit happened last night.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I mean I’m not ready to put you on a plane and have to worry if you make it home safe. I want to go with you. I can see Grandma, and we can spend more time together.”
“What about your job in D.C.?”
Seth shrugged. “I have vacation time. I don’t need to go back right away.”
“I haven’t taken a long vacation in years,” I admitted.
“Then let’s go somewhere, just the two of us. While we’re gone, we can figure out what’s best for us so we can be together.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Don’t care. You pick the place. It can be anywhere in the world.”
“I need to tell my father. Tell my staff.”
Seth stood and shrugged on his white button-up shirt. “Like I said, we’ll go to Miami, and you can figure shit out. Then, I want you all to myself.”
My belly dipped at his words. I definitely liked his plan.
After Seth left, Paul gave me his laptop, and I logged into Facebook. As soon as Joss returned, he was going into the FBI to give his statement of events. I got the impression no one wanted to leave me alone. I didn’t want to be alone anyway.
As I pulled up my Facebook account, I had message after message from my two friends. I also had messages from everyone at work and my family. It felt good to know that I was missed, that they worried about me, though Nathan assumed I was shacked up with Seth the entire time, but I wasn’t ready to tell them anything, especially not on social media or over the phone. I messaged them that I’d decided to stay in Vegas with Seth and Joss.
After I sent the messages and explained how I’d lost my phone, Paul put on the TV for us to watch. I had no idea what was on because my attention was on the days before. I wasn’t scared because I knew I was safe, but all I thought about was sitting on the hard, cold, concrete floor, starving, being forced to strip down to my bra and panties, and then bought. I was bought as if I was property. Then I thought about the faceless man dragging me, and his hands on me. But what made me not have a panic attack was remembering Seth coming into the room and hearing his voice. My entire life he’d always been my savior, even against stupid boys who whistled at me. So I focused on Seth’s face and knowing he’d never let anything happen to me.
Sometime later, Joss came back, a bag from Macy’s in her hand. After she kissed her husband hello she turned to me. “I didn’t know where you shopped, so I just went to the first store I could think of in this town.”
I smiled and took the bag from her. “Doesn’t matter at this point.”
“Are you doing okay?”
I shrugged as I set the bag down on the floor beside me on the couch. “As well as I can be.”
“I was thinking we should meet up with Autumn for coffee.”
“I’m not really feeling like going anywhere,” I confessed.
“I understand. I’ll text her and have her meet us here if that’s okay?”
“Okay.”
“And that’s my cue to leave.”
I turned to see Paul stand from the couch. Joss wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered something in his ear. He smirked then winked at her. After he grabbed his stuff and headed out the front door, Joss pulled her cell phone out of her purse. I assumed she sent a text to Autumn.
“Everything okay with the case?”
She sat next to me. “Yeah. I mean, the devil is dead.”
I turned my head to face her. “But Bryce …”
“Nothing I can do about it now.”
I nodded, getting the feeling she couldn’t really talk about the case with me even though I was the victim. The night before, as the paramedics had checked me over, an Agent Reigles with the FBI took my statement. They said they’d let me know if they needed me again.
After I changed into the panties, jeans, and thin, purple sweater Joss had bought for me, I used her makeup to freshen up. It was the first time I’d looked in the mirror since everything happened. The night before I was too scared to look. Now, as I stared at myself, I only noticed a few bruises. The memories of how they got there kept playing on repeat, and I wanted to know when the nightmare would end. If it would ever end.
When Autumn arrived, she brought in two cups of coffee and a passion tea lemonade for herself. She smelled like warm vanilla sugar, and even though it had been a few days since I last saw her the day of Joss and Paul’s wedding, it looked as though her pregnant belly had grown tremendously. She was beautiful. I knew that she’d once been in an abusive relationship, the way she glowed told me that she was happy now. Even though our situations were different, I wanted to know how she got through it. I also wanted to ask Joss how she finally got through her ordeal too.
I wasn’t raped or beaten. I was just really, really, scared shitless. And, for the first time in my life, I’d heard gun shots that weren’t even five feet from me. I could still hear the pop of the gun as it was fired when I closed my eyes. I needed to know how to move forward because I’d heard horror stories about trauma and I didn’t want to live in pain every minute of every day. Especially not when I had Seth back in my life.
“Thank you for the coffee,” I said as I grabbed the white cardboard cup from Autumn.
“You’re so welcome. I miss that liquid goodness like you can’t believe.”
I smiled. “I’d die without coffee.”
Autumn set her drink down and rubbed her protruding belly as she sat next to me. “You want kids one day?”
“With Seth,” Joss blurted.
My eyes widened as Autumn said, “Really?”
“Apparently, those two,” Joss moved her finger back and forth as if Seth was in the room with us, “are a thing.”
I hid behind the skinny coffee cup but smiled again. Having girl talk felt good. We sat and talked as I told them how Seth and I had started something when I was eighteen, and how I was an idiot for too many years. How he told me at the wedding that he still loved me, and how I still loved him, and how we spent the days before everything went to shit together. I didn’t go into details, but that led to the talk …
“Did you get any sleep last night?” Autumn asked.
I nodded slightly. “A little. I’m sure it was because I wasn’t alone.”
Joss looked to Autumn. “I’ll go first.” She took a sip of her coffee and then a deep breath. “I know you know bits and pieces of my story, but the night it happened, I wasn’t alone either. I was on a bus heading to D.C., but when I got there and couldn’t find Seth, I was alone. I cried and cried and cried. So if you want to cry, cry. Let yourself feel.”
“I did cry,” I confessed.
“I know,” Joss said. “But if you need to, keep crying. We’ll all understand.”
I gave a tight smile. “I know, but I’ll be going back to Florida, so I won’t burden any of you.”
“You’re not a burden, Cat. You’re my best friend.”
Joss and I hugged. Even though we hadn’t had a real relationship for so long, it felt as though we had. All those years apart were like seconds in time. Sure, we’d both had our life progress, but I felt as if we were back in high school talking about football games and how Victoria got caught giving head to Kenny Williams during lunch one day. Or how Sammy left school because she was pregnant. We were back on track.
“Is Seth going with you?” Autumn asked.
I shrugged. “He said he was, but he has a job. I can’t expect him to stay in Miami forever.”
Joss grinned. “I bet you could.”
“Right,” I snorted. I thought I could do that too if I asked, but I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted. There was so much to think about in such a little bit of time because I didn’t want to go one day without Seth again.
“He will. But anyway, I really didn’t get through my shit until Paul,” Joss continued. “Having someone to talk to, and someone who made me feel safe, was what did it for me.”
“Me too,” Autumn chimed in. “When I met Gabe, I was broken. My ex-husband used to put his hands on me. It wasn’t like I had a black-eye daily or anything like that. He was strategic because he wanted to keep up a front. I’d actually made the decision to leave him, but it wasn’t until I met Gabe that I was finally able to because he made me feel safe. One night we were having a party at my house, and Gabe showed up. He and Paul actually knew my ex.”
“Really?” I cut in.
Autumn nodded. “They were all in the Army together. Richard was their Major, Gabe the Captain, and Paul a Lieutenant.”
“Small world.”
“Seriously.” Joss took a sip of her pink tea. “Apparently they weren’t the only ones to hate Richard. So did a lot of men in this town. The night of the party, one guy rushed in and all hell broke loose. Gabe kept me safe, and we’ve been together ever since.” I watched as she rubbed her belly again. “And after this baby is out, we’ll make it official.”
“When are you due?” I asked.
“Two more months.”
“Do you know what you’re having?”
Autumn shook her head. “Nope. We want to be surprised.”
“I don’t know if I could do that. I’d want to know,” I confessed.
“Me too,” Joss agreed.
“Speaking of …” I prompted.
“Nope. Not pregnant.” Joss chuckled.
“But now that you’re married …”
“Yeah, get on that so our babies can grow up together. I’m sure Gabe and Paul will be excited.”
Joss shook her head. “I just got married a few days ago. Let me enjoy it.”
A thought occurred to me. “Oh my God, am I imposing on your sex life now?”
“What?” Joss gasped. “Of course not!”
“Because I’ll stay at a hotel until I go back—”
“Cat.” Joss put her hand on my knee. “You’re not imposing. If anything, I’m enjoying catching up with you.”
I smiled and hugged her again. “Me too.”
“Just remember we’re here for you.”
I smiled tightly. “Thank you. How long did it take to forget everything?”
The girls looked at each other. Joss spoke, “I still catch myself thinking about that night.”
“Me too.” Autumn agreed. “Things trigger it. TV shows, movies, songs, seeing a woman in our self-defense class. Abuse is all around us.”
I swallowed. “So it won’t go away?”
“I don’t think so,” Joss said. “It will just get easier to deal with.”
“And you and Paul … You know …”
Joss chuckled. “We have consummated our marriage, yes.”
I didn’t think Paul would marry someone he couldn’t have sex with, but I wasn’t sure. “And you were able to be with other men before him?” I was lucky my first time was with the man I wanted to spend forever with.
Joss stared at me for a beat, and then turned to take a quick look at Autumn before she spoke. “No.”
I blinked. “No?”
She shook her head. “I’d like to say that I focused on my career, but the reality is that it was hard because I remembered that night.”
Autumn leaned forward and rubbed Joss’s back.
“Will it take me twelve, thirteen years to finally have sex again?” I didn’t know how it worked, but the thought made me sick to my stomach. I wasn’t raped like Joss, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw the faceless man and felt as though I could feel his hands on me. How was I going to let Seth touch me?
Autumn moved her comforting touch to me and rubbed my back. “It will take as long as it takes.”
“It only took that long because I was in my head,” Joss clarified. “I trusted Paul. Knew he wouldn’t hurt me, and once I let him show me that he loved me, I got out of my head because I loved him too. I was tired of living in the past. Granted, I didn’t know I was about to come face to face with my past.”
“And now?” Joss leaned forward and grabbed my hands. “Now I know he won’t hurt me again. Even before Tony was dead, I had Paul to show me I wasn’t broken. You have Seth, and while I don’t know all the details of your relationship, I do know that man will do anything for you. He’ll give you time. He’ll wait for you. He waited eleven years, Cat. And I know he will do anything to protect you. I saw it last night.”
A tear slid down my cheek. I knew she was right, and I hoped I could remember what she was saying when the time came for Seth and me to be intimate again. We were on fire, and it was the best sex of my life. Now I needed to try to get out of my head and remember that the devil and his pimp who bought me were no longer going to hurt me because they were dead.
I knew that over time, with Seth by my side, I’d be free of my nightmare.