CHAPTER SEVEN
Stetson barely made it to the bottom of the stairs when he paused. He felt the pull of the woman he had just left like a physical rope leading him back up the stairs towards her. His heart thundered in his chest and his hands tightened into fists at his sides. He fought the urge to turn and run right back up to her.
“You have to stop this,” he told himself firmly under his breath. “You can never be with her, not like that.”
You can’t trust anyone like that again, he thought to himself. They were the same words he had thought for most of his adult life and yet something about the words didn’t feel quite as true as it had before he’d met Poppy. There was something so trustworthy about her, something that drew him in and held his attention like no one had ever done before.
He was just about to reach for the handle of the front door when his ears picked up a muffled sound. He couldn’t quite make out what it was but something about it caused his heart to grow heavy. His gut told him that he had to get back up those stairs. Without a second thought, he whipped around and took the steps three at a time. His legs carried him swiftly back to Poppy’s door, just in time to hear the thunderous thud on the other side of it. The commotion of a scuffle ensued, and Stetson reached for the door handle, even as his instincts battled with themselves. Part of him knew that he should stay away from Poppy, but the other part knew deep down that she was in trouble and he couldn’t well leave her that way. Whatever it was, it was probably because of him. It always was.
***
Instinctively, Poppy slammed her heel down into the foot of her attacker only to feel pain shoot right up her leg. Whoever the person was, they had come prepared. Her bare foot was no match for the steel toed boot she found beneath it. Had her mouth not been covered, she would have let out a scream. Agony rippled through her as her foot throbbed, but fear overwhelmed her, erasing the pain temporarily, as she felt herself thrown sideways.
She screamed anyway into the hand that held her mouth as she was thrown against the hallway wall. Her body was pinned by her attacker’s as her cheek hit the hard surface. She wriggled helplessly beneath the weight of the larger person as they leaned in and pressed their lips against her ear. “You are a dirty, gold digging whore,” her attacker whispered and the venom in his voice made her shiver with disgust. Instinct, and the need to get herself away from such a vile creature, caused her to send her head flying backwards into his face.
“Ahh! You bitch!” He growled with aggression as he was thrown backward by the force of the connection to his nose. Warm liquid burst over the side of her neck and, with a small thrill of satisfaction, Poppy realized that she must have broken his nose.
Take that, she thought. She pulled herself away from the wall and began to run. She had meant to run for the door but all too late she realized that in her disorientated state she had turned the wrong way. She was headed further into her apartment.
Again, she found herself wishing that she had just had the guts to invite Stetson in. Maybe then she wouldn’t be in this mess. But she was also glad that she hadn’t, because then she would have put him in danger too. She couldn’t stand that thought.
The thunderous racket that came from behind her caused her to whirl around. She saw her attacker standing in the hallway with his hand pressed to his nose. It was not him who had caused the explosion of sound but the huge man who had just bulldozed right through her front door.
Fear gripped her as she wondered whether she was going to have to fight off two of them. Her heart fell into her stomach. She could barely fight off the one, let alone two men who wanted to hurt her. She was about to turn and race for the relative safety of the bathroom that the lock would give her when she realized that the second man was not there to attack her. He was here to help her.
Relief overwhelmed her as she recognized the broad shoulders and tall figure of Stetson. He strode forward with two giant steps and grabbed hold of the man by the shoulder of his black hooded jacket.
Poppy watched in amazement as the smaller man reached for the zipper of his jacket and pulled it down quickly. He slipped like a snake from its skin, leaving Stetson looking more than a little shocked as the smaller, wirier man scrambled past him and headed for the tattered door.
For a moment, Stetson simply stood in the hallway, staring at Poppy. She stared back at him as his eyes washed over her. He must’ve realized she was shaken but unharmed because he suddenly turned and began to race after the man.
“No!” Poppy screamed, and the simple word pulled him up short. She saw his shoulders tense, and, for a moment, he simply stood still where he was. When he slowly turned in her direction, she saw the glint of uncertainty in his eyes. “Please don’t leave me.”
Poppy could feel herself shaking uncontrollably as she felt tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes. The thought of being left alone in her apartment was unbearable. Although she wished that Stetson had caught the man who’d attacked her, she was more bothered about being left alone. She couldn’t bring herself to move for fear that if she did, another attacker might appear out of the shadows to get her.
Stetson strode towards her with a couple of huge steps. He pulled her into him and she rested her head against his chest as she felt the tears begin to stream down her face.
“There, there,” he told her as he stroked the back of her head gently with his huge hand. “I’ve got you. You are safe now. I will always keep you safe.”
***
Poppy shook in his arms so violently that Stetson feared that if he let her go, she might disintegrate. He couldn’t have let her go even had he wanted to, for she held on to him with an iron grip that he could not have believed possible of someone so small. All he could do was hold her and stroke the back of her head as she wept into his chest. Before long, the front of his shirt was soaked through but still he continued to hold her until she finally pulled away from him.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed as she wiped the tear stains from her face.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Stetson replied firmly, and he took her into his arms again, not yet ready for her to leave his protection. “You cry for as long as you need to. Let it out.”
“How are you so calm?” she asked as she turned her face up to look at him and her eyebrow furrowed.
“It’s my job to stay calm,” he shrugged his shoulders. With that, he released her with one arm and reached down to shove his hand into his pocket. He pulled his phone out and dialed his brother’s number quickly. “Brett, we have a situation.”
“I told you it was a bad idea to shift at the party! What kind of shit do we have coming our way?”
Stetson quickly pulled away a little from Poppy in the hopes that her human ears wouldn’t be able to hear what Brett had just said. When he looked down at her face, he was hopeful that she hadn’t heard him. Her face didn’t show anything besides the fear and sadness.
“Poppy has been attacked in her home….”
“What?!” Bronte’s voice hit his ear drum so hard that he had to take the phone away from his ear for a moment. He cringed as he waited for his ear to stop ringing.
“She’s alright. I got to her in time, but the guy got away,” he told them. He heard his brother sigh, but Stetson spoke before Brett could. “Can you do me a favor and check out the security cameras? See if we can get a lead on him? I’d do it myself, but Poppy is pretty shaken up and I don’t want to leave her on her own right now.”
“Sure,” Brett spoke then. “You do what you need to do, brother. I’ll handle things from my end.”
“Thanks.” Stetson thanked his brother before he put the phone down and shoved it back into his pocket. Then, he whipped Poppy up into his arms and began to carry her in the direction of the sofa. She made no effort to stop him. In fact, she felt limp in his arms. Until she wrapped her arms around his neck, he thought that she might have passed out with the shock or maybe even exhaustion.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered in assurance, though he wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure more as he dropped down onto the couch with her on his lap and pulled her into his torso. He cradled her against him like a child as she continued to cling onto him. “I’ve got you.”
***
The sound of Stetson’s breathing calmed Poppy and she pressed her ear against his chest to listen to the pounding of his heart. To her it was slow, almost too slow though she wasn’t sure whether that was because her own was still beating ten times faster than it normally did. She could still feel the slimy hand pressed over her mouth and hear the venomous voice in her ear, but she tried her best to push those memories away as she simply enjoyed the way Stetson cradled her to him. His voice echoed through her body. “I’ve got you.”
Those words overwhelmed everything, and she couldn’t help but smile against his chest as she closed her eyes and held onto them. Her fingers clutched the front of his shirt and she felt his muscles bunch beneath, as though he had suddenly gone tense.
The raucous sound of a cell phone caused them both to almost jump out of their skin and Stetson quickly pushed his hand into his pocket. He answered the call with a quick, “What have you got for me?”
Poppy didn’t move a muscle as she felt him nodding.
His voice grew gruff when he next spoke, “Who is it?”
She knew that they were talking about her and whatever had just happened but part of her wasn’t sure she wanted to know the conversation they were having. Talking about it made it all too real in her eyes.
“Thanks, Brett. I’ll do that.” The last words he said were filled with such strain that Poppy knew whatever he had been told to do, he didn’t like the sound of.
“Poppy?”
For a moment she thought of ignoring him, pretending that she was asleep. She didn’t want to disturb the quiet moment they had just been having. But another part of her wanted to look into his eyes when he spoke to her and so she lifted her head to look at him.
“I thought you might have been asleep,” he said softly, his voice a low rumble.
“How could I be?” she replied, though she wasn’t sure whether that was because she had just been attacked or because she sat on the lap of a man she was so attracted to.
“Well then, if you can’t sleep, you won’t mind us taking a little trip, will you?” Stetson smiled at her and the spark in his eyes made her feel a little uneasy. Had he been anyone else, she might have flat out refused whatever he was thinking then and there. But this was Stetson and she was more than a little curious on where he wanted to take her so late at night.
“Where were you thinking?”
“I want to take you home with me,” Stetson replied, and his words shocked her to the core. Had she been in a better mood, she might have made a joke about how it was too soon for her to go home with a man. But right now, she didn’t care about being funny. She just wanted to know what was going on.
“Why can’t we just stay here?” she questioned as she pulled herself up a little straighter. She glanced around at her small apartment. It wasn’t much but it was home.
“It’s not safe here.” Stetson shook his head and sighed. “My place is much more secure and whoever it is that attacked you won’t know to look for you there.”
“What if they follow us?” she asked.
“They will have to get past eight-foot-high concrete fences and a six-inch steel security door to get to you,” Stetson told her. His words caused her to shiver.
“That sounds like a prison,” she observed, and the corner of Stetson’s mouth twitched up in an amused smile. She loved the way he looked when he was amused - all mysterious yet happy with what she had said.
“I assure you, it’s much more beautiful than a prison.” His words made her even more curious as to where he wanted to take her.
“How long will we be staying at your place?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Best to pack for a few days. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to catch this guy and, even then, the problem might not be solved.”
As though he felt her shiver, Stetson wrapped her in his arms and held her close to him. “I promise I am going to do whatever it takes to get you safe and get this mess sorted out.”
In that moment, Poppy believed him more than she had ever believed anyone in her life.