Page 69 of Bound By Danger
Callie sniffled as she recalled the horrific spectacle of those broken animals lying on her doorstep. She cried over every one of them as she buried them in her backyard. He’d known how to upset her the most by bringing her those offerings.
“After the first week of flowers and candies, I went out and bought one of those doorbell camera things, and I had him on video for the first couple of visits. But then, he broke it. I bought another camera and put it up high so he couldn’t get to it, but he started wearing hoodies and keeping his face averted from it. After the second day of dead animals, I went to the police.”
“And what did they do?”
“They talked to him and told him to cut it out, but there wasn’t much they could do. I had him on video for the first couple of times, but though we all knew it was him, there was no proof once he started disguising himself.”
Unable to support herself anymore, Callie slid down the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. She looked up at Lucien, who remained five feet away from her. His eyes were a vivid red, and his fangs glinted, but she wasn’t scared of him anymore.
“Then, one day, he decided playing with dead animals wasn’t enough. He broke into my house while I was at work, and when I came home, he was waiting for me in my bedroom.”
Callie shuddered as she recalled walking in to find him sitting on her bed, in the middle of her things. He’d pulled out all her underwear and laid it out on the mattress. He was holding a pair when she entered.
She hadn’t known he was there or how he got in, and that was the creepiest thing of all. The police eventually discovered he’d pried open a basement window, out of view of her cameras, and climbed inside.
As she told him this, she saw the fury building inside him, but now that she’d started talking, she couldn’t stop. Every detail, every horrible second of it, poured from her like water flowing over Niagara Falls.
“I turned and ran, but before I made it to the front door, he was on me, beating me. As he battered me, he screamed that I’d betrayed him and he would make me pay. It was all so fast that I could barely react. I remember throwing my hands up to protect my face, but when he hit me in my stomach, they instinctively fell, and that was when he broke my nose.
“It was like a wild animal was on me, kicking me, hitting me, choking me.” Her hand touched her throat as she recalled his fingers squeezing it. “I was sure he was going to kill me, and I still don’t know what made him stop. I don’t know if he got cold feet in the end or heard something, but I woke later with a pounding headache, and I was so sore I could barely drag myself across the floor to where my cell phone had fallen out of my pocket.
“When I lifted it, I saw the broken screen, but I still managed to call nine-one-one. I tried speaking to the operator, but I’d lost my voice. I could only hit buttons in response to her questions, but it must have been enough because the police arrived at my house five minutes later.”
Lucien crouched down across from her and rested his fingers on the ground as he studied her. If he ever met this Carter, he’d beat him bloody before allowing him to recover and doing it all over again until the bastard finally died.
“What happened after that?” he asked.
“They took me to the hospital, and when I was able to, I wrote down his name. That took some time to do as I had a concussion and couldn’t really hold on to one thought at a time, but finally, I could tell them who did it, and they arrested him. I pressed charges. He was put in jail, but he made bail. I was given a restraining order, but I still don’t understand what it was supposed to do against someone like him.
“I packed up all my things and left my home behind for a third-floor apartment because I wanted to be near other people. I preferred not to be all alone again, and I wanted someone who could hear me scream if he came back. And my life went on.
“As the case against him progressed, I learned he had a history of harassing women. It had never progressed to what happened between us, but I was his third restraining order. One of the women moved to California to get away from him.
“The night the Savages took me, I was out celebrating with friends because my life was returning to normal. It had been three months since I heard anything from him, and though his trial date was still pending, he’d left me alone. I didn’t understand what good a restraining order was, but obviously, it was good enough to deter him. My life was finallymineagain, and then it all came crashing down.”
And he was continuing to tear it apart, he realized with a sick sensation in his stomach. He was ordering her about, locking her way, and keeping her from doing the only thing she’d asked of him since arriving here. All he wanted was to keep her safe, but he was breaking her in the process.
Rising, he crossed over to sit beside her. When she didn’t stop him or tell him to get away, he hugged her against his chest. Lowering his head to hers, he rested his cheek on top of her hair.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. When he got the chance, he’d find this Carter and tear his spine out through his mouth, but he kept that to himself. “It never should have happened.”
Callie didn’t say anything as she curled into him. In his arms, she could almost forget the nightmare Carter unleashed on her life.
He kissed the top of her head and inhaled her sweet scent. “We’ll go get your things tomorrow. I’ll see if some of the others can join us, and we’ll cordon off an area to keep an eye out for Savages. If we go in the day, we should be safe.”
It had been long enough; if the Savages had ever watched her place, they’d most likely given up by now. He was being overprotective, but he couldn’t stand the idea of losing her like he lost Coralie. If he could change her….
He shut the thought down; he was losing it, but after what she revealed, he wouldn’t push her to join him. She’d been pushed around enough by Carter without him doing it too; she had to decide in her own time and way.
He could andwouldcontrol himself until then. Even as he considered it, the demon part of him stirred. It didn’t want to be denied what it craved so badly, but it didn’t have a choice. He would wait until she was ready.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Anything for you,” he said as he kissed the tip of her nose.
Warmth and love flooded her as she hugged him.
Chapter Thirty-Four
