We worked in silence as she got out a cookie sheet and got the bread in the oven. I already had the sauce and noodles going so she went to sit down at the kitchen table.
“You’re not going to leave us alone, are you?” she finally asked.
Her bluntness was a surprise.
“All we want to do is help you and Ethan,” I said softly.
“Why?” she asked, the doubt in her voice clear.
“Because you need it,” I answered simply.
The girl fell silent. I waited until the noodles were simmering before turning the stove down enough so the water wouldn’t boil over and then I forced myself to go sit down at the table across from her. I liked that she didn’t seem as frightened of me as before, but she was definitely wary as her eyes kept darting up to meet mine as if to prove to me and herself that she wasn’t afraid of me.
Brave girl.
“Who is he, Lucy?” I asked. “Who’s after you and Ethan?”
She shook her head. “Not me,” she murmured. “He doesn’t give a shit about me. He just wants Ethan.”
“Who?”
She didn’t respond right away, but I was caught off guard by the tears that started to slip from her eyes. She tried to dash them away, but they kept coming. “He was going to kill him,” she whispered. “He was on top of him and Ethan couldn’t breathe…he wasn’t going to stop this time.”
“This time?” I prodded, but Lucy shook her head again and stiffened her jaw.
“I should go check on him,” she said softly as she used her sleeve to wipe at her face. I didn’t say anything as she hurried past me.
I forced myself to get up and finish making dinner, but Lucy didn’t return to the kitchen and I didn’t blame her.
My appetite was gone too.
Chapter Four
Ethan
What did I tell you Ethan?
I knew that tone in his voice. It was the tone he used when he didn’t really want or need an answer to his question. Not answering would earn me a fist to the face just the same as answering would.
It didn’t really matter if I wanted to try answering him or not, because I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything but lie there under his body, his legs on either side of my hips holding me down with his greater weight as his big hands tightened around my neck. I didn’t wait for him to let up the incessant pressure on my windpipe because I knew this time he wasn’t going to.
I could see it in his eyes.
I’d pushed him too far.
I wanted to welcome death as darkness began to prick the edges of my eyes. But that need to take another breath, to see another day kicked in as it always had – the same as it had the first time Eric had knocked me to the floor and begun pummeling me with his booted feet, the same as it had that last night I’d seen him…the night he’d asked me why I hadn’t answered my phone when he’d called earlier that day.
I hadn’t answered him that time either.
But unlike that night, this time I wouldn’t be waking up on the cool tile of my kitchen floor.
Ethan, please, I don’t know what to do…I’m so scared!
Lucy.
With everything I had left in me, I clawed at the hands around my throat and when they wouldn’t budge, I went after his face.
“Ethan, stop!”
I wanted to say ‘Fuck you’ to him, but the words wouldn’t come even as a sliver of air finally seeped into my tortured lungs.
“Ethan, wake up!”
Lucy?
“Lucy, run,” I gasped, but even those few words cost me too much.
“Damn it, Ethan, open your eyes!”
The rough order broke through my muddled mind and even though I’d sworn I’d never take another order from the bastard again, my eyes automatically opened and I jerked upright. The weight from my hips was gone as were the hands around my throat. I used that to my advantage and began striking out with my fists. Even if I just left one bruise on the fucker, it would mean something.
He’d see it and for however long it graced his skin, he’d say to himself, ‘Ethan did that to me.’
I wanted to shout out loud when my fist connected with flesh, but the thought was short-lived as my wrists were instantly wrapped up in a brutal hold that I had no chance of escaping from.
“Don’t hurt him!” I heard Lucy scream. Why hadn’t she run like I told her?
“Ethan, open your eyes now!”
I wanted to scream at him that they were, but it finally registered that they weren’t, though I’d thought they were. I opened them for real this time and was immediately rewarded with a flash of light so strong that bile rose in my throat and I was helpless to stop it. I couldn’t even lean over so I wouldn’t puke on Eric because it all happened too fast.