“Jake, wait up.” Rona shouts, dashing back into the kitchen. “Elise is stuck in the snow on her way here.”
“What the hell is she doing out in this? Shit! She knows better than to be driving around in her car.” Jake looks mad and worried as he paces a hole in the floor.
“Jake, she’s on her way here to you. Apparently she needs to be with you,” Rona say’s.
This stops him dead in his tracks.
“Jake, did you hear Rona?”
“Yeah.”
“Listen, you need to go to her now!” Rona suddenly shouts, tears of distress in her eyes, “I don’t know what happened exactly, but you have to get to her before Tom does. He hit her, Jake. She wouldn’t say why but she sounds destroyed.”
I find myself grinding my teeth and I’m tempted to go hunt the bastard down myself. Looking at my son, he looks ready to go hunting as well—the two-legged kind of prey.
“Go get your girl, and don’t screw it up. She needs you to be there for her, not to go off half-cocked. Do you understand me?” Rona tries to get through to Jake.
“Yes, I heard. I’ll go look after her now, but that bastard is going to pay.” With that he stomps out of the house, only a slight limp noticeable.
Chapter 16
Elise
Freezing my ass off with a face ready to explode and a pounding headache isn’t what I planned on today.
Jake left really early after a call from his grandparents, so I’d curled up in bed for some much needed sleep. The night had been amazing, especially since he’d woken me twice to make love to me again. I wasn’t expecting to see him again so soon.
Hearing a truck tearing around the mountain road, my heart pounds in panic and I search around frantically for some type of weapon to protect me. All I can see is the snowbrush; it isn’t much, but it’ll work. As I clutch the long brush to my chest, I realize the truck is coming from the opposite direction than where Tom would be coming from.
Jake breaks sharp, which causes his truck to jackknife across the road. He only just manages to keep it on the damn road. What the hell is he thinking?
Dashing across to where he’s come to a stop in the bad visibility, I reach him just as he jumps out of his truck.
“What the hell was that?” I’m screaming and shoving him with my hand. He scared the hell out of me.
“What?”
“Don’t what me. I’ve only just got you back, and I’d appreciate you not trying to kill yourself in front of me.” I burst into tears. It’s all too much.
“Fuck, Elise.” Jake pulls me into his arms. “I have no intention of killing myself. I was worried about you and wanted to get to you before the fucker does.”
Jake puts me away from him, but cradles my cheeks in his large hands. His face tightens when he sees the swelling to my cheekbone. My eye feels as though I’ve been stabbed with red-hot needles.
“This is my fault,” he hisses.
“What? No way is it your fault. You didn’t hit me, Jake.”
He shakes his head. “Let’s get you warmed up.”
He lifts me into his truck and follows me inside. “You’re far enough off the road. But damn it Elise, that car of yours isn’t for this weather.”
“I didn’t have much choice.”
Sitting back in the seat, I let the heat do its job of thawing me out some. All I want is some Tylenol and to sleep off the pain. I suppose I can hope I won’t feel as bad in the morning.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Jake asks me with his fists clenching on the steering wheel.
“I already told you I’d broke up with him over the phone. I hadn’t planned to do it that way, over the phone, but he just pissed me off ordering me around. So I blurted it out. I guess he left for my house as soon as he’d hung up on me. He found me climbing naked from my bed with your semen dried on my thighs.”