Her mouth went dry. “No. I don’t want to go with you. Do I have to call the police and have them take care of it?
He laughed. “I’ve not laid a hand on you. You and I both know nothing is going to come of it.”
She knew he was right, and it made her sick to her stomach. He was a monster without a conscience. There was nothing she could say or do to stop him. He was willing to make a scene in public because he knew there was nothing she or anyone could do. It was infuriating. She wanted to rage and scream at the universe for the unfairness of the situation. She had built a life in San Francisco and had managed to find happiness. He wasn’t going to let her hold onto it. She should have known better.
“Please, go,” she begged, trying to hide the emotion in her voice.
His smug look told her he wasn’t going to leave. She looked around the bakery, a place she had really enjoyed working, and knew it was her last day on the job. She wouldn’t leave with him, but she wouldn’t be coming back to work ever again. It was time to move on. An overwhelming grief washed over her as she realized Tim’s presence in front of her meant she would be leaving Ben behind.
“Katherine, I’m not going to ask you again. Get your ass over here and we are leaving,” his voice left no room for argument.
She threw her shoulders back. “I’m not leaving with you. I am not going to let you disrupt this business. This is not the time or place for this. Leave. We’ll talk later. I can’t do this right now. I’ve got customers,” she asserted, trying to sound stern.
That seemed to catch him off guard. “When and where?”
He was asking where she lived, and she was not about to tell him that bit of information. “There’s a park across the street. I’ll meet you over there when my shift ends. We can talk about everything then.”
She could feel him sizing her up, trying to tell if she was lying. His eyes dropped to thin slits and she had her answer.
“Bullshit,” he sneered. “We leave now.”
He walked around the counter, making his way to the small half door that would let him behind the counter. Fear was thick in her throat as she debated what to do.
“Go,” Talia whispered in a voice so low only she could hear.
Her friend was telling her to flee. She couldn’t. The women in the bakery had no idea what Tim was capable of. They probably assumed he was all bark and no bite. They would be wrong. Talia would be seriously injured. Once Tim got started, he couldn’t stop himself. He’d beat them until they were broken and bleeding.
“Tim, just leave. Let me go. Move on. You don’t love me,” she begged. She hated hearing the fragileness in her voice. For a brief few days, she’d been strong—a reflection of her old self. Seeing him tore down that little bit of self-confidence she had erected and made her feel small and defenseless again.
With one of his big, beefy hands, he flipped the latch on the door and stepped behind the counter. Talia was pulling her arm, trying to tug her back into the kitchen as Tim stalked towards her. Katherine knew what was coming next. His hand snaked out, grabbing her other arm and she suddenly felt herself in a tug-o-war. The few customers remaining in the bakery were shouting at him to let her go.
Talia was pulling Katherine while slapping at Tim’s arm. His eyes were boring into hers, pure hate and ra
ge filled them. She shook her head, silently telling him not to do it. He wasn’t going to listen to her or anyone else.
Katherine had a fleeting moment of acceptance and resignation to her fate. She would always regret the day the man walked into her life. Her life was unraveling in slow motion right before her eyes. Talia was successfully pulling her away from the front counter, but all that did was reduce the number of witnesses to what was sure to come next.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ben
HE WAS HOPING TO SURPRISE her. They hadn’t spoken to each other since early this morning and he was already missing the sound of her voice. He pulled his little red Audi in the back lot behind the bakery and strolled around the front, whistling as he moved down the sidewalk in front of the building. He remembered the first time he saw her. Her back had been to him, but there had been something about her that drew him in.
His heart skipped a beat as he pulled open the door and walked inside. Immediately, he felt something was off. There was a woman rushing for the door as if the hounds of hell were chasing her. He looked up and saw no one standing behind the counter nor did he see Katherine’s back as she made specialty drinks.
He heard shouting and a commotion coming from behind the counter. He quickly moved towards the area, finding a woman pointing towards the kitchen doorway. Adrenaline fueled by the fear of something happening to Katherine had him rushing through the open door to find Tim with his hand raised, ready to hit Katherine who was on the floor, Talia sprawled out beside her.
Rage, pure adrenaline-fueled rage took over and he saw red. He sprang, slamming into Tim’s back and sending him flying against a stainless-steel table. Pastries flew through the air as the table flew backwards and Tim hit the floor with Ben on top.
Tim was a big guy, but Ben was in good shape and pissed. It gave him an advantage. Images of Katherine’s swollen eye and the bruises that had mottled her beautiful skin filled his mind as he swung at the man, his fist connecting with a sickening crunch against the side of Tim’s face.
The first hit wasn’t enough. He wanted to make the man hurt like he had hurt Katherine. She’d never given him all the details, but he knew she had suffered tremendously at the hands of the man below him.
Tim managed to hit him in the jaw, sending him backwards before he could get to his feet.
“Stop! Stop it! Tim, don’t!” he heard Katherine scream a second before another fist slammed into his ribs.
His first thought was something along the lines of ‘holy shit it hurt like hell,’ and the second thought was of Katherine being hit like that. He heard a roar and realized it had come from his own throat as his eyes honed in on the man responsible for hurting the woman he cared about. Tim’s size made him slow, which gave Ben the advantage. He sprang forward and drove his shoulder into the big man’s chest, shoving him backwards.