“If you get help,” I say in as reasonable a tone as I can manage with a man determined to take me by force, “you can see her. You can be part of her life. You may get back on the Stingers. Your dad’ll come around. There’s no telling what your father can accomplish.”
“And you’d come home?” he asks, his eyes almost sad, his mouth a wistful line drawn through the middle of his madness.
What do I say?
“Maybe,” I lie. “If you get the help you need, we could see, Caleb.”
His grip on my wrist relaxes just a little, just enough. I pounce. I shove him with all my strength. His bulk shifts. I surge to my feet and dive for my purse on the counter. It’s barely out of reach when he catches me, pressing my stomach painfully into the counter’s sharp edge.
“I’m done talking,” he rasps into my hair. One hand loosens his belt while his thickly muscled arm circles me, pinning my arms to my sides. His hand fumbles under my shirt, and I hear my panties rip.
“No!” I screech and struggle and fight with every ounce of resistance I have.
Sobs shake my shoulders, and my head droops forward helplessly. He’s nudging, hard and aroused, when he shifts and tries to get in. I wiggle one arm loose just enough for me to turn, and the edge of the counter digs into my back. I slap at his head and punch wildly. His fingers, thick and long and strong, manacle my neck, squeezing mercilessly, not budging even when I claw at them, desperate for air. My vision darkens and the stars come out, bright pins of light penetrating the velvet blanket falling over my eyes. With the last of my consciousness, I stretch to my purse, drag it toward me. I pull out MiMi’s jeweled knife. Angling down, I thrust blindly, sinking the blade into flesh.
He howls, jumping back to grab his leg gushing blood. I stumble past him out of the kitchen, gasping for breath, massaging my throat, tripping across the floor. If I can just get him outside, away from Sarai.
I’m almost at the front door when a sound fires behind me. Pain explodes in my shoulder with atomic force, sending me to my knees. I clutch my shoulder, blood running through my fingers.
He shot me.
In all those months he held me against my will with that gun, he never actually shot me.
He means to kill me.
“It’s useless to run, Iris.” He drags his injured leg behind him and over to the wall where I slump, so disoriented with pain, I can barely move.
“I never wanted to hurt you, baby.” He pushes my hair back with the barrel of the gun, making me shudder. “I only wanted to love you, but you messed that up.”
A bitter laugh cracks my lips. “You lying piece of shit,” I whisper. “I can’t even count all the ways you’ve hurt me.”
I don’t wait for him to answer, but go on, ignoring the seething crater in my shoulder.
“I have a cracked tooth.” I tap a molar on the side. “Right here. I lost twenty percent of the hearing in my right ear when you busted my eardrum. You fractured my wrist, and it never healed properly. It aches all the time.”
I ache all the time.
“You’ve done nothing but hurt me.” Tears and blood from my head wound mingle on my face.
August.
His name whispers through my thoughts. I say a silent prayer that Sarai will make it through this, that August will take care of her. That he and Lo will make sure she doesn’t forget me. Sorrow, wide and deep, swallows me, for all the lost moments with her and August I’ll never have. My stolen second chance.
“New rules,” Caleb says, pushing the gun into my side. “We either live together, or we don’t live at all. Those are the rules. I do have one gift for you, though.”
He pulls something small from the pocket of his jeans, opening his hand to reveal MiMi’s gris-gris ring. It glints against his palm, so unassuming, so powerful.
I know I can’t actually hear her voice, but the sight of the ring MiMi crafted to protect me brings her words, spoken to me in this very house, back to mind.
You are pure. You are enough. You are strong.
He can’t hurt you.
Strong enough to fight back. Strong enough to win.
Strength. Dignity. Courage. All these things belong to you. Take them back.
“I only wanted us to be together,” Caleb says, his sorrow, his madness and ruthlessness twisting in his voice. “And one way or another, we will be. It all ends tonight.”