“Why are you here?” Roman asked. “Who sent you?”
Why was he accusing her?
“I’m going to class,” she said. “Please, I don’t want to be late.”
“Sir, I suggest you let her go.”
This was Bill. This was going to be very bad.
She looked from Roman to Bill, then back again.
“Why are you here?” Roman asked.
“I have it on strict orders to keep an eye on her, to protect her, while she goes to school,” Bill said.
“She is my wife. She is coming with me.”
Bill stepped in front of Roman, stopping him.
She tried to tell Bill to just step aside, but he’d been given orders by her father.
“Alex, go to class,” Bill said. He didn’t take his gaze from Roman as he brought his cell phone to his ear. “Sir, I have Roman here, and he is trying to remove Alex from school.”
She saw Roman’s jaw clenching. This wasn’t good. This was very, very, bad.
As she looked between the two men, Roman took the cell phone. He didn’t remove his fingers from her wrist.
“What?” Roman asked.
Bill had one hand at his waist, and she knew he was getting ready to strike. Bill was deadliest when he appeared calm and collected.
This wasn’t going to end well.
Roman handed his cell phone back, but he didn’t let her go.
In fact, he grabbed Bill’s jacket. She gasped as he slammed his head against the other man’s, taking Bill by surprise and knocking him out, and then, he rested him up against the tree.
As he did so, he’d let her go, and Alex tried to escape. She took several steps away from him, but he wouldn’t let her go. He grabbed her, and then they marched across the school grounds.
She didn’t say anything, but fear traveled down her spine, and she felt sick. A hand went to her stomach, and she tried not to throw up.
Her father had always tried to hide violence from her as it did make her sick. She hated the confrontation, the aggression. None of it served any purpose to her, other than to instill fear inside. She wanted to run away.
But Roman dragged her across the parking lot. She attempted to dig her heels into the ground.
If she wasn’t such a coward, she’d have shouted for help, but how would that have looked?
Screaming because her husband was taking her away. Was he going to beat her? Hurt her?
Her father had said it was fine for her to return to school, but the way Roman was reacting, this was the furthest thing from the truth.
He opened the car door and pushed her inside. She held on to her bag for comfort.
Roman moved around the car and then went to the driver’s side. She tried her door, but he must have put the damn child lock on because she couldn’t get out.
She wasn’t going to show fear though. Fear was for the weak, wasn’t it?
Her heart pounded and her throat felt thick. She didn’t have her cell phone with her, and there was no way to contact her father for help. She was on her own.