Goldie and the Three Wisconsin Bears

He raised his arm and brought it down. Then the whole world went black.

Until I woke up to his slap.

Where am I?

The back of Tommy’s hand collides with my cheek before I can answer that question. He wallops me so hard, I fall sideways in the chair.

I land on something pokey and fragrant. Hay….

I glance around from my position on the floor and spy an old mattress sitting in front of a glassless window. Beside it stands a black gun with a scope. The kind of thing snipers used in movies and TV shows.

I immediately know where I am. Terror rises like bile in my throat. Mitch had been wrong when he told me no one was using the decrepit barn anymore.

Tommy had obviously been camped out here. Maybe for weeks. Had he been watching me this morning while I worked in the garden? Was that why I felt so creeped out?

“Get back up, you traitorous bitch!”

Since I’m still tied to the chair, Tommy follows through on his own command, yanking me back into a seated position.

He smiles after he sets me to right. Like the sight of me bruised and bleeding from his slaps is a Christmas gift.

“I told you what would happen if you ever tried to leave, but you didn’t believe me.”

I don’t want to know, but I have to ask. “How…how did you find me?”

Tommy’s grin grows even wider. “I bet you thought you were smart, taking a stolen car. What you forget is I’m the guy in charge of the detectives in my department. I know how to do my work. I tracked down the bouncer who sold the car to you. After a few threats he was happy to provide me with the make and model of your car. After that it was just a matter of tracking down the original owner to get the VIN number. I’ll admit I got annoyed when your trail went cold in Wisconsin. I couldn’t sleep. I had to take a bunch of time off of work.”

He makes a face as if his sick preoccupation with me was all my fault. But then his face brightens. “So imagine how happy I was when the VIN for your stolen car showed up on a DMV report from the Sweet Lake Junkyard. It only took a little digging after that to find you slutting it up out here with three guys.”

He shakes his head at me, his expression full of disgust. “You’re lucky you’re pregnant with my baby, or you’d be nothing but a burnt crisp right now.”

I blanche. He knows. He knows I’m pregnant. “How did you…”

“You think I didn’t have cameras on you at the house?” Tommy asks. “That’s how I knew what a slut you were, no matter how many times you denied it. Every time you masturbated, I saw it. Then I’d come home, and you’d say you love me….”

His lip curls at the memory. “You lied straight to my face like the whore you are, and I let you get away with it. But no more. When we get back to Georgia, I’m going to keep you in line.”

I can’t say exactly when I stopped being a doormat, but something’s changed within me over the last few months. Anger, not shame, surges through my veins as I tell him, “I didn’t cheat on you, and I’m not a whore.”

Tommy’s eyes widen. Probably because in the past, when he’s accused me of being a cheating whore, I begged him to believe me. I apologized, and I pleaded. Whatever it took to get him to believe me.

He looks like he’s dying to backhand me again as he says, “Yeah? Tell that to the three friggin’ football guys I’m about to kill.”

My heart screams. “No, please don’t hurt them. They have nothing to do with this. I never told them about you. It’s all on me. This is all on me.”

“You know, this is even better,” he says. “I’m going to let you sit right there and watch me take them out. One by one. That will teach you not to ever whore around on me again.”

Another surge of fury rushes through me. And I look him straight in the eye to inform him, “I didn’t whore around, you maniac. I left you. And I replaced your toxic, controlling ass with three men who love and appreciate me. They never call me any names. They treasure me. They don’t beat me and call it love. Plus, they’re outstanding in bed. So they’re basically everything you’re not.”

Tommy stares at me, his eyes twitching with crazed anger. “You think you can talk like that to me. You think you’re something special just because you’re fucking three rich guys. Well, check this out, Bitch! I got the phone number for that Nico guy. Stuff like that is easy for me.”