Connor moved so he rested against Ajax’s desk once more. “You didn’t call the cops? Wake a neighbor to help you?”
“The neighbors in my complex aren’t really the kind you ask for a cup of sugar, let alone to help you fight some fool who’s taken too many steroids and has more muscle than brain.”
Connor’s jaw tightened.
“I called the cops when I got closer to her apartment,” she added. “I’m not a complete fool. I knew I’d need help.”
“Then what did you do?” Connor asked. “Because I’m guessing you didn’t just wait for them to get there.”
She gave him an incredulous look.
“No, of course you didn’t,” he answered. “Look at you, you’re all of five foot two and probably weigh a hundred and twenty pounds. And you just jumped on into a violent situation armed with a baseball bat.”
“I’m five foot three,” she countered. And quite a few pounds heavier than that, although she didn’t correct him.
He gave her a look. Right, really not the point, Ria.
“I couldn’t just stand there and let him beat on her.”
“So, you decided to let him beat on you as well?” Connor asked.
“He didn’t beat on me.”
He looked down at her wrists pointedly.
She didn’t get why he was so upset about this. He didn’t even know her. Why did he care so much about a few bruises on her wrists?
“This is nothing. I’ve had worse.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“You’re a strange guy.”
“You’re not the first to tell me that.”
Damn. And she’d thought she was special. She was wise enough not to say that out loud. She might have a smart mouth but even she knew when to stop pushing.
“What happened next?” Ajax asked impatiently.
“I raced inside. She’d locked herself in the bathroom, but after he’d finished wrecking her apartment, he managed to kick in the door. He was . . . he was dragging her across the floor by her foot. Her arm was cradled against her chest and she was trying to grab for something to stop him. Her face was bruised from where he’d hit her.” She stopped talking, caught up in the horror of it all. She’d actually led quite a sheltered childhood. She’d seen more violence in the nine months since she’d left home than she had in the twenty-five years before that.
People would probably be pretty surprised by that. If they knew who her family was.
“And what did you do?” Connor asked in a quiet voice.
She looked up at him. “I raced in there. I said something to him, I don’t even remember what. But he turned to me. I waited until he was close and swung out with my bat. But he managed to grab it. I told Sophie to run as he threw me against the wall.”
“Jesus,” Ajax muttered.
“He grabbed my arms and pinned me against the wall. I was helpless.”
And she still felt the churning fear that came with knowing there was nothing she could do to help herself. Or Sophie.
“Luckily, before he could do anything the cops turned up.”
“Fuck me,” Connor muttered to himself and moved away, looking out the huge one-way window into the dungeon below.
“Which motel is she staying at?” Ajax’s voice had grown a lot calmer. She looked back at him.