Small victories.
Someone had worked hard on the garden surrounding the home. My dad would’ve been extremely jealous considering his number one hobby was gardening. I guessed after working in a steel factory with oil and machines all day, he liked to make things grow.
He was good at it too. Our small house never looked like it was the home of a single dad raising his only daughter. On the outside, at least. Once I was old enough to decorate, it looked like it on the inside too.
Lanterns of this house illuminated the porch with wicker furniture on either side of the front door. The very, very expensive kind.
I felt unsure of what I was meant to do, just stand there and admire the hydrangeas? Karson was just standing by the driver’s door, not leading me anywhere. The safety that the car had offered me was stripped away, and I began to shake again. Not only had I almost been raped, I was now at a complete stranger’s house for ... for whatever reason.
Holy crap. What had I done? Just as I was about to turn back to the car, retrieve my phone and call Wren for an extraction, the door opened.
He was in front of me in only a few seconds, but his stride hadn’t seemed rushed. Only lithe and predatory.
I hadn’t forgotten what he looked like, but I’d definitely forgotten the intensity of his presence. I looked at him as the pounding in my head escalated and the cracks in my soul split wider. A panic attack was impending. I’d never actually had one before, but I was pretty sure my lungs being squeezed by an invisible fist and tingling in my fingers along with an impending sense of doom were the precursors of one.
Jay’s eyes flickered up and down my body. His face was impassive. The exact same as it had been the night we met. His jaw was tight.
“Stella,” he murmured.
Something in me relaxed ever so slightly, but I continued to shake. “I’m not quite sure why I’m here,” I whispered. “I don’t know if I should be here.”
Jay’s gaze was even. He was standing close to me, but not too close. He wasn’t touching me. I was glad. I couldn’t be touched. Not right now. Maybe not ever.
“Whether or not you think you should be, you are here,” Jay replied. “Come inside.”
There was iron in his tone. It should’ve scared me. A man telling me what to do so soon after another man tried to take something from me like it was his.
But for some unknown reason, I found comfort in his tone. The authority in it. So I followed him inside.
If this had been a different night, I would’ve been taking in my luxurious surroundings. Been impressed by the paintings on the walls, the huge kitchen with beautiful, sleek appliances. The general air of the place.
As it was, I barely processed any of it.
“Whisky,” Jay stated, handing me a class containing amber liquid.
I stared at it. “I don’t like whisky.”
“Drink it.”
My hand reached out to take the glass, raising it to my mouth. I supposed it was expensive, considering the house we were in and the wealth surrounding me, but it still tasted like cheap nights out back in high school and the bad decisions that came afterward.
It burned down my throat, warmed my stomach and took a bit of the edge off, though.
“You’re in pain.” Jay’s voice was still detached, but something flickered in his eyes.
I moved my hand to the back of my head and winced at the pain that came when I settled my fingers on a large knot forming there.
“Yeah, um, he slammed me against a wall. Concrete. I guess concrete and skulls don’t go well together.” I swallowed thickly, my fingers moving back to my neck where I could still feel the chill of the blade. “But all things considered, coming out of this with just a bump on my head ... it’s a lot better than what would’ve happened otherwise.”
I gripped the glass in my hand so tight I wondered if I was in danger of smashing it.
“You’re here, Stella. You’re safe. You’re whole,” Jay told me, moving to take the glass from my hand before setting it on the kitchen counter.
His words echoed inside of my mind, warming me even better than the whisky had. My eyes found his.
“Am I safe with you?” I whispered.
“Right now you are,” he replied.
It didn’t escape me that there was another meaning behind Jay’s words. I was safe with him now, but maybe not in the future.
That didn’t scare me like it should’ve.
And I did feel safe. Protected. Insulated from all that had happened to me while simultaneously feeling like I didn’t have to hide anything in front of Jay. Didn’t have to pretend.