“Brian, you’re hurting me.”
He gripped my other hand and locked both of my wrists against his chest and brought his face so close to mine, I thought he was going to kiss me. “You won’t know pain if you don’t stop seeing that other man, do I make myself clear?” He chuckled when he saw the look on my face. I tried to pull free, but every tug against my wrist made me worried I’d break both of them. “Oh, yes, I know all about him. You better think long and hard about this. We wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
I was going to scream. Once I did that, he would have to let go, but I couldn’t go anywhere with the train moving. I was stuck. Waiting for the train to come to a stop was my only option.
“You’ve had your fun away from me. We’ve fought. You think ten years of us being together and something as small as me fucking another woman is going to come between us? I learned my lesson, Lucy. I’d never do that to you again. I can’t live without you.”
My entire body shivered from the unexpected encounter. My phone vibrated a few times in my hand, and I wanted to look to see what my tribe had to say. Logan would protect me, Maria would be the shoulder I needed, and Godrick, he’d be the ferocious warrior that would slay all my demons for me. He’d be my guardian angel.
“You can’t be mad at me forever.”
“We are over, Brian!” I raised my voice, and a few people turned their heads. A few men looked over at us with curious glares, and women sat down on the benches, already judging Brian, a guy they didn’t know. Women didn’t want to be bothered. Ever. And when a man bothered a woman in public, we only found it annoying, and we felt unsafe. “Over. I want nothing to do with you.” The train slowed, the brakes squeaked as it rolled to a stop, and the lights flickered.
The light strobing played a mirage on Brian’s face. He looked like the guy you stayed away from as he walked down the street. He had on a long khaki coat that had the appearance of him hiding something. Brian’s dirty blonde hair was long and shaggy, unlike Godrick’s well-maintained hairstyle. He looked thinner, but as I looked into his eyes, the man glaring back at me was not the man I had been with for ten years.
That man was gone, and another man took his place. A man that made me fear for my life.
“You don’t mean that, Lucy.” He shook his head, releasing me, and tugged on his hair three times as if it were a habit. “You’re just confused right now. You’ll see.”
“Get off me,” I tried pushing him away with a grunt, and the lights strobed again.
His hand landed across my face at the same time the lights flickered again. A loud slap rang through the air, causing my ears to ring, and the sudden abuse made my tears dry up real quick. He had never hit me before. My hand landed on my cheek, and when I brought my eyes from the floor to him, Brian was gone.
“What…” I spun around, staring through the crowd of people. A few stood and most sat, but there wasn’t one person who was walking down the aisle, I would see it because it would disrupt the sanction of everything right now. He was gone.
Poof.
Like he was never there. Did I imagine that entire thing? No, he was here. My cheek stung just like my ass, but the two couldn’t be more different. My ass stung with pleasure; my cheek burned with hate. The look in Brian’s eye was pure venom. He was toxic, and if he thought that would make me fall to my knees and take him back, he was wrong.
The train finally came to a stop, and I wasted no time dashing through the sliding doors as they opened. I was the first person off the train. Brian could be right behind me now. I had to get lost in the sea of people that made the city. I hunkered down and dodged left and right through people of all shapes and sizes. Climbing the steps, I still held my cheek in shock.
Once
I got above ground, the mist of rain cooled my skin, and the grey skies flashed with lightning. It was about to pour. The wind picked up, and all it did was make my eyes water. The apartment building was just across the street now.
I followed the crosswalks, watching for the lights to tell me when and when not to walk. I swiped a card to be let in, and right as I stepped inside, a pelt of rain fell from the sky. I turned my head from the window, kept my head down, and dragged my feet to the elevator. The last hour of my life had been too eventful.
When I got to my apartment, I locked the door behind me and banged my head against the wood, closing my eyes to relax.
“What the fuck?” Logan and Maria said in unison as they saw me. I had no idea what Logan was doing home, but when I opened my eyes, Logan paced. Maria grabbed her phone and took pictures of my wrists and cheek.
They were already bruising. My wrists were red with a slight blue hue, and my cheek tingled from Brian’s slap. “He had never hit me before,” I said, stunned and unable to move away from the door. Tears quickly fell down my face.
Logan marched up to me and cupped the side of my face that wasn’t bruised. I flinched. I knew he’d never hurt me, and I hated that flinching caused him to look so defeated. “Who did this to you? Was it Godrick?”
“What? No! Never Godrick. I saw Brian. He was on the train. He warned me to stay away from Godrick. He said he missed me.”
“Jesus Christ, that bastard. I’ll kill him when I see him. I’ll kill him!” Logan pulled me into his chest and held onto me so tight; I wondered if he thought I was going to blow away. “Lucy, I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?” Logan’s hands found their way on either side of my head, and his eyes were wells as he stared at me. Logan wasn’t the kind of man to cry, and I knew he hated that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to protect me from Brian and his obsession with me. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He tried to convince me, but I knew the words were just a manifestation of his self-consciousness. Logan was trying to convince himself.
And that was what scared me. It was little moments like that, small breaks, and hesitations spoken with uncertainty that scared me. Brian would find me again, and by that time, who knew what would happen.
“It’s okay, Logan. It’s just a bruise. I’ll be fine.”
“Fine?” He took a step back and pointed at my wrists then my face. “You are anything but fine. Maybe we should move again. If we move, we can go somewhere far, somewhere that he can’t find us. You’ll be safe. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Logan,” I rushed to him and placed my hands on his biceps to snap him out of it. “No. I don’t want to run. He will get what is coming to him. Maria is going to send those pictures to Officer Cortez, and they will build a case against him. I don’t want to run. I want to live my life.” Even if living it meant always looking over my shoulder, always feeling anxiety, always having that slight edge of fear, then that’s what I would do.
“Maria doesn’t have Officer Cortez’s number. Send the pictures to me, and I’ll do it.”