“Go.” She demanded. The back of his hand made contact with her cheek and she fell backward onto the other bed. He’d now choked her, hit her, and made clear his intentions. If this were all being recorded, he’d have no way to get out of this. Now the question was: Did she have a way to get out of this?
“Stop fighting me. You’re doing this. You’re the one playing games and now you’re being crazy. You know you want this.”
Carmen rolled off the other side of the bed and got to her feet. She was out of his reach but also backed into a wall. And she was too far away from her mace or Taser. Maybe Brian had been right. Those weapons were only good if she could get to them.
“I don’t want you to touch me. I don’t want to have sex with you. I want you to leave.”
“I’m not leaving, and we are having sex, so you might as well stop making a big scene about it. You look insane. That’s what people will say too. If you think you’re going to come after me for this later, think again. I own people everywhere. Lawyers. Judges. Politicians. No one is going to believe you. I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re a nutcase. Or you can do the smart thing. Stop fighting. Realize I’m not a bad guy, and I could be damn good for your career and social life. Now’s your chance.”
“My chance at what?” She was breathing heavy, sweat gathering up her back.
“Wake up and realize being with me is the best thing that could happen to you. If you don’t get all worked up and do things to make me mad, I’ll treat you like a queen.”
“I’m not the first one, am I?” Carmen was stalling now. She needed a plan, an exit strategy. “This is what you do to women?”
“And just like you, they have no one on their side. I have the world on mine.” He pointed a finger at her and jabbed it through the air in her direction. “You have no one.”
“Well, that’s not true.” Brian scowled and balled his hands into fists. “She has one person, and that’s all it takes to kick your ass.” He’d come back into the room silently.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Come out into the hallway and find out who I am.” Brian squared up his shoulders and gestured for Curtis to come at him. Carmen’s adrenaline was still pulsing so wildly she could hear the blood pulsing through her eardrums. She thought seeing Brian would calm her instantly, but this was not over. Brian, if he’d been watching the video, was likely locked and loaded with fury. Curtis being beat to death in the hotel hallway wasn’t part of the plan.
“Carmen, tell this guy to get out of here. We’re busy.” Curtis still looked smug, but worried.
“Shut your mouth.” Brian was done talking. He lunged and grabbed Curtis by the neck. He slammed him to the closest wall and squeezed tight enough for Curtis to go red in the face almost instantly.
“Brian, don’t. Please don’t.” Carmen crawled over the bed and came to Brian’s side. “I’m all right. You’re here. Nothing else is going to happen. We need to call the police.”
Brian let go of Curtis who instantly slumped over and gasped for breath. “Call them.”
She backed up and reached for the hotel phone. She considered turning off the cameras to protect Brian and anything he might do. But it would be important to keep recording. She dialed 911 and held her breath. “I need help. I’ve been attacked.”
Brian grabbed Curtis by the collar and dragged him to the hallway. Carmen didn’t want to lose sight of them but the cord on the hotel phone kept her tethered there. The 911 operator was asking questions and without much effort Carmen’s voice shook and tears streamed down her face. She wasn’t sure if she was acting or if this was real.
“Stay on the line with me, dear,” the operator calmly said, trying to stay upbeat. “Stay with me. Help is on the way. Do you need an ambulance?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t hurt but it would be more impactful for her to have been hospitalized.
Brian walked back in the room a moment later and her heart ceased. “Where is he?”
“Resting comfortably in the hallway. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Did you?” She couldn’t say the words. Had Brian done the unthinkable?
“I made sure he stayed down. That’s all. Hotel security is here. They’ve got it.” Brian crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. “I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t screwed up, I would have been here for you.”
“You were here for me.” She still had the phone to her ear. “My friend is here. Security for the hotel has the guy.”
The operator sounded relieved. “Okay, the ambulance is pulling in. Can you go meet them?”
“I will.” With her shaking hand she tried to hang up the phone but kept missing the cradle. Brian leaned over and covered her hand with his to steady it.
“I need my phone.” She pointed to where she’d propped it up.
“We’ll take it with us. Are you hurt?” Brian assessed her quickly, touching the mark on her cheek.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m hurt.”
A police officer burst into the room. “Are you the woman who called?”
“Yes.”
“And you?” The police pointed his finger sternly at Brian. “Who are you?”
“I’m her friend. We were staying here together. I went out for a bit and came back to her being attacked.”
“You the one who knocked him around?” The cop gestured with his chin back at the hallway where Curtis was likely still laid out.
“Yes.” Brian looked ready for whatever consequences might come his way.
The cop looked from Carmen’s red cheek to the rip in her shirt and the marks on her neck. Maybe it was the way her hair had fallen from her ponytail or the red ring of tears around her eyes. But it seemed to paint the picture of what had happened. “Good,” the cop said quietly. “Asshole.”
“I think I recorded it.” Carmen edged the words out as she fumbled with her phone. “Oh God, yes I did. Look.” She handed it over to the officer and wiped a few stray tears from her eyes. They weren’t forced or fake. Her emotions were real now.
“How did you know to record it?” the officer asked, giving her a quizzical look. “Do you know him?”
“I went for a job interview at his company yesterday. Then he invited me out to see the city in case I was considering relocating. That didn’t go well, and I left him when he made me uncomfortable. When he came to the door today, he had a room key. He let himself in while I was in the shower.” She folded her arms around herself. “I asked him to step outside so I could get dressed. He kept saying he just wanted to apologize so I let him back in. That was so stupid.” She put her fists up to her eyes. “I should have called the police right then.”
“You had no way of knowing what he was capable of,” Brian lied as he rubbed her back gently.
“I turned the recorder on just in case. Like if he said something inappropriate maybe I could tell someone at his company, and he’d get in trouble. I never thought it would turn into—” She stopped abruptly and shook her head.
“You did a brave thing turning your camera on like this,” the officer said as he watched everything unfold on her phone. “It’s all here. He even said what he was going to do. That makes assault with intent a slam-dunk. That almost never happens. These things always turn into a ‘he said, she said.’ It’s infuriating. Especially with guys like him, in their suits and shiny shoes. They always seem to find a way to wiggle out of charges. No doubting this though.” He pointed to the screen on the phone as another officer came in.
“We’ve got him outside. Ambulance is down front for you, ma’am. We can take your statement at the hospital.”
“Look,” the first officer said with a wide smile, “the whole thing is recorded. That idiot doesn’t know what he’s got coming to him.”
“He’s a very influential man,” Carmen cautioned. “Even with that, he could find a way to get off.”
“Leave that to us,” the second officer said confidently. “This video is a DA’s dream come tru
e. I don’t care if he knows the Pope. His goose is cooked.”
Carmen nodded and fought the urge to smile. She moved gingerly toward the hallway and ran her hand over her throat. It hit her suddenly that if just one or two things had gone differently she might not have been walking out of there. Not in one piece. Every ounce of confidence and courage she had been leaning on for the last few months evaporated into thin air. Her knees buckled. Her hands shook. Her breath got rapid and short.
“Are you okay?” Brian asked, holding her up. “Can you breathe?”
“That was so stupid,” she whispered. “That was so dangerous.”
“It’s all right.”
“It’s not. I could have been killed. He could have—”
“But he didn’t. You did exactly what you set out to do. It’s over.”
“It’s just that—”
“I know.” Brian put an arm over her shoulder. “But it’s over.”
Chapter Eighteen
Brian
Nothing. Not a damn thing in his life had prepared him for what he’d seen. Watching someone he cared for being attacked had shaken him to the core. The what-ifs were still tormenting him. Even three days later when they pulled back into the parking garage of her apartment.
Carmen seemed to be taking it all in stride. Far better than he was. “You have been way too quiet,” she said, prodding him with her finger. “What’s going on?”
“You and I jumped into this thing. We went past all the new relationship stuff and right into having each other’s back and needing to deeply trust.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m just still caught up on that I guess.”
“Why?”
“Carmen, how can I feel this strongly about you and not know your story? How can we already be here, where I want to spend all my time with you and help you through anything, but you’re still a complete mystery to me?”
“Brian.” Her tone was apologetic but unwavering.
“I know what we said. I know prying into your business is what caused the problem last time. I just don’t want to be half in on this. I can pull in here and drop you off and try to get back to life before you. Or I can come up, have some of your terrible coffee, and you can actually talk to me about how you landed on this path in the first place.”
“My coffee is delicious.”
“It’s weak and watery.” He raised a hand up as though he was swearing some kind of oath about it. “It’s disgusting, but I care enough about you to go up there and pretend to like it while you talk to me.”
“I don’t think you’ll like what you hear. It’s more complicated than you might imagine, and it’ll change how you see me.”
“I think you are an insane vigilante woman who put her life at risk to take down a serial abuser. How far from that will it be?” He smiled and his heartbeat slowed when she finally smiled back.
“You can make the coffee.”
They made their way up to her apartment, through all the security measures. It felt different now, passing through the codes and the biometrics. He could see why she found comfort in extra layers of protection.
The mood was still somber and they remained fairly quiet until the coffee was made and they settled on the couch together.
Carmen had a warm smile as she seemed to get lost in a memory. “Last time we sat here like this you should have run in the other direction.”
“I’m glad I didn’t.”
She still had a mark on her cheek from where Curtis had hit her. Her neck was still bruised from his tight grip. It was hard for Brian to think of what he’d seen, so he could only imagine what Carmen must be feeling.
“The report I made about being attacked on campus was true.” She stirred her spoon mindlessly in her coffee. But I wasn’t coming home from the library, and it wasn’t random. I was dating a guy named Victor. He was the son of a diplomat. Their family was in Canada doing some cooperative agricultural research. Victor attended my university. We hit it off right away. He was exactly that kind of charming that’s hard to imagine is real. Very regal. Proper. Spoke four languages and traveled all over the world; to a hometown girl like me, he was so fascinating.”
“But not a great guy?”
“He was a great guy. That’s the part that was so hard to marry up. He’d stop and help someone in need. He’d put money in the cup of a homeless person. Hell, he’d put a twenty in there. He treated me like gold. I’d never gotten that kind of attention in my life. In high school I went through this weird phase where I had purple hair and wore all black clothes.”
“I know,” Brian admitted apologetically. “I found some pictures when I was looking you up.”
“It was not a very flattering phase of my life. And when I went to college my self-esteem was low. I reinvented myself, but I still didn’t know who I was or what I wanted. When Victor took an interest in me, it made me feel whole. It made me feel seen. Looking back, I understand that’s exactly what he wanted and for all the wrong reasons. But I can tell you, in every other aspect of his life, he was a great guy.”
“Until he wasn’t?”
“I never felt like an abused woman. You know what I felt like?”
“What?”
“A failure. I felt like I was a lucky, well-rounded woman who was in a relationship with a deeply flawed man, and I didn’t have what it took to help him. A better woman would have known what to do to keep him calm.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Obviously, but I didn’t know that. Not at the time. The night of the attack on campus I thought I could sneak back into my dorm and not be noticed. I’d hide out a couple days and cover the bruises with makeup. But there was a big study group in the hallway I didn’t know about. I didn’t want to get Victor in trouble, so I lied and said I was attacked by a random person on my way home. Even after I was outed, I never said it was Victor. People didn’t know we were dating. We had been for almost six months, but we didn’t hang out with people at school. On the weekends we went home to my family farm. With the work his father was doing, he always said he loved to be able to spend time there.”
“What about your family? They must have been worried.”
“My family is very preoccupied with reputation. They are humble people who own land that’s been handed down to them through four generations. They keep their heads down and work the fields. The attention I brought our family when the story broke about my lie was something that hurt them all deeply.”
“What about the person who hurt you physically? That must have upset them too.”
“Unlike the people at school, my parents actually knew Victor and I were dating. They loved him. My mother would practically break her back trying to accommodate anything he wanted. My father couldn’t get enough information about Victor’s country and their farming practices. My little sisters swooned. For people who cared a lot about what others thought of them, they knew Victor elevated our family’s status.”
“But you told them it was him, right?”
“Not at first. They kept asking why I lied. They kept demanding answers, and I would tell them they didn’t know the whole story. My father was mortified. People were calling our house and saying the most horrendous things about me. Eventually everyone moved on to some other drama, and I was able to switch schools. My parents stopped asking for answers. It was another year before I finally told them.”
“Did he do it again?”
“There isn’t really an ‘it.’ You can’t break it down to one thing. A hit. A punch. For most of our relationship Victor controlled his physical temper. But the threats were ever-present. His control was far-reaching. By the end I didn’t have any friends. I couldn’t go where I wanted. He took my phone and only gave it back to me when he was around to watch me use it. He transferred schools too, so he could keep an eye on me. We still visited my parents but less frequently. They still loved him though.”
“But then you told them.” Brian couldn’t understand how her parents didn�
��t take her side.
“I told my mother first. I figured as a woman, maybe she’d understand. It had been three weeks of hell. Victor was on a rampage about a study group I was working with that had two men in it. He wanted me to drop out of not just the class but of school. He told me I wouldn’t need it once we were married. What’s crazy is even with all the pain and fighting, the image of my wedding day still brought me some joy and excitement. I’d buy bride magazines and pick a pretend menu. He hadn’t actually proposed, but he saw me as his property already.”
“What did your mom say?” Brian held his breath for the answer.
“I told her it was him who attacked me that day on campus. I told her Victor had continued to hurt and threaten me all the time we were together. There was no doubt in my mind he’d kill me if I didn’t get away from him. Two weeks earlier he’d held a pillow over my face until I passed out. I knew one of these days I wasn’t going to wake up again. My mother, I can still see her in the kitchen, frozen with a spatula in her hand. The eggs she was frying had started to burn, the smoke was the only thing that broke the spell. She told me that I was exaggerating. Victor came from a different culture, and I was misinterpreting what happened. Then when my father came in and heard the same information he reminded me of how much I’d already hurt my credibility. There had been no reason, if it was true, for me to not tell people it was Victor who had hurt me back then. I lied then, how could they trust me now?”
“That’s sick,” Brian groaned. “I can’t imagine finally getting the courage to tell them, only to find out they didn’t believe you.”
“You’d be surprised how often it happens that way. The abuser isn’t just charming to the person he’s in a relationship with. Everyone can fall under the same spell. My mother desperately wanted me to marry him. My father feared what people would think if I made another accusation.”
Perfect Homecoming (Barrington Billionaires Book 10) Page 14