by Brook Wilder
Christian tugged her close, thinking of the times they’d discussed where they would move, and the separate lives that they were going to live once they got divorced. But every time it came up, he had a terrible feeling sinking inside him, like he’d just swallowed a ton of lead.
He’d started to hate the idea of leaving her, and every single day it was just getting harder and harder to imagine life without her. And the nights…He was already used to sharing his bed with her, to the way she would curl up afterward, sweeping her arms and legs across him as if to keep him locked by her side.
He was sure that she wasn’t even aware of it, the way she moved closer to him in her sleep, as if her subconscious was still calling out to him. It had warmth shooting through him, and he pushed away the thoughts of leaving as he thumbed the simple silver band around his ring finger. His wedding ring. He’d gotten all too used to that too.
Christian couldn’t help but think of what their future might hold, couldn’t help but wonder if they couldn’t have everything they wanted…together.
He knew it was just about the stupidest thing he could do, but it didn’t stop him. He was falling for her. He couldn’t deny that. But he had no idea how she felt for him. She’d been through so much. He didn’t know if she’d ever learn to trust again.
Christian was watching her closely, so he saw the moment her brows creased and her kiss-swollen lips turned down in a grimace of pain. She was still fast asleep when she turned, crying out in his arms.
It had been happening less and less as the weeks passed, but she still had the nightmares. He could see a tear stream from the corner of her closed eye and his heart broke all over again for her.
With a curse he leaned close, cupping one cheek with his hand.
“Melody,” he whispered, shaking her but she didn’t move. “Mel, it’s me. It’s Christian. Wake up, baby.”
Chapter 22
The dream starts out like it always does. She is walking down a hallway. Melody looks around her, taking in the fine artwork hanging on the walls and the gleaming marble tiles and she suddenly knows exactly where she is. Back in Enrique’s palace of a home.
She’s trapped. Again.
She’s trapped in his giant house, and she starts to run. The sound of her footsteps echoing on the floor sounds too loud in her ears, but she doesn’t stop. She doesn’t slow down. She pushes her body faster and faster, ignoring the ache in her legs and the burn in her lungs.
She sprints down hallway after hallway, but they keep getting longer and longer, taking her nowhere. She’s running as fast as she can but she’s getting nowhere, still trapped in the same awful, shadow-strewn place.
The darkness seems to seep out of everywhere, the marble floors, the walls, from behind the framed paintings and bookshelves. The darkness takes over, until she can hardly even see a few inches in front of her face.
Her breath comes in sharp, jagged gasps and fear holds her in a tight, vice-like grip that she can’t escape, no matter how hard she tries.
Suddenly, Enrique is there behind her. Melody can’t see him, but it doesn’t matter. She knows. She can tell by the way ice settles in her veins, freezing her entire body, and the bile that rises in the pit of her stomach.
She opens her mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. Her vocal chords are frozen too. Even her limbs are getting heavier, harder to move, harder to push faster. She already knows that she can’t escape him, but it doesn’t stop her from trying, from fighting for ever foot, every inch.
Like always, it doesn’t matter. He catches her in the end. He always does. His hot hands burn her flesh as he grabs her and pulls her roughly back towards him. Melody fights with every ounce of strength she has, but she knows it won’t be enough to get away. He is so much stronger than her, so much bigger.
She can’t see his face in the shadows, but she can see his arms reaching for her. His hands, where they dig into her arms, start to change. His fingers morph into claws, each one tipped with a razor-sharp talon, cutting her.
He lashes out at her, slashing open the skin above her chest, right below her collar bone. In the exact same place the tattoo of his name sits on her body.
Pain shoots through her, and this time, when Melody opens her mouth, a terrible scream of agony flies from her throat. But it doesn’t stop him. He just keeps cutting and cutting, flaying her alive.
“Wake up, baby!”
The words seemed to float out of the darkness and she turned towards them blindly. Melody woke up with a cry and blinked up at Christian for a long moment as the nightmare slowly receded and reality crept in to take its place.
She let out a shuddering breath. It still clung to her like a residue. It had been two weeks since the last nightmare, but this one had been even worse. She couldn’t get the feeling out of her head, could still feel the sharp pain of the claw digging into her skin.
Melody’s whole body was trembling in reaction and she turned to Christian, curling into him, remembering the way his voice had called to her, bringing her back from that dark, terrible place.
Christian didn’t say a word. He just held her tight as she tried to drink in the cheery morning sunlight that was streaming into the bedroom. Imagined it filling her and chasing all the shadows away. She wasn’t sure if that was even possible anymore. She would always carry that darkness with her.
Suddenly, her mouth opened, and before she even realized what she was doing, the words started pouring out.
Melody told Christian all about the nightmare that had been haunting her. About that terrible night when Enrique had been enraged. When he’d beaten her. When he’d held her down and tattooed her. And then… after.
The words rushed out of her like a dam breaking, and once she started it all came out, every last awful detail of how he had hurt her, how he had controlled her and manipulated her. Cut her off from everything and everyone, so that she’d had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
She didn’t know how long it was until the words finally dried up and silence fell between them. Christian hadn’t said a thing the whole time, just held her, somehow knowing that she needed to be free of the memories once and for all.
After a long, long moment, he cupped her cheek in one strong, callused hand and tilted her until they were face to face.
“Thank you for telling me,” Christian whispered softly. Melody shivered at the feel of his warm breath tickling her lips. “He is never going to hurt you again. I swear it.”
Melody let out a sigh. She knew it was ridiculous, to want to believe him, to rely on someone, anyone but herself. She’d learned that lesson the hard way. Still, it felt good to know that someone had her back. That someone cared. And especially this man.
She closed her eyes and Enrique was there, waiting for her, just like in her nightmare, and sudden violent nausea hit her, sending her rushing towards the bathroom. Afterward, Melody brushed her teeth, trying to get the sour taste of vomit from her mouth, but she felt lighter than she had in weeks. She had a feeling that the nightmares wouldn’t bother her anymore. Not as long as she had Christian to hold her tight at night and chase them away.
Chapter 23
Melody waved at Christian as the truck pulled out of the driveway and he headed to do some job for Hub and the Devil’s Martyrs.
It made her worry at times, wondering about what he was doing while he was gone during the day. Was he out running drugs? Selling? Dealing weapons? Or was it something even worse? Something worse than she could imagine?
Melody had heard the rumors about the Devil’s Martyrs. About how violent they were. The terrible things they did in the area. She tried to picture Christian doing something like that, hurting anyone at all, and failed.
She just couldn’t see him even hurting so much as a fly. Especially not a fly, not any kind of animal for that matter, human included.
She wanted to know, but a part of her was too afraid to ask. Too afraid to know the truth of what he was doing.
Bec
ause she knew he was doing it for them. For her. So that they could get out of that terrible town and find lives of their own. Get far away from those who wanted to control them.
Guilt ate at her. At first, she’d tried to get a job of her own at the bar that Bianca worked at, but everyone had been adamant against the idea. Even Christian.
Enrique and his men frequented the dive bar. Bianca said that the last thing she needed was to run into them with alcohol in the mix and Melody knew she was right. She knew exactly how volatile Enrique could get, especially when he was drunk.
But then that left Christian all alone to raise the money that they needed to get the hell out of there. And now Melody had something else to worry about.
Swallowing hard, Melody stared out of the front window. She waited until Christian’s truck had been gone for at least ten minutes before grabbing her cell phone and dialing one of the handful of numbers she had programmed in it.
It rang three times before Bianca answered with her customary gruffness.
“What do you want?”
“Bianca, It’s Melody. How are you?”
“I’m old. And cranky,” she groused over the line. “And I’m also pretty sure that you didn’t just call me to chat. So, I’ll ask you again. What do you want?”
Melody bit back a grin at her tone. Over the last month and a half, she’d learned that the older woman was a curmudgeon on the outside but, inside, she had a heart of pure gold.
“I need a favor,” Melody said after a moment. “I, uh, need to make a run to the grocery store.”
“Ask Christian then. He’s your husband, for Christ’s sake.”
“He’s out on a job for Hub,” Melody said quickly.
And she really didn’t need him looking over her shoulder. Not until she was sure, anyway.
“Fine, I’ll be there in a half hour,” Bianca said, hanging up the phone before Melody could even get out a thank you.
Melody slowly lowered the phone and then let her hand drop, her muscles suddenly turning to water as she dropped to the edge of the arm chair.
The first morning, she’d thought her nausea was in response to the nightmare. But now she wasn’t so sure.
For the last week she’d woken up nauseous and sick, but it always passed quickly. And then it kept happening. Every single morning.
She’d done some quick math and realized that she was nearly three weeks late. Which coincided exactly with the first night she and Christian had slept together. It seemed impossible. She was on birth control. She couldn’t be…
Panic fluttered like butterflies inside her and Melody told herself it probably wasn’t that. More likely it was all the stress of everything finally catching up with her. But still, she needed to know. The uncertainty was eating her alive.
Melody let out a sigh, sitting back with a growl of frustration. She hated not having a car of her own. That she was still dependent on others.
She had become more independent with each day that passed, and it chafed having to rely on someone else. Even if it was Bianca. She trusted the older woman more than anyone besides Christian. She knew Bianca wouldn’t say anything, but still it bothered the hell out of her.
Melody waited as patiently as she could as the minutes ticked by. Which wasn’t very patient at all.
Now that the time had come to finally learn the truth about what was going on with her, Melody was terrified. What if it wasn’t just the stress? What if it was what she was most afraid of? A baby.
She let out a sigh of relief as the sound of a car pulling into the driveway distracted her from the train of her thoughts. Melody peeked out of the window as Bianca’s beat-up gray four-door drove into view, letting out a cough of smoke behind it.
Taking one last deep breath, Melody ran out and got into the car. They drove in silence to the grocery store in town, and Melody was grateful. She wasn’t sure she was up to answering any questions at the moment, her thoughts were in too much chaos. Her mind was whirling with doubts and fears and that damned panic was rearing its head again, trying to pull her back under.
She pushed it away, but it was a battle of wills and she still found herself walking across the grocery store parking lot on trembling legs.
“So, what did you need to get?” Bianca said suddenly in her gruff voice. “You got a list or something? We can divide and conquer, as they say.”
Melody started.
“Oh, um, I was, uh, I wanted to…”
She thought fast, trying to think of what to say, how to answer the older woman.
“I wanted to make something special for Christian. Yeah, that’s it.”
Bianca nodded, and Melody let out a huff of relief.
“That boy always loved T-bone steaks. You can’t go wrong with that. And I know Tony the butcher personally. I’ll make sure you get the best ones.”
Bianca nodded, then marched off towards the back of the store like a soldier marching off to do battle.
Melody watched her disappear before grabbing a basket and wandering up and down the aisles, throwing random grocery items in it, just in case Bianca found her again.
Finally, she made her way down the one aisle that she had come to peruse, and the one she dreaded most. She walked past the shampoos and conditioners blindly, not seeing any of the vitamins or headache pills or antacids.
Melody peeked up and down the aisle as she came to the section at the end, but she was the only one there. The rest of the section was empty.
She had to fight to keep her fingers from trembling as she reached out and grabbed the small, bright pink box. She didn’t even stop to see what brand it was. It didn’t matter. Holding her breath, Melody shoved the pregnancy test to the bottom of the basket, covering it with her other items before quickly heading towards the next aisle.
With what she came there to get safely hidden beneath a bag of potatoes and a loaf of bread, she wandered the aisles looking for Bianca. She must still be at the deli, haggling with the butcher, Melody thought, distracted by what she was about to purchase.
So, she didn’t notice the man standing in front of her until it was too late.
She ran into what felt like a brick wall, wind-milling backwards blindly as she dropped her basket. It wasn’t the impact that made her fingers suddenly turn to ice, it was the smell that had enveloped her for that brief moment of contact.
An all too familiar mix of spicy aftershave and musky cologne.
Her stomach clenched as fear flooded her system. But, after a moment, Melody forced herself to look up and meet Enrique’s gaze.
He stared back at her with a small, patronizing grin on his face. With his dark eyes and slicked back hair, he was just as handsome as he’d always been. And it made Melody feel even more sick to her stomach.
They looked at each other for another long moment, Enrique taking the time to look her up and down. It had been nearly two months since that last time she’d seen him, and all the bruises had finally faded.
Melody didn’t say anything because she couldn’t. As always when confronted with him, she froze, her blood icing over in her veins and her vocal chords seizing up until it was almost too hard to draw a breath.
She couldn’t have forced a single word out if her life had depended on it. And she was all too aware that it just might. It wouldn’t be the first time that her life had been threatened by Enrique. But he didn’t have that glazed look in his eyes that spoke to alcohol consumption, or the black rage that sometimes appeared there, making him look less than human.
No, all she saw now was the charming Enrique. The man she had first met all those months ago. The man she’d thought she knew, the man she’d thought she could trust.
God, she’d been so wrong.
“Hey there, angel,” he drawled, and the sound of his nickname for her on his lips made her body shudder in revulsion. “I was wondering when you’d come back to me.”
Melody jerked back in shock.
“Ex-excuse me?” she finally managed
to mutter.
He actually thought she’d come to find him? How could he possibly believe that? But it was obvious that he did. She could tell by the way he walked towards her, all confidence and swagger, as if he knew that she would come to his hand like the good little pet he still thought she was.
Well, not anymore.
Enrique reached out towards her and strength filled her so suddenly it was like a lightning strike shooting down her spine.