by Claire Adams
“Aren’t you out a little late, Ava?” the sinister voice slithered its way into my ears and made me shudder. “Nice girls like you shouldn’t be out running around in the dark, you never know who you’ll run into.”
When I was finally able to take a deep breath and refill my lungs, I looked up and saw Dominic standing over me. Illuminated in the artificial glow of the halogen lights outside the library, he looked almost ghostly. His blond hair glowed and his ice blue eyes had a sickly shine. He was holding out his hand and smiling that same crazy smile he’d had on his face when I walked out the door of his apartment after telling him I’d never come back. I ignored his hand, took another deep breath, and quickly pushed myself back up to my feet as I moved away from his creepy smile. I didn’t move fast enough, though, and before I knew it, he had his hands wrapped tightly around my upper arms as he stared at my face.
“Ava, you know how much I still love you, don’t you?” his voice had that psychotic pleading tone to it. The one that I knew would lead to nothing good if I didn’t escape his grasp.
“I know you do, Dominic,” I said in a soothing voice. “I know you think you love me, but you don’t. You know that, don’t you? This isn’t love.”
“I’ve always loved you, Kitten. Always,” he repeated. I hated that nickname, it always made me feel like a small, helpless creature, and now his icy blue eyes were fixed on me. I felt like prey for the predator. “You have always been the center of my world and I’ve always loved you.”
“Dominic —” I began.
“We used to be so good together, Ava!” he cried. “We used to do things and laugh and have fun, don’t you remember? We could be like that again, but you have to come back!”
“Dominic, you and I broke up because you cheated on me!” I yelled.
“That was nothing! It was a meaningless fling with some bimbo from my English class. She meant absolutely nothing to me. I swear!” his grip on my arm grew tighter and his voice took on a menacing tone. “I never loved anyone but you, Ava. You were the only one I loved. You are the only one I will ever love.”
I shook my head as I frantically looked for someone to come out of the library and intervene, but the more I fought him, the harder he dug his fingers into my arms to make his point.
“Why won’t you take me back?” he whined.
“Dominic, you’re hurting me!” I cried out as he brought his fingers together and pinched the skin of my upper arm, and I knew he wasn’t going to let go unless I saw his point of view.
“I just don’t understand. I gave you everything! I loved you! I took care of you! I worshipped the ground you walked on! And you just left me. Alone.”
“Dominic, that wasn’t love, that was the opposite of love,” I took a deep breath and tried to find a calm tone, hoping that if I reasoned with him, he’d remember how things had ended and let me go. “We weren’t in love anymore. You found someone else and it was too painful for me to see you so happy, don’t you remember?”
“I remember none of that. All I remember is how much you meant to me and how lonely I’ve been since you left,” his tone grew morose, and he sounded like he was on the verge of breaking down. “You have to come back. I can’t live without you. You must come back.”
“Dominic, I can’t come back,” I quietly reminded him. “We can’t be together.”
“Yes, yes we can!” he cried as he shook me by my arms. “We can, and we will, be together. And I’m not going to give up until you come back to me. Until we’re back together. We belong together, Kitten. You and me.”
“Dominic, stop calling me that! I’m not coming back,” I stood my ground and tried to reason with him, but there was something desperate about the way he was trying to convince me to return to him, and it was his desperation that scared me.
“Well, I want you to come back, and sooner or later you’ll want to come back,” his voice dropped to a calm tone that scared me even more than the pleading. “I will not give up on you.”
“Let go of me, Dominic,” I said as evenly as possible, hoping that my voice sounded stronger than I felt.
“I will never let go of you, Ava,” he whispered, as he leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek. “And if I can’t have you, then I will make sure that no one else will.”
*****
“Let go of her!” Brian’s voice bounced off the stone walls as he rounded the corner and saw Dominic holding me as I struggled to break free. He pointed his pistol at Dominic and calmly repeated, “Let go of her. Now.”
Shocked that I’d been followed, Dominic let go of my arm and turned to confront my defender, but he took one look at the gun in Brian’s hand and backed away.
“Hey man, don’t shoot,” he immediately switched to the friendly guy-to-guy manner he had when he talked with his buddies, and even laughed a little as he assured my rescuer, “We were just talking about old times.”
“The time for talking is over,” Brian replied as he aimed the pistol at Dominic’s stomach. “It’s time for you to scram.”
“Hey, don’t get your boxers in a bunch, buddy!” Dominic joked as he looked over at me with narrowed eyes, and quietly muttered so that only I could hear him. “This isn’t over yet.”
“Get out of here!” Brian boomed, and Dominic turned and took off, running toward the quad.
As I stood there watching him disappear into the darkness, I heard Brian quietly ask, “I’m guessing that was the ex, right? Are you okay?”
I turned and looked at him for a moment before speaking. “I’m so sorry,” I said quietly as the tears began to well up in my eyes. “I was stubborn and I didn’t believe the threat was real, so I thought I could take care of myself.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Brian interjected as he patted my shoulder. “It’s all good. I’m fully trained in hide and seek, so I knew I could find you.”
“I know, but I didn’t know he’d be out here following me, too.” I looked up into Brian’s face as I quickly wiped away the few tears that had run down my cheeks. “I feel stupid now.”
“It’s okay, he’s gone and you’re safe,” Brian reassured me. “Do you want to go back to the dorm?”
I considered the question more seriously than I would have a few hours ago, and then said, “No, I don’t feel safe going back to the dorm. At least not until he’s chilled out a bit. He knows where I live, and the last time he showed up there it was ugly.”
“Then let me take you somewhere safe tonight,” he suggested. “We’ll make sure he can’t find you, and then we’ll figure out a plan for how to take care of the threat.”
“Yes, sir, General!” I laughed weakly as I saluted.
“It’s Admiral, and your salute is sloppy,” he deadpanned. “Now, let’s get moving, I’ve got a place in mind, but you’ll probably need to stop and pick up a few things before we head out, right?”
“No, I’m okay,” I said softly. “I know how to travel light.”
“Well, once we get you situated, I can always come back and pick up your things later,” he said as he gently guided me toward the lot where he’d parked his black SUV.
*****
I sat quietly staring out the passenger side window as Brian drove. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what Dominic would do next. Would he actually hurt me? Was he capable of such a thing? I wasn’t sure anymore.
“I’m taking you to a hotel that I know has solid security,” Brian’s voice interrupted my racing thoughts. “I’ve arranged for a suite where I can monitor what’s going on while still giving you some privacy, okay?”
“What? Oh, yeah, that’s fine,” I replied, my thoughts still on what Dominic might do.
“What’s his deal, anyway?” Brian asked. “The guy seems more than a bit obsessed. What happened between the two of you?”
“He was never like this before.” I was annoyed by the question because I couldn’t answer it. “I mean, he’s written notes and called asking me to come back, but he’s ne
ver approached me since the breakup and he’s certainly never attacked me. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“There has to be some reason that things have changed,” he mused. “Has something in his life changed recently?”
“How would I know?” I shot back defensively. “I broke up with the guy and we’re not BFFs!”
“I know, but something had to have changed if he’s getting more obsessed with you,” he continued.
“Look, I have no clue what’s going in with Dominic, and if I did, I’d tell you,” I lied. I knew I was dangerously close to spilling the whole story, but I also knew that if I did, Brian would go running back to my father and tell him everything. It wasn’t that I cared so much about whether my father knew or not, it was the fact that I knew if the whole story came out there would be hell to pay, and it would become another way for my father to manipulate people and make it all about himself. I just wanted to put it all behind me and move on with my life.
“You’re sure about that?” he said as he turned into the drive of the hotel and pulled up to the front door. He put the SUV in park, but left the engine running. He opened the door and got out, but before he shut the door, he quietly said, “Because I’m not.”
It didn’t take long for Brian to register and since I didn’t have any luggage, we were soon on the elevator headed up to a large suite on the top floor of the hotel. I watched Brian out of the corner of my eye as the elevator ascended. Although he seemed calm on the outside, I could see him scanning the interior of the small space the same way he’d done down in the lobby, on the track, and everywhere else.
“What’s up with the scanning?” I blurted out.
“Huh?” he seemed genuinely confused by the question.
“I’ve noticed that you are constantly in scan mode” I said cautiously. “Even when it’s not really necessary, like now.”
“Oh,” he dropped his eyes to the floor and didn’t look up.
“I’m not judging or anything,” I offered. “I’m just asking why you’re constantly doing it.”
“Dunno,” he shrugged as he stared at the floor.
I could see that a wall had gone up, but I had no idea how to scale it, so I stopped asking and went back to analyzing my own situation. Figuring out what Dominic was going to do next wasn’t going to be easy; he’d become less predictable since I’d left and it scared me to know that he had tracked me down on campus. How else would he have known where to find me? And as I thought about it more, I realized that the only way he could have found me would have been if he had been following me. The thought made me shudder.
“You cold?’ Brian asked as the elevator doors slid open. He stepped out into the hall and scanned the corridor before motioning me forward.
“No, just thinking,” I replied as I stepped in behind him and followed him down the hall to the suite. He unlocked the door, held up a hand indicating I should stay in the hall, then quickly made his way through the rooms, turning on lights as he went. Thirty seconds later, he was back at the door motioning me to come in and shut the door behind me. It all felt very covert, and I looked at him skeptically as he moved toward the windows and pulled the curtains closed.
“Your room is over here,” he opened the door connecting one of the bedrooms to the main area and waved me over. “You’re probably pretty tired, so I’ll let you get some sleep.”
“Okay,” I said as I headed toward my room. Once inside, I turned and called out, “Brian?”
“Yes?” came his immediate response.
“I don’t think I can…I mean, I’m not…Would you just stay?” I stammered.
“Sure thing,” he smiled as came back into the room. He pulled the curtains apart a bit and checked outside before sitting down in the big chair by the window. “What’s on your mind?”
“Why do you always do that?” I asked.
“Do what?”
“You’re always scanning and checking and looking for things,” I said.
“Well, it’s part of my job. I’m supposed to make sure that any threat is neutralized, and that you’re safe.”
“But it’s more than that,” I argued. “It’s like you’re never not on.”
“I guess I always am,” he shrugged. “But that’s not what you want to talk about is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why is Dominic after you? What happened between you two?” His honest question caught me off guard, but I quickly recovered and began telling the story that I’d told everyone who’d ever asked.
“Yeah, well, I’m not entirely sure what happened aside from the fact that I broke up with him when I caught him cheating on me,” I recited the scrubbed version so many times that it felt like the truth. “We were fine until that happened, and then he just kind of lost it. He started writing me and following me around trying to convince me to come back, and when I refused, he started to get more forceful.”
Brian sat watching me from across the room, his eyes like lasers, and I suddenly felt more exposed than I ever had in my life. I looked away, focusing my gaze on the couch in the other room as I talked. I told him about how Dominic had shown up in my dorm one evening, pleading and begging.
“He’d wanted me to come home with him, but something felt off, and when I said no, he became enraged. My suite
mates had finally called the police and they’d hauled him out the dorm, but didn’t arrest him because his father had even more money and power than mine, and was a big university donor.” I rolled my eyes dramatically to show him how little respect I had for all the money and power. “The next day, I went down to the court and filed a personal protection order, but I knew that it was just a piece of paper and that if he really wanted to get to me, it wouldn’t stop him. And then Dominic disappeared. I had no idea what had happened to him, but when my father got wind of the incident and asked about what had happened, I told him. He didn’t say anything more about it, and then he hired you. And that’s my sad tale of woe. Poor little rich girl, eh?”
“That’s a lovely story,” Brian said.
“What?” I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly.
“It’s really nicely constructed and well-rehearsed, I’ll give you that,” he replied.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” I yelled.
“Sure you do,” he countered. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. That’s the story you’ve told your parents and all the nosy people who’ve tried to pry into your personal life, but it’s a lie. You know it, and you know I know it.”
“I…I…I…” I stuttered as I tried to find a way to cover my vulnerability. He’d seen past my carefully constructed mask and was calling me out.
“Ava, look, I’m not here to spy on you or rat you out to your parents,” he said with an earnest sincerity. “I’m here to make sure that Dominic doesn’t hurt you, that’s it. My whole job is to protect you, but I can’t do that if I don’t know what kind of enemy I’m up against. You need to come clean if I’m going to be able to do my job.”
“I…I…I can’t,” I whispered.
“Yes, you can,” he replied as he moved from the chair to the edge of the bed. Reaching out, he cupped my chin with his large hand and tipped my face up so that I was looking him in the eye. “You can’t escape a nightmare until you tell someone about it, and I’m the person who can help you leave it behind.”
“How on earth would you know anything about a nightmare!” I yelled. “You know nothing about this!”
“Maybe not this particular nightmare,” he said quietly as he held my gaze. “But believe me, I know about nightmares. So, tell me. Let me help you escape. Please, Ava?”
*****
I stared silently at Brian as my brain frantically searched for a way to explain my way out of the spotlight he’d just shone on my story. It wasn’t that I’d lied to anyone, it was more that I’d committed the sin of omission, and in doing so, thought that I’d fooled everyone into believing that things
weren’t nearly as bad as they’d actually been. Everyone around me had wanted to believe my story, and I knew that the reality of the situation was more than they could handle, so I told them only small details and left out the big, scary parts. My parents didn’t ask at all, so I didn’t even have to omit anything. We just didn’t speak.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I insisted even as the tears began to leak from the corners of my eyes. “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine!”
“Ava,” Brian’s voice was soft as he continued cupping my chin, refusing to let me look away. “It’s okay. It’s safe to talk about it here with me. I promise.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” I whispered.
“Try me.”
I looked up into his steely blue eyes and saw something so familiar there that I had to look away. When I looked back up at him, the steel had been replaced by a softer expression, and something in me broke. I took a deep breath and began to tell the whole story; the real one.
“Dominic and I met during Rush Week,” I began. “He was trying to get into the Fiji house, and I thought the entire week was a joke. We both come from families with enormous wealth, and so we bonded over our rich kid isolation. I know, pathetic, isn’t it?”
“I’m not going to judge you, Ava,” he said softly. “I’m just listening.”
“I didn’t have to explain things to him about my family—all the weird things that no one else understands—so it felt good to be with him, and after a few weeks, it just felt like we were supposed to be together,” I had never admitted that to anyone, not even to myself. “But I knew there was something off about him. In the first couple of weeks we’d been seeing each other, he’d gotten arrested for fighting with another guy at a frat party, and once he was released from jail, he’d disappeared for a few days. When he came back, he just said he’d been ‘summoned home by the big guy,’ which was our code for when one of our fathers wanted to have a word with us. We lived in a cocoon; buffered by money and our shared isolation, but I liked him because he paid attention to me—close attention—and he was nothing like my father.”