I walk across the street to where I know Ransom is watching Darlene’s apartment building. I climb into his car and he hands me a coffee. “Did you get it out of your system?” he growls.
“Never. She’ll never be out of my system. Knowing she’s not safe will never sit well with me. I want to be by her side always.”
“It’s for the best, though. You know that,” he says, arguing his point. “She’s perfectly safe with me and the others watching over her. Not to mention your obsessed ass. From the outside looking in, you’re more of a stalker than Levi at this point.”
“Fuck off. Do we know where Levi ran off to?” I ask, unable to hide my anger and frustration at the fact that he eluded us last night.
Ransom shakes his head. “Not a clue. He ducked between two buildings, and it was like he just melted into the shadows.”
“How did he just fucking disappear like that? He’s way more of a problem than we originally thought.”
Ransom lets out a low growl. “Darlene isn’t his first victim.” He pulls out a folder and hands it to me. “I did some more digging last night and found out that Levi Troy didn’t exist until five years ago.”
“That’s just before he started working at Thurston Academy.”
He nods. “Yep. It seems that Mr. Levi Troy used to be one Leonard Trey. Leonard has multiple restraining orders filed against him, not to mention that he’s currently wanted for assault. It seems that he attacked his last victim—nearly killed her.”
Rage bubbles up inside my core; right alongside that is fear. Fear for the woman I love. Now we know exactly what Levi—Leonard—is capable of, and I don’t like it one little bit. I feel the need to rush back to Darlene’s side and never leave. Ransom has a point about leaving her seemingly alone, though. Someone like Levi isn’t likely to attack when there’s another man around.
“Keep close to her. I don’t want that fucker laying on finger on her.”
Ransom snorts. “You know I’m a professional, right?”
“I don’t care if you’ve guarded the president. Darlene is far more precious.”
I hop out of Ransom’s car and head to my own. Time to go get ready for work. It’s a struggle to not go back up to Darlene’s apartment and force her to let me take care of her. Somehow, I manage.
Chapter Twenty-One
Darlene
I’m exhausted even though I slept peacefully in Colt’s arms last night. It wasn’t nearly enough to catch up on all the missed sleep from this week. Add all the stress and high anxiety days to the sleepless nights, and you get one tired girl. I’m drained. Completely and totally drained.
School drags. It feels like the day is never-ending, and all I want to do is go home and soak in the tub and pretend that life is normal again. I’m feeling every bit of the stress that I’ve been trying to ignore.
Deciding to be a bit of a rebel, I release my last class of the day early. It only takes me a moment to collect all of my things. The second the final bell for the day rings, I am out the door and heading home.
My phone buzzes in my purse when I’m about halfway home. I pull it out and notice several missed calls and a few texts, all from Colt.
Jasper needs to talk to you.
Don’t leave the school on your own.
Wait for someone to walk with you…
Darlene?
A fission of fear fills me with dread. Half of me wants to turn and run back to the school. The other half wants to run the rest of the way home and to the safety of my apartment.
I left already. Halfway home. I respond.
I scream, and my phone goes flying to the ground when someone grabs me from inside the alley I’m walking past. I fight, but the person is bigger and stronger than me. The smell of body odor and stale cigarette smoke makes me gag, but I fight even harder.
“No one watching the pretty-pretty princess today?” the voice snarls—Levi.
I knew this moment was coming. I mean, this is why I was walking alone to begin with, right? I was staying away from Colt so that I could be the bait. What does Levi mean that no one is watching me? Someone is always watching—fear spikes through me at the idea that I’m alone.
“Let me go!” I scream, flailing my legs and yanking against his hold. No matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to work. I fling my head back and make contact with something… his nose, maybe? Because he screams and shoves me away and against a brick wall.
My hands scrape on the rough surface, but I ignore that small pain and take off towards the sidewalk and help. I only make it three steps before he’s on me again. This time he pins me to the wall, and I see a flash of silver as he pulls a knife from somewhere and holds it to my throat.
“Don’t be a tease. I’ve waited for this for too long already.”
I stand stock-still, not knowing what to do now that there’s a knife to me. All of the self-defense classes I took in college failed to cover knives to throats. Jesus.
What do I do?
What do I do?
I repeat the question to myself, feeling more and more out of control with each passing second. How am I going to get out of this? Where is Ransom? He’s always watching. What if Levi is right and no one is watching? I could be nothing but a bloody body on the ground after all of this—a corpse for someone to find.
Levi leans in and licks the side of my face. I gag, barely holding back my vomit as his fetid breath fills my senses. “Mm almost as good as I thought,” he says manically.
“Please, Levi. You don’t have to do this,” I beg.
“I tried to do it the right way. I asked you out! Would you give me a chance? No! You’d rather spread your whore legs for Colton Fucking James. Mister perfect principal that everyone likes.”
I gasp as the knife pricks my skin with his rising ire.
“Look what you made me do!” he yells in my face. His eyes fall to the place on my neck where I can feel blood trickling from the small cut he just made. There is an unhinged quality to the way he’s staring at my blood, almost like he wants more. It scares me worse than anything else could. He isn’t just obsessed to the point of wanting to keep me or make me his… I’m starting to think he’s obsessed to the point of killing me.
I’m starting to panic now. I can’t get the image of my broken body on the dirty alley ground out of my head. My breaths are coming in short pants, and darkness starts to creep in on the edges of my vision. I realize I’m close to passing out. I can’t do that. I have to focus. I have to figure out how to get out of this.
Levi presses against me, and I cringe back as much as I can, which isn’t much at all since I’m practically pinned to the wall. He leans forward, his lips descending on mine. I turn my head as much as I can without hurting myself on the knife. Just before his lips make contact, there is a roar at the mouth of the alley. Levi jumps back just as a dark figure tackles him to the ground.
“Colt!” I shout. “He has a knife!”
It all happens so fast. One minute Levi has a knife to my throat, and in the next, Colt has that same knife against Levi’s. Levi doesn’t stop fighting. At one point, I think he’s going to buck Colt off of him, but then Colt slams his fist into his face, and Levi goes limp, knocked out cold.
Colt tosses the knife aside and rushes to my side. “Are you okay, baby?” He looks me up and down, taking in the small nick on my neck. His hands cup my cheeks, and he looks me in the eye. “Please, talk to me, Darlene. Are you hurt?”
“Jus-sst scared.”
He lightly touches my neck below my injury. “And this. Did he touch you?” he asks with a low, menacing growl.
I shake my head, no. “He… he licked me,” I stutter out. “My cheek…”
Colt snarls and moves to leave me. I panic and grab ahold of him. “D-don’t leave me.”
His tense muscles instantly relax, and he holds me tight. “I’m not going anywhere, Darlene.”
“Colt!?” I hear someone shouting from the street. Jasper, maybe.
&nb
sp; “Here,” Colt hollers back.
“Jesus,” Jasper says, taking in Levi’s prone form laying on the ground in a broken heap. “Is he alive?”
My eyes widen at that. Surely a single punch wouldn’t kill someone as large as Levi Troy…
“Unfortunately,” Colt says, sounding remorseful that he didn’t kill the man. “He deserves to die.”
“As your friend, I’m going to agree. As a cop, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” he says. “You okay, sweetheart?”
I nod, still clinging to Colt.
Jasper makes a couple phone calls, and before I know it, the alley is filled with police and detectives. I give my statement what feels like ten times until Colt has had enough and tells them all he’s taking me home. I’m eternally grateful that he’s taking charge. I’m overwhelmed and can’t handle anymore.
Colt leads me away from the scene of the attack, and I’m doubtful I will ever be able to walk to and from school again. Looks like my aging car is going to get more miles on it. I barely make it four steps before I trip on my own feet. A sob breaks free, and if Colt wasn’t here to catch me, I would’ve fallen to my knees. Everything hits me at once. The attack, the millions of questions from the police making me relive the moment over and over, the fact that it’s over… it all comes crashing down, and I suddenly can’t breathe.
Colt holds me up and tips my face up to his. Icy blue eyes meet mine, giving me something to focus on. “Breathe, Darlene. Take a deep breath in…” My breath stutters into my lungs, then gusts out on another sob. “Shh. It’s okay, babygirl. Just breathe.”
I take in another breath and another until the darkness at the edges of my vision goes away, and I’m no longer hyperventilating. “Good girl,” Colt praises. “Just breathe with me.”
I nod my head, following his breathing pattern. In… out… over and over until I’m feeling calmer. “Th-thanks,” I stutter out.
“Let’s get you home.”
I turn to walk towards home, and Colt grabs me up, lifting me into his arms. Once again, I’m caught off guard by his strength. I let out a feeble protest that he completely ignores. I wrap my arms around his neck and cling to that strength of his, loving how safe I feel in his arms.
He sets me down outside my apartment door. He takes my keys from me and opens the door. As soon as the door is shut and locked, he lifts me back up and carries me to the couch. I don’t realize I’m shaking until Colt wraps me up in a throw blanket.
“It’s okay, babygirl. You’re safe now,” he promises.
He disappears into the kitchen and comes back with my sneaky box of truffles and a bottle of water. He opens the water and indicates I need to drink. Without thought, I take the water and gulp it down. Then he hands me a truffle and tells me to eat, that the sugar will help. I take a nibble, then another. He’s right that the water and chocolate are helping me feel steadier.
“Thanks.” I take a deep calming breath and feel more myself. Except I feel dirty. I can still feel Levi’s hands on me, his tongue… I gag. I barely make it to the bathroom before I vomit. Colt is right there, holding my hair and rubbing soothing circles on my back.
“Shh… It’s okay, Darlene.”
“Dirty,” I whimper between retches.
Realization comes over him, and he instantly turns on the shower. I feel immensely grateful for this man taking care of me even though it’s not his job anymore. I broke us, and yet, here he is. He goes to leave me to my shower, but I grab his arm. “Stay, please,” I beg, not wanting to be alone.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I don’t want to be alone yet.”
“Okay, babygirl.” He reaches to cup my cheek, and I flinch away, not wanting him to touch me where Levi did. His arm drops, and a look of hurt crosses his features before he shutters it. Not thinking, I grab his other hand and hold it to my opposite, unsullied cheek. Realization dawns on him, and he gently touches the clean side of my face.
When he steps away, I carefully undress, dumping my clothes on the floor. I will never wear those again. In fact, I may just burn them. Colt watches me in a clinical way, making sure that I’m steady on my feet, not with any of the lust he normally would have. I’m thankful for that.
The first thing I do in the shower is scrub my face. Again, and again. I hiss when I wash my arms, I look at my elbows, seeing where the brick abraded them. Colt is instantly there, lifting my arm and looking at the angry red skin.
“Baby, why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
“I didn’t realize…” I sniffle.
“It’s okay. Finish your shower. I’ll get some cream for that.”
I do as requested and finish washing. I wash every inch of my body more than once and still don’t feel completely clean. I wash my hair twice, then my face again. Colt hands me one of my oversized towels. I dry off and wrap it around my body. Tears prick my eyes as Colt carefully towel dries my hair for me just like a daddy dom would for his babygirl. Only… he’s not my daddy anymore because I ruined that.
He then carefully puts some antibacterial ointment on my scrapes and leads me to my bedroom, where he’s laid out a set of comfy pajamas. He goes to the door to give me privacy to dress, and I whimper at the thought of him leaving me. I don’t know why I’m feeling clingy. It’s not fair to him. Not when I broke things off.
Even though I don’t want him to be out of my sight, I let him leave without protest. I dress quickly and follow him out of the room. Only I don’t find him in the living room. He’s in my studio looking at my most recent project.
I chew on my lip, wondering what he thinks of the painting. It’s us… well, a representation of us done in a more abstract style than my typical realism. It hurt too much to paint us as we are—were. I clear my throat so he knows I’m here and he turns, looking at me with curious eyes.
“Is this us?”
I could easily say no, but I’m not a liar. “Yes…”
“It’s beautiful.”
My cheeks heat with a blush knowing that he likes my painting. Thoughts of Levi are long gone as I watch Colt look at my painting with awe. This room is my escape from the world at large so it’s easy to forget everything that has happened today.
“I’ve missed you.” The words escape my mouth before I can stop them. It’s not fair of me. Not when I’m the one who broke us to begin with. Sure, Levi was the catalyst, but I’m the one that made the choice to end things instead of telling Colt about the threats against him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
He turns to me and gives me a knowing look. “You didn’t break things off with me because of rumors, did you?”
Shock jolts through me at his assessment of the situation. He’s completely right about it, but how does he know? “I…”
He crosses the room to me and hugs me. “It’s okay, baby, you can tell me.”
Now it’s decision time. Do I stick to the lie, or do I confess? “Levi threatened you. He promised to hurt you if I didn’t break things off. I couldn’t risk you… I lo-” I barely stop myself before I profess my love for him. “I care about you too much for that.”
“Darlene… You should have told me. I knew about the threats. He had dozens of pictures of me with my face burned or slashed through on his walls. It was pretty apparent that he didn’t like us together.”
Shock reverberates inside me. Of course. I remember seeing the pictures from his house. The shrine to me and the threatening pictures where he’d ruined or ripped Colt out of them. Why didn’t I remember that at the time?
Because I was panicked. Scared because it all became so real. Bad excuses, but that’s the only reason I can think that would have made me forget the fact that Colt was already in danger because of me.
“I’m… I didn’t…” I shake my head at a loss for words.
“It’s okay. I know you had my best interests at heart. Just… next time talk to me, okay?”
“Next time?” I ask, hopefully. “Will there be a next t
ime?”
“Well, not the stalker part, I hope,” he says, trying to insert a little humor into the situation. “I want to be with you, Darlene. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
I look at him with equal parts shock and happiness. “But-”
“There are no buts, babygirl. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. We’re perfect together. You’re my other half,” he proudly professes. “Unless that’s not what you want.”
Tears stream down my cheeks, this time, they are one hundred percent happy. “I do. I want you, Colt.”
“Then, you have me.”
I fall against his chest and hug him tight. I almost confess my love, but don’t want those words to be tied to this day. Yes, it’s brought me back to Colt, but it also has so much negativity. Those words deserve to have their own day. Their own moment.
He holds me for a long time before we finally break apart. He sets me up on the couch, once again wrapped up in a blanket, only this time he turns on my favorite baking show and goes to the kitchen. A few minutes later, he comes back with an omelet that smells divine.
“Thanks,” I say around a bite of cheesy goodness. I devour the entire thing, not having realized how hungry I was.
“You’re welcome, beauty. Are you feeling better?”
I sigh. “Yeah. I think so. Still kind of shaken.”
“It’ll take time. Do you want to talk about it?”
I snort a sardonic laugh. “I think I’ve talked about it enough for one day.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he says with a sad smile. “I’m here if you need to talk. No pressure.”
“Thanks, Colt.” I have to fight the desire to call him daddy. I don’t deserve that privilege, not yet. After breaking up with him like I did, I definitely need to earn that right back. I need to prove to him that I can be a good little girl for him.
Teaching His Babygirl Page 13