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I look around and find everyone standing from their seats, paying us no mind. Tommy and Clara are at the back of the jet, his arm wrapped tightly around her body as if letting go would be as painful as losing her in the first place. And not for the first time since they rescued us, I long for that. For connection. For love. For belonging. Things I haven’t felt in years, so long I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like.
I meet Ace’s worried gaze and let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I’m safe. For now. I must know that instinctively because, in the last eight years, sleep has always been restless and broken. Every sound wakes me because it could be someone coming to hurt me. In fact, it usually is. But I don’t think Ace will hurt me like that, even if I’m not entirely sure what he’s going to do with me now that we’re back in Chicago.
He holds his hand out to me, and I find myself taking it without thought. His warm skin on mine makes my palm tingle as he helps me to my feet.
Clara appears beside him, her eyes full of relief and worry as she looks me over before turning her attention to Ace. “Would you like us to take her back to Tommy’s apartment?” she asks softly.
“No,” he snaps.
Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t recoil at his harsh tone. “Ace, I’ve seen your apartment. Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s not exactly suitable for house guests.”
He turns his hard eyes on her, but she doesn’t stand down. I wish I could be that strong, but after being beaten down and trodden on by men my entire life, I’ve been known to startle at my own shadow.
I quietly think to myself that it can’t be worse than some of the places I’ve lived but decide to keep that piece of information to myself.
“I’m taking her to a hotel until I can find a suitable apartment for the two of us,” he tells her matter of factly, like he spent the entire flight rearranging his life to accommodate me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around myself as if it will do anything to protect me. “I don’t want to put you out at all. You can just drop me in the city and I’ll work it out from there.”
Every set of eyes in the cabin turns to me, and I can’t help but drop my chin and hold myself closer. After so many years of the only attention I’ve been given being to harm me, I tend to shrink in on myself anytime anyone looks my way.
“Absolutely not,” Ace snaps, and instinctively I flinch, taking a step back from him. I’ve been around too many angry men not to do everything I can to protect myself, even if my attempts have almost always been pointless.
“I don’t want to inconvenience you,” I say quietly, keeping my eyes on the carpet below my feet.
Ace sighs, and his heavy boots appear in my eyeline. A second later, a single finger presses to the underside of my chin and pulls my face up until I’m looking into his mesmerizing green eyes. “I didn’t spend the last eight years looking for you, just so I could drop you into downtown Chicago and let you get away again.”
My breath stutters in my chest, and although every muscle in my body screams at me to look away from the intensity in his eyes, I can’t tear them away.
He was looking for me.
For how long?
Did The Factory know?
Is that why they always moved me in the middle of the night?
For fear that Ace would intercept the transfer.
“Come on, sugar.” He tugs me forward, effectively cutting off any further questions or complaints. He wraps his arm around my waist, and the skin beneath his palm tingles with both comfort and panic. His touch is somehow familiar and foreign all at once, just the same way his gentleness is.
He leads me toward the exit behind Tommy and Clara, the former talking to the latter in hushed whispers. She doesn’t seem impressed by whatever he’s saying, but relents and takes his hand to let him help her down the steps to the tarmac.
The cold Chicago breeze whips around me, the sun sitting low on the horizon. I’ve been a lot of places in the last eight years, but Chicago holds all the memories I wish I could forget.
EIGHT YEARS AGO
The thin nightgown does nothing to protect me from the brutal wind whipping around my body, and my bare feet ache from the freezing concrete below them.
My asshole of a foster father didn’t give me a chance to change before he dragged me from my bed in the middle of the night and dumped me in the trunk of his car.
I should have known this was coming. The signs were there, but I thought I had more time. He started looking at me differently a few months ago, like he was the lion and I was the prey. Then there were the hushed conversations between my foster parents and how they suddenly tightened the reins, but only for me. They never really cared where we were or how late we came home, so long as we put on a pretty smile when the agency worker came to make sure we weren’t being mistreated.
When the trunk opened, I was too disoriented to fight, but that didn’t stop the man from hurting me. Not too bad. No worse than I’m used to after living with Colin and Jan for so many years, but still a shock to the system in the middle of the night.
“Move, bitch,” the man growls at me. He’s the one who dragged me from the trunk and threw me to the ground before pulling me up with a harsh yank I’ll be feeling for days.
I glance up at him under my dark lashes, careful not to look him in the eye. If there’s anything I’ve learned in foster care, it’s that dominant men only want submissive women, and challenging that can land you in the hospital…or worse.
