“You think anyone is going to believe anything you say, bitch?” Rae flinched at Ethan’s words.
“I know, baby. Take my phone and go call 911. Tell them everything—and to rush to your parents' address.” She immediately came back to me, her gaze locked on mine. She took the phone and walked just outside the barn before dialing.
She was obviously shaken, but so strong. It made me love her even more.
“He doesn’t love you like I do, Rae. I mean, you’re not perfect. We can fix that if you come home.” Ethan continued spouting lies I was glad Rae couldn’t hear.
I waited to see that she was talking to a dispatcher before turning her phone off mute so I could resume talking to Ethan. “Why don't you leave her alone?”
“She's mine. Not yours. You stole her from me.”
Knowing I had to keep him talking, I switched to cop mode just as Rae walked back in withmy phone. I put a finger to my lips, a silent shush to let her know I had it under control. She nodded and walked over to me. To my surprise, she wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my chest. She clung to me like she was going to fall over if she let go.
I started recording the call with my phone.“Why do you think that I stole her from you?”
Not caring about listening to his answer, especially since I was recording the call, I muted the phone and turned to Rae.
“They said they are on the way. I told them to go in and get him when they got there.” Her voice was so strong despite how I knew she felt.
“...I was good to you, Rae. He may have stolen you from me, but you’ll always be mine.” I caught the tail end of what Ethan was saying, enough information that I could reply.
“No. You hurt her and she ran. Rae is her own person. She doesn't belong to anyone, so she's not something that can be stolen.”
He laughed an evil sounding laugh, and tears started to form in Rae’s eyes. I pulled her closer, even though our bodies were already as close as possible, and I kissed her temple.
“I'm going to find her just like I found her parents’ address, which was basically dropped in my lap.”
“How did you find it? Online? Those records are not always accurate.” I knew you could find out pretty much anything online nowadays, but I had hoped her parents’ last name being different than hers would have thrown him off.
“No. Even better. Her mom sent her a postcard, from their vacation, to our address. Probably didn't know the little bitch ran away. She put the return address on it—their address.”
Rae whimpered and started to pull away from me as tears fell fast. I tightened my grip around her only enough so she wouldn’t pull away. “I’ve got you,” I whispered in her ear.
“Listen, Ethan. You need to stop while you're ahead. You think she’s yours, but she’s not. You’ve assaulted and abused her, and now stalked her. Those things, separately, are not things you can come back from. If you think I would let you anywhere near her, even after doing justoneof those things, think again.”
His voice turned calm. A littletoocalm. “I gotta go before your buddies come inside, Deputy Walker.”
The line didn't go dead. We heard the clatter of the phone being dropped and within the next minute, my squad announced themselves as they rushed into the house. They called out as they cleared the rooms. Ethan had vanished.
My Sergeant called me, and I answered after the first ring. “Let me guess, he got away.”
My Sergeant spoke to me, stating facts about how they think he got inside the house and that Ethan damaged the cameras somehow. I saw the fear in Rae’s eyes and turned the phone off speaker so only I could hear it. She buried her head in my chest more, and I wished I could take away all the pain she must be feeling right now.
My Sergeant told me that they were calling the crime scene unit out to take photos, try and pull prints, and take anything into evidence if they found anything else. Before we hung up, I made sure to thank him for allowing me to take the time off, especially without any warning time. He reminded me of something he’d told anyone who had requested time off for family matters, and that was that if you cannot take care of yourself and your family, you can’t be fully present to take care of the community we serve. I thanked him once again, and we ended the call.
Rae pushed hard to get out of my arms, and even though I didn’t want to, I let her go. If she needed a bit of breathing room, I would give it to her.
I set down the phone and held out my hand to her. “Come here, honey.”
She shook her head, looking at the ground, her arms wrapped around her waist. I walked over to her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was shaking violently, and she felt cold.
“Hey, you're safe. I'm going to call your parents and let them know not to come home right away if they don't have to. I'll let them know you're safe and what's going on.”
“I don't want them to know about—”
Rolling thunder sounded, low and angry.
“Don't worry, if you want to tell them, you can. I'm only telling them what's necessary. But let's get inside the house first before the rain starts.”
