Horse trainer.
I memorized the number and the address, and even now, I can recall them. Can easily picture the foiled outline of a horse’s head on the card, the way his name stood out on the front.
“You think you can leave me?” He snarls, moving around the counter and I move with him, keeping it between us which makes him laugh.
“I’m not leaving you,” I breathe.
“You’re right,” he curls his lip, “You’re never leaving me, Juniper.”
“Never,” I feed his need, “That’s nothing.”
“Why do you have it, Juniper?” He asks.
I shake my head, “I didn’t—I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
“Cal, please.”
He keeps coming, forcing me into the open, and when he sees I have nowhere left to turn, he rushes me, pinning me to the wall.
“You did this,” he accuses, “This is all your fault.”
The hand around my throat is constricting, terror flooding my system, wanting to take me down.
“Cal,” I rasp.
He pulls me forward only to shove me back, the back of my skull bouncing off the wall. “You need a lesson,Juni,” he spits. “Time to teach you one.”
He yanks me off the wall and practically throws me into the living room. I land on my hands and knees, tears now free falling from my eyes.
His hand grips my hair and yanks me up, and the last thing I see before the world goes dark is the cold cruelty shining back at me from his blue eyes.
I stare at the ceiling, Cal’s sleeping body beside mine. My cheek burns and throbs, my whole body on alert.
I can’t keep doing this.
He is going to kill me.
I have to leave.
The thought alone terrifies me. Where am I supposed to go? I have nothing; Cal made sure of that. Iam utterly dependent on him, and he knows it. It’s why he can get away with what he is doing to me. He knows I have no other options.
Come with me.
Let me help you.
Silas is the first person who has ever offered me help. Does he mean it?
I roll my head toward Cal’s snoring body, illuminated only by the glowing lights of the alarm clock on the bedside counter. He’s out for the count. He drank a lot after what he did to me and promptly passed out when we went to bed.
Now is the best time to get away from him.
I have evidence…realevidence on my face right now of the kind of man he is.
What if I can help Silas? Bring him down once and for all.
Gently, I pull back the sheets so I don’t disturb him and head through to the bathroom joined to our bedroom.
