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“So what changed? I mean, you were still with him at the Games. And he was still being a bastard. That much was clear to me.”
And now we arrived at the part I had such difficulty putting into words. “A few months later, I was pregnant. I told him as soon as I realized, before I’d had a chance to figure out what I wanted to do about it. He flew off the handle. Screamed bloody murder at me. He said I was trying to ruin our careers. That I’d gotten knocked up on purpose because I was trying to hurt him. Then he demanded I go in for an abortion.”
“And did you? You must have,” Levi said. There was so much sadness simmering beneath the anger in him. With his free hand, he tucked some of my hair behind my ear. Such a gentle and unexpected touch. Too much more of that, and he might just undo me.
I was both intrigued and frightened by the prospect.
I shook my head. I needed to let it all out. Now that I’d started talking, the urge to plow through and empty the whole clip was so strong I felt powerless to stop it. “I didn’t have an abortion. I didn’t think I wanted one, but no matter what, I wasn’t ready to make a snap decision. Not about something like that. So I told him I needed some time to decide what I wanted. Guy sulked all night, telling me over and over again that I was doing this to hurt him and there was no other explanation that made any sense. The next day in practice, we were working on a lift, and he dropped me. He hadn’t hit a rut or anything like that. It was a lift we’d done hundreds, maybe thousands of times before, and he’d never once dropped me. But this time he did. Hard. It was almost like he threw me into the boards more than dropped me.”
“And you miscarried,” Levi finished.
I nodded. “My ankle was sprained pretty badly, but I lost the pregnancy. Had to go in for a D and C. We told everyone it was all about my ankle, though.”
Levi was calm. Too calm. It felt like the dangerous sort of calm that Cam tended to arrive at right before he went off the deep end in trying to protect someone he loved. I couldn’t seem to stop shaking, worrying about what he might do.
“So this son of a bitch treats you like shit for years, knocks you up, then he hurts you bad enough that you lose the baby. Then you leave, and he follows you? And threatens you? Am I understanding this right?”
I wasn’t shocked by hearing profanity, but Levi seemed to have lost some sort of filter over that. Likely because of all the alcohol in his system. In all the time we’d been together, he’d kept it in check a lot better than this. It knocked down a layer of my defenses, leaving me vulnerable. “There was more in between, but yeah. That’s basically it.”
“What kind of more?” Levi growled.
“Nothing too serious. He just wouldn’t take the hint. He kept calling me, leaving me notes on my door or my car. That sort of thing.”
“He stalked you.”
“I wouldn’t go—”
“He fucking stalked you. He abused you for years, and then when you tried to put an end to it, he started stalking you. And he’s still doing it. He’s trying to intimidate you into doing whatever the fuck he wants you to do, and that’s why he’s threatening me. Well, not to my face. I doubt he wants to do that. It’s all about getting to you. But he followed you here to keep stalking you, Cadence.”
I swallowed hard. When he put it like that, there wasn’t much point in trying to argue with him. Maybe I’d never thought of any of it in quite those terms, but there was a sickening ring of truth to them. “Maybe,” I said slowly, taking my hands from his and wrapping my arms around my middle.
“Instead of calling the police, you decided to take things into your own hands and break things off with me.”
“Do you honestly think the police—”
“Yes, I damn well think the police need to be involved. And not because I’m scared for me. I’m scared for you. I’m scared for your brother and his kids. I’m scared for your fucking partner and your coach, and the barista who sells you your morning coffee. This guy’s a fucking time bomb, from what I can tell.”
The last thing in the world I would ever want to do was subject my niece and nephew to anything Guy might come up with. And now that Levi had mentioned them, all sorts of horrible thoughts swarmed my mind. To that point, I’d only been thinking of myself and Levi. There were way too many people Guy might hurt in order to get to me, though: Levi, my mother and sisters, Cam and Sara, Connor and Cassidy. He could even try to hurt Anthony, Ellen, or Jesse.
I blinked, wishing my pulse would slow down. The blood raced through me so fast, my veins might’ve ended up with whiplash.
“How the hell can Jonny be aware of all this and not insist on involving the police?” Levi demanded.
“He doesn’t know.”
“Didn’t,” Cam cut in from behind us, his voice quiet and seething with fury. “I didn’t know. Now I do.”
“I…” Words failed me as I looked back and forth between these two furious men. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough,” Cam clipped off.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell him?” Levi asked. “I mean, I understand why you didn’t say anything to me. Sort of. We were only friends, or whatever the hell kind of bull you’ve got in your head about the two of us. But he’s your brother. You’re living with him and his kids.”
Cam came around in front of us, his arms crossed in an intimidating posture that broke my heart. “How much of this is my wife aware of?”
I shook my head. “Don’t blame Sara. I made her promise—”
“You made her promise not to say a word about this to me. When your safety was concerned. When my family’s safety is concerned.” His glare was enough to melt my bones. “I do blame her.”
