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Then, like an avenging angel, Trevor was out of the car and struggling with Paul. It was still so hard to see, and I was crying in heaving sobs, but it lasted only seconds before two shots rang out in the air.
Trevor climbed back into the driver’s seat, a pistol in his hand, jaw clenched. “I fucking missed. That bastard ran away. Coward!”
I remember very little from then on out. I wasn’t hurt, but when Raoul arrived only moments later, looking wild, he insisted I be checked over by the paramedic that had arrived on scene. I let it all happen, my mind busy with only two thoughts.
Paul. A baby.
Still utterly shaken, I stayed glued to Raoul for the entire day as he made call after call. I had no idea who I spoke to, overwhelmed with that one question still at the front of my mind.
Am I pregnant?
Raoul made slow, gentle love to me that night, and I fell asleep clinging tightly to him, my only lifeline in this storm. For the first time, I missed my parents, Washington, and the places I knew so well.
It’s why when I awoke that morning to the house completely empty besides Mariana and the rest of the staff, I stayed in bed and had my breakfast brought to me. I had planned on calling my mother, but then a message came through from an older coworker, and it sent my world spinning once more, just like the accident.
“Skye, turn on the news! They found Paul dead in his pool this morning!”
I didn’t need to turn the news on, because I already knew deep in my heart what had happened. Everything went white, and then I was bolting across the bedroom to the toilet, vomiting.
Raoul had killed him. I knew it without hesitation. Raoul murdered Paul.
It had been only a few hours ago when I crammed everything I could into my small backpack, and fled out to the terrace and down the steps to the private beach. I needed to breathe, needed to be somewhere that didn’t have Raoul written all over every inch of it, and in my wild mind I knew my old apartment was my only option.
Santa Cruz wasn’t too big of a city, and it didn’t take me long to get there on foot, but I was exhausted by the time I made it. The place looked the same as it had over a month ago when I last saw it, just emptier of the things Raoul had packed up for me. I had decorated it cheaply, but the white wills and scattered paintings were still comfortingly familiar.
I locked the door, safe for the moment, and with tears streaming down my face, dropped my bag and curled up on the old plaid couch. Blessedly alone, I cover my face with my hands, and weep. What am I going to do?
I don’t know when I fell asleep there, only that I have just been woken up by the sound of metal scraping across the lock of my front door. It’s a small apartment, and bolting up from the couch, I can see the knob turning. Then, the deadbolt flips, and it opens.
I start to scream, terrified, but it cuts off when the tall, dark figure silhouetted in the doorway steps forward and shuts the door behind him, throwing his lock pick kit to the floor. Raoul.
We stare at each other. A standoff, almost. My head is clearer than it has been since the car crash, and it’s infinitely clear to me that I have fucked up big time. Raoul’s nostrils are flared, and his hands clenched into fists.
“Skye,” he growls, “What could you possibly gain now, running away from me?”
“I wasn’t, Raoul,” I insist, knowing that I’m in trouble. His cuff weighs heavy on my wrist. “My mind is just a mess. I need to be alone.”
“Do you know,” he begins stalking towards me, “How I felt learning that you had disappeared? After yesterday?” His voice is getting louder, but he still manages to keep it controlled. “I trusted you not to run. That’s why I didn’t have security watching you constantly anymore. We’ve lived together for over a month now, and today is the day you choose to run from me? The day after I almost lost you?”
I’ve never seen him so emotional, and it's clear he doesn’t like being this way, tuning his head and sucking in deep breaths to calm himself.
“We can go home,” I say, standing and cautiously approaching him, wanting to comfort him even as my emotions are spiraling. “Let's just go.”
“Bend over the arm of the couch. Arms out in front of you and hands together.”
A lance of fear spikes through me. “W-what? Why?”
Raoul’s face is like stone, his expression unreadable. “You made a promise to stay with me. To obey me. For your own safety, Skye, and you’ve already betrayed me.”
“Betrayed!?” I yell. “All I did was come back to my own apartment!” I can feel myself getting worked up, so I breathe slowly to try and get myself under control. “I just needed some space.”
“You forfeited that option.”
“A verbal promise right after something dangerous, when my adrenaline was up, does not mean you control me Raoul.”
He stalks towards me, face still unmoving. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you ran, Skye?”
Tears fill my eyes, unbidden, and I turn my face away from him. I’ve told myself over and over that I won’t mention it, won’t ask for the truth, because once I know for sure there is no taking it back. But what choice do I have now?
