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I threw the door open and rushed out.
The second her gaze focused past the lights and onto me, she backed away from Brandon, leaving him to fall forward, gasping for breath.
There was a split second before she was flying at me, throwing herself into my arms.
The uniforms rushed forward around me, guns drawn, barking orders at Brandon.
I was even partly aware of Gawen calling for an ambulance.
But almost all of my attention was on the woman clinging to me, her entire body shaking, her arms like a vice grip around me, cutting off my air.
Even so, I wrapped my own arms around her, holding her tight as her breath hitched, and a cry escaped her, muffled by my shirt.
“It’s okay. You’re okay now,” I told her, my hand stroking down her back. “He will never touch you again,” I added, watching as the uniforms cuffed and dragged Brandon to his feet.
He looked like shit.
Blood was trickling down his neck, little spots dotting his shirt.
A bruise was creeping across his cheek, and a matching one was starting across his neck.
I watched as one of the uniforms shone his flashlight on the ground. Toward what Mari had dropped when she’d seen me, what she’d been using to strangle her attacker.
Her shoe strings.
She’d hit, cut, and strangled this guy.
She’d fought fucking tooth and nail for her freedom.
And had we not shown up, I was pretty sure she would have managed to get herself free. If not by downright killing him, then choking him out, and running for help.
“You’re such a survivor,” I murmured, giving her another squeeze even as the sound of the ambulance ambled down the street toward us.
“Are you hurt?” Gawen’s voice asked, strong and steady, and somehow smooth and reassuring, as he moved next to us. “Do the paramedics need to check you out?” he asked.
Her head shook against my chest.
“You should let them look at you,” I urged, rubbing her back.
“I’m okay,” she sniffled, trying to pull herself together. “He needs the ambulance,” she added, pulling away, and angling her body away so that no one but me could see her wiping her face free of tears. “I almost killed him,” she said. “I would have killed him,” she added.
“You have a God-given right to use any force necessary to save yourself from a man who was going to rape, torture, and murder you,” Gawen said, giving her a nod for emphasis.
“It’s over,” she said, sucking in a deep breath that escaped with a strobe-like pattern. “He’s not going to ever do this again.”
“No,” I confirmed. “He’s not.”
“He was living next to me,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t realize it until we were running down the driveway. My memory flashed back to seeing him walking down to the mailbox, watching me as I got in my car to get home from work. I… I never thought anything of it,” she said.
“Someone on the force questioned him, Mari,” I said, shaking my head. “And didn’t think anything of him either. Some monsters are good at hiding in plain sight.”
Gawen and I shared a meaningful look over her head just as Maggie, the female officer from the first attack on Mari, came walking up the path.
“Hey, honey, this is Maggie Judd,” I said, waving toward her, and watching Mari focus on the woman. “Can you go with her back to the station and wait for me?” I asked. “There is going to be questioning,” I added.
“Right,” she said, nodding.
“But we have to look over the crime scene first,” I added.
