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He set his bag down on the saddle, looked me straight in the eye and said, “That’s fucked up, Kat.”
“I know, but I have no idea what to do.” I huffed in exasperation.
“One of Penn’s colleagues was in an abusive relationship. I know that his team worked together and came up with an exit strategy for her.”
“Did she make it out okay?”
He sat down sideways on his bike and stared at the asphalt between his feet. “It wasn’t pretty. She had to live at a women’s centre for a few months, then left town. The fucker threatened her. I can’t see that happening with Roy.”He raised his eyes to mine, one corner of his mouth pulled into a weak smile.
“But you’d say something?”
Mace nodded immediately. “If he doesn’t bring it up himself, yeah, definitely. From what I understand, the worst thing abusers do is cut their victims off from their support system. They gaslight them into believing they’re completely alone and that nobody will take them seriously.”
Tears spilled out from under my lashes. I wanted to run back, to find him and get him somewhere safe right that minute.
“He’s going to be all right, Kathryn,” he said gently, getting up on his feet and pulling me into a hug.
Chapter Twelve
Roy
Had I been alone when I’d run into Kat at the shops after work on Friday afternoon, it would have been one of the highlights of my week. A strong second after the kiss in our car park.
Abbie had been with me, though. She’d hit me and slagged me off in the middle of the wine aisle, and I’d spent the entire weekend wondering if Kat had noticed anything.
She’d suddenly walked up to us, and had made Abbie step aside to grab a bottle of wine. Nothing out of the ordinary if she hadn’t told me a few weeks before that she didn’t drink wine, and preferred microbrews or a dram of harder stuff.
Abbie had been livid, and I didn’t think it was because she’d interrupted her tirade. Kat was perfect; her body, the shiny dark hair, her style, the perfect nails and make-up. Ona superficial level, Kat was someone my girlfriend hated just because.
So all the way to the checkout, to my car, to our flat, she complained how full of herself ‘that bitch’ had been. I didn’t dare to correct her or tell her to stop. Nor did I mention that I knew Kat. I’d insisted I had never met her before. I had been certain that Abbie’s anger would have been even greater if I’d told her that I’d spent hours alone with Kat each week.
Fucking coward.
But in my head, I apologised over and over to Kat, and replayed the scene. The way she’d looked at me, the appreciative purse of her lips, that wink.
Jesus.
Willing my cock not to rise, I parked the truck, carried our shopping upstairs, and began to stow away what we’d bought.
Abbie decided to go out with some of her friends, making it clear that she wanted me to stay home.
When she returned in the middle of the night, she woke me with her hand on my stupid-ass cock, already half hard and desperate for some action. I hated that my thoughts strayed to Kat before I was able to rein them back in and focus on Abbie, who didn’t cut me off but went through with it. Afterwards, she took care of the mess in the bathroom, then slipped back into bed where she wordlessly turned her back on me and went to sleep.
I laid awake for hours, before I was able to succumb to my dreams as well.
***
Kat and I had a meeting scheduled at her office on Wednesday. Part of me feared she might call the appointment off after what had happened at the shop, but when I didn’t hear from her, I made my way over to the Beta headquarters after lunch with my usual Déjà Brew and her Double Heart Latte in the thermal mugs from last week.
My heart was beating in my throat when I pressed the button for the lift, wondering how she would react, or if she would even bring it up. I’d contemplated texting her, had composed and deleted a hundred messages.
Coward.
I ran into her boss, Dexter, on the way to her office.
“Roy, good to see you.” He clasped my hand in his smooth grey one, shaking it enthusiastically.
“Dexter, how are you?”
