AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s okay,” Emma cut in quickly. “We’re not in a relationship anymore. He’ll get over it.”
I set my mouth in a hard line. I wasn’t so sure — this guy waspossessive. He was stalking her, harassing her, and she had his name tattooed on her chest? None of this sounded like someone who was going to get over her soon. I’d seen it before, in my sister’s ex-lover, and I knew where it could lead.
“He could kill you,” I said softly. “The most dangerous time for a woman experiencing domestic violence is after a breakup.”
The wordsdomestic violencemade her expression change. She’d never used those words, I could tell, but that’s exactly what it was.
“He never hit me —” she insisted, but Jackson shook his head.
“He doesn’t need to. What you’ve been describing is a pattern of emotional abuse and intimidation.”
“It was probably only a matter of time,” I said gently. “People who establish those sorts of patterns usually escalate their behavior when the old techniques they used to control you stop working.”
Emma was quiet while she processed that idea. She stared at the hot chocolate and looked more exhausted than ever. I wanted to give her a hug, but I reminded myself that I was running a business. I couldn’t hug clients, no matter how attractive they were, or how sad they looked.
Jackson caught my eye and jerked his head in the direction of the stairs.
She could stay upstairs, he mouthed.
The neighborhood was gentrifying quickly, but not too long ago, it was known for its high crime rates. The previous tenant was an old-school chain-smoking tattoo artist with a chest-length gray beard and more than a few enemies. He’d fortified the apartment upstairs, making the doors and windows bullet-proof, and installed cameras in every room — even the bathroom. We’d removed that camera, of course, and the ones in the bedrooms, but otherwise his modifications stayed the same.
Aside from the banks, our apartment was the most secure building in the city.
“You could stay with us, if you’d like,” I said. “We’ve got an apartment upstairs, and we could give you a bedroom.”
“Between the three of us, there’s someone here twenty-four hours a day,” Jackson said. “And if that fucker ever comes through the door, we’ll throw him out through the glass.”
Emma shook her head.
“It’s okay. He doesn’t know where I live, so as long as he can’t follow me, I’ll be safe at home.”
I exhaled as I thought about my sister. Like Emma, she’d gone into a relationship with an aggressive man at a young age. And like Emma, she hadn’t realized how much danger she was in.
I wished there was a way to keep Emma here, but if she wanted to leave, I couldn’t stop her. At least she knew she could come back to us for help if she needed it.
“Do you at least have a decent security system at your house?”
She frowned.
“Not really. I should ask the landlord to fix the locks on the windows.”
“Do that as soon as you get home,” I said. “Get him on it now.”
Emma nodded and drained the hot chocolate, which by then must have been lukewarm.
“Thank you,” she said, giving both me and Jackson a smile. We watched her go, and I went back to stocking the cupboards, but the whole conversation had left me with an anger that I couldn’t shake. Emma’s life was none of my business, but ever since my sister died, it was tough to stand by and do nothing. Even though I knew I wasn’t responsible for Vanessa’s death, the fact that I hadn’t done more to prevent it haunted me every day.
I’d known Duane was a piece of shit back then, just like I knew Nathan was a piece of shit now.
I slammed the boxes on the counter so hard that Adrian looked up from his tattoo and said, “Easy, mate.”
He was right. I had a booking in half an hour, and I needed to get rid of this anger before it affected my work.
“Adrian, can you keep an eye on the front door?” I asked, and he nodded. There was a basement beneath the building and we’d converted the space we weren’t using for storage into a home gym. I went downstairs and thumped the crap out of the punching bag, striking it with powerful, straight punches.
Every time I hit it, I imagined I was striking Nathan’s face, right between the eyes.
8
