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He’d told me I wasn’t to contact them; they’d contact me when the time was right for us to meet. So right now, I was stuck, having to find the answers to my problem myself.
Groaning, I moved over onto my back, trying to keep my eyes closed and my body relaxed, but all it did was make me even more tense. The clock on my bedside table read four am. It’d only be a matter of hours until the sun came up and a new day would start all over again.
I fluffed up my pillow and flipped it over, hoping that would help, but as I did, something rattled in the other room. Holding my breath, my eyes widened as I listened intently. I’d never been afraid of being on my own, but right then, I wished I had someone next to me who I could wake up and ask if they’d heard it too.
The rattled turned into a thump and I snapped upright in bed, scanning my room and trying to remember where I’d put my gun. But I couldn’t recall. When did I have it last? I brought it in from my car, right?
I lifted my fingers to my temples, trying to retrace my steps when I got home, but it was too late to figure it out because the sound of wood splitting ricocheted in my apartment.
“Oh, Lena,” the voice sang. A voice I recognized from earlier that night.
“Fuck,” I whispered, jumping out of my bed and searching for some kind of weapon. How the hell did he find me? And more than that, how did he know my name?
Light blasted through from my living room and a second later, he stood in the doorway to my bedroom. “Ah, there you are.”
I froze to the spot, every ounce of training that I’d had in the Academy and on the streets disappearing in a second. I never hesitated when I was out on the streets, but having someone in my apartment had taken me off guard.
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I was trapped physically and mentally.
“Don’t look so scared,” he said, smirking at me, only this time it was pure evil. He lifted his hand—the same one that had grabbed my hair hours ago—and cracked his knuckles.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to back away from him, but there was nowhere to go.
“I’m here to finish what you started.” He jerked forward, his arm outstretched.
I screamed, jumping backward and into the wall. He was blocking my exit, but also blocking the way to my bathroom.
Fuck! My bathroom. That’s where my gun is.
I spun around, trying to get away from him, but the smallness of my room meant that he was on me within seconds. His fist hit the middle of my back, knocking the breath out of me, then he pummeled me in the side, not letting up.
“Stop!” I shouted, but there was no use because he yanked me back like a ragdoll and threw me down onto the bed. It was only then that I realized I was completely vulnerable. All I was wearing was my top and underwear.
He licked his lips and dropped down on top of me, his hand wrapping around my throat. “Like I said, you need to be taught how to treat men.” His breath fanned across my face, the smell of alcohol wafting over me.
“Get off!” I threw my arms at his face, trying to do maximum impact with my forearm, but it didn’t move him a single inch. “Get off!” I shouted again, trying to worm my way from underneath him, but all he did was grip my throat tighter, taking the ability to breathe properly away from me.
I needed to do something, I needed to get him the hell off of me.
“I’m gonna teach you how a good woman should behave.” His other hand grasped onto my thigh, trying to keep me still, but in the process, I managed to knee him in the balls. “Motherfucker!” He winced, knocked off balance, but it still wasn’t enough for me to get away from him. I’d moved a few inches higher on the bed, but it was nothing in the grand scheme of things.
“Get off—”
“Shut the fuck up!” he screamed, his spittle flying over my face a second before his fist made contact. Pain exploded over my cheek. My instinct was to cover my face with my hands, but I didn’t have time for that. I had to get away from him. I had to be able to take a full breath. If I passed out then there was no telling what he’d do to me.
His hand around my throat squeezed again, cutting off my windpipe while his other hand grappled at my body, touching me in places that I hadn’t given him permission to touch. Everything in me wanted to shout for him to stop, to scream at the top of my lungs to try and get someone’s attention. But it would have been wasted energy.
I stretched my arm above me, flapping my hand around. The way he’d thrown me on the bed meant that my head was near the bedside table that was never used. If I could just…my fingers skimmed the edge of the lamp there. Hope built in my chest as I shuffled higher, wincing as his hand squeezed my chest.
This wasn’t going to happen, not here, not in my own apartment where I should have felt safest.
My palm collided with the lamp and I grasped it like my life depended on it—because at that point, it did. Elation bubbled up inside me as I pulled, thankful that there wasn’t an outlet on that side of the room. It was pointless this light being here, but right now, it was the only thing available to save me.
I swung it above my head, pulled in as much breath as I could, then slammed it over the top of his head.
“What the—”
I didn’t give him the chance to say anything else, I just thrust it in the air then back down onto his head as he lifted his face. His eyes rolled back in his head, his body instantly slumping on me.
