Page 28 of Saved from Deception

He has one hand clamped roughly over her mouth, the other at her waistband.

She’s struggling, frantic, while he freezes in place as he sees me.

Such rage. It’s an inferno of fury.

Lunging forward, I fling him away from her, throwing him against the shelves, packages of napkins toppling down on him. As I’m reaching for Charlie, I snarl at him, “Don’t you fucking move. Or I will kill you.”

And Charlie.

I only get a glimpse of her tear-stained face and terrified eyes before she falls into me, snaking her arms around my waist, hiding her face in my chest. I pull her close as she sobs into my shirt, shaking, her breath coming in painful gasps.

Fuck!

Rage and devastation battle for position in my chest. Hot flashes of anger alternate with stabs of icy pain.

While I desperately want to tear that man apart, the woman in my arms is my priority. Checking where she’s hurt, comforting her, calling the police—shit, she’s still dressed but did he—

Backing out of the storage room, I send a look of death at the man still sitting on the floor. I growl at him, “You do not want to fuck with me. Stay the fuck there and don’t even think about moving.”

Charlie is still clinging to me as I move into the hallway, her shuddering sobs breaking my heart. A server is standing near the women’s room, watching us in alarm. I bark at her, “Call 911. Tell them there’s been an assault. We need the police.”

She stares at me, wide-eyed, hesitating. Then she quietly asks, “Jase?”

When I jerk my chin at her, a look of understanding washes over her face, and she gives me a shaky nod in return.

With the sound of the server talking to the emergency dispatcher fading into the background, I focus all my attention on Charlie. I turn so my back is to the restaurant, and so I can see if that fucker Jase tries to leave the supply room.

Charlie’s resistant when I try to move her away from me so I can check her condition, her fingers clutching desperately at my shirt. Pitching my voice low, I tell her, “Hun, I just need to check you. You’re safe; I won’t let him touch you again. But I need to know where you’re hurt.”

After a shuddering breath, Charlie lifts her head to look at me. And her expression—so scared and devastated—is a punch to my chest. But a flicker of relief appears as she meets my gaze, and she whispers, “I’m so glad you came.”

Two hours for the police to wash their hands of us.

I’m so pissed it’s taking everything in me not to throw things.

And now Charlie is huddled in the passenger seat next to me, silently watching the traffic, her bruised jaw trembling as she holds back her tears.

Little blue marks in the shape of fingerprints, from where that asshole grabbed her face.

But the police believed Jase’s story. He pulled up the website on his phone, the one with a photo of not-Charlie and a post saying she was looking for men to role-play with her. That she enjoyed CNC, which he smugly explained was consensual non-consent, and her request was for someone to surprise her with it.

What the fuck? Kinks are one thing, but to initiate something like that without talking about it first? Without actually getting verbal consent first? Even if the post was real, what he did was assault, plain and simple.

Just because she still had all her clothes on, and there were only a few pale bruises, the police brushed Charlie off again.

“They could have been from anything,” Jase whined. “There’s no proof I did that.”

Just because he hadn’t gotten further than groping her doesn’t mean it wasn’t illegal.

But the police were all shooting looks at Charlie, and now I know what she meant when she told us how they looked at her before. Like some of them have seen the videos, and they believe it’s her. One officer even said condescendingly to Charlie, “You shouldn’t put stuff like that out there and not expect there to be consequences.”

At that point, Charlie looked at me with such sorrow it almost knocked me to my knees. “I just want to leave,” she whispered. “Can we please go home?”

I didn’t want to say yes, I wanted to call Cole and have him put all his police contacts on this. I wanted to demand to speak with a superior, to rail at them, to insist we weren’t leaving until Jase was arrested.

But I couldn’t tell Charlie no. So I tucked her against me and led her out to the car, her eyes never leaving the ground the entire time.

I’m still calling Cole later. There’s no way I’m letting that guy or the officers go unpunished.

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