Page 9 of Reclaiming Adelaide

It was now three A.M., and the last of the investigators shut the door, my eyelids drooping and losing the battle to stay awake. My hands shook, and my knee bobbed up and down as my adrenaline crashed—the nausea worsened.

“Why don’t you get some rest, sweetie?” My mother kissed my forehead and hugged me as I winced in silence. I didn’t want her to worry more than she already had.

I gathered my things my father had collected from the door and nodded. “Thanks, Dad.”

“I don’t know how you find yourself in these situations, Adelaide.”

“Me either.”

Shrugging, I made my way downstairs, shutting the door behind me—my bedroom window staring at me like a glowing furnace in the basement. I rushed forward and slammed the curtains closed.

I’d been right there.So close to safety, but yet impossible to hold.

I kicked off my shoes, stripped off my damp clothes, climbed onto my bare mattress, and tucked my hands under my pillow.

Sleep, take me...I don’t want to be here right now.

3

“Again.”

“Come on, Jake,” Scott said with beads of sweat dribbling down his reddened face. “I think we’re done.”

I exhaled, dropped my stance, and held my hand for a power shake. “All right.”

We’d grappled for the last four hours, turning our years of Krav Maga practice into a well-trained, choreographed battle.

We’d worked on our hand-to-hand techniques for three straight days as I toiled through the shit going on in my head.

It all made sense to me now. How her behavior changed when she couldn’t get into my server. Then she blamed it on me like it was my fault this relationship didn’t work out.

The nerve she had to try to manipulate me.

“Anytime but tomorrow. My kid’s little league soccer game is two hours away, and we won’t be back until late.” He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Can you believe they make us travel that far?”

I shook my head. “I know they did that in high school, but eight-year-old’s too?”

“Yeah. It’s no wonder parents can’t put their kids in sports.”

He grabbed his gym gear and headed for the showers.

“I’ll catch you later.”

Normally, I’d shower at the gym, my bag ready in my trunk, but today I had an important meeting with Adelaide’s parents that I didn’t want to miss and a handoff for the SAMs.

When I stopped by a few days ago, Chris wasn’t home, but I put together a time where we could sit down and discuss what their precious daughter had been up to—a time when she wouldn’t be there, of course.

I unlocked my car as I walked out of the studio, tossed my bag in the back seat, and headed home with that woman invading my thoughts. She’d been on my mind every second of every day since she’d penetrated my life. It didn’t bother me, but now it felt like a persistent earworm that wouldn’t go away no matter what I did.

Switching on a tech podcast as I drove home, I tuned in to their monotonous voices talking about the latest and greatest software for business. It gave me something to focus on that wasn’t a redhead with freckles to die for.

I pulled into my driveway; time flying by faster than I’d like to admit, and glowered as I parked and climbed out of my car. My sore muscles screamed as I walked down the steps to the lower half of my split-level home and stripped my clothes off my sweaty body.

Shivers trailed up and down my legs as the cool water hit me from all angles when I stepped into the shower. My tense shoulders slackened as the heat came through, pounding into them like an overdue massage.

Shit.

I’d need a massage after the days I’d spent beating my sparring partner. Scott didn’t deserve some of the moves I’d pulled on him, but it was my only means of getting out my frustrations without causing someone serious damage.

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