Page 55 of Mind

“You need a doctor.” Austin pets my hair and holds me close.

Jack’s voice comes from somewhere close. “Austin, there’s a doctor meeting us at the Davis Mansion. Chase is waiting and be warned. He‘s furious.”

All I can think about is that I’m in pain and I need my safe place. Chase is the only place I feel safe anymore.

Gillian

When I wake, I’m in bed. My face feels battered but nothing like I’ve experience before. The pain is tolerable. I look around and find Chase is sitting with his head hanging down, elbows on his knees in his standard worried pose. A woman I’ve met before enters the room. I think she’s the doctor Chase hired to keep an eye on Phillip.

“Oh you’re awake, I thought the medication would keep you out quite a bit longer,” she says sweetly. Chase’s head lifts up and his gaze meets mine. He looks as horrible as I feel. It’s as if he’s aged ten years in one night. “Gillian, how do you feel?”

Slowly I catalog my aches and pains. Instead of going through it, especially with Chase here, looking at me like I’m a rare and precious gem, I respond, “I’ll live.”

Chase stands and starts pacing the room. His hands go right into his hair sporadically running through it and pulling at the ends.

“You’ve had a pretty serious traumatic experience today. It’s okay for you to admit you’re in pain.”

I watch Chase as he paces. Every so often, he looks over at me longingly then anger slips across his face. I’m not exactly sure which Chase we’re dealing with. I’ve categorized all that have made an appearance, but this one, it’s beyond Angry Chase. It’s possibly a few steps higher to downright Enraged Chase.

“Um, well, my head feels fuzzy and I don’t remember what happened after I was punched the third or fourth time,” Chase stops looking deadly furious. His hands are fisted at his sides. His lips are curved into a snarl and his eyes wild. “I’m okay, baby, I swear.” I try to soothe his anger but it doesn’t work. He shakes his head and continues his pacing.

A knock at the door startles me and I cringe as the pain in my head lances down my spine. A woman wearing a badge standing alongside Tommy is at the threshold of our bedroom door. “We need to speak with the victim, the woman announces.” Tommy puts his hand on her shoulder. Chase inhales and clenches his teeth.

“She means Gillian. We need to find out what happened, Chase. Your guy, Austin, he’s in cuffs downstairs,” I open my mouth in shock, wanting to say something but nothing comes out. “He almost killed that man tonight. He beat him up so bad he had internal bleeding and they’re trying to put his face back together,” I gasp and tears form. Poor Austin. He risked himself for me.

“I wish he’d killed him,” Chase says his face devoid of any emotion other than cold, hard, rage. Tommy pushes the door open and walks in. I turn away from him, not wanting him to see me right now. It’s embarrassing enough that I wasn’t able to get away, but to have Tommy see what Justin did to me, somehow it hurts more when its someone you know and care about.

The woman sits in the chair Chase vacated a few minutes before. “Hi, Gillian. I’m Athena, a detective with Special Victims. I’m going to need you to tell me what happened.” I look over at Chase who’s standing off to the side next to the doctor and Tommy. “Would it be more comfortable if we spoke privately?”

At the thought that Chase might leave the room, instant panic crushes down on my heart making it pound so loudly it’s almost deafening. “Chase…” I whisper. He’s to my opposite side in seconds.

“Baby, I’m not leaving. Never,” his voice dips low and I clasp his hand.

“Can you have Tommy leave?” I whisper, and she nods.

“Thomas, we’ll have the detective update you when we’re finished here. A little privacy, please.” Thomas nods and leaves.

“Okay, so tell us what happened?” she says softly. Her hair is short, a dirty blond color but her eyes are enchanting. A rainbow of colors. A mix between green, blue, and brown. They’re honest eyes. Genuine. I know I can trust her.

“I went to the bathroom. Austin was waiting for me less than twenty feet away.”

“Austin is the bodyguard?”

I nod. “Then as I opened the door to come back out, the opposite door opened and there was Justin. He grabbed me, dragged me into the men’s room and locked the door. I tried to scream but he covered my mouth. So I bit him.”

“Good, baby!” Chase approves and I smile slightly. The detective looks at him in warning.

“Then he started saying these things like he wants me back, he’d heard that I was getting married and wanted to throw his hat in the ring,” I swallow the bile that rises in my esophagus. Chase squeezes my hand for encouragement. Of course, he doesn’t know how bad the story is going to get.

“When he dragged me over to the opposite side of the bathroom he slammed my head into the wall then gagged me with a bunch of paper towels. I couldn’t breathe or scream through my mouth. That’s when he started touching me. Saying how nice my body was and how much I’d changed over the years,” The tears I had been holding back came rushing down my cheeks. I wipe them away angrily not wanting to give Justin even one more piece of me.

“Do you need a minute?” the detective asks.

I shake my head wanting to get this over with. “Then he pulled up my shirt and fondled my breasts,” Chase’s hand tightens on mine so hard I pull it away. “He punched me a few times, held me down, said he was going to fuck me quickly there in the bathroom, and then take me back to his house and do it slowly like old times. Said he liked that I was still fighting back. The last time he hit me things got really hazy. I remember hearing the door breaking down and pain on my chest,” I lift my hand to my breast and pain splinters out like a starburst. I suck in a pained breath trying to breathe through the tenderness and throbbing ache.

“Did the attacker touch you anywhere else,” she asks writing something in her notepad.

A flash of Justin rubbing me between my legs comes to the surface. I glance at Chase under my lashes and then turn to the detective not wanting to see his face. “Yeah, he um held me against the wall while he played with my breasts, then cupped my sex roughly trying to encourage me to get excited and remember how it used to be.”

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