Page 66 of Body

Chase gasps. His eyes are the size of two full moons. “He didn’t believe it was his. We always used condoms, but there was this one time he was drunk and didn’t. It was after a particularly rough beating. I barely recalled him having sex with me; I was in so much pain. I let him do his business. At least when he was getting off, he wasn’t hitting me.”

Chase cringes. “Jesus Christ, Gillian…” He clings to my hips, his touch grounding.

I continue. If I don’t get this out now, I never will. “He said the baby wasn’t his. He called me a whore.” I shrug as the tears fall, wetting Chase’s forearms as he holds my hips. He brings his forehead to mine. It’s the strength I need. “He always called me a whore.” Chase physically shakes but doesn’t say anything. “He beat me within an inch of my life that night. He kicked my stomach over and over, strangled me and slammed my head repeatedly into the wood floor. I passed out. He probably thought I was dead, because he left me lying on the ground in a pool of my own blood. When I came to he was gone.”

“It took a while, but I crawled to a phone and dialed Safe Haven. I had programed it on the speed dial. It’s all I could think of in my haze. That one button was my entire focus. The cops had been called so many times over the years I honestly thought it was possible I’d die before they arrived.” Chase trails his hands up and down my biceps. “Safe Haven sent one of their trauma volunteers.”

Chase nods, knowing exactly what those volunteers did. He probably had a hand in making that part of the protocol.

“It was a husband and wife team. The man carried me to the car; I could barely walk after so many kicks to the ribs and stomach. The wife grabbed clothes to last me a couple weeks and all the cash I had stashed around the house when Justin wasn’t paying attention. Then they stayed at the hospital with me and held my hand while the doctors set my bones and stitched my wounds.” Without realizing it I had started rocking back and forth. Chase stops the movement, pulls me out of my protective ball and wraps my limbs around him, setting me in his lap like a Gillian blanket. He hugs me to him, surrounding me with his warmth.

I set my head on his shoulder and keep going. “Then I was told that I miscarried the baby.” The tears drip down his bare back. Eventually I wipe the tears with my arm. “After I was patched up, they took me to one of Safe Haven’s shelters. They took me in, gave me a room, and the counselors helped me get my mind straight. I grieved for my loss and they helped me realize what Justin did to me was wrong. They showed me I was worth more than that. That’s where I met Maria. She was a victim too.”

Chase’s eyes are closed when I pull my face away from the solace I seem to always find in the crook of his neck. He takes a deep breath. “Gillian, God…” He pulls me into a fierce embrace, holding me against his chest. “You will never be hurt again. I’m so sorry you had to endure all that pain.”

“I’m okay now. I don’t want your pity, but you need to know what and who I am. Trusting men with my heart has only hurt me. My only defense is to run.”

I see my words feathering over his features as he takes them in and dissects them. His eyebrows draw together and then that sexy grin I’ve come to adore slips across his mouth. “I’m an excellent runner myself. I’ll catch you and bring you home. To me. To this. To us.”

No man has ever made me feel so secure. Loved. I kiss him lightly. “Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.” He smiles wide.

“That’s why the Safe Haven means so much to me. It’s not just a job. They saved my life…in effect, your Foundation is the reason I’m still here. I owe them, and you, so much.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I’m not sorry I intervened today. That woman was sabotaging you because of me. She didn’t deserve to keep her job. You, on the other hand, did-- as well as the promotion, Gillian. The money you’ve brought the Foundation over the past two years has been double what the whole Contributions Department has brought in the last five years.”

I let out a huff. “About that. I talked to the girls and came to a conclusion.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Regardless of what happened or how it is perceived, I’m just going to prove to myself, and everyone else, that I’m right for the position. Anyone who sees it otherwise is wrong.”

He grins, pulls me back into a hug and kisses me. “That sounds like an excellent idea.”

So now that we’ve had a show and tell about my past and solved today’s debacle, I want to know more about him.His Father was the Devil,I hear Jack’s words in my head. “Tell me about your Father. You’ve never told me why you lived with your Uncle when you were a child?”

Chase leans back on the bed. “Gillian, you just revealed a lot. I don’t know that tonight is the night for me to share that sordid tale.”

“No hiding and no running, remember? It’s just me and you.”

“My story is similar to yours,” he begins, leaning back against the headboard. “My Mother was battered by my biological father. Except, she didn’t get away.” He looks off to the side, stuck in a distant memory.

“What happened?” I try not to push too hard.

“My Father had a bad habit of mixing copious amounts of alcohol with methamphetamines. They made him psychotic. He was already evil, but on drugs and alcohol he would hallucinate, talk to people who weren’t there.” His lips twist into a scowl. “And he had a burning desire to beat the shit out of anything that entered his path. Namely me, and my Mom.”

I pet his arm wanting to sooth him as he did me. Be there for him as he rehashes his own tortured past.

“I remember the night everything went to hell. It was my seventh birthday and he’d just lost his job. He came home and dragged me by the ear through the house. I screamed and Mom ran out of the kitchen. She was baking my birthday cake and had a butcher knife in her hand.” He takes a deep breath and his voice becomes deeper. His eyes fill with unshed tears.

“She begged him not to hurt me, told him it was my birthday. He backhanded me and pushed me at my Mother. She dropped the knife.” His voice shook, but he continued. “He came to Mom and punched her so hard she fell back. Blood sprayed from her broken nose all over me. I fell with her and my hand made contact with the handle of the knife.” I sat perfectly still, tears running in rivulets down my cheeks.

“I was so fucking stupid. I thought I could stop him from hurting her. I grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the thigh. It didn’t go deep, barely made a wound at all. But it enraged him. He threatened to kill me. He held the knife to my neck. Mom jumped between us and turned to push me down the hallway. I heard her blood curdling scream after I caught my balance. He had stabbed her in her lower back. She fell to the ground and he pulled the knife out. I can still remember the sound it made as it retreated from her body. The slurping noise haunts me.” He took a deep breath and his voice cracked. “He kept stabbing her, over and over like a sick horror movie. I kept thinking, ‘this isn’t real. This is pretend.’ But it was real.”

At that point Chase starts crying, clutching at me as the memory of that day rips through him. I pull him to me and rock him back and forth, kissing his temples, forehead, lips. “There was blood everywhere, Gillian, fucking everywhere. He kept stabbing my Mom while she screamed. I just stood there, helpless. She yelled for me to run and get help and I flew to my room, locked the door and went through the window. Just as I was out the window I could hear my Father. He had kicked in the door and was yelling at me through the window.”

“How did she survive?”

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