Page 26 of Fighter Daddy's Girl

GRACE

I’m sitting on a mattress on the floor of his basement. A single cone light hangs from the ceiling, providing the only illumination until he turns on the overheads. The walls have all been soundproofed, making screaming pointless, and the three windows set high in the wall have been blacked over. Nobody knows I’m here. Nobody knows I’ve been down here for the last two days. I don’t even know if it’s day or night right now.

He grabbed me when I was walking back to the dorms from the library a couple of nights ago. I never even saw him coming. My head was in the clouds, and I was thinking about Griffin, not paying attention to my surroundings. And I’ve been kicking myself ever since. Griffin warned me. He told me, I don’t even know how many times, to always be aware of my surroundings and to keep an eye peeled so nobody can sneak up on me.

Just the thought of Griffin and the possibility—maybe even the likelihood—that I’m never going to see him again fills my heart with an agony I’ve never known. Tears spill down my cheeks, and it’s all I can do to keep from losing my mind from grief. I have never felt as close to somebody as I feel to Griffin. He’sopened my heart and my soul in ways I never expected nor thought they could be. And now, just like that, it’s all been taken from me.

A squeal of terror bursts from my mouth when I hear the heavy deadbolt on the door thrown back, followed by the sharp creak of it opening. A moment later, the bright, fluorescent overheads snap on, the sudden and blinding light making me wince. Squinting at the sudden intrusion of light, I look down and wipe the tears from my face, sniffing back the fresh wave that threatens to flow.

The hollow boom of his footsteps descending the stairs sends fresh needles of fear through my heart, each thud of his boot driving them deeper. I sit with my back against the wall and draw my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them tightly, desperately trying to make myself as small as possible.

“I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you something to eat,” he says. “I know how much you like cheeseburgers from that diner near campus, so I got you one. I got you fries and a chocolate shake, too, because I know you like those.”

I shake my head. “How do you know all this?”

He gives me a smile that makes something heavy settle on my stomach. “Your whole life is on your social media pages. I know it’s because you wanted me to know these things about you. You were telling me.”

The idea that he’s been stalking my socials and gathering bits of my life, picturing him in it and imagining that I’m sending him secret messages through what I post turns the blood in my veins to ice. I look at him, aghast.

“Let me out of here,” I say.

Professor Bryson frowns but says nothing. Instead, he sets the tray down on the table and turns to me with a patient look on his face.

“Grace, that’s not going to happen, so you’re going to want to get used to being here,” he says. “The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can begin our life together, and the sooner we can be happy. I don’t want to keep you down here. I just need you to accept that you’re mine now.”

“Why are you doing this?” I ask.

He cocks his head and looks at me like I just asked the stupidest question imaginable. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m doing this because I love you and want us to be together.”

A choked sob bursts from my mouth, and I look away as a fresh torrent of tears streams down my face. Professor Bryson kneels next to me and puts a hand on my knee. The feeling of his hand on my leg sends a cold shudder through my body and churns my stomach with hot, acidic bile so thick it makes me want to throw up. I shrug his hand off my knee and try to shrink away from him. I just don’t have anywhere to go.

“Don’t touch me,” I hiss.

He sighs. “Gracie, I’m not going to force myself on you. I’m hoping that in time, you’re going to let yourself embrace that thing that’s always been between us.”

“There has never been anything between us.”

“I’ve seen the way you look at me in class,” he says. “I can feel that heat between us. I know you’re scared of it being inappropriate. I’m your teacher, after all. But we’re both adults, Gracie, and I’m hoping you’ll see that what we have works andthat there is nothing to be afraid of. We belong together. I’ve known that from the first day I saw you. And I’m pretty sure you felt that too.”

“I felt nothing for you,” I spit. “I feel nothing for you. This—whatever this is—it’s all in your head, Professor Bryson. You need to let me go.”

He smiles patiently, looking at me like I’m an unruly child who just doesn’t know any better.

“It’s going to be okay, Grace,” he says. “What we have is special. It’s beautiful and?—”

“It doesn’t exist anywhere but in your fucking head!” I scream. “Let me go!”

Bryson’s smile falters, then falls away completely, his face darkening and twisting with impatience and anger. He manages to dial it back, though, opting for a more neutral expression.

“I love you, and I want this to work, Gracie,” he says through gritted teeth.

“I will never love you back. Just let me go, and I swear I won’t tell anybody.”

He stands up again and sighs as a look of sadness crosses his face. Bryson reaches behind him and pulls a gun out of the waistband of his pants, letting it hang at his side. He is silent for a moment, simply looking at me pointedly, tapping the barrel of the gun against his leg.

“I really want this to work, Gracie. And I do hope that in time, you will come to love me as I love you,” he says. “I don’t want to imagine a world without you in it.”

The implication is crystal clear, and absolute terror grips me. It’s all I can do to keep from having a nervous breakdown right here and now. I have never been as scared as I am in my entire life, and I’m barely holding it together.

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