Page 96 of Safe and Sound

That possessiveness was what currently left me bruised. With a shake of my head, I grabbed a silky eggplant colored top with an exceptionally frilly neck and slipped it on over my head.

Glimpsing in the full-length mirror again, I grimaced. The dark blue bruises still peeked out of the top. “Concealer it is,” I mumbled before heading to the bathroom.

After unbuttoning the blouse, I placed some makeup wipes along the neckline to protect it from stains. Just as I started dabbing concealer across the angry black and blue streaks, Nick’s voice called, “Ava?”

“Bathroom,” I replied.

When he swept through the doorway, he sucked in a breath at the sight of my exposed skin. “That fucking bastard.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

Two nights ago, Nick’s face had been the first one I’d seen when I came back into consciousness in the ER. A sob choked off in my throat as the memory overwhelmed me. After getting Piper to sleep, I was in bed reading on my kindle. The last person I ever expected to see in my bedroom doorway was Wesley.

Especially considering I had a restraining order on him.

He was on me before I could reach for the phone. His mouth assaulted mine as his rough hands roamed over my body. When I began thrashing against him and screaming for help, his fingers wrapped around my throat.

To my horror, my screams were replaced with Piper’s cries as she beat her tiny fists against my bedroom door. Wesley ignoredher until the wail of a police siren echoed down the street. Just as I started to lose consciousness, he let go of my neck and then ran out of the bedroom.

Later in the hospital I would learn it hadn’t been one of our neighbors who called the cops. Instead, my savior was Piper. Over the last few months of Wesley’s erratic behavior, I’d taught her repeatedly how to hit the panic button on the alarm system’s keyfob.

I never, ever thought she would remember.

But she did.

Guilt wracked me that it had been my three-year-old daughter who had saved me from being raped. It was far too much responsibility to put on her tiny shoulders. I would spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the trauma she had experienced because of my stupidity.

The growl echoing through Nick’s broad chest brought me back to the present. With his fists curling at his side, he proclaimed, “I want to end him.”

“I know you do.” In a whisper, I added, “So do I.”

After our gazes met in the mirror, he cocked his brows. “Are you sure about this?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure about anything anymore.”

But that was a lie. Deep down, there was one thing I was certain of. Wesley was eventually going to kill me, and there was only one man who could stop him.

Dare Kavanaugh.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

“I need you to watch Piper.”

“You could at least let me drive you, and she could come with us.”

“No!” At Nick’s questioning look, I sighed. “If I’m lucky, I can get in and out without Dare ever having to know about Piper.”

“I said it three years ago, and I’ll say it again. He deserves to know he has a kid.”

“Just because I’m asking him for a favor doesn’t change who and what he is,” I argued.

Leaning back against the counter, Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “Surely after everything you’ve been through with Wesley, you can see that it isn’t so black and white.”

With a roll of my eyes, I countered, “He’s part of the Irish mafia, Nick. There’s no grey area about a man who murders people.”

“And what about women who ask for men to murder for them?”

“Don’t,” I warned.

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