Page 45 of With Love

Marshall

My heart shattered the moment she first started screaming. She was sleeping so soundly and then out of nowhere her skin broke out into a layer of sweat. She began groaning, whimpering. Her eyebrows furrowed as her jaw clenched tighter.

Then, she let out the most terrifying, blood-curdling scream that I’ve ever heard. It was like something out of a horror film.

When Owen asked her what she dreamt about this time, I knew right then and there that whatever it was I thought happened to her during her time with him, was actually worse than I could have ever imagined.

My heart dropped when I thought she was going to let that mother fucker kick me out of her room. As she stands there hugging him goodbye, all of my anger morphs into a big smug smile across my face. I wear it proudly as he glares at me with hatred in his eyes.

I try to wipe the look off of my face the instant she turns around, but she catches me.

“Please don’t be mad at him.”

“I’ll stop being mad at him when he stops accusing me of hurting you. But let’s not talk about that right now. Are you okay?”

“Seriously, he’s just really, really protective of me. He put me back together so many --” she stops herself and looks at me like she’s seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she waves it off. “You’re right, let’s just talk about something else.

“Adrienne, please. I know that you’ve been trying so hard to keep the truth of what happened to you a secret. But if the scream that just came out of your mouth is any indication… I can only imagine how bad it really must have been.

“My heart gets torn to pieces every time I think about what you could have gone through. The fact that you had to rely on someone else, someone who wasn’t me, your husband, only makes those pieces more jagged.

“God, this sounds like I am making this about myself,” I stand and grip both sides of my hair, tugging on it out of frustration. “I don’t mean to do that at all, but I need to know what happened over there. I need to be able to be there for you. I wasn’t before, but I want to be the one who is always there for you. For the rest of your life, I want to be that guy.”

Shit. I’m really not doing a good job of keeping myself together here. I feel her hand touch mine. She leads me back over to the sofa and pulls me down onto the cushion. She places one hand on either side of my face and her gaze drills into mine until she has my complete and undivided attention.

“Barrett,” she swallows. “Barrett was one of Lock’s men. Other than Owen, he was one of the only men who never really seemed to want to do me any harm. Who knows why he worked for Lock. Everyone who’s ever worked for him had a desperate reason for doing so. They weren’t all horrible, fucked up people.

“The day that you and Lock exchanged fire in front of Liza’s office, Barrett was supposed to be trailing us, making sure that you weren’t around. Making sure that nothing bad happened. Well, he missed his shift that day. Otherwise, he probably would have let Lock know that you were there.

“By the time we got back to his estate, some of Lock’s higher-ups had intercepted Barrett at his home. He was there to grab a few things for his wife who had gone into labor unexpectedly.

“Lock had him down in the ‘Pit’. That’s his torture chamber.”

She shivers and I tighten my grip on her hand, reassuringly.

“When we got down there, he was hanging by his wrists from this crazy track system that Lock had installed. It enabled him to move people around at his leisure…” she closes her eyes.

“Anyway, that’s irrelevant at the moment. So, Lock begins to question why he missed his shift. Oh, I should probably add in here that Lock and I had been seeing Liza for fertility treatments because he was determined to get me pregnant. So when Barrett tells him that he missed his shift because his wife was in labor, you can imagine how well that went over.”

“Not so well,” I answer. “Oh my God, and especially not after our confrontation. I made this so much worse for you, Adrienne.”

“No, this wasn’t your fault. None of it. Don’t think that way. Besides, if anyone is to blame, it’s me. I was the one letting Liza pump me full of birth control rather than hormones,” she offers a tiny smile.

“Anyway, once Barrett told Lock about the baby, he lost his damn mind. I’ve seen him enraged plenty of times, but this was more than that. This was way beyond enraged. He was maniacal. I’ve never been so afraid of him before this. Then, he began to torture Barrett.”

“In front of you?” I ask, shocked, though I’m not exactly sure why I don’t believe it.

“Mmhmm,” she answers. There is something more that she isn’t telling me.

“What else? Adrienne, what else happened that day?”

She closes her eyes and takes a deep calming breath and I mimic her actions.

“When Barrett was within an inch of his life, Lock stopped. He told me that I was to finish the job. I begged Lock to let him go. That he didn’t deserve to die. That he was going to see his child being born. None of that mattered to Lock. Why should it? He’s a sociopath. Completely incapable of feeling anything for anyone.

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