Page 71 of Indulgence
Using everything I had, I jerked my hips, attempting to dislodge him from me. Nothing mattered other than getting him off me. All my efforts got me was a hard tweak of my nipple. Another wave of sobs tore from my chest with each nonconsensual assault of my body.
I heard a deep voice in the hall, but my phone had stopped ringing.
It could be the only chance I got for help. I couldn’t waste it.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Matteo
The three-hour trip wasactually a blast from the past.
It was something I needed. A few hours on the open road, with my best bud, heading to get my girl back was food for the soul.
Adam made a playlist on his phone just like we did for road trips back in college.
We stopped at a diner just outside Seattle for breakfast.
It felt more like heading to an out-of-town baseball game with my buddy.
We didn’t discuss my marital issues. It was understood that this was it. I was winning my wife back tonight. Instead, we talked about Adam; about his possible promotion to lieutenant, how the Seahawks were going to do this season, whether he should trade his truck in for something new.
We drove inside the city limits of Portland just after lunchtime, which was when Adam finally broached the subject.
“What’s the plan?”
“I was thinking we could start with all of us having lunch.”
Adam glanced over at me. “You don’t have to include me in your plans, man. I’m here for moral support and to be a road partner. I’m okay with spending the afternoon on my own.”
“I was kind of hoping you could maybe be a buffer. Ease a bit of the tension and discomfort.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Sure, but if lunch goes all right, you should ask her out on a date tonight. Not one of your date nights of late, either.” He gave me a pointed look as he followed the GPS’s directions downtown. “You’ll be dressed up and it would be romantic to take her out. Remind her that she is the only lady in your life. Always will be.”
My phone rang and Natalie’s face popped up on my screen. My lips stretched into a smile. Seeing her face on my screen took away some of the anxiety that was starting to stir in my stomach. Adam lowered the music, but I shook my head. “I’ll call her when we get to the hotel. I don’t want the GPS to giveaway the surprise.”
Even though I wanted to hear her voice, we didn’t know where we were going and there was a ton of traffic. I’d call her back in five minutes.
Natalie was staying at the Nines which was on the same block as the gallery. It was also booked when I tried to make a last-minute reservation for a room. Instead, Adam and I grabbed a one at a hotel a few blocks over.
Ten minutes later, we were checked in, but something felt wrong. I’d listened to Natalie’s voice mail and she sounded unsettled or concerned. She said she’d see me later. She had no idea I was coming down here. I tried calling her back several times, but her phone kept going to voice mail.
That was fifteen minutes ago. I kept calling as Adam and I decided to walk over to her hotel since that was where she said she was headed.
“Maybe she was tired and fell asleep,” Adam offered as we crossed the street, one block closer to Natalie.
“Maybe.” I sighed as I got her voice mail again. “But the ringing would’ve woken her up. She isn’t that heavy of a sleeper.”
I had to have called at least twenty to twenty-five times already. She wouldn’t have slept through that.
“Shower?” Adam suggested instead trying to ease the growing alarm in my chest.
Shaking my head, I pressed call again. “She said she was going to lunch. And that she would see me later. She doesn’t know we’re coming, but it was the way she said it, Adam. It was in the shake of her voice. Something was upsetting her. Now, she isn’t answering. That isn’t a good sign.”
As the Nines came into view, the ringing in my ear stopped and a male voice replaced it. “Hello?”
My heart was in my throat. “Who is this?”
“I’m one of the security guards at the Nines,” he replied not doing a damn thing to ease my worry.
