Page 3 of Satisfied
When the love bombing failed, the threats began. Message after message threatened to ruin my teaching career, or even take my life, but none of those matched the horror that set in when I walked into work yesterday and found an envelope on my desk containing pictures of me playing in the park with the kids from the shelter.
The threat was clear.
For the first time, I felt fear not just for my own safety, but for those who made the grave mistake of offering me kindness and have accidentally become tangled up in my mess.
But telling Cara about all this would only trouble her, and haven’t I already done enough of that?
Before I can sort through my thoughts and find a way to reassure her, a loud yell pierces the air. Cara’s eyes widen in alarm as she rushes to the door. Commotion at the shelter often indicates the arrival of a new resident.
Another bruised and battered woman.
“Stay here, I’ll go check,” she says, but I shake my head.
“If there’s another woman who needs help, then I’m coming with you. If she has a child with her, I can help,” I tell her, following her to the door. “I work with little kids, remember?”
She doesn’t waste time arguing as she opens the door and rushes outside. I follow her, running along the hall and down the stairs after her. A few other women are standing by the entrance, and the first thing I notice is the fear in their eyes, but I don’t think much of it until I step past them, out the door.
That’s when I see Jack.
My ex is standing outside Haven House and causing a ruckus. His jaw is clenched so tightly that I can see the muscles working in his face. His eyes narrow at the men standing between him and the entrance. Between him and me. His lips press into a thin, hard line, and his nostrils flare as he breathes heavily. There’s violence in those blue eyes that were often so deceptively kind.
The hate in his expression doubles when he spots me.
Cara wraps a protective arm around my shoulder and tries to nudge me back inside, but Jack’s hard eyes seem to freeze me in place. His mouth moves, and words tumble out, but I don’tcatch them as the ringing in my ears muffles them. I look away, hoping to shut myself off from the man who has made my life miserable for months now. But when I turn around and see the other terrified women, I realize my life isn’t the only one he’s turned into a nightmare.
All these women and their children came to Haven House to find peace, and my presence…it disturbs that peace.
A tear falls down my cheek when I realize what I need to do. After weeks of getting to know these women and their kids at the shelter, forming a close bond with the staff, finding a friend in Cara and maybe something more than a friend in Ransom…
I have to leave.
Chapter Two
Ransom
It doesn’t make sense.
I’m a man of logic, code, and the predictable. I deal in ones and zeros, algorithms, and data streams. I’ve always scoffed at the idea of fate, soulmates and something as intangible as love. It’s all a series of chemical reactions, a biological imperative, a convenient story we tell ourselves to disguise the desperate human urge to fuck.
But then I saw her.
Lying on a bed and looking like a broken doll, bruised and teary-eyed. It was like the world shifted under my feet. Everyone in the room faded, and she was the only thing I could see. Her beautiful jet-black hair was a tangled mess, and the bruises on her face did little to mar her beauty. She was a stranger, but I remember my gut clenching with protective instincts for someone I’d only just met. A surge of something primal, a desperate need to protect her from whoever had hurt her.
But underneath all that, I was experiencing something else for the very first time.
I was falling in love.
There was no code, no algorithm or logic that could stop what had taken root in me the moment I laid eyes on her, nor prevent it from growing. Before I knew it, I was attached to her side like glue. I started to get to know her, and I learned to readand anticipate her needs, which is why I saw it on her face the instant it overwhelmed her.
Guilt and shame.
The impulse to run away and hide in a place her ex will never find her. I saw it in the way her teary eyes ran over the other women who were frightened by the man’s presence. The pain of realizing that she would have to leave if she wanted to protect the peace of those around her.
While everyone else was watching the crazy ex, reacting to the threats spilling out of his mouth, my eyes were locked on Abby.
They always seem to be locked on her.
Watching and wanting her.
