Page 66 of Imperfect Saint
In the six weeks since she’d seen him at the wedding, he’d become nearly unrecognizable.
His eyes were red and bloodshot, the dark circles beneath looked like bruises they were so pronounced. She’d never seen him anything but clean-shaven, yet a scraggly beard covered his jaw now and his hair was longer, disheveled and messy. His clothes, which he’d always taken such pride in, were messy and wrinkled as if he’d been wearing them for days, or had slept in them the night before.
He looked like hell, like a man that had lost everything, and she was smart enough to know that she’d never been able to talk him out of hurting her before and she had absolutely no chance of doing it now.
But maybe, if she was lucky, she could distract him while she got to her phone to call for help, or until Hunter got home, or… something.
“Joshua…” She tried again, keeping her voice as calm and steady as she could, “H-How did you get in here?”
He snarled at her like she was an idiot, “You think people like me need keys, Millie? I’m Joshua Bell. People know me. I have connections.”
She nodded even though she hated the way he said his own name, as if it were gold, “So you just, walked in. The doorman didn’t even buzz me to let me know you were here.”
“Jesus Millie, don’t be dense.” Joshua snapped, “He’s a doorman. Fifty bucks to look the other way makes his day. What? Did you think he was a security guard? He’s not. He opens doors for a living.”
Millie tried not to let the wince show. She’d always hated the way Joshua talked about people he deemed less than him. Doormen were definitely on that list and the scathing tone of his voice was brutal. Worse though was the fact that she could hear Hunter’s voice in the back of her head too. She remembered him telling her that she needed to know how to protect herself, that a doorman wasn’t a security system.
The gun. Her eyes jerked down to the gun still hanging from Joshua’s hand, at his side. He had a gun, but if she could get to the living room, so did she.
Hunter had helped her pick out a small handgun weeks ago. He’d been taking her to the shooting range every weekend. She wasn’t terrible at it, but she had a tendency to close her eyes when she pulled the trigger. Not that it mattered, she just needed to get her hands on it so that she and Joshua would be on even terms.
If she could match him, he would see that she wasn’t going to let him hurt her this time and get away with it. He would back down. Or at least she hoped he would back down. She didn’t think she had it in her to actually shoot him but…
Her thoughts stalled out and her momentary twinge of hope faded away. Her shiny new gun was locked up in its case. Sure it was in the living room but Millie hadn’t liked the idea of leaving it unlocked, whether it was for her protection or not. She’d tucked the gun safely in its case and then put it inside the trunk she used as a coffee table.
Getting to it before Joshua did something stupid like murder her was going to be next to impossible.
“Joshua…” She licked her lips nervously, trying to think of another plan, anything that might save her life, “If you paid him to let you up here, he’s going to remember you. If you do anything to hurt me, he’ll tell the police you were here. You know that, right?”
His lip curled into a snarl, “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid, Millie. You know how much I hate when you act like you’re smarter than me.”
“I wasn’t.” She stepped back, her hips colliding with the handle to the oven. She bit her lip as pain radiated down her leg but she didn’t dare move her eyes away from Joshua, or the gun at his side. “I wasn’t being smart, I was just warning you. You won’t get away with whatever you’re planning to do here.”
“Get away with it?” Joshua’s eyes gleamed, glossy and hard, “I don’t plan to get away with anything. Why would I want to? You took away everything in this world that was important to me. You and that asshole boyfriend of yours. So I’m going to take away everything that’s important to him.” His face twisted menacingly, “You.”
The ice that had chilled her veins at the mere sight of him turned hot and angry with his words. Not because he was blaming her for everything that had gone wrong in his life. And not because he intended to hurt her, yet again, possibly even kill her. What made her angry was that he intended to use her to hurt Hunter.
He was still trying to use her. Just like he’d tried to use her to take over the company. To take Colin’s rightful spot at the label. Joshua had only ever seen her as a tool to use for his own master plans and this was no different. This time he intended to use her not to help himself, but to hurt everyone that loved her and she was done letting Joshua use her.
Instinctively her hand reached for the boiling pot of water beside her on the stovetop. She wasn’t even sure when she’d decided to make the move. It just happened. One second, she was standing there and the next her hand had closed around the heatproof handle and before she could blink an eye she’d swung the contents towards Joshua with every ounce of strength and hatred in her body.
He screamed when the scalding liquid hit him but Millie didn’t stand around to see what sort of damage she’d inflicted. She ran. She took off like a lightning bolt for the living room, knowing her only chance was getting to her phone or that gun before Joshua recovered enough to shoot her in the back.
She knew she’d miscalculated immediately when she heard his roar of anger. She rounded the island in the kitchen and made it three more steps. She’d barely laid a foot on the rug at the edge of the living area when she felt the heavy weight of him behind her. He was on her in an instant, shoving her so hard that she tripped and fell forward.
Distantly Millie heard a scream, but it took her a moment to realize the sound was coming from her. She skidded across the floor, her shoulder taking the brunt of her weight. She thought she heard something crack but before she could process the pain her head slammed into the entertainment center, shattering the glass shelves and sending the television crashing to the floor beside her, barely missing her by a few inches.
Her world went fuzzy at the edges as her vision wavered. She felt something warm sliding along her temple and when she blinked she lost all sight in her left eye. Blood, vaguely she knew that she was bleeding but when she tried to raise a hand to wipe it away everything hurt and she whimpered.
“H…” She choked out a sob, “Help.”
“You stupid bitch.” Joshua’s words were hot against her ear a moment before she felt his big hands on her. She tried to pull away from him but it was no use. She was hurt and he was so much bigger and stronger, and fueled by rage. He rolled her onto her back with a heavy toss of her body that knocked the air out of her all over again and then he was right there in her face and she wished that she couldn’t see him at all. “You stupid, stupid, bitch. Look what you made me do.”
If she’d thought he looked unrecognizable before, she’d been wrong. Even with her sight limited to one eye, she could see his face now. It was hard to believe in that moment that she’d once thought this man the handsomest in the world and that she was the luckiest for catching his attention. Now she saw him for what he really was and he was so ugly that bile rose in her throat.
His eyes were brighter now. His cheeks pink. He was breathing hard but she didn’t think it was from any sort of exertion. He was enjoying this, getting off on scaring her, hurting her, and he would enjoy killing her too because it would mean that he had all the power again.
“Not…” She wheezed out a breath. She’d bit her cheek when she fell and she could taste the coppery liquid. She spit the blood at him, angry and defiant, refusing to be a helpless victim anymore, refusing to bow her head like he wanted her to, “Not. My. Fault.”
