Page 17 of Relentless Surrender

“Well you missed out on overcooked filet and stale champagne,” teased Sage in a tight voice, trying to lighten the mood.

Now was not the time to tell her about Conner.

“We had such a nice night. He kept apologizing for our fight and saying how he didn’t mean to hurt me and how he would cut off his arm before he would ever hit me again and how much I meant to him and how he couldn’t live if I truly left him and…and…,”

The rest was broken off in a sob. Sage hurried into the room. Grasping through the darkness, she found her friend curled up in a corner of the bedroom, clutching a pillow. Sage kneeled before her.

“Please let me turn on a light, Melly.”

“No. Then you’ll see,” she cried.

“I already know, sweetie. I promise it’s going to be okay,” soothed Sage.

“Okay,” came the weak response.

Sage reached to flick on the small lamp by her bedside then turned to observe her friend. To be brutally honest, it was not as bad as she had feared. Melissa had a swollen and split lip and a nasty bruise around her wrist but otherwise seemed unharmed. The injuries were bad. Any injury at the hand of an angry man was bad but it could have been much, much worse. Emergency room worse.

Choking back her vicious response, knowing that was not what her friend needed from her now, Sage just stroked Melissa’s hair.

“Do you think I’m stupid for trying to take him back?”

“No. I think you are a sweet person with a big heart. You want to believe he is a good man who is just suffering from his time in Iraq and while that is true for many soldiers…sweetie…it’s not true for all of them,” coaxed Sage gently.

At Melissa’s nod she continued, “Maybe it’s time to just start thinking of him like a regular guy who’s a jerk who hits women?”

“He didn’t actually hit me this time,” admitted Melissa. “Well not really.”

“What do you mean?”

“Last week he really did get drunk and hit me. It was the first time and he was really sorry. Truly he feels just terrible about it. I don’t even know if you could claim he hits women when that really was the first time.”

Sage grit her teeth. Even now her friend was making excuses for the asshole. Schooling her voice to not show her irritation she said, “Sweetie, what do you mean he didn’t hit you this time. You have a split lip.”

“After having a really romantic evening together, I woke up this morning to find him going through my things. When I asked him what he was doing he started to rant and rave at me, demanding to know where the teddy bear was.”

“What the fuck? A god damn teddy bear?”

“I know right? I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He got angrier and grabbed me by the wrist and just kept shouting at me about some teddy bear. I tried to pull away at the same time he let go. My hand knocked into my lip. So, you see I actually gave myself the fat lip,” explained Melissa.

“We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one,” chided Sage. “You don’t think he means that small bear that was in the bedroom?”

Melissa shook her head. “That little thing? It doesn’t even have any sentimental value. It just appeared one day on the bureau among my things.”

Sage rose and crossed to her closet. On the floor was the small purple backpack she had with her that day, she was pretty sure the bear was still in it. Grabbing the bag, she returned to sit on the floor by Melissa. Rummaging through, she found the small tan bear. Flipping it over in her hands, she noticed a Velcro strip along its back seam. Casting a glance at her friend, Sage tore open the patch.

Inside the bear was a small dvr camera.

“It’s a fucking nanny cam!”

Melissa snatched the bear from her hands. “That bastard! Are you fucking kidding me?” she screeched.

Melissa stood up and started to pace. Sage listened as a steady stream of curses, some actually quite creative and colorful, spilled from her friend’s lips. She had a feeling Melissa was now over Ricardo.

“Do you have any idea what’s on this thing?” asked Melissa as she shook the bear in Sage’s direction.

Sage just shook her head no.

Melissa faltered. “Well, let’s just say Ricardo was into some pretty kinky shit.”

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