Page 35 of Lacey's Fight

Here she was catching a glimpse of him walking past the library door, and she was all but falling to pieces.

She couldn’t do this.

She couldn’t.

No way.

If just seeing him made her freak like this, what would she do when they arrested him?

“Listen to me.” Ben’s voice was quiet but unyielding. “He is just a man. A pathetic, evil monster, but still just a man. He cannot hurt you anymore. He thinks he taught you to be strong, but he didn’t, he taught you to find your own inner strength. That strength is still there. Still inside you. A woman who doesn’t hesitate to jump into the ocean in the middle of a thunderstorm doesn’t let anything scare her off.”

“I’m terrified of the ocean.”

She felt a small chuckle rumble through his chest. “See. Exactly what I meant. Being brave isn’t not being afraid. It’s doing what you have to do even though you are afraid. You, Lacey Smith, are one of the bravest people I have ever met.”

How badly she wished that was true.

* * *

August 6th

1:59 P.M.

Ben was worried.

Again.

About Lacey.

Finding those girls yesterday, accepting she couldn’t save them on the spot, then being forced to prove their loyalty by watching the girl get beaten had pushed her right to the edge of what she could handle.

Seeing the man who had abused her for eighteen long years might just give her the final shove to send her tumbling right over that cliff.

He’d grown up in a good family. They might not have had a lot of money, and there had been things he had wanted that he’d had to go without, but his home had been filled with love. Love between his parents, love between him and his siblings, love between him and his sisters and their parents. He had never doubted once that he was loved and cherished.

His life had been full of all the other things kids his age did. School, homework, riding his bike to friends’ houses. He played football, baseball, and video games when he was home. Had a TV in his room and most of the toys he wanted, nice clothes to wear, and more than enough food to fill his belly.

There had been nothing he was lacking even if he hadn’t had everything.

Lacey’s life had been the opposite.

There had been no loving parents. She’d been raised by a sadistic psychopath in a remote part of Alaska. There had been no school although The Master had taught her and her sisters to read, write, and speak several languages as well as most of the basics they would have learned in school. But along with that he had also ruthlessly taught them to kill and to endure torture.

Her life had been one long trauma, and although she had molded herself into a strong, competent woman who knew how to defend herself and would use those same skills to defend an innocent, he wished she could catch a break.

Ben had meant what he said though. She was the definition of strength and bravery. While he had all but given up and allowed his trauma to consume him, she had forged a new life.

A better life.

One where she triumphed.

As he watched her pull herself together before his eyes, he made a decision.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he stood, grasping Lacey’s hand and pulling her up with him.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Our room.”

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