Page 29 of Every Time My Heart Breaks

The doorbell rang again, followed by a pounding fist. Both Lucy and I jumped.

Brow furrowing, Lucy snarled, “I don’t know, but he didn’tfollowyou here, otherwise he would have rung the bell a hell of a lot sooner. He’s tracked you somehow, on the very day you had a restraining order slapped on him. I don’t think he wants to deliver milk and cookies.”

“Oh God.” This was so wrong. I was starting to get really freaked out. “Maybe you shouldn’t go out there, either. We’ll just call for help and—”

A boom followed by a shout and breaking wood and plaster told us that Lucy’s front door had just been kicked in.

I screamed and clutched baby Ava hard against my chest.

“Stay!” Lucy shouted, pointing at me before she raced from the room.

“Stay?” I gasped, intent to storm after her and not about to let her deal with him alone, but then I realized—shit—I was supposed to be watching her baby.

I panicked for a moment, not sure what to do with Ava. I started to carry her to the bed so I could lay her down there on the mattress so she’d be safely out of the way, but then I had these visions of her rolling off the side and crashing to the floor and dying, so I couldn’t do that.

There was no crib or any kind of bassinet or swing back here that I felt right about leaving her in. So I kissed her peach fuzz head and paced with her, wondering what was happening out there. I could hear muted voices.

Dax didn’t sound happy. I heard him say my name and the wordbitch.

Alright, enough of this. I shuffled Ava to one arm, clucking my tongue at her and jostling her lightly when she started to fuss, and I struggled to fish my phone from the back pocket of my blue jean skirt with my free hand. When I kept holding her and had no success as I tried to dial my brother with the same hand I was holding the phone with, I growled.

Jeez, but who knew having kids would seriously limit your mobility so much?

“Chloe!” Dax shouted from the front room, making me jump and accidentally exit from the phone app altogether. Dammit. “Get your lousy, lying ass out here right now, you worthless whore!”

Lucy shouted something back at him, and Ava started to cry in earnest against my chest. Worried tears clouded my vision, preventing me from seeing shit. And I was shaking too hard to dial anything.

So I said, “Hey, Siri. Please call Trick on speakerphone.”

Trick lived the closest; he could get here the fastest. And thank God for digital assistance, the phone started ringing soon thereafter. Meanwhile, I was hearing a lot offuck yousand even amove, bitchfrom the front room.

“Not now, sis,” Trick finally answered, sounding like he was in a crowded place, like a restaurant. “It’s guys’ ni—”

“Trick!” I screeched, so relieved to hear his voice that I just started blurting everything in a rush. “I need you. Dax found me. He’s here.Hurry!”

“Holy shit,” he cried, losing the lazy, relaxed tone he’d had when he answered. “Where are you?”

“Lucy’s,” I said as I listened to Lucy screamGet out of my house.

God, why had I called mybrother? I should’ve just dialed 911. But I’d been in denial that this was actually a serious situation.

“I’m at Lucy’s,” I repeated, realizing how wrong I’d been. “And we need help.”

“Okay,” Trick was saying in my ear. “Just calm down. We’re—”

But the thumps and sounds of struggling from the front room as Dax yelled my name yet again had me jumping and dropping the phone.

Yeah, I couldn’t stay back here anymore.

Wrapping both arms around Ava, I raced toward Lucy, needing to help. And what I saw when I skidded out from the opening of the hallway and into the front room was something nightmares were made of. The front door hung open, tilted slightly as if it’d been partially ripped from its hinges.

But the horror of all horror was that Dax—non-violent, non-physical Dax—had Lucy pinned to the wall by herthroatwith her feet dangling a few inches above the floor. She had blood trickling down the side of her lip as if he’d already hit her, her hair was askew, and her face was turning blue.

I was still trying to come to a stop in the opening of the front room and make sense of what I was really seeing when she linked her hands together and shoved them up between their bodies, giving him a swift uppercut up the bottom of his chin.

He oofed in surprise and stumbled back, away from her, finally losing his grip on her throat so that she had a moment to sink back to the floor and gasp for air.

“Lucy!” I screamed, so scared for her that I forgot about everything else until Dax caught his balance and jerked his head up, looking straight at me with hatred and madness.

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