Crossed Off by C.C. Warrens

Author:C.C. Warrens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.C. Warrens
Published: 2018-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

21

Marx tapped a knuckle lightly against the outside of the bathroom door. “Sweetheart, please open the door.”

I buried my face in my knees beside the bathtub and tried to ignore his voice. I just wanted to be left alone.

“Holly.”

“Please go away.”

I heard his fingers tapping on the outside of the door frame. “I’m not goin’ anywhere. I’ll wait out here all day and night if that’s what it takes for you to open this door, even if I have to sleep in the hallway.”

He had sat out there once before, waiting for me to come out, and I didn’t doubt he would sit out there all night just to make a point.

I glared at the door in frustration. “Fine. You can come in. But just you, and just for a minute.”

He whispered something too soft for me to hear, then said more loudly, “Okay. Jordan’s gonna stay out here and handle CSU when they come.”

I crossed the bathroom to unlock the door, then retreated to my spot against the wall.

The door cracked open, and light from the hallway pooled across the dark floor. Marx stepped in and shut the door behind him. He gestured to the space along the wall beside me. “May I?”

I scooted over to give him room. He sat down beside me and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. Silence hung between us, and I knew he was trying to work out how to comfort me, but there was nothing he could say.

“I’m never gonna be safe, am I?” I asked, and I could hear the resignation in my own voice.

“You’re safe with me.”

I longed for that to be true, but Collin had broken into Marx’s apartment. He had been in my room, and he had lingered long enough to hammer a message into my door. Sweet dreams. That was what he had said to me before leaving the ice rink.

“No. No place is safe from him.” Even my own body wasn’t safe. I drew my knees tight to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “He’s gonna hurt me again.” The thought sent numbness creeping through me as my mind tried to brace itself for the inevitable. “I can’t go through that again.”

Marx let out a long breath and leaned his head back against the wall. “There are some evils in this world I will never understand—the desire to hurt children and the desire to take from a woman what she’s not willin’ to give.” He was quiet for a beat. “I may not understand Collin’s desires, but I do understand him. He might break into my apartment while nobody’s home, but he’s too much of a coward to try it with a man here. And one of us is gonna be with you at all times. He’s not gonna get to you again.”

He would find a way. He always found a way. “I wish he’d died when I stabbed him.”

In my desperate attempt to escape him in Pennsylvania, I had stabbed Collin in the shoulder with a pair of scissors before pushing him down a flight of stairs.

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