3. Two days
2090 Words
I groaned, hiding under the covers when I woke up by the loud banging on my front door.
“f*****g hell,” I mumbled when the banging didn’t stop.
With a sigh, I got up, grabbed my fluffy robe and headed downstairs while the banging continued.
“What is wrong with you!” I yelled, opening the door, staring at William.
“Me? Do you know what time it is? I thought you were dead!”
I moved aside, letting him in with my eyebrows pinched together. “What time is it? What the hell are you talking about?” I closed the door and followed him to the living room but stopped when I saw the time. “Oh.”
It was ten a.m., and we were supposed to meet at eight.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how I overslept.”
“You are always early, picking me up even though we agree that I pick you up, and now this. You scared the s**t out of me, Jo.” He wouldn’t move an inch while looking grumpy as hell and I wondered if there was something bothering him.
“I’m going to get dressed,” I whispered. My brows knitted together when it seemed he was sniffing the air.
His eyes drifted around, searching for something. “Whose boots are these? Is there a man here? What did you…” Before he finished his rant, he ran upstairs, leaving me confused and in shock.
Whose boots were that?
I couldn’t move, standing frozen in place while I tried to remember if anything had happened after I left last night. However, other than the weird voices I heard, there was nothing. I actually slept great.
I shook my head, snapping out of it and hurried after William.
“I don’t know whose those are!” I yelled, finding William in my room.
The turmoil in his eyes couldn’t be missed, and I hated that he doubted me.
I went to the closet, grabbed some clothes, and signaled for William to turn. He huffed and did, tapping his foot impatiently while I changed.
“I’m going to brush my teeth and then we can go, okay?” I asked, waiting for William to answer.
He grunted in disapproval and it made my heart clench that he didn’t believe me.
“I don’t know whose boots those are. I’m trying really hard not to freak out by it. I want to leave now.”
He narrowed his gaze as if he was searching for something before he nodded.
Did I ever find something in my house before while I didn’t know how it got there? Yes. However, that was when I was lost, in the worst years of my life, and most of the time it was a man, not stuff.
I finished my business in the bathroom and was ready to go. Grabbing my keys, I noticed the boots were gone. What the f**k.
William was eying me from a distance and my anxiety rose. Was there someone in my house?
“Did you move them?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“Cut the crap, Jo,” William snapped almost shoving past me, and headed outside to his car.
I glanced around, but I didn’t see them anywhere. I must have been losing my mind. Again. s**t.
The entire drive was… uncomfortable, but I couldn’t blame him for not believing me.
“I can’t train for too long. I have an appointment,” I said, remembering I had my check-up.
“We can also train after.”
“Thank you.” I smiled, knowing he remembered, and I didn’t want to disappoint him by saying I couldn’t train at all.
“You have cameras, right?” William asked after he parked the car.
“Yes, but they stopped working a couple of weeks ago.” I opened my door and paused. “Should I meet you there, or are you going to wait?”
“I’ll wait,” he said, giving me a quick wink easing my aching heart.
With one last smile, I made my way to the building, the one I started to hate over the years, the one that had my loving therapist waiting for me inside.
I know I made some mistakes when I was mourning the loss of my family, but why hold it against me? Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely fair. I was a wreck.
But, I didn’t believe her explanation of my attacks.
The ticking of the clock in her office always annoyed the s**t out of me, but that day, it didn’t. What changed?
“So, how are you feeling?” Millie, my therapist, asked. She never wanted me to use her last name, believing it would be better if I used her first name, feel more at ease with her. Especially seeing the problems we discussed.
I did think it helped, it took me a while to open up to her. Not daring to trust her.
“Fine, same as four weeks ago.” I leaned back, crossing my legs, knowing we would go through the same questions as always.
“Did you have any attacks?”
I shook my head, slowly fidgeting with my fingers. I never liked talking about them, but I knew I had to, or at least she always said it was good to talk about them.
“Can you walk me through it again, how they feel?”
I sighed in defeat, hating that I had to. “It starts with stomach pain, slowly expanding, making it harder to breathe. If it doesn’t stop, I collapse.” I paused, clearing my throat, shifting in my seat. “It feels as if someone is pulling me apart from the inside, and if I can’t handle it, I pass out or…” I gulped, struggling to find the words. “I don’t always do it, but it sometimes helps to shift the pain if I… well, you know.”
“Harm yourself?”
She was really going to make me say it.
“Yes, as you know.”
She hummed and wrote something down. “You’re still taking your meds?”
“Yes, every day.” I never missed them, and I intended to keep it that way.
We talked some more about work and what my plans were. I didn’t tell her what happened yesterday, that for the first time in a very long time, I had this urge to toss everything aside and run my tongue over this fine man and beg him to f**k me senseless.
I knew if I told her, she would want to see me more, and I wasn’t going back to that.
I almost jumped up when we were done, but as always, she gave me the same speech, hating where I worked and believing it didn’t help with my recovery. However, this was still my life, and I loved my job.
The cold breeze made me shiver and I ran to the car and hopped in. William never asked how these appointment went and I was grateful for that.
The engine came to live, and he drove off, but my eyes caught something in the mirror. The same car as I saw at home drove behind us and wondered if I was seeing things when it seemed the car was following us to the gym.
I brushed it off and focused on the present, knowing if I let my mind wander too far, it would be easy to get sucked into the weird stuff.
However, I needed to ask. “Is that car following us?”
William grunted, glancing in the mirror and took a right turn. And yes the car remained behind us, just leaving a few others in between.
At the last minute, William changed lanes again and the car did the same.
“Why would you be followed?” he asked, focusing back on the road. But I knew he saw it too.
“Maybe they are following you,” I joked but the way his jaw tensed made me wonder if I said something wrong.
He didn’t respond and my eyes were glued on the car behind us. Following us all the way to the gym.
“Just let it be, Joanne,” William grumbled after he parked. “Come on, lets change and train.”
I silently nodded and followed him inside.
“f**k,” I cried when William kicked my legs from under me. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” he mumbled, helping me up.
“If you’re going to play dirty, then so am I,” I warned.
He scratched his beard and shrugged.
We resumed our sparring session, and I waited for him to make his move, but I didn’t have to wait too long. I dodged his kick and landed my own. But before he could find his bearings again, I kicked his knee. He stumbled to the ground, and I gave him one last shove, ensuring he would fall.
“Okay, okay. I learned my lesson,” he groaned, rubbing his knee.
I smiled, tilting my head to the side, and extended my hand.
We trained for a couple of hours, only stopping to grab something to eat. Maybe it was because of my great sleep last night, but I had extra energy I needed to burn.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose when William drove me home and I noticed the same car as before.
“The car is back.”
William glanced through the mirror. “Maybe you should spend the night at my place.”
I laughed. “Nah, I don’t want to sleep on the couch.”
He sighed. “Lock the door and if anything is up, call me.”
“I promise,” I said.
It didn’t take William too long to get to my place. We said our goodbyes, and he headed back home. Thankfully, we both didn’t have to work tonight. I waved him off and was rumbling with my keys at the door when I heard a car door open and close.
“Who was that?”
A shiver moved down my spine, my skin heated, and this same urge as yesterday rose.
I turned, meeting Liam’s gaze.
“What are you doing here?” I wanted to yell and curse him for following me home, but my words came out needy and sweet.
He smiled, edging closer. “I am where I belong.”
I swallowed and moved against my door, hoping to create some distance between us, but he only came closer.
“You can’t deny it, Kitty, and I don’t want to sneak around.”
“It’s Joanne,” I snapped while his words confused me, but when I managed to pull my gaze from his, I peeked down.
“Were you in my house?” Holy s**t, the boots I saw this morning were his. How did he get in?
His fingers brushed over my cheek, making my eyes snap back up. I leaned into his touch without control. Why does this feel so good?
His other hand snaked around my waist, pulling me against him while heat crawled under my skin making my chest heave with every breath. But I didn’t want this.
“No, stop!” I struggled in his grasp, but I couldn’t break free.
“I can’t wait. We’re leaving now,” The smoothness I heard in his voice yesterday had vanished and only this tone of annoyance remained.
He rested his head in the crock of my neck and sniffed my skin, running his nose to my ear, making me shiver before moving back. My legs gave out, and all that held me up were his arms around me.
“This is going to hurt,” he whispered, kissing my neck.
I thrashed in his hold, trying to break free, but when I felt something sharp against my skin, I snapped.
I lifted my leg, kicking him straight in the balls before pushing him back, smashing my fist on his jaw again and again.
He growled, grabbing my wrists in the blink of an eye. His eyes changed to something I couldn’t explain.
“You will submit to me, mate,” he sneered.
Before I could do anything else, a bag was placed over my head, blocking my sight.
I screamed and fought, but it was all in vain.
- Writer
