“I know when you’re lying to me. Don’t you think I know who you are? I’ve been watching you for weeks.” He gestured towards the walls with his hands. “THIS is who you are.”
Desperately, she scrabbled at his hand gripping her hair. He pulled her face close to his own. “The sooner you understand you’re mine, the sooner we can begin the process of your redemption.” With his other hand, he tore the teddy from her shoulders, baring her from the waist up.
An animalistic sound of anguish ripped from her throat. One of the flimsy straps snapped as she disentangled her arms from them, and with it went all thought and reason. She began to struggle in earnest, giving up any pretense. Forming a claw with her hand, she thrashed out at him, scraping her nails down his cheek. A sick sense of satisfaction rose up in her at the sight of his blood spilling down his jawline.
“You little bitch!” He screamed, spittle flying from his mouth, spraying her in the face. It didn’t register. All she could think of was causing him pain and her own survival. Robert shoved her down on the floor and climbed on top of her, using his weight advantage to gain control.
Bucking her hips wildly, she screamed in frustration. Her heels drummed the floor as she tried to dislodge him from her, to no avail.
Chapter Fifty-One
Hearing Olivia’s cry shredded the last of Mason’s willpower. Realizing he couldn’t wait any longer, he threw his body weight into the front door. Stumbling, he barely managed to keep his balance, caught off guard because it hadn’t been locked.
The tableau before him flashed across his awareness. Roaring with anger at the sight of Robert sprawled on top of her, he grabbed the other man by the shoulders and threw him across the room.
Robert let loose his own guttural growl, like an animal fighting to claim his mate. Sobbing, Olivia turned over and began to crawl away.
Mason raised his gun towards Robert, aiming at his chest, but was startled when Robert didn’t even hesitate to rush him. As they grappled with each other, the gun was kicked from his hand, and spun away under one of the chairs.
Robert swung a fist at his face, but Mason managed to dodge at the last second. The sound of Robert’s shoulder popping filled the air as he was rammed up against the wall. For a moment, all Olivia could do was pull her knees up to her chest and huddle into the corner. Almost as an afterthought, she pulled the single remaining slip strap back up over her shoulder and watched the two men tear at each other.
Mason’s shoulder injury began to twinge in protest. Despite being trained in hand-to-hand combat, he was disturbed to find Robert a much bigger challenge than he’d anticipated. He’d recovered enough to do most day-to-day activities without much difficulty, but taking the last couple of months off the force had left him weaker than he’d thought.
Sensing his opponent’s vulnerability, Robert shifted tactics and began to concentrate on the raw and sensitive spots on his chest and shoulders, the same places he’d shot Mason a couple of months earlier. Mason grunted with the body blows, struggling to keep his balance. Seeing an opening, Robert charged him, toppling him to the floor.
Horrified at the turn of events, Olivia dove under the chair where she’d seen the gun fall. With her hands shaking, she aimed at the two men wrestling on the floor. Helplessly, she didn’t dare try to shoot, considering she had no experience with guns and they were so close together. The last thing she wanted to do was hit the wrong man.
With a sound of frustration, she let the gun drop to the floor and looked around for some other means of helping Mason. She couldn’t just sit there. In a flash of inspiration, Olivia skirted the two men and ran into the kitchen.
Grabbing the knife off the cutting board, she turned back toward the living room. She may not be familiar with guns, but she knew knives. Her fingers wrapped comfortingly around the familiar feel of the handle.
As the men came back into view, she was shocked to discover Robert had managed to get his hands wrapped around Mason’s throat. There was a sick sense of satisfaction creeping over his face as Mason’s face started to turn a ruddy shade of purple, his hands clawing at the other man’s grip.
Fury, raw and pure, filled her mind. She let loose with an Amazonian war cry as she raised the knife high above her head and drove the blade down with as much force as she could muster.
The point of the knife gave a sickening thud as it sliced through the meat of his back and lodged in the solid bone of his right shoulder blade. Some part of her registered that the sound would probably haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.
Arching his back, Robert bellowed in pain as he reached up and tried to remove the blade from his shoulder. Aghast, she tugged, trying to pull it back out of his body in order to stab him again. She was startled to find it was embedded too deeply into the bone. Robert whirled around and shoved her, and she lost her grip on the knife handle.
Letting go and taking his eyes off Mason had been a mistake. With his windpipe now clear, he took a deep breath in and slammed his fist into Robert’s face. With another blow, he gained his feet. Robert quickly stood and stepped back out of Mason’s reach.
The two men squared off, facing each other in a contest of wills, calculating each movement. Slowly, they began to circle one another, both of them breathing heavily. Robert lurched to one side because of the knife in his back. Mason coughed as his bruised windpipe protested.
Olivia looked up from where she’d fallen to the floor and once again spied the gun. Checking both men, she realized she was unnoticed by either of them. Seeing her opportunity, she furtively sidled towards the weapon. The solid weight of it felt like death in her hand, oddly reassuring to her.
Turning back towards the stand-off, she could see the exact moment the expression in Robert’s eyes changed. Before he could charge towards Mason, she squeezed the trigger. A blast of firepower exploded the air of the small room. The heavy piece jumped in her hand as if celebrating the violence it had wrought.
Robert stumbled back. His mouth was frozen in a rictus of surprise. He stared down at his chest and the rapidly growing pool of red. Fury and pain intertwined in his gaze as he raised his eyes to connect with hers.
Olivia shook uncontrollably, frozen and staring at the finality of what she’d done. Everything else in her mind blanked as she watched him fall, first to his knees, then to his side on the floor. All the while, he never broke eye contact with her horror-struck gaze. Jolting at the soft touch of Mason’s hand on her forearm, she finally pulled her gaze from Robert’s prone body and met the warm, summer blue of his eyes.
“Shhh, shhh, let me get this for you.” Startled to find she still clutched the gun in both of her hands, Olivia suddenly released her fingers in revulsion, letting Mason take over the weight of it.
She’d just shot a man.
Her eyes pivoted towards the view of Robert’s back, where he now lay — face down — on the floor. She noticed his back was also soaked in blood from where she’d stabbed him. The knife’s handle still stubbornly protruded from his shoulder blade.
She’d just killed a man.
The words dropped into her consciousness like pebbles into the dark depths of a lake. The ripples of them broke the surface of her mind, but the full implication of their presence sunk to places unseen. Some small part of her spirit cracked, causing the structure of her psyche to fissure. Mason watched as her face crumpled before him.
“Oh, Livvy.” Instantly, she found herself wrapped in the comforting embrace of his arms.
After all the abuse and pain and fear Olivia had suffered in the last day, his kindness shattered what was left of her control. The raw, damaged sound she uttered came from her very soul, and caused Mason’s heart to bleed. He held her as her strength finally crumbled and she sobbed into his chest.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Olivia wiped her eyes after the initial emotional squall passed, and realized she was sitting on Mason’s lap. She leaned into his body and allowed herself another moment to enjoy the
comforting rhythm of his hand gently stroking her back.
With a hiccup, she fixed her watery gaze on his. Slowly, with a tenderness that almost made her lose control again, he wiped a tear from her cheek and kissed her nose. A troubled look crossed his face as he glanced down and noticed she was clad in nothing but a silky, emerald green teddy.
He could see the violence that had been wrought catalogued across her face but it was another fear that clutched his heart in a vise grip. “Are you injured? Did he…hurt you?”
She looked down. Pausing, she tried to assess the extent of her body’s damage. “I was passed out when he dressed me in this.” She gestured at the flimsy garment with a look of disgust. “But, no, I don’t think he hurt me in that way.”
She raised a hand to her temple, her eyes squinting in pain. “My head is pounding, though.”
Carefully, hoping not to cause her any further pain, he reached up and discovered the large lump on the back of her head, wincing at the size and definition of it. “You probably have a concussion. I really need to call Brad and let him know what’s happened. He shouldn’t be too far away at this point. Then we need to get you checked out by a doctor.”
It hurt too much for Olivia to nod her acquiescence, so she leaned her head on his shoulder, instead. She couldn’t seem to drum up enough energy to be concerned with the details just yet.
After another moment, she raised her head. Curious, she asked, “How did you find me, anyway? It feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
Mason explained how he discovered that Robert’s grandfather used to have a cabin in Maine when he’d checked in at his department earlier that day, but refrained from going into particulars. Instead, he helped her stand up.
Images and more images of her stared down from the walls as Olivia cast a final glance at Robert’s dead body lying on the floor. She looked down at her caked and bloody hands and shuddered.
Noticing her look of distress, Mason gave her a hug and led her closer to the front door. “Don’t move, wait here.” Sounds of running water came from the kitchen and a moment later Mason was back with a damp paper towel.
He took first one, then the other hand in his and wiped the gore from them, carefully taking the time to clean between each of her fingers. Olivia stood there numbly and let his tender act wash over her, feeling his care seep into her, beginning to ease the terror and pain of the past few hours.
With that small chore finished, he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead before heading back into the kitchen and throwing the paper on the counter. Instead of returning directly to her, he turned and walked down the hallway towards the back bedroom.
Another spear of red-hot anger seized him when he saw the restraints on the bed. Clenching his fists, he wished Robert could be killed all over again. This time, slowly.
From the front room, Olivia called out. “Mason?”
“Just a moment.” He struggled to reign in his impotent temper, knowing its target was beyond his reach for good. “I’m trying to find pants for you to wear on the ride home.” After a short hunt around the room, he found her jeans tossed on the floor in the closet, but noticed her top had been cut off of her. He crumpled the shirt in his hands and inhaled.
Too close. It had been too damn close this time.
Resolutely, he grabbed her pants and shoes and turned to head out of the door. At the last minute, he snatched the blanket from the bed, as well.
Back at the front of the cabin, he noticed Olivia hadn’t moved a muscle from where he’d left her. She had her arms wrapped around her waist and didn’t even seem to be aware of her own shivering.
He helped her get dressed in the meager layers he had found and draped the blanket over her hunched shoulders. Having done what he could, he opened the front door. Thinking better of making her walk out to his truck, he turned to scoop her up in his arms and carried her out of the cabin.
He could feel her eyes on him as he made his way around the hood of the truck. After climbing into the cab with her, he turned to meet her eyes.
“It’s really over now, right?”
Mason gently brushed her cheek where the shadow of violence was already starting to darken. “It’s really over. You won’t have to worry about Robert ever again. You have your life back, Olivia.”
She held Mason’s gaze for a moment longer, almost as if she didn’t dare believe it to be true, then nodded, and leaned her head back on the seat.
She had her life back. Finally.
Mason cranked up the heat and made sure the vents were directed at her. “Are you going to be okay sitting here for a moment? I need to call Brad and let him know what’s happened. I would have thought he’d be here by now. Maybe he missed the turn-off. It was pretty hard to spot.”
She would have nodded, but her head was too sore. Instead, without opening her eyes, she just waved him away. He got out of the truck and pulled his phone out.
Olivia stared out the window, grateful for the way it cooled her forehead. As he talked outside, she let the words he’d said earlier sink into her being. Sure, she had her life back, but so much of it had changed in the last two months – in the past year, even. Her sisters were still moved out of the house. Her café was still burned to the ground. Olivia wasn’t sure what even a normal version of her life looked like now.
She wondered how Mason’s psych evaluation had gone and what his plans were. They hadn’t really discussed where the relationship was heading, but it had always been understood he was going back to Boston after the holidays. Now that he was mostly recovered and the stalker was officially out of the picture, there wasn’t anything preventing him from moving on.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes again. It was too much to think about with her head pounding. She just needed some peace and quiet from her thoughts for a while.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Mason glanced at Olivia out of the corner of his eye as he paced outside the truck. Recounting everything to Brad, and seeing the damage from the events written across her face, had him clenching his teeth all over again.
“I missed the turn-off. I’m about fifteen minutes away. The local guys just wrapped up that bad accident on the other side of the county. They’ll probably get there after me.” Brad paused. “Is she okay?”
Mason choked past the rage, but didn’t know how to answer the question. “Well, if you’re asking if she’s alive, yes. However, I don’t think we can really know how she’s doing. She got banged up pretty badly and I’m positive she has a concussion. She needs to get looked at immediately.”
He could hear the other man’s sigh over the connection. “Okay, I’m not sure when the paramedics are going to make it. Why don’t you take off and get her to a hospital? The closest one is in Ellsworth about thirty minutes from here. I’ll be there soon and will take care of it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks. We left everything exactly as it happened. You’ll find him dead in the living room. The gun is on the floor beside him.”
“And you said Olivia did it? It wasn’t you, Mason?”
“Honestly, she probably saved my life. The guy was not going to be taken in.”
“Okay, we’ll have to get statements and file all the reports. It’s going to be a clusterfuck, given it’s not even my jurisdiction.” Mason knew there were going to be a lot of questions. Especially once people realized his history with the dead man. He couldn’t bring himself to care. The world was a better place without Robert Mendez in it.
After hanging up with Brad, he took the road out incredibly slowly, wincing every time the truck bounced in the ruts. The pace picked up slightly once they reached pavement, but not by much. By then, the storm had started in earnest and it was obvious that the plows hadn’t made the lonely stretch of road a priority. The delay was probably another factor why nobody else had managed to show up at the scene before everything went down.
Thankful that his truck had four
-wheel drive, he kept a slow and steady pace through the drifts. They passed the lights of a couple of cruisers heading in the opposite direction. He had a pretty good idea where they were headed.
Mason hazarded a glance at Olivia and wondered what she was thinking about that caused her to sigh like that. Her eyes were still closed, making him hesitant to ask her. Reaching over, he turned the radio on, hoping it would help take her mind off the previous events.
Just as he recognized the first notes of Silent Night, she jerked, leaned forward, and snapped the radio off. Startled, he gave her a look, but she’d already resumed her position, leaning her forehead against the window. Shrugging, he resigned himself to a silent ride home.
Snow swirled and glowed in the headlights before flitting off into the darkness, similar to the thoughts in his mind. No amount of thinking could negate the fact that Robert had fixated on her because of him.
Silently gripping the steering wheel, Mason berated himself. He should have taken that bastard back in Boston to begin with. The fact that Robert had managed to get ahold of Olivia…he shuddered. What would he have done if he had succeeded in hurting her more than he had? What if he had violated her while she was passed out? Or worse, killed her before she could be found?
A deep sense of regret sat heavy on his heart. This was exactly why he’d never allowed himself to get too close to anyone or harbor any hopes of having a serious relationship. He couldn’t ask someone like Olivia to deal with this kind of risk. Being with him, who knew what sickos he would attract? His job was dangerous. Mason had accepted that going in. Hell, even he had reconsidered his choice when he had paid a higher price than imagined with the loss of his partner.
But Olivia? She never signed up for this. In the two months he’d been with her, she’d had to fight against an attacker, had her café burned down, had her freedom and movement limited by having constant escorts, been abducted, nearly raped, came close to being murdered, and had to kill a person. She didn’t deserve this.
Secret Hunger (The Harper Sisters) Page 33
