HARDER

by Olivia Hawthorne

  As if on cue there was a knock at the door.

  “Who’s that? Lucy?”

  “No she’s at a friend’s place tonight.”

  “Then who is it?”

  “Just a friend.”

  “Brooke, are you here?” Caleb called through my door.

  “A friend? Somebody you’re fucking?” Rolland raged in my ear. I could feel his anger radiating off him like waves of heat.

  “He’s a friend,” I said stubbornly. I didn’t want to share my love for Caleb with Rolland; I didn’t want him to know how much I’d changed. I had some crazy idea that maybe I could get away if I kept him talking.

  “Get rid of him or I’ll stab you and your friend,” Rolland hissed in my ear.

  Rolland was a huge man, Caleb’s equal pound for pound. He was also full of rage and had fought everyone who’d looked at him funny over the years. Rolland’s years working in construction had left him mean and hard and ready to fight.

  I worried for Caleb’s safety if he were caught unawares. I didn’t want Caleb to be distracted by his feeling for me, leaving him open to getting stabbed. I wanted him to be safe. I could figure out a way to escape as long as I knew Caleb was okay.

  “I will, just hold on,” I said. Rolland stood right behind me and I opened the door a crack with the chain lock in place.

  “Are you gonna to let me in?” Caleb asked with his easy grin.

  “I can’t,” I said.

  “What’s going on? Are you sick? What do you need?”

  “Nothing, I can’t do this Caleb.”

  “Brooke, open the door the whole way,” Caleb said, his eyes full of questions.

  Rolland jabbed me with the point of the knife and I winced. I knew he wanted me to hurry this along.

  “I think we’re moving too fast,” I said and watched Caleb’s confusion change to hurt. “I can’t go with you tonight and I can’t look for a house tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

  I slammed the door shut and felt my heart clench with sorrow as I heard Caleb’s footsteps leaving my apartment.

  “Now where were we, dear wife? Oh yeah, you lied to me about your little fuck buddy. I need to reclaim what’s mine,” Rolland smirked, looked down at me and drew the point of his knife across my chest. He caught my exposed bra strap with it and jerked upwards, cutting through the material.

  My bra snapped loose and my breast broke free.

  He palmed it cruelly, leaned in for a kiss, pressed his hardness against me and said, “That’s right, this belongs to me and don’t you ever fucking forget it.”

  I gagged as his mouth covered mine and I silently screamed at Caleb to come back.

  I had been wrong, Rolland had so much power over me that there was no escaping him.

  I struggled limply as he dragged me towards my bedroom and I started to sob quietly as he kicked the door shut.

  Chapter 26

  “You know what your problem is?” Rolland sneered as he shoved me towards the bedroom.

  I didn’t respond, my body had shut down and I didn’t think I could speak even if I’d wanted to. It didn’t matter; Rolland had me along by my hair and arm, my feet stumbling across the hardwood floors of my apartment.

  I didn’t want to speak anyhow. I knew Rolland would let me know what he thought my problem was whether I replied or not. Once he got going on a rant there was no stopping him.

  “Your problem is that you’re stupid. So fucking stupid,” Rolland continued and slammed me onto the bed. I groaned at the impact, my head hit the nightstand and I felt pain radiate through the area. “You thought you could just disappear, didn’t you? You thought you could slip away and steal my baby girl.”

  “Can we talk about this?” I gasped and wiggled away from him to the other side of the bed.

  “I’m through talking,” he glowered. “I’ve been talking to you for years and look where it got us. You’re too fucking stupid to talk to.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I thought you’d be happier without us.”

  “It’s not about my happiness. I am happy no matter what because I make my own happiness. It doesn’t matter if I’m balls deep in some slut I picked up at the bar or if I’m slamming my fist into your stupid gaping maw, I’m fucking happy. This is about you thinking you outsmarted me. But you know where you fucked up?”

  “Where?” I rasped, trying to keep him talking. “How did you find us?”

  “The school. You had to register her and I hired a guy to find out. Easy peasy, lemon breezy, you dumb fucking cunt.” He still held the hunting knife in one hand and waved it around as he ranted.

  My mind raced and I realized that’s exactly where I’d messed up. The school had needed identification for her registration but I hadn’t realized the information might be available beyond the little elementary school’s records.

  “All he had to do was pay a fee and access state records. Boom, Lucy’s name cropped up. You didn’t even change her last name, how fucking stupid can you be?”

  “It had to match her birth certificate,” I said, hot tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “They wouldn’t let me use mine.”

  “Of course not, even the school recognizes what a bitch cunt you are. Even the school knows I’m the authority, that Lucy belongs to me.”

  “She’s not here though,” I said desperately trying to stall him. I thought maybe he’d want to go pick her up and that would give us some time out of the apartment for me to signal for help or get away. This wasn’t playing out how I’d imagined at all.

  “I know that,” he said, “I was watching you. I’ve been planning this.”

  “How long have you been watching?”

  “Long enough to know you’ve got your pretty boy visiting every night. Long enough to know you’re a little lying whore who needs to be taught a thing or two about a thing or two.”

  I’d never realized how rough Rolland’s speech was, how uneducated and low class he sounded. When I’d been young and impressionable I’d been attracted to the fact that he didn’t seem to care about what anyone thought. Now that I was older I realized this was just another symptom of how deeply broken and horrible he was.

  “Just let me go and I’ll go get Lucy,” I pleaded.

  “Oh sweetheart,” he grinned, an evil oily grin that made my skin crawl. “We’re just getting started.”

  He undid the belt on his jeans and I scrambled backwards, away from him and off the bed. I made a break for the door, trying to circle around him while he was zipping down his jeans, but he stepped wide and caught a fistful of my hair.

  “Awe, come on, don’t be like that. Used to be you couldn’t get enough of my dick,” he said and slit my arm with the tip of the knife as he slammed me back onto the bed. “Pretty boy got you so filled up with pretty boy seed you forgot about me? That hurts, Brooke, I ain’t gonna lie.”

  “Leave me alone,” I begged and he laughed, a dry and bitter noise that fell from his lips like broken glass on my ears. My arm ached and began to bleed.

  He dropped the knife on the nightstand, kneeled on the bed beside me and grabbed me as I tried to wiggle away from him. He grabbed my arms behind my back and pulled them tight, making me cry out in pain.

  “Cry all you want, your pretty boy is on his way home with a broken heart,” Rolland snarled. “He’s long gone and it’s just you and me now, babe.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for his attack. I silently prayed that I would survive this one and that I would see Lucy and Caleb again.

  The attack never came.

  I felt Rolland fly backwards, he released my arms and I fell forward.

  I rolled around and sat up to see Caleb holding Rolland by the collar in one hand and pummeling his head with the other.

  “Fuck that,” Caleb growled, “you ever fucking touch my woman again and you’re dead. You got that? Dead!”

  “She’s mine,” Rolland bellowed and pulled away from Caleb. They were definitely evenly matched pound for
pound, but Caleb had more muscle. Rolland was a good ten years older and his beer drinking was catching up to him as evidenced by the belly he had on him.

  They circled each other, breathing hard and ready to destroy their opponent.

  “She was never yours,” Caleb said carefully. “She never wanted to marry you, you know that. But did you know she’s already agreed to take my name? To be my wife?”

  “No!” Rolland roared, “She would not!”

  I widened my eyes and caught Caleb’s glance. I of course hadn’t had a marriage proposal or agreed to anything, but I decided to play along.

  “I have,” I said desperately. “I’m going to marry him, Rolland. I never wanted to be your bride but I will marry him because I love him. I never loved you.”

  “You did love me,” Rolland rasped and darted forward. He grasped Caleb’s arms and attempted to pin him down. Caleb twisted hard and pushed Rolland off him.

  “I never did,” I yelled. “I never did, I was scared of you but that was never love!”

  “Fear kept her with you,” Caleb said softly and stared Rolland down. “It was fear, not love. But she loves me, and that will set her free.”

  Rolland looked down, crouched as if defeated. Caleb smiled at me and I relaxed assuming we’d beaten him with our words.

  I was about to reach for his hand and celebrate our victory over Rolland when I saw Rolland’s move forward and lunge for something near my bed.

  “He’s got a knife!” I screamed in complete horror as I remembered the hunting knife he had thrown on the nightstand.

  As if in slow motion Rolland stood and turned towards us, his eyes blazing with hatred and locked directly on me. My arm still dripped with the blood from his first attack and my heart stuttered in nervous rhythm.

  He was going to kill me, he was going to stab me and make sure I never had a chance for a future with Caleb.

  He was going to destroy my life.

  “Bitch!” he screamed and spittle flew from his twisted lips. He leapt for me with the knife raised up, but Caleb threw himself in front of me, blocking Rolland’s attack.

  I cried out Caleb’s name when I heard him grunt with pain. Rolland’s knife connected, but it was a glancing blow off his collarbone, leaving a streak of blood along his tee shirt.

  “Caleb!” I screamed again and tried to rush to his side.

  “Stay back,” he commanded and grabbed Rolland’s wrist. He twisted it until I heard a snap and the knife dropped from Rolland’s hand and clattered to the floor.

  Rolland sunk down and screamed in agony, his wrist limp and his hand hanging at an odd angle.

  “Oh my god, Caleb,” I exhaled in a rush of words and pent up energy. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Caleb replied and turned towards me. “We should call nine one one though, he’ll need medical attention.”

  “And police attention,” I said pulling out my phone. I punched in the numbers and told the operator where we were. My hands were shaking too hard to hang onto the phone, so I hung it up against her wishes. I couldn’t stay on the line when I needed to feel Caleb’s arms around me.

  He wrapped me in them, his muscled arms. He held me there safe while Rolland groaned on the floor behind us.

  I heard the rustle of Rolland’s movement before I could comprehend what was happening. In an instant Rolland had his hunting knife in his hand and slashed towards Caleb’s legs.

  I felt Caleb tense up and exclaim in pain. I stepped back as he released me and I saw the knife glancing off his upper thigh.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I screamed at Rolland and kicked his broken wrist. He screamed in pain and I kicked him again and again. He tried to roll away from me but I felt like a warrior woman, I stomped his bad wrist one last time and he screamed in agony.

  I helped Caleb to the bed and wrapped my pillowcase around his leg to stop the flow of blood. He winced as I made contact with the knife, but I decided to leave it in until the paramedics arrived.

  Caleb smiled at me as we waited and watched Rolland roll around on the floor holding his wrist.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked, applying pressure to his leg wound to stop the bleeding.

  “You’re pretty fierce when you’re pissed off,” he said.

  “I wasn’t before you got here,” I replied and lowered my eyes. “I went limp again, I was pathetic. If you hadn’t shown up…”

  “You’re not pathetic,” he said and tilted my face to look at him. “You’re courageous. It was so brave of you to leave him in the first place, but what you did just now was pure bravery. You’re an amazing woman, Brooke.”

  We heard the paramedics at the door and I got up to let them in before Caleb saw how hard I was blushing from his compliment. I certainly had never felt brave, but he had a way with the power of his words. I did feel courageous when he said it and it was something I wasn’t used to.

  It didn’t take long and soon both Caleb and Rolland were being tended to, but Rolland had extra police presence. Two officers stood flanking him as the paramedics took care of his broken wrist.

  I didn’t even stay to find out what happened to Rolland, I left with Caleb, glaring at Rolland on the way out. I followed in the van while he rode in the ambulance all the way to the only hospital in town.

  I had a little time to process what had happened along the way. Rolland had attacked me, Caleb had saved my life, I’d finally stood up for myself and both men had been injured.

  I didn’t care what happened to Rolland, but I prayed the entire way that Caleb would be okay, that his leg would heal.

  I also fought off the pangs of guilt that I’d brought this kind of thing into his life. He wouldn’t have been injured if it weren’t for me.

  I just hoped he didn’t figure that out on his own.

  Chapter 27

  “You should be fine, Mister Harder,” the doctor told Caleb in the emergency room. I held his hand tightly and he exhaled in relief.

  “Nothing important was hit?” I asked. I’d heard about people having tendons and arteries and other stuff cut during knife attacks and my mind couldn’t help but settle on the worst case scenario.

  “Nothing at all,” the doctor said. “I’ll prescribe some mild pain killers and you can be on your way soon enough.”

  “Oh thank god,” I said and dropped to the chair next to Caleb’s bed. I laid my head on his arm on the bed and said, “I’m so sorry.”

  “For what?” he asked and stroked my hair with his other arm.

  “For this. I’m so sorry that my ex attacked you,” I sniffled.

  “Don’t be silly Brooke, I would do anything to protect you, especially from that animal.”

  “How did you know to come back?”

  “I knew the moment you opened the door, my love,” he said softly and continued to stroke my hair. “As you know I had my own set of keys, but I didn’t have them on me. I had to go dig through my truck to find them, which is what took me so long. I’m the one who should apologize, I can’t imagine what went through your head those moments you were alone with him.”

  “I thought I was a goner,” I admitted sadly. “I thought I was saving you by sending you away and I had a plan to escape but when it came down to it I was too scared.”

  “Of course you were, “ he said softly and continued to touch me and calm me with his presence. “That man tortured you for years; I can see it in your eyes when you talk about him. I could see it in your eyes when you opened the door. I will never blame you for this, Brooke, so please don’t ever apologize again.”

  “What did I do to deserve somebody like you?” I asked with tears in my eyes again. This time they weren’t tears of rage or fear, but tears of overwhelming love for Caleb.

  “By being you,” he said and pulled me closer. “Now get on up here, there’s room for both of us if you stay on this side.”

  I climbed into the hospital bed with him, carefully avoiding his injured leg, and settled in with his a
rms around me and his breath on the back of my neck.

  I was home, no matter where we were, his arms were now my home. I felt safe again and the fear of Rolland’s confinement melted away like snowflakes in the sun.

  I was dozing in Caleb’s arms when the police came in to ask about the attack.

  I explained everything and answered all their questions. Caleb told his part and squeezed me tight as he explained how he’d found me under Rolland on the bed, screaming and struggling for my life.

  “Did he sexually assault you?” the police officer asked me at last. I felt Caleb tense up as he waited for my response. I knew if I had been raped, Caleb would only blame himself.

  “No,” I replied and felt Caleb loosen up. “Caleb got there in time to save me.”

  “Thank god for that,” Caleb said and tightened his arm around me.

  “You are very lucky, your ex is wanted in three different states for aggravated assault. Did you know he had a wife in Texas who has a restraining order against him?”

  “A wife?” I asked and sat up, startled.

  “He was married years ago but still harasses her from time to time,” the officer said, reading from a file. “He won’t let her divorce him.”

  “Will I ever be free from him?” I asked, not expecting an answer.

  “Well, given the fact that this time he has a weapons and kidnapping charge against him…and if Caleb here wants to press charges for assault…and add in the fact that Caleb can afford the best lawyers around…I’d say your ex is going away for a long, long time,” he replied with a smile.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes to put him away,” Caleb said with determination in his voice. “I’ll pay whatever it costs, I just want him to leave us alone and forget he ever knew Brooke and Lucy.”

  “I’ll let you folks figure that out,” the officer said and folded the file shut. “I’ll let you get some rest though, I figure you need it after a night like that.”

  “Thanks,” I said and leaned back into Caleb’s arms as he left us alone. “So Rolland was already married, then why was he so crazy about marrying me?”