Merkaba, a supernatural suspense series (Walk the Right Road, Book 3)

by Eckhart, Lorhainne

  But then, her father didn’t know the whole story. He had only seen the last time they fought, when she ended up in the emergency room with a busted lip, a broken nose, and a concussion.

  “What are you doing in my room? How did you get in, anyway?” She frowned as he crossed his arms, flashing her his straight white teeth. It was a grin that used to melt her insides, but that had been before she really knew him.

  “I talked to that cute maid out there. Told her you were my wife and I just flew in to surprise you. She was more than happy to open the door for a husband.”

  Alecia planned on having a talk with the manager, if she could manage to get Brian out of here. “What do you want, Brian?”

  He didn’t move away. In fact, as she took a step around him, he took a larger one, blocking her way. It was a slow, tense dance between two combatants, and neither would back down.

  “I want you back. You know what we had together was good. We belong together, and I told you once that I wouldn’t let you go.” He reached up to touch her cheek.

  She turned her head and stepped back, bumping the console. “I want you to leave now. We’re done. You slapped me one too many times, Brian.”

  He sighed, and she could feel him tensing just the way he had when they were together. Then, she had gone out of her way not to provoke him, to tiptoe around him when he came home in one of his black moods. She could always tell, too, by the way he walked, digging into each step a little harder than needed, or the way he bunched his fists, or the way he ran his hands through his hair distractedly, or the way his shoulders became rigid as steel. The first time his hand had slipped out and clipped her cheek with his class ring, she was stunned. She had pressed her fingers to the small, swelling cut, and he had apologized profusely and grabbed a frozen bag of peas, holding them to her cheek. Then he’d said it was an accident, that he hadn’t meant to hit her, that he’d stuck his hand out in frustration and she must have moved and connected with it. She had wanted to believe him, so she made herself do so the first time, and she stuffed away her gnawing doubt. The next few times, she hid in shame, wondering what she had done wrong. The last time he hit her, she had lost her balance and fell, hitting her head on the coffee table. The emergency room nurse had recognized her, knowing her dad well from the bar he owned, and had called him. The next thing Alecia knew, her things had been moved back home and Brian was gone, but that was after her dad had stalked him and visited him with a baseball bat.

  As she stood here now, feeling the beast contained only by a frayed string, she realized that at any moment he could lose it on her, punch her, slap her, kick her, or kill her. And her father wasn’t here to help her.

  “I never meant any of that, Alecia. We were good together, you know that. In bed, wow, baby, there were sparks all over the place. You know that.” He slid his hand around the back of her neck to pull her towards him. He stepped in closer, and his thigh pressed against her, his chest, his stomach, so close that she could feel every part of him. His other hand softened, sliding down her arm, tracing circles in the small of her back.

  Alecia shut her eyes, pressed both hands against his chest, and shoved. “Get away from me.”

  He stumbled back two steps, and this time she bolted for the door, but he grabbed a fistful of her long hair and yanked her back. She screamed when he slammed her so hard against the mirror that it shattered behind her head, her back, and it knocked the breath out of her. She grunted. He punched her in the stomach, and she doubled over. Then he hit her face, and she tasted blood in her mouth. His knee came up and slammed into her face right before he roared and threw her to the floor. There was pounding on her door—someone was yelling. Brian was straddling her, hitting her, and then he suddenly wasn’t.

  In a blur, there was another man in the room. “Get off her, you son of a bitch!” he yelled. There were sirens in the distance, and the man who had saved her knelt over her and brushed back her hair as she gazed up at him, the tall redheaded prince who had toyed with her earlier. This was a man she now knew to be a powerful unrecognized shaman, using everything bad for his own gain. Dan McKenzie, her hero. As he held her hand, she said, “But … you’re a snake. Why would you help me?”

  He said, “It takes a snake to recognize one, a snake with poisonous fangs.”

  Chapter 10

  Alecia was perched on the edge of her motel bed. The front desk manager was a skinny young man with brown hair and glasses, and he was outside the open door with one of the Sequim deputies. A female cop dressed in a light brown deputy’s uniform sat next to Alecia on the bed and handed her a damp rag that she pressed to her nose until it finally stopped bleeding.

  The cop was a little on the big-boned side, with short brown hair and huge blue eyes. She didn’t try to touch Alecia, but she didn’t distance herself, either. There was respect and awareness for what she’d just endured. Having someone knock her around like that had taken all her self-respect and self-esteem and dumped it right down the toilet, and Alecia had to struggle to look the deputy in the eye.

  “We really need to take you to the hospital and get you checked out. And it would be best, until we find Brian, that you not stay here.”

  Alecia only nodded. “You’ll find him? Because next time, he’ll probably kill me.”

  The cop rested her other hand on the bed and slid around to face Alecia. “How long ago was it that you broke up with him?”

  Alecia lowered the rag, but her nose felt tight, as if it were the size of a tennis ball. “A year ago. My dad sent him packing.”

  The cop nodded. “And that was in Boston, so he followed you all the way out here. Who did you say broke in here to help you?”

  For some reason, her throat jammed up, and she couldn’t say a word. Alecia remembered lying on the floor, dizzy and numb, as Dan leaned over her and Brian ran out. He had saved her, and when he heard the sirens, he said, “I have to go, but I’ll find you and make sure you’re okay.” He had hurried out the door.

  It didn’t take someone with a PhD to figure out that he was hiding and didn’t want the cops to find him here. She knew he was bad news, but the fact was that he’d saved her. She knew what Brian had been about to do, and the thought of it had a violent chill wracking her body from the inside out.

  “Just some guy. I didn’t really see him,” she mumbled, and she glanced at the floor. She could feel the cop beside her harden her gaze, as if she knew Alecia was holding something back. Hell, Alecia didn’t know why she had done it.

  There were more voices outside the door, then a light tap as a tall paramedic pushed open the door and strode in. He set down his medical case. “Diane, what do we have here?” The paramedic peered down at Alecia.

  “This is Alecia. She got knocked around pretty good,” Diane, the deputy, said.

  The paramedic shone a light in Alecia’s eyes. “Look up here, and follow my finger.”

  She did, and he prodded her head with gloved hands.

  Another paramedic strode in. “Do we need a stretcher up here?”

  “No,” Alecia said, and she stood up on her own before the other paramedic was finished. “Let’s go. Really, I’m fine. Just need an ice pack is all, for my nose.” Alecia started walking out the door, where the front desk manager was standing with a young maid who started crying when she saw Alecia. She could only imagine how bad her face looked.

  “I’m so sorry. He said he was your husband,” the maid said. Alecia knew the girl was just young and stupid, like she used to be.

  “No, he wasn’t my husband,” she answered.

  Diane rested her hand on Alecia’s back and helped her down the stairs and into the ambulance. A paramedic climbed in beside her and urged her to lie down on the gurney. She did, only because her head was really starting to hurt.

  “Alecia, I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Diane said before closing the door, and the ambulance pulled away.

  ***

  From across the street, a man slid out of the shadows
and watched as Alecia was helped down the stairs and into a waiting ambulance. The ambulance pulled away, but its lights weren’t flashing, and a cop climbed into her cruiser and followed it down the road. He realized now that it was going to be harder than ever to get close to that dark-haired beauty.

  Chapter 11

  “Dad … Dad, no, you don’t need to get on a plane and come out here. I’m fine. He just caught me by surprise is all.” Alecia was back at the motel. This time, she’d been upgraded to a one-bedroom suite closer to the front desk. The manager of the motel had comped the room, most likely so that he wouldn’t be sued, and the Sequim detachment was going to have a deputy keeping an eye out. Alecia knew all too well what that meant: They didn’t have the manpower to have someone watch her, so they’d drive by a few times a day. They had Brian’s description out, and Diane said they’d pick him up as soon as they spotted him.

  “Alecia Moran, a monster beats you up and you say to your father that you’re fine, just like you were fine every time you accidently slipped or tripped over your feet until you landed in the hospital with a concussion and a broken nose? Well, your mother and I have already decided,” he said in his thick Irish brogue, which became heavier and more pronounced when he was angry. Alecia really had to listen to understand him, and she knew he had to be two shades of red with fury.

  She heard mumbling in the background. Then her mother came on the line. “Alecia, we’re on our way to the airport, and we’ll sleep there all night until they find us a seat on the plane. But we’re coming.” Her mother spoke calmly, but Alecia could hear her father cursing in the background.

  “Mom, I’m okay, really.” She tried to sound convincing, and she almost believed it herself.

  “No, Alecia, you’re not. But I do know you will be. We’ll see you soon. Keep your cell phone on, and make sure you answer it, or we’ll call the police. We’ll let you know what flight we’re on.”

  Alecia hung up the phone and then eased herself off the bed, mindful of how sore she was. Her back and shoulder hurt the worst, where she’d landed and taken the brunt of the fall when Brian threw her down. Her stomach and legs throbbed only if she moved too fast, and right now she moved like a ninety-year-old woman to the bathroom, where she turned on the tub for a hot bath that she knew all too well would ease the aches. When she stopped in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection, she was horrified. Her nose was swollen, with dark bruising under both eyes. Although her nose thankfully wasn’t broken, it was a horrendous sight. Her lip was cut, slightly swollen and now scabbing over, and her neck had bruising from Brian’s large hands. As angry as her father was now, she realized it would take the entire Sequim detachment to keep him from hunting down Brian and killing him after he saw her.

  Someone was pounding on the door, and Alecia slunk back as that paralyzing fear knocked her senseless. She shut her eyes. Knock it off. Just answer the door. The steam filled the bathroom; she reached down and shut off the bath. “Just a minute. I’m coming,” she said, her voice a little shaky as the person knocked harder.

  She looked through the peephole and let out a sigh of relief. She opened the door to Diane, dressed in blue jeans and a white short-sleeved shirt.

  Diane pulled off her sunglasses while chewing a piece of gum and said, “I stopped by to check on you, see how you are.”

  Alecia held open the door and motioned her inside. “I was just going to have a bath, hoping to work out some of the aches.”

  Diane stepped in and closed the door. “Have you eaten?”

  “No. I was going to order a pizza and get it delivered. Couldn’t think of what else, since there’s no restaurants here.”

  “Well, why don’t I wait for you while you have your bath, and I’ll take you out for dinner?”

  Alecia stared at the hard-as-nails woman, who wore no makeup, had short hair, and showed no emotion on her round face. Diane scanned the room, which Alecia realized must have been an instinct, always searching for something out of place. Her stomach rumbled, and she felt an odd sort of comfort come over her. She didn’t want to be alone, and even though she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she was scared to walk out that door.

  “Okay… I won’t be long.” Alecia hurried into the bathroom as fast as her achy body would allow, and she settled into the hot bath, wondering why this cop was giving her the time of day. She meant to find out.

  ***

  The view from the casual oceanside restaurant was breathtaking. Waves crashed against the rocky shore, and dozens of people wandered the shoreline, some couples hand in hand. That was always when her heart sank, feeling the yearning to have that special someone to share life with. She wanted to do those simple things, like walking hand in hand down a beach with the man she loved.

  Diane cleared her throat. “You know, I’ve seen a lot of domestic abuse. Most women end up giving up the fight and going back. I’ve seen stalkers, and it never has a happy ending. Can I ask you something?”

  Alecia was glad she had worn a baseball cap, the brim pulled down, and sunglasses. It helped her hide and not have to explain, even though the waitress had seen her bruises. Her eyes had widened, but, thankfully, she had said nothing. Alecia glanced at Diane and shrugged.

  “How long were you with this guy, Brian, back in Boston?” She stared at Alecia with a mild curiosity that made her seem as though she understood the situation, maybe from her line of work.

  “We lived together about ten months. I loved him. He was so handsome and attentive at the start, when we were dating. Then he’d get these moods. The first time he hit me could have been an accident. He convinced me it was, or I convinced myself. I don’t know which. But … I know everyone has a button, too, and there is such a thing as bad chemistry. You see that in a bar all the time. I was raised in one. So I found myself saying all the wrong things to convince myself we were fine. I’m sure you’ve heard it a thousand times: I goaded him, it was my fault, I should have been more understanding. Stupid, huh?” Alecia was thankful for the glass of wine in front of her and the corner table they shared, well away from the few other patrons in the restaurant.

  “But, honestly, I don’t think anyone has the right to judge,” she continued. “We’ve all been involved in something similar, in one way or another. When you’re in it, it’s easy for everyone else to say they knew, they saw, and they would have done better. I bet if I put your life up for scrutiny, I could probably see half a dozen stupid things and say the same: I saw, I knew, and I could have done better.” Alecia immediately flushed. She couldn’t believe she had said that, and Diane shot her a glance loaded with warning, but, to her credit, she said nothing.

  Diane drummed her fingers on the table, then looped her arm over the back of the chair the way her father would have done, setting her straight without uttering a word. “Don’t start putting words in my mouth, Alecia. I know far more than you think. I don’t remember saying you were stupid. If I recall, did you not end it with this guy? Did you not walk away?”

  Alecia picked up her wine took a heady sip, then set it down. “My dad paid him a visit with a baseball bat while I was in the hospital. He left town, and when I got out, Dad had moved everything of mine back home to our house above his bar. I never saw Brian again. So I guess the choice was made for me. I’d like to think I wouldn’t have gone back.”

  Alecia gazed out the window now, as it was easier than looking at Diane. Maybe she was afraid of what she’d see. “When I saw him in my motel room yesterday, I’m not sure what I felt: fear, worry, anger, all mixed up with confusion. But I didn’t want his hands on me. I didn’t want to be with him. And I did goad him. I could have been smart and backed down, kept my mouth shut.”

  “You listen to me, Alecia. Brian is a monster through and through. He gets off on the power. Guys like him don’t respect women. I don’t even think they like us. They want to control us, hurt us, make us bend to their will. It’s that sense of power they need, but they’ll never be happy. Nothing you
ever do can change them and who they are. And by staying with them, you become the enabler.”

  This time, Alecia looked at Diane, and something soft and understanding reflected back. “My hands are trembling,” Alecia said, squeezing her fists closed. “I felt so in control of myself and my power up until yesterday. Now I feel vulnerable, and that scares me.” A tear slid down her cheek. She turned her head when the waitress arrived, setting a steaming plate of lasagna in front of her and a salad for Diane.

  Before she dug in, Diane said, “Alecia, have you thought about going home?”

  She shook her head. “No, I can’t, not yet.”

  “I’ve got say this, then. I’m not comfortable with you staying alone at that motel. If Brian wants to get to you, he will. You’re a smart lady; I think you already know that.”

  Alecia picked up her fork. “My mom and dad are on their way, so I won’t be alone.”

  Diane let out a heavy sigh that seemed a lot like relief, which was a little odd, considering they had just met.

  Alecia paused with the fork in her food before saying, “So, who was it for you?”

  “My mother,” Diane answered.

  Chapter 12

  “Dad, I’m not going home. Mom, can you please explain to Dad?”

  Harriet sat on the sofa in the motel room with her hands folded in her lap. She was staring at her husband and daughter, who looked like two bulls about to ram heads.

  Patrick Moran was tall, with broad shoulders. His thick, silver hair had once been jet black. His deep blue eyes flashed with the fire only an Irishman could have. He paced dramatically in his tan work boots and blue jeans, fitted with a heavy belt. He waved his large hands in the air. “Now, you listen to me, my girl. You’ve had your fun. Whatever it is you need to do here, I respect it, and I told your mother that, but when it comes to your safety, that’s when I draw the line. You’re coming home, where I can keep you safe and protect you. And, by God, when I find this Brian, I will break every bloody bone in his body. You mark my words, darling.”