Let’s Start Over

by Laurent, River

  “You are mine,” he snapped. “The only way you’ll ever be free of me…” He wrapped his hand around my throat and I pried at it. “… is if I let you free and I’ll only do that if you’re dead. You can either leave with me now or I’ll go and hurt that boyfriend of yours too. Don’t think I won’t do it. I don’t need an excuse at this point, but you’re really giving me one. Let’s go.”

  Brian yanked me off of the wall and I stumbled forward. I could feel him behind me huge and intimidating. I had to get away from him. If he got me alone, I would be in more danger than I was in now.

  I spun on my heels and grabbed his wrist when it shot out toward me. The heel of my hand crashed into his nose in a palm strike at the same time that I brought up my knee and shoved it deep into his groin.

  Brian howled and fell to the ground.

  I didn’t stick around to make sure he was really down, I jumped over him and got the hell out of there.

  The groceries stayed on the ground, but I wasn’t going to stop for anything. Instead, I ran for the truck and jumped inside before I slammed and locked the door. I peeled out of my parking space with my heart in my throat and blood rushing in my ears.

  I thought about going back to Cooper’s place, but then I remembered Brian’s words. He was going to hurt Cooper if I went back there. Someway, somehow, he would do it and then I wouldn’t have anyone anymore. Cooper meant so much to me, too much to simply let him get hurt because of me and my stupid life choices.

  I turned from the direction of Cooper’s place and went in the opposite direction. If I wanted to do anything for Cooper, it should be keeping him safe from harm the same way that he would do for me. I knew what I had to do. My heart broke at the thought, but there was no other answer left.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Ivy

  I hopped out of the truck and dashed up the stairs to my apartment. My hand shook as I inserted the key into its lock. I struggled with it for a moment then… Finally, thankfully, the key shoved into the lock. I turned it and let myself in then shut the door after me. It felt weird being back in my place. Cooper’s house really had felt like home and being back at my place felt... odd.

  I had no time to wander around thinking about old times though. I needed to pack and get the hell out of town. I ran to my bedroom and rooted around in the closet. There was a duffle bag in the back, one I’d made in case I ever had to leave in a hurry and now it would come in handy.

  I yanked open my dresser drawers then dumped clothes and shoes into the bag. Everything else I could leave behind. Maybe Cooper would send it to me and I would be okay.

  Cooper.

  I froze when I thought about him. There was no way I could just take off without letting him know. He deserved at least that much.

  My heart sank into my stomach—I knew that he wouldn’t love the fact that I was getting up and disappearing on him, but it was all I could do. If I didn’t, he wouldn’t be safe and I couldn’t risk it. As if he could sense something was wrong, my phone started to ring and it was Cooper’s name on the display. I nervously hovered my thumb above my screen before I slid it over and swallowed hard.

  “Jo? Where are you? I thought you’d be back with breakfast by now.”

  I bit my lip. “I have to leave.”

  “The store? You’re still there?”

  “I’m leaving, Coop. For good. I need to get out of town before you get hurt because of me.”

  “What are you talking about?” he demanded. “You can’t just take off! Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” I breathed. “I’ll leave your truck at the bar and grab a cab from there. Trust me, it’s better this way. I love you so much. I won’t let anything horrible happen to you.”

  “Horrible?” he asked. “Why would something horrible happen to me? What’s going on?”

  “I ran into Brian,” I said as I found my backup stash of money buried inside of an old DVD player. “He’s going to hurt you if I stick around. I really can’t stay.”

  “I love you,” Cooper growled. “I’m not going to lose you again. Where are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I have to go, okay? I love you.”

  “Jo, don’t hang up this phone!”

  I didn’t want to. I wanted to talk to him for the rest of the day, go home to him, sleep with him, but I knew that wasn’t a possibility. I was doing what was best for him. Anything else would be horribly selfish and I couldn’t be selfish when it came to Cooper.

  Before I could say another word, pain shot up my back. The phone spun out of my hand as Cooper called me over and over. I turned around in time to see Brian glaring at me.

  “I told you that you wouldn’t get away from me.”

  “Brian…” My voice quivered. “Please, don’t do this.”

  He circled around me, but he kept his eyes fixed on me at the same time. As I watched, he raised his heel and slammed it into my phone. It crunched under his boot. No way out. My breathing quickened. He walked closer and terror shot through my body.

  Brian’s face pulled into a grin and a shiver passed through me. He pulled his hand back and the world began to spin.

  I was going to die.

  He had come back to finish the job he’d started in New York.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Cooper

  I stared at the dead phone for one instant longer. I’d heard the coward’s voice. I never knew how he sounded before but it was clear that it was him. I hated the terror I heard in her voice and it angered the fuck out of me.

  I didn’t think. I jumped out of bed and tugged on my clothes ignoring the howling pain in my ankle. Nothing mattered when Ivy’s life was on the line.

  If he hurt her…

  I wasn’t going to finish that thought. I would end up in prison for murdering him and I didn’t want to think about her being gone. I searched for my phone and quickly pulled up the app on it. There was a blinking red dot moving on the map and I frowned.

  “Where the hell are you taking her?” I muttered to myself.

  The dot continued to travel and I hoped that as long as they were moving, she was safe. The minute they stopped, things might get really bad for Ivy and I wasn’t going to think about that either. All I knew was that I had to stop him.

  My truck was gone and the only way to get to Ivy was to find a car. I quickly thought about Mel and called her.

  Five minutes later, she screeched to a stop in front of my place and hopped out. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Her ex-boyfriend got her,” I said as I tugged on my shoes and winced. “I need to go get her.”

  “What the fuck?” She breathed. “Let me go with you.”

  “No. There’s already one person in danger and I’m not going to involve you too.”

  Mel tightened her fists. “Son of a bitch. How dare he touch her!”

  I smiled softly at Mel. “You’re a good friend, to both of us. I promise we’ll be back soon enough and everything will be fine.”

  Mel nodded. “You better be. I’m not about to look for another boss that I can stand and a friend that I adore. Both of you better get your asses back here safe and sound.”

  “We will. I gotta go.”

  “Go get her!” She tossed me the keys. “I’ll lock up and see you guys later.”

  “Thanks, Mel!” I was glad Mel didn’t live far from me. If she had, I have no idea how things would have gone, but now I could go get her and bring her home. I sped off down the road and glanced at my phone. The dot blinked and kept moving. I wasn’t too far behind, but it would still take a while to catch up.

  Please be okay, Jo. You have to be okay.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Ivy

  My head buzzed as I tried to move my limbs.

  It felt like they were filled with sand and so was my dry mouth. I licked my lips, but it didn’t help in the least. Where the hell was I? My head went from buzzing to throbbing as the darkness sl
owly cleared. For a moment, I couldn’t remember a thing until memories of Brian came rushing back.

  I jerked back to being fully awake and glanced around the room I was in. The dingy bedspread and carpeting was a dead giveaway that I was in a motel. I tried to move, but my wrists wouldn’t come around from the chair that I’d been placed in. I knew I was tied up to it. “Shit,” I cursed under my breath as I tugged and yanked at the rope that rubbed against my skin and burned. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  Brian had gotten me. I’d been so sure that I had gotten away from him and then he had to come back to cause trouble all over again. What the hell could he possibly want from me? When I was trying my hardest in our relationship, he’d wanted nothing to do with me and now he wouldn’t let me go. Why wasn’t I allowed to move on from him?

  “Good, you’re awake.”

  I jumped at the sound of his voice. Brian walked out of the bathroom and his grin chilled me. I yanked at my ropes harder before I growled at him. “You can’t do this to me! Do you have any idea what you’re doing? I’ve already let the police know about you and what you’ve done. Let me go, Brian!”

  “You talk too much as usual,” he muttered as he walked over to the bed and yanked up a roll of tape.

  “Don’t!” I yelled.

  Brian’s hand connected with my throat and I sucked in half a breath before my air was cut off. His hand squeezed and I whimpered under his tight grip. When he pulled his hand away, I panted and sucked in a desperate breath.

  “If you scream like that again, I’m going to slap the shit out of you, do you understand me?”

  When I didn’t respond, he raised a hand, so I quickly nodded.

  “Good,” he said approvingly.

  Tape was slapped over my mouth and my heart raced. I was trapped. Tied up, gagged, and no one had a clue where I was. I was really going to be trapped alone with Brian so he could finish what he started, or he could rape me. He always had a fantasy of tying me up and playing pretend rape, but I wasn’t into it. This could be his fantasy come real.

  Both options chilled me to the bone.

  “It took me way too long to find you,” he said as he opened the bag he’d sat on the bed. “Thankfully, I’d noticed you were slowly taking stuff to the office. I knew the only person at work that you spoke well of was that cleaner Maria, so I hit her up. Told her a pack of lies and the stupid broad let me into the broom cupboard. It wasn’t hard to find the address and track you down.” He chuckled. “If you wanted me not to find you, this place wasn’t really wasn’t a smart choice, was it?”

  I glared at him.

  It had been the only place I could go and he’d made sure of that. No money on me, nowhere to live. No job. I couldn’t go anywhere else but home and even if I had gone somewhere else, I knew it wouldn’t have mattered. Brian would have tracked me down anyway, and we still would have been where we were now. I wasn’t going to let him get into my head.

  “Do you know what I’m going to do with you?” he asked conversationally as he turned around with more rope in his hands. “I’m going to make up for lost time. I have all kinds of marvelous plans for you little Ivy.”

  I made a noise through the gag.

  “Did you really fucking think I wasn’t going to get what was mine again?”

  Brain gripped my chin and I couldn’t turn away.

  “We’re going to be just the way we were. You’re going to go home with me and do what you’re told and this time. I’m going to keep you in the apartment and you’re going to be my doll. I always wanted my own sex doll. I’m going to dress you up and I’m going to do what I want with your body. You will never say no to me again. Then I’m going to put my baby in your belly. Maybe I’ll break your legs, so you really won’t ever be able to get away from me.”

  My eyes shot open wide. I struggled against him as that grin I had seen when he was strangling me, widened on his face. It made me ice cold inside.

  Brian’s hand ran over my cheek and my skin crawled. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against my forehead, my cheeks, even the tape on my mouth as I started to struggle and try to scream behind it.

  “If you keep moving away from me, you’re going to piss me off,” he snapped. “Don’t make me have to hurt you too.”

  Too? Was there some other woman before me that he had hurt?

  I closed my eyes tight and shuddered in revulsion. Brian was talking like a mad man, or a serial killer. I did not know this man at all. Somewhere along the line, he had snapped. He was now criminally insane.

  At least, Cooper was safe. He would never have to be exposed to this bastard. It was the one good thing I’d done and I felt glad that I had at least protected him the way he’d protected me.

  My eyes flew open as someone banged on the door. It flew open and Cooper charged into the room, his face full of rage. Before Brian could react, Cooper punched him in the face and Brian went down like a sack of potatoes.

  As much as I wanted to keep him away, my eyes lit up. Cooper was here to get me away from Brian’s psychotic ass. I pulled at the rope, but it was tight and it wouldn’t give no matter how hard I tried.

  Brian managed to get back on his feet, but Cooper was ready for him. He bawled up his fist and slammed it into Brian’s face. When he was down Cooper, climbed on top of him and kept pummeling.

  I tried to call him, tell him to stop before he ended up killing Brian and going to prison, but the tape still held fast over my mouth.

  As Cooper raised his fist to deliver another blow the doorway was filled with bodies, and cops poured into the room. They drew their guns and pointed them down.

  One cop hauled Cooper off of Brian. “We’ve got him, son. It’s all right,” the gruff man said as he patted Cooper’s shoulder. “Somebody get her untied.”

  I recognized the man. Officer Jones had been at the police station, he’d taken my statement and promised to look into it. For some reason, I hadn’t thought he’d actually do it but he had come through. I was so grateful he did.

  The ropes were removed from my wrists and ankles then the tape was carefully peeled off of my lips. My wrists burned and my head still throbbed, but I didn’t care. I shot out of the chair and threw my arms around Cooper’s neck. He held me tightly and the heat of his body soothed me more than anything else could have done.

  “Are you okay?” he asked urgently, when we finally pulled apart. He touched my face and hair, checking me over for injuries.

  “I’m fine now,” I said in a shaky voice. “I’m so glad you’re here. How did you find me?”

  “I got a GPS tracker in my truck and the tracer is on your bracelet. It led us straight to his motel.” Cooper pulled me into another tight hug.

  I hugged him back. I didn’t want to be apart from him, not for another minute. I’d been so close to losing it all and now, I had another chance. “I thought I wouldn’t see you again,” I whispered.

  “I’ll always come for you,” Cooper said as he kissed my forehead. “I told you before, I’ll do anything to protect you, and I meant that.”

  “You’re still not going to be free,” Brian’s voice cut in,

  I clung to Cooper as I gazed at him.

  “Do you really think I’ll give you up that easily?” He grinned even as the cuffs were put on him and he was yanked to his feet. “You’re mine Ivy. I’ll be back.”

  “Get him out of here,” Officer Jones snapped. Once they’d hauled him off, he walked over to us. “You don’t have to worry about him. He won’t be getting out anytime soon.”

  “How do I know that?” I asked. “I need to be sure that he won’t be able to hurt us.”

  “Well, we have him on breaking a restraining order, abduction, assault and that’s just with you,” Officer Jones explained. “I looked into it and Brian has a rap sheet. You’re not the first. You’re one of the lucky ones in this situation. His two other exes were held much longer and sustained injuries. He will go up on charges from those cases too. I’m just glad w
e got to you in time.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe any of this is actually happening.”

  “We’re going to make sure he can’t hurt anyone else, Ivy,” Officer Jones stated softly. “I know you need a bit of time, but if you could go downstairs and get checked out that would be great. We also need to get your statement, but it can wait for now.”

  “Thank you,” I said softly. “At least he won’t be able to do this to anyone else.”

  “That’s the only upside to this situation. I’m sorry we couldn’t get him earlier.”

  “It’s all right. You did everything you could.”

  Officer Jones smiled and walked away leaving me alone with Cooper.

  He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me from the room. I couldn’t be in there anymore anyway. Every time I thought about it, I knew how close I’d been to something I could never recover from. I shuddered.

  “We’re going to get you checked out and then we’ll make it through this together. Okay?” Cooper spoke softly.

  I nodded and gripped his hand hard. “I know we will. All I need is you to comfort me right now.”

  “I’m not going to leave your side.”

  I knew he wouldn’t leave me, but hearing him say the words out loud gave me comfort. He led me over to the ambulance and I let them examine me. For the most part, I was okay. A slight concussion from where I’d hit the floor, a few bruises and rope burns on my wrists. I had a feeling his other victims hadn’t been so lucky, so I felt thankful that help had arrived when it did.

  “Would you like us to take you to the hospital?” Officer Jones asked.