Served (Breaking Free Book 3) Page 16

  “Do not compare me to him, Rox. I’m nothing like him. I’d cut off my own arm before I ever hurt you.”

  “Physically maybe not, but mentally, emotionally, you’re doing a bang up job,” she ground out.

  “I only want you safe.”

  “I. Don’t. Care!”

  “What about the tests?” he said, switching gears so fast she almost got whiplash.

  “What about them?”

  “What were the results?”

  “You trust me to tell you the truth? You don’t think I would lie to try and trap the great and powerful Liam Lavery?”

  “Rox—” he started. He was so scared she’d try to screw him. Professing love left and right and in the end, it all ended up the same, but at least this time she’d be leaving on her own terms and not on a stretcher.

  “I took them. They were negative,” she bit out.

  “Right,” he said, nodding his head and staring down at his shoes. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “I only did what I did because I love you Rox.”

  “Don’t say that to me! Don’t ever say that. That’s what he would say to me after every time. Usually topped off with some nice flowers or a piece of jewelry as I sat there shaking, nursing my wounds. There are some things you don’t do when someone you say you love asks you not to. I told you I didn’t want to be followed. I told you I didn’t want a bodyguard following my every move, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  “Can’t you see why what you asked me to do was killing me?! Can’t you see that asking me not to protect you is like asking me not to breathe?” he said, pushing off the wall and stalking toward her.

  “If I can’t trust you, then I can’t be with you. It’s as simple as that. You broke my trust.” She jabbed her finger into his chest.

  “Fine, I did it for selfish reasons because the thought of you getting hurt was enough to drive me crazy. I did it to keep my own sanity.”

  “You can be plenty sane now, because Jon is locked up and I’m no longer your responsibility.”

  “It was never about you being my responsibility. It was about you being the woman that I love, damnit!”

  “A woman that you don’t even trust! How can you want to be with someone you don’t even trust?!”

  “I do trust you, I just don’t know if I trust me! If I trust my judgment when it comes to you. I’m so in love with you, I can’t tell if I’m coming or going.”

  “Well I can tell you right now what I’m doing. I’m going!”

  “Rox, you can’t leave.”

  “Watch me,” she said, storming out of the bedroom and into the living room. His footsteps were heavy behind her.

  “Rox,” he grabbed her shoulder. “You’re not even going to stay and talk about this?”

  “Talk about what? What’s been said is said and what’s been done is done. You had me followed, even after you knew Jon was gone. Accused me of trying to pull some kind of secret baby bait-and-switch on you, and you expect me to stay? You think I would want to stay with you after that!” She shouted in his face, not able to keep her cool any longer. She’d always tried to be even-keeled and not get too emotional. Showing your emotions let someone know they could hurt you, that they had power over you.

  “You’re not the only one who’s scared. You think you’re the only person who has a past they are trying to deal with? You’re not. That shit with Yvonne messed up my head when it came to the pregnancy test. I’ll admit it. I shouldn’t have accused you.”

  “You shouldn’t have done any of it. None of it,” she shouted. “You should have let me handle it.”

  “And how were you going to do that? By letting him hurt you? Kill you? Is that how you would have handled it?”

  “In all the time you had that guy following me, did Jon ever try to come near me?”

  “No, but that’s not the point!”

  “I don’t care about your point. I don’t care about any of it. Once you lied that’s it for me. You lied and went behind my back. After you got the call that he’d been caught, why didn’t you call off your goon?”

  “I told you! Until I see that fucker behind bars, I’m not taking any chances.” More like he wanted to keep her under his thumb. Under his control.

  “I’m out of here.”

  “Rox! Be reasonable,” he said, following after her as she stormed into the driveway.

  “Reasonable? You’re the one that had the woman you say you love followed without her permission, accused her of trying to pull some kind of baby scam on you, and lied to her about her ex being locked up.”

  She grabbed the helmet from the seat of the bike and tucked it under her arm.

  “Rox!”

  “No, Liam,” she said. “You should have told me what I needed to know instead of deciding that you knew what was best for me. I’m an adult. The woman you say you love at least deserved that.”

  24

  Chapter

  Rox was not going to put up with his shit. What if she were pregnant? Her heart felt like someone stomped on it the minute she’d realized Liam had lied to her. She needed to clear her head and she couldn’t do that around him. He had a way of talking her into things and getting her to act like she wasn’t herself. Playing the damsel with him had been fun, but she could handle things on her own and she was getting out of there as quickly as possible.

  Throwing her leg over her bike, she slammed her helmet on and started up the engine. The growl of her baby always helped her think, helped her zone out when she needed to and she sure as hell needed to right now. Driving around for a few hours sounded like a good idea. Maybe take it someplace out of the way where she could really open her up. Checking her mirrors, she saw him standing in the doorway, a dark outline of the man she thought she loved. Glancing back over her shoulder, she revved the engine.

  She pushed back the kickstand, revved the engine again and took off out of the gate. The automatic sensor swung it open and she checked the road for any cars. One perk of having all the money Liam did was you could live out of the way with no neighbors and open roads. There was a car parked off to the side of the road across the street, probably some kids who parked to go make out on the beach. Watching him turn back into the house, she finally made it through the gate as it opened wide enough to get her bike through.

  She pulled out onto the desolate road and headed toward her apartment. She’d grab some things there and maybe take a few days off work. Everyone was always telling her to do that. Take a couple of days to clear her head and just be alone for a while. Her apartment door had long been repaired and she was looking forward to being able to get some space, maybe some perspective about things. Maybe she should go be Mark’s chef out in NYC. A change of scenery could be nice. Headlights shone on her from behind and she checked her mirrors. It was the car that had been parked on the side of the road.

  There was a gnawing pit in her stomach as the car accelerated toward her. She tried to swerve out of the way and, in the process, hit a patch of gravel. The bike skidded, crashing with her under it. Thank God for her jacket and jeans. The car slowed and she saw into the driver’s side window. Jon glared down at her before driving past and speeding off. The blood rushed from her head and her vision wavered. He wasn’t gone. She wasn’t safe. She needed to get back to the house. Her chest tightened and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears.

  The fucker had been lying in wait for her to come out. The bike had landed on top of her and she struggled to push it off. He was turning the car around. She needed to get out of here. Pulling off her helmet, she threw it aside and pushed on the bike that had her pinned to the ground. She felt for her phone in her back pocket, crying out as the gravel dug into her back. Not able to reach her phone, she focused on getting out from under the bike.

  Liam was right! How had he known? That gnawing pit grew larger and threatened to wrack her body with tremors, but she didn’t have time for that right now. She needed to get out from under this bike and get back to
the safety of Liam’s arms. It was amazing how quickly everything around her had changed and how quickly the things she was running away from became the things she wanted to run toward as fast as her legs would take her.

  Why had she left? The gate to the house was still in her line of sight. Using all her strength, Rox pushed as hard as she could. Straining under the weight of the behemoth, she ripped her jeans, but lifted it enough to slide from under it. Only then did she see the blood. It was all over her hands and she had a nasty gash on her leg.

  She sucked in her breath as she tried to right her bike. It was a heavy piece of machinery, but she pushed it up and righted it. It was rideable. She thought about her phone in her pocket and decided she’d rather be safe in the house over waiting by the side of the road for help. She gunned the engine and hopped off when she made it back to the gate, stumbling at her clumsy dismount. She cried out as her leg hit the pavement, and she hobbled back to the keypad. Adrenaline pumping and her fingers shaking, she tried to remember the code.

  The car was getting closer now. He was toying with her, crawling closer and closer knowing she had nowhere to run, trapped between him and the gate. Blood on her fingers, she punched in 4-8-3... and held her fist to her forehead. What the hell was the last number?

  She pressed the intercom button, holding it down. Why had she left? Why couldn’t she just let herself be happy for once? Liam was going to be in the basement. She’d seen him grab the wraps for his hands. He was punching the bag and would be for a while since she pissed him off.

  The crunch of the tires made her knees weak. Trying to remember everything he taught her, she limped to face Jon. She backed herself up against the gate. Not the best place to be, but she didn’t have much choice. He climbed out of the car with something heavy in his hand. She didn’t know what it was, but it brought back memories of her regular beatings before. Usually it was his fists, but every so often, when he was irate, he’d grab whatever was handy and use that to hit her.

  A whimper escaped her mouth as she tried to stand up straight. She held up her fists, preparing for an assault.

  “You’re going to hit me, Juliette?”

  “Not if you leave right now. Just leave Jon. Go back home and start over, why are you even here?”

  “I’m here because I told you we weren’t through until I said so. You don’t get to walk away from me. Found someone else better, huh?” He pointed up at the house. “Found someone with more money? I should have known you were a money-grubbing whore from the beginning. Always giving me so much aggravation. Always making me do things I didn’t want to do.”

  “I never made you hit me, you did that all on your own.” She tried to keep her head clear as terror threatened to claw its way out of her throat.

  “Only because you pushed me, Juliette. Always pushing. Always fighting. Always cheating.”

  “I never cheated on you.”

  “What do you call fucking that guy? The guy from the bar?” He roared, pointing at the house. A small squeak escaped her despite her resolve not to let him see her flinch.

  “We’re not together. We haven’t been together for years,” she shouted. She was not ready to back down.

  “Like I said, I decide when we’re finished. I love you and I’ll never let anyone else have you.” He walked right up to her. Bringing his hand up to touch her face, Rox punched at him, giving him everything she had. She felt her already bleeding hand connect with his nose and there was a satisfying crunch. Liam had taught her well. She attempted to kick him in the nuts, but he easily blocked it and knocked her to the ground. With her injured leg, she crumpled. Jon spat blood on the ground and looked down at her with a bloody smile.

  “It seems you’ve gotten a bit tougher over the years. So have I,” he lunged for her and grabbed her by the hair. She shrieked as he dragged her toward the car. Kicking and screaming, he hefted her up and pulled open the door. She threw her elbows and hit him in the side of the head. He dropped her momentarily and she crawled backward toward the gate. Standing, she grabbed onto the gate and screamed for Liam.

  Jon took this opportunity to come up behind her and she was completely unprepared for the blow from whatever he had packed in his hand. The last thing she remembered was staring up at Jon as he dragged her into the back of his car. Her eyes fluttered shut with one final thought running through her head.

  Liam, I’m sorry!

  25

  Chapter

  Standing in the doorway, watching Rox leave was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He wanted to run after her, pull her off the bike and keep her in the house. The thought of her out there on her own, whether Jon was out there or not, made him ill. Knowing what she’d been through, all the people in her life who let her down or treated her like shit made his blood boil and made him want to track each and every one of them down.

  He needed to get this out or he was going to explode. Grabbing his wraps, he jumped down the stairs to the basement and eyed the punching bag. It would have to do as a replacement for all the people out there that couldn’t just be decent human beings and not beat up their wives or girlfriends, neglect their daughters or abuse their own kids.

  Kicking and punching the crap out of the bag down in the basement, Liam was berating himself for fucking things up so royally with Rox. He should have told her about Jon, but he was afraid she would do exactly what she had done tonight. That she would run off and leave without thinking about her safety. He wanted to get confirmation, living, breathing confirmation that he had actually been locked up. Putting off getting someone to go down there was another one of his mounting mistakes when it came to doing the right thing by Rox.

  The smell of the leather as he landed punch after punch filled the basement. He’d only been down there minutes and he was already sweating. The screw-up with the pregnancy test, that was his own fucked up past coming to haunt him. Palimony be damned, Yvonne had seriously fucked with his head when it came to trusting a woman and her being pregnant. And he’d let her turn what should have been a happy moment into something ugly. And by letting her get in his head and not putting it on straight, he’d driven Rox away. She wasn’t even pregnant.

  That little light feeling in his chest that radiated out to his fingers when he’d thought of her carrying his child was shut down and shut up the moment he thought back to the trap that had been laid for him before. Rox being pregnant still made him want to shout about it from the rooftops, even more so now. If she was pregnant, at least he would still be connected to her by a tie that would bind them together forever—a child. A child that would have Rox’s spunk and his penchant for problem-solving—current situation notwithstanding. They’d have to spend time together and he might have had a chance to win her back. He should have never even doubted her, but that tiny voice that sounded a lot like Luc’s kept telling him to be cautious. And look where it got him!

  The intercom buzzer went off three times, so he stopped punching the bag and held onto it trying to catch his breath. Then a sharp noise that sounded like a scream, shot through the basement. Throwing off his boxing gloves he ran upstairs, taking them three at a time. He wrenched open the front door and everything sounded quiet. Something didn’t feel right, he could feel it in his stomach. That pit of anxiousness and uncertainty was getting deeper by the minute.

  Making his way down the long driveway, the gate finally in view, he saw Rox’s bike and took off running. Hitting the button to open it, he saw the bike on its side right outside of the gate and looked around, seeing nothing else. He glanced at the keypad and saw it had bloody fingerprints on it.

  Rox! Something had to have happened, she wouldn’t have left her bike like that and if she were in an accident she wouldn’t have let them take her without sending someone to tell him. Pulling out his phone, he activated the find my phone app he’d installed on Rox’s phone. He’d ask for forgiveness later, but right now he knew something was wrong and he needed to find her. He saw the little pinging dot gettin
g farther and farther away from him. Running back up to the garage, he grabbed his keys and jumped into his car, gunning the engine as he peeled out of the driveway. Burning rubber and tire marks marred the stone as he peeled out and began following the blinking dot.

  He called the police while on the way.

  “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

  “I’d like to report a kidnapping.”

  “Who is it that’s been kidnapped?”

  “My girlfriend.” He took a sharp turn to get onto the freeway to continue tracking the dot.

  “Who’s taken her?”

  “I think it was her ex.”

  “You think it was her ex?”

  “Yes, we got into a fight and she stormed out. She got on her motorcycle and left, but it was outside the gate when I went to look for her.”

  “And how do you know she’s been kidnapped?”

  “I don’t know, but I suspect. There were bloody fingerprints on the keypad to the gate.” He was getting out of range. The dot signaling the phone’s location disappearing and reappearing as he got within the radius it could track. And every time it did his heart jumped up into his throat.

  “Where do you think she’s been taken?”

  “I don’t know. I’m tracking her phone now. She’s moving.”

  “Okay, sir. Can you give us more information? Do you know who took her? What they were driving?”

  He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “It would be her ex, Jon Hollis. All I know is she stormed out and her bike is by the front gate and she’s gone.”

  “What if she had her ex pick her up?”

  “She didn’t! She wouldn’t do that. He’s supposed to be in jail for attacking her. I’m in the car right now trying to track her down. I’m following the tracker I have on her phone, but she’s getting out of range.” He changed lanes to take an exit that seemed to be closer to where the dot was headed.