Fight or Flight (25 page)

He
was there.
He
was right there. In her doorway, glaring down at her. “How
dare
you? Who the hell do you think you are?”

He
stepped inside the room and Emerson scrambled back to her feet. “This is
my
house!
Mine
! How dare you try and keep me out of my own house?”

Snatching her brush off of her dresser, he waved it in her face. “This is
mine
. All of it.
I
paid for it. Do you think any of this belongs to
you
?
Do you
?”

“No.” Emerson’s shoulder throbbed and she continued backing away from him.

“That’s right. I allow you to use all of this!” He punctuated his point by flinging the brush at her. It sailed past her head and collided with the mirror. Shattered glass exploded and a lancing pain sliced through her cheek.

She took another step back and found she was out of space. The room was only so large and
he
was still closing in on her. Emerson pressed her back to the wall and held her breath. When
he
closed the gap between them, the look of rage on his face changed to something more resembling pity.

“Didn’t I take you in when no one else wanted you? Haven’t I always taken care of you? Provided you with food and shelter and clothes and anything else you could need?” His voice was soft and smooth. “Haven’t I?”

“Yes.” Hers barely registered above a whisper.
Useless coward.

“Then don’t you think it’s only fair that you repay some of that hospitality?”

A sickening smile spread across his face as he reached out to run his fingers through her hair. Her entire body recoiled—pulling away from his touch—but with a wall pressing firmly against her back there wasn’t anywhere to go. He didn’t even seem to notice.

Go away, she told herself. Leave this place. Don’t listen to him. Don’t think about him. Go back.
Back to that day in the park when she sat under the tree with Jay. Back to the squat where she slept safely in his arms. Even back to that godforsaken bridge and the bitter cold. Anywhere was better than here. Anywhere Jay was, she’d be safe.

“Now, why don’t we—”

Whatever
he’d
been about to suggest was cut short by the peal of the doorbell resonating throughout the house.
He
looked as though he were considering ignoring it when the sound came again . . . and again. Frustration clearly written on his face,
he
pulled away from her.

“Don’t you move and don’t even
think
about touching that dresser. Clean up this mess.”
He
waved an idle hand at the glass shards littering her floor before stalking out of the room and down the stairs.

Emerson looked around frantically for any ideas. There was no way out.
He
was blocking the only doorway and the window in her room had been nailed shut while she was away. She’d already tried to pry it open . . . repeatedly. She could hide, but
he
would find her.
He
would always find her.

Her mind was still reeling when voices reached her from downstairs.
Two of them; both male and both angry. She held her breath and listened closely. When she heard her name, her heart leapt into her throat, and she flew out of her room, across the landing and halfway down the stairs.

Chapter Forty-two

Em

“I’m here for Emerson.” His eyes drifted up the stairs to where she was still standing, stunned into immobility. This time when he spoke, it was directly to her. “I’m here for Em.”

It took her a moment to reconcile this person standing on her doorstep with her memories of him. His hair was a little shorter, trimmed neatly around his face, and he was wearing new jeans and a heavy winter coat. But the moment he looked at her, anger and fear warring for control of his features . . . She would know Jay anywhere.

She couldn’t remember telling her feet to take her the rest of the way down the stairs, but there she stood, just behind her uncle and staring at what could only be a dream.

“You leave immediately or I will have you arrested for trespassing and attempted kidnapping.” Her uncle loomed over him, but Jay refused to budge. “And you . . .” he spun around to face her, “what did I tell you? Get your ass back upstairs right this instant.”

Part of her quailed and begged to run back up the stairs and into her room, but she wouldn’t.
Brave. Strong. Beautiful.
Jay’s words echoed in her mind, drowning out her own self-doubts.
Brave. Strong. Beautiful.
She wasn’t a
useless coward
. Not anymore. Not with him there with her. With Jay there, she could be all of those things he’d said she was.

“No.” Despite her newfound conviction, Em’s voice still came out small.

“What did you say to me? I don’t know what bad influences this boy has had on you, but when you’re living in my house you will do as I say.”

He
took a threatening step toward her and then another, slowly driving her back toward the stairs. His advancement gave Jay the room he needed, however, to slip in and come to stand beside her.

“Well, that won’t be a problem anymore, then.” He calmly handed her uncle a sheet of paper. “This is an emancipation order. Em no longer lives in your house. And this . . .” Jay thrust another piece of paper at him, “is a restraining order. You come within one hundred yards of her again and you’ll be arrested. So please,
please
violate it because there is
nothing
I’d rather see than you in handcuffs.”

“Come on.” Jay’s hand reached out blindly, and Em grabbed ahold of it. “Let’s get out of here.”

Hand in hand, they pushed past her uncle and out of the house. At the end of the walk was a beat up black Ford truck parked at the curb.

“You have a car?”

“I do now. It’s a long story.”

He threw open the passenger side door for her and helped her climb inside, before going around to the driver side and sliding in beside her. The truck roared to life and Em watched as they pulled away from the house, leaving her uncle—still looking like he’d been slapped—
standing in the doorway, watching them go. They drove for two blocks in silence before Jay pulled into a parking lot and threw it into park.

He turned to her, openly searching her face. Her cheek stung as he slid his thumb over her damaged skin. She’d almost forgotten about the glass.

“Em?” His eyed flicked back and forth across her face like he was trying to delve deep inside her and assess any damage that may have been done since the last time he’d seen her. “Are you okay? Did he . . .” Jay looked sick at the thought. “Did he hurt you?”

“No. No, I’m okay.” She assured him, but still he didn’t look convinced. “He tried last night. I put a dresser in front of the door. He didn’t like that. He got in the room this morning and he was really angry . . . but then you showed up. I think you may have just saved my life.”

“Christ, Em.” With that his face broke and tears slid down his cheeks as he pulled her across the bench seat and wrapped her tightly in his embrace. He peppered her face with kisses in between his words. “I was so scared. I was going out of my mind not know where you were or what he was doing to you. It’s been torture.”

Jay’s chest shuddered with each breath he took, and tears pooled in
her own eyes as she held him close, hardly daring to believe he was real.

“You came,” she sobbed into his neck.

“Of course I came. Of course. I told you I’d never give up on you.”

“After everything I said . . . I’m so sorry . . . I didn’t mean . . .”

“I know. I know, baby. I know you were just trying to help me. You were protecting
me
when I should have been protecting
you
. I’m so sorry that I failed you.”

“You didn’t. You never could. We protect
each other
, Jay. That’s how we survive. We protect
each other
.”

“You’re right. We do.” Jay took a deep breath to compose
himself, brushing away first his own tears and then Em’s.

“But how did you find me?”

“It wasn’t easy. I went back to Greg Freeman, Sam’s lawyer friend. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t just let you go, Em. But I had no idea where to even start looking for you. I didn’t even know your last name. Greg found it on the hospital report. I told him. Everything. About you. About me.
Everything
. He started digging and it was your uncle who actually gave us what we needed to find you. He filed his address on that report he made with the police at the hospital. While he was waiting for the damn red tape to clear, Greg also got things rolling on the emancipation order. He set it all up. He was amazing, Em. Then he started looking into
my
family. I told him not to bother, no one was looking for me and even if they were, I’m eighteen now so it didn’t really matter, but he looked anyway. You’ll never believe what he found.”

“What?”

“My grandparents. My mom’s parents left me a trust when they passed away. My father never bothered to tell me. Over the years, he’s been siphoning money out little by little, but since I turned eighteen the account shifted into my name. There wasn’t a whole lot left, but there was enough to buy this,” he patted the steering wheel, “and to outright buy a small house on the outskirts of the city. It isn’t anything huge—two bedrooms, one bath—but it’s big enough for the two of us.”

“The
two
of us?”

“Of course.
You didn’t think I’d get you out of there with nowhere else to go but back on the streets, did you?” He thought about it for a moment and then laughed at himself. “Okay, yeah, I probably would have, but now we don’t have to. Now we have someplace better to go. Someplace
safe
. So what do you say, you wanna go home with me?”

Em laughed in disbelief. “
Yes
! Yes. More than anything, yes!”

***

After forcibly prying themselves out of a deep, desperate kiss that they both clung to with every last ounce of their strength, Jay finally started the truck again and they hit the road. The entire five and half hours it took to get back to the city limits, Jay never once stopped touching her. He either held her hand, or touched her arm, or her leg. It was like he was afraid she’d suddenly disappear if he let her go for even an instant. That was just fine with Em. She never wanted him to let go.

The whole way they took turns rehashing the weeks they spent apart. Em could see the effort it cost Jay to tell her how he’d chased them out of the squat that night, but he hadn’t been fast enough to stop them from driving away. How he’d collapsed right there on the sidewalk and just stayed there until Ace had come along and helped him get to Sam’s. How Sam had helped get him patched up and gotten him to Greg. How he’d crashed on Sam’s sofa for the past two weeks.
And how the only thing that had kept him from completely losing it was his determination to find her again.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I couldn’t stop thinking that you were in trouble. That you needed me, and I wasn’t there for you. Without Sam and Greg, I honestly don’t know what I would have done.”

“I was worried about you, too. I was afraid you were still sick. I was afraid of how badly my uncle had hurt you. I was afraid of how badly
I’d
hurt you.” Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I was afraid you hated me.”

“Em . . . Baby, I could
never
hate you. I love you so much it hurts. Being apart from you was torture. It hurt to hear what you said, but I knew you didn’t mean it. I could see it in your face. I knew what you were trying to do, and I hated myself for not being strong enough to stop you.”

“He would have killed you, Jay.”

“I know. You saved my life that night.”

“Well, then, I guess we’re even.”

Jay squeezed her hand and brought it up to his lips, where he planted a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist. “I guess we are.”

The next thirty minutes passed quietly in a blur of scenery and the soft, staticky music from the radio. Finally—when Em was beginning to believe the anticipation would kill her—Jay pulled up outside of a modest one story house and cut the engine. It was a bright sunny yellow, with white trim and a wrap-around porch. It sat on a postage stamp lot with neatly trimmed grass and two small flower bed
s..

When the shock of what she was seeing
finally wore off, she turned around to find Jay smiling down at her. He planted a soft, warm kiss on her lips, and then pulled back just enough to whisper in her ear, “Welcome home.”