The Fight for Us (45 page)

The chief looked around the room, taking in the chair with the ropes still hanging loosely from it. When he approached Todd on the floor, he didn’t waste any time yanking him up as Todd groaned. He was equally rough as he pulled Todd’s hands behind his back and cuffed them.

Todd spat the word “bitch” at Joss as he was being dragged past her and out to the squad car, and when she made it back to Isaiah’s side, he pulled her up in his arms and she collapsed against him. He led her to the sofa, but she stared down at her urine soaked slacks, refusing to sit. Instead, he pulled her into his lap as she struggled, but she eventually gave up, and she nestled into his chest.

“Joss, I think you should go to the hospital. We’ll get your statements there.” Jeffries was watching her.

Isaiah peered up at Jeffries and nodded, but at the moment, Joss seemed just a bit too lost to respond. She was quiet, and he listened to her breathing against his skin, and he closed his eyes.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Joss dozed as Isaiah stroked her hair and kissed her face. She could nearly swear his lips had touched every last inch of her face, but there was no complaining about such things. His mouth was warm against her skin, and even barely awake, she would hum quietly at every new spot he would caress with his lips. She was waiting. She hadn’t really thought she needed to go to the hospital after they took pictures of her neck and the scuff mark on her cheek at Isaiah’s house, but Jeffries had insisted, and with Isaiah nodding his agreement too, she’d finally relented. She was regretting it now, thanks to the uncomfortable gurney she was lying on and the constant sounds that were just irritating the shit out of her.

Jeffries met them there, and they’d taken turns giving him their statements while they waited. It had taken little time at all. There wasn’t much to say really. She’d gone to meet a homebuyer at a house that was on the market, she was attacked from behind when she was standing on the front stoop getting ready to put her access code into the key holder. She’d been forced to drive back to Isaiah’s home, and Todd had dragged her inside. She’d been quite certain she was going to die, and there was no doubt that’s exactly what he wanted her to do. He wanted her to die, and he’d wanted Isaiah to watch, or to find her dead—perhaps he’d left that one up in the air.

Todd clearly hadn’t counted on Isaiah having a gun, and Joss couldn’t say she had either. Now it was over, and Todd was down the hall, yelling like a baby about his broken nose and his balls—which apparently he thought were going to fall off. She really hoped they’d fall off. When Isaiah finally stood from her side, he snatched his phone up.

“Hi, Steph… Yeah… I know, I’m sure they’re worried… Yeah… I don’t know when. We’re still at the hospital, but I don’t want the girls getting home before I have a chance to clean the place up… Okay… No… They need to come home tonight… Harper will feel better if she sees her mom… You know, you’re in my will at his point.” He chuckled, and when the doctor walked in, he quickly wrapped up the call. “I have to go. Doc’s here… Yeah, bye.”

They’d waited for nearly an hour just so the doctor could tell her she was fine—which she knew perfectly well. It didn’t mean her throat didn’t hurt like hell. Her head was pounding too, but she supposed it could be worse. Her nose and her balls could be in pieces like Todd’s.
Poor fucking baby.
When she left the hospital, she was wearing home hospital scrubs for the second time in less than two weeks. But at least she wasn’t sitting in her own urine anymore, even if she did reek of it. She fell asleep on the way home, and when Isaiah led her into the house, he was already on the phone with Steph, letting her know she could bring the girls home.

Joss walked toward the living room, but when she approached the dining room chair that Todd had dragged in there, something happened. She fell apart. It had to have been overdue, and she couldn’t possibly have thought she’d get through this day without it. The ropes were gone, taken by the police as evidence if she were guessing, and other than a couple chairs being out of place and a small pool of blood on the coffee table, she couldn’t even say Isaiah’s home looked any different than usual.

But it didn’t matter. She could see the ropes, she could feel them cutting into her wrists, and she could feel the constriction on her throat as her head had been pulled back. He’d yanked hard on the slipknot around her throat, and it had instantly cut off her breath and left her brain desperate. She’d never known a panic like being unable to breathe, and when he’d pulled that rope back over the back of the chair and anchored it in place, there were simply no words to describe it.

She couldn’t fight against him, because he didn’t even need to hold her in place. She’d been tied to her death, and he’d watched her struggling to breathe with a sadistic smile on his face. Her fingers had clawed against the arms of the chair, and her ankles had tried to kick. She could remember the warmth as it spread across the seat when her bladder had let go, and just as her mind had started going fuzzy and her brain had started buzzing, she remembered hearing Isaiah’s voice.

Now, she was standing with her hands on the dining room chair, and her knees were shaking. Isaiah wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled against her neck with his lips to her ear.

“Go rest, take a bath, just don’t worry about this. I’ll clean up.” What he was politely saying was leave and let me clean up your piss.

She nodded her head as she stumbled away from him toward the bedroom.

She didn’t bother with the bathtub. She showered quickly just wanting to be clean and in bed, and when she got out, she tossed on a warm pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt Isaiah had left on the occasional chair that sat by the closet. It smelled like him, and she curled up on the bed. It was still snowing outside, and as she lay on the bed, she stared out the four-season room window at the white swirls of it coming down.

She heard the front door open shortly after that, and when Harper burst into Isaiah’s bedroom, Joss instantly got up. Harper was sobbing, crying sloppy, wet, nose-running tears as she staggered toward Joss, and when Joss wrapped her arms around her, she started to cry too.

“Hush, baby. I’m okay. I promise.” Harper clutched at her, and Joss squeezed tighter. “I promise. I promise.” She just kept repeating herself as Harper cried, and when finally the tears slowed, she pulled back, wiping Harper’s streaky cheeks and smiling at her. “Come lay down with me.” She pulled Harper onto the bed, and Joss sat at the headboard, pulling the blankets up high on her chest.

Harper curled up next to her, and she brushed the hair away from her eyes as she shushed her. There was a knock on the door, and when Nat entered, she was holding a large glass of red wine. “Dad asked me to bring you this.” She smiled sweetly. “Pretty sure it’s illegal for me to be carrying this or something.”

Harper giggled, and so did Joss. “You might be right, sweetie, but I won’t tell if you don’t.” She took the glass from Nat and then took a sip before setting it on the nightstand. “Hop on. This room is a girl only zone at the moment.” And at just that moment, Isaiah walked in.

“Oh, man!” From Harper.

“
Daaaad
!” From Nat.

Isaiah held his hands up as though he had no idea why he was sorry, but he was committed to being sorry nevertheless. “Don’t mind me. I only live here.” He commented. “Can someone explain to me why I’m not welcome in my bedroom?” He rounded the bed, fishing pajama pants and a T-shirt out of his drawer.

“Girl time.” Joss winked.

Isaiah hummed as he approached the side of the bed. When he leaned down to her, he stroked her cheek for a moment. “Nice to see you smile.” He let his fingers drift down to her neck, running gently over the swollen quickly bruising skin. “I love you.” He kissed her before standing upright again. “I’m going to take a shower. Please continue girl time without me.”

Harper being…well, Harper, she couldn’t quite resist. “You’re neutered, so I suppose you can stay.”

Nat burst into laughter, and even Joss had a hard time stifling it. Isaiah stopped at the bathroom door, turning back and looking at Joss. “I don’t think they have any idea what a vasectomy is. Would you explain it to them, babe? I’m quite certain it would be inappropriate for me to have this conversation.”

Joss chuckled. She had no intention of clearing this one up. It was just entirely too much fun. He disappeared, and she rolled toward the girls. They both looked about as wiped out as she felt. Harper reached out and touched Joss’s throat, and Nat winced as she watched Harper’s fingers touch.

“I’m okay. Your dad’s being charged with some pretty serious crimes.” Joss studied Harper who was watching her calmly and nodding. “We’ll talk more about it tomorrow. Right now, you two need to sleep. It’s nearly eleven, and you both have school tomorrow. Oh! I almost forgot. How was the game?”

The girls looked back and forth from one another before Harper finally decided to answer. “We didn’t play. Well, we knew something happened, so we left with Steph to wait and see.”

“I’m sorry, girls.”

They shrugged in unison. Joss took another sip of wine, and when she rolled back over, Harper was snuggling down into the sheets and Nat was beside her. Damn good thing it was a king size bed. She reached over, brushing the hair from Harper’s eyes one more time, and then she kissed her forehead.

By the time Isaiah emerged from the bathroom, the girls were sound asleep, and Joss was mildly tipsy thanks to an empty stomach and a third of a glass of wine. Isaiah looked to the bed, and his lips pulled up in a small smile. He lifted the wine glass to his lips as she watched, and then he held his hand out to her. She took it as he helped her from bed, and he led her to the reading chair in the four-season room. He set the glass on the small table there, and he pulled her down onto his lap. She curled up as she’d done many times before with her cheek to his shoulder, letting her eyes drift out to the winter landscape and lake beyond.

He wrapped his arms around her, and he exhaled a deep and slow breath. “You know, this is one of my favorite places to be with you. This chair, this room, this view.” His voice was quiet and low as he spoke.

“Mine too.” She let her hand trail around to grip his side, and his breath hitched. When she kissed the side of his neck, he moaned quietly. “I’m sorry I peed on your dining room chair.”

She felt the chuckle as much as heard it.

“I’m sorry you almost died. I can handle a bit of piss.”

“Well, I can handle a bit of near death—”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” He commented.

“I know. I was trying to be witty, but it’s just not in me right now.”

“I can see that. Let’s save the witty banter for some other time when we’re not both reeling from the trauma of nearly having our life together torn apart.” But he was still chuckling.

Rather than stopping at his neck that time, she kissed up over his chin and to his mouth. His hand clasped her cheek, sealing her mouth to his as he thrust his tongue between her lips, and it was only after he’d held her lips to his for many long minutes and moaned into her mouth as he became more and more aroused that he finally broke away with a frustrated sigh.

“I can’t wait to make love to you again.”

The very idea brought up an ugly thought. “Is it true, what he said? That you’ll think about what he did whenever we’re together?”

He pulled her back from his body to look at her. “No.” He studied her eyes. It was nearly too dark for her to see his eyes, but she could see enough to know they were searing into her. “Did I appear to be thinking about him last night in the shower?”

She shook her head.

“I promise you, there is very little I’m able to think about at all when I’m intimate with you. I manage to think about all the different things I want to do to you and that I want you to do to me, but beyond that, I become a bit brain dead really.” He watched her for a moment before continuing. “I told you he has no place in here with us.”

He pulled her back to his chest, and she closed her eyes as she nodded. It was warm even though the winter wind was howling and whipping up the snow outside. He’d pulled the throw blanket up over their bodies, and as she snuggled into him, she exhaled a deep and relaxing breath.

* * * *

Joss was certain she must have fallen asleep on Isaiah’s lap, but when she woke the next morning, she was back in bed with the girls, and he was asleep in the reading chair with his legs propped up on the ottoman. When she rolled over to the clock, it was seven o’clock already. They’d overslept.

The rest of their morning was spent rushing around like maniacs trying to get the girls out the door on time, and when she offered to drive them, Isaiah smiled at her. “You sure?” He’d questioned, and she nodded.

It was just time. Time to live again.

Chapter Forty

“Come on, girls. Get a move on!” Isaiah hollered down the hallway toward Harper’s and Natalie’s rooms. They were supposed to be packing for their weekend, but more than once he’d caught them on Facebook. “Seriously, girls. It’s almost noon. Steph’s going to be here any minute.”

He was actually just ready for some alone time with Joss. It was Saturday, little over a week after Joss’s near fatal run-in with Todd, and when Steph offered to take the girls for a weekend excursion to Duluth for shopping, spa, and hotel swimming, there was no disagreeing to be done.

Joss had been sore as hell the Friday after nearly dying. Her cheek and her neck ended up turning a lovely shade of dark crimson and then finally blue, and now, over a week later, her bruises had all turned to a dark brown color. Her voice had been scratchy by that first Friday night too, and her scratchy throat had turned quiet altogether soon after. He had no idea if it was her throat or her brain at that point, and even now, she wasn’t quite her mouthy self, and he missed her unfiltered comments and unstifled opinions.

He’d spent the past week pushing her limits a bit more day by day. He’d enjoyed more foreplay in the span of one week than he’d experienced in a lifetime, and she had too. That was his only real reassurance to keep pushing. That, and she was close to begging if he threatened to stop. He’d been the one with hurdles to cross early on in their relationship, but they were now solely her obstacles that stood in the path of their future. Fortunately for him, she was a fucking track star in his opinion, and her willingness to let him push her was incredible. It was hard to imagine what this battle was like for her to get back to normal, but he was damn glad she was such a strong fighter.