Exposed: Book 2 MAC Security Series (20 page)

Nodding, he pulled me in for a hug. I breathed him in and rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Pulling back, he let his arm drop over my shoulders and steered me into the kitchen.

“Now that we’ve sorted that…” He tilted his head down. “Time for ma’s food. Man, I love eating here.”

“Hey!” I elbowed him in the ribs, giving him a mock stare. “I cook for you all the time.”

“Ahh, sweetheart, I didn’t mean it like that.” He chuckled.

Pulling away, I huffed and smirked when my back was to him.

“Don’t be like that,” he groaned.

Huffing, I swayed my hips that little bit more, aware that he was watching. Purely by coincidence, of course.

Walking out of Eli’s room, I stood at the top of the stairs preparing myself for what I was about to do. I was afraid that bringing all of this up wouldn’t destroy all of the progress I’d made. I was hoping that it would make me stronger but I wasn’t holding my breath.

Things had to get worse before they got better though, right?

Taking a deep breath, I pulled my shoulders back and walked down the stairs.

Ty was sat on the edge of the coffee table waiting for me, his arms resting on his thighs. I took him all in, the way his back was tense and his hands clenched into fists. He was always so composed, I could see that he was dreading this as much as me.

The step I was on creaked and he lifted his head, I gasped at the intensity in his eyes. I stopped on the step that I was on, not wanting to go any further.

“Ty?” I whispered.

He closed his eyes, his chest moving up and down as he took a deep breath. I could see that he was trying to get himself under control but I was freaking out over here.

A lump formed in my throat and it was all too intense, just too much. “I…I…” I gripped my hands as hard as I could, my knuckles turning white.

My eyes widened when he stood up all of a sudden, walking straight to me. I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up, my legs going around him automatically.

Burrowing my face into his neck, I clutched my arms around his shoulders as he took us upstairs and straight into his room. Feeling him sit down, I lifted my face out of his neck and pulled back slightly.

He cupped my face, keeping his eyes planted on mine. “I’m here,” he said, his voice rough but soft at the same time. “He can’t get to you anymore, sweetheart.”

“I know,” I whispered, closing my eyes. I had to do this. I’d built it up into this big moment and I didn’t even know where to start. “I don’t know where to start,” I confessed.

He nodded and looked away. “When did it first start?” I knew that he knew the answer to this question but I answered him anyway. It was a starting point and that’s what I needed.

“When I was pregnant.”

“Okay,” he gritted out. “What would he do?”

Closing my eyes, I told him. I told him everything that he would do.

How he liked to control me, tell me what to do and what to wear. The names that he would call me and that was all before he had started to use his fists.

“The first time he hit you?” he ground out, staring into my eyes.

“He slapped me for not having his dinner on the table when he came in from work.”

“Son of a bitch,” he swore. I felt him tense underneath me and I made to move off him but he grabbed my legs and held me in place. “Keep going.”

“It wasn’t too bad at first, he only did it every now and again. But…”

“It got worse?” he asked. I could feel his fingers tapping that beat on my legs, a sign that he was trying to stay calm.

“Yeah.” I looked down. “I was so alone, Ty.” I sniffled. “I had no one, not until I came here.”

“Sweetheart,” he murmured.

“Then when I came to work here, something changed.” I said, looking out of the window and into the woods. “I don’t know whether it was me, him or both of us.”

“You became stronger.” Ty’s voice echoed around me as I thought about what had actually made me change.

“It was fine for a while, he’d be nice and want to spend time together. He even took me out that one time,” I reminded him.

“I remember.” He smirked. “That was the hottest cleaning closet I’d ever been in.”

“Ty!” I snorted.

“What? You looked fuckin’ hot and those lips...” He looked down at my lips. My tongue came out on impulse as I licked them, I watched as his eyes flared.

His hands moved around to my butt and he pulled me closer. “Stop!” I giggled, shuffling on his lap. My butt was going dead.

“Okay, Okay,” he said, bringing his hands up in the air. “What happened that day?”

“What day?” I frowned.

“Fuckin’ hell, Kay, the day that you came here looking like you’d gone ten rounds in the ring.”

“Oh.” My teeth sank into my bottom lip, scared to go back there. Not that it was hard, I dreamed about that day most nights. If it wasn’t that day, then you could guarantee Max was in my dreams in some way or another, he was never far away.

“Well, erm…you remember Eli was ill that day?” He nodded his head at me. “You brought us back to the apartment and I still had my vest and belt with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I hid them when you went-”

“You hid them?” he asked, frowning.

“Yeah, he didn’t know,” I said, biting my lip.

I didn’t want to admit this to Ty, it was just another secret that was being exposed and I felt vulnerable. But at the same time, I could feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

“Didn’t know what?”

“That…I was working here.” I mumbled.

“Wait.” He pulled back. “Why didn’t he know that you were working here?”

“He said that my place was at home, looking after Eli and cleaning the apartment.” I swallowed, taking a deep breath. “But with Eli at preschool, I needed something, Ty. I couldn’t stay in that apartment on my own all day. It was driving me crazy.”

“Sweetheart.” He held my hands in his, squeezing gently. “I understand.”

Those two words meant so much more than he would ever know. His eyes shone with the truth and showed me that he really did understand.

“You do?” I whispered.

“Yeah.” He came forward, planting a soft kiss on my lips. “So what happened then?”

I cleared my throat and looked down at my lap, trying to get up the courage to tell him what had happened that day.

“I set my vest and belt out on the bed before I left to take Eli. I’d put them there so I wouldn’t forget them, but I did. I didn’t realize until I’d dropped Eli off. That’s when-”

“You called me,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. By the time I got back to the apartment, he was there…sat in the kitchen with…with…” I sobbed, not being able to say anymore.

Squeezing my eyes tight, I tried to get rid of the images that were flashing in my mind. I didn’t want to go back there and I didn’t think I could tell Ty what had happened. Not after this part. It was too painful.

I could almost feel every single punch and kick that he gave me that day. Wincing, my hand went to my leg and rubbed over the spot where my scar was.

“Sweetheart? It’s okay, you don’t need to say anymore.”

Nodding, I opened my eyes. Glad that I could see his beautiful brown eyes, instead of evil green ones.

I blew out a deep breath, and let my head drop to his chest. I was so grateful that I had Ty now, that both me and Eli were safe.

I couldn’t believe that he had stopped her from working. What kind of man did that? Every little thing she told me about her life with him, made me that much angrier.

I pushed it down, knowing that if she saw it, it would make her clam up like she had earlier on the stairs. I hadn’t been able to shield it from her then. I was sat there thinking all kinds of things, but what I was hearing was so much worse than I could have imagined and I knew that the worst was still to come.

She pulled her head off my chest, her eyes filled with so much pain, I could almost physically feel it.

“H…h…he strangled me.” Her hand fluttered across her neck and her eyes drifted off. “It all happened so fast but I fought back,” she said, looking me back in the eyes and making sure that I knew she had.

“You don’t have to-”

“But he was so strong, and then he had me on the floor.” A lone tear slipped from the corner of her eye, trailing a path down her cheek. She was in her own head and I desperately tried to tell her that she didn’t have to tell me anymore but it was no use. “He just kept hurting me and I realized that the more pain I was in, the more he was enjoying it.”

I gripped onto her legs and clenched my jaw. What I would do to that sick fuck if I got my hands on him. I wouldn’t be able to control myself, that was for sure.

“I managed to reach for the belt,” she continued. “I got the baton and was about to swing it when he stabbed me in the leg.”

I covered her hand with mine, she was unconsciously rubbing at the spot where her scar was. She had so many physical scars but I couldn’t even imagine the mental ones that she carried around with her.

“Then I knocked him out.” She met my eyes, a smirk growing on her face.

“You did?” I asked, shocked.

“Yeah.” She giggled. “He fell down like a sack of potatoes.” She grimaced and continued. “Only he fell onto me.”

“Shit,” I murmured. The images that were flicking through my head were making me crazy, imagining her laying there helpless and covered in blood and bruises. Shaking my head to try and rid the thoughts, I shifted on the bed.

“When I finally got him off me, I barely made it in the car and then I came straight here,” she said, finally looking back at me.

She smiled, her whole face lighting up with the movement. Although her eyes still held a tinge of sadness, it was almost all gone now. I could tell, without even asking, that this had been good for her.

Me? I was even more determined to find him and show him what someone his own size could do to him. Men like him only ever prayed on women smaller than them. I’d never hated anyone the way that I hated him. From the first time I saw him, that night that me and Kay had in the closet, I knew that there was something about him.

The way that he had her against the wall when I walked out into that hallway, there was something not right about it. I should have known by the way that she acted as they walked past me. I should have stepped in but when she shook her head at me, I didn’t.