Keep Me Safe (26 page)

“Hey baby, don’t hate me. Something came up and work and I have to. Please don’t be mad, I swear I will make it up to you.”

He kissed me ‘to replace the one at midnight’ and sped out of the driveway.

I started the shower and washed the makeup off my face. I hung my necklace on the jewelry holder on the wall like I always did and got in. Standing under the hot water made me feel better immediately. I was always amazed at how a shower could make you feel like a brand new person. I had definitely been thankful for that this week.  I stood there with my eyes closed for a few minutes before even bothering to wash my hair. I mustered the energy to finish, praying I didn’t puke all over the place. While being a teacher the last few years, I’d been sick more than I had ever been in my entire life. The number of kids who had come to school sick in just the last few weeks, I should’ve known I’d catch it.

I turned the water off and reached for my towel. After I wrapped it around me, I stood in front of the mirror and wiped away the rest of the mascara that I had missed when washing my face. After I towel dried my hair, I ran a brush through it and quickly shivered whileputting my pajamas on. I thought about using the blow dryer to dry my hair, but I was just too tired and lazy to bother with it tonight. Even if Parker did get done at work soon enough to come back over, he’d seen me at my worst. My frizzy hair wasn’t going to make a difference.

I put my necklace back on and admired it in the mirror. It was one of my favorite things in the world. Not just because it was pretty, but because it reminded me of where I’d come from, everything Parker and I had been through already. To most people, a lot of it would just be typical, new relationship situations. But I felt like I closed a huge, negative chapter of my life and was finally in the best place I had ever been. My ability to put things behind me
emotionally
made me so happy I could scream it from a rooftop. And tomorrow would start a brand new year with the person I knew I would spend a lot more years with. The words he spoke when he gave it to me echoed in my mind.

“I hope this can always remind you that you’re safe, even when I’m not with you. That you’re loved, even when I can’t tell you. That you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and you can feel it even when I can’t show you. You are absolutely everything to me.”

I smiled as I replayed the memory. I didn’t know what I did to deserve him, but I would
never
take him for granted.

When I got out of the bathroom, I pulled the comforter and sheet down and climbed in. I sighed as I got comfortable, hoping for a good night’s sleep. I leaned over to grab my phone and make sure the volume up in case Parker called, but it wasn’t on the table. I pushed myself to look over the edge of the bed and saw the charger still plugged into the wall, but the other end wasn’t attached to my phone.
Was I so tired that I didn’t even remember where I plugged in my phone?
I groaned and made myself get out of bed and go downstairs. Parker had the spare key that I gave him, but knowing him, he would probably still call before coming over to see if I was sleeping.

When I got downstairs, I walked to the kitchen and didn’t see my phone. Just another empty charger. What the hell? I started searching around the kitchen under papers, in the cabinets and fridge, even in my purse.

“Where the hell is my phone?” I gave up. I could find it tomorrow.

Just as my foot hit the bottom stair, I heard a faint noise by my patio door. I paused, listening to see if I could hear it again. Sure enough, a second later I heard the same noise again. I walked over to my patio door, flicked on the porch light and moved the blinds to the side and cold breeze chilled my face.

My patio door was open. The noise I heard was my blinds hitting the screen door. How did I manage to leave it open when I came out here earlier to sit with Parker? I laughed, knowing how many times Parker told me to make sure I locked all the doors and windows at all times. I loved how protective he was. Even though he was serious about those kinds of things, it still made me smile. I was more concerned knowing that my heater had probably been running nonstop since I left for Beth’s house trying to offset the cold air.

“It wasn’t cold when I came in.” I didn’t mean to speak that thought, but the realization hit me so fast my head started to spin. My house was
not
cold when I came in. My heart started beating wildly and a panic quickly set in. “Where the fuck is my phone?”

I walked back into the kitchen searching desperately for my phone. I looked to no avail, so I headed back upstairs to look there again. I searched under the bed, on the bathroom counter, and finally went into my closet to see if for some odd reason I left it in there. I stood in the doorway of my walk in closet just looking at the now messy shelving, clueless as to where else it would be.

“Looking for this?”

Brent.

His voice paralyzed me. I knew it all too well, but my body didn’t allow me to turn around. “Is this what you were looking for, Sadie?” I still stood there motionless, praying that this was some really bad dream. “Turn around and fucking look at me.”

I slowly turned around, despite the fact that my limbs felt like they were tied down with cinder blocks. Dread, panic and even anger bubbled in me. “Wh-why are you in my house?” I stuttered. What I wanted to do was cry, but I’d be damned if I ever let him make me cry again.

He walked painfully slow from the doorway to the other side of the bed. “You won’t be needing this.” He held my phone up and wiggled it before sliding it into his pocket. “We have some catching up to do, don’t we? Especially since it’s so
cozy
in here.” He ran his finger along the top of my comforter and a chill ran through me. This was my sanctuary and he was tainting it by being here and touching it.

I looked at the doorway, hoping he’d walk a little farther so I could run. I could make it to Beth’s house in no time. “What do you want, Brent?” I managed to say it loud enough that I didn’t sound terrified.

He laughed. “Oh Sadie, didn’t you miss your husband?”

“EX husband,” I protested.

“Oh come on, now. Better or worse, sickness and health, blah blah. Remember?”

“Oh I remember. You made sure that was tested when I ended up down the stairs, right?” I was angry and I knew I was provoking him, but I wasn’t letting him do this.

He lunged towards me and grabbed me under my jaw with one hand. “I
told
you that you could never leave me, didn’t I?”

I didn’t answer. Our eyes locked but his were empty. There was nothing there. The person standing in front of me was not the man I married. Just a cold, heartless maniac occupied his body.

I needed to be smart. I needed to keep a level head so I could keep this at my advantage. I reached up and gently pulled on his hand until he let go of my jaw. “You’re right. Vows are supposed to be forever. I’m the one who ruined that.”

Brent smiled and the tension left his face. “See, I knew you were smart. Before we get reacquainted, why don’t you give me a tour? I’ve seen it from the outside plenty, but I never did get inside.”

I took a deep breath. I needed to get him into a place out of the way. I held out my hand to motion to the bathroom. “There’s my bathroom. It’s got a great shower. Like the kind we bought for the second bathroom.” He leaned forward but didn’t step towards it.

“What else?” he demanded.

“If you go in the hall, there’s another bedroom to the right.” I walked behind him out my bedroom door, and he took a right before walking through the doorway of my extra bedroom. When he was far enough out of my sight, I took off running. I got to the opening of the stairs and took the first step down before he yanked me by the arm.

“Well, well,” his breath was heavy in my ear and his arm wrapped around my neck. “This is familiar, isn’t it?”

I panted heavily and fought the tears that were literally being choked out of me.

“Brent, please don’t do this,” I pleaded between choked breaths. “We can work this out.”

He unhooked his arm from my neck and spun me around with a painful grip on both of my arms. “Yes we can. Well, I can. We’re going to work this out right now.” He kept a hold of one of my arms and walked me down the stairs.

When we were standing at the bottom, he looked around. He grabbed one of the chairs from the kitchen table and sat it in the middle of the living room. He grabbed a bag sitting by the back door and brought both it and me back over to the chair.
How did I not notice that bag when I was down here before?

“Sit,” he softly demanded. I knew giving in would be worst thing, but I knew I didn’t have a lot of options. Brent took a zip tie out of the bag and grabbed my arms. He put them behind me and behind the back of the chair.

When he tightened the zip tie around my wrists, I let out a cry. “Brent please loosen that up. It hurts.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” he said with a smile. I wasn’t sure if he actually realized what he was doing. He had done a lot of things to me without batting an eye, but he didn’t seem to completely grasp what he was doing to me. He turned to walk away from me and sat on the sofa a few feet away.

“So what now? What’s the goal here, Brent? You can’t leave me tied to a chair forever.” He watched me, but didn’t make a sound. “Do you want me back? Is that it? There are other ways to win a girl back, you know.”

He threw his head back and laughed maniacally. “You think this is about getting you back? If I wanted you back, I would’ve been at the hospital to take your defiant, lying ass home. Thanks for not ratting me out, by the way. You gave me a lot of time to plan this since I wasn’t sitting in jail. So I appreciate it.”

A popping sound started outside and Brent jumped up, holding the outside of his shirt by his waistband. He pulled the patio blinds back and I saw remnants of fireworks. I looked over at the clock and realized it was 12:02. I remembered that Matt had gone and got fireworks for the party tonight.
They’d be outside!

I didn’t have time to sit here and silently debate with myself. I opened my mouth and let out the loudest, blood curdling scream I could. It only took seconds for Brent to cross the room and he smacked me right on the cheekbone with his open hand. My face felt like it was on fire. One tear ran down my face.

“Shut the fuck up!” He towered over me, angry like I’ve never seen and I had seen a lot. “Don’t fucking scream again or I will end this right now.” He looked around and went back to the bag he brought that was now sitting on the couch. He grabbed a knife and walked back over to me. I started to panic, but he walked behind me and cut the zip tie around my wrists.

“Stand up and don’t you dare make a sound.” He held the knife in front of my face as a warning. As I stood up, he pushed me in front of him towards the stairs. “Get upstairs.”

As we walked up the stairs, I heard my phone vibrate in his pocket. He didn’t acknowledge it so I was unsure if he heard it, but the only person calling me right now would’ve been Parker.

“If you don’t want me back, why are you doing this?” I walked up the stairs as slowly asI could, hoping to talk over the noise of the vibration. He noticed I was stalling and poked a finger into my back.

“Just walk.”

When we were back upstairs, he took me by the arm back into my bedroom. “Lay down and put your hands against the headboard.”

I stood motionless, worried that I may not have another chance. When his grip loosened around my arm, I used my elbow to shove him away to give me the chance to run. I made it three steps before he grabbed a handful of my hair and threw me across the room. The lower front half of my body rammed into my dresser and I collapsed onto the floor. I immediately grabbed my stomach from the immense pain shooting through me.

“Get up,” he demanded.

I tried to use my hand to push myself up, but the sharp pain was so unbearable I couldn’t stand.

“Get up,” he warned more firmly.

I held one arm across my stomach and used the other to scoot myself along the floor. I had to take a deep breath before each scoot, but I finally inched myself there. When I tried to pull myself up onto the bed, I didn’t have the strength to do it. Brent walked over and grabbed my arm, pulling me up as forcefully as my heavy body allowed him.

As I laid down and scooted towards the top of the bed, he grabbed another zip tie from his pocket and used it to tie my hands to one of the posts in my headboard. I felt the panic starting to build again. “Please don’t do this Brent. Please, I’ll do whatever you want, just not this.”

“Shut up!” he interrupted. “I’m not going to do anything to you just yet. We’re just going to have a little fun.”

I thought about my phone going off in his pocket and started silently praying that Parker would be coming back from work soon. “My boyfriend will be here any minute. He’s on his way here. You’re going to get caught unless you leave.” Of course I didn’t know if that was true, but I was trying to convince myself of that as much as I was him.

“Ahh yes. Officer Stevens,” he sneered. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. I took care of him.”

I started to breathe heavily. “What do you mean you took care of him?”
Oh my God, the call he got before he left the party.
“What did you do to him?!”

“I just made sure he wouldn’t be here to bother us. Come on, Sadie. You can’t possibly think that I did this without planning, right? You may not like me, but you know I’m not stupid.”

He was right and it scared me that much more. “So, tell me what you did Brent. Did you hurt him?”

“Oh God no. I have no interest in him. That’s not to say I like his hands and mouth all over you, but he’s not the one I want.” He continued to pace back and forth in front of my bed, lightly tapping the blade of the knife on his pant leg.

“You’ve been watching us? Watching…that?” I swallowed, hoping I didn’t throw up on myself at the thought.