I don’t love you.
Thoughts of Kale flooded my mind. His kiss. His touch. His kindness. And I had to wonder if I ever had loved Dane.
“You’re my wife.”
My eyes squeezed shut. “No.”
He crushed his mouth against mine, his hands on my face as he tried to force me to comply. I flailed and struggled against the unwelcome intrusion, trying to fight him off while an avalanche of fear and hate crashed into me.
I drew back my arm, my hand flying out and connecting with his cheek.
The smack echoed through the foyer.
He snapped back, his black eyes glowering before he released a menacing growl. His hands moved from my face and wrapped around my throat. Not tight enough to constrict airflow. But tight enough to exert just how easily he could.
Any coaxing softness he’d worn before had been stripped away, replaced by his true character.
The man I’d fallen in love with completely gone.
As if he’d never existed.
A vile wickedness bleeding free.
His words dropped to a low, vicious threat in my ear. “You really think I’m a fool, don’t you, Harley? Why don’t you tell me why my attorney can’t find a single medical record on Evan for the last year? You think I don’t know you’re up to something?”
And I’d thought I’d felt fear before.
But maybe I had never really experienced it until right then.
“He’s been healthy . . . he . . . he hasn’t needed to go in.” The lie fumbled from my mouth. Lurching and pleading.
I was prepared to tell a million more when I was struck with a dread unlike anything I’d ever known.
Fear and horror and the undying need to protect my son at any cost compounded and sharpened.
Because all I could hear was the clatter of unaware feet excitedly banging down the hall and through the living room. My little boy thinking he was running out to find Kale and his promise of a story.
Oh, God.
No.
I couldn’t let this happen.
It was at the same second Dane bared back down on me, roaring with my answer.
He fisted my dress in his hands and slammed my back against the wall.
Pain radiated through my body, and I cried out, completely caught off guard. Never before had the danger Dane imposed been physical.
He lifted me by my clothing, spewing the words an inch from my face.
“Bullshit, Harley. You think you’re going to get away with whatever you’re trying to pull? Do you know who my family is? What I stand to lose?”
His statement sent a jolt of confusion tumbling through my mind. I had no idea what he had to lose other than his overinflated pride, but I was too terrified to process it. Too terrified to ask. The only thing I cared about were the feet that rushed across the hardwood floors.
I could feel Evan’s presence break the morbid air as he rounded the corner into the foyer.
I felt the second he slammed into shock.
His iPad slipped from his hands and crashed against the floor, and those innocent eyes grew round with stark, cutting fear.
“Run, Evan! Go to your room. Lock the door,” I screamed.
But he wasn’t looking at me.
Redness blistered across his face, a sort of anger I’d never seen my son wear before. In horror, I watched as he rushed forward. His gangly arms began to fly. He pounded and pounded and pounded against Dane’s leg with his little fists.
Scraping, rasping cries jutted from Evan’s mouth, and tears streaked from his eyes.
I knew it was surprise that twisted through Dane’s furious expression, and the man staggered back a single step, his head jerking down to Evan who continued to wail on his leg.
“No, Evan, no!” I screamed, my spirit begging with him to look at me. To understand.
Dane’s surprise turned to rage, and he reached out to grab my son.
Blinding fury surged inside me so intense I was sure my blood physically boiled.
I’d never allow this man to hurt my child.
Not ever.
From behind, I shoved Dane with everything I had.
“Don’t touch him!” It was a scream that came from the very depths of my soul.
Don’t touch him. Leave us alone. We just want to live.
My effort barely moved Dane an inch. But it was enough. It was enough to distract him from Evan and set that spiteful, depraved cruelty on me. Terror rippled through the confined space, crawling across my skin like a shivering omen.
Because I could see it slosh and churn from the depths of Dane’s eyes.
A wickedness unlike anything I’d witnessed before.
Menace bounced from the walls.
Trembling, I backed away as Dane stalked forward.
Frantic, I found Evan’s frightened eyes where he remained across the foyer because I knew, right then, I was in the kind of danger I’d never fathomed.
The movement of my mouth was exaggerated when I shouted for Evan to call 9-1-1.
Evan met my eyes, his fear almost enough to bring me to my knees. But I stood strong, willing to fight for him, the one I’d always been fighting for.