Tied With Me (With Me In Seattle)(96)

I swear I’m going to throw up.

I can’t answer him. I can only stand here and glower, shaking in rage and fear, as he winks again and hops in his Jag and drives away.

Jesus Christ, he just threatened to rape me.

I let myself into the house and reset the alarm with shaking fingers. I take off in a sprint to the back of the

house and heave into the toilet, over and over again until there’s nothing left and my body shivers and jerks in revulsion.

How can someone who once claimed to love me be so damn evil?

When the vomiting has passed, I rinse my mouth and head over to the indoor pool that my parents had built when I was on the swim team in high school. I shuck my clothes, but before I pull my swim cap on, I dial a familiar number on my phone and wait for an answer.

“Hull,” he answers. Brad is a police detective in town, and someone I trust implicitly.

“It’s Lauren.”

“Hey, sugar, what’s up?”

“Jack just left.”

“What did that son of a bitch want?” His voice is steel.

“He threatened me.” My voice is shaky and I hate myself for sounding so vulnerable. “I want it documented that he was here.”

“Did you record it, Lo?”

“No. I wasn’t expecting it. He’s been an * in the past, but this is the first time he’s come out and threatened me since he . . .” I pace beside the pool, unable to finish the sentence.

“That’s because I put the fear of God and jail time in him.” He’s quiet for a moment. “Is there anything you need?”

I laugh humorlessly and shake my head. “Yeah, I need my * ex to go away. But for now I’ll settle for a swim.”

“Keep your alarm on. Call me if you need me.”

“I will. Thanks, Brad.”

“Anytime, sugar.”

We hang up and I tuck my long auburn hair into my swim cap and then dive into the Olympic-size pool. The warm water glides over my naked skin and I begin the first of countless laps, back and forth across the pool.

Swimming is one of two things in this world I do really well, and it clears my head.

I do some of my best thinking in the pool.

Is all of this worth it? I ask myself. When I married Jack almost five years ago, I was convinced that he was

in love with me and that we’d be together forever. He’d been on my swim team in college. He was handsome and charming.

And unbeknownst to me, he’d been after my money all along.

My parents were still alive then, and even they had fallen for his charm. My father had been a brilliant businessman, and had done all he could to convince me to have Jack sign a prenuptial agreement so Jack couldn’t

stake any claim to my inheritance.

But blind with love and promises of forever, I had stood my ground and insisted that a prenup was unnecessary.

My dad would lose his mind if he knew what was happening now. If only I’d listened to him!

I tuck and roll, then push off the wall, turning into a backstroke.

The small amount of money that Jack is trying to lay claim to is nothing compared to the money I have that

Jack knows nothing about. Since our legal separation, I’ve become very successful in my career as an author, but I wasn’t lying when I told Ty that it’s not about the money.

This is my heritage. My family worked hard for this land, for the wealth they amassed, and Jack doesn’t deserve a f*cking dime of it. That’s why the divorce took so long. I fought him with everything in me to ensure that

he didn’t get his greedy hands on my family’s money.

In the end he won a small settlement that all of the lawyers talked me into.

Jack wasn’t happy.

I push off the edge of the pool and glide underwater until I reach the surface and then move into a front crawl.

After my parents died in a car accident just over two years ago, Jack made it clear that he didn’t love me,

had been sleeping around since we were dating, but expected me to keep him in his comfortable lifestyle.

And when I threw a fit and kicked him out, he slammed me against the wall and landed a punch to my stomach, certain to avoid bruising me, before he left.

Thanks to threats from Brad, and Jack knowing how well-known I am in this town, he hadn’t bothered me since.

And now he’s threatening to rape me.

Rape me!

It’s not worth it. Living in constant fear and embarrassment of seeing Jack around town. Seeing the pity in the eyes of people I’ve known my whole life when I see them on the street.