Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2)(109)

“You look decent, Krista. How do I look?”

From the floor, looking up at him, Krista tried to regain her sense of self. She tried to find her personal power. She tried to remain a human being. But it was all lost. Her world was colored in fear. She could only hope Ben was calling for help.

“If I scream people will come,” she said lamely. It wasn’t the first time she’d said those words.

Jim laughed with a hollowness that set her teeth chattering. “That ain’t a very nice thing to say to your man, Krista. You know I spent time in the clink for you?” He looked her over, storm clouds gathering. It was the lethal Jim coming out now. The retribution Jim. The one that punished. “Calling the cops on me wasn’t very nice.”

“You broke the law, not me. You getting locked up wasn’t my fault.”

“Oh, but it was. If you’d been a good girl like you shoulda been, we wouldn’t be in this fix, now would we? But I had to teach you a lesson, didn’t I?” Suddenly Jim was up and grabbing her by the hair. She cried out before he had his hand over her mouth.

“Don’t scream you stupid bitch! You are mine- don’t you understand that? I love you. I don’t want to hurt you, can’t you see that? If you’d stop being a dumb cunt we could get on friendly-like. Like we used to. It’s up to you, now isn’t it?”

Krista was painfully lifted up by her hair. She hit out at him, connecting with his chest and uselessly battering him with her fists. She heard him laugh, then was blindly flung toward the bed.

“As I was saying, I spent time in jail. A few months, no big deal. But I shouldn’t’a been there at all.” His voice became liquid honey as the bed compressed next to her. He reached out toward her face. She flinched and scrambled away as far as possible.

He chuckled darkly. He moved toward her again. When she tried to scuttle off the bed Jim caught her by the hair again and flung her back. He grabbed her upper thigh, keeping her there.

Thankfully the touch wasn’t sexual. It was still in punishment zone. It wasn’t much better.

“I got’ta work out a lot. It was easy time. Free gym membership, basically. So I ask again, how do I look?”

Krista’s body shook so bad all she could stammer out was a “good” to make him happy—hopefully loosen his grip.

Her mind was whirling, trying to claw through the cage he’d put her in. She needed to get out of this situation. She needed to get outside. To run. She was fast. She could run for a long time. She’d worked on it for just such an occasion. Jim wasn’t a runner—never had been. He had long legs, but if she could get a few paces beyond his reach, she would be gone. She’d make it to the park and hide in the trees until she could get to the police station.

But she had to get out of here first.

“Good? Or great?” Jim leaned over her, punishment turning into sadistic desire. It was worse news than what was already happening.

Krista heard herself say “great” as his familiar smell and horrible memories clouded her brain. Tears slid down her face, eating away her strength. It was impossible to think she had stood up to him once. That she had ever been that strong. Especially in the light of what would come next if she acted in any way defiant.

“Yes, great,” he went on, feeling up the inside of her thigh, the grip painful. “I’ve had bitches all over me since I got out. But I have a woman, don’t I? I can f**k anytime, but I need someone to make me babies. Carry on the legacy. Only you can fill that role. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that what we talked about?”

“No!” she said between clenched teeth, ignoring his fingers digging into her leg. “I will die before I breed for you.”

In that honeyed voice Jim said, “You act as though you have a choice. This decision has been made.”

With that Jim uncoiled. He grabbed her neck and lifted her from the bed and into his face. “You are coming back to Seattle with me. Get whatever you can carry. We leave now.”

Krista scratched at his hands as they clutched her throat. She couldn’t breathe! She tried to kick him, or hit him in the throat, but when he extended his arm she couldn’t reach anything but his tree trunk arm. Her strength was no match for his and her breath was running short. He smiled at her in a demeaning sort of way at her struggles before he, graciously, let go.

She fell to the ground in a heap, clutching her bruised throat, gulping for air.

“No,” she managed, panting. It hurt to speak. “You can’t make me, Jim. It’s over. We’re over!”

Jim bent to her again and grabbed her hair, painfully pulling her halfway off the ground toward his face. “You walked out on me once, Krista. And I let you. Do you hear me? I let you.” He shook her by the hair, her head bobbing, her neck in agony. “You-are-mine! Do you hear me? Mine! Now get your shit, and let’s go.”

So she wasn’t going to be raped just yet. She was being taken. It became crystal clear that somewhere along the way, Jim had lost his mind entirely. He’d always balanced precariously on the edge of insanity, but something, possibly jail time, or her leaving, tipped him over. If he took her, he would probably kill her. He wouldn’t mean to, but he would lose his mind in a fit of rage and probably strangle her to death. Or snap her neck. Or beat her to death.

Sobbing, she knew that she just needed enough space to run. That’s all she needed. It’s the only defense she had. Enough space, and she could save herself.