Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2)(57)

“Eventually, he decided he wanted to sleep and went into my bedroom to do it. I thought I could tip the chair over while he was gone, make enough noise that one of my neighbors might hear. After he left the kitchen, I waited a long time, then started trying to rock the chair so it would go over. And he was there. He’d waited all that time just so he could reappear and watch the hope drain out of my face.”

She’d never forget the way he’d laughed at her surprise. “Later, he hog-tied me and put me in the bedroom closet. He giggled the entire time.” Her physical injuries had been agonizing by that point, but worse had been the knowledge that no one would come for her.

No one knew she was all alone in the dark with a psychopath.

“The next morning, he grabbed the back of my neck and dragged me into the kitchen.” Fingers locked tight in Gabriel’s shirt, she detailed exactly what had happened in the kitchen, the horrible things Richard had said, the injuries he’d caused.

“The entire time he was taunting and abusing me,” she added when she could speak again. “I told myself I couldn’t give in, couldn’t die. I had to survive so I could testify, put Richard behind bars.”

She’d still had hope then, hadn’t known how much worse it would get.




GABRIEL COULDN’T THINK, COULD barely see, his vision a haze of red. He wanted to find the bastard who’d terrorized Charlotte and crush every bone in his pathetic body, pound his face to mush and stomp on his head until his brains leaked out his ears. Then he wanted to bring Richard back to life and hurt him all over again.

Jesus, Charlotte was so small. She’d have been no match for a full-grown male. Richard’s blows had to have broken things in her, and the ugliness of the mental torture… He didn’t know if he could stand to hear any more, but he would. Because if she’d survived it, he could damn well hear it, damn well hold her safe.

He would always hold her safe.

“After his breakfast,” she said, and she was crying now, though she didn’t seem to realize it, “he hurt me again.” She cradled her left arm unconsciously against her chest, and he knew the bastard had either sprained or broken it. “But he made sure it wasn’t enough to push me into a blackout.”

Gabriel forced himself to breathe, the red haze having morphed into pure, cold rage.

“Then he put me in the closet again.” Charlotte’s breath was a rasp, her body shaking. “He tied something over my nose so I could barely breathe, had to focus absolutely to get air into my lungs. I found out afterward that he left the house then, went to have coffee with friends. Setting up an alibi.”

Gabriel clenched his right hand, the hand Charlotte couldn’t see, around the tree branch next to him so tightly that the wood groaned. “The f*cking psychopath.”

“Yes, he was, but he didn’t know everything. While he was out, the home phone began to ring and ring and ring. I knew it was Molly checking up on me.”

Gabriel knew the other woman wouldn’t have simply accepted Charlotte’s sudden silence. “She called the cops.”

“Yes. She directly contacted the officers who’d followed up on my complaints about the stalking and told them something was wrong. She said another student had just told her that Richard planned to come after me and that she’d been calling to warn me.” A shaky smile. “She was lying through her teeth about all of it, but it got them to move.”

Smile fading, her breath came shallower and faster.

Gabriel had never felt so f*cking helpless in his life. “I’ve got you,” he said, releasing the abused tree branch to brush his fingers over her tear-wet cheek. “I’ve got you.”

A hot droplet splashed onto the back of his hand as she said, “Richard came back maybe fifteen minutes after the phone stopped ringing. I don’t know the exact time—my mind was hazy. He came to the closet and told me he’d thought of a new game. How even though he didn’t want me, he knew some people who might, that he’d invited them over for a party with his slut.”

No, no, no.

“It was all lies,” she said, sending knives of icy relief through Gabriel. “But I didn’t know that. I thought it was real and it broke me. It just… broke me. I started to cry.”

“Hell, Charlotte, you held out that long?” Her strength amazed him. “You’re f*cking incredible.” He had to fight every instinct in his body not to haul her into his arms and squeeze her tight.

“I couldn’t do it anymore. I started crying and it was weird. He became gentle, said how it was all my fault that I’d made him lose his temper, but now that I’d seen my mistake, maybe he’d take me back.” Wet words, Charlotte’s voice so hoarse it was barely understandable. “What he didn’t realize was that the cops who’d responded to Molly’s call had arrived right after he returned. They saw him enter the town house, but since they were certain he had me hostage, they couldn’t simply bust down the door.”

Gabriel understood the cops’ reasoning, but those extra minutes had cost Charlotte. “Tell me they got him.”

She nodded. “They made one of my neighbors turn up his music really loud, and then they broke a window under cover of the noise and climbed in. The next time Richard stepped out into the hallway, they slammed him to the ground and cuffed him before he could figure out what was happening.” Her entire body seemed to crumple on the last words, as if it had taken all her strength to tell him what she had.