It didn’t. She was still very much rattled by closing time, the one thought crawling through her mind was that if he knew where she worked then it more than likely meant he knew where they lived. Suddenly the conversation she had with Jenna a month ago about telling Dominic about Alex didn’t seem like such a bad idea now. In fact, it was imperative that she do so now before things spiraled out of her control. Yes, she resolved silently, cleaning out her locker and brusquely shoving her items in her bag. She was going to tell him tonight; as soon as she returned to the mansion she would call him.
“You can head out, girls!” Carver called from the back office.
“Sweet! I’ll see you later, guys. Got a hot date with Spence tonight.” Brenda waved goodbye, her bag in hand, and raced for the car waiting for her outside.
“You coming, Eden?” April asked from the doorway, Maria a few feet from the front entrance.
“Yeah, you guys go ahead. I’ll be right behind you,” she said with a small smile, tugging her hair down from the messy bun and running soothing fingers against her sore scalp.
“Alright, girl. Great work tonight.”
“You too. And thanks again for—”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing you wouldn’t have done for me. We all look out for each other. I’ll see tomorrow.”
“Yeah, tomorrow.”
God, she needed a shower. But first she needed to find the keys to her car, otherwise that shower was going to be only wishful thinking. After some vigorous searching, her bottomless bag finally yielded her set of keys. Checking the clock on the wall, Eden saw how late it was and sighed.
“Hey, Carver, I’m heading out!”
“Alright, almost done. I’ll close up.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sure thing.”
One o’clock in the morning brought with it a cool, yet warm breeze attributed with a summer night. The breeze felt good against her sticky, fevered skin, but with that shower sounding more and more appealing, she bounded for her car, too preoccupied that she didn’t notice him until he shoved her against her car.
“Didn’t think you’d see me again, huh, you stupid bitch?” He was strong despite his frail appearance, strong enough to subdue her attempts to free herself. “Scream and I’m going smash your head against this car,” he said, his rancid breath blowing hot against her ear. The hold he had on her arms prevented her from twisting around. Her mind was in chaos, but Eden kept control of her nerves while hastily trying to formulate a plan of escape. “First, you’re going to call your sugar daddy and tell him I need more money. The amount he paid me the first time wasn’t enough. And then you’re going to kick Jenna out of that nice little mansion she thinks she belongs in. Once she’s out on her own, she’ll come running back to me, and I’ll have enough money to take care of her.”
“You mean beat her to a bloody pulp until she does everything you say?” She needed to keep him talking. The good thing in all of this was that he wasn’t armed, so she wasn’t in any immediate danger. She’d dropped her keys when he’d apprehended her so there was no way setting off the panic alarm to alert anyone in the vicinity. “Even if I could convince Jenna to leave, she’s not going to go back to you. She’s done being your punching bag.”
“Shut the fuck up!” That struck a nerve and had him tugging painfully on her locked arms with such brute force that she heard a pop in her left shoulder. “Open the fucking door!”
The pain brought on tears, which she furiously blinked away. “The keys are on the…” she trailed off as the weight of his body was lifted off of her, and she spun around to find Carver wrestling Alex to the ground.
“Call the cops,” he growled in her direction, and though her arms and shoulders screamed for mercy, Eden did as she was told and dialed nine-one-one with trembling fingers.
They took statements, hers and Carver’s, and before they hauled Alex away, they asked if she wanted to press charges to which she replied, “Yes, I do.” For Jenna’s sake and her own, Eden wanted to put his ass away for good, at least then he would be someone else’s problem.
When the red and blue lights disappeared, Eden sagged against her car with a long, wearied sigh. She brought a hand up to nurse her left shoulder, wincing when she touched at the pulled muscle.
“There’s never a dull moment with you,” he joked in that dark smoky growl of his. “You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital or something?”
“Honestly, I just want to go home at this point and maybe ice my shoulder.”
“Let me take a look?” Obliging his request was the least she could do right now, after all he’d done for her in this one night alone. She nodded and gave him her back. He handled her with gentle yet skillful hands, careful not to further aggravate the main area.
“Is it dislocated?”
“Doesn’t look like it. Try rotating it for me?”
It hurt like the dickens, but she was able to rotate it without too much complication. “That’s good. It’s probably a strain, but I would have someone check it out for you, just to be sure.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” she conceded, turning around to face him again. “How do you know this stuff?”
He shrugged. “High school and college football. You tear, strain, and dislocate a lot. After a while you start to learn the symptoms. Plus I studied sport’s medicine before opening the bar.” Yeah, she definitely pegged him for an athlete, as big as he was. That thought incited a blush that made her grateful it was dark enough in the parking lot that he didn’t see.
