She shifted and crossed her legs Indian-style.
“Then…I don’t know… He just went nuts. I told them both to leave and threatened to call the cops. I went into the kitchen to get my phone, and I heard my front door open and close. I thought they were gone. But when I came into the living room, Trip was still there. His eyes were so crazed, you know. He went into attack mode. One minute he was just standing there, and the next minute he punched me so hard I fell to the floor with stars in my eyes. He then started kicking me and punching me. God, I tried to protect myself. He then pulled me up by my hair and…” She sighed.
“Baby, you don’t have to tell me now.”
She nodded and looked at me, with tears forming in her eyes.
“Yes, I do, because I wanted to call you so badly. I know you don’t want me to protect you, but I was trying to do that. I felt myself blacking out as he was trying to force himself on me while his hands were wrapped around my neck. I kneed him in the balls and tried to run for my room, when he threw me down and kicked me in the chest and punched me. The next thing I remember is Mimi calling my name and screaming in the phone for an ambulance.”
I frowned.
“I called every hospital and even had Alex call a friend of his on the police force to see if anything had been reported with your name or his.”
She took a deep breath and then shrugged.
“Mimi’s dad is an ER doctor. I had her cancel the call. Then she took me to him directly. He signed me in as Mimi, but I didn’t report the attack. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t.”
“Don’t do that again, baby. No matter what, call the cops. Okay? That mother fucker could have killed you or raped you…Wait. He didn’t rape you, did he?” I felt my anger rising.
She shook her head frantically. “No, he didn’t. And I know it was poor judgment to not call the cops. But I thought it would make matters worse, and he would have come after me if I had him arrested. And I didn’t want to call you for my own selfish reasons.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mason, I knew if you would have seen what he did to me that day, you would have gone after him. There’s no telling what you would have done.”
“I can tell you what I would have done, angel. He would have disappeared without a trace.”
“Exactly, I didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t want you to go to jail or get into trouble because of me. So I figured it would be better to see me when I’d healed a little. Then you wouldn’t be that mad.”
I put her face in my hands and caressed her cheek with my thumbs.
“Baby, I want you to realize something, okay? I’ve been trained by the best these United States has to offer. I know how to get rid of someone without a trace, and no one is any the wiser.”
I kept my eyes on her for effect, and she said in a small voice, “Is that why they call you Reap?”
I smiled.
“In a way, yes. But you have to understand that you waiting to tell me didn’t save his life. I still could have killed him, baby. I could have chalked it up to cage fighting. I could have easily broke his neck and been done with it. It’s not unheard of, really. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”
Her eyes got big, but she didn’t say anything else.
I took a few deep breaths and said to her, “If I thought Travis was a complete threat to you, then yes, I would have taken care of him. But I know he’s not, which is why I beat the shit out of him in front of everyone and then threatened his life. The fight was a warning, if you will. I’m giving him an opportunity for redemption.”
She smiled for the first time in a while.
“How admirable of you.”
I shrugged, amused at my own self.
“It’s just the kind of guy I am.”
“Well, wait. What if he would have won the fight? I mean, the way he had you on the floor…”
I leaned in to put a chaste kiss on her lips. “Angel, in no way was I in danger. I wanted him to gloat a little, to be cocky. When you showed up, he did just that.”
“What did he say to you?”
“I don’t remember really. Something about how he couldn’t wait for you two to celebrate tonight, that he was going to fuck you senseless; something like that.”
She looked at me skeptically. I really didn’t remember everything he said, but I told her what I thought he said. She asked me, as I knew she would, “What did you say to him that made him charge at you?”
“Oh, I don’t remember.”
I didn’t. Well, not verbatim, anyway.
Okay, maybe I did, and she knew it. “Bullshit, Mason. You are Grade A, macho-alpha male. You remember exactly what you said.”