Page 8 of Under His Watch

Unsure of what to do with her, I figured I would drive her to my house. As I reached the door to the backseat, I hoped I couldfollow through with what I'd promised her—to help. I’d been wanting a project, but I hadn’t considered something like this. Like her.

4

TESSA

Ifell back against the seat as the man put me in the backseat. He hadn’t broken a sweat, not in fighting those men nor in carrying me. Despite my furious wrestle to get free, he held me tight and didn’t come close to dropping me once.

Now I had a better chance. The need to survive charged through me, and I funneled all that rabid energy into kicking at him. Both my feet flew to the side. My kick wasn’t effective as he dodged to the side and avoided the impact.

I tried again, and again, using my whole body to lunge at him. The need to run, and runhard, wouldn’t fade.

When those men ganged up on me, they overpowered me. It seemed that this man was determined to do the same. I’d locked my mind when those men used me so horribly. It was a dark, numb stasis that I snapped out of the second I heard this newcomer rush up close and beat them off.

Now, terrified all over again at the idea that this bastard would do worse by me, I was filled with that sharp need to fight. To flee.

“Calm down.”

He didnotjust say that. He did not. I flung out harder, punching and kicking to no avail. On my back on the seat, I was overwhelmed with the panic that this guy was going to rape me as well. My stomach revolted. My heart banged wildly with a superspeed pulse that dizzied me. I couldn’t catch my breath, and this asshole dared to repeat that inane command.

“Calm down.”

This stupid fucker. Telling a woman who was just gang raped tocalm down. I glared at him, letting him see the anger in my eyes at the lamest, most idiotic thing he could tell me.

Still, he caught me and kept me in the car. “Calm down.” This time, he said it slower. His voice carried authority, but he wasn’t shouting. He wasn’t begging for me to chill. He wasn’t mocking me. He was simply instructing me to deescalate the situation.

Heaving a hard breath through my nose, I stared at him and stopped fighting as much. Feeling his hands on me—anywhere—was too much. After being raped and violated like that, I couldn’t stand the contact of anyone even near me. That was how strong the need was to run and scream. To cry and drop into a ball of sorrow and anger.

“Get in the car,” he ordered.

Fuck no. Fuck this.I wasn’t going anywhere with him. He’d beaten off those other men, but I didn’t know what that meant. Was he trying to help himself to me, beating up the others just so he could cut in line to rape me? Did he plan to drive me away, hurt me more, then kill me?

In the back of my battered and stressed mind, already fucked from the trauma of what just happened, I knew that being transported wouldn’t bode well. In kidnappings, that was therule they preached at self-defense courses. Never be moved. Stay in one place to be found.

“Get in the car.” He lowered his gaze to my knees as my lower legs hung off the back seat. I saw the indecision in his eyes. He was about to grab my legs and force me in the car, but he seemed to understand I’d lash out even worse if he touched me again.

“Now.” He looked to the side, ever so slightly. This twist gave me a view of his profile, and it showed the same look of anger that facing him fully did.

“Now,” he said again in a low growl. He rested his hand on the top of the car and leaned in without touching me.

The white fabric of his T-shirt stretched. All muscles. He was a brute, a bodybuilder of a tall man. Through the material of his shirt, his tattoos bore a sharp contrast, every line and shading making him look that much more dangerous, that much more of a rebellious bad boy.

He was strong. He could overpower me just the same as those others did. But he was calm, confident, and taking charge.

“Get in the car. I said I would help you.”

How the fuck can I trust you? How the hell do I know what that means?

While I had the evidence of him scaring off those men and intervening, I had no clue who this guy was. I’d never seen him before, and I would’ve remembered a masculine face like his, hard angles, rugged features, faint beard, and all. His light blue eyes were strikingly bright, piercing me with the demand to look at him.

He clenched his teeth, tightening his jaw, and it emphasized the ink he had up along his neck. Every inch of him was hard, toned muscles, and I shrank back further from him. This man could kill me with a simple twist of his hands. Until I knew he meant what he said, that he’d help me, I couldn’t get over the gut-wrenching anxiety at the thought of his easily killing me.

“Dammit,” he growled, looking away as though the sight of me disgusted him. He was furious, but notatme. “Get in the car.”

He seemed mad but in control of his anger. It wasn’t a gentleness, but something similar.

I scooted back over the seat, feeling the smear of blood that would likely cover the cushion. He didn’t care. He didn’t flinch, waiting until my legs were further in the car.

I was insane to believe him. I would be crazy toevertrust another man on this planet after what happened to me in the alley. But I recognized that he would get his way. He knew it, too, waiting me out. I had no chance to get around him. I couldn’t fight my way to freedom. Glaring at him and praying he’d drive me to the cops, I obeyed and kept scooting all the way back into the car.

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