Page 30 of Hard Focus
Taylor noticed first, leaning close and asking her, “Are you okay?” She nodded, then shook her headandhe followed her gaze with his, a muttered, “Oh, Jesus,” telling her shewasn’t imaginingthings. “We can go, honey.” He covered her hand with his, curling his fingers tightly around hers. He gave her a squeeze. “Right now. Come on, get up, we’re out of here.”
“What is it?” Nelly asked, her neck twisting to look around the diner. “What do you see?”
It was at that moment Jonas looked up from his intense conversation with a petite, dark-haired woman. From the way his gaze locked onto hers, Connie knew he’d tracked her from the moment she’d entered the diner, probably had seen her climbing out of Taylor’s car in the parking lot, since they were parked in front of the window he was seated beside. Jonas glared at her unblinking, his upper lipcurvedin the sneer she’d seen several times when they were dating, always aimed at someone else, never her. Dismissive and confident, he gestured to the woman seated across from him,andshe stood, gathering her purse and scarf.
“Who is that?” Nelly asked, her voice sounding far away, and Connie heard Taylor murmur something in response. “Oh, shit.”
Jonas deliberately picked a path to the door that carried him past their booth. He didn’t stop, something she found herself unspeakably thankful for, but he did rap a knuckle on the edge of the table as he stalked by. Her name hung in the air, “Connie,” clipped and angry, and then he was gone, sweeping out the door and to an unfamiliar SUV. Connie watched the woman hand him keys before going to the passenger side. Jonas never took his gaze off the window nearest her, and the last she saw of him was a reflection of his angry eyes before the vehicle turned into traffic, swallowed in moments.
As it had when she’d learned Jonas’ secret, her mind shifted into a self-accusatory overdrive, crowding her thoughts with accusations and a determination that she needed to make it better for other women.
Jonas raped AudreyandI didn’t know. I didn’t see what he was.
The menu on the table in front of her swam, colors blending into chaos. Hot tears pricked her eyes, and she lifted her gaze to Taylor and Nelly, seated side by side watching her. “I-I-I…” Connie swallowed hard then reached for a glass that had miraculously appeared on the table, dropped by their overworked waitress on her way to another table. Her hand shook, but she lifted it and drank deep, forcing the tears back down her throat. “I dated that man.”
“Connie.” She heard the warning in Taylor’s tone and shook her head.
“No, that’s a statement of fact. I dated him.” She looked at Nelly, staring back at her with a wounded expression on her face. “I slept with a rapist. Willingly. What was it about me that made him pick me? Why woo me instead of forcing me? That might be the single thing that bothers me the most, at night when I can’t sleep. Why me?”
“We’ll never know, lovely lady.” Taylor stood and shoved her across the seat. “We’ll just forever be grateful that’s how it went for you.”
“It’s not how it went for Audrey.”
“No, it’s not. She’s got her own demons to fight, Connie. You can’t fight those for her. What you have to focus on is the positive side.” He gripped her hand, and the heat from his palm told her how cold hers had to be.
“Oh, God, that woman. That woman with him. I should have said something. Anything.” Connie tore her hand free from Taylor’s hold. “She’s like me. She doesn’t know. I should have said something. What if it happens to her?”
“You can’t tell the future,”Nellysaid, and Connie looked up to see tear tracks glistening on her sister’s cheeks. “You can’t.”
“What if he—” She choked on bile rising in the back of her throat. “God.”
“Stop, Connie. You’re here, and you’re safe. It’s like riding in a car after that damned accident. A one-in-a-million chance for it to happen again. I say it’s the same with that man. One in a million.”
