Page 39 of Nightclub Surprise
The bathroom light turned on remotely as I entered the room, the way all the lights in the house did. I found my lower lip had been split pretty good, but it wouldn’t need stitches. Wetting a cloth, I held it to my lip until the bleeding stopped, then headed back into the bedroom to try to wake August without getting hit thistime.
The blankets were a mess as he tossed back and forth before sitting up abruptly, his eyes open and scanning theroom.
“August,” I said in a calm voice. “Are youawake?”
“You!” he shouted as his eyes came to rest on me. Then he looked over his shoulder as if he saw someone else there. “Get her!” he shouted as he pointed atme.
“August, stop!” I shouted as he got off the bed, coming toward me. “No! Wake up,dammit!”
I was only a few steps out of the bathroom, and I quickly turned to lock myself in. When he saw I planned to retreat into the bathroom, he sped up. His hands caught me by the throat. “I’ve got thespy.”
I couldn’t say a thing as he’d cut off my wind. Then he lifted me by the throat until my feet left the ground. I struggled and hit him to make him let me go, but my efforts proved to befutile.
Once more, he looked back over his shoulder as if someone was talking to him. “Yes, sir,” he said, and then placed my feet on the ground, releasing his grip on my throat. “On your knees. Don’t even think about trying to get away or I’ll kill you, you damnspy.”
I went to my knees, gasping to get air into my lungs. Then I saw his feet walking away from me as he barked an order to some imaginary soldier, “Take her tocamp.”
Crawling on my hands and knees as fast as I could, I made it into the bathroom. Closing and locking the door behind me, I took a few minutes to breath and calm down before filling two cups with cold water and heading back out. I found August still in his dream-like state, glaring atme.
“How’d you get away from my men, you dirty spy?” he bellowed as he moved towardme.
Once he was close enough, I tossed both cups of water in his face, and he stopped solidly in place. Shaking his head, he wiped his face with his hands. The look in his eyes had changed, and August was back. “August!”
He blinked as he looked at me. “Your lip’sbusted.”
My chest heaved as I tried hard not to cry, but failed miserably. Breaking down, I ended up on the floor, a puddle ofemotion.
“Baby, what’s happening?” he asked as he scooped me up. “Did you fall and hit your mouth onsomething?”
Carrying me to the bed, he laid me down then ran his hands over his face once more. “Why am Iwet?”
I had to pull myself together to explain what happened. So, breathing deep, I choked back the sobs and sat up. “You had some kind of a dream. Your arm flew back and connected with my face when I tried to shake you awake. Then you…” I broke downagain.
I’ve never considered myself to be weak. I’d stayed in control through some terrible situations since I first became a nurse, but this wasdifferent.
I wasn’t safe with the man I loved. What the hell could we do when he wasn’t in control of himself while heslept?
“I hit you?” he asked, as he sat down on the bed besideme.
With a nod, I answered his question. “Then you called me a spy and started chokingme.”
He reached out, pushing my hair back, looking at the marks his hands must’ve left on my neck. “My God!” Horror filled his expression. “I’ve hurtyou.”
We stared at one another for the longest time, both of us knowing this was too serious to ignore. After a while he got up, walked around the bed, grabbed the baby monitor and came back to me. We were both naked, as we’d fallen asleep that way after making love. He didn’t bother to put anything on either of us as he scooped me up his arms then took me to my old bedroom, placing me in that bed. “You’re safehere.”
He turned to leave, and I couldn’t stop myself as I called out, “Don’t. Don’t leave me,August.”
Without looking back at me, he shook his head. “I can’t put you in danger. I’ll go see my therapist first thing in the morning. I love you. Try to get somesleep.”
With that, he left me alone in my bedroom. And as I laid there, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible had intercepted all the joy we’d found. And my heart hurt because I didn’t know if I could feel safe hereanymore.
Going to my closet, I put on some pajamas then went to Calum’s room. Locking the door behind me, I climbed into his bed, pulling him to cuddle with me. With the locked door between August and us, I feltbetter.
This wasn’t how I thought things would go at all. In my fantasies, August and I would be this perfect couple. I’d dreamt about it many times, about August coming back into my life and us getting our fairy tale ending, especially when I was pregnant with our son. Back then, my biggest dream had been that one day he’d come back into my life and ask me to marry him, making us a realfamily.
That part had happened. But I’d never thought in a million years that we’d have a problem as big as this one seemed tobe.
He’d shut me out. That wasn’t a thing I ever saw in my fantasies. No, I saw us getting along well. But for that to happen, he’d need to listen to me about things—especially important things like this. And he wasn’t doing that. He was taking everything on himself, leaving meout.
