Page 71 of Catch Him
She was a lawyer at Huntley and Partners in the DC office when she first met Garrett. He’d taken one look at her and come on strong. He’d been handsome and flirty and while she didn’t know if dating the boss’s son was the best idea for her career, over time he’d worn her down.
Worn her down because she’d been looking for… something.
They had dated for six months, and in that time she’d never once seen him drunk. A couple of drinks at dinner. Some beers at a barbeque they had attended with some of her friends. He’d always been so solicitous, so thoughtful of her wishes, her needs. He’d been the picture of what every young woman imagined she would want for a husband.
When he proposed, she knew it had been quick but he’d seemed so sure of them as a couple.
She’d wanted to have that kind of belief.
After the wedding, the first sign of his behavior shift was when he started drinking every night. Not a big deal, just a shift from how he’d been. Then came the news he wanted to transfer back to his father’s office in San Francisco. A place where she knew no one, had no friends. When she would complain about that, he would simply tell her all she needed was him.
They argued about her working. They both agreed now that she was married to him, she couldn’t continue to work for his father. Any advancement in her career would feel like favoritism. However, he didn’t want her to find a job at all. Insisted that she needed to focus on taking care of him. There were outbursts where he would yell at her at the top of his voice, a tone he’d never once used with her while they were dating.
It was as if she’d dated one man and married another.
Call after call, Dec would ask her how she was doing. If she was settling in. If she was happy.
Call after call, she would lie. She didn’t even know why, other than it was embarrassing to admit she’d made such a colossal mistake. And of course there was always this idea that she could fix it. Make it better.
After all, Garrett loved her. He said it all the time.
The night it happened she was late getting home. She had defied his wishes and gone on a job interview. Something she was sure she could convince Garrett would be okay. Yes, money wasn’t an issue for either of them, but she’d never felt comfortable not having some kind of purpose. Besides, a job might lead to making friends. She’d taken an interview with the Public Defender’s office, something she thought would be an interesting challenge.
When she’d told him where she’d been, he’d been furious. Furious and out of control. That first hit, a backhand across her face, had been as shocking as anything she had ever known in her life. It was as if her brain couldn’t process what was happening, which had prevented her from running away immediately. She’d needed that moment to figure out her husband, the man she’d married, had just hit her.
A moment that cost her a cracked jaw, two broken ribs, and a fractured right arm.
All the while he shouted and screamed at her that she was his possession. She would do what he told her to. When he told her to do it. His very own toy and he was going to play with her any way he liked.
She’d had to wait until he passed out before she could crawl, literally crawl out of the house, and down the street where she called for an ambulance.
Mary remembered every inch of that journey. Trying to get to her feet, trying to breathe through the pain in her side. All the while wondering, what had she done? Who had she married? How could she not have seen what he really was?
You know why.
Mary blinked and suddenly the memory was gone. The coffee was done and she poured a cup and sat at the kitchen table, wondering if she was ever going to admit the truth. To herself at least.
She heard some noise from the front of the house, and a minute later she knew he was standing at the doorway of the kitchen. She always knew when it was Flynn. She couldn’t tell if it was his smell or his essence or something inside her that justknewhim.
“Morning, Mary.”
“Flynn,” she said tightly.
They hadn’t been doing well, she realized. Not since he came with Dec to see her in the hospital. If it was possible, that moment had been even worse than the night of the attack. There had been no hiding anything from either of them. The bruises were fresh and raw. The cast on her arm hard white plaster. Her jaw didn’t have to be wired shut, but it hurt to talk.
Dec had gone ashen. Flynn had cursed for a solid half hour. In the end she told them she just wanted to go home.
Her home.
Since then, anytime Flynn was in her presence he was walking on eggshells. Like she was some little china doll that had been fractured and glued back together and he didn’t want to risk breaking it again.
“Okay to have some coffee?”
Like that. Like he needed her permission to pour himself a cup of coffee because he didn’t want to take any action that might upset her.
“Sure.”
He poured a mug full and topped it off with milk, then made his way to her.
