Page 248 of Cross the Line
“Like Eli.”
“Yes. And, like you pointed out earlier, I have a reputation for locking up rapists and woman beaters.”
Salem nods; her eyes flash to mine in warning before she says, “Okay.”
Natasha exhales, controlling her apparent relief as she pulls out a voice recorder from her purse on the front passenger seat and places it on the armrest between the seats.
Nausea roils in my gut when Salem shifts away from me. She’s too sweet-looking and too tiny. I wish I’d been better to her in Havenview. I wish I’d been a sister to her, protected her… in some way.
“I know you hate him, too, but you don’t have to stay and listen to this,” she tells me.
“That monster is not my brother. If it weren’t for Eli, he would’ve drowned me.” Lacing our hands together, I give her a gentle tug closer to me. “Unless you want me to go, I’m staying.”
Even if I know the things she’s about to say are going to give me nightmares. This is the moment to set the should-haves, could-haves right. I can be better to her now.
***
A warm plumeof ginger and honey fogs my vision as I squeeze fresh lemon into Salem’s tea. I grab Saltines and take both to the couch where she’s curled up with Blanca.
The team is set to land from New York in a couple of hours, which gives me time to comfort her and make sure she’s okay after the interview with Natasha. That’s what it felt like. So many questions with answers that asked more and more. Details upon details that made my blood run subzero.
“You don’t have to look after me, Finley. I’m okay,” Salem says when I sit beside her, rubbing Blanca’s back legs the way she likes.
I nod, pushing down the questions brewing for hours. Right now, she needs to not think about all the vile, god-awful things Presley did over the past four years.
“Can I ask you something personal?” Salem sinks deeper into the chaise corner.
She has one of Eli’s fleece blankets draped over her lap, Blanca’s head nuzzled into the slight swell of her belly.
“You can ask me anything.” Her brows furrow at my remark—a look I’m too familiar with, because I’ve been where she is now.Alone.“We’re friends, Salem.”
“I’ve never had a friend before.” Warm eyes glisten as her mouth twists. “Not a real one.”
“I know.”
“Presley didn’t allow me to mingle with the other wives and girlfriends. I never got to know any of them for real. He always kept me at his side.”
“How did you and Casey... you know...?”
Salem’s hands cover her jaw, half-hiding the blush on her cheeks. “Umm, well, I joined a women’s-only gym class at the country club, and Casey played golf there. I guess we bumped into each other a few times, and then we started having coffee after my workout. One day, he started teaching me to golf, and the more time we spent together... one thing led to another.” The suffocated tone wrings my chest.
“Casey was good to you,” is all I can say before her tears burst free like a dam giving way.
“He treated me like a person. With him, I wasn’t an object or a pet to own; I was a woman. Casey wanted me. He loved me like doing so brought him joy.”
“Why didn’t you leave Presley sooner? Why not be with Casey?” I don’t understand how Casey didn’t take her away. How he could let her go back to Presley over and over. Howshecould do it.
“I tried to leave him once,” she says, tear-bludgeoned eyes locked on mine. “That’s when he tied me up in the basement and starved me until I couldn’t move. I didn’t have the energy to think or talk, let alone crawl out when he finally cut me loose. I thought he was going to leave me to die in the dark.”
Fuck.
All this time, I’ve called Presley a monster. A grotesquerie. I’ve been wrong all along. He’s everything that is awful. A devil.THE devil. And he deserves to be thrown back into the deepest, darkest pit of hell he came from.
“I’m sorry,” is all I manage through the haze of disgust.
It isn’t enough. Nothing I could say would be.
“You shouldn’t apologize for Presley’s actions. They’re all him. They’re all on him. I lived so long believing I was the problem that I let him convince me I couldn’t have babies. I let him convince me that all relationships between men and women were like ours... except we never had a relationship. It was a situation where he had the power to control me and manipulate my mind.”
