Page 66 of Like Fathers, Like Son
Blaze was never far from my thoughts, because he’d impacted so much of my life, and my future. He’d unnerved me as a kid, he’d creeped me out with the way he’d sneaked around, and watched me, and with the things he’d said to me sometimes.
He’d murdered my father, and that was something I was really struggling to even accept. How could he, a child, have murdered a full grown man, especially a man like my father, who could have probably caused him real harm if he’d got his hands on him.
The kidnap, the rapes, the sheer helplessness of being trapped with him, and at his complete lack of mercy, it all felt so far away now, but I knew it had happened.
Sometimes I felt like I could still feel him all over me, and inside me, but that was just the Blaze effect. He’d practically consumed me with his overwhelming obsession and hatred of me. Was hatred the only thing he felt though?
He’d come back for me, even after he promised to stay away. He’d been sweet, before he turned mean again. He’d seemed like he cared for me. Was I just trying to justify his behaviour, trying to give meaning to something which had none?
Complex thoughts like that were torturing me way into the evening, after I’d had a small meal in the hotel lounge, and gone up to my room.
It was only about an hour later when the phone rang by my bed, and when the reception of the hotel told me who was waiting downstairs for me, I should have said to keep him away, but suddenly I had to see him. To yell at him, and curse him for what he’d done to me.
“It’s okay, he can come up.”
39
Blaze
Sheran.Sheactually loaded up her fucking car, and ran. I had my bike at the house, so I gave her a few minutes of a headstart, then I checked the tracking app on my phone, and headed off after her. I kept an eye on it every time I stopped at traffic lights, making sure to never get anywhere near her car.
Let her think she’s safe for now, but if she seriously thought she was going to hide from me, she was about to learn what lengths I’d go to, in order to find her. There were three trackers on her car. On the offchance she’d found one, or even two of them, I figured she’d never look for a third. As it happened, she’d never even looked for one.
I’d lied about burning her car, but it had been towed away, way back when I first abandoned it far away from the house. She’d got it back when she first escaped from me, and I’d added the trackers the day I moved back in next door. She was never going to be out of my reach again.
She finally went to her room in the late evening, and that’s when I went in to look for her.
The receptionist of the little shithole she was staying in wasn’t all that helpful.
“I’m her boyfriend. She knew I was running late, but I’m to go straight up.”
“I can’t just let you into a guest’s room. I’ll need to call her first.” I glared at him as I gritted out the word ‘fine’, and hoped she’d do the right thing. Two minutes later, I was heading up the stairs to the room he’d confirmed was hers. She opened the door before I reached it, and even tired and frustrated, she was beautiful.
“Anneka.”
“I should have realised you’d find me. You can’t stay away, can you?”
I stepped up close to her, reaching for her face to kiss her, but she pulled away, and there was this distance in her eyes that I really hated. What the fuck was her problem?
As soon as she closed the door behind me, I grabbed her and pulled her into my chest, holding her tight against me. Everything seemed right when I was holding her. The noise and panic in my head dissipated as if it had never been there at all. Had I feared losing her when she ran today? Obviously, because it’s easy to ditch a car and do an actual runner.
“I missed you.”
She struggled and I released her, because it wasn’t like I couldn’t grab her again if I wanted to.
“You ran.”
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself, looking haunted and vulnerable. Deep down inside, I knew I was the reason she looked like that. My actions had worn her down, and traumatised her.
“I was gentle.”
The fiery look on her face was my only warning, but I still wasn’t prepared for the way she slapped me. Her hand crashed against my cheek so hard it jerked my head around, and I staggered half a step before I caught my balance.
“What the fuck?!”
“You. Raped. Me,” she hissed at me, wrapping her arms back around herself as she seemed to shrink back again.
“Yeah, so?”
