Page 10 of Sweet Doe
"Everything," he says quietly. "Your love, your body, your soul."
The words should terrify me… But there's something in his voice— vulnerability that doesn't match the possessiveness in his words.
"I was going to die out there," I say, my voice still barely audible.
"But you didn't." He wraps a thick blanket around my shoulders, his hands gentle as he tucks it around me. "I found you. I'll always find you."
"You can't watch me every second."
"I can try." His smile is sad, almost hurt. "But I'd rather not have to."
He disappears into what I assume is the bedroom, returning with dry clothes—sweatpants and a hoodie that are clearly meant for someone much larger than me. They'll be warm, though, and right now warmth is more important than a proper fit.
"Can you change by yourself, or do you need help?" The question catches me off guard. I had expected him to strip me of my clothes, and force me limb my limb into the new ones.
"I can do it." My hands are still shaking, but I don’t want him touching me again.
He turns his back, giving me privacy as I struggle out of the wet dress and into the warm, dry clothes. The fabric is soft against my skin. It feels nice.
"Better?" he asks when I'm dressed, still not turning around until I give him permission.
"Better." The shivering is starting to subside, replaced by that bone-deep exhaustion that comes after an adrenaline crash. "Thank you."
"You don't need to thank me for taking care of you." He settles beside me on the couch, close enough to share warmth but not touching. "That's what you do for someone you care about."
Care about. Such twisted words for this situation he’s put us in.
"You kidnapped me," I point out.
"I saved you," he counters gently. "From Alex. A life with him would have slowly killed you. I stopped you from settling for less than you deserve."
"That wasn't your choice to make."
"Wasn't it?" He turns to look at me, his eyes serious in the firelight. "Who else was going to do it? Who else saw what he was doing to you and cared enough to stop it?"
The fucked up logic makes me want to scream. In his mind, he really is the hero of this story. The knight in shining armor who rescued me from an abusive relationship, never mind that his methods involved murder and kidnapping.
"I would have figured it out eventually," I say weakly.
"Would you?" His voice is gentle but skeptical. "How long were you planning to stay with him? How much more were you going to take before you admitted that he was wrong for you?"
I don't have an answer for that, and we both know it. Because the truth is, I probably would have stayed with Alex. I would have convinced myself that his behavior was just stress.
"You're exhausted," he says softly, apparently reading the defeat in my expression. "And you've been through a lot over the last twenty-four hours. You need rest, food, time to process everything. We’re over fifty miles from the nearest town, so you’ll have plenty of time and space to heal up."
Fifty miles. The distance might as well be fifty thousand for all the good it does me. Even if I knew which direction to go, even if I had the right clothes and supplies, fifty miles through mountain wilderness in winter is a death sentence for someone like me.
"So I'm trapped," I say quietly, exhaustion beginning to take over again.
"You're safe," he corrects.
"You don't know what you’re talking about," I protest weakly, eyelids growing heavier by the second. I’m going to lose consciousness soon.
"I know everything about your life." His voice is flat, not boastful. "I know you cry during dog commercials and that you stay up too late reading romance novels on the pay-per-chapter apps. I know you've been unhappy for years but too scared to do anything about it. I know you dream about travel and adventure but never book the trips because Alex thinks they're a waste of money."
Each statement is a harsh reminder of just how thoroughly he's violated my privacy. But his voice sounds so tender as he says it. Like he’s convinced himself he actually cares about me.
"That's stalking," I say softly.
