My cell taunted me from the table, its mere presence screaming how I couldn’t avoid Rafe forever. Picking up the phone, I powered it up, and just as I feared, several missed call notifications blared at me from the screen. A shrill ring made me jump, and I slid the green bar to the right, brought the phone to my ear with trembling fingers, and whispered a hello.

“Where the fuck are you?” Rafe’s frantic voice issued a sharp pang through my temple.

Shit, he was mad.

“Somewhere safe.”

“You think you’re safer on your own than with me?”

I gazed around the shop, but no one was paying me any attention. Just in case, I kept my voice low. “I won’t be the prize in a fight. I’m not a piece of meat.”

“What you are is mine, and you’re gonna tell me where you are.”

I gritted my teeth. “I’ll kill myself before I let Zach get his hands on me again. And next time, I won’t botch up the job.”

A growl filtered through the phone. “I’ll spank your ass black and blue if you ever talk like that again.”

As if he were standing over me, threatening to punish me in person, my muscles tightened.

He let out a breath, and his furious tone evened out. “Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”

“N-no.”

“Sweetheart,” he warned.

“Not until you call off this fight with Zach.”

An aggravated sigh traveled through the line. “I can’t do that.”

“Please, Rafe,” I begged, blinking, horrified that I was nearly crying in public. “Do it for me.”

“I am doing this for you!” he shouted. I winced, holding the phone away from my ear until the screeching stopped. “Tell me where you are right now, or I swear to God—”

I pressed the button to end the call, powered off the phone, and gazed at my shaking hand. I didn’t know how long I sat there, zoning out, the quiet chatter lulling me into a sense of peace. Except reality was waiting beyond the door of this temporary haven, and I didn’t know what to do.

Run, or go back to him?

The idea of running, of never seeing him again, broke my heart, but I couldn’t go back while things were the way they were. I suspected he’d taken me because Zach posed a threat. He loved me enough to protect me, but after witnessing his nightmare while pinned under the lethal strength of his hands, after overhearing his phone call this morning, I realized, even if he didn’t, that he still blamed me too.

I stood on quaking legs and made my way to the exit, avoiding eye contact with people. Could they tell how rattled I was by looking at me? Not even the blistering cold could penetrate the dread coiling around my body.