“Yeah, I’m Jensen – come on up.” The voice had suddenly perked up. “I’m on the third floor in apartment three-zero-three.”
I had a bad feeling as soon as the door to the apartment building opened, but I shook it off and walked inside. I had to get my phone, and that meant I had to go inside to do that.
Suck it up, I told myself.
I took the stairs to the third floor instead of taking the elevator; it was really small and made a weird noise when the doors opened. I envisioned getting stuck in it, and that thought alone had me walking up the stairs of the building not five seconds later.
When I reached the third floor and found apartment three-zero-three, I knocked on the door and waited. The door opened pretty fast, and the lad to open it smiled at me like he was very happy to see me. I inwardly cringed because I knew why.
I had flashes of my body rolling around with his during the early hours of the morning, and it made me feel sick with myself.
“Hey,” I said, forcing a smile. “Can I get my phone from you real quick? I’m late for work.”
I wasn’t on shift today, but Jensen didn’t need to know that.
He nodded and gestured me into the apartment.
“Yeah, of course,” he smiled. “Come on in. I’ll go get it for you.”
I hesitated for a second or two, but against my better judgement, I stepped into Jensen’s apartment and allowed him to close his apartment door behind me.
“Do you want a cup of tea?” he asked as he walked down a hallway that I knew led to his bedroom.
I shuddered. “No, thank you.”
I just want my phone so I can leave.
“Here we are,” Jensen announced a minute or two later.
I looked in his direction and exhaled a relieved breath when I saw he did in fact have my phone in his hand. I reached for it when he neared me, but I frowned when he held it up in the air, out of my reach.
“I have to get to work, Jensen – give me my phone,” I said flatly.
“Can you not give work a miss?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
Was he joking?
I snorted. “No, I can’t, sorry.”
His brows furrowed. “But you had fun last night.”
I was sure I did, but it didn’t mean I was sticking around for round two.
I felt my cheeks flush. “I can only remember bits of last night. I was pretty wasted.”
He stepped towards me, a grin playing on his lips. “I’ll happily remind you of what you can’t remember.”
Alarm bells began to sound in my head.
“No, thank you,” I said, and looked towards the front door.
Jensen laughed at me like we were playing a game of cat and mouse, and I’d definitely got stuck with being the mouse.
“Come on,” he teased. “I want to hear you cry out when I make you come again.”
I swallowed bile, not liking hearing someone I barely knew talk about me in such a way.
“I’m leaving,” I said firmly.
He moved fast, and before I could get to the door, he blocked it with his body.
“Jensen,” I said in a warning tone, even though fear was seeping into my pores. “I would like to leave, please.”
He raised an eyebrow and said, “Why are you being so shy? You weren’t last night when my cock was in your mouth.” He winked then. “Best head I’ve ever gotten, by the way.”
My stomach lurched as I tried to push by him.
“Keep the fucking phone,” I spat. “I’m leaving.”
I ran for the front door, but Jensen roughly pushed me back by the shoulders. I fell backwards and landed on the floor with a loud thud. I yelped in pain, but fear drove my body to instantly put itself back up into a standing position. Jensen was on me before I got fully upright, though, and he brought me back down to the floor like a pile of tumbling bricks.
“Get off me!” I bellowed, and swung my hand, connecting my fist with his face.
Jensen’s face jerked to the right, and it caused him to curse out loud.
“Fucking bitch!” he shouted, and fisted his hand in my hair, forcing my mouth to his. “Just give me one kiss,” he growled, and pressed his lips to mine. “Just like last night.”
I reacted with my teeth and bit him, causing him to tear his mouth from me and roar, “You fucking cunt!”
I saw the movement of his hand too late but felt the moment it connected with my face. I cried out, and white dots spotted my vision as pain erupted. I lifted my hands to protect my face because biting Jensen sent him into a frenzy of throwing punch after punch at me.
I tried to defend myself, but he landed every hit he threw.
The tang of metal attacked my taste buds, and blood filled my mouth.
I tried to scream, but all that sounded was a disgusting gurgle as blood gushed from my nose and ran down my throat. I noticed then that Jensen had stopped hitting me, but it was only because I heard him telling me to do something.
“Open your legs or I’ll cut you,” he growled.
Cut me?
I felt light-headed, and his voice sounded like it was coming from all directions. I looked up at him, and I could see him as plain as day, hovering over me, his breathing rapid as the sweat beaded his forehead. It confused me, because my face, arms and chest were throbbing like he was still hitting me.
The pain was immense.
“Please,” I spluttered. “Please . . . don’t.”
He shook his head. “It’s too fucking late for that now. All you had to do was kiss me! You made me hit you, you made me!”
I watched as he began to unbutton his jeans, and I saw he had an erection. It scared me enough to scream bloody murder.
“Help me!” I screamed as loud as I could and fought against Jensen when he tried to cover my mouth with his hands.
I heard a female voice shout outside of the apartment, and hope filled me.
“Help me!” I cried out once more. “Help!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Jensen bellowed, but he jolted with fright when a large bang sounded on the front door. Once, twice, then on the third bang a crunching noise filled the apartment as the door was kicked open.
I couldn’t see who it was, but I heard a female voice scream when a body rushed at Jensen. I felt the weight of his body lift off me, and I was so thankful for it.
“Oh, my God,” the female voice screamed. “Is she dead?”
I made a noise to show her I wasn’t because I didn’t want her to leave me. I felt the woman drop to her knees beside me and push my hair out of my face. She placed something against my forehead that caused me to cry out in pain when she applied pressure.
“I have to stop the bl-bleeding,” she stuttered, then repeated, “Oh, my God” over and over again.
“Drew,” a male voice snapped. “Call an ambulance right now.”
Drew? I tried to open my eyes but found I couldn’t.
“Drew?” I rasped.
She was silent for a second as a piece of fabric was rubbed over my face, and then I heard a strangled gasp.
“Lane?” she cried. “Oh, my God! Lane, what has he done to you?”
I wanted to answer her, but I couldn’t seem to do a bloody thing with my vocal cords.
“You know her?” the male voice asked.
Drew whimpered, “She’s my boyfriend’s best friend.”
I was his best friend when it suited him. At the thought of Kale, I forced my mouth to open and my voice to work.
“Don’t,” I rasped.
She grabbed hold of my hand and said, “Don’t you close your eyes. Do you hear me, Lane?”
I heard her, but my body didn’t want to listen to her. It wanted to sleep.
I blinked a couple of times. “Drew, don’t tell Kale.”
I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want him to know what had happened to me.
She ignored me and rattled off information to the person she was talking to on the phone. She got mad and told this person to stop asking so many questions and to send police and an ambulance because she thought I was dying.
I felt like I was floating, so I had no clue why she was thinking something so ridiculous.
Her tone changed then, and I heard her cry, “Kale!”
I don’t know how, but I heard his raised and panicked voice through my cloud of light-headedness.
“I’m fine,” she cried. “It’s Lane. Oh, God, Kale, there is so much blood.”
Kale was practically screaming through the receiver of the phone.
“Jensen Sanders,” Drew cried. “He was beating her, but we got to her in time to stop him before – before anything really bad happened. She’s hurt, and I can’t stop her head from bleeding.”
I exhaled a deep breath in defeat as Drew told Kale everything I didn’t want her to. I closed my eyes because I was going to need my rest to face Kale and my family when it came time for me to explain what happened. I ignored Drew’s pleas for me to stay awake and drifted into a surprisingly peaceful slumber.
When I awoke, there was so much activity and noise that it hurt my already throbbing head.
“Lane?” an unfamiliar voice called out.
I groaned.
Go away, a voice in my head hissed.
“Can you hear me, Lane?” There was a man talking to me, and he was really bloody loud.
“Stop shouting,” I said, causing a huge sigh of relief to echo.
“Thank God,” a familiar voice whispered.
I blinked my eyes, but only my left eye would open, which freaked me out.
“My eye,” I gasped.
What can’t I open my right eye?
I felt gentle hands press against my shoulders, and with my good eye I squinted and saw there was a man with dark skin leaning over me. He smiled brightly at me, which surprisingly relaxed me.
“What is your name, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice deep and soothing to my ears.
I winced in pain but said, “Lane Edwards.”
He nodded, still smiling. “What is your date of birth?”
I had to think about that for a second, but I remembered the correct date and said, “The fifth of February, nineteen-ninety.”