Chapter 10: Jocelyn
I woke up the next morning to find my entire body hurt. I moaned. The bed shifted, and I looked to my right and into Bull’s eyes. I could see the concern on his face. “Baby, are you alright? Do you need more pain meds?” I nodded. He eased out of bed and went into the bathroom. A moment later he returned with two tablets in his hand. He sat down and gently raised up my head, so I could take them and then take a drink from the bottle of water he handed me from my nightstand.
“Thank you,” I rasped out. My voice was still strained, and it hurt to swallow. He smiled and leaned down to lay a gentle kiss on my lips.
“You’re welcome. I know you’re sore. Do you think you could stand a bath? It might make you feel better.”
“Yes, please. I feel so dirty. That man…” I stopped not wanting to say more. Anger flared in his eyes.
“I know, baby. Let me get the water started. I think soaking in the tub will help. I’ll be back in a minute.” He headed back to the bathroom, and I heard the water turn on. I was lost in thought when he came back and pulled back the covers. He had dressed me in one of his t-shirts last night. It swam on me. He picked me up.
“Nick, I can walk. There is no need to carry me,” I protested. He scowled.
“You’re not walking anywhere for a few days. Besides, you weigh next to nothing. I’m not too old to carry my woman.” He huffed.
I laughed. “No one said a word about you being old. I just don’t want you to hurt your back. And I’m capable of walking. I might be slow, but I can do it.” He shook his head and kept walking toward the bathroom. Once we got inside, he sat me on a stool at the vanity. He quickly stripped off his sweatpants and my t-shirt. Even as hurt as I was, I still couldn’t help but admire his buff body and tattoos. Who would ever look at that body and realize he was in his fifties? I licked my bottom lip. He saw me and smiled.
“Does my baby see something she likes?” he teased. I nodded. He came over and crouched down. “As soon as you’re feeling better, I’ll let you play all you want, and I’ll do the same.” He picked me up and stepped into the tub, lowering us both into the water. It was nice and hot, just the way I liked it. I sighed. He leaned back and sat me on his lap. He kissed the side of my neck. “I put some Epsom salts in here. It might help with the aching muscles.”
As we sat there, he rubbed my neck and shoulders. His fingers grazed over the bite mark on my shoulder. I hissed, and he froze. “I’m sorry. I forgot it was there. I know last night was traumatic, Jocelyn, but do you want to talk about it? You told us the bare facts of what happened, but I want to know every detail from the time you realized someone was in the house, until you passed out.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to think about it, but I knew I needed to talk it out and not hold it inside. “I’d gone to bed around ten since I was so tired. I woke up and didn’t know why. I grabbed the baseball bat beside the bed and went down the hall, thinking maybe it was Devyn trying to come in quietly, then I heard breaking glass. When I got to the living room, I could see a shadow and knew it was too big to be her. I swung and hit him with the bat, then ran and locked myself in the bedroom. That’s when I called you. He kept beating on the door and yelling until he abruptly stopped. I thought he might have left, but then he started to hit it with the axe. It took him several strikes to break in. I froze for a moment, and then it was too late to get into the bathroom. He tackled me, we fought. He said, ‘you’re gonna give me what I want, bitch. I’m done waiting.’ At one point, he tore off my underwear and then choked me. Like I told you last night, right before I passed out, I thought I heard motorcycles.”
“Did you recognize the voice or see his face?”
“He had some kind of mask over his face. As for his voice, it was vaguely familiar, but I’m not sure why. I was so scared, Nick. I thought I was gonnadie. All I could think about was you and that if I reached you, everything would be all right.” My voice hitched as I took a shuddering breath. He kissed my cheek.
“It’s all right, baby. Don’t push yourself. I promise you we’ll find out who did this to you, and he’ll pay. We didn’t file a report with the police. I doubt they could find him, anyway. I guess there could be some DNA, but I prefer this to be handled by the Warriors. If you want me to call the cops, I will.”
“No, I don’t want them called. I don’t want anyone else to know what happened.”
“Okay, we’ll keep it between us.”
“Where’s Devyn?”
“She stayed with Ace last night. She went over to the house this morning to supervise the guys loading your stuff. Anything you didn’t want will be picked up on Monday for donation.”
“I’ll need to clean the house before we hand it back to the landlord. I want to get my deposit back.”
He frowned. “You won’t be doing anything. If it needs cleaning, I’ll have a cleaning service do it. You need to heal, Jocelyn. Nothing strenuous for you and cleaning is strenuous. That includes you taking a few days off from work.”
“Nick, I can’t miss work.”
“Yes, you can. When we get out of here, we need to call Lloyd. I know you don’t want anyone to know about this, but he needs to know. Because when you go back to work, you’ll have escorts.”
I looked over my shoulder at him in surprise. “Escorts? What in the world for, Nick? Do you think someone will try to grab me at work?”
“Not if he’s smart, he won’t, but I’m taking no chances, Jocelyn. You were almost taken from me last night. There is no way I can let that happen again. You’ll have escorts unless you’ll consider not working until we catch this guy?”
I shook my head. “I can’t stop working. That’s not possible. I need to keep up with my bills. And before you say you’ll pay them. I don’t want you to handle them. It’s my job and I enjoy being able to take care of myself and Devyn.” I could tell he didn’t like it. He was an alpha male who thought as a man, he had to take care of his woman. A part of me loved that about him, but he could get overbearing with it. I had to push back to keep him from taking over completely.
He growled a little but didn’t argue more. He was right. I probably needed to take a couple of days off. Maybe that would appease him. “I will call Lloyd and ask to take a couple of days off. Just until I can get my body back into its usual pain free groove.”
He seemed to be happy with that. We soaked for about fifteen minutes, then he helped me wash and we got out of the tub. Back in the bedroom, I pulled on another one of his t-shirts. It was more comfortable. We sat down on the bed and he picked up his phone. He dialed and then hit the speaker button. After three rings, Lloyd answered.
“Hey, Bull. What’s up?”
“Lloyd, I have you on speaker with Jocelyn. We’re calling because she needs some time off. Now, this is just between us, but last night someone broke into her house and attacked her. She’s beaten all to hell and needs time to heal.” I was frowning at Bull for taking over the conversation. He ignored me.