Turning away from the window, she walked into the small bathroom and turned on the faucet. While she waited for the water to warm, she grabbed some paper towel and scrunched it up, then she held it under the water and began to clean the little crescent wounds on her palms. Her nails had dug deeper than she had realized, and it took a little while to get the bleeding to stop.
Once she had, she dried off her hands and headed back into the bedroom.
Just as she walked through the door something slammed into her, shoving her up against the wall.
Hands were around her neck before she even had a chance to process what was going on, preventing her from screaming for help.
Emmanuel.
He wore wearing black jeans and a black hoodie. He had the hood up and under it he wore a baseball cap pulled low, but she had spent years as his prisoner, she would know him anywhere.
“Don’t fight me, Grace,” he whispered. His hands around her throat were tight enough to make it hard to breathe, but not tight enough to cut off her air supply. He didn't want her dead, just unable to fight back. “I know it wasn’t your fault that they took you away from me, but you know that you need me. I helped you, you know that. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be alive. I protected you, taught you, helped you grow strong again. You can't live without me.”
As he rambled, Emmanuel dragged her toward the window. Her room was on the second floor, they could jump, but they were both likely to wind up injured in the fall.
It wasn’t being hurt that terrified her, she’d been hurt at Emmanuel’s hands plenty of times before but knowing she might wind up his prisoner all over again, that left her barely able to function.
She’d never see her family again, never get to rebuild her life, never even get to ask Matthew if he felt that same spark she did.
That wasn’t fair.
Anger took hold inside her, and she planted her feet and pulled back against him. If he was going to take her again then he would have to fight for it, no way was she going easily. He should know by now that she would fight for her life with everything she had, and while she would forever be haunted by the women she’d been forced to kill, nothing would make her happier than taking Emmanuel’s life.
* * * * *
4:00 P.M.
What was he doing?
Yeah, that was probably something he should have figured out before he got here.
Matthew looked at the bouquet of flowers in his hand. He’d gone with something bright and colorful, something fun and whimsical, and he thought the daisies certainly achieved that. Plus, they reminded him of Grace. She was strong and enduring just like them, but also beautiful and sweet, and the image of her yesterday, laughing as she was on her knees in the grass, smelling the flowers was forever a part of him now.
That was the Grace he wanted to help her find.
That Grace was still inside her somewhere. Yes, she’d had to harden herself, toughen up, her very life depended on it. It would take a long time for her to stop living in survival mode, stop expecting the worst, preparing to battle to the death, and by the time she got there she wouldn’t be the same person she’d been before Emmanuel took her, but he wanted to help her see that didn't have to be a bad thing.
The new Grace could encompass all the best qualities of who she’d been before and what she had learned about herself as Emmanuel’s prisoner.
The most important thing was that she was safe now.
Safe and so very strong.
For so long she had been fighting by herself. There was no one to watch her back, no one to stand guard and give her a rest, no one to hold her while she absorbed the horror she’d been through. It certainly wasn’t rational, but Matthew couldn’t seem to stop himself from wanting to be that person for her.
So, he was here, and he had determined to be honest and upfront with her, let her know he liked her, wanted to be her friend, an ear to listen when she was ready to talk, and if and when she was ready for something more, if she felt the same way he did, then they could explore something else.
It was pure craziness.
Matthew had been so sure he wasn’t interested in dating. He knew how breakable families were, how easily they turned on one another, and while the idea of anything happening between him and Grace terrified him, he couldn’t get rid of this feeling in his gut that kept screaming at him not to let her go.
Maybe the fact she was going to need time to heal before jumping into anything was a good thing for both of them. It gave him the time he needed to get used the idea as well.
As he turned into the corridor that Grace’s room was on, he realized there was no one hanging around outside her room. She must have somehow managed to convince her brothers and their wives to go home. The Bennetts had been keeping a vigil at the hospital, all but moving in here to be close to Grace. He wondered what she’d said to convince them to leave for a while.
However she’d managed it, he was glad to have a little time alone with her without her overprotective big brothers standing guard. He got why they were protective, but it didn't make things any easier. Matthew had a feeling that if they knew what he’d done he would be the last person they would want taking an interest in their baby sister.
He lifted his hand to knock on the door when he heard a scuffle.