Page 76 of Ice Cold Heart
His whispered comment in the car came back to me. I know it was you. Shitballs. I should have listened to my instincts and stayed far away from him. I should have waited for Marco.
I should have stayed with Cole instead of running scared.
That fear was nothing compared to the terror seeping through my system now. I needed to get the hell out of this place. With a lot of grunting, I managed to get myself to a sitting position as Scott adjusted himself through his pants.
“I should have tried this months ago. Having you at my mercy is a particular fantasy you never could pull off.”
I patted my pockets for my phone, and Scott chuckled as he held it up.
“Looking for this? You can have it back later.” He stuffed it in his pocket, and I started looking for a weapon.
My balance wobbled with the quick movement of my gaze, and I fell forward, catching myself before I hit the floor. My hands landed on the hockey stick laid out in front of me, and an idea started to form. It was fuzzy and out of focus, but it was the best I had.
Even though I didn’t think it would work, I tried reasoning with him. “Scott, this isn’t the way to help your situation.”
“Maybe not, but it can’t get much worse. My internship dropped me, I’m on academic probation pending an investigation, and the police are asking questions some people would prefer I didn’t answer.”
I was having trouble keeping my thoughts straight, but I could see where this was heading. “You’ll go to jail for this.”
“Not quite. I have an alibi, if I keep you here long enough for your absence to cause problems with certain hockey players.”
Cole. This was about Cole? No, Scott had also said he wanted me to remember. Fuck, why couldn’t I think? Why wasn’t I panicking? I was so tired.
I closed my eyes, drifting away, then jerked awake when Scott dropped a heavy book on the coffee table. Who fell asleep in this kind of situation? This was how people got murdered. I was an embarrassment to the true crime community.
My grip tightened on the end of the stick, and I took a deep breath. Cole. He wanted to distract Cole for some reason. And get back at me. It had to be about control. Scott was trying to reassert control over his life in the worst way possible.
I hunched forward and let out a long laugh. His distraction plans would never work because I’d told Cole to leave me alone. My body could be floating in the Trinity River, and he wouldn’t notice. Finally, a choice that wouldn’t come back to haunt me.
Scott’s smile dimmed at my laughter, and he stood up from the couch. I tracked his movement around the coffee table, feeling blessedly separated from the fear that threatened to incapacitate me.
“You never did react the way you were supposed to,” he mused.
His opinion meant less than nothing. Who cared if he thought I was embarrassing or shameful or not good enough? He was a fucking criminal. The truth seemed so obvious. Scott had no power over me.
“I can’t believe I ever listened to you,” I spat at him. “You’re pathetic.”
Thanks to Cole, I understood what it meant to care about someone else, love someone else. I was finished running from the man who’d done nothing but fix what he hadn’t broken, and I was going to try my best to get back to him.
“You don’t know who you’re fucking with,” Scott snarled.
I snorted. “Oh, I know exactly who I’m fucking with. You drugged me and couldn’t even get my pants off. What’s the matter? Can’t get it up? Is it still my fault, like all the other times before?”
Scott’s mouth twisted into a sneer, and he finally stepped closer. “I wanted you aware of what’s happening to you. It’s clear you need a lesson in respect from someone in control.”
I smiled slowly, daring him. “Is that supposed to be you?”
He loomed over me to pinch my chin in a hard grip, positioning himself exactly where I wanted him. “It’s always been me.”
“It’s never been you.”
With a firm grip, I swung the hockey stick up as hard as I could between his legs. He grunted with the impact, then slowly collapsed onto his side making a wheezing noise like a balloon letting out air.
My legs tingled as the feeling returned, and I scooted back until I was wedged between the chair and the couch, keeping my weapon ready. I didn’t want to risk getting close enough to him to grab my phone from his pocket until I had full control of my muscles again. The room still spun and tilted on a crooked axis, and lethargy made me want to lay down on the carpet for a nap.
When the door burst open, I thought I might have been dreaming. Cole rushed in, stepping over Scott’s prone form to get to me. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into this lap, and all the pent-up emotions burst out of me in the form of sobs. Safe, warm, comfortable, I didn’t even acknowledge the others who followed him into the room.
Once I let the emotions run their course, I pulled back, wiping away the wetness on my cheeks. “Hi.”