Page 78 of Hurts So Good
“Bitch! Let’s have brunch tomorrow. My treat!” Mia cheerfully suggested through the phone. “We’ll go to Irish place that you like for the full Irish breakfast plate you’ve got me hooked on.”
“Sounds good to me. What time?” Avery asked, cheering up at the suggestion.
“Um, well I have a date tonight, just to piss the evil sister off since I left earlier than the others from the destination fuckery she has going on. So, let’s say eleven ish?”
“That works. Go get ready for your date. I’m going to top off my glass of wine and take that and my coochie board thing and go soak in a bubble bath and hate you for a few hours.”
“Love you bitch!” Mia laughed before hanging up the phone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Avery soaked in the tub for an hour, sipping her wine, listening to the music coming from her phone that she had set up to relax and nibbled on the snack tray. She had her head leaned back and her eyes closed as she just let herself float away trying to accept that what happened with Knight was amazing for her, but not for him.
Letting the tears flow freely, she accepted the fact she was probably going to be old and alone. Maybe she should start looking into getting a cat or a dog. At least then someone would probably be happy to see her now and then.
As she’s getting out of the tub, her doorbell rang. Remembering the last time she answered the door in her robe, she smirked thinking it was Knight. Maybe she could torture his ass before she shuts the door in his face.
Avery opened the door and looked around stunned when there was no one at the front door. She stepped back to close the door and froze when she looked down at the door stoop.
She screamed as she stumbled back seeing the mutilated body of her neighbor’s young kitten lying there. She slammed the door and covered her face with her hands. Who is doing this to her? Could it be one of the guys she’d gone on a date with that got angry because she didn’t put out?
It seemed extreme to her. Realizing she needed to call the cops, she headed back to her room to grab her phone. She went to her nightstand and had picked up her phone when she felt the ‘whoosh’ from behind.
Before she could react, she was grabbed from behind and thrown on her bed. When she went to move to get up, she was pushed back down on the bed by her assailant as he straddled her hips and started hitting her.
When she started crying, begging for her life, the hits stopped. The assailant started moving his hands down from her face to her neck, encircling his hands around her neck, squeezing slightly until she gripped his hands as he choked her.
After a few seconds of the tightness he let go of her neck, moving his hands down to her chest, throwing open her robe. Fuck! She was naked under the robe.
When he gripped her breasts and squeezed tight, she cried out from the pain. When the assailant’s hands started to move lower, he had to move off of her to get where she assumed he wanted to go.
“Umph.”
Avery kicked out when the assailant stood up beside her bed and started to reach for her legs. She kicked out again as he stumbled back and managed to scramble off her bed. She reached for her lamp and smashed it over the attacker’s head and ran out of the bedroom when her attacker fell to the floor.
The only good thing she remembered, beside her robe, was her phone and her keys, which were by her front door. Having forgotten the cat, she stumbled over the cat’s body as she ran out of the house to her car.
Avery started up her car and pulled out of her driveway and sped away, not sure where she was going to go. The only place she could think of was “Irish Bristo”. When she arrived there, she stumbled into the closing restaurant and passed out.
Knight pulled his ringing phone out of his jacket. He was standing in his sister’s kitchen with Donovan and Ellis.
“Do you want to tell me why Ms. Avery is in my restaurant battered and broken and begging me not to call you?”
“Aunt Alana? What do you mean battered and broken? What the hell happened?” Knight raised his voice in alarm.
“I don’t know. Lania was closing the front down, letting the last customer out of the restaurant when Avery came running into the restaurant begging for help. When Laney told me to call you, she begged us not to. Saying she didn’t want to be a burden since she’s not heard from you all week. Hold on Laney is coming over.”
“Devlin?”
“What’s going on Laney. What happened?” Knight asked, trying hard to keep his voice calm.
“Where are you? Whoever you’re playing with right now, you need to put her down and come deal with Avery. Mum is beside herself. She won’t even let us call the police. Some asshole shattered her car windows and slashed all her tires earlier in the week. Then tonight they left a dead, mutilated cat on her doorstep. When she went into her room to get her phone to call the police, she was attacked. She’s shaken, Devlin. She’s blaming herself, thinking it’s one of those horrid dates she went on getting back at her for not putting out.”
Knight saw red. Blood red. “I’m in Boston with Donovan and Ellis. Delaney was attacked last weekend. We’ve been trying to help the crew here to find out who did it. I’m on the way home now. Donovan can manage with Ellis until they can convince Delaney to come home. I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”
“Hurry!”
Laney didn’t give him a chance to respond before she hung up. As he went into the guest room he’d been staying in, Donovan and Ellis followed him into the room. While he packed his overnight bag, he explained everything that Laney had told him.