9781618850676UnchainedMelodyHunter (25 page)

“I
write love stories, Jeffrey. Beautiful love stories.” At those words, he kicked
her again.

“I
want money, Annalise. You owe me. Your family owes me. Someday you’ll find out
the truth. Your father had a secret life; in fact we’re practically family. I
used to see your dad a lot, did you know that? He came over to my house all the
time; he promised me I could have his lovely daughter—if only I’d keep his
secret. I kept it, for awhile—until I saw your horrendous scarring. After that,
I told my little brother, Rick, everything. I told him who his father really
was. Your dad offered me hush money, but guess what? He died. So now you owe
me. And I’m here to collect.”

Annalise
didn’t understand half of what he said. Why was he rambling about her father
like that?

“Why
should I give you money, Jeffrey?” He was still holding her arm painfully up
high behind her, not giving her a chance in the world to get away from him.

“I’ll
tell you why. Because if you don’t, I’m going to kill you.” He said the words
so low and so coldly, she didn’t doubt them for a minute. “Why don’t you scream
for help, Annalise? If you scream, one of those men might come to your aid.
Then I can kill one of your friends as well. ”

Annalise
refused to cry for help, not if it meant putting Ethan or Alex in danger. This
was her problem and she would deal with it, somehow. And if she didn’t, she
would rather something happen to her than to anyone she loved. Maybe if she
agreed to give him money he would let her go. “How much money do you want?”

“How
much do you have?”

“Not
as much as you might think.” He twisted her around until she was facing him.

“Are
you still scarred, Annalise? God, you were a sight to behold. Gorgeous breasts,
smooth skin and then I opened your legs and I have never seen a more pitiful
sight. As for the money, I think a million dollars would do nicely. We will go
out and get in my car and then we will go to a bank and you’ll transfer money
to my account. Or else.”

“I’m
not giving you a million dollars, Jeff!” When Annalise said that, he struck her
hard in the face.

“You’ll
give me money or I’ll kill you deader than a hammer.” There was not a doubt in
her mind he meant exactly what he said. He was crazy; he would not suffer one
qualm when he killed her. “What are these men to you? I know there’s no way in
hell you’re sleeping with one of them. Who would ever willingly have sex with
you?”

He
drew back to strike her again, but this time, his fist was caught in mid-air. Ethan
pulled him off her with one swift, smooth movement. He threw Jeff Ramsey to the
side like so much garbage. He bent down and picked Annalise up, tenderly
touching her bruised cheek and torn lip. “Oh, sweetheart. What did he do to
you?”

But
Jeff got up. In her pain, Annalise had forgotten about the gun until she saw
him reach for it. “Ethan, he has a gun!” she yelled.

Jeff
Ramsey didn’t have a chance. Setting her gently aside, Ethan nearly broke
Jeff’s arm wrenching the gun from his grasp. “Just what is a piece of filth
like you doing on my property, anyway?”

“I’ve
come for my wife. She owes me,” Jeff ground out over the pain Ethan was
inflicting upon him.

“My
woman is not your wife and she owes you absolutely nothing,” Ethan told him
flatly.

“What’s
it to you, Mister? You can’t interfere between a man and his wife.” To hear
this despicable man call himself Lise’s husband infuriated Ethan.

“You
are not
her husband and she is the
woman I love.” Lise watched as Ethan stood over the much smaller man, every
muscle in his body tensed.

“I
married this pretty package in good faith, Mister. But I didn’t get what I paid
for, so don’t be fooled.” Annalise saw Ethan’s fist clench. Jeff just kept
talking, “Wait, a minute, this can’t be right. Have you had sex with her? I
mean, you’ve actually had sex with her?” He laughed a slightly shrill mean
laugh. “How could you stomach it? Haven’t you seen that mass of scars? She is
damaged goods, disgusting and ugly. How could you keep it up long enough to do
her? I know I couldn’t. She was so repulsive I puked my guts out on our wedding
night!” With those horrid words, Ethan hauled Jeff to his feet and dragged him
outside. He manhandled him to the main house and yelled at Alex to call the
police. Despite everything within them wanting to punish him, the two big men
didn’t lay a hand on Jeff, but they did put the fear of God in him.

When
the cops came, Alex explained everything and Jeff Ramsey was arrested for
assault. That would have been all, but on the way to the cop car, he confessed
to attempted murder. “I tried to kill her, you know. But I didn’t hit her quite
hard enough. Down at the Maples State Park. I would have been successful if it
hadn’t been for those damn devil dogs with their evil red eyes. They were mad.
One of them even bit me, right in the throat. I was leaning down to see if I
could find a pulse and they latched on to me.” He was rambling and it was
obvious he was deranged. “I want you dead, Annalise.” He called out loudly. He
wanted to make sure she heard him. “You see, if you were dead I’d get it all. You
owe me!” With that, Jeff Ramsey was gone.

Ethan
went back to the cabin where he had left her, but she wasn’t there. He hadn’t
seen or heard her go by. Frantically, he began looking for her. Then it dawned
on him, she would go where she felt the safest. To their room.

But
when he got there, she was packing. Ethan could barely breathe. “Lise, where
are you going?”

“It’s
time for me to go, Ethan.” She spoke in the smallest, tightest voice imaginable.
She refused to meet his gaze; she didn’t think she could stand to see the pity
in his eyes.

“Why?”

“Do
you really have to ask, Ethan? I was going to tell you, don’t think I wasn’t. It
hurt me so bad to hide this from you. I didn’t mean to deceive you, but I just
wanted to be with you so much. In fact, I was going to tell you last night when
we came home from the football game. But it is so hard! But I don’t have to
now. You’ve heard it from Jeff’s lips in a way that outdoes any explanation I
could ever give you. Now I need you to let me go.” All of this was said with
her head down, tears streaming from her eyes, her voice cracking with every
word.

Ethan
came a step closer to her. She had cleaned the blood from her face, but the
swelling was getting worse and the bruising was becoming more evident. Reluctantly,
she looked up at him, he was so beautiful. So perfect. But when she looked in
his eyes, she was surprised to find they were full of fear. “Don’t ask this of
me, Lise. I told you I’d give you the world, but this is one thing I cannot
give you. Don’t ask me to give you up. The last time you walked away from me,
you were gone six years. I won’t survive if you leave again.” Never had she
heard a man speak so passionately. She didn’t know it was possible.

His
words broke her heart and she wanted to rush to him and hold him and assure him
she wasn’t going anywhere. But there was so much…

“Just
tell me, Lise. You can tell me anything. Tell me and free yourself from this
thing haunting you,” he begged.

He
started to walk to her, but she stopped him. “Ethan, stay there. I will tell
you, but you must stay over there. I can’t think if you touch me.”

“All
right, I’ll stand right here. Just tell me. Please.”

“I
told you some of it, Ethan. I told you about spring break, I just didn’t tell
you all of it.” Her voice had the slightest of breaks in it. “The men that
attacked me, they did not intend to rob me.” He moved closer, she held up her
hand and stopped his approach. “They held me down, they tore my clothes. One of
them, the youngest one, he was supposed to rape me to prove he was worthy to be
in their gang.”

“Oh,
God, babe!” Annalise backed up and put the bed in between them.

“Wait,
Ethan! That’s still not the worst. He couldn’t do it. The young man was too
drunk, the rape would have been horrible, terrible…but it wouldn’t have ripped
me up. I don’t know, maybe I would feel different, unclean, dirty, but I felt
those things anyway.”

“What
did they do to you, sweetheart?” Ethan’s voice was just a whisper and tears
were rolling down his cheeks.

“He
took a glass whiskey bottle and broke the end off of it.” A sob escaped from
her throat. “He raped me with the broken bottle…over and over again. Then he
cut me everywhere.” She turned her back on him, she couldn’t look at him. “Jeff
was right, the scars are ugly and disgusting and horrid. How can I stay with
you? I have been living a lie with you! I hide in the dark, I shut the blinds,
I pull the curtains, I try to keep your hands and your lips from feeling the
ridges, your eyes from seeing the thick, red, puckered skin that used to be
smooth—the way it was back at Pace Bend.”

He
came up behind her, close but not quite touching. “Is that all? Is that what
you’ve been afraid to tell me?” His voice was so soft and loving. He was
crooning to her. “I’m not making light of the rape. I am in anguish thinking
how you must have suffered. But do you think that would change how I feel about
you? Lise, if I had a scar, would it make a difference in how you feel about
me?”

“Of
course not, a scar would only make you more ruggedly handsome, not less. But it’s
different for men.”

He
laid a hand on her shoulder, seeking to draw her back against him. She still
held herself stiff. “So…do you think a few little scars are going to change how
I feel about you? I have worshipped you for years. And now, my love for you is
a thousand times stronger than it was when you left me six years ago.”

Turning
around, she looked up at him. “But can you make love to me now, knowing that
the scars are there?”

“Babe,
I saw the scars the first night.”

She
didn’t understand. “Then…how could you…Ethan…how could you look, touch, kiss,
how could you stand to…”

He
picked her up and kissed her full on the mouth, then softly kissed the bruises
and the cuts on her face. “Do you really think that little pale pink, lace-like
pattern on the inside of your beautiful thighs, next to the place I adore,
could possibly turn me off? Babe, I am so turned on by you that just thinking
about you makes me hard.”

She
threw her arms around him. “So, you knew the scars were there all the time,
every time we made love, even when you
kissed
me there?”

“Sweetheart,
after the first time…I didn’t see them, didn’t notice them, didn’t think about
them. I adore you; I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

She
held him, treasuring the fact he was hers. She would spend the rest of her life
making sure he knew how much he was loved.

Then
she remembered.

There
was something else.

It
had to come out now, there was no going back. No more hiding. She hid her head
in his shoulder as she told him the rest.

“Ethan,
the damage was extensive. The doctors fixed what they could—but the thing they
couldn’t fix was my ovaries. Dr. Rollins said there was so much scar tissue that
there is very little chance I will ever be able to have children.”

She
held her breath, her body tense. If he stiffened, if he pulled away—she would
understand. Instead, he tightened his hold on her. He kissed the side of her
neck. “I’m so sorry, Lise. I would love to see you pregnant with my child, but
there are millions of babies in this world that we can love. Let me tell you
something I bet you didn’t realize. Bobby is adopted and you know how much we
love him. As long as I have you, I will be happy. Anything else—babies, success,
money—would just be a blessing. But you…you are absolutely essential to me. You,
I can’t live without.”

He
carried her to the bed. The sun was shining brighter than it ever had. There
were no shadows anywhere in the room and there was no reason to hide. He pulled
off his shirt, her eyes ate him up, muscles rippling as he shed his jeans and
briefs. He was magnificently aroused. With blue eyes locked to hers, he began
to undress her. She shivered with anticipation. She reached for the covers of
the bed, old habits dying hard. He covered her hand, unwilling for her to
attempt to seek cover.

“No,
no more hiding.”

He
pulled her cotton camisole over her head, pulled her to her feet and removed
her bra. He knelt before her and pulled her pants down, allowing her to hold on
to his shoulder while she stepped out of them. Then he pulled down her panties
and laid them beside the jeans. Rising to stand in front of her, he picked her
up and carried her to the mirror, the full-length mirror on the back of his
bedroom door. “Now let me show you what I see every time I look at you.”

“Ethan,
please…” she protested.

He
held her there, firmly, standing behind her. “Look at this face—exquisite
features, perfect plump lips, luscious brown eyes. And your hair, long, silky,
rich brown—good for tangling my fingers in when I kiss you. And your body, babe,
your body; graceful neck, breasts that make my mouth go dry, perfect curves,
long beautiful legs. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen or will
ever see. Then he knelt by her and separated her legs, lifting one out so the
mirror reflected the inside of her thigh. “Now look—not through eyes clouded by
memories—look and see what
I
see.”