My Broken Soldier (Love Conquers Life Book 2) (11 page)

“Bella, do not encourage her,” my mother says as she wipes her tears.

I sigh and say, “How do we fix this? He was arrested this weekend, but I’m sure he’ll make bail today and be back out on the streets. He’s going to be really pissed.”

“Why was he arrested?” my mother asks, totally confused.

“Are you listening, Mother? He broke into dad’s lake house and nearly raped me. Lucky for me, Carter walked in as he was about to attack me. He is being charged with breaking and entering as well as attempted rape.”

“Oh, I’m done for. He’s going to start posting those pictures everywhere.”

“You need to come clean with Richard, and we need to come up with a plan. Have you actually seen the pictures?”

“He’s only shown me one, and it’s of the back of my head. He says he has more and they’re all kept in an envelope in a safe place.”

My eyebrow shoots up. “Wait a minute. You’re telling me you have gone along with this based on a picture of the back of your head. Do you know how many blondes are out there? That could be anyone in the picture.”

“But what if he does have more?”

“What if he doesn’t? You’ve been screwing with my life and chancing that I’ll get hurt based on a jackass’s word?” I scream at her.

“Okay, let’s calm down,” Bella says. We’ve been circling our lunch spot for a few minutes because clearly we can’t continue this conversation in the club’s restaurant.

My mother sobs. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You do realize your husband is a district attorney for the same state I was attacked in. Do you think word is not going to get to him that his stepdaughter was attacked? Then he’s going to wonder why you haven’t said anything to him. You have turned a small affair into a huge deal.”

“I’m sorry,” she says with tears running down her cheeks.

“You know what? I’m not hungry, and I have a dining room table to buy.” I lower the privacy window and say, “I’m sorry, but can you take Bella and I back to Carter’s, please?”

He nods, and I put the privacy glass back up. Not that it matters much, since we were yelling at each other loud enough for him to hear through the glass.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Talk to Richard and fix this, or I’m going to end up hurt. If you call me and tell me that all is squared away with the two of you, then you’re welcome to dinner on Thanksgiving. However, if you can’t manage to do it before then, than don’t bother showing.”

“Patricia, please—”

I cut her off because I’ve had enough. “Don’t, Mother. I’ve put up with this long enough. He hit me and then he breaks into Daddy’s house to ‘show me how much he loves me,’ which, by the way, was going to be him forcing himself on me.”

We pull up outside Carter’s house, and I don’t bother waiting for a response or the driver. I jump out of the car with Bella in tow, running straight to her car so we can go shopping.

As we climb into her car, she says, “You realize you need to talk to Carter about all of this, right?”

“Yeah, I know. We’re having dinner at his house tonight so I’ll talk to him about it then. I wish this wasn’t all happening so close to him coming home. I don’t want to stress him out.”

“Patty, he’s a big boy. He can handle this, but you need talk to him.” I nod. I’m going to send him a text right now.

Patty: Just talked to mom. It didn’t go too well. What time will you be home?

Carter: I’m sorry, baby. I’ll be home by five-thirty.

Patty: Okay see you then.

Carter: Where are you now?

Patty: Leaving to shop for a table with Bella.

Carter: Watch out for yourself.

Patty: I will. Talk to you later.

“There. Now I can’t back out of telling him later. He’ll ask me about it.”

“How much did you tell him?”

“I told him that it didn’t go well.”

Bella pulls up to a furniture store that I didn’t even know existed. We walk in and start wandering the building. We find a dining room set that’s okay, but I’m not ecstatic about it.

Just as we’re about to leave after walking around the building for a while, I see this table nestled in the corner. I look around to find a salesperson, but I don’t see anyone. I walk over to it, and I think it’s perfect. It fits twelve. It’s a sturdy, dark wood piece with thick square legs. Though it has a masculine feel, I think it’s gorgeous.

A sales lady sneaks up behind me and says, “Can I help you?”

I jump half out of my skin as I turn around. “Is this table for sale?”

“Yes, it was on its way up to the clearance floor. It went on sale as of this morning.”

“Really? How much and how soon can you deliver it?” I ask, super excited.

“Its sale price is fifteen hundred, and I can probably get it to you this week.”

“Give me one minute.”

I pull my phone from my purse and call Carter’s cell. He answers right away. “Hey, sweetie, what’s up?” He sounds concerned.

“I’m fine, Carter. Relax,” I say, shaking my head. “I found a dining room table set that went on sale this morning. It’s fifteen hundred and seats twelve.”

“Great. When can they deliver it?”

“The woman thinks she can have it to you this week. I’m going to finalize it. Do you want to see a picture of it first?”

“Nah, I trust you. Go ahead and take care of it, and I’ll get you the money.”

“I’m not worried about the money. I’ll get it all taken care of and delivered. I love you, Carter.”

“I love you too, sweetie. See you soon.”

I cut the call and tell the woman that I’ll take it.

***

Carter

I’m on my way home from work, and I can’t wait to see my girl. We’re having dinner together tonight, and we need to talk about what’s going on with her mother. I wish she would have at least given me a hint as to what was going on, but I’m sure she doesn’t want me to worry while I’m at work.

I pull up to my building and park in my usual spot. I snatch the flowers I picked up for Patty and run inside, making sure to greet Darryl as I do. He laughs as I go straight to the elevator.

I take a deep breath, stepping inside. Immediately, I can smell her heavenly meal. I can’t wait to see what she’s cooking up. I take another deep breath. It smells like a sweet and sour stir fry, and it makes my stomach rumble. There’s music playing, and she’s dancing away as she cooks. I chuckle to myself because she looks so damn cute.

“Sweetie, I’m home!” She jumps in the air, and I realize I’ve scared the shit out of her.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you so jumpy?”

“I’m sorry, Carter. Between the conversation with my mother and then the sheriff calling me today, I guess I’m a tad jumpy.”

“What did the sheriff have to say?”

“Ben was released on bail today with directions to not go within a hundred yards of me.”

“Oh, because that will stop him,” I say, shaking my head. “Well, I brought you these to cheer you up.” I hand her the flowers, and she smiles at me.

“Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

“Just like you,” I say. I kiss her on the forehead. “What happened with your mom today?”

She shakes her head. “She’s such an idiot sometimes.”

“I’m sure she is, but that doesn’t tell me much.” I give her a minute, and when she doesn’t say anything, I add, “Patty, if you want me to talk to you then you need to talk to me too. This has to be a two-way street.”

“I know. I don’t want to stress you with this,” she says with a sigh.

“Not knowing is stressing me. Tell me, and we’ll deal with it together.”

“Okay, let’s make a deal. I’ll tell you about my mom if you tell me something from your time in the hospital.”

“Okay, fine. You start. Tell me what happened today.”

“I’m so angry,” she says as she stirs our dinner. “My mother had an affair with Ben’s father and Ben caught them. She openly confirmed that she’s been letting him bribe her with pictures. She has only seen one of the pictures, and it’s of the back of her head. She says, that in the one she’s seen, you can’t really tell it’s her, but he says he has more. She has no proof they exist and has helped him orchestrate half the crap he has done to try and get me back.”

My eyes go wide. “Oh, that’s not good, but that explains your mother laughing that night.”

“Yes, it does.”

“Doesn’t she realize that the pictures may not even exist?” I’m angry that Sandra put her daughter in this situation without proof of the pictures.

“That’s what I said. She sat there and sobbed, saying she didn’t know what to do.”

“How did you leave things?” I ask her as she puts food on my plate and places it on the snack bar.

She starts making her plate and says, “I told her that she had to come clean with Richard and let me know how it went. If she does it prior to Thanksgiving, then they’re welcome. If she doesn’t, then they’re not.”

She sits down next to me to eat, and I ask her, “Are you sure that is a good idea? Are you going to regret it if she isn’t here for our first Thanksgiving together?”

“At this point, no, I won’t. I’m tired of this, Carter. I want my life to be mine, and if she wants to live hers in a lie that’s fine, but she needs to leave me out of it.”

“Listen, I can’t argue with that. She almost broke us up and obviously that didn’t go over too well for me.”

“I told her what happened to you and that she owes you an apology. I told her that not only is she hurting me, but she hurt you.” I sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you sooner, but you have to promise me that we’ll work on this together and that you won’t push me away anymore.”

“Patty, when I pushed you away the first time I was so drunk I didn’t even remember you coming to the house. When you came to the hospital, I did it because I was embarrassed and I needed to work my shit out on my own. That said, I promise to lean on you the next time I need anything.”

She hugs me. “Good. I’m glad we got that out of the way. Now, tell me about the hospital.”

She starts digging into her dinner.

“It was hell at first, but once I started talking to my counselor and opening up, I started feeling better. I wrote a lot in my journal, and a lot of my entries were to you. Someday I’d like for you to read them. He really helped me.”

“How?”

“He got me to talk about the nightmares and made me realize that although I’m upset over the loss of my friend, it wasn’t my fault. After that happened, I started writing a lot and we got to talking more. Next thing I knew, the nightmares were gone again and the doctors were letting me go home. I came straight to you.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“Me too, but we still need to figure out what to do about Ben. If he was released today, then he’s going to come back to town, and he won’t be happy that he spent the weekend in jail. That means he’s either going to go after you or your mother.”

She’s devouring her dinner. “Hungry?” I ask.

“Yeah, I skipped lunch. I don’t know what to do about Ben. I’m sure he’ll be looking for me.”

“I think you should stay here, where I can keep an eye on you. Are you okay with that?” She nods her head as she continues to eat. “This is really good. Can you show me how to make it sometime?”

“Sure, since I’m staying here for a while, I’ll have plenty of time.”

We clean the kitchen and then decide to relax in the bath together. It’s been a long day for the both of us.

Chapter 11

Patty

I jump up and notice it’s still dark out, yet my alarm is going off and I have no clue why. Then it starts again, and that’s when I realize it’s my phone ringing, not my alarm. I look over to see Carter fast asleep.

I answer in a very groggy voice. “Hello?”

“Is this Patricia Fitzgerald?”

“Yes, who’s this?” I ask, now fully alert and concerned.

“Ma’am, this is Officer Cameron Phillips. My partner and I are at your apartment, and it would appear someone has broken in. Your neighbor heard strange noises and called us.”

“Oh my God, do I need to come over there right now?”

“No, we can meet you in the morning, but we didn’t want you to show up here and be shocked. We’re going to lock your door the best we can, and there will be police tape across it. What time can you meet us?”

“Whatever time. I’m a writer so I make my own schedule.”

“What’s wrong?” Carter grumbles from his sleep.

“How’s ten for you? That way it’s not too early,” The officer says into the phone.

“Ten is fine. I’ll see you then, Officer Phillips.”

Carter jumps up from his sleep. “Officer! Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

I cut the call and say, “Apparently, Ben didn’t wait too long to come after me. Someone broke into my apartment. The officers are going to lock it up the best they can. I have to meet them there at ten, I’m assuming to let them know if anything is missing.”

“This guy is really getting on my nerves,” he says as he starts pacing the room.

“Carter, please lay down. This isn’t helping me.”

He walks back over to the bed. “I’m sorry. Come here, I’ll hold you while you fall back to sleep.”

I lie in bed with him holding me and running his fingers through my hair. After what feels like an eternity, I fall into a fitful sleep.

I walk into my apartment to the mess Ben has left me. Furniture is spilled over, curtains torn down. The place is simply trashed. I’m angry at this point because I’ve done nothing wrong and certainly nothing to deserve this. He even emptied my fridge and freezer. I have no idea what he was looking for, and to be honest, I don’t think there was anything for him to find. I think this was his anger because I wasn’t here.

I start kicking stuff around to see what else is on the floor while I wait for the police to meet me. As I walk into my room, I find my closet is emptied onto my bed, and my drawers are all pulled from my bureau and dumped on the floor. I shake my head as I try to imagine what was going through his head as he did this. Did he think I was going to come home from the lake house and pretend like nothing happened?

I turn to walk out of the room, and that’s when I feel a sharp pain to the back of my head. I fall to the floor as my vision blurs from the tears that are welling in my eyes. I look up to see Ben standing over me.

“Hello, sweetie. Are you ready to come home with me yet?”

I shake my head because there isn’t a chance in hell I’m letting him take me anywhere. I’ll die first. I kick him in the knee, causing him to fall over, and I start to crawl out of the room. As I do, he grabs my leg and starts to pull me toward him, but I’m kicking and screaming the best I can to fight him off. I try to get up so I can run, but the pain in my head is so fierce I drop back to the ground. He climbs on top of me.

“No, you will not have me. I’ll die first,” I say as I fight him.

“Oh, but I will, and you’re going to love it,” he says. After struggling to undo his pants, he starts pulling his dick out and says, “You’re going to suck me off like a good girl, and maybe I’ll reward you with some sex.”

“Fuck you!” I scream out. Suddenly I feel my entire body shaking.

I sit up in bed, panting. “Holy shit!”

“I’ve got you, sweetie,” Carter says.

“Please don’t call me sweetie. Ben has started calling me that, and now when you say it, it reminds me of him. His tone and the way he says it makes me cringe.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” He pulls me onto his lap and holds me while I cry. “Ssh, I’ve got you, baby. I promise I won’t let him get to you.” I start to chuckle as I cry. “What’s so funny?”

“You called me baby, and I liked it.”

He looks down at me, so confused. “And that’s funny?”

“Ben used to try to call me that all the time and I hated it. That’s why it’s funny.”

He shakes his head and says, “Let’s go take a shower. I’ll wash away this nightmare for you, and then I’ll call Derek and let him know I have to go to your apartment with you in the morning.”

I climb off his lap and say, “You don’t have to do that. You’ll lose your job if you keep taking time off.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go in at lunch time after we’ve wrapped up and put in a half day. Why don’t you see if Bella can come hang with you until I get home from work?”

“I’ll call her after we shower.”

We walk into the bathroom, and he starts the shower while I lean on the sink, exhausted from my crappy night’s sleep.
I will not let him get in my head. I will not let him get in my head.
I keep repeating the mantra silently, hoping this will stop me from having more nightmares.

Carter says, “Come on, baby, the shower is ready.”

He pulls me from the sink and lifts my shirt over my head. He slips my pajama pants down my legs, and I step out of them as I step toward the shower. When I step in and the warm water hits me, I moan in appreciation.

“Baby, you keep making noises like that and I’m going to have a hard time controlling myself.”

I giggle. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

He wraps his hands around my body and holds me close. He wets my loofah and adds body wash. Gently, he rubs the foamy wash all over my body. When I’m lathered, he puts the loofah back and uses his hands to massage my back and shoulders.

I step under the water, wash away the soap, and wet my hair. His fingers glide through it as water runs down my back, and it feels amazing.

“I love the way your hands feel on me, Carter.”

“That’s good, because I love putting my hands all over this beautiful body of yours,” he says, picking up my shampoo to wash my hair. He begins massaging my scalp and another moan escapes me. He groans, and my eyes fly open.

“Sorry,” I say with a giggle, “but it’s not my fault your hands feel so good.”

He shakes his head and starts rinsing the shampoo from my hair. He tugs my hair gently and then plants a kiss on my lips. He washes himself quickly, and we both climb out to dry off. When we get back into the bedroom, we both sit on our sides of the bed with our phones. I call Bella and he calls Derek. At the same time, we hear both Bella and Derek say, “Hello.”

We look at each other. I say, “Are you with Derek?” and he says, “Are you with Bella?”

We sit on our bed, cracking up laughing when they both say, “Yes.”

I ask Bella, “Are you on a shoot today?”

“I am, but only until like eleven or noon. Why?”

“Well, someone broke into my place last night, and right now Carter is telling Derek that he has to come in late. He’s going with me to the apartment to meet with the police. I’m obviously coming back to his place since it’s way safer here and my place is trashed. Will you meet me here and hang out with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

“Of course I will,” Bella says.

“Do you guys want to do dinner with us since you’ll be here and you’re clearly with Derek now?”

She starts laughing. “Hey Derek, do you want to do dinner with Carter and Bella tonight at Carter’s?”

I hear him say. “Sure, if you want to. Are you coming back to my place?”

She says to him, “Yeah, that’s fine.” She comes back to the phone. “Okay, we’ll do dinner at your place tonight.”

“Great. I’ll see you after your shoot.”

She says her good-bye, and I cut the call.

***

We pull up outside my apartment, and suddenly I’m nervous. I don’t know if I want to go in and see what he did to my apartment.

I can do this,
I tell myself as I climb out of Carter’s car. He takes my hand and says, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, about as ready as I’ll ever be.”

I look up at him and take another deep breath. We climb the steps to my apartment, and when we approach my door, the police are already inside, taking more pictures.

“I’m looking for Officer Phillips,” I say as I walk through the door, taking in the scene in front of me. It isn’t quite as bad as I thought.

He holds his hand out to me. “I’m Officer Phillips.”

“I’m Patricia Fitzgerald, and this is my boyfriend, Carter Montgomery.”

The officer shakes our hands and then begins telling us what happened.

“Right now we’re dusting different surfaces to see if the person was here alone or if they had an accomplice.”

I sigh. “I think I know who it was.”

“I kind of figured you might. When a break in like this occurs, it is usually done by someone the victim knows.”

“His name is Benjamin Mancini. He’s my ex. He wants me back, and he’s not too happy that I’m not interested. He broke into my father’s lake house while I was staying there, alone. My boyfriend happened to surprise me with a visit and got there as he was about to attack me.”

He looks at Carter. “Did you report it?”

He nods. “I sure did. The sheriff came out and arrested him and his buddy. They were in jail for the weekend and were released yesterday.”

“This guy didn’t wait long to try and get revenge, did he?” The officer says as he looks around. “I’m going to tell you he made quite the mess, but the worst part is in your room. You’re going to want to get a new mattress, and some of your clothes are going to need to be cleaned.”

“Why do I need a new mattress?” I ask, totally confused. “What the hell did he do?”

“I’m sorry to say, ma’am, but he ejaculated all over your bed.”

I gag at the thought and run to my bathroom to empty my breakfast into the toilet. Carter’s right behind me. He pulls my hair back from my face and rubs my back as I continue to heave. When I’m finally done, he tells me he’ll be back with some water for me.

I hear him talking to the officer in the kitchen about any other evidence that he may have left behind. A minute later, he’s back with a bottle of water.

“Can you get up?” he asks me. “We should get you some of the clean clothes from your closet to bring to my place.

“You’re right. I can’t stay here.”

“We’ll have the place cleaned. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.” I nod my head. “You can stay at my place as long as you want. I mean it. I love you being there with me.”

I get up from the floor and start wandering around the apartment. As I do, I tell the officer that anything of importance was with me at Carter’s house, so I don’t think he would have taken anything. I go to my jewelry box and sigh in relief when I spot my grandmother’s engagement ring. She left it to me when she died, and I would be devastated if he took it.

I remove the ring from the box and place it on my right hand. I explain to Carter the significance of the ring. He smiles down at me and kisses the top of my head.

“Is there anything else you need to look for?”

“No, my jewelry’s all here, and if it’s okay with you I’d like to take it to your place for safe keeping.”

“You can bring anything you want to my place, baby.”

I look in my closet to see what’s left in there that hasn’t been touched or destroyed. I pick up an extra travel bag from the bottom of my closet and begin packing some jeans, sweaters, tops, underwear and bra as well as a few other things from around my room. The officer starts stripping the sheets off my bed to take into the lab.

“I need you to hold off on the cleaning crew until we know if the samples we have are good. We’ll get the results in a few days, and when we do, I’ll put out a warrant for his arrest. Then you’ll be able to have the cleaning crew come in.”

“Okay. Do you need us to be here anymore, or can I go to Carter’s?”

“You can go back to his place. I just needed you to confirm if anything was missing for the report. Since he didn’t take anything, I’m thinking he probably came here for you and got angry when you weren’t here.”

“Thank you, officer.”

Carter and I walk out of my messed up apartment to go back to his place. Bella will be coming over soon, and Carter needs to get to work. We get in the car, and he starts driving to his house.

“When we get back to the house, I’ll walk you up and make sure you’re all set before I leave for work.”

“Carter, I’ll be fine. Drop me off at the door.”

“Do you want me to arrange for a cleaner to go into the apartment in a few days for you?” he asks me, and I shake my head.