Chapter Thirteen
When he got to work Thursday night, he went straight for her desk like always. The notebook had been tossed haphazardly on her desk rather than being tucked back in the corner as usual. Her desk was disheveled rather than neatly stacked with work.
Marcus was instantly worried. He opened the purple book immediately and flipped to one of the last pages left to be written on. He saw shakily scrawled words and tear marks there and panicked.
M~
Work was awful at the end of the day and I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared. Please come see me. I need you. Please come as soon as you get this.
~E
Marcus literally sprinted to the elevator and left the office. He used his cell phone to call in sick to the service he worked for so he could get to her as fast as he could. If anyone had hurt her, God, he didn’t know what he would do.
He couldn’t even call her to see if she was ok. Like an idiot, he had only been writing to her. She needed him and didn’t even have his number to reach him. Damn it! Until that moment, never calling had seemed unique to them, something special. Now he was furious that he hadn’t considered her need to get ahold of him.
He floored the accelerator, needing to know why she was so scared. He had to know she was ok. God, nothing could happen to her. Nothing. He wouldn’t let it.
He pulled up to her apartment around 12:30 a.m. and jumped out of the car. He jogged up to the door and knocked loudly. “Erin?” he said loud enough for her to hear him, he hoped. He didn’t care if he woke up her neighbors. “Erin!” He thought about busting the door in with his shoulder when he heard the deadbolt slide back.
He looked at her tear-stained face and almost died at the fear and pain in her eyes. She had been home for hours, but she was still in her work clothes, completely mussed.
He rushed in and pulled her into his arms and let her sob for a minute before he asked her what was wrong. She didn’t seem to be physically hurt, thank God, but he had never seen her cry this hard - not even when he first met her. Something was very, very wrong.
“Baby, what happened? Tell me so I can help you. Calm down, please…” he said all of this as gently as he could, but that raging animal inside of him wanted to fly out and destroy whatever did this to her. He kept himself calm, even though the effort seemed impossible. But for her, he could.
Erin finally took as deep a breath as she could, and looked up at him. “There’s a guy that works on the ninth floor,” Erin began.
Anger flashed in Marcus’s eyes at that sentence. He knew what most likely would come next from her lips. Nothing else would scare her this way than some entitled asshole trying to force himself on her. Damn it! He willed himself to stay calm and listen to her, even though the only thing he wanted to do was ask for this guy’s name and address.
“He looked at me funny a few times, and I never liked it. He made me so uncomfortable the way he stared. Then a week or so ago he tried to talk to me, but I wouldn’t really have a conversation with him.”
She paused to let a few more sobs out. “Then Scott, the friend I told you about from the office, said people had been asking about me since I had been so much more friendly and happy at work.”
She stopped again to sob, and Marcus just waited, his fists curled tightly and his muscles straining from holding himself steady, still standing there in the doorway. “He didn’t say who had been asking, just that people had noticed. At the time, I thought it was a compliment.”
“What happened, Erin,” Marcus asked, needing to hear the end of this story.
“Well, I found out today that it was Aaron Mercer, the creep from the ninth floor who had been asking. He cornered me in the copy room to ask me what made me
bounce
so much when I walked. The look on his face made me sick, Marcus, and I couldn’t get away from him.”
She sobbed some more and fell against her hero’s chest. She kept on with her story in a shaky voice.
“He never touched me, but he moved closer and backed me into the corner with his arms on either side of me on the wall. I was so scared. I was
so
terrified
. He said that if he had known I could be so much
fun
, he’d have given me a shot a long time ago. It made me sick and I just wanted to scream, but I was frozen. I didn’t know what he was going to do and I couldn’t get away.
“Everything from that party came right back to me and I couldn’t move. It was like a flashback or something. I don’t even remember how I got out of it. I think someone else came in, but I don’t know what happened. I just remember being back at my desk and you were there in the notebook and I knew I was at least strong enough to leave.
“I scribbled you that note and came straight home. But I was still so scared. I kept looking over my shoulder in the hallway and by the time I got to the parking garage I was running…when I got to my car I was having a panic attack. I just locked myself in and couldn’t breath.”
She was sobbing openly again by the end of her story. “I forced myself to calm down enough to drive, and then I just waited for you. I just needed you.”
Shaking in anger, Marcus wrapped his arms around her again. “You’re ok. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” She cried again, still completely shaken by her ordeal. Marcus was completely torn between staying because she needed him, or fulfilling his own need to track down this Aaron Mercer and show him how much
fun
a cage fighter could be when cornering someone. Just barely, Erin’s needs won.
He picked her up and cradled her against him and walked to the couch. He knew that would comfort her, and also keep him from sprinting for the door to find the ninth-floor asshole.
Like the first day he met her, Marcus held her while she cried. When she finally calmed down enough to breathe instead of sob, Marcus leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“How is someone like that still working there?” Marcus asked in his forced-calm voice. “Guys like that usually don’t just strike once.”
“He’s the nephew of one of the partners. He gets a free pass on a lot of stuff,” she said bitterly. “I’m not the only one who’s had a run in with him, from what I’ve heard.”
Marcus’s anger only flared more at the injustice. The people in authority were turning a blind eye to Aaron Mercer’s behavior. Evil-bastard-authority-figures were high on Marcus’s hate list, too.
Still, he knew Erin needed him, and he would stay with her as long as she wanted him to. Nothing was more important than that. Teaching that soon-to-be-bloody jerk-off a lesson about cornering someone was a very close second, however.
Marcus sat and thanked Bill in his head for teaching him control. That was the only reason Erin was still there in his arms and he was grateful.
“Let me take you upstairs. I’ll hold you all night and you’ll know you’re safe. I won’t move an inch away.”
Erin nodded through renewed tears and let Marcus walk her up the stairs again. He pulled on a pair of his sweats from her closet and helped Erin into her favorite cotton clothes. He lifted her again and placed her like a frightened child into her bed. His heart broke to see her that way, and he silently vowed to do whatever he could to never let her feel like that again.
He settled in next to her and pulled her close. He tucked her into his chest as deeply as he could, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders and ribs. He kissed her head and held her tightly for a long while before he felt her body relax a bit.
He turned her gently facing away from him, then pulled her back close and rested his arm protectively over her. She relaxed even more in his warmth. He kissed her beautiful red hair and told her he loved her and that she was safe, many times over. More than an hour passed before she was calm enough to sleep.
Marcus, however, could not sleep. No matter how warm and soft she felt next to him, he was still doing almost nothing but keeping his anger in check. He forced himself to breath and to stay with her.
But God, that bastard made Erin cry. He scared his girl — the girl that had worked so hard not to be scared anymore. Aaron Mercer took her confidence away from her. She felt broken again, and Marcus could see the emptiness in her eyes. He knew he could help her heal more easily than before because she trusted him. But, God, Aaron Mercer had made her former nightmare real again. Bastard!
It was an hour longer before Marcus could sleep. He was finally able to focus on her breathing. Her peaceful presence calmed him. He was also finally clear-headed enough to make a decision about how to handle this with her. He knew this had to be
with
her, not
for
her. She had to know she was strong enough on her own. Once that decision was made, he could sleep.
He heard the alarm the next morning, and saw Erin already awake but looking like a zombie. “I don’t know if I can go to work today,” she said in a defeated voice. “I know he’s going to be there.”
“You’re strong enough,” Marcus said to her, showing her his determination when he did. He rested his hand on her cheek. “And I’m going with you. I promise you, no one will mess with you today or any day, because
you’re
going to end this. If anyone wants to argue, I’m happy to argue back if you need me. Loudly if I have to.”
Erin let one tear escape again, overwhelmed by Marcus and everything he offered her. She nodded her head and went for the shower. She got ready for work like a bundle of nerves and heard Marcus downstairs making her coffee.
She forced herself to breath and calm down. She did not want to cry when she confronted the partners about Aaron Mercer. She had to go straight to the partners because she knew talking to the jerk directly would do no good. He wouldn’t change at all. She only hoped the men in charge would listen and that she wouldn’t be branded as some whiney little girl in the process.
She went downstairs and found Marcus dressed in his dockers and golf shirt. She looked at him questioningly. “I still had these in a bag in my car. I guess being disorganized comes in handy.”
She smiled weakly at him and reached for the mug he offered her. They sat together and sipped in silence, both mentally prepping for what they needed to do that day. Erin was readying herself to be strong, calm, and collected. Marcus was readying himself not to beat Aaron Mercer to a quivering mass of flesh, but only so Erin could handle him herself.
He drove her to work in her car and went straight up to the tenth floor with her. She squared her shoulders in the elevator and he was so proud of the strength she found in herself.
He knew she was a shaky mess under that collected exterior and he reached for her hand to offer his support before they walked out of the elevators and into the reception area of the top floor of her firm.
“Good morning, Paige,” she said to the receptionist. “I need to speak to all the partners, please, right now. It’s about Aaron Mercer, and it’s important.”
Paige was about to protest until she saw the determined look on Erin’s face and the hardened calm of Marcus’s glare. She knew Aaron Mercer’s advances all too well, and she nodded knowingly at Erin.
She pushed the intercom button that connected her to each of the partners’ offices and announced an emergency meeting in the conference room and that each needed to attend. She hung up before any of them could argue with her.
“Be strong, Erin,” Paige said to her. “God knows I wish I was.”
Erin nodded back and walked to the conference room. Marcus followed behind. “Do you want me to come in with you?” he asked her.
“Not with the partners. I think I need to do this myself. But if they call Aaron in, I might need you. I don’t think I can face him without you.”
“I know you can, but whatever you need,” he said. He paced in the small sitting area outside of the posh conference room the entire time she met with her superiors. The tenth floor was only occupied by the partners, and they obviously loved their luxury. It took all he had not to walk down one small flight of steps and find the bastard that made Erin cry.
Marcus waited almost twenty minutes before Erin came out. She looked triumphant and he hugged her so proudly. “What did they say?”
“Mostly his uncle spoke up. He actually kind of yelled, ‘That’s IT’ and then said he’s had enough of Aaron’s antics and he was tired of keeping him around rather than fighting his sister about her son.”
“He’s a bastard for ever putting up with it,” Marcus said bitterly.
“The other partners just asked questions about his behavior. They’re planning on sending out a memo asking women to come forward so they have documentation and grounds to fire him.”
“I knew you were strong enough,” he said smiling at her.
“Let’s go to breakfast before you go, do you mind? I need to get out of here for a few minutes. Plus, I want to show you where I sit when I write to you.”
“Sure.”
They headed down to the eighth floor first so Erin could introduce Marcus to Scott.
“Marcus, this is Scott Merchant. He’s the Senior Tax Manager and one of the few people I was comfortable enough to talk to since I started working here,” Erin said smiling, still feeling lighter after the meeting with the partners.
Scott shook Marcus’s hand warmly and told him how much happier Erin had been since meeting him.
“How did you guys meet?” he asked, putting on his usual charm.
“I’m the night janitor here,” Marcus said, unembarrassed.
Scott just smiled and said, “Leave it to Erin.”