Loving Tessa (January Cove) (9 page)

Aaron asked why her coworkers weren’t looking for her.

“You’ve got to understand, I was from a small town just like January Cove. You see, everyone there really respects law-enforcement, as they should. No one had any idea that he was so sick and demented. Plus, there's a lot of incestuous relationships in the police force there. Everyone is family. In fact, his father and brother are both police officers, so I knew they’d never believe what he was doing. They all really thought that we’d broken up and I'd moved on. I had no options because I knew if I got out of there and tried to run, he’d just find me and kill me. He said so many times. He had no problems killing me and Tyler.”

“So that's why you ran. You didn't feel like you had any options to go to the police. God, Tessa, you must’ve felt so alone and terrified when you saw daylight after three years…”

“It was… and is… terrifying. If I’d gone to the police there, it would've only resulted in me getting killed. He would never let his name be smeared like that.”
 

“So how did you finally escape?”

“I overheard him on the telephone saying that his father was in the hospital. His dad had a heart attack, and I knew he would go to be by his bedside because they were very close. So, I knew that was my only opportunity to try to get out. He had everything locked down and nailed shut. I had to work very hard over the course of several hours to pry open the door leading upstairs. I was terrified.”

“I'm sure you were,” Aaron said as he slid closer and put his hand over hers. Suddenly, she felt a wave of safety come over her that she’d never felt in her life. He might as well have thrown his body over hers to shield her because that’s exactly what it felt like.

“Once I finally pried the door open, I gathered together what little belongings we had. He would occasionally buy us clothing from a thrift store that was two counties over, but we never got anything new which is why I'm always wearing these old, unfashionable clothes,” she said as she pulled at her skirt. “I had also been putting away a little bit of money here and there that I stole out of his wallet when he was asleep. Of course, I'd have to have sex with him in order to get him to go to sleep anywhere near me.” She cringed as she said the words.

“He never noticed you were stealing money?”

“No. But, you have to keep in mind that I was stealing very little at a time. A dollar here or five dollars there, but nothing big. I didn't want to tip him off. It took me months to get enough money to take with us, and I was able to find that nasty old camper for a very cheap price. I literally bought it as we were walking out of town.”

“How far did you have to go on foot?”

“We walked about three miles before I saw the camper parked in someone's front yard with a for sale sign on it. Believe it or not, he sold it to me for two hundred bucks just to get it off his lot. I put a little money in gas, and it brought us all the way here to January Cove. We stopped here because this is as far as I could go on the gas money I had. Then, I bought a little bit of food at your store and paid the lot rent in advance for three weeks at your campground. I don't have any money left, so I don't know what we're going to do next.”

“You know I'm going to help you, right?” Aaron said looking into her eyes as he took her hand between both of his. He was strong and masculine and steady, and she desperately needed that right now.

"You don't have to. As I said before, this isn't your problem. You wanted to know what happened, and I'm telling you. I think you deserve that much after all that you've helped us already."

"And as I said before, I'm doing this for you and Tyler. He's never had a normal life, and that boy has a light inside of him that deserves to shine. I intend to do everything I can to make sure that happens."

“So what do we do?” she asked sighing as she leaned back on the sofa. His hands slipped away from hers, and her heart sank when she no longer felt his touch. What was that about, she wondered to herself.

“The first thing I'm going to do this call my sister,” Aaron said standing up as he reached into his front pocket in search of his phone.

“Your sister?”

“Yeah. She actually used to date a private investigator. I think the first thing we need to do is get a track on this guy to make sure that he's not heading toward this area. Do you think he'd hire anyone else to do his dirty work?”

“I certainly wouldn't put it past him. After all, he has access to criminals anytime he wants, but I think he'd rather do the job himself. He's probably extremely angry at me right now and feeling like I got one over on him. He won’t just allow that to happen. He's going to come after me. There's no question about that.”

“Then we need to get on this fast. Here, I brought this notebook. Write down his full name and as much personal information as you have. I'll call Addison and we'll get to work on this.”

Tessa looked up and smiled. “Thank you. No one has ever tried to help me. I don’t know what I did to deserve finding you as a friend, but I will thank God everyday for it.”

“Well, get used to it. That's what friends are for, right?” Aaron whispered as he handed her a pen.

“I think this is going a little beyond the typical friendship,” she said without thinking.
 

Aaron fidgeted for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I just mean that I've never had a friend who is willing to help me protect myself from a deranged ex,” she said with a laugh trying desperately to change the subject.

“Oh,” Aaron said. Was that a hint of disappointment in his voice?

“Do you have any idea why he wanted to hold you captive rather than just letting you get on with your life?”

“He was highly jealous. He didn't want anyone else to have me if he couldn't. I wanted to leave, to get out of the situation I was in, but he wasn't about to let that happen. He would date women and actually bring them home, have sex with them and then come force himself on me. It was a power trip.”

“But why wouldn't he have wanted Tyler?”

“I don't know, he was angry with me I guess. He also didn't want anyone to know that he was holding me captive, so he would've had a hard time explaining this new baby boy. As time went on, I noticed he was drinking more and I'm pretty sure he was taking drugs too, so he was just out of control all the way around.”

“Tessa, I'm so sorry that you had to deal with this. I promise I'll do whatever I can to help you. You’re not alone anymore.”

“Aaron, I don't want you to put yourself in harms way because of me. It's bad enough that Tyler and I are always in danger, but you and your family don't deserve this. I'm telling you that he's crazy and will do anything to get back at me. You can still walk away from this. You can still forget you ever met me. Because there is a chance you could get hurt trying to protect us.”

“I'm willing to take the chance,” Aaron said looking in her eyes as he reached out and touched her hand again. “Don’t you know you’re worth fighting for, Tessa?”

She stared at him and then looked down without answering. The emotions building up in her chest were overwhelming her ability to speak or think. “For now, I'm going to go make a call to Addison and give her this information. Hopefully, her friend will be able to help us out and find out where he is right now. As long as we can keep track of him, you'll at least have some semblance of peace.”

“I suppose, but there's always the chance that he's got one of his goons after me. It might not be him, but I really think he would want to do this himself.”

“Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and he won't seek vengeance,” Aaron said with a shrug.

“We won't get that lucky.”

***

As Tessa sat in the living room, she could hear Aaron on the phone in the kitchen. He was talking to his sister who was giving him information on how to get in touch with her friend. A few moments later, she could hear him making that all important call to the friend whose name was Stan from what she could understand.

After a five-minute conversation, Aaron came back into the living room with a smile on his face.

“What? Is there news already?” she asked.

“ No, it just feels good to have something underway.”

“Yeah, it actually does. What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t go into specifics. The less that people know, the better. I just told him I needed to keep track of someone, so he’s looking into it right now. While we wait to hear back from Stan, I had a plan for us to do something,” he said smiling and rubbing his hands together.

“A plan?”
 

“Yes. There is a part of this property that I'd like to show you.”

“Okay…”

“Don't worry. We’ll be safe way out here. No one knows this place is back here, and we can see them coming before they ever get to us.”

“I'm not worried, Aaron. I feel safer right now than I have in years.” She looked up into his gorgeous face and he reached out to pull her up from the sofa.

“And don't worry about Tyler. I just texted my mom and she said he's doing fine.” He squeezed her shoulder as if to comfort her.

“I'm not worried about Tyler either. You have to understand, I haven't had a family in a long time, and I never really had a normal one. It feels good to have people helping me for once. I know it won't last long, but I really do appreciate it right now.”

“Why do you say it won't last long?”

“Because you're not my real family. I don't expect you to take on my problems and help me out in the long term.”

“Tessa, you've got to stop this.”

“Stop what?”

“Putting this wall up around you. It's okay if people care about you and help you. Let me care, okay?” he said softly as he rested his hands on her shoulders. Every nerve ending in her body lit up at his touch, but she wasn’t about to show it. Still, her heartbeat sped up and she was sure she might hyperventilate at any moment.

“But how can you care about me? You don't even know me. I understand that you're just being nice like you would to anyone.”

“That's not true. I don't help everyone like this. In fact, I didn’t want to be around anyone after my breakup. When you met me, I was coming home from a self-imposed exile to the mountains. I was trying to calm myself down, get rid of the anger. I was trying to be alone, so I certainly wasn’t up for helping anyone.”

“Then why me?” she finally asked softly, wondering if it was the wrong question to pose to someone who was trying his best to protect her.

“I don't want to scare you.”

“Scare me?”

“Yeah. Because it might make me sound like a lunatic or a stalker myself,” he said with a little laugh.

“Come on. Tell me.”

“Well, when I saw you out in the rain wrestling with your dog, I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you are. After having gone through such a heartbreak recently, it was nice to see a beautiful woman and watch her smile. Then, when I saw you in your swimsuit down by the shore with your son, I can't say that I wasn’t a little bit attracted to you.”

She started to smile and looked down at her feet.

“So you're helping me because you think I'm pretty?”

“No. It helps, but no,” he said with a smile. “I'm helping you because I like you, for one thing. I think you're a nice person, and I really like Tyler. And like I said before, I hate bullies. So, I'd like for you to stop questioning the reasons why I'm helping you if you don't mind.”

“Okay. Fair enough. I’ll stop asking. So where do you want to go then?”

“Come on, I'll show you. I don't want to ruin the surprise.” She smiled, and for the first time in a long time she was excited to be surprised about something. All of the surprises that she’d had in most recent years we're not good ones. Like the surprise of finding out that her ex was an abuser or the surprise that she was going to spend years locked in the basement of his home, unable to see anyone.