Grayson guided her to the couch and when she sat down, he went to work lighting a fire. Soon the flames were crackling and he was back at her side. Not pressuring her. Just…waiting.
So she stared into the fire as she told him her story. “You were right before, about some men not being able to take no for an answer.” She’d known a man like that. Only she hadn’t realized the truth about him, about how he was, not at first. “I met Gage right after I enrolled at college. He was friendly, popular, two years older. He was even captain of the basketball team.” Everyone had loved Gage.
Everyone but me.
“We went out a few times, but…things didn’t click for me. I didn’t want a hot and heavy relationship. I don’t know that I wanted any relationship back then. I was just…finding myself, I guess. But Gage didn’t like it when I said that I wanted to cool things down.” She’d been so nervous when she told him that she wouldn’t be seeing him again. “He said I was crazy. That just being with him…well, that made me the luckiest girl on campus.”
“Sounds like a dumbass.”
No, Gage had actually been very, very smart. And that was why it had taken so long to stop him. No one else could see what he was doing. She took a deep breath and kept staring at the flames. “He started following me around campus. I mean…it’s not like it was overt.” Not at first. “I’d leave the library, and he’d be there. I’d go to the movies and…he’d be there.” She shivered even though the fire put out plenty of warmth. “Coincidences, at least that’s what I told myself for the first week.”
“But it wasn’t coincidence.”
She shook her head. “I made the mistake of talking to a guy in my Intro To Politics class. We walked out of the lecture together—we were laughing about something, I have no idea what. I just remember, I was laughing and I looked up and I saw Gage.” His gaze had frozen her on the spot. “That night, my roommate went to a party. I was in the dorm room alone, and Gage broke in.” Her words came faster. “He put a knife to my throat and said if I ever so much as thought of being with someone else, he’d kill me.”
”Bastard.”
“He left. I was a mess. Shaking and…terrified.” Her hand lifted and touched her lips. “He kissed me while he had that knife to my throat. I was afraid that he was going to rape me.”
Grayson surged to his feet.
“He didn’t.” Her hands fisted in her lap. “I called campus security as soon as he left. Told them everything. They brought him in for questioning, but Gage just said I was his crazy ex, trying to cause trouble. He had two of his basketball buddies swear he was with them, that they were out shooting hoops.”
Grayson began to pace. She could feel his fury filling that cabin.
“I knew he’d be angry with me for reporting him, and I stopped going out. Just went to my classes. Immediately came back to my room.” Her chest seemed to squeeze as she recalled that dark time. “Everyone started thinking I was the crazy one, just like he’d said. No one believed me, not even my roommate. Like I said, Gage was popular. People loved him.”
Why don’t you love me, Jemma? Why don’t you? For an instant, she could hear his scream in her mind.
“People can be fucking blind,” Grayson said, his voice tight.
She nodded. “A week later, I was walking back to the dorm after a night class. I could see the lights of my building. I was so close…” The words trailed away. “But he caught me. He just came out of the bushes. Grabbed me. In the next second, I was shoved up against a tree and he had that knife at my throat again.”
Why don’t you love me, Jemma?
Tears stung her eyes. “He made me go with him. Gage kept that knife at my side and he wrapped his arm around me. When we passed people—people we knew—he’d jab that knife into my side harder even as he laughed and told them all that we’d gotten back together. That he’d decided he liked a little bit of crazy.” A tear slid down her cheek.
“When he forced me into his car, I knew that he was going to kill me. I knew it. He was going to take me away from campus, and I wasn’t ever coming back. I saw one of the campus cops, and I tried to get his attention. I called out to him, but I didn’t think he noticed.” She’d been bleeding then. Shaking.
“Gage took me to the edge of the campus. There was an old frat house there, an abandoned place. The windows were boarded up and the house was covered with cob webs. He kept that knife on me and made me go inside.”
Grayson stopped pacing. He turned and his gaze focused on her.
“He told me that if I made him very, very happy, he’d let me live.”
Grayson stepped toward her.
“I started to take off my shirt.” Pain, humiliation burned through her. “And he started laughing. I knew he’d been lying to me. Something was wrong with him. Broken, twisted up. I could see it, but no one else could.” Her hand slid to her waist. To the scar that was there. “He stabbed me three times. I screamed as loud as I could, and I fought him, but he was stronger and I was sure I was going to die in that place.”