Rojas paused. Elisa didn’t seem to have a lot of people she felt comfortable talking to. She’d mentioned calling her mother occasionally but those calls seemed more obligatory than heart-to-hearts, especially since her mother hadn’t supported her leaving her ex. A dog could be an incredibly helpful ear. And Rojas had a feeling she’d be talking about things he needed to hear if he was going to be able to protect her long enough for her to tell him these things on purpose.
Elisa sighed and drew her knees up to her chest. “I was too confident, too sure of myself when I started work at Corbin Systems. I’d spent a few years at entry level at a smaller company and landed the job at Corbin Systems with no trouble at all. I was going to be a project manager in their program management organization. I was going to have a high-powered corporate career leading project teams in the implementation of cutting-edge projects. I had every certification to back up the skills I had listed on my resumé, and I was absolutely sure my career would only skyrocket from there.”
Impressive. Souze had his ears forward, the way he usually did with her, listening and looking appropriately interested. Rojas continued to listen, too, straining to hear every word and nuance. Every detail that could give him a better idea of how she came to be here and how she’d been found every time she’d stopped running before.
Aside from the immediate danger to her, a part of him was hungry to learn more about her. Elisa. The person tugging at him in ways he hadn’t thought possible anymore.
“So of course, when the CEO’s son started paying attention to me, I was flattered.” Hard not to be. But now her voice had turned bitter with a healthy dose of self-loathing. She wrapped her arms around her legs. “I held out for a few weeks, insisting I didn’t date where I worked.”
It would’ve only made her a more interesting target. Predators like the man chasing her down now enjoyed the chase. The stronger, the more bright the personality, the more fun it was to hunt them down and drive them crazy in the process. Rojas had seen it. Sure, it’d been overseas, but some things transcended culture, race, or religion. Some things were just about human nature.
Unfortunately, in this case it was the awful predatory side of what humans could do to each other.
“He was so good about being discreet around the office. And he was so extravagantly thoughtful about catching my interest. I couldn’t help but enjoy the attention.” She rested her chin on her knees and Souze lay down close to her in response, curling around her.
Did she realize she was slowly curling into fetal position? It was a natural reaction, a defense against what she was feeling. And it took everything in him to stay where he was and let Souze provide the comfort of his presence to her as she relived her nightmare from the pleasant beginning.
“Dating him seemed normal. I mean, he had his quirks. He demanded he pay for meals because he was insisting we go to restaurants outside of my budget, and since he was the one who’d been dying to try the place, it was only right for him to pay.” Elisa tucked her chin and bumped her forehead against her knees several times. “I was stupid to let him build up the leverage from the beginning.”
Souze lifted his head and nudged her wrist with his nose. She raised her head to look at the big dog and reached out to bury one hand in the thick fur around his shoulders.
Good boy. Distract her just enough to stop her from literally beating herself up over the memories.
“It was sneaky and gradual and cumulative. Every phase of our relationship became one where he provided for me, took care of me, and I felt so incredibly grateful to him for how much attention he showered on me.” Despite her hand on Souze, her other hand curled around her leg and the fingers were pressed in a tight grip. “When he proposed, it never occurred to me that I could say anything but yes. It was the right thing in everyone’s mind. His family, my family. And, of course, because we were engaged, I couldn’t work at Corbin Systems anymore. It wasn’t appropriate, a conflict of interest.”
She shook her head, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. Rojas wanted to hold her and kiss every drop of pain away. The way she tortured herself for those past choices was painful to watch.
“The job pool had dried up all of a sudden. There weren’t any jobs within a reasonable commute. I gave up my career,” she whispered. “The plan was to keep looking for a new job, but things kept getting in the way. There was the wedding to plan and he wanted me to focus on it full time. And then there was our home to redecorate to accommodate us both. Then the wedding was postponed due to company obligations and to better fit the timing to invite key investors as wedding guests. The wedding became more of a corporate event. And every day leading up to it, he nudged and prodded me into becoming the perfect executive’s wife.”