Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman

Chapter Forty-Six

BETHANIE

When Peter lunges for me,I sidestep him, turn and grab Tucker and start to head out of the room. Zara reaches for my ankle and grabs it. I kick and shake her off, stumbling, but thankfully don’t fall.

There is a pounding on the door, so I scream for help. The pounding stops and Peter wraps his arm around my waist from behind, but I fight to get free. I step on his foot while screaming. Tucker starts to cry and my mama's heart wants to soothe him, but my fighting instinct knows that I need to focus.

Twisting and turning, I try to get out of Peter’s arms. He’s not necessarily a super big guy, but he’s stronger than me, bigger too. I can’t get out of his grasp and I growl and continue to slam my foot into his over and over again, but I’m barefoot and he’s wearing boots and I don’t even think he’s feeling it.

Tears start to fill my eyes and I blink a few times, trying to get them to go away, but instead, they fall down my cheeks. I scream again, my voice becoming hoarse as I start to completely give up.

Holding Tucker close, I’m conscious not to squish him, but my knees start to give out, or maybe I just start to give up. Whoever is on the other side of that door isn’t busting through and isn’t going to save me.

I don’t think that I can save myself and Tucker either. My heart starts to slow down as my body begins to give up. Peter lets out a cruel sounding laugh and Zara appears in front of me again, her lips curved up in a snarl.

She rips Tucker from my arms and I try to hold on to him, but I also don’t want to hurt him. Peter starts to drag me away from them, but when Tucker and Zara start getting farther away from me, or rather when I’m dragged away from them, my fight returns.

I twist and turn, scratch, and claw at Peter. He lets out a howl when I tear his arm to shreds with my short nails. He stumbles backward and that’s when I run forward. My entire body jerks.

Zara turns toward the staircase and all I can envision is her throwing Tucker down the staircase. I don’t know why, but that vision fills my mind and it’s enough to make me stop in my tracks completely.

I don’t know what to do. I can’t have Peter grab me again, but I also can’t have this bitch hurting my baby.

Then relief fills me when the front door opens and it’s Laurent standing there. I can’t see anyone else past him, but I know there are other shadows, I just can’t make them out. My eyes connect to his and my breath hitches.

“Help Tucker,” I scream.

His entire body jerks and I watch him move. His feet carry him quickly toward the stairs. Before he even makes it halfway up the staircase, Peter wraps his arms around me again. He hooks one arm around my neck, the other he clamps down around my waist.

Laurent stops at the top of the stairs and he makes a move toward me. “Tucker,” I cry.

Peter doesn’t allow me to stay where I can see what’s going on, instead he drags me into the bedroom. I hear Laurent yell, and there is some other commotion, but I’ve lost my fight. Tucker will be safe and that’s all that matters right now.

Nothing else matters.

Not a single thing.

Just Tucker and Laurent.

Peter tosses my body across the room and my legs must not have their full strength back because I can’t catch myself as I fall to the floor. Bracing my arms for my fall, I hold my torso up as I look across the room at him.

“What are you going to do now?” I ask on a hiss.

He tilts his head to the side, his eyes wild, and he just looks unpredictable. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, I can’t even fathom what could be going on in his mind. It could be a million different things and at the same time, it could be nothing.

I don’t think that Peter really thinks things through. He seems like an action kind of guy and he’s been all excited to get ahold of me, so right now I’m thinking that he doesn’t quite know what to do with his hands.

If I can hold him off for long enough for someone to come in here and save the damsel in distress, then I’ll be golden. Licking my lips, I try to push up to standing, but before I can get there, Peter is on me.

His heavy body lands on top of me and the breath is knocked out of my lungs. His hands start to rip at my clothes before I realize what’s happening. Slipping my arms between us, I try to push him away, but his body is too strong and he’s still pressing his weight against me.

“Police,” a voice barks. “Stop.”

I could cry.

In fact, I do.

Tears start to stream down my face, but he doesn’t stop. His hands continue to grope and grab at me. I know that he’s bruising me. His hands are being so rough as he attempts to get his fill or whatever the fuck he’s doing. I don’t know, I don’t care, but I want him the fuck off of me.

The policeman shouts again, but this asshole won’t stop. Lifting my knee between his legs, with everything that I have, I thrust up and knee this fucker in his balls. Peter lets out a groan and collapses on top of me.

What little breath I have is now gone and it feels like my ribs have been compressed into my body. That is until instant relief is granted and Peter is pulled off of me.

I gulp air, trying to catch my breath, but I don’t move. I don’t know where Peter is, but I don’t care either. He’s off of me and that’s all that matters right now. Pinching my eyes closed, I inhale a deep breath through my nose, then let it out of my mouth.

Then I hear a voice in the background and feel a strong arm help me to sit up. Opening my eyes, I look to the side and I see Laurent sitting down next to me with Tucker in his arms.

“Is he okay?” I ask, my voice sounding really far away.

“He’s perfect. You protected him wonderfully. Are you okay, baby?”

Licking my lips, I try to clear my throat, but it hurts a little. “I’m okay. I’m a little tired,” I whisper.

“Don’t sleep, Bethie,” he demands.

Blinking, I nod my head, but I feel my eyelids growing heavy. “Water,” a voice grunts, and a bottle of water is shoved in front of me.

Laurent takes the water and holds it to my mouth. I feel the cool water touch my lips and slide down my throat. I let out a sigh as it instantly refreshes me. Blinking, I look down in Laurent’s arms and see Tucker. He’s whimpering as if he’s attempting to catch his breath from crying.

“Did she hurt him?” I ask.

“She didn’t have the chance. He’s perfect, baby.”

“Thank god.”

There’s a moment of silence, then he touches his lips to my temple. “No, Bethie. Thank you.”

LAURENT

I watch her sleep.

I can’t leave her side and even though there are people waiting for me, wanting to talk to me, to interview me, but all I can do is watch Bethie sleep. There is a knock on the doorjamb behind me and I turn my head, smiling at my father, who is standing there.

His concerned expression doesn’t change as he takes me in. He clears his throat and dips his chin.

“Detective Chenault needs to speak with you, Laurent. Hansen is waiting as well. She’ll be okay. I’ll stay right here.”

“I can’t be away from her,” I state.

He nods his head a couple of times, but he doesn’t tell me that I can stay. In fact, he says the exact opposite. “You need to talk to the detective, Laurent. This is not something that can wait. I’ll stay right here. Tennessee is downstairs and can hold Tucker.”

I shift my gaze from him to Bethie again and stare at her for a long moment. My eyes drift down to her ring, the one that I gave her. It should have been an engagement ring. I should have married her months ago, but once again, I’m selfish.

“Okay,” I say softly as I stand to my feet.

I don’t want to leave her alone. I don’t want her out of my sight, but I also don’t want to talk to the detective and Hansen in here in front of her. Seeing her on the floor, that piece of shit having just been on top of her, trying to hurt her, I knew that something inside of me had changed.

I can’t live life without her.

Bethanie Clark is my forever, as cheesy as that shit sounds.

Standing, I walk over to my dad and clear my throat. “If she wakes up, come and get me,” I demand.

He nods his head. “I will, the second she does.”

With Tucker in my arms, I walk downstairs toward the group of people that are gathered in my living room. As much as I want to ignore them all, I don’t. Instead, I walk toward Detective Chenault. He jerks his chin toward the back door and stands.

I follow behind him toward the balcony and close the door behind me. He doesn’t say anything at first, then he turns and faces me. His gaze dips to mine, then he levels me with a stare. I don’t know what he’s trying to convey, but I want him to hurry the fuck up.

“You wanted to speak to me?” I ask.

He nods his head. “Yeah. Peter wasn’t on our radar, not at all. I had absolutely nothing connecting him to Zara or Susan. I did have a connection between Zara and Susan,” he explains. “But I would have never figured out who the fuck Peter was.”

“Until it was too late,” I say, finishing his unfinished words.

He nods his head once, his gaze finding mine. “I don’t know what to think right now, Laurent.”

“Who is he?” I demand.

He clears his throat. “His mother is in prison with Susan. She’s a serial killer. I would never have connected them as being associates. They don’t share a cell, they don’t work together, they go to the library at the same time, that is all.”

“What happens now?” I ask.

“We caught him in the act, he’s fucked,” he says. “I’ll still need Bethanie to come on down to the station to give a report when she’s feeling up to it. In the next few days.”

“Zara?” I ask.

“Same.”

“Will this ever come back at us, in any way? I need to know I’m safe, that my family is safe.”

Detective Chenault presses his lips together and shakes his head once. “I wish that I could give you all the assurances in the world, Laurent, but I can’t. All I can say is that we have to let the wheels of the justice system turn, then we can go from there, whatever is thrown our way.”

“I really don’t care for the sound of that,” I grunt.

He chuckles. “I don’t blame you.”

I watch him for a long moment, then I nod my head once. He’s going to do what he can, but at this point, it’s out of his hands and I can’t blame him for anything. It’s not up to the courts and I’ll raise hell if these two get out on the streets ever again. They could have killed Bethie and Tucker. They could have taken them from me.

“They didn’t. You did nothing wrong. They should have been safe, sometimes the bad guys get in even with every precaution under the sun,” he says.

I didn’t realize I’d been talking aloud, but his reassurances are meant to make me feel better, they don’t.

At the of the day, I failed my family.