Chapter 7

“You will not be here long...”

That disembodied voice pulled me from a sound sleep. Just before waking I was dreaming about being back in the Oval Office. Jennifer was still alive and we were heading out to some function, or another. Jen looked stunning in a gown designed just for her, and we were being urged to leave so we’d be only a little late.

As our Secret Service guards rushed us towards waiting the limousine, the back door flew open and a gunman opened up on us, killing Jennifer and all of my guards except for one, who shot the killer to pieces before taking his finger off the trigger. The dream was tearing me to pieces by the time the death voice showed up to interrupt my torment.

“You will not be here long...”

Once I was awake enough to remember where I was and who was beside me, I laid awake a long time considering what that meant. The death voice showed up at times when it made no sense for me to be worried about dying. Mark Hancock was the epitome of white bread. He had no identifiable enemies, worked in a nondescript job, making no important decisions, and his very existence screamed ‘ordinary.

If death wanted me, it was for reasons that weren’t yet clear. There must be some important task I was here to accomplish, that death did not want disturbed, or the death voice wouldn’t be hanging around waking me up.

My thoughts dismissed what I couldn’t control, and I turned my thoughts to Abby and her situation. I could give her a home, open several bank accounts with enough money to keep her until she decided to go back to teaching, take her with me and keep her as a mate until she decided to look elsewhere, or just give her money and send her on her way. My heart wanted to convince her to stay with me and see if we could build a life together. Maybe she and I could make a go of it. Maybe she was too damaged. Only time would tell.

As I considered life with Abby, she suddenly woke up and headed for the bathroom. Her naked bottom was just as alluring to me. I was still taken with her.

All of her...

When she staggered back to bed, she grasped my arm and cuddled with it as she settled down to sleep once more. As she did, she looked up at me and asked, “Who was that man who spoke to you before?”

“What man?” I thought that she was talking about a dream.

“You know ... The one that said, ‘You won’t be here long.’”

Oh my goodness.

How did she hear the voice of death? No one ever heard the death voice but me. Something here was not like my other lives. Abby and I really did have some eternal reason to be hooking up.

“I think it was someone in the hall talking to a couple going out,” I said, giving myself an out until I could figure out why death might be stalking Abby.

It was possible that the universe thwarted death, by sending me to rescue Abby. If so, then death might be angry and petulant, wanting its soul back. Either way, I had to be doubly on guard, less some crazy circumstance take her from me before we do what the universe sent me here to do. With nothing else to do, I hugged her closer and didn’t go back to sleep. Guarding Abby seemed like a much better idea. I was tired when we struggled awake, but that was just fine with me. If the death voice was after Abby, then I had even more reason to make sure she got and remained healthy. When we completed our morning rituals, I escorted her to the dining room for another buffet breakfast. While she picked over the offerings, I added a few things my plate that I thought would help her regain her strength and shared them with her.

The snow had stopped during the night and everyone in the restaurant was excitedly waiting for the plows and sanders to remove the ice from the roadways. A glance at the local cable channel showed that the temperature hadn’t come up. Instead it was colder than during the night. As long as it failed to warm up and the cloud cover kept the sun from penetrating, the roads would remain treacherous.

Rather than risk wrapping Mark’s SUV around a tree, I asked Abby, “You see how cloudy it is?” She glanced out through the restaurant, and through the lobby doors, where the cloudy sky blocked the day from becoming sunny, and nodded. “The roads will not get any better until the temperature comes up and the sun warms the pavement loosening the ice for the salt to do its work. We might be better off to just keep the room, spend another night, and let the transportation departments do their thing and then head for home when it’s safer. Is that alright with you?”

Abby looked puzzled to be consulted about it. “If ... yeah. If you think it’s best, then that’s fine.” She did smile, but offered no input other than to acquiesce.

Her lack of certainty got my attention. “Didn’t Daniel and you talk things over before taking any action?”

Abby laughed. Her smile was not a happy one, but her laugh made her message just as clear as her words. “Daniel never asked things, Mark. He just told me what I was going to do and then gave me very little time to comply.” She shook her head as she said that, as if she was clearing an ugly memory from her mind.

“Go ahead,” I said, softly. “Say it. Whatever it is, just tell me.” My voice was soft because we were in a dining room, but my tone was clear. No matter what she wanted to say, I was all ears, hanging on every word she had to say.

“Ummm ... after our wedding night and for the rest of our honeymoon ... Daniel was insistent that I ‘submit’ to him at any time he chose. I was so sore. It hurt each and every time, but he said that he waited a long time for my body, and I was not going to make him wait. Not ... Ever ... Again. He wanted what he felt was his, and that included me, in bed, whenever he felt like it.

“I was so desperate to be a good wife, that I let him hurt me all time. No matter how sore I got, I kept my mouth closed and just took it...” She went somewhere in her head, and I let her have whatever time she needed.

When she was ready, she looked straight into my eyes. “Daniel wanted me to make me bleed. He seemed to come alive when he used me like a ... a ... a thing, and when he drew blood, it was like a revelation to him. It got so bad that I knew if I could just bleed on him as he hurt me, it would over really soon and I could clean myself up and try to heal until he did it all over again the next time.”

Abby cried...

Rather than allow anyone to see her hurting like that, I took her in my arms and quietly led her back to our suite. We had skipped showers in favor of breakfast, so I carefully walked her into the bathroom, started the shower, and undressed her. When she was naked, I helped her into the shower, like a young mother might help a toddler. Abby let me take the lead and manage her without comment.