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She didn’t want to raise her head because in the dim light of the apartment he didn’t see the bruises on her neck. In the bright light of the bathroom, he would. It took him a moment before he noticed the bruises in the shape of a handprint.
“Oh my God. This was that bastard Tim, wasn’t it? I’m going to kill him. Where the fuck is he?”
“Jail. The police took him.”
“I told you he was dangerous.”
He kissed the bruises on her neck and gently turned her head to see the damage to her lip. It was a superficial wound, but the lip had swelled. He took her by the hand and filled a bag with ice, then brought her to her bedroom to lie down. Up until now, he was still wearing his coat and boots. Xander took them off and brought them to the entryway closet, then came back to lie with her.
“Did you tell the officers everything? Even about the applications and emails?”
“Yes, I told them what he did, every bit of it. He wouldn’t even look at me because he knew he was guilty.”
“I’m going to call the police station tomorrow to find out what they are charging him with besides assault.”
He cuddled her in his arms while she iced her lip. He was nauseated by the injury that had been inflicted on her. If he ever got his hands on Tim, he was going to do ten times worse.
Ava fell asleep, and when she awoke, Xander was still there with his arms around her asleep. She checked the clock and saw it was nearly 10:00 PM. She shook him awake.
“Wake up; you have to go.”
“I’m not leaving you. You just had a traumatic experience.”
“If you stay here our relationship can be exposed. Do you want that?”
“If it means keeping you safe.”
“Xander, I’m fine. You can go home. Tim is not coming back here tonight.”
He reluctantly unwound his arms from her and got out of bed.
“I don’t want to leave you, but I will so we can keep our secret. I agree that I don’t want to go back to how we were. Not being able to see each other all day.”
“I will see you in the office tomorrow. I’m sure this is going to be a shock to everyone so please play it up. You need to act like you didn’t know.”
“Sweetheart, it is a shock to me to see you like that. I wasn’t here, and I should have been.”
“You can’t always protect me.”
He kissed her forehead and left the apartment before he changed his mind.
In the cab home, he felt anger rising. He wanted to go to the police station tonight and tear Tim limb from limb. He was a sick individual. Let’s see how tough he would be with someone bigger than him. But cooler heads prevailed, and he went home instead.
* * *
Ava walkedinto the office and was greeted by the looks of worry and curiosity. The skin around the lip had bruised overnight, and the wound was more noticeable than the night before. She had iced it again after Xander had left and this morning but the damage was done. Some of the swelling had subsided, but it would need time. The bruises on her neck were another story. She wore a turtleneck to hide them. If this had occurred in the warmer months, she would have had a hard time with this attire.
While sitting at her desk checking her emails, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Sam and was greeted with a look of shock when she saw her face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Tim happened to me.”
Sam put her hand over her mouth. “He hit you?”
“Yes, it’s a long story that I’ll tell you later.”
“Does this have to do with his arrest last night? It’s all over the news.”
