Page 16 of Grave Secrets

“Okay, coffee it is, then,” I say. “Come on. Come sit and tell me what’s up.”

I lead him to the kitchen and sit him at the island before starting a pot of coffee. “What’s up?” I ask.

“We just haven’t seen much of each other,” he says, wrapping his arms around me from behind. “I want to apologize to you, Ada.”

“For what?” I ask, turning to face him. That was a bad idea, because now I’m cornered. I see Viktor leave my office, though, so I know he will be gone in a few seconds.

“I pawned the rings,” he says bluntly. “I was mad, and…”

“I know,” I say. “I’m tracking them down. Do you owe someone money?”

“Yeah,” he says. “A lot of money.”

“How much?”

“Half a million,” he says. “I know you have that life insurance…”

“No,” I say. “You sold their rings and probably didn’t get any more than thirty bucks. Those rings were cheap in value, but they were fucking priceless to me. Now you are standing here wanting me to spend all the money I got because they fucking died… because you are on drugs?”

“You owe me that much,” he says with a growl.

“How in the fuck do I…?”

“For being so smart, you never thought to check your office for cameras,” he says simply.

I shove him away from me and try to sprint out of the kitchen to lock myself in my office, but he grabs me by the hair, jerking me off my feet. “Stop!” I scream.

“You’re fucking dead, bitch,” Chris screams as he straddles my body and wraps his hands around my throat.

“Stop!” I choke out, clawing at his hands. “I’m sorry. Please stop!”

“Fucking whore! I told you!” He screams, tightening his grip until I can’t breathe. “Cheat on me now, whore. I fucking told you!”

I can’t breathe.

I can’t get him off me.

I won’t survive this.

Do I deserve this? I did cheat. Is it cheating if I didn’t want to be with him? I tried to leave him. I tried to make him move out. All he did was rape me. Is cheating okay when I tried to leave?

Stars are dancing in my vision, and I start to get weaker. I will die, knowing that I finally tasted happiness. After so many years, I know what it’s like to feel the touch of a man who doesn’t want to hurt me. I might not survive Chris, but Chris won’t survive Viktor.

As my body starts to go limp and the world darkens, his hands move. It’s too late, because I slip into darkness anyway.

I gasp and sit straight up off the kitchen floor. My throat hurts. I don’t have underwear on anymore, and my shirt is ripped. It takes me a moment to collect myself enough that I can slowly get off the floor.

He tried to kill me, then raped me when I was unconscious. I can feel his come on my thighs. I peek around the corner to look into the living room and see that Chris is passed out on the couch. I slowly creep closer, drawn into the screen of his phone sitting on the coffee table. He has his settings so that it never locks, so there is no telling how long it’s been open.

On his screen, he sent a text three hours ago that said, “She’s dead. I’ll bring you her body soon.”

I snatch up the phone and turn the sound off before quietly rushing to the office to lock myself in. I find a random article of clothing and wipe the mess off of my legs before hurriedly getting dressed. I start shoving everything I can into bags and open the window so I can toss them out. I turn Chris’ phone off, as well as mine, before climbing out of the window. I grab up everything and shove it into the backseat of my car.

I take a second to slow down and think. I can’t start this car in the driveway, because he could hear it. I don’t know how asleep he actually is. I get an idea to put the car into neutral so I can roll backwards out of the driveway. It has a manual transmission, so I am confident that I can maneuver the car onto the road before turning the wheels pointing down the hill.

“Come on, baby. Roll,” I coax the car as I slowly inch forward.

Finally, it starts to get some speed. I am holding the clutch down, so I shift into gear and abruptly release the clutch, and the car immediately rumbles to life.