Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Imogen

Some days everything just fell into place.

Lots of my regular customers came through and we had a little chat as I rang up their orders. Sandy let me know her boys had won their soccer championships. Old Mrs. Shepherd updated me on the state of her cats, Ginger and Whiskers. Whiskey, as she affectionately called him, was getting old, and I feared the day when she'd have to take him to his last vet visit. The nice couple from the apartment block across the road announced their pregnancy with some of their purchases. I smiled and chattered away, scanning and packing groceries until finally the end of my day came.

"A lot less drama than the other day," Jade said when I went to clock out.

"About that, I'm?—"

"Not at fault in anyway?" Her eyebrow rose as she smiled. "Your ex is an idiot for thinking he could treat you like that."

"And I guess I'm the idiot for putting up with him."

My eyes sank to the floor.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." There was a note in Jade's voice that made me think she knew more than she was saying. "Plenty of good people stay in bad relationships longer than they should. ‘Just leave' is good advice, but harder to put in place." She shook her head and then met my gaze. "But anyway, thanks for staying back today. We were getting slammed. Catch you tomorrow?"

"You got it."

I gathered up my bag and headed for the sliding doors, needing to use the emergency button to open them. The supermarket was dark now, shut down for the night, only the night fill people left in the building, ready to restock the shelves. I walked out into the darkness, heading for my car like I did every other time.

Except at no point before had he emerged from behind it.

Not Mike. My gut instinct was right. He would've moved on with someone else, I'm sure of it. One little petulant display and he'd have decided I wasn't worth it.

But Phil…

He stepped out from behind his truck, parked right next to my car with a grim look on his face.

"There you are."

"What the…?" I stopped myself from saying anything more. There was no point. I didn't want to hear his answers, somehow I knew.

"Little bitch." He looked me up and down, but some hidden instinct made me think it wasn't me he saw. "Got Mike banned from that supermarket. Couldn't even show his face to let you know what a mistake you'd made. Got threatened with a domestic violence order, he did, and for what?"

I didn't know anything about that, but I kept my mouth shut. Instead, my hand was shoved into my pocket to retrieve my phone.

Now was the time. Now I could call the guys with impunity because what the hell was Phil doing here? What the hell did he care about the situation between me and Mike? He was a constant but not very familiar presence in Mike's life, up until now. When I tapped on my phone screen to unlock it, he moved.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Gasping, my phone was slapped out of my hands and went crashing to the ground. I stared at my now damaged screen, wondering almost idly how I was going to pay to fix it, before a more immediate concern made itself clear. Phil ambled closer, his movements the unhurried sway of a man who thought himself in control of the situation.

"Gonna call those fucking boys of yours again, are you?" A faint whine built in the back of my throat, coming out as a squeak when his hand wrapped around my wrist and bit down. He ground the bones together for good measure. "Fucking slut. How long have you been taking it from each one of them?"

"What?"

I got a shake in answer, my whole body whipping back and forth as he wrenched my arm.

"Fucking little moll. One in the pink, one in the stink, and one to keep your filthy little mouth shut, I reckon. That's what you left a good man for."

"I didn't?—"

Whatever I had to say, it didn't matter, I could see that in his eyes. He glared down at me, staring but not seeing me. There was a kind of madness there, one that had him brutalising a woman that didn't even belong to him.

Which had me thinking.

I jerked back, trying to break his hold but to no avail. Didn't seem to stop me, though. Hysteria bubbled up inside me, ready to be screamed out for the whole world to hear.

But it wouldn't care.

I'd given up thinking anyone would pay attention when bad things happened to me, and it felt like that kicked in right now. A weird kind of fatalism that jerked me out of my head and had me hovering above my body, watching what was going on. It observed Phil moving towards me, getting so close to my face, but I didn't feel his spittle land as he shouted. Foul things, disgusting things so far away from the reality of that gentle kiss I'd shared with Lucas to almost be ridiculous.

But laughing wouldn't get me out of this.

My body moved of its own accord, and I just watched it jerk and twitch, like a fish caught on a line. But just like a fisherman, he reeled me in, the hook biting deeper and deeper. The only thing that would save me was someone cutting that hook free.

And that's when they arrived.

The sleek, black SUV roared up and screeched to a halt, the doors shoved open before they even came to a stop. Lucas stormed across the car park with murder in his eyes, no longer the gentle-eyed man who'd held me. Fists were clenched, his feet stamping into the ground as he got closer, Kyle leaping out of the passenger side seat to join him. It was Asher who caught my eye, standing within the open driver's seat doorway, the engine still thrumming, right before he launched himself across the car bonnet. I don't know how he did it, because one minute he was there and the next he was wrenching Phil away from me and tossing my attacker across the car park .

I came back to my body with a slam. Noise, hands on my face, on my arms, faces appearing in my field of vision. "Are you OK?" That was asked urgently over and over. "Imogen, are you?—?"

"I'm fine."

That unnatural calm that always snapped into place did so now. Born from shame, it saved me from ever having to admit to other people what was happening to me. If I kept my shit together, no one would know better. I nodded then to confirm what I was saying.

"You're not." Kyle had more to say, but then Phil got to his feet. Wavering there, all three of then turned and then advanced like wolves on a kill.

"You fucking prick…" Asher's voice didn't sound like his own anymore. It was somehow more. There was a deep, rumbly edge to it, the sound of a big Rottweiler growling. "What the fucking hell do you think you're doing?"

"Standing up to cunts like you." I marvelled at Phil's sly smile. There's no way I'd have been that brave in the same situation. "Pricks that get between a man and his woman. Fucking arseholes, you took her away from a good guy, promising her everything, I bet. Look after her, give her the soft life, just so she sucks your dick."

"Do. Not. Say. Another. Word."

Asher was always in control, and now I could see why. He was losing it right before our eyes. He grabbed Phil by the shirt and hoisted him up in the air until the other man was silenced, his feet paddling helplessly in the air.

"Ash. Ash." Kyle rushed forward, ready to intervene, but that was when Jade and the security guards came rushing out.

"What happened?" Her eyes were everywhere at once, trying to identify the cause of this fuss before they came to rest on me. "Imogen, shit, are you OK?" She saw the red mark around my wrist, angry enough to bruise later. "Jesus, what the hell did he do?"

"You're gonna need to put him down, mate," the security guard said in his best be-reasonable tone. His hand strayed to his walkie talkie.

"He attacked me in the car park," I said and that had the guard surging forward. "Not Asher, Phil."

"I fucking did not?—"

Phil wheezed that out when he was set down on his feet, but a twist of his shirt had his words choked off again.

"He was waiting by my car…"

That was the point when the shell of artificial calm cracked. My hands trembled and Jade noted every shake, my whole body following suit as adrenaline rushed in. Run, it told me, run. But there was nowhere to run to and that kept me pinned to the spot, because as everyone's voices got louder and louder, I looked over their heads, catching the moment Phil's gaze met mine and he smiled. Sly, insidious, feeling like a snake slithering across my skin, it was all the warning I got as he turned and bolted.

The Rottweiler analogy was an apt one because Asher lunged like one, ready to run him down, but Kyle and Lucas' hands slapped down on his shoulders, hauling him back.

"Let the police handle this, mate."

The far off sirens let us know the guard had put a call through, and sure enough, a police car turned up, two officers strolling over.

"So an assault was reported?" the first one asked.

We ended up at the police department giving a statement, but it was me they were focussed on. I was the victim and the primary witness.

"So how do you know Phil Jackson?" I was asked for the umpteenth time.

"I don't," I replied, studying the desk, not them. "Not really. He works with my ex."

"And why would he be stalking and assaulting you and not your ex?"

I finally met the penetrating gaze of the detective interviewing me, seeing doubt there, and it exacerbated my own.

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I don't know. I don't know why he'd be waiting for me in the car park. I don't know why he grabbed me. He seemed really preoccupied with me being with the guys…" My eyes trailed across the busy police station floor, finding the three of them standing off to one side, talking more informally with a few officers. "But I don't know why he would care."

"Right, well, do you have anyone at home to keep an eye on you? This Phil, he's not a good bloke. We'll find him and bring him in, but… You need to take measures to stay safe."

"We've got this."

Asher appeared by my side, just like the angel I'd compared him to before, but this time he was the angry kind, the one that was ready to smite sinful humans. He held out a hand, and this time I didn't question taking it.

"We need to get you out of here," he told me as we walked between the desks towards the exit. "We need to take you back to headquarters."

I wasn't arguing now. The adrenaline in my blood still commanded that I run, and wherever this headquarters was, somehow I knew it'd be far, far away from anywhere Phil would be.

"Please," I said in a small voice. "Please take me away from here."