Page 43 of Savior
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She’s waiting on the porch for me when I get off work the next day.
“I don’t think we should do this tonight,” she says before I’ve even gotten out of my truck.
I jump out anyway, because hell if I’m going to let her close up again. “That so?”
She nods emphatically. “Yes.”
I brush by her and into her house. “That’s too bad.”
“Look, Logan. I can appreciate you’re wanting to check on me, but I’m fine.” She moves around me to perch on the couch with feigned indifference, but with the bandage on her head, she only looks vulnerable.
“You’re fine?”
She nods, but it’s stiff and jerky.
“You’re fine, even though a man attacked you and knocked you unconscious. If I hadn’t come, he would have raped you or worse.” This time, she can’t meet my gaze. “That’s what I thought.”
“What are you even doing here? I don’t need you to take care of me.”
My head snaps back. “If nothing else, I consider you a friend, Sienna, and I was responsible for you. I knew there was someone potentially dangerous stalking women in this town, and I should have been there.”
“You think a man like this would care if you were there?” she says, eyes flashing. “He’d kill you if it meant he got what he wanted.”
I cross the room and crouch in front of her. Even though she tries to pull them back, I take her hands in mine. “Tell me.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
“You can. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Tell me what happened to you, baby.”
“Stop.”
“No, I won’t.”
A tear spills over her cheek and she bites her lip.
“I want to be here for you. Let me be here for you, Sienna.”
She barks out a laugh. “My name isn’t even Sienna, Logan. The person you know isn’t real. I don’t even know who I am. I don’t know how to start.”
I sit next to her on the couch, close enough to remind her I’m there, but far enough away that I don’t crowd her.
“When I was in college in Miami, there was a man there targeting women, too. He’d attack them when they were outside, alone. At the park, jogging, or walking home from a late night. He’d find them when they were vulnerable, hurt them, rape them, then murder them. He killed five before he was caught. Before I caught him.” She looks up then and the pain in her eyes makes me want to hurt someone. “He was my fiancé, and I never suspected a thing. If I had, maybe I could have saved those women.”
“That isn’t your fault.”
“It is. You don’t know—”
“I will if you tell me.”
“He dated one of the girls they found. He liked to sleep around—though I didn’t know that until later. I didn’t believe it, couldn’t, until the jury came back with the conviction. I slept with a killer. Trusted him. Was going to marry him! How could I be soblind?”
“You’d be surprised how many evil people can keep a perfectly normal life while they commit these crimes.”
“Still, I should have known. A part of me should have known. He wasn’t a bad person.” Her voice cracks on the word. “He wasn’t. He wasn’t a good one, I can’t say he didn’t have his faults, but he was normal.”
“Did he hurt you?”