“He was watching me. I couldn’t very well pick up the phone and call the cops. It would’ve just set him off, and I’d either be dead before the cops got there or he would’ve headed straight here to take Ben.”

  The first response Doug had to that was offense that she thought he’d let anyone take Ben from him while he was in his care. The idea was preposterous, even if a gun was pointed in his face. He’d fight until his last breath to make sure the little boy was safe.

  He understood her fear about aggravating her ex when it was just her, but they still needed to get the authorities involved now that she was with him. He hadn’t noticed anyone following Lizzie, but that didn’t mean the creep hadn’t shown up after she’d made her way inside.

  “No one’s going to take Ben from you, and since you’ve been in here for almost ten minutes now, I assume he realizes you aren’t following his instructions.” If the guy was smart, he would’ve figured out she’d have a fight on her hands leaving without Doug trying to make her stay, whether she acted like the boogeyman was after her or not. Doug wasn’t willing to give him any credit when it came to smarts, so he assumed the man was out there somewhere stewing because his plan hadn’t worked. “So are you going to call the cops, or should I?”

  Lizzie started her response by shaking her head back and forth. With his palm still caressing one of her cheeks, he moved his hand with the motion.

  “I just want to figure out a way to get out of town without him knowing about it. I got the cops involved before, and you can see what good that did me? My restraining order is still good, but it’s not going to do anything to keep him away.”

  “Maybe not, but I will do everything in my power to keep him away, and that starts with letting the police know he’s bothering you. At the very least it will look good that we filed a complaint if I end up killing him.” Doug winked at her, trying to lighten the mood a little. He was serious about what he’d do to protect her, though. If it came down to it, Doug would kill the guy with his bare hands.

  Lizzie looked surprised to hear the words. She must have thought he was a total schlub if she thought he’d abandon her when she needed a champion. He just hoped she wasn’t playing him. As strong as the draw he felt to her was, he was going to find himself with an irrevocably broken heart if she ended up just using him, like basically every other women he’d ever met had.

  He watched for a few moments as fresh tears started falling. He’d wanted to stop them, but he’d only achieved adding to the moisture that was starting to wet Ben’s hair.

  “I don’t know what to do.” She said the words and then stopped for a second to sniffle. Doug never thought hearing an indication that someone was crying would be music to his ears, but he preferred it to the silent tears. “On my way over here I’d decided you were the only option I had for our safety, but I can’t use you like that. You’re a good man, Doug. I know you’d try to protect us, but I just realized I couldn’t stand you being hurt.”

  While she spoke, she looked Doug in the eyes, but as soon as she was done, she rested her head on Ben’s and turned away. The move made him stop stroking her cheek, so he settled on rubbing the top of her head. Contact was important to him, and she hadn’t shirked away from it, so he was going to keep it up as long as he could.

  “You say all that like you have a choice in the matter. I hate to tell you this, but as soon as you walked in that door, this battle became mine.” Saying that it went back to when he first laid eyes on her sounded a little creepy, so he altered what he was actually thinking to try not to scare her any more than she already was.

  To prove his point, he reached in his pocket to pull his phone out. He’d kept it on him all day just in case a photo opportunity presented itself, and it had a number of times. Before Ben had stumbled into his life, he’d had about a half a dozen pictures on his phone. That number had to be over a hundred as he tried to make sure he had the best shot of the baby’s antics.

  Doug was momentarily torn between dialing nine-one-one and three-one-one. No one was breaking down the door to attack them, and after a quick look around, including down at his own chest, he didn’t see the red orb of a laser sight marking any targets. That didn’t make it feel like less of an emergency to him, but he knew others would probably see it differently.

  He settled for three-one-one and figured they’d escalate his call to where it needed to go. It was the first time he’d ever had to call either number, but he figured it was as simple as any other phone call.

  It only took a ring for a woman to answer and ask where he wanted her to direct his call. He explained the situation and she patched him through to the local precinct. He had to wait a little longer to get someone to pick up there, but eventually a gruff male voice was ready to hear his problem. After the man introduced himself as Officer Wayne, Doug went into his spiel.

  “My name is Doug Renaud and my girlfriend is having a little problem with her ex-husband stalking her. I shouldn’t say little, she’s terrified.” The girlfriend part was obviously a little generous, but he thought it sounded better than the woman he was fairly sure he was falling in love with.

  “Have any direct threats been made?” Something about the man’s tone made it sound like he’d taken the same call a million times.

  Doug was sorry if he was boring him, but Officer Wayne didn’t have to sit there and try to calm Lizzie down. He also didn’t have to feel the tension in his own chest as he tried to figure out the best way to protect her.

  “He sent a text, but she’s got a restraining order and sole custody of their kid, so he shouldn’t have any contact. He’s also sent her to the hospital before, so there has to be some kind of precedent even if he didn’t outright threaten to kill her.”

  Doug hadn’t read the text, so he wasn’t sure exactly what was said. He thought about asking for her phone so he could read it, but that would only piss him off more.

  “Can I get his and her name? I’ll have to look up the restraining order. People often claim they have them, but they don’t understand the particulars, and often times they’ve expired.”

  There was something Doug hadn’t thought about before he’d made the call. Not the part about the restraining order expiring, he was fairly sure Lizzie knew what hers said and how long it lasted. He’d forgotten that he didn’t know her last name, so his claim that she was his girlfriend wouldn’t hold much water.

  Thinking on his toes, he realized she was still wearing her scrubs, which had her hospital identification card hanging from them. It said her name was Elizabeth Ellens, but he didn’t know if that was her maiden name or a fake one after she mentioned changing it, and he had no clue what name the restraining order had on it. That made him feel better about having to ask.

  “What names are on the restraining order?”

  When she’d heard him talking on the phone, she rolled her head so she could watch him. Her green eyes merely studied him as he waited to hopefully give her some kind of good news. He didn’t think they’d miraculously run out and arrest Tommy, but they could at least say they’d go remind him he wasn’t allowed anywhere near Lizzie and Ben. That wouldn’t do anything in the grand scheme of things, because he clearly didn’t care about the restraining order, but he’d know the cops were aware of the situation.

  “Thomas and Elizabeth Wheaton. It was issued in Illinois, but my lawyer said it worked anywhere.”

  Doug relayed the information and his own contact information as a number to get in touch with them. The officer said he’d look into things and get back to them. It wasn’t the immediate reaction Doug wanted, but it was more than saying there was nothing they could do.

  Doug hung up the phone and tossed it on the coffee table to the side of him. Lizzie was still staring at him, waiting to hear what was said on the other side of the phone.

  “They’re looking into it. Like I said, I wanted to make sure we’d filed some kind of complaint in case I need to see how the idiot likes it when his opponent isn’t a hundred-pound woman.” Doug sat down on the couch, with one of his legs curled underneath him so he could continue to face Lizzie.

  “I weigh a little more than a hundred pounds, but I get your point. I don’t want you getting in trouble Doug. I should just take Ben and see if we can find somewhere else to hide.”

  As horrible as that idea was when they already knew he’d been watching her, Doug couldn’t handle the thought of her just walking out of his life. He’d always wondered if love at first sight was a real thing and what it would feel like to actually feel real love. Not just the first crush kind of feeling, but the want to rip your heart out of your chest because it hurt to see another person in any kind of pain feeling. That’s what he was dealing with.

  “You’re not going anywhere. You don’t see him pounding on my door, so I’d have to say this is where you should be right now. Why don’t you fill me in on some more particulars about him while we eat dinner?”

  He didn’t really want to talk about her ex, but he needed all the information he could get to figure out the best way to protect her. Doug wasn’t the type of guy who generally liked to call in favors and pull strings; however, there were a few he’d be willing to check out if it came down to it.

  He didn’t know exactly what kind of pull the governor had, but he did know someone with a direct line to the man. The person with the direct line also had a dad who used to be in the Marines, and there was a good chance he had an arsenal at his fingertips.

  “I don’t think I can eat anything right now.” Lizzie was back to shaking her head as she answered.

  “Sure you can. I won’t even make you put Ben down and come eat at the table, which I had perfectly set for an intimate dinner for two. I’ll just go grab a plate and we can share.”

  The idea was better than the candlelight plans he originally had, even if the situation sucked. She didn’t reply, so he took that as an okay. Leaving her sitting there by herself was difficult, a part of him was sure he’d turn the corner to the dining room and she’d be out the door.

  “Please be here when I get back,” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her forehead.

  “I will be. As much as I want to run, I have no idea where I’d go.”

  Doug sat with her another minute and tried to transfer some of his strength from his touch into her. His strength had felt like it was faltering a little, but it was nothing compared to seeing the woman he’d met in the waiting room carved down to nothing but a shell. He’d find a way to make her safe again, no matter what that took.

  Chapter Ten

  Doug was amazing. Lizzie couldn’t deny that, but she couldn’t help the fact she felt like she was using him. That had been her plan, then he started talking about what would happen if there was a confrontation with Tommy, and she couldn’t stand to see him get hurt or arrested. The only thing she was sure of was that she felt safe locked up in his house.

  Tommy hadn’t tried to break in and drag her out, so she was using her time to figure out what to do. Doug had fed her, an amazing shrimp scampi with butter noodles and vegetables on the side, and then suggested she try to get some rest. She thought that was a good idea, and had moved to stretch out on the couch, but he’d shaken his head and led her to a spare bedroom on the first floor. Apparently there were three others on the second floor.

  After Doug had run to his room to get her a shirt to sleep in, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips and left to clean up after dinner. For a few minutes, she just stood there and looked around the room. Ben was sleeping on the queen bed, on top of the plush black comforter with white swirls that formed flowers. The cherry sleigh frame of the bed matched a long six-drawer dresser that sat across from it. They were both carved with an interesting leaves and flowers pattern.

  The only other furniture in the room was a reclining chair next to one of the two big windows. The curtains were drawn, and were dark to match the comforter. Lizzie had to wonder if Tommy was somewhere outside watching for any movement in the windows. The bedroom was around the back of the house, so it wasn’t something he’d be able to do without trespassing. Doug didn’t seemed worried about that, claiming he had motion detecting cameras set up around the house.

  Lizzie took a deep breath and walked into the room’s attached bathroom. Her two bedroom bungalow had a single bathroom, and it was about half the size of the luxury model she stepped in. She’d shied away from any of the links that revealed Doug’s salary during her quick internet search, but it was clear he had more money than she’d ever see in her lifetime.

  Looking in the mirror above the sink, Lizzie saw what a mess she was. It was bad. Her face looked like a tomato, even though it had been twenty minutes since she’d stopped crying. Her eyes were puffy as she pressed the skin underneath them to see just how swollen it was.

  How in the world had Doug kept wanting to kiss her? And why in the world didn’t he throw her out of his house. She was nothing but trouble for him.

  There had to be some way she could make things up to him. It seemed he could buy anything he wanted, and it wasn’t like she had the money to go out and buy him a car to match the one in his garage. After they’d agreed that she wasn’t going into work anymore, and she’d called to quit, she had no money at all coming in, which was almost as scary as Tommy lurking around outside somewhere.

  She had a minimum amount of money saved for a raining day, and that would probably last a couple weeks, but she was going to have to figure out something fast. At least Ben was potty trained and she didn’t have to make sure he had an endless supply of diapers anymore.

  Removing her fingers from her face, because they really weren’t doing any good, Lizzie sighed again and looked in the mirror to the shower behind her. It was separate from the tub and had multiple showerheads, which intrigued, yet frightened Lizzie. If the guest bathroom was that fancy, she didn’t want to know what the master had to offer.

  It’d been a long day, and she needed to work out the kinks in her back from all the stress or she’d never be able to sleep. She was fairly certain she wouldn’t be able to even if her body stopped feeling like a rubber band pulled tight, but it was worth a try.

  Doug had assured her that if she needed the hot water, it wouldn’t matter that he was using some to do the dishes. He hadn’t shown her his fancy water heater, but she didn’t doubt one existed. As she figured out how the sprays worked and got the normal showerhead beating down on her back, she relaxed just a little. It didn’t help clear her mind any, but the hot water was a godsend.

  When she started turning into a prune, she decided to call it quits. It was hard to leave the warmth, but after drying off, she wrapped herself in an oversized towel and looked in the mirror again. She’d come up with an idea of how to thank Doug, and she needed to give herself a little pep talk before she went through with it.

  “He clearly thinks you’re attractive if he keeps kissing you,” she said to her reflection out loud.

  “But he hasn’t seen what’s hiding under the clothes. Most of the women he has throwing themselves at him probably don’t have stretch marks, or a game of connect the dots with cigarette burns.”

  Lizzie looked down to the three circular scars on her left breast that peeked out the top of the towel. There were four others the towel was hiding. Lizzie had neglected to tell Doug there were a few more instances of abuse over the years. They never seemed like much, well yeah the cigarette thing was pretty bad, but other than pushing her down the stairs, the other little things were done in the bedroom when they were engaged in other activities, so it was different.

  “I could turn the lights off, then he wouldn’t see the scars.”

  Her reflection didn’t seem to have a response for that. It wasn’t much of a pep talk, but she wasn’t going to work up her nerve anymore by talking to herself in the mirror. She kept the towel wrapped around her as she checked that Ben was still sleeping and wandered back out to the living room. After Doug described the day they had, she knew Ben was out for most of the night. He might wake up early, but it’d be at least six hours.

  Once she got to the living room, she pulled the towel up a little higher and followed the noise of clanging coming from the kitchen to find the room she hadn’t been in. Her eyes instantly went to the man busy at the sink, choosing to not look at the amenities the kitchen had to offer. He hadn’t changed from the tank top and shorts he’d worn after surprising her in his towel, like throwing the clothing on hid what she’d already seen.

  Doug couldn’t help the fact that testosterone oozed out of his pores. She’d seen that he had what looked like a few bruises and scars of his own, but they just made him sexier. He could’ve been wrapped in a bunch of brown paper sacks and it wouldn’t do anything to tone down the appeal.

  She was trying to come up with the right thing to say, when he turned around to grab a skillet from the center island behind him. He ended up getting the dish in the water before he did a double take. At least he noticed and didn’t proceed without acknowledging her.

  “Hi,” she said a little shyly, raising her left hand halfway up to wave.

  “Is there something wrong with the shirt I gave you? I promise I pulled it off a hanger and not out of my dirty clothes pile.” He turned around to face her, grabbing a towel to dry his hands as he did.

  “No, at least not that I’m aware of. I, um, well, I wanted to come out and thank you for letting us stay here while we figure out what to do. We just met, and I know most guys wouldn’t step up like that.”

  Lizzie tried to stay strong and keep eye contact, but eventually she looked down to the beige tiles. They were surprisingly warm against her feet, more than likely heated in some way, even when the temperature was nice outside.

  “And most guys are idiots, not that I can’t be one at times. Look, you’re welcome, and please make yourself at home, but you should probably head back to your room and put some clothes on. It’s not exactly easy staying over here on this side of the kitchen.”