“I have bruises. There was a man in my apartment with a knife?—”
“Which could have been a random break-in.” The other detective, a woman with a tight ponytail and zero warmth in her eyes, cuts me off. “Do you have any idea how many women come in here with stories about powerful men?”
“It’s not a story. It happened.”
She looks at me then. Really looks at me. And I see it—the flicker of judgment. The dismissal.
“You’re a stripper, correct?”
The word lands like a slap.
“I’m a dancer. And I don’t see what that has to do with?—”
“It has everything to do with credibility, Miss Andrews.” She folds her hands on the table. “A jury would tear you apart. You’d be dragged through the mud, your entire life picked apart, and at the end of it? He’d walk. Men like him always do.”
The room tilts. I can’t breathe.
“So that’s it? You’re not going to do anything?”
The older detective slides a card across the table. “You’re welcome to file for a restraining order.”
A restraining order. A piece of paper. Against a man who sent someone to my home with a knife.
“Claire.” Alec’s voice is tight with barely contained rage. “Let’s go.”
I don’t remember walking out of that room. But suddenly I’m outside the precinct, gasping for air, and the world is spinning.
Alec spins me around, his hands gripping my shoulders. I look up at him through tears I didn’t know were falling.
“I told them everything. I had evidence. And they looked at me like I was nothing. Like I deserved it.” A sob tears through me. “No one is going to help me. I’m completely alone.”
Alec’s hands move to my face, his thumbs sweeping away my tears.
“You’re not alone. You have me.” His eyes burn into mine. “I don’t need cops or courts or any of that bullshit. If the system won’t protect you, I will. I’ll handle this myself.”
“Alec...”
“I will burn his entire fucking world to the ground before I let him touch you again.”
The ferocity in his voice takes my breath away. No one has ever fought for me like this.
“Why?” The word slips out. “Why do you care so much? You barely know me.”
Something in his expression softens.
“I know enough. I know you’re brave as hell, even when you don’t feel like it. I know you’ve been fighting alone for too long. And I know that from the moment I saw you, something in me just... clicked.” He presses his forehead to mine. “I’m supposed to be here. With you.”
Someone choosing me. Someone staying.
It’s everything I never let myself want.
“Take me home,” I whisper.
When we get inside my apartment, I slump onto the couch, emotionally wrung out. Alec pulls me into his arms.
“I really thought they’d help,” I murmur against his chest. “I was so stupid.”
“You weren’t stupid. You were hopeful.” He tilts my chin up. “And just because they failed you doesn’t mean this is over. We’ll find another way.”
