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He never smiled. One of the first things she thought about was the fact he didn’t smile. Even when he found her and took care of those men, he didn’t smile. She’d never seen him even twitch his lips. His face was always deadpan. No humor. Nothing. And yet, when she was with him, she felt so safe. It was the safest she’d ever felt, because she just knew deep in her core, he was not going to do anything to hurt her. There was no hidden agenda.

She clicked on his number and waited for him to answer. She hadn’t used his number to call him. Life, for all intents and purposes, had gone back to normal. Her aunt had regular pampering sessions from the local makeup artist. She worked and created recipes, filming cooking, and eating.

But, not everything was normal. There were times she still felt alone, like her captor was going to torment her one final time. It was probably from all the horror movies she watched as well as the sequels, expecting something bad to happen. Waiting for it. So far, nothing bad had happened. She was free, but she felt more trapped than ever before.

****

Grim took a long swig of his beer after sending one of the recent club women packing. He wasn’t in the mood to fuck, or to party. The club was in a party mood. Life had gone back to normal, and he was happy for them.

His thoughts were on one woman—Betty Johnson. From the moment he discovered her, to bringing her home, he couldn’t get her out of his thoughts. He ran a hand down his face and took another long swig of his beer as he felt his cell phone vibrate. It was late, after two, but it was not unusual for the club to still be partying at this time. He was used to it. He checked to see the caller, with the intention of hanging up, but he saw it was Betty, so he left the clubhouse and answered.

“It’s late,” he said.

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call you, and then, uh, that’s not right. I wanted to call you.”

“What’s up?”

“Sleeping, it’s impossible.”

“I get that.”

“You’re not asleep?”

“There’s a party at the club. Trust me, sleeping is not an option right now.”

He heard her sigh.

“I’m so tired I would give anything to fall asleep right now.”

“So, tell me what is on your mind,” he said.

“Nothing and everything. It makes no sense because I know he’s gone. You know.”

“I know.” Grim killed the son of a bitch that had been put in charge of Betty’s imprisonment. It hadn’t been hard to locate the bastard, but from the sight of Betty when he got to her, he knew a lot of damage had been done.

She admitted he’d not raped her, but there had been other abuses. She’d been a shaking shell, and when she first saw him, she thought he’d come to help kill her. Instead, he killed the fucker hurting her and then got her to safety. When she realized he wasn’t going to hurt her and he didn’t work for her uncle, she finally started to loosen up.

He took the journey back to Rivermont Ridge, but he did it slowly, giving the bruises a chance to heal, but also for her a way of dealing. Grim got it.

“Will it go away?” she asked. “This feeling?”

“It will.” She’d told him what would happen when she started to sleep. He looked around the yard, and there were several of the guys fucking random women. “I’m coming over,” he said. “I want to try something.”

“But it might scare my aunt. I don’t want her to be worried.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sneaky. You know I can be.” He already knew where her bedroom was, and he could get into her home without a key. “Just leave your window unlocked.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He hung up his cell phone and made his way toward his bike. He straddled his machine and brought his bike to life, listening to the beautiful purr. It sounded good.

Sometimes, Grim liked to listen to the sound, the hum—it was a beautiful machine—but tonight, he was not going to waste time thinking about that. Instead, he took off and headed out toward Mrs. Bernadette’s place.

The ride was not eventful, as he wasn’t looking to lose his mind to the feel of the road. He just wanted to get to Betty, and as he arrived in the street, he brought his bike to a stop and pushed it toward Mrs. Bernadette’s property. Once there, he parked his bike and moved it to a secure location. He knew from visiting Mrs. Bernadette’s property prior to today, which window belonged to Betty.

Walking onto the grounds, he also knew how not to set off the lights, and he got to work, climbing up the side of the building, using the trellis and the drainpipe for leverage. Betty was at the window, and she looked a little fearful, but she opened her window a little wider, and he was able to climb through.

She looked so tired.