Read Cold Heat (Seasons of the Heart #1) for Free Online

the counter top before wiping them down as if she were preparing for a general’s inspection. “The first time he hit me, really hit me, was on our tenth anniversary. Before that it was ‘playing around’ or ‘wrestling’ that would always go too far. I had bruises, big purple and black ones, but I rationalized it as playing.” Shaking her head as if to erase that line of thinking, she barreled on, “But that first time? I don’t remember what the catalyst was, not sure it really mattered at that point. It was my fault, whatever it was, and he punched me, here.” She turned and faced Drake with tears in her eyes, rubbing her sternum.
    Drake knew that he had to keep his face neutral, keep his own emotions in check while she was talking. He already knew that if he ever had the pleasure of coming face to face with her ex, he’d take great joy in making certain that he got what was due to him, even if it happened while in jail.
    “I remember being so stunned and scared that I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what to do, who I could call. By this point, business and money had turned around for us, and Brian was now a man of wealth and power. I was just his wife, a nobody, in the grand scheme of things. He, Brian, walked out that night, took the keys to both cars and sped off. He left me home, blessedly alone. I fell asleep in a spare bedroom that night. He didn’t bother me when he got home. The next morning he was all about the apology. How sorry he was. How he’d never do it again. Blah blah blah. Stupid me! I believed him.”
    Kaylie shook her head, before continuing, “It got better for a little while. Then, after a few weeks, he was suddenly,” she held up her hands and made air quotes with them before lowering them again “busy with work, staying late or working on projects. But he was more like the man I had fallen in love with so many years before, and so I overlooked a lot. It was the nights he came in early that I learned to be wary. Those were the nights that I couldn't do anything right, I couldn’t move out of his way fast enough.” She angrily wiped her cheek where a tear had fallen.
    “I tried talking to some of my friends about what was going on, but no one believed me. A man of Brian’s means could never do what I was accusing him of. I was a lying bitch who was just unhappy in my marriage and only wanted a large alimony check. I started taking pictures of myself on a disposable camera that we had never used from some vacation. Those pictures were very compelling when I finally had enough courage to go to the police. And then he threatened me with a gun…” Rubbing her arms to ward off the chill that crawled over her, “It was after that, during the trial, that I found out my husband had been sleeping with other women, blaming me for his affairs. I never saw it. Or never wanted to? I’m still not sure of which yet.”
    Drake kept his eyes on hers, his arms crossed on the table in front of him, his coffee forgotten. His hands in tight fists, and he wished he had an outlet for the rage that was engulfing him on her behalf. He could not let her see the anger he was swallowing down He wanted her to remember that she was safe while she was with him. That was, at this moment in time, paramount.
    “Eighteen months, a fucking year and a half is all he got for what he did to me! Oh, wait, I’m sorry, eighteen months should be enough, right?” she spun toward Drake. “He beat and threatened my life and gets next to nothing? I wanted to scream when I heard that. Now his time is almost up and I had to leave. I had to leave, do you understand? I was getting messages, threats about what he will do when he gets out. But no one will listen to me; he’s a perfect prisoner. I had to get away today, my instincts were telling me I was almost out of time and I am so terrified…“ She cut off, sobbing into her hands now that she had unloaded everything.
    Drake got up slowly and cautiously and walked over