Read Fighting Back (Mercy's Angels) for Free Online Page A

could wake her. I was a deep, heavy sleeper.
    “I’m not sure what woke me, maybe it was a noise, but I’m not sure. When I opened my eyes, he was just there,” I choked out the words, and Mercy gripped my hand a bit tighter. Charlie moved to my side, his strong hand rested on my back, helping me regain some of the strength I was fumbling for. I took a deep breath and continued, “He was just standing at the end of the bed, and as soon as I realized he was there, he pretty much threw himself on me and held down my hands.” I took a deep breath, hoping words wouldn’t fail me now.
    “Did you get a good look at him, see any scars, tattoos?” urged Frank.
    I shook my head as a tear slipped free. “He had something over his face, I could only see the whites of his eyes. He looked angry.” Charlie settled down beside me, the warmth of his body at one side and Mercy’s at the other filled me with comfort. “He ripped my top and touched me,” I cried, pulling my hand from Charlie’s and rubbing my chest, careful of the bruises that he left.
    “What about an accent?” I shook my head. “Did he seem nervous or angry?” I thought carefully, and although he barely spoke, he definitely radiated clear anger and confidence.
    “He seemed to know what he was doing and he didn’t seem worried about getting caught. He was confident.” I remembered those narrowed eyes of fury peering down on me. “And angry.” 
    Frank stood patiently, not pressing me continue, but I knew he wanted me to.  “He tried to pull my pants down.” Fuck, I was breaking again, the wound still so fresh on my soul was tearing open once more. “He touched me there, too,” I sobbed. “He was trying to rape me so I stuck my fingers in his eyes and kneed the fucker in the balls.” Charlie kissed my temple.
    “Good girl,” he whispered.
    “I got out of the bedroom and made it to the front door. He slammed me into it so hard, I think that’s when my ribs got bruised.” No fractures, thank God. To be honest, the bruising was painful enough, I didn’t think I could cope with broken. “Don from next door was yelling from the other side of the door and I guess it freaked him out.”
    “It was Don Brugner who called 911. Your attacker left through the back door. There was a garbage can against the fence that he most likely used to stand on.” I nodded woodenly. Reliving the experience, on top of recently having lived it, had drained me. I had nothing left.
    “Okay, honey, one more thing and then I’ll get out of your hair. Have you had any weird phone calls? Perhaps noticed someone who seemed a bit out of place hanging around the street, maybe even hanging around Bouquets?” My sister’s phone calls could easily be considered weird, but completely unrelated to this. I shook my head a little despondent. I really didn’t feel like I was giving Frank much to go on.
    “Frank, Rebecca needs to get some sleep. Maybe you could call us if you need anything else,” Mercy suggested. Thankful for bringing things to an end, I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
    Frank flicked his notebook closed. “Okay, if you can think of anything else, you call me right away.” Frank gave me a stern look. I felt about twelve again, standing before the principal, awaiting punishment for turning on the fire alarm at school. I nodded obediently.
    “What about Luke?” Charlie said through gritted teeth.
    “We’ll check him out, see if he has an alibi. Right now we don’t really have anything but a bad date. That’s not much of a motive and it’s certainly nothing to base a case on.”
    “He said we’d finish it later,” I whispered, my mind skipping back to those final moments. Frank, Mercy and Charlie’s heads all swung my way. “He said, ‘we’ll finish this later, sweetheart’ before he left the house.”
    Frank and Charlie looked at each other, while Mercy rubbed a soothing hand over my back.
    “Perhaps it would be best if you stayed with someone