Steven glanced over to her, knowing she was fighting passing out from the short drive from the house to the store. “Miss Nyx? How long has it been going on?”

  “Hm?”

  “Lexx being rough with you?” he looked at her, “I know that it isn’t my business. You can tell me to fuck off, but we do care and don’t want to see you hurt.”

  “I mean, I don’t want to bring you down a rabbit hole that I would never be comfortable talking with you about, but I will say, non-consensually? A while.” She sighed, “Sometimes I did deserve it. But the cheating? That’s where I draw the line.”

  He blinked at her, knowing that none of that made sense and it was because she had sustained a life of pain and abuse. “Hey, just know I do give a shit and I would have gotten rid of the body with the help of your sisters.”

  She smiled, “Thank you. It means a lot.”

  “You’re welcome.” He smiled as he pulled up on the side street to park in front of the house, “I’ll be back later.”

  “Okay. Thanks again.” She got out and grabbed her bag, closing his door and climbing the stairs to go up to the walkway to the front door. As she pulled out her keys, she found that she was once again trembling. Nyx closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before finding her house key on her ring and letting herself into the house. She made her way up the stairs and to her suite and opened the door, walking in, only hearing the click of the door behind her, and falling into her bed. The bruises were going to be dark and she had to tend to them, but she could not move. Her energy was drained and all she wanted was to sleep. She took a breath and let it out, closing her eyes and focusing on her place of solitude and taking the time to leave herself for a while so as to sort out what happened and what her next move would be.

  Aurel tapped on the door, only to not hear any movement, but a soft sound from behind the door. “Nyx?”

  “Yeah?” she sighed; her voice hoarse.

  “Would you like me to handle the, um, marks for you?”

  She looked down at her wrists and back to the door, “Sure. I’m too tired to move at the moment.”

  He opened the door and balanced a small tray in his other hand with two large mugs of coffee, “I brought you something to help with that.”

  “You’re awesome,” she groaned, reaching for one of the mugs.

  “Bah, I know.” He placed the tray down on a spot on one of her small drawer tables.

  She flashed a grin, “Thanks for it.”

  He returned it, seeing that even faking it was hard for her. “You’re welcome.”

  Nyx took a deep breath and held it before letting it out, “I’m glad she told you.”

  “I am too.” He sat on the edge of the bed, “Lucky he came when he did.”

  “Yeah?” she smirked, knowing the response.

  He knew he did not have to say it and tapped her calf, “Come on. Get up for a minute and let’s keep you from getting asked more questions.”

  She looked at them again, “I’ll have to use makeup.”

  “Let me be the judge of that,” he stood and tugged lightly on her foot, “Let’s go.”

  She averted her eyes a moment before forcing herself up and following him into her bathroom. Aurel opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a small cube that contained everything for her aftercare and first aid as she sat on the edge of the tub.

  “I knew something was off about the guy.”

  Nyx shot him a look.

  “I did! Who says ‘no’ to a live performance that is interactive?” he asked at he took out the various items that he knew would be needed.

  “He got scared easily! It’s why he never came to haunts.” She crossed her arms, only to look back down at them and run her fingers over the spots that were now growing darker.

  “I call it an excuse,” he took out a small bowl and poured in some of the witch hazel, tossing some of the cotton pads into it to soak.

  She shook her head and went back to get the tray and bring it into the bathroom, placing it on her vanity countertop. “Do you trust anyone that doesn’t at least do one haunt in their lives?”

  He looked at her as she sat back down on the edge of the tub, “Hell no.”

  She smirked, knowing that was the answer.

  “What?” he asked and held out his hands for him to inspect her arm.

  Her face then dropped, “I should have left him a long time ago.”

  “And you did.” He took one of the cotton balls and lightly squeezed out the excess, placing it on one of the larger marks. “You did it today and you don’t have to deal with it again.”

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  But eventually, she would. Though for now she just wanted to get through the dinner she committed to this evening and try to have something to get her mind off of the pain and anxiety that she felt creeping into her.

  Aurel saw her mind starting to work, “Do you need help with finding something?”

  “Let me see how my arms are going to look first, and then we can talk fashion,” a smile slipped out.

  “They will be fine; I got the best experience for stage makeup and I can get these to disappear.”

  “I told you they would need make up,” she muttered.

  “No. They will not, now hold this and let me get some ice packs.” He left the room to go down into the kitchen.

  She looked down at them and saw that a few of them were now just red marks and not getting darker. Nyx felt the tension in her ease a little and she was able to breathe. He was right, it would be the last time that she would have to deal with it, but the other part was going to be much more difficult to fix and it would never just ‘go away’ on its own. She knew it would take a lot more than just chewing her own foot off to free her of Lexx.

  Rochelle paced the store as she waited for the arrival of the customer. Tidying the place to the point of not having to clean for a week, her eyes kept falling to her phone that had yet to send word that Nyx was home safe. She cursed herself for being so ignorant to it, but at the same time she knew it would be a rodeo for Nyx to break the entire hold that he had on her.

  Steven stepped in and closed the door, “She’s okay. She made it into the house.”

  “Good,” She let out the breath that she had been holding in her chest, “Now I just need hear from Aurel and we will be alright.”

  “Roch,” he went to her and pulled her into his chest tight.

  Her body instinctively molded into him and held onto him, “She’s come a long way with so much against her, and now this.”

  “She’s a fighter, you know that. He kissed the top of her head, “And none of us would have known if she had not done something to tip us off.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t see it.” Her grip tightened, “I see everything.”

  “We all can miss things, Roch. Now she can be away from him.” He rubbed her back, “I’ll stay and help you with the pick-up order.”

  She looked up at him, “And what about the brewery?”

  “That’s what I have assistants and managers for.” He grinned, “Besides, I wouldn’t mind looking at some of her new stuff and hanging out here with you.”

  She laughed, “You know she will insist on paying you.”

  “And you know that I will just order some new tables from her to distract her,” he moved to look at one of her new river tables.

  “She’s not going to like that.” Roch leaned back on the counter as she watched him.

  “Nyx will get used to it.” He shrugged, “And I think I just found one of them for the expansion of the tap room.”

  “And this is why I love you,” she grinned. Her phone dinged as Aurel’s message came through telling her that she was taking a small nap and that he would help her get up and ready. Roch wanted to tell him about her recent theory on the cop, but then she did not want to jinx it and break Nyx even more. She instead responded with a ‘thank you’ and closed her phone and tucked it into her back pocket.

  “She’s alright?” he asked over his shoulder as he looked at one of the bar stools.

  “Yeah, Aurel got her to chill.” She walked over to the style he was looking at, “You know that will take up at least six months of her time to do those.”

  “Yeah, but I need it modified.”

  “You’ll have to talk to her about that, when do you plan to come tonight?” she looked up at him.

  He kissed her, “I’ll wait to talk to her about it. I don’t want to have her drowning herself in work when she needs to have a small break in routine.”

  “That’s fair,” she leaned into him, “Pizza or wings?”

  “I can do both.” He pulled her into his side, “Unless you want to order in and don’t want me to cook.”

  “I didn’t imply that I didn’t want it homemade, I just thought you could have a break.” She shrugged and moved to pull away a bit, only for him to turn her with his arm and press her so she could rest her chin on his shoulder. “You thinking of something else?”

  “When we get back, I’ll start dinner and see where it goes,” he kissed her again, “But I still don’t like the fact that right after this she is possibly going to get harmed even more.”

  “Oh, stop it,” she smacked his arm, “she’s going to be in good hands.”

  “She’s a crafter, eh?” Nancy bit on the end of her pen as the mischief glinted in her eye, “What kind of stuff does she do?”

  “Furniture, but she has a lot of other small things too, and glassware.” Jason rocked gently back and forth in his chair, his gaze cutting over to his partner across from him.

  “She sounds neat,” she glanced over at Linnaeus, who was trying to hide his face with his hand as he tried to keep himself distracted with looking over files. “Are you still beating yourself up over the situation?”

  His light-colored eyes shifting to more of an aqua aura as he cut them at her with caution to not proceed on continuing the subject with his involvement.

  “I’ll take that as a massive ‘shut the fuck up’.” She turned back to Jason with a batting of her long lashes, “How bad was it?”

  “She was in a bad situation; she hopefully is home and letting the adrenaline run out of her system. We will see how it goes tonight.” Jason smiled to her, “No need to worry. He can handle it and not break character to let her on that it is him.”

  Nancy found herself glowing with pride, “I am happy that you were there. No one should have to go through whatever it was that she did.”

  Linnaeus knew that she was right. He just felt guilty when he wanted to cancel this trap. He wanted her to not have to fake her way through it. At least now he knew that she was just a real person, with a real talent, and with real struggles. He only hoped to know that he had not made it worse or that she was expecting to not come out of this alive. It did explain why she did not show fear to them. She had been through enough to not see them as dangerous to her. He would have to be watchful and he would have to do his best to keep himself and the ladies in check. Louis would not be a problem; he was just cranky and would not care as long as she liked his cooking. Hell, he might actually want her around more if he had someone else to cook for that would actually like his normal food.

  “Would you like to have us come and—”

  “No! No. I have enough to concern myself with.” He looked at them, “But please don’t keep Louis out too long.”

  “We will make sure that he gets home on time. Are you going home early?” Nancy watched him as he got up.

  “Yes, I am going to get the cuts made so that I can be ready on time to pick her up.” He started to gather up the things that he needed.

  “Like I said, glad that the town is so small.” Jason smiled as he watched his partner struggle to get everything together for the first time as he was so distracted. “You alright there, champ?”

  He gave him a sharp look with his eyes, his jaw locking in irritation.

  Nancy leaned back a bit, “Well then.”

  Linnaeus looked back down and continued with his attempt to be quick and be out of the line of sight so he could think straight.

  “Nancy, I think that someone is embarrassed.” Jason grinned.

  “I think so too,” she smiled as her eyes sparkled.

  “Thanks, I am leaving.” he got his bag and went for his jacket as he did his best to ignore the eyes that were still on him.

  “Tell us in the morning?” Jason held in his laugh.

  “Or will you be late?” Nancy bit her lip to stifle her giggle.

  “See you tomorrow!” Linnaeus tossed on his coat and took up his bag, bolting for his car.