Learning To Trust Again

Relieved Rebecca sighed and relaxed a little. She offered an apology for hesitating, ‘I’m sorry.’

He shrugged. ‘No worries, after what you’ve been though I don’t blame you for not trusting me.’

Rebecca was glad she hadn’t offended him, ‘thank you. I don’t mean to appear ungrateful, I’m just still feeling a bit rattled I think. I live in Smith street, two blocks to the left’.

‘Okay that’s on my way home’ he said  ‘so let me report in about those guys and get them collected and then I’ll walk you home or if you prefer, I can arrange a lift for you with the local cops?’

That put Rebecca in a quandary, she didn’t relish turning up at her apartment in a police car, who knew what her neighbours would think about that. Even at this hour someone would be bound to see her arrive. But she didn’t want to impose on Jake anymore either. So she said ‘thank you. I think I’d like to walk but I don’t want to put you out. You’ve done enough already, I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

‘Forget about it’ Jake said with a shrug ‘I have to walk home anyway so it’s no problem and I’d be happier if you didn’t walk alone after what happened.’

Looking at him for a minute she said ‘if you’re sure you don’t mind, that would be good.’ Feeling a little embarrassed, she looked away as she admitted ‘I don’t really feel like walking by myself at the moment.’

‘I can understand that’ Jake said and as he pulled his phone out he added ‘just give me one minute.’

Learning To Trust Again

She saw his expression become even more worried as she continued to stare at him. He said ‘are you okay? Did they hurt you?’

Rebecca pulled herself together and dragging her eyes away, pushed some hair off her face. Her emotions and thought processes, slow to recover from the scare she’d just had, were making her overreact to everything, including the man in front of her. At least that’s what she told herself as she realised he was still waiting for an answer. Scolding herself, she wiped her sweaty palms on her navy blue work pants and flicked her gaze back to his face and then away again. ‘Yes, um I mean no.’

He smiled and said ‘okay well that’s clear.’

Looking up Rebecca was surprised at the sight of his smile. It transformed his face, changing it from the intense, brooding mask he had worn previously to something much lighter and more relaxed. And as she watched all she could think was wow.  Her lungs suddenly devoid of air, she had to take a deep breath before she could reply. Smiling too now as she realised she had been somewhat incoherent, she tried again to form a response that made sense ‘I’m okay now, thanks to you, and no they didn’t hurt me.

But as she watched, the smile dropped from the man’s face. He averted his gaze and his voice was cool and detached when he spoke again. He said ‘so what’s your name?’

Seeing his expression change and not understanding why, Rebecca frowned and hesitated, ‘um Rebecca Burns.’

Brusque and business like, he introduced himself ‘right Rebecca, I’m Jake Hunter, now what happened?’

As she thought about it a shudder passed though Rebecca’s body. She looked away. ‘I was walking home from work’ and looking in the direction of the end of the lane, she continued in a tight voice ‘when those guys came out of a pub. They surrounded me and one grabbed my arm and forced me down here.’

As she said the words, the arm the man had grabbed, started to hurt. Pulling up her sleeve she inspected the scratch and red marks in the shape of a hand that marred the smooth skin of her upper arm. She lowered her sleeve and she knew she had conveyed her fear to the man before her when he said ‘don’t worry Rebecca you’re safe now.’ He then surprised her by asking ‘so where’s home?’

Rebecca lifted her head and looked at him. She didn’t know what to say. This guy had saved her, but he was as much a stranger to her as the guys who had attacked her. What if he turned out to be worse than them? She wanted to be able to trust him but after the experience she’d just had, she was wary of trusting anyone. She looked away from him, frowning as she deliberated on how to answer.

But after a few seconds, when she didn’t respond she saw Jake’s arm move and watched him reach into his pocket. As she looked on, he pulled out a wallet and opening it, revealed a gold badge. He said ‘it’s okay, I’m a cop.’

Learning To Trust Again

Soon though, Al’s mates had had enough. They all moved off towards the top of the lane, leaving their friend to face the other man alone. Seeing the defection of his mates, Al looked like he was going to explode. From her position to the right of him, Rebecca watched his face turn a dark red, as his chest began heaving. And for a minute she was worried he was going to charge the tall man like a raging bull. But as she watched she saw his gaze flick past the man to the now empty lane beyond. His mates had moved out of sight, and she wondered if they were going to feel his wrath when he caught up with them. With a last scowling look in the tall man’s direction, Al conceded. He stepped back and keeping his eyes on the other man, he circled around him, staying just out of arms reach as he followed his friends out of the lane.

Her eyes glued to the man who’d saved her, Rebecca watched as he followed the man with his eyes until he had turned right at the head of the lane and moved out of sight.

Then to her dismay, making her wonder if he was just going to leave her there, she watched him steal, without a sound, up to the street. However he didn’t move out of sight. At the end of the lane he stopped and Rebecca let out her breath on a sigh. She watched as he checked the street to the right, and as he did she realised what he was doing. He was just looking to see where the men had gone.

The ordeal over, Rebecca slumped against the wall, her legs threatening to give out, as relief washed over her. She closed her eyes for a second and sent up a silent prayer of thanks for the man who had saved her from heaven knows what horror. Opening them again she inspected her rescuer as he strode back towards her. When he had arrived she had been too scared to notice anything about him except that he looked big enough to hold his own and appeared willing and able to help her. But her heart rate starting to return to normal now, she was able take in more details. While she had noticed previously that he was tall and lean, as she watched him now, she observed that he moved in a way that spoke of lithe fitness. She guessed he was a little older than her, probably in his early thirties and as he moved nearer and his eyes met hers, Rebecca looked into the most amazing green eyes she had ever seen. They were the colour of cool jade and looked at her with concern in their depths. She couldn’t help but stare. She had always thought that, unlike her common blue ones, a more unusual colour would be more memorable and looking into his eyes confirmed her opinion. She knew she would never forget them.

Going Home

Part 85

But Margaret, although stunned at Grace’s revelation was far from disapproving. While she realised it wasn’t an ideal situation she also knew enough of Grace to know that she was not the sort of person who would do this lightly. She could see Grace had obviously struggled with this decision and placing her hand on Grace’s again prompted the younger woman to look at her. Then smiling she said “Grace, thanks for telling me but don’t worry about it. I don’t think any less of you and I certainly don’t hate you. Everybody makes mistakes. God, I should know. Robert and I have made some beauties, as you know, so we are in no position to judge. But besides all that, even though I haven’t known you long I do know that you love my son and no matter how it came about you are good for him and that’s all that matters to me.”

More thankful than she could say that Margaret didn’t blame her or disapprove of what she’d done Grace took a deep breath and smiled. “thanks Margaret, I was so worried about telling you and Robert.”

“Well just forget about it, I’ll fill Robert in but I know what his reaction will be. He’ll just be thankful you two found each other, however that occurred.”

“I’m glad and now you know maybe next time you’re in town we could all get together with Mum and Dad and have a meal.”

“That would be lovely Grace.” Then after a pause Margaret asked “how did your family take your marriage break up, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Grace smiled “oh they weren’t too happy about it for a while and my Dad took a long time to warm to Josh. But it’s all good now. As you should know no one can resist Josh for long when he’s determined to win them over. And as soon as Dad saw that Josh was serious, ready to fight for me if necessary, and wasn’t about to be intimidated, he soon changed his opinion.” Then laughing as she remembered her niece’s formal Grace added “it probably didn’t hurt that he got to see him in work mode either, single handedly saving the day as only Josh can. I know you’ve seen how impressive he can be so you’ll know what I’m talking about. Anyway he and my dad are good mates now.”

Loss and Longing

Stevie nodded and turned back to face a grinning Rachel. It was clear she had heard her side of the conversation and had worked out what was going on.

“Don’t say a word” Stevie warned her.

Rachel a tall, slender, brown eyed, blonde woman, who was a year younger than Stevie, laughed and held up her hands in a gesture of surrender.  “Anyone would think he was making you pay for it.”

“He is” Stevie said biting the side of her mouth as she considered how she was going to come up with the cash to pay him back “that’s the trouble.”

“You’re not going to refuse it are you?” Rachel said horrified and her eyes widening further still as Stevie looked at her, she added, “you are aren’t you?”

“Of course I am” Stevie said “it’s not right. The man at the panel shop already thinks more than he should because of it. ”

“You’re crazy” Rachel said shaking her head “who cares what he thinks? You know that’s not the case.”

“I care” Stevie said. “I don’t like people assuming things about me.”

“Then you’d better move to a desert island” Rachel said. “People always assume something about everyone on little or no evidence. You can’t spend your life worrying about it. You’ll end up not living at all.”

Stevie looked at her for a minute. “I can’t help it Rach.”

“Well you’re going to have to learn hun” the other woman said with a kind smile before moving off and going back to unpacking some stock that had been delivered.

Stevie sighed. She knew Rachel was right, she’d heard that argument from many people before. She knew she had to form a tough outer skin and not worry about what other people thought, but that was easier said than done. Sighing again she put that issue aside for now. She needed to tackle one problem at a time and the more pressing issue was how she was going to pay Grant back because she could not accept his gesture. So she went back to working out how to get her hands on that much cash straight away.  The only way she could think of was to ask for an advance on her salary. She knew her boss would do it without question, but she hated to ask favours, especially about money and she also knew things would be even tighter next week because of it. Damn Grant Rumor.

Learning To Trust Again

But much to Rebecca relief, the tall man didn’t look like he was going anywhere. He glared at the man who had spoken to him and with an edge of steel in his voice, he said ‘not yet.’ Turning his head, he looked straight at her. As he took another step forward he said ‘are you okay?’

Rebecca pulled the strap of her bag back onto her shoulder. She glanced at the young men surrounding her and said ‘um, not really.’

‘Right’ the tall man said ‘that’s what I thought’ and directing his attention back to the group of men, he ordered ‘then I’d say it’s you that needs to piss off.’

‘So are you going to make us?’ the man with the good teeth asked turning to smile at his friends. His doubt of the man’s capability to do that was clear in his mocking tone.

Without missing a beat the tall man said, ‘if I need to.’ His voice was cold and hard as he took another step forward.

Rebecca’s heart was pounding as she watched. She prayed this guy wasn’t kidding because she was sure he was her only hope of getting out of this unscathed.

But something about the tall man’s confident tone seemed to stop any further glib reply from the shorter man. He just looked at him for a minute in silence, his eyes narrowed. It seemed to Rebecca that he was trying to assess whether the other man was bluffing about taking them all on or not. However before he could make up his mind about it one of the others did it for him. Perhaps deciding it was time to cut their losses, one of the other men moved away from her. ‘Come on Al’ he said ‘let’s go, she’s not worth the trouble. Let’s get a drink.’

The man with the good teeth, whose name she now knew was Al, ignored him and just continued to stare at the tall man.

Glaring at Al, with a look that Rebecca realised would make her run for cover if it was directed at her, the tall man took another step forward. He was only about a meter away from him now and much taller than Al. To Rebecca it seemed as if he was purposely trying to intimidate the shorter man with his size and his self-assurance. But while it didn’t seem to have an immediate effect on Al, it appeared to be working on the other men

His eyes on the tall man, Al’s mate grabbed his arm and said again ‘come on.’ He at least didn’t look like he wanted to take the tall man on. Neither, it seemed, did the other two men, who had also stepped away from her now. Perhaps they had been after an easy mark and the tall man had just made it too much like hard work. Rebecca didn’t know and she certainly didn’t care, just as long as they went.

But Al just shrugged off his friend’s hand as he continued to stare at the tall man. It seemed despite his mate’s desire to retreat, he wasn’t ready to concede just yet. While dismayed, Rebecca wasn’t really surprised, Al had to know they had the upper hand in the situation with four of them to just one of him.

However much to Rebecca’s relief, the tall man, didn’t back down either and for a few seconds there was a tense standoff with neither man willing to give in.

Learning To Trust Again

Then all of a sudden Rebecca’s attention, along with that of the men, was caught by a loud male voice ‘oi, what’s going on?’ he said.

Relieved beyond belief by the interruption, Rebecca saw the young men turn as one, their heads snapping around to stare at the tall, figure moving towards them.

As she too turned her head to watch the man belonging to the voice stride towards them Rebecca hardly dared hope that her prayers had been answered and that maybe she’d be saved after all. She noticed he looked lean and fit but couldn’t help but be concerned that there was only one of him. She didn’t think it was likely he’d be able to do much against the group of four men, then again maybe he could go and get some help. She crossed her fingers and silently implored him not to just turn around and leave her there. But as he continued to approach he didn’t appear to be concerned that the odds were stacked against him. He had an air of confidence about him that made Rebecca feel optimistic of his abilities and she watched with amazement as he confronted the group without any obvious trepidation.

The man with the good teeth, moved away to speak to him. Rebecca felt like she’d been given a reprieve now his hands were off her and she let out the breath she had been holding. Unfortunately though, the other men didn’t move and she noticed with dismay that none of them seemed all that concerned that their activities had been discovered. The man with the good teeth called out to the tall man ‘none of your bloody business, so piss off.’ He accompanied the words with an arrogant gesture of his hand before turning back to the group. It was clear he expected the other man to comply without further argument.

Learning To Trust Again

The narrow lane, running between the pub and a shop, which was closed at that time of night, was dark and felt cold and damp. There was a narrow strip of dirty water lying in the middle at its lowest point and large steel bins littered the walls at the end. A rancid smell of rotting food scraps filled Rebecca’s nostrils, making her feel sick.

She tried to pull out of his grip but he was too strong, so she concentrated on not tripping on the uneven surface as he dragged her along.

‘Let me go’ she yelled as he stopped and allowed her to pull her arm free. His nails scraped the skin of her upper arm through her shirt as she yanked it away. She could also feel a bruise forming from his hold on her. She rubbed her arm.

The man smiled. They were pretty much out of view of the street now, unless someone was looking down the lane. He moved his body closer. ‘Now don’t be like that’ he said touching her cheek.

The contact caused a shiver of revulsion to pass through Rebecca as a cold sweat formed on her skin. The other three men moved in closer, forming a tight circle around her, cutting off all avenues of escape and filling her with dread.

‘As much as I like a bit of fire in a woman, it’ll be much nicer for you if you don’t fight’ the man with the good teeth said with a smile, sounding for all the world as if they were having a normal conversation.

But the smile made Rebecca shiver again. While it made him look agreeable it seemed all the more evil to her, because the implication of his words was anything but pleasant. Terrified, she stared at each of the other three leering male faces surrounding her, hoping to find one that looked like he would listen to reason. But she couldn’t see anything in their expressions that gave her any hope. Her heart was beating so fast now, it was painful and she could feel beads of sweat running down her back as she looked around, desperate to get away. With her back against a solid brick wall though, and the lane a dead end there wasn’t much hope of that. The men hadn’t really touched her as yet, but as she listened to the distasteful comments they were making, she knew it was only a matter of time before they did. When that happened there was no way she was going to be able to hold them off. They were all bigger than she was so she wouldn’t be able to stop one, let alone four. She pushed her back against the wall, moving as far away from them as she could get. Tears loomed. She bit her bottom lip to stop its trembling as she tried not to show how scared she was. But as the man’s hand moved from her cheek, down her neck, she jerked and the handle of her bag slid down her arm. She wanted to yell. However, when she opened her mouth, she wasn’t able to make any sound. She knew it was all over for her.