#janko

“So close.” You whispered to yourself, turning around and giving him an innocent smile. “Hey, dad.”

“What’s this about a new boyfriend?” He asked putting an arm around your shoulders. You laughed awkwardly and he gave you a teasing smirk.

“It’s not a big deal, dad.” You insisted, leaning against your car. “We met at school and we’ve gone on a couple of dates.” You were in your senior year at college and you’d met Zach in one of your Criminal Justice classes. To tell the truth, you’d been seeing him for nearly three months. You just didn’t want your father to know that.

“Is this someone I should be meeting?” He raised an eyebrow and you rolled your eyes.

“Definitely not!” You exclaimed with a laugh. “At least, not right now. I don’t want you to scare him off.” He put a hand on his heart in mock offense.

“Who, me?” You gave him a side-hug and got into your car, watching Jamie and Eddie walk to theirs, hands holding on to each others. Eddie’s eyes sparkled as Jamie said something that made her laugh. Deep down, you wished you’d have something like that one day.

Dread filled your stomach as you scrolled through the messages, each one angrier than the next. Your hand started to shake when you read the last message sent. I’ll be waiting at your apartment. We’ll talk there.

You should’ve driven as far away as you could. You should’ve asked your grandfather if you could just spend the night there. But Zach was just upset because he wanted to spend time with you. That’s all. That’s what you told yourself. That’s what made you drive back to your apartment.

“Where the hell have you been?” Zach demanded, standing up from his place on your couch.

“How did you-” You began to ask. You didn’t remember giving him a key.

“It doesn’t matter how I got here, it matters that you weren’t here.” He growled, looming over you.

“I told you that I have family dinners every-” A hand striking your cheek stopped you from finishing.

“I don’t care about your family!” Zach screamed. His hands latched around your wrists. This wasn’t the first time he’d grabbed you like this, but he hadn’t hit you before.

“Zach, you need to calm down.” You spoke quietly, trying to keep things from escalating. His face completely morphed and his tone was pathetically panicked.

“Oh my God, baby, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“I think you should leave.” You looked at him intensely, but you didn’t want to set him off again.

“Please don’t make me leave, Y/N. I’m really sorry.” He begged. His eyes fell to the floor. “I don’t want to be alone, today.” When he looked back up, his eyes were filled with tears. “A year ago, today, is when I lost her. My mom.” He’d told you when you first met that his mother had killed herself. In fact, losing your mothers was the only thing that you had in common. Its what had drawn you to him. Someone else understood what it was like.

Maybe that’s why you let him stay the night. Maybe that’s why you let him do things that you didn’t want to. Maybe that’s why you couldn’t bring yourself to say no.

By the time morning came, Zach was gone. You let out a sigh of relief. As the events of last night flashed through your mind, you felt like the walls were closing in on you. You were losing control of everything all over again.

You slowly stood, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. You winced as your hand grazed your cheek. Walking into the bathroom, you saw the large, blue bruise just underneath your eye. You cursed under your breath and reached for your concealer. Eddie’s dress appointment in less than an hour and fingerprint-shaped bruises wrapped around your wrists. When you left your apartment any evidence of the night before was hidden beneath makeup or the sleeves of your sweater.

The bridal shop attendant led you to where Aunt Erin and Nicky were waiting. Eddie was getting dressed and the mother and daughter saved you a seat on the couch.

“So…”’ Erin started. “Who’s this new boyfriend?” You subconsciously pulled your sleeves down further.

“His name’s Zach.” You didn’t want to tell her his last name. Knowing her, she would look him up or worse- tell your father to look him up. “We met at school. He’s… nice.”

“I think she should be able to date without being questioned like this is an impending investigation.” Nicky chimed in. You narrowed your eyes.

“Says the one who announced it at family dinner.” She playfully stuck out her tongue and Erin laughed.

“You two are acting like your those little girls running around the park again.”

“Well, life was easier back then, Aunt Erin.” You shrugged. As your eyes turned to an entering Eddie, Erin’s remained on you. There was something about what you said that sparked her concern and turned her people reading skills on high alert.

“You look amazing!” Nicky exclaimed. A bright smile spread across your face, but it didn’t quite reach your eyes. Instead, Erin saw the look she saw in so many victims she’d encountered over the years.

As they walked out, Erin stopped Eddie as the girls walked ahead of them.

“Have you noticed anything strange about Y/N?” She asked. Eddie looked at the younger girl, noticing the way she flinched as a stranger bumped into her or how she was wearing a sweater in the middle of June.

“Yeah…” Eddie agreed. “There’s something…” She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Something that makes me want to learn more about her new boyfriend,” Erin noted. You were lucky to have such strong women looking after you. If you didn’t have them, the next week’s events would have ended very differently.

The cafe was crowded so you had to pick a table outside. You were meeting your dad for lunch in less than fifteen minutes but you always like to be early. You put even more makeup on the marks, making sure that he wouldn’t be able to see them. Everything was going as planned… until you saw Zach storming down the sidewalk towards you. You stood, backing away slightly. The look in his eyes scared you more than you cared to admit.

“Zach, what are you-” You began before he yanked you into the ally.

“Who the hell are you meeting?” He boomed, earning glances from people passing by. His hands pinned your shoulders against the brick and you felt the panic set in.

“Zach, you have to leave. My dad’s going to be here any-” He slammed your head back into the wall, making your vision blur.

“Don’t tell me what I have to do, Y/N.” He spat, painfully tangling his fingers in your hair. “I don’t give a damn who your dad is. I’ll still kick his ass.” You gritted your teeth and gathered as much strength as you could. You pushed him off of you, nearly knocking him to the ground.

“That’s it.” You growled, pulling down your sleeves. “We’re done.” He laughed, shaking his head.

“You don’t get to decide when we’re done.” You crossed your arms over your chest, finally standing your ground.

“I just did.” He put a hand on the side of your head, shoving your face against the cafe wall. By this time, a crowd had begun to form around you, but Zach kept both of your faces from view.

“Get the hell off her man!” Someone yelled.

“Out of my way,” A more familiar voice ordered. “Police!”

“We’ll talk about this later.” He ran off in the other direction, pushing you to the ground and disappearing around the corner just as Detective Danny Reagan broke through the crowd.

“Y/N?” He gasped, he knelt down beside you. “What the hell happened?” His eyes scanned the ally.

“Nothing.” You stood up, brushing off your jeans. You lightly touched your cheek, wincing as your fingers came away bloody. “Just some creep trying to grab my wallet.” He took a step to go after him, but you grabbed his arm. “He’s probably long gone, just let him go.”

“Let him go?” He shouted. “Since when do you wanna just let muggers loose on the streets?” You held back tears, wishing that you could just tell him everything. But you had to do this on your own. You had to get control over your own life again.

“Let. Him. Go.” You pleaded and Danny saw the misery and fear in your eyes. “Please.” He dropped his hands to his sides in defeat. Your voice dropped to below a whisper and you stared at the ground. “I have to go.” Before he could even say he was glad you were okay, you pushed your way passed the dispersing group of people.

Danny just stood in the ally in shock. It didn’t take a detective to know that something was wrong. You always used to come to him whenever you had a problem, but now it felt like you were shutting yourself away from everyone. Before he could think more on the matter, his phone started to ring with a call from Eddie.

“Look, I really can’t talk right now.” He sighed. “I’m sure whatever you have planned, Jamie is gonna love-”

“I don’t want to talk about Jamie.” She interrupted. She took a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know about your daughter.”

Eddie was practically trembling, standing outside your door, waiting for you to answer. Once she had told your father what she thought might be going on, she convinced him to let her talk to you first. What she didn’t tell him was that she had a little experience in this kind of situation. When you finally opened the door, she gave you a nervous smile.

“Eddie… hi…” You stepped back in surprise. You had barely stepped out of the shower when you head the knock at the door. “Come in.” She brushed past you into your apartment and you realized that all of your bruises and marks were clear and visible. Makeup couldn’t lie for you now. “I can explain-”

“You don’t have to.” She shook her head, giving you a smile that reminded you of your mom. She motioned for you to sit next to her on your sofa, her eyes lingering for just a moment on the large scrape on your cheek from the brick wall. “I think I know what’s going on.” You looked at your lap, feeling your cheeks burn with shame. She put a hand on your shoulder.

“A few years ago, I went on this date.” She began cautiously as if she was afraid of the memory herself. “The guy walked me back to my apartment and forced his way in when I told him to leave. He groped me and he hit me. When I thought things were getting worse, he finally had enough of my fighting and he left.”

“I’m so sorry.” You whispered, knowing where this conversation was headed. “But I don’t know how that relates to-”

“There’s a reason no one has met your boyfriend, isn’t there?” She blurted and you froze. You opened your mouth to argue, but she stopped you. “I’m not trying to assume anything, but the look in your eyes this past week has been the same I had for those days after it happened.”

You didn't know what to say. You just wanted to tell her everything. But before you got the chance, there was a booming knock at the door. Zach kicked in the door and you both jumped off the couch. His eyes switched between you and Eddie.

“What the hell is going on here?” He said, his mouth salivating like a rabid dog. “Who the hell is she?”

“Zach, what are you doing here?” You were more pissed off than afraid. “I told you that we’re done.” Eddie instinctively put her hand on her hip but realized that there was no pistol. She didn’t think anything of leaving it at her apartment since she was just coming to see you. Zach mimicked her but pulled a handgun out from under his jacket. You both stepped back.

“You don’t get to say when we’re done!” He swung the weapon around furiously. Eddie pushed you behind her and Zach hit her with the butt of the gun.

“Eddie!” You shrieked as she fell onto the couch, unconscious. He pulled a zip tie out of his pocket and strapped her to the coffee table. Zach then grabbed your arm and began to drag you towards the door. “Get off of me!” You hit his chest and kicked at his legs, but he wouldn’t let go.

“You are never going to leave me.” He growled in your ear, slamming the door to your apartment shut.

Eddie woke up sooner than Zach had intended, and she quickly pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Frantically, she called her fiance.

“Jamie,” She began in a panic.

“Eddie, what’s wrong?” Jamie asked, earning a worried look from his brother. He and Danny had been grabbing a drink, discussing Danny’s concerns about Y/N.

“You and Danny need to come to Y/N’s apartment.”

“What’s wrong with Y/N?” He exclaimed. Danny jumped up from his seat and leaned in so he could try and hear Eddie.

“H-her boyfriend showed up and Jamie…” she took a deep breath. “He’s got a gun.”

The Reagan brothers were at the apartment in time to find Eddie trying to cut off the zip tie with a letter opener. Jamie rushed to his fiance while Danny scanned the apartment for any signs of his daughter.

“He took her somewhere… I don’t know. He knocked me out and now she’s not here-” Jamie took her face in his hands, trying to calm her down.

“We’re going to find her.” As he said this, sediment rained down passed the window. Danny and Jamie looked at each other.

“The roof,” Danny said, sprinting out the door.