Free Deathblow by Dana Marton Page B

wearable art. His company was one of the sponsors of the event. He has a lot of powerful friends.”
    Joe watched the tight set of her lips. He’d never met the man, but he could see him in his mind’s eye. “He’s good-looking, charismatic. He can put on the charm like nobody’s business. When he wants something, he pulls out all the stops. Flowers, lavish dates.”
    She tensed but then gave a reluctant nod.
    “Then little by little he changed.” He was familiar with the abuser profile. They were all charming at the beginning. Then they took more and more control until they had their victims trapped. “He didn’t like your friends, so your friends started staying away. He used to praise your beauty, then suddenly began telling you that you’re fat, or ugly, or stupid.”
    She wrapped her arms around herself, a betrayed look flashing across her face. “What did Sophie tell you? I don’t want to talk about this.”
    He didn’t enjoy the conversation either, having to strip her emotionally naked, but he had to, because admission was where healing started. “Sophie told me nothing. I worked on abuse cases before.”
    He had less than three years with Broslin PD as an officer. The town saw maybe a dozen violent crimes in the average year, around a hundred and fifty property crimes. The detectives were usually assigned to the major burglaries and homicides, with the captain stepping in for high-profile cases. Other property crimes and domestic disturbances fell to Joe and Mike. He’d seen his share of abused women and kids, even men on the rare occasion. He knew what they lived through.
    He wished he’d found out about Wendy’s troubles when he’d first met her. He could have helped. He could have spared her months of some asshat putting his hands on her.
    He relaxed his jaw. “So the physical abuse has been going on for over two years?”
    She said nothing.
    “How badly does he hit you?”
    Her gaze darted to him, her arms tightening around her. “He doesn’t.”
    She was lying. A lot of victims did. They blamed themselves. Joe didn’t normally express his anger through hitting, but right now he would have liked nothing better than to plant his fist in Keith Kline’s face.
    She stood. “I should go up to bed. I have a shoot first thing in the morning in Philly.”
    They barely knew each other—if she didn’t feel comfortable enough yet to confide in him, that was okay. But she needed to know that he was committed to protecting her. “He’s not going to get through me. I’m here now. Whatever he’s done in the past, I’m not going to let him do it again.”
    A long moment of silence stretched between them. She didn’t trust him yet. That was okay too. She would, before this was over.
    “Where will Justin go while you’re on the shoot?” he asked.
    “I have someone I usually leave him with. Ginny is another single mom who lives in the apartment building across from mine.”
    “Does Keith know that?”
    Her face went white as she nodded.
    “Would he go there and try to take Justin to make you go back to him?”
    She looked utterly miserable as she said, “I don’t know.” She rubbed her hands against the fabric of her pants. “I can’t cancel a shoot. I need the money to pay bills. And canceling at the last minute—” She shook her head. “They’ll never call me back again.”
    “What if I watched Justin?” he offered for no discernible reason, regretting the words the moment they were out of his mouth. He was a police officer on an unofficial protection detail. Which did not include babysitting. But he added, “I have the second shift tomorrow. My morning is free.”
    She bit her lip. “He doesn’t know you that well yet. No offense, but I don’t know you that well yet either. Leaving your baby with someone is kind of a big deal.”
    Of course. He knew that. “I’ll be going to the shoot with you. I can watch Justin right there. Keep an eye on both of you at the same time. I