PROLOGUE
I’m going to die tonight…
Abigail Denton had known it would end this way. Maybe she
always had. The heavy fall of rain masked the sound of her footsteps as she blindly
ran down the dirty alleyways of New York City. No, running wasn’t accurate. She
was moving more at a frantic shuffle at this point.
She’d lost too much blood to go any faster now.
Making her way through the dark maze, she tried to find an
opening onto the street but couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her
face. Giving up, she hid behind a large dumpster and braced a hand on the dirty
brick wall to catch her breath for a moment as she struggled to stay upright. If
she couldn’t see through the deluge of water falling from the sky, she hoped
like hell the man chasing her couldn’t either. At least for long enough to give
her a few seconds to rest before she went for help.
The pain in her abdomen had faded slightly, but she knew
that wasn’t a good thing. Pulling the hand away from where she had been holding
it against her stomach, she looked down to see dark-red blood coating her skin.
The rain washed away most of it, but Abby knew by the amount she’d lost she
wouldn’t make it if she didn’t get to a hospital soon.
She tried to move from her position behind the dumpster,
but her legs just wouldn’t cooperate. A few seconds later, she found herself
sitting on the ground, unsure how she’d gotten there. Abby’s dark hair fell
over her face like a waterfall, and she pushed the chestnut curls back absently
to clear her line of sight, but her vision remained blurry. Her head felt
heavy, almost like it was going to fall off her shoulders if she tried to move
again.
No, she couldn’t get up, even though she wanted to.
Abby was done.
Fuck it, she thought. If she was going to die, then at
least the bastard she’d married would finally pay for what he’d done to her.
The last two years of Abby’s life had been one long
nightmare, starting with the night her parents had been killed by a drunk
driver in a horrible car accident. Their loss had been absolutely devastating
for her. Because they had no other family, it had always been the three of them
her entire life, and in one night, she was completely alone in the world.
Abby had grown up in Atlanta, and when she decided to
become a pastry chef, her parents had been completely supportive of her
following her dream. She’d gone to culinary school, then she’d been lucky to
train under a talented executive pastry chef at a well-known restaurant in the
heart of the city.
She’d just gotten a new job as the head pastry chef in
another restaurant when two cops had showed up on her doorstep one night. Both
men had stayed with her when she’d fallen apart after they’d given her the news
of her parents’ death, but Officer Charlie Kessler had taken special interest
in her in the weeks that followed. He’d called, showed up at the restaurant she
worked at to check up on her, and even came to her apartment to help her deal
with the details of her parents’ funeral.
Perhaps it was due to her grief, or the simple fact that he’d
been there for her when she’d needed someone, but Abby had found herself
engaged to Charlie before she really realized what had happened. She’d dated in
the past, but things had never gotten serious with any of the men she’d spent
time with. She’d always been more focused on her career than having a
relationship. So, when she’d married Charlie in a small ceremony several months
after she’d buried her parents, her friends had all worried about her.
And they had been right to worry.
Charlie had been wonderful while he’d been courting Abby.
He’d been sweet, caring and totally attentive to her every need. However, all
of that changed the moment they had gotten married. He became extremely
critical about everything she did, making subtle comments about her weight and
how tall she was until it started to fray her self
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