by Kylie Walker
“Derek and I planned on talking to you about this over the weekend before the accident happened. It’s really hard for me to talk about, so forgive me in advance if I’m not saying it right.”
“Chloe you don’t have to feel obligated to tell us anything,” Trevor said.
She smiled at him. They were both such wonderful people that her needs were already more important to them than their own.
“I need to tell you this, Trevor. I hope that you will still feel the same about me after I do…”
“Oh now you’re just talking crazy,” Samantha said. “Chloe we have loved you since the day you were born and you weren’t even here with us. Nothing you can say will change that, even a little bit.”
Chloe felt the tears coming again. This was a whole new world to her. She took a deep breath and said, “When I graduated from high school I got a scholarship to N.Y.U. It was supposed to be my ticket out of the house of horrors I was living in. It paid for school, books, supplies, things like that. There wasn’t enough to pay for housing though, so I was living at home the first year and working and trying to save some money. During that time, I met a young man. He was a law student and he was handsome and personable and he pursued me as I had never been pursued before. He took me places and brought me flowers. He just did everything right. He told me he loved me and wanted me out of that house, so I moved in with him. The first six months were like a dream.”
Trevor and Samantha listened quietly. Their faces reflected the horror they felt as Chloe talked. About the time Chloe got to the part just before Jesse tried to kill her, Samantha had a silent tear rolling down her face. Chloe felt physical pain in her heart for making her mother cry. Trevor’s face quickly shifted from pain to naked rage when Chloe began describing the night that had almost ended her life. Jake sat silently as well. Chloe couldn’t see his face because he sat behind her, but she could hear the sound of him breathing more quickly the more she talked. Jake knew the basics of what happened between her and Jesse, but this was the first time that he had heard the whole story.
“He was madder than I had ever seen him that night. He was really drunk and the beating was different even more violent than usual. When he started telling me that he was going to kill me, I could see in his eyes that it wasn’t just a scare tactic. He had told me that before, but that night he actually planned on killing me. I never really figured out how he thought he was going to get away with it. Maybe he was just too far gone in his head at that point to care, or maybe he had a plan for that too. The fact that he was so drunk may have played a factor in me still being alive. His motor skills were greatly affected and at one point when he had a hold of my hair…”
Samantha winced. Chloe once again felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. “He was trying to reach for a knife and he wasn’t able to hold onto my hair as tightly. I pulled out of his grasp and I ran into the bathroom. I had my phone in my pocket. I called my friend Chantelle and asked her to call the police. Jesse broke the door open and pulled me out. He grabbed the knife and as we were struggling, I picked up a nail file and stabbed him in the arm with it. All that did was enrage him further. He was crazy strong when he was angry. That's when he cut me with the knife.”
That was when Jake spoke up. “He did more than cut her. I’ve seen the trial transcripts.” Chloe looked at him curiously. He hadn’t told her that he had looked at the transcripts. “He also stabbed her and made that cut with every intention of killing her. If the police hadn’t gotten there when they did, she would be dead.”
Chloe looked at the tortured faces of her parents and the ache in her chest began to throb. They were such a shining example of what parents were supposed to be and it was still very surreal to her. She hated being the source of their heartache. It was as if a black mist settled down over them all and the bright day was suddenly dark and foreboding.
No one said anything for several minutes and then suddenly Samantha got up and went to Chloe. She knelt down next to the chair where Chloe sat and took her into her arms without saying a word. They just sat there like that for a long time, holding each other. Chloe was the first to pull away. She reached out and wiped a tear off of her mother’s face.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Please don’t be sorry. That makes it so much worse. The thought of you feeling like you have to apologize for that—”
“Monster,” Trevor finished for her.
“Thank you for being so understanding and compassionate about everything. There’s more though.” This was the part that Chloe hated to admit…that inadvertently she was responsible for the accident.
Trevor looked like he might be sick. Chloe started thinking that maybe it was too much for them to absorb all at once, but Samantha pulled back and said, “Go on, honey.”
She glanced at Jake again. He looked almost as nauseated as Trevor did. “Jesse got two years in prison…”
“For attempted murder? What the hell kind of justice is that?” Trevor’s voice rose in tempo and he slammed his hand down on the table next to him.
Jake took that one. “Jesse’s last name is Donovan.”
Trevor didn’t look like he got it at first, but all of a sudden the realization crossed his face. “Oh my God! Is he Vince Donovan’s son? The District Attorney of New York city?”
“Yes.”
Trevor’s rage turned into something even more dangerous looking as he stood up out of his seat. He began pacing the room with his fists opening and closing and the vein in his neck pulsing visibly. “So because he is the son of the D.A. he was given a lighter sentence? How long ago was this?”
“He was sentenced two years ago,” Chloe said. “He got out last month.”
“Oh my God!” Samantha covered her mouth with her hand. She was beginning to piece it together at least some of it. “Has he bothered you, Chloe?”
“He is stalking her,” Jake said, not waiting for Chloe to answer. “That’s why she’s never alone. Derek was having security watch her around the clock before the accident— everywhere except when they came here. He felt safe here but what Chloe is trying to tell you and having a hard time doing is that we think he may be responsible for tampering with Derek’s car.”
Silence fell across the room and all Chloe could hear was the ticking of the grandfather clock and the rush of blood through her own ears. Trevor suddenly turned towards Chloe and said, “You thought that we would blame you for this?”
“I feel so bad for bringing him into your lives…all of your lives,” she said. She felt her own tears roll down her cheeks now. She hated bringing so much drama into the lives of these wonderful people.
Trevor came over and took her hands. He lifted her up and pulled her into his warm chest. She could feel the beat of his heart and the steady rise and fall of his breath against the side of her face. She felt so close to him already. There really must be some kind of magnetic draw when it came to genetics. He lifted his hand and stroked it down her hair and said, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that no one ever hurts you again.”
CHAPTER SIX
Jesse pulled Kelly into a deep kiss. He felt her bare breasts against his chest and felt her nipples harden. For a fraction of a second, he wished that he didn’t have to kill her. But it was only a second and then it was gone. Then he was rock hard, thinking about what he was going to get to do. She’s so stupid. She thought that all she had to do was strip down and parade her naked, hideously scarred body in front of him and he would spare her life. This was the moment he lived for. This was the moment that he was going to live off of for the rest of his life.
He let her keep her tits pressed up against him as he caressed her shoulders.
“Jesse, I missed you, baby. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything!” She whispered the words in his ear just like she always did.
She was always sorry.
She was just so pathetically stupid that most of the time he couldn’t help but forgive her. The
vibrations of her voice sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. He hadn’t had sex with a woman in a long time. Not since the last time he had Kelly right before he was arrested like a common criminal…because of her. The things he had been forced to do in prison didn’t count as sex. As far as he was concerned, they were all but forgotten except for when it came to Kelly’s scorecard. Each time he’d endured it was another strike against her.
He smiled as he let his hands work their way inward, so his thumbs met in the center of her throat. Her eyes widened and she began to choke as he squeezed. She reached up and grabbed his hands with hers. He smiled again, squeezed tighter and brought his knee up driving it into the soft flesh of her belly.
She instinctively dropped her hands and tried to double over. The motion of her neck only caused her to fall deeper into his grip. She started gasping and wheezing and raised her hands back up, trying to claw at his hands to get him to let go. She was tougher than she used to be. She lasted longer than she used to when he choked her out. Back then he would do sexual things to her until she woke up though and this time he intended for her to have a new scar each time she woke up until she couldn’t stand it a moment longer.
He reluctantly let go of her neck while she was still breathing. He laid her out on the bed and pulled out his knife. He found the scar that ran down her side. He traced it first with his finger. Then he pressed the edge of the blade to the top of it and began to apply pressure. Just as the first drip of blood began to ooze through the open skin…Jesse woke up from his dream.
He looked around and realized he was in the car, down the street from the apartment where Kelly had been staying. Shit! He needed to start finding a place to sleep at night. He was going to fall asleep in the wrong place at the wrong time and ruin everything. He picked up his binoculars off the passenger seat. He could see the Bentley still waiting out in front of the apartment building. He hadn’t been asleep that long…good. He sat the binoculars down and thought about his dream. He smiled and rubbed a hand over the front of his aching crotch. He needed to find a woman soon. He was brought out of his reverie by the sight of Kelly coming out of the building. He didn’t need the binoculars to know that it was her. He knew how she walked and how she stood. He knew everything about her. She was his…and he was going to kill her. Soon, Kelly.
Kelly made conversation with the doorman as Jake Stark looked on. A few minutes later, they both stepped into the waiting car. What the hell is the Stark family’s obsession with her? They’ll find out soon enough just like he did that she’s nothing but white trash and definitely not worth all of the trouble they were putting out for her. It had been almost two weeks since Derek Stark had his “accident” and Jesse had been watching her every move since.
The building she was staying in not only had a doorman but an armed security officer at the front door. Who the hell do these people think they are? Whenever she left the apartment, she was with Kevin or Jake. She went to the hospital every day. Today was the first day Jesse had seen her get into the car alone and get out at the hospital alone. She was getting braver…he just had to be patient a little while longer. He pulled his hands into a fist and opened them up. He did it again…Soon.
He waited until the brown Bentley pulled out into the afternoon traffic and then he pulled the stolen Ford Bronco away from the curb. The Bronco was at least twelve years old and a non-descript dark blue color. Some soccer mom in Rhode Island put all of her kid’s stuff in it, started it and went back in to get them. Jesse simply walked up, climbed in and drove away. That was a week ago. If the kids hadn’t been there, he might have gotten busy with soccer mom…she was kind of hot. But he didn’t have time for that kind of a headache. He would probably have to find another car soon. He didn’t like to keep any of them too long.
He followed the Bentley onto the Interstate and realized they were heading to Rhode Island. Shit! He hated that hell hole.
He had been happy when Kelly started staying in Manhattan. He loved New York and since he planned on keeping her alive long enough to make damned sure that she experienced pain like nothing she had ever felt before…he would really prefer to do it in a swank apartment in Manhattan over a dump condo in Rhode Island, but he would do whatever he had to. She would die one way or the other.
He seriously considered grabbing her earlier when she came out of the hospital. As she hurried out to get into the waiting Bentley, he thought about just grabbing her and throwing her into his car. He forced himself to wait though. If he took her out in public, he wouldn’t have any time to spend having fun. He would just have to kill her and that would be the end of it. He had spent a lot of time anticipating this…he had to keep his patience in check, or he would blow it.
He could see her head in the back seat of the car up ahead. He wondered if she was screwing Jake and Kevin too. She always was a little slut. If the stupid little bitch thought riding around in a two-hundred thousand dollar car made her any less of a piece of trash, she was wrong. She was just trash in an expensive can.
He let himself imagine all of the things he would do to her when he finally got the chance on the long three hour drive to Rhode Island. It thrilled him to imagine what it would feel like to slice open her flesh…to watch the light drain out of her eyes. He was surprised when they passed the exit that would take them down to her condo and instead took the one two exits up. He realized as soon as they got off the freeway that they were going to the Krav Maga studio where she either took classes or screwed the instructor in the back room. He had never been able to get close enough to actually see what she did in there. He would try and get a better look today.
Stark’s car dropped her off and then it took off again with Jake inside. Jesse parked his stolen car a few blocks away. He would probably just leave it there and find himself another one before he took back off for New York. He always wore latex gloves while he was in the car, but he used an oil rag to wipe everything down just in case. He wasn’t going to get arrested for something stupid. He had too much to do.
He crossed the street on foot and standing at the edge of the big window; he looked inside. He could see a tall man with a lot of muscle, surrounded by about ten women and one man. They were all in work-out gear. Kelly wasn’t in the group, so he went around the building to see if there was another way in. There was a door in the back that led to the alley, but it was locked up tight. Damn it! He would really love to know what she’s doing in there.
**
“Dance,” Max told her.
Chloe started moving her feet, dancing around Max’s massive form as he threw a series of jabs towards her face. “Put those hands up. Protect your face.” Chloe put her hands up like Max told her to and concentrated on keeping her feet moving. She “danced” and dodged the easy punches he was throwing at her. Every once in a while his hand would touch her head gear or her face, but he wasn’t throwing punches to hurt her, he just wanted her to practice defending and deflecting. “Okay, take a break and get some water. Where’s your head at today?”
Chloe got out of the ring Max kept set up in the bag room for sparring and she grabbed her water. After taking a long swig, she said, “Tomorrow is the day they’re going to start waking Derek up. It’s been two weeks of pure hell but…”
“But what?” Max asked her.
“But, we don’t know what he’s going to be like when they bring him out of it. They have no idea what kind of damage all of this has done to his brain. The doctor said he could wake up with all of his cognitive and motor skills or he could wake up with none of them, or he could wake up somewhere in between.”
“But he’ll be awake.”
“Yeah,” she said. She felt so ashamed to admit it, but as much as she needed to see him and talk to him…she was scared to death. At least while he was in the coma, she could imagine what it would be like when he came out of it. In her imagination, he was as perfect as he had always been.
“Okay, let’s work out some more of that anxiety,” Max
said.
They both climbed back into the little ring and Max put on the mitts with the yellow dots in the center and told her, “Okay, you’re throwing the punches now…follow the dots.” Chloe nodded and Max started moving. She threw a right cross and then a left jab and a right jab and then a hook and an undercut. “Again!” he told her. She did it again, following the dots, choosing her punches as she went along. The muscles in her arms burned and sweat was rolling off of her, but she felt good.
When Max thought her arms had enough he had her work on her kicks on the bag for a while. Then lastly, they got back in the ring and Max said, “Okay, sweep me off my feet, but don’t go down with me. You do not want to go down to the floor with this guy.”
Chloe had a flash of memory. She was on the floor and Jesse straddled her, holding the knife. With that vision in the forefront of her mind, she used her legs to sweep Max’s. Her first try, they both almost went down. She jumped back and righted herself and he was able to regain his balance again. He grabbed her again. This time she put one of her legs in between his and she used the inside of her foot to put pressure on his ankle. When he took a step to get her off of him, she used both of her legs to sweep the other one out from underneath him. Max hit the mat with a thud. When he looked up at Chloe, he was smiling. Chloe was grinning from ear to ear. If she could take Max down; Jesse would be a piece of cake.
“Never stop fighting,” Max told her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Jake got to the studio to pick her back up, Chloe was showered, dressed and ready to go.
“How did it go?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Good. I knocked Max on his ass!”
Jake grinned and gave her a high five. “That’s awesome. At least I’m not the only one you beat up recently.” They both laughed and he asked, “Are you hungry?”