by Hart, Cary
Pound after pound, blow after blow. His smirk doesn’t fade. “This is for Eden, you bastard.”
“Shapiro! Please …” I hear Penny behind me, but Marcus needs to know he can’t fuck with my family.
“Help him,” Penny pleads with someone.
I get a few more blows in before I’m lifted off.
“What the fuck, man?” Jordan and Jake are standing behind me, holding me back.
“Marcus. That’s Marcus. He had his hands around her neck.”
Penny.
“Shit.” I jerk my way free and rush over to her side. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“No.” She frantically shakes her head. “I was so scared, but …” She scans the area before her eyes come back down to Marcus’s. “He didn’t hurt me.”
“Shapiro,” Jordan hollers, but I can’t take my eyes off Penny. Seeing her like this and the thought of what could happen. “Marcus.”
At the mention of his name, I turn. The mother fucker is up on his elbows, bloody as fuck, asking if anyone got any video.
“You’re going down, motherfucker,” Marcus warns. “You let me pay for what you did and now you are going to serve your time.”
“What’s he talking about?” Penny pulls on my elbow.
“Not now, Penny.”
I’m so fucked.
“And when you are locked up in your little six by ten cell, I’m going to be fucking your girl. Have a little piece of that dessert you can’t get enough of.”
“Fucking shit!” I break free from their hold and run to give him one last kick to the side before a cop pulls me off.”
“Your freedom for mine,” Marcus shouts as he’s being lifted in the waiting ambulance.
“Frances Shapiro, we need you to come down to the station.”
“He was only protecting me. He had a scarf tied around my neck and he was tightening it,” Penny pleads with the officer as her body wracks with uncontrollable sobs.
“Ma’am. We are aware of the situation.” He nods over to Jordan. “But we still need you both to come down to the station to give a statement.”
“I don’t understand what is going on.” Penny is searching the area, looking for answers.
“Baby, you’re in shock.” I reach up to brush the hair out of her face.
“Your knuckles!” Penny gasps as she reaches for my wrists. “He doesn’t need to go to the station. He needs a hospital.”
“Ma’am, the quicker you come down, the quicker you are back to whatever it was you were doing before,” the officer explains.
“Come on.” I guide Penny to the back of the cruiser. “Watch your head.”
“Are they going to arrest you?” She looks up at me as she slides in to the back.
“I’m not sure.” I slide in after her and pull her into my arms. “But it’s going to be okay.”
“Promise me. You aren’t going to jail. Promise me what he is saying isn’t true.”
“I can’t.”
Penny
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to go home and tell Shapiro about Tyler and then we were supposed to ride off into the sunset, not downtown in the back of a police car. Now we are both sitting in a small interview room awaiting his fate and I couldn’t be more pissed off.
We wouldn’t be here if he had just been honest with me. How could he do this to us? To me.
He made me need him. And I can’t help but feel like the rug is about to be jerked from under me if I lose him. If he goes to jail.
“So, are you going to tell me what that was about? Because I’m still struggling to make heads or tails of what the hell just happened.” I look over to a cleaned-up Shapiro.
My chest feels tight as I try not to notice how sexy his five o’clock shadow looks as his jaw is set tight in a brooding stare. Apparently, Jordan knows someone on the force, and he let Shapiro get washed up. More connections I had no idea about. Seems it’s a need to know basis, and he assumed I didn’t need to know.
“It wasn’t Tyler.”
“I know.” Which angers me even more. He kept me locked away, and the whole time I was blaming Tyler. But turns out, I was at risk because of the person who was supposed to protect me. The irony is not lost on me at all.
“You know?”
“Yeah. Well, I mean, he was following me, but not like you think.”
“You talked to him.” He leans forward, still sitting across the table. I can sense his anger building at my omission.
“When did this happen?”
“Today.”
Shapiro is fuming. His vein popping out of his forehead, ready to explode.
“Before you get all crazy. He came to say goodbye.” Doesn’t feel very good to be the last to know does it, I think to myself.
“I don’t even know what to think about that.” He stands and begins to pace the room. “Are you hiding more? Just like you did with the note?”
“Are you serious right now?” I stand to match his movements. “You’re turning this on me, making this about me?”
“It’s always about you.” He turns, eyes boring into mine.
“I didn’t make us end up in here.” I wave my hands around. “You did that all on your own. All I’ve done is what you have asked. And he still got to me.” My voice raises an octave as I take a few steps to stand in front of him.
“Don’t you think I know that?” he yells.
“I still have no clue as to why. Who is he? What did he want?” I want to understand, I’m really trying. But trading one cage for another isn’t worth it, no matter how much I feel for him, if he can’t trust me.
Turning my back, I worry my lip between my teeth as I try to figure out what questions to ask. He beats me to it.
“It started with a note.”
“The one I got downstairs?” I’m trying to understand, turning I search his face. The anguish I see there is sobering.
“No, there was one before that.” He looks the other way.
“There what?” I’m confused. Why would he hide a note from me?
“When I ran to the store to get pads. That day, there was a note.” He continues, “I thought it was Tyler. So, I enlisted a couple contacts to track him down. That is where I went those times I bailed on you. I needed to see where Tyler was at all times.”
He knew all along where Tyler was. And wasn’t.
“Okay, let me understand this. You got a note and kept it from me. Then you had Tyler tracked? Again, keeping it from me.” I throw my hands in the air. “The one you are trying to keep safe.”
“It was for your own safety,” he defends.
“So how does this Marcus fit into this picture?” I ask.
I’m laying out all the pieces and the puzzle still won’t come together.
“You know how I told you I was a troubled teenager. Well, I was pretty damn bad, and Marcus was my best friend, who just so happened to be my older sister, Eden’s boyfriend.” He sits back down. Almost as if he’s defeated, and he stares past me at the wall as he recounts the painful memories. “Eden started to pull back from the rest of the family. Making excuses to stay at girlfriend’s houses. She knew if we saw her, we would know.”
“Know what?” Dread fills my stomach at where this is going.
“He would beat the fuck out of her. He would lay his hands on my sister and then make her feel like shit.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Well, one night I found my sister lying in the back of Marcus’ car, beaten and bruised. Curled in a ball, her clothes ripped away from her body like an animal had attacked her. It didn’t take long to piece together what he had done.” His eyes fill with unshed tears. “He fucking raped his own girlfriend. My sister was violated by a man she loved, by my friend. A man I trusted and brought into our lives.”
I gasp.
“So, as you can imagine the guilt I feel, the shame that still eats at me. I couldn’t save her in time, but maybe I could save you.”
Hearing hi
m say it makes it all the more real. Makes me realize that what Tyler called “loving me” had another name. A name I have been ashamed to label it as, because that word makes me a victim. Rape. Abuse is abuse regardless of relationship status.
But after standing up to him today I realize that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not a victim.
I’m a survivor.
His voice draws me from the dark thoughts of the past.
“So, I set him up. He wanted me to go on this run with him and originally, I refused because I told Mama Ang that I would stay away from that shit, but this time, I went and I fucking sold him out so he would go to prison.”
“Why didn’t your sister go to the police?” I ask the question like it’s the easiest thing to do. If it was, I wouldn’t keep coming back.
“She was his girlfriend. They talked about marriage. She didn’t want there to be talk. She was afraid. A lot of reasons I guess, but none of them good enough. So, I took the law into my own hands.”
It all starts adding up. His overprotective and paranoid demeanor. His need for control. To keep me safe. But it doesn’t change the fact that he lied.
“So, the phone? When you threw it. Was that because of this?”
“Yes, I can say for one hundred percent it was Marcus. He sent me a photo of us in the kitchen that night. The night I stopped all security footage in there.”
“Shapiro. Don’t you see what you did? You were trying to protect me, but instead you kept me in the dark and made it worse. Aren’t you the one who told me to be more aware? How can I be if you don’t share the information with me?” I turn his words back on him.
I’m angry at him for thinking that he couldn’t tell me. Trust me. The way I trusted him.
“All I wanted was transparency and you didn’t give it to me. I’m not sure …”
“You’re not sure what?” The door swings open and the officer walks in interrupting our heated talk. His question remains hanging in the air. Just as well, because I don’t know that I have the answers he is wanting.
“Penny Reed, you are free to go.” The officer looks at his sheet. “And Frances Shapiro you are free to go too, but we might have some follow up questions, so please don’t leave town.”
“Very well.” He reaches for my hand. “Ready?”
If that’s not a loaded question. Am I?
I thought so. I thought I was ready to start rebuilding my life on truths, not lies. On my terms. But now … I’m so confused. And once again lies are tainting what was supposed to be my fresh start.
“No, I’m not ready. I just don’t have anywhere else I can go.” I brush past him, refusing to take his hand and hoping my words hit their mark. Knowing we have unfinished business, I walk outside to where Jordan waits with a car to take us home. To the apartment.
Penny
The silence on the drive back to Spotlight is anything but comfortable. Almost suffocating. I can’t help but think about the first time he brought me here. This time there is no warm blanket wrapped around me. Now all I have is a blanket of lies that got ripped away from me like a giant Band-Aid.
There is no carrying me up the stairs, I all but sprint up them, still buzzing from the adrenaline of all that went down.
I tap my foot impatiently as he takes his sweet-ass time climbing the stairs to his tower.
As soon as he has the gazillionth lock undone, I brush past him and into the apartment. Throwing my purse down, thinking about flushing his secret stash down the drain I stomp around the apartment.
Struggling to find the words. To use my voice.
“Say something.” He stands with his back to me, locking up.
“What can I say?”
“I wasn’t trying to control you. I know after everything you have been through control—”
“You don’t get it!” I yell, finding it feels good.
“Get what?” He keeps his voice calm.
“Don’t you get it? I don’t want to be in control … I want to lose it.” He slowly turns and his eyes lock on mine. “I want you to take it.”
His eyes flame with desire.
I know it’s what he wants, but he’s been holding back.
Now all the cards are on the table. No more secrets. No holding back.
“Penny.” He stalks toward me with a sigh. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I do.” I meet him in the middle and we stand in the center of the room.
I want to be swallowed up in him, I want to let it all go and crawl into his skin and get lost.
I know that’s how it would be if he would take me like I’m not broken.
“Please. Help me lose control,” I beg as he closes the distance between us.
“How?” he asks, pulling me into his arms.
“Take it,” I whisper against his lips as I reach up and claim his lips with my own.
Drawing back, I see the moment his restraint snaps.
In the blink of an eye, he’s practically dragging me to the bedroom.
“This is what you want?” He throws me on the bed and I land with a bounce.
He rips his clothes off before tearing my own away. I grow wet watching his muscles ripple.
“Is this what you want to see?” He voice grows gruff. “Me barely able to contain my need for you? You think I’m in control?”
“Yes,” I groan as his hands begin kneading my skin.
“And this?” His fingers plunge into me as he tears my panties off.
“Yes,” I moan, not afraid because I know who he is deep down. He would never hurt me.
“How about now?” His hands grip my legs as he drags me to the end of the bed.
“Yes,” I cry out, and he palms my breasts and thrusts against me.
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” I mumble into his mouth and we kiss. A frantic tangle of tongues, he nips my bottom lip drawing it slowly through his teeth.
My fingernails scrape down his bare back as he shifts between my thighs. Our skin slick with sweat.
Desperate for him, and lost in the moment, the breath is knocked out of me as he drives into me suddenly.
“And now?” he moans, his cock filling me up. Plunging in and withdrawing ever so slowly. Before repeating it over and over.
My body trembles from the inside out as he sets what should be a punishing pace.
But it’s what I’ve been waiting for.
The moment he loses control and takes mine with it. I feel no fear. No hesitation. Only pleasure. Relief.
Just bodies, moving together. Holding on and letting go.
“Yessssss!” I cry out as an orgasm suddenly crashes through me like a blinding explosion.
His own comes right after and his hips rock into mine as he fills me up.
“Is that what you wanted?” He pushes up on his elbows and studies my face.
“Yes,” I whisper, suddenly shy about my demands. “It was perfect.”
My hands tangle in his hair and his head falls to my bare chest.
“It was … everything,” he says rolling over and taking me with him. He’s still hard inside me, neither of us wanting to break contact.
“Mmm. Hmmm.” I yawn into his chest. “You’re everything.”
No warm cloths. No Kool-Aid. No more words. Just us. Lying naked and exposed, and I’ve never felt more secure.
Shapiro
Brushing the hair out of her face, I watch her sleep. Curled up in my bed, so peaceful. And safe.
Yesterday comes back full force. I feel bad for keeping her in the dark. But I’m not sorry for protecting her.
Her lids flutter and her eyes open, the words just tumble out.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She yawns sitting up next to me against the headboard. “I was semi-awake.”
“No, not for waking you up. I mean last night.” I try apologizing again. “I was only trying too—”
“Shhh.” She hushes me by putting her lips over mine, shutting me up with a kiss.
“It doesn’t matter now. I know why you did what you did,” she explains, climbing into my lap.
“You do?” I ask, and she nods pressing her forehead to mine.
“But it doesn’t matter. All that matters is something that I need to tell you. Something I’ve been keeping from you.”
Now she’s making me a little nervous.
“Penny?” My eyes search her face.
“I love you.” She smiles, and my heart nearly beats out of my chest.
Hearing the words from her pouty lips makes me happier than I could have ever imagined. Placing my palms on either side of her face, I lean in, our noses brushing.
“I love you too. I’ve been waiting to tell you, afraid of scaring you away.”
“I’m not scared, and I’m giving you my whole heart, Shapiro, because I know you’re my safe place. My protector.”
Our kiss turns into more as we pour our feelings out.
“I think it’s you who saved me,” I confess as I roll us back down on the bed and show her just how much I love her.
Seven months later
Penny
The lunch rush is over, and I’m in the back, filling orders to be delivered to Spotlight for tomorrow’s event. Humming along to the radio, I can’t help but sway my hips in time.
Life is so amazing. I don’t know how it could get any better.
A smudge of pink icing on the new stainless worktop has me day dreaming about Shapiro.
“Penny?” Abbi peeks her head back in to the kitchen. My kitchen. In my bakery.
Thanks to Mama Ang and Shapiro, all my dreams are coming true, even the dreams I didn’t know I had.
“Hey. Great sales day, huh?” I question my new employee, my only employee. And technically she’s a loaner from Spotlight until I find someone permanently.
Sweet Confessions is open and business is already booming, but I’m still learning to balance everything.
“Yeah, for sure. But uh, there is a guy out in the sugar rush line refusing to grab a quick order. I tried to explain the grab and go treats concept. Like an express line of sorts, but he says he only wants to place a standing order. What should I tell him?” She looks genuinely concerned. I know I need to get out front to prevent him from scaring Abbi off.