by V. T. Do
I smiled. At a glance my aunt looked like me. To a stranger, we could pass as being related. But my Aunt Helen was different from me, and if you looked closely enough, you could see those differences were worlds apart.
Joey and I both adored my Aunt Helen. But she was not the most affectionate person in the world. She showed her love in subtle ways, and we knew she loved both of us as her own. But she was also her father’s daughter. And her father happened to have been a military man, who turned the small fortune he’d inherited from his own father into an even bigger one.
His coldness and precision had worked well in the business world. It did not work well when it came to raising a family, something I was sure my aunt resented him for. She spoke very little of the family she came from, but when she did, it was not out of fondness. I was sure she hadn’t had contact with any of them in decades.
Not like she had any use for them. With the money my grandpa had left her, she wouldn’t need to do anything for the rest of her life.
Our waitress came back with our drinks. Joey drank from her glass like a pro, while I waited until the waitress left before I took a sip. It wasn’t bad, though I couldn’t say I saw the appeal. What was the rave about alcohol when it didn’t even taste good?
Joey looked at me with amusement glimmering in her eyes. “Okay?”
“Yup.”
She laughed. “I call bullshit. I know this isn’t champagne, but it’s good, and it’s strong enough to give you a buzz when the night is over.”
I grimaced. I wasn’t a stranger to alcohol. I even indulged in a little wine at the dinner table. I just hadn’t realized my lifestyle had turned me into such a snob. “I’m sorry. I’ll get used to it.”
Joey shrugged. “There’s nothing to apologize for. You either like it or you don’t. I know you don’t indulge in this kind of thing. But it’s good to try new things.”
“You’re right.” I paused, and Joey looked at me, an encouraging smile on her face. “I have been holed up in that big house, haven’t I?”
Her smile widened, showing straight white teeth. “Yes. And we need to rectify that. Come with me to a house party. One of the fraternity dudes is throwing one this Saturday. It’s not your scene, but at least you can say you’ve tried it once.”
I hesitated for a second before nodding. She was right. I needed to do something on Saturday nights besides sitting with Aunt Helen in our home library and reading our separate books before she retired for the night at nine.
The food came then, and our conversation turned to lighter topics. We joked and laughed about classes and life. And before I knew it, I was on my second martini, Joey on her third, and we were well on our way to being drunk.
“Maybe just water for the next thirty minutes before we leave,” I suggested.
Joey agreed, and we spent the last part of our time there trying to sober up. The food was all gone by the time Joey settled the check. We stood up, and I stumbled a little. She let out a small giggle, trying to zip up her coat.
Ten minutes later, we stood outside the bar waiting for our ride to arrive. It should have felt cold. I could see white fog forming from my breath, but the alcohol in my system made the weather feel more like perfect.
We stood in silence for a while until Joey caught my attention with a shoulder bump. I looked at her, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at the two approaching figures, cast in shadows ahead of us.
“Do you know them?” I asked quietly. Whatever euphoria the alcohol had made me feel just minutes before was gone, replaced now with trepidation.
She shook her head. “Maybe we should wait inside.’
“Good idea.” We turned around and headed back toward the door of the bar, but they must have caught on to our intention, because the men sped up, and before I knew what was happening, we were being dragged away from the front door and to an alleyway nearby.
They pushed us up against the wall. Joey let out a grunt, trying to shove me behind her. I grabbed her arm and stood by her side. No way was I letting her take the brunt of whatever they had planned for us.
She spoke first, her voice calm and sure. “What can we help you with?”
My hand was already reaching into my coat pocket for the mace I carried. I no longer went out with bodyguards, but years of having them had taught me to always be prepared. It might not be enough to stop these guys, but hopefully it would give us enough time to escape.
“A lot,” one of them hissed. He was closest to Joey. He was tall with a medium build. He looked normal from the outside, with light hair and dark skin. However, the stench of alcohol and something sour penetrated my senses when he opened his mouth. I resisted the urge to gag.
“Sorry, fellas. We’re busy tonight. We should get going.” Joey grabbed my hand and pulled me to the mouth of the alleyway, but the other man blocked our exit.
“Not so fast. We need something from you before we let you go. What do you say, Jared? Why don’t we give these girls something to remember us by?” This man was closest to me, and from the streetlamp, I could make out just enough of his face. Something I made myself remember, just in case. If we did survive this, I wanted to have enough information to report, even as my brain shouted at me that they might get away with this after all. Eyewitness testimonies were unreliable, especially when given by the victims.
I let out a shuddering breath. Was that what Joey and I would become after tonight? Victims?
I focused my attention back on the man, and I controlled my expression, trying to regain some semblance of control.
He was a lanky man and looked to be in his mid-thirties. Though, for all I knew, he could be in his twenties, and years of drug abuse had aged him faster than most. It was hard to tell. His brown hair hung limply to his shoulders, and he was extremely pale. I couldn’t be sure if it was his natural complexion or something else. He was an unattractive man, the smaller of the two men.
I knew I was supposed to be scared. But I was the exact opposite. I was calm. Perhaps because the situation still didn’t feel real. I kept expecting that any minute now, I would wake up and it would all have been a horrible dream.
My fist tightened around the mace, the sharp edge at the bottom of the bottle cutting into my palm. It stung, and it served to remind me just how bad the situation was that we were in. Joey grabbed my hand, and I squeezed her palm.
The man in front of me took a step toward us, and we took a step back. We changed direction and stepped back against the wall of the alley, when the other man, Jared, closed in on Joey.
He smiled, showing two missing front teeth. We backed into the wall, effectively trapped and hidden from sight. No one would see us, even if they happened to walk past the alley. It didn’t matter. At this late hour, no one was around to hear us either.
It wasn’t until the smaller man was close enough that I could make out his large pupils that I felt the first inkling of fear.
They attacked at the same time. I pulled out the mace and took aim. My heart pounded fiercely inside my chest when I heard the man let out a painful scream, backing away from me and clutching his face.
I turned around for Joey at the same time she turned toward me, and in her haste, she knocked the mace out of my hand. The plastic bottle clattered on the cement to my right, before rolling all the way to the Jared’s feet. He looked down at the bottle before looking back at us.
“Oops,” he said with a smirk.
“There’s two of us and only one of you,” I pointed out in a shaky voice. He didn’t seem concerned. His partner was still crouched down, whimpering in pain. If we gave him enough time, he would recover and come back pissed off.
It wasn’t good. I grabbed Joey’s hand once more and ran for the entrance of the alley. It wasn’t until Joey was yanked back and away from me that I realized my mistake. We should have fought, not run. He was faster than us.
I turned around in time to see him knock her to the ground, her head hitting a plastic container of
some sort nearby.
She was knocked out cold.
“Joey!” I tried running to her, but my arms were captured and held behind my back. I didn’t need to turn around to know who had grabbed me. His stench gave him away.
“Not so fast, little girl. You’re going to pay for that.” I struggled out of his grasp, but it was of no use. My struggles increased tenfold when the other man walked over to Joey’s unconscious body.
“Wait! Please. Leave her alone. Please, just leave her alone. Take me. Take me!”
Jared paused in his steps, clearly amused. Tears stung my eyes, and I wanted to throw up at the look in his eyes. “Since you begged so nicely, I will. After I finish with her. Don’t worry. I promise to make it good for you. You can watch while I have my fun with your little friend.”
I shook my head, but nothing came out. I had never felt so fucking helpless. “Please,” I begged. My voice came out in a whisper. I wasn’t sure if the man had heard me. The one holding me sure did though, and he shook with laughter.
I tried to move away when one of his hands made its way to my breast. He took it in his palm and squeezed. I fought off the bile making its way up my throat. “Since you begged so prettily, why don’t I enjoy you myself, while Jared enjoys your friend? Then we can switch.” Jared laughed.
Suddenly, a loud clattering noise came from behind us. Jared paused in his step and looked over to the entrance of the alley, his eyes narrowing. The man holding me turned as well, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off of Joey. Was it possible there were more of them?
The thought sickened me, and tears flowed steadily down my cheeks.
“Get out of here,” the man holding me said, though he didn’t sound so sure anymore.
He sounded... frightened?
Slowly I turned my head. Two more men approached, though from the distance, I couldn’t tell what they looked like. The only thing I was sure of? They were bigger than these men in the alley.
“Were we interrupting something?” one of the man asked. I tensed. I would have recognized that voice anywhere. It was the man who had prevented my fall at the bar. That meant the other man was his friend.
I wasn’t sure why hope rose in my chest, since these two men were no more than strangers to me either. But they didn’t look like rapists. Perhaps they were here to save us after all.
“Yes,” Jared answered. “So leave.” He didn’t sound concerned, though he might just be better at hiding his emotions than his partner. Because the closer the other two men got, the bigger they appeared.
The man holding me pushed me in front of him. Even in my fear-ridden mind, I knew he was using me as shield. I should have expected that, only the thought that I would protect him was almost comical.
Now that the two men had gotten closer, I was able to make out their faces. They each looked at me, though one of them let his gaze linger on me longer than the other. It was the man with the pretty gray eyes who had sent my heart into overdrive at the bar. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Was he on my side?
I needed him to be on my side.
But his face remained impassive, losing his cool only briefly when the man holding me tightened his grasp around my wrist, making me cringe in pain. I didn’t dare make any sound. “You have five seconds to let her go. I won’t ask again.”
“Hey, man, we don’t want any trouble,” the man holding me responded.
“One.”
His hold on me loosened, his body shaking with tremors.
“Four.”
“Okay, okay.” He let me go.
I wanted to run to my saviors, but Joey was still back there. The gray-eyed man must have read the look on my face, because he nodded in the direction behind me. “Go to your friend.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I ignored the noise and the shouts. I even ignored the sound of flesh meeting flesh, because violence scared me and I didn’t want to witness it any more than I already had tonight, even if Jared and his partner deserved everything that was being done to them.
A scream from one of the men pierced my ears just as I reached Joey. I checked her head for injuries, but aside from the bump on the upper left side of her forehead, she seemed okay.
“Joey,” I said, holding her shoulders up. “Please wake up. We have to go. Okay? I need you to wake up because I can’t carry you.”
Tears stung my eyes. What if her injuries were far more serious than I thought? “Joey, I need you to wake up and tell me you’re okay. Please.”
I didn’t want to shake her, afraid that might do more damage, but then she groaned, and I cried out in relief. “Thank God. Joey, open your eyes. Just look at me.”
Her eyes fluttered before opening, her brown eyes a little dull and disoriented. She looked up at me and frowned. It took a while before her expression cleared, but I could see in her eyes the moment everything registered.
“Emery, oh my God, are you okay? Did they hurt you? What happened?”
I pulled her up and held her against me. “I’m okay. We’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Chapter Four: You Know Me
Emery
It wasn’t long until the cops showed up. The men were arrested and escorted into the back of the police cruiser. They looked at us as they passed, and I held Joey tighter. The policewoman who took our statement smiled reassuringly at us.
“That’s all I need from both of you. Why don’t you go home and rest?” She looked at Joey. “And maybe you shouldn’t be alone tonight. You could have a concussion.”
I nodded. I didn’t plan on leaving Joey home alone tonight anyhow. “I’ll be with her.” The policewoman smiled and walked back to her cruiser.
“You know I can call Preston to come pick us up,” I said quietly.
Joey shook her head. “The man’s used to driving your aunt around during the day. He’s probably in bed already.”
I shrugged. The alternative was waiting around the bar for yet another ride to come and pick us up. It wasn’t too late when we left the bar the first time, but that was hours ago. A quick glance at my phone told me it was a little past three in the morning.
“It’ll be okay,” Joey said convincingly. “There’s no way what happened to us would happen a second time in one night.” She shoulder-bumped me, and I laughed. We would have to have the worst luck in the world for it to happen a second time. “Besides, if you call Preston, he’ll tell your aunt. I love your aunt, but let me tell you now, if she somehow finds out about this, I won’t be there when you explain to her the mess we were in.”
I grimaced. She had a point. “Okay. I’ll call for a taxi.”
We stayed in the parking lot and watched as the police car drove off. It wasn’t until the last car took off that I realized we weren’t alone. The two men who had saved us were still there. They stood by their car, talking in hushed whispers.
Whatever they were talking about sounded serious. I tapped Joey’s shoulder to get her attention and shot a pointed stare at them.
“I wonder what they’re still doing here,” she muttered.
I shrugged. I thought they had left when the police arrested the men. “I guess we’re about to find out,” I said, seeing that they were heading our way.
I tried to keep my expression neutral. I didn’t want her to know about my attraction to one of them. Especially since I had never shown any attraction to anyone, except maybe for celebrities, though those crushes were superficial at best.
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Guess I hadn’t done that good of a job hiding my feelings.
“What?” she asked quietly.
I shook my head. “Later,” I mouthed to her.
We turned toward the men. Walking side by side, I could see that they were about the same height, though my gray-eyed stranger was a little more on the leaner side. Considering his friend was built like a quarterback, that wasn’t saying much. He was still large, his form as formidable up close as it was from a distance.
We loo
ked up.
I wasn’t tall. I was average build, and Joey wasn’t any taller than I. The men had at least a foot on us. It was hard not to feel intimidated when they were so close. Joey stepped forward and pushed me slightly behind her. I wondered how she thought she would protect me from these men.
The action didn’t go unnoticed by them. A hint of amusement and something else flashed in the eyes of the brunette man as he took in her figure.
“We just came over to see if you girls needed a ride home.”
Joey spoke before I could. “Thanks, but we got it covered. Our ride should be here shortly. Thanks again, both of you, for stepping in when you did.”
“Of course. Those bastards deserve to rot in jail.”
Joey shrugged. “I’m not so sure they’ll be in for that long. But whatever.”
He nodded, his eyes briefly making their way to mine before he turned back to Joey. I snuck a glance at the gray-eyed man, and the air left my lungs. He was staring intently at me, almost like he couldn’t figure me out.
Our eyes held for a moment, and the world ceased to exist. Joey and the other man were no longer at the forefront of my thoughts. What was at the fore were the increased temperature in my body, despite the cold, the racing of my heart, and my inability to breathe properly.
My reaction to the man at first sight wasn’t a fluke. That reaction was still evoked from just a simple glance.
And his eyes? Wow.
Who had given him those eyes? His mom or his dad? The effect they had on me was devastating.
“Emery? Are you okay?” The world shifted in focus once again, and I looked at Joey, meeting her concerned brown eyes. She’d obviously been trying to get my attention for a while.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?”
Her eyebrows pinched together in a small frown. “Cole was trying to get your attention,” she responded softly.
“Cole?”
The brunette man stifled a laugh. I got the feeling that might be his name. Joey confirmed it when she pointed in his direction. “Cole.”