She put on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved knit top, shoes and socks, and went downstairs. She didn’t feel up to making the bed. Maybe she would ask Lena to make it for her this once.
Lena had found her meds by that time, so she took a pain pill with a glass of water. She realized that she was actually hungry, so she asked her mama to cook her some oats. After eating her oats, a piece of toast with peanut butter, and a bowl of applesauce, she did feel a whole lot better. The fact that the pain pill was taking the edge off of her pain helped considerably.
Victoria didn’t do much that morning except kinda lay around in the family room. She picked up a book she was reading, but with her eye still quite swollen, it was too difficult to read. So she turned on the TV and found a movie to watch. Lena brought her a cup of herbal tea to sip on while she rested.
“Mama, I hate to ask this, but would you please go up and make our bed? I just didn’t feel like doing it this morning, but I don’t like to leave it unmade.”
“Of course, honey,” Lena responded warmly. “I’ll be glad to make it for you. If you don’t need anything more down here, I’ll just run up there right now and do it.”
“Thanks, Mama, I sure appreciate it. Hopefully, I’ll feel better tomorrow.”
Lena went upstairs and made the bed. Then she went into the bathroom and tidied it up, too. It wasn’t much of a mess, but she straightened the towels and wiped down the sink and countertop. The rest of the master suite looked fine, so she went back downstairs.
“I think I’ll make a nice pot of vegetable stew for lunch,” she told Victoria. “Does that sound all right to you?”
“Sounds wonderful,” Victoria said. “Maybe some cornbread, too?”
“Sure. Cornbread, too,” Lena promised.
Rafael came back to the house about noon. He sniffed the air appreciatively when he walked into the family room. The aroma of simmering stew and baking cornbread filled the room, making him realize that he was ravenous. He had slept so late that he hadn’t had time to eat breakfast, so he was really hungry now.
“How’re you doing, honey?” he asked, walking over to where Victoria lounged on the sofa.
“Not too bad,” she said. “I just feel totally wiped out. Could be the pills I’ve been taking, but everything hurts when the pain pills wear off, so then I take another. I think they make me woozy.”
“Could be,” Rafael said. “You want to try Tylenol, or something like that instead?”
“Yeah, maybe. Next time I need one, I’ll just take a couple of Tylenol. See if they work.”
Rafael leaned over to kiss her gently on the forehead. He was almost afraid to touch her because of all the bruises everywhere. He didn’t want to hurt her, but when he leaned over her, she pulled him to her to kiss him on the lips. Carefully. Her cut lip was still sore, but she needed a kiss anyway. It was a brief one, but one they both needed.
“Are you hungry? Lena’s got lunch about ready, I think. At least it smells ready,” Victoria said.
“I am starving,” Rafael said emphatically. “I slept too late to eat breakfast before my appointment with Jack Trueblood this morning.”
“Poor baby! You must be starved,” Victoria said sympathetically. “Let’s go eat. I’m kinda hungry, too.”
“By the way, Jack sends his sympathies and hopes you feel better soon.”
“That’s thoughtful of him. Tell him thank you when you see him next.”
The two went into the kitchen to find Lena taking the pan of cornbread out of the oven. It looked and smelled so good, that Victoria thought it even made her feel a little better. Soon the three of them were sitting down to steaming bowls of vegetable stew and generous hunks of cornbread slathered in butter and dripping with golden honey.
“That really hit the spot,” Rafael said, wiping his mouth with a napkin after he had cleaned up seconds. “Thank you, Lena. This was delicious.”
“Yes, it is, Mama,” Victoria added.
“You’re welcome,” Lena said beaming. “I love to see people enjoy my cooking.”
“You’ll love us, then,” Rafael said as he grinned across the table at Lena. “I, for one, enjoy your cooking.”
“Me, too,” Victoria chimed in. “I think eating has made me feel a little better.”
She got up from the table and started to pick up her dishes to carry them to the dishwasher.
“You just let me do that today,” Lena commanded, reaching for the dishes in Victoria’s hands.
“I can carry my own dishes to the dishwasher,” Victoria protested. “I’m not broken, just badly bent.”
Rafael chuckled at that remark.
“Now I know you’re going to be all right,” he said, putting one arm gently around her shoulders.
“Of course, I will,” Victoria stated matter-of-factly. “I’m too stubborn to let a couple of thugs get the best of me. Now, will you please take me for a walk outdoors, honey? Or do you have something else you need to do now?”
“Sure, I’ll go for a walk with you,” Rafael said.
“I’m kinda scared to go outside by myself,” Victoria confessed. “I know it’s silly. Those guys are in jail for one thing, and for another, they probably don’t know where we live. Especially since we just moved recently. But I would just feel better if you’re with me. I don’t want to go far, but I just need some fresh air.”
“You’re not being silly,” Rafael told her. “You’ve just been through a very traumatic experience. You’re bound to have fears. Rational or not, they’re very real. We’ll get past them together.”
They both took light jackets out of the coat closet near the front door and put them on before going outside. They walked maybe a quarter of a mile around their property before Victoria tired and wanted to go back inside. While she rested, Rafael tended to some business on the computer that had to do with Thornton Enterprise.
He had two main things he wanted to accomplish that afternoon. One was to advertise that there was an empty unit in the strip mall in Long Beach that would soon be vacated. The adult bookstore manager was in jail. As it was a franchise, the parent company had been notified to come pack up their inventory and get it out of the building.
The other thing was to work on legally changing the name of Thornton Enterprise to Thornton-Rivera Enterprises, Inc. He and Victoria had discussed names at length, and finally settled on this one. They both felt that the Thornton name had such long-standing distinction that they should keep it. But they both wanted to add Rivera to the name, too. So those to projects were his mission for that afternoon.
While he was working, Victoria called a couple of beauty salons to inquire about having a hairdresser come out to their house to do her hair. She was very self-conscious of the way she looked, and so hoped to find someone who would come to her to try to do something with the mess the kidnappers had made of her hair.
On the third try, she found a pleasant-sounding woman who said she would be glad to make a house call. She was free that afternoon at three-thirty, so she would see Victoria then. After giving directions to her house, Victoria hung up to wait for the woman to come.
Shelly Cobb rang the doorbell of the Rivera home at precisely three-thirty. Lena answered the door and let Shelly in. After introductions, Lena took her into the family room where Victoria was reclining on the sofa. She got up when the other two women entered the room.
Shelly tried not to gasp when she saw Victoria, but it was hard to keep from it.
“Pretty bad, isn’t it?” Victoria said with a wry smile. “I’m Victoria, and you must be Shelly.”
“I’m pleased to meet you, Victoria,” Shelly said, crossing the room to shake hand with Victoria. “I’m sorry, I don’t usually react like that to a stranger. What happened to you, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“I was kidnapped, beaten, and raped on Monday. Plus they chopped my hair off every time I gave them an answer they didn’t like. I know I look hideous, so don’t feel bad. I know—Mama show Sh
elly a picture of me, so she knows what I really look like. I don’t want her to have only this impression of me.”
“Good idea,” Lena replied and hustled off to take a recent portrait of the couple off of the upstairs wall where it hung. She returned with it in just a minute and handed it to Shelly to look at.
“Oh, my!” Shelly exclaimed. “You are beautiful! Those guys really did a number on your hair, didn’t they? And your face. Well, let’s see what I can do with your hair. Where do you want me to work?”
She handed the photograph back to Lena.
“I think the kitchen is as good a place as any. There’s plenty of room in there. I have a stepstool I can sit on. And the sink is handy if you need it.”
The three women went into the kitchen to set up for the haircut. Lena made a place on the counter where Shelly could set her travel kit while Victoria retrieved the stepstool from its resting place and set it in the middle of the floor. She sat down on the stool and Shelly placed a cape around her.
Twenty minutes went by while Shelly snipped here and snipped there, shaping, repairing, and doing her best to make some semblance of order out of the chop job that had been done on Victoria. Finally she declared that she had done all she could do, and they would just have to wait until her hair grew out.
Victoria looked in the mirror. It wasn’t great, but it looked a whole lot better than it had before Shelly started, and she told her so.
“Thanks so much, Shelly,” Victoria said. “It certainly looks better than it did.”
“Well, I didn’t have much to work with, but I did the best I could,” Shelly answered. “Lena, do you want anything done while I’m here?”
Reflexively, Lena ran her hand through her hair.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little trim,” she said. “It has been a while. So since you’re here, I might as well.”
Lena sat down on the stool that Victoria had just vacated. Under Shelly’s skillful hands, Lena’s hair was trimmed and shaped in just a few minutes. Looking in the mirror, she was pleased with the results.
“That does look nice, doesn’t it?” she remarked. “Thank you for suggesting it.”
Before Shelly came, Victoria had put some money in her jeans pocket so she would be ready to pay her without having to go dig in her purse. So when Shelly was through with them both, Victoria reached into her pocket and took out one hundred dollar bill and handed it to Shelly.
“I hope this will cover your services today,” Victoria said. “I so appreciate you coming to me.”
“Oh, this is more than enough,” Shelly said. “I can certainly understand why you didn’t want to go out to my shop. I wouldn’t want to go out either, in your condition. Let me get you some change, though, because this is too much.”
“No, it’s not,” Victoria insisted. “You keep all of it. It’s worth it to me to have home service. If you have a card, I’ll keep it on hand and the next time I need a haircut, I’ll come to your shop. We moved to this area recently, so I hadn’t found a salon close by yet.”
Shelly pulled a business card from her purse and handed it to Victoria.
“I’ll be glad to have you as a customer,” Shelly said. “Both of you. I’m sure your hair will need more shaping as it begins to grow out, so just call me anytime you need an appointment.”
“Thank you so much,” Victoria said, and Lena echoed her thanks.
They all walked to the front door together and bade each other goodbye. After Shelly was gone, Victoria went to look in a mirror again at her hair. It was no more than an inch long in the longest spots, and even shorter in some places. She had never had her hair this short before, and she thought it was awful. Those evil men had hacked it up so badly that this was the best that could be made of it.
“I sure hope my hair grows fast,” she remarked to Lena. “I hate it this short.”
“I’m sure it will,” Lena said to reassure her. “It always grew fast when you were little.”
“At least it isn’t choppy now,” Victoria conceded. “Shelly did a good job with what she had to work with. Yours looks nice.”
“Yeah, I think she did a good job on mine. She did good on yours, too. It looks better than I thought it could.”
Rafael had been so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t come out of the office while the hairdresser was there. He had heard the voices and knew what was going on, but had stayed at his tasks. But he had finally finished the projects he had been working on, and his stomach was telling him that it was getting close to suppertime. So he went out to the kitchen to see what was going on.
“Well, this is as good as it gets for now,” Victoria said in greeting as he entered the kitchen. “The hairdresser did the best she could.”
“Doesn’t look too bad,” Rafael said. “It’s better than it was. And it will grow out again. I’m just thankful that you’re here and alive.”
He put his arms around his wife and drew her close, being mindful of her bruises.
“I’m hungry,” he said. “What’s a man gotta do around here to get fed?”
“Kiss the cook,” Victoria said with a giggle.
“I would if I knew who was cooking today,” he said, trying to look serious.
“Both of us,” Victoria said with a mischievous grin.
Rafael proceeded to drop kisses on both Victoria’s bruised cheek and on Lena’s smooth one.
“There now, my part is done,” he said. “Where’s my supper?”
“Just keep your pants on, young man,” Lena said firmly. “You’ll get your supper in due time. Now, take your wife and get out of my way so I can get some supper.”
“Well! If that’s the way you feel about it,” Rafael said with mock huffiness. “We’ll just go and let you do all the work.”
Lena swatted at him as he walked past her, Victoria in tow.
“Ow! Your mom hit me!” Rafael whined.
“Oh, buck up, you sissy!” Victoria retorted, grinning at him. “No sympathy. I don’t get no sympathy,” he fussed, deliberately using poor English for emphasis.
“You’re gonna need sympathy if you don’t get out of my way,” Lena warned, her eyes twinkling at him.
“All right, I’m going, I’m going,” he said, scooting out of her reach. “But I get extra dessert to make up for the abuse I’ve suffered.”
“Hah!” Lena snorted. “It’s bread and water for you tonight if you don’t behave.”
The three of them laughed at their own antics, and then Lena busied herself pulling things out of the fridge and the freezer to fix for supper. Victoria still didn’t feel like eating chewy foods, so Lena thought she’d make spaghetti. It was relatively soft and easy to chew. She would have peas, too, rather than salad, for the same reason.
Victoria stayed behind to help, while Rafael sat down at the kitchen table to watch. She chopped the onion and garlic while Lena got the water to boiling for the pasta. Within thirty minutes the food was on the table ready to eat.
By the time supper was over, Victoria’s pain pills were wearing off and she was not feeling so hot again, so she excused herself to go take a couple more pills. Rafael and Lena took their dessert into the family room to eat while they watched the evening news on TV. Victoria rejoined them in just a couple of minutes with her dessert, too.
It wasn’t long, though, before she wanted to go up to bed. She tired easily still. Lena went to her suite, and after Rafael locked up the house, he, too, went upstairs. After they were in bed, Victoria cuddled up to him, but that was all.
“I just need to feel safe,” she murmured. “Safe and loved.”
“You are both,” Rafael assured her. “Especially loved.”
He gently stroked her arm until she fell asleep, which only took a few minutes, thanks to a sleeping pill. As he lay there thinking after she went to sleep, he wondered if this attack would trigger a whole new bout of nightmares. The sleeping pills may keep her sound enough asleep as to prevent the nightmares. But what abo
ut when she quit taking them? Well, he would just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, he wouldn’t say anything to her. The power of suggestion is strong, so he didn’t want to even bring up the subject.
Thanks to the kind attentions of her husband and mama, Victoria got better within just a few days. The bruising would take a little longer to fade, but the swelling had subsided, and the cut on her lip was healed.
When Lena’s dad came home from the hospital, she went to her folks’ house and stayed for two weeks helping her mom take care of him. He made slow progress, but he did regain his mobility in time. Lena tried to encourage them to take Rafael up on his offer to let them live in the other house on the property.
Where they had been resistant to the idea before, they were now taking it under serious consideration. They saw the need to be closer to their daughter so she could care for them as they aged. And now that it was all out in the open that Victoria was their granddaughter, they felt as if they had some catching up to do.
Chapter Eight
January finally gave way to February, and the crocus began to poke their heads through the soil, and the almond groves bloomed their lovely pink blossoms. The bruises on Victoria’s face faded with time and her hair was slowly growing back. She didn’t bother to buy a wig, as she had earlier threatened to. The wounds to her soul were healing, too. Somewhat.
She still wasn’t able to bring herself to be intimate with Rafael. They cuddled and kissed, but when his hands would begin to move downward, she would freeze up. It was frustrating to her, and very frustrating to him. But he was determined to be patient and let her take things at her own pace.
They had to go to court a few times to give testimony, both for the human trafficking charges leveled again the smuggling ring, and for the kidnapping and rape charges against the men she had heretofore only known as Gus, Butch, and Lenny. Augustus Klein, Robert Norris, and Leonard Whisnant, properly.
The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series Page 49