She really hated hurting Susan and Jordon the way she had been doing lately. It killed her to hear her sister crying because of her, but Beth rationalized the new situation by thinking she wouldn’t hurt them again because they wouldn’t find out. Beth told Becky she would meet them in front of the house at midnight and she would.
Friday night about 10 p.m. Beth told everyone goodnight. She said she was tired and she’d see them in the morning.
After Beth shut her door, she took a hot shower and climbed in bed. She lay there, not making a sound, while she anxiously waited for everyone else to go to sleep. When she didn’t hear anyone moving about in the house, she got up and began dressing. She slipped on a pair of jogging pants, button-up cotton shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes.
Her conscience was bothering her some about sneaking out. She hoped Susan and Jordon would never find out because she knew it would break their hearts. She also had an eerie feeling that something was going to go wrong—like a flat tire or something that would keep her from getting back home before someone noticed her missing.
“Oh well,” she thought. If she didn’t get those distressing images out of her mind, she might as well climb back in bed because she wasn’t going to have any fun anyway. About a quarter to midnight, Beth slipped out of her room carrying her shoes. She would wait to put them on in the car.
After the air conditioner kicked on, giving her the steady blowing noise she needed, she opened the front door and eased it shut. She tiptoed down the steps of the front porch. When she was free and clear she took off running across the damp lawn to where she had told Becky to tell Julie to park. The night air had a heavy musty smell to it. Beth barely saw the car because there was no moon out and it was dark as pitch. The crickets sounded so loud in her ears she thought their shrill chirping would wake up everyone in the house if they didn’t hush. Beth had told Becky to make sure no lights came on when she opened the door just in case Jordon decided to look out the window for something.
When she made it to the car, she opened the door, hopped in, and the car took off.
“Whew, that was scary!” Beth exclaimed.
“I bet it was,” Randy replied.
“Randy! What are you doing driving Julie’s car?” Then Beth immediately looked in the back seat and, to her horror, found no one.
“Randy, what is going on? Where is everyone else? I want you to take me back home. I do not appreciate this one bit. This is not how Becky told me I would be picked up.”
“Hold on a minute, Beth, don’t get all worked up over nothing. Allen, Travis, and I were in Allen’s truck pulling the dirt bikes when we met up with Julie and Becky. We had just come from taking the travel trailer out to the campsite so nothing was set up yet because we got such a late start. Julie and Becky offered to go ahead and go with them to start setting things up so I volunteered to come pick you up. We’re going straight there and it’s only about 10 miles away.
Just relax.”
Beth sat there a minute and thought about everything he just said. His logic made sense but she still had a feeling she was being controlled. It was the same way at the New Year’s Eve party when she was left in the dark about what was really going to happen. It seemed too coincidental to her. It looked as if they were all trying to push Randy on her. She didn’t know what their motives were, but she had about all she was going to take. She was not a complete idiot.
“Okay, Randy, I’ll go but I do not like being manipulated. If I had known it was only going to be the two of us in the car, I would have stayed home. This is not appropriate. I’ve only met you once; and, if you even remember, it wasn’t that great of a meeting. You were drunk and passed out. No, I do not like this one bit.”
“Come on, Beth, this wasn’t done intentionally. I just thought I would be helping everyone out by offering to come get you. You make it sound as if we all conspired to get you alone with me. Just chill out, we’ll be with everyone in a few minutes and then you’ll feel much better.”
“All right, Randy, maybe I am making too much of this. I’m a nervous wreck. I’ve never done anything quite this daring before.”
Nevertheless, Beth still had a nagging feeling that Becky, Julie, Allen and Randy did indeed set this up. If they wanted or thought she was going to be promiscuous, they had another thought coming. She was going to make love to one man and one man only. She had told Becky this before. It was as if they did not hear or believe a word she said when she told them how much she loved Jesse. They would say, “Well, he’s sleeping with other girls so you might as well find a lover, too.”
It hurt terribly when she thought about Jesse being with someone else. And Beth had to admit she could see the reasoning in their thinking; but, even though she knew what they said about Jesse were true, she still would not even think about being sexually involved with someone else. She believed with her whole heart that, when she became an adult, she would marry Jesse and he would never be with another woman.
She decided to make it through this night, but she was never going to be set up again. That old saying came to her, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” at this moment, she felt it adequately applied to her. She had no one to blame but herself.
Beth felt a little relieved when they got to the hunting lease. She could see the campfire burning and two motorcycle lights traveling over some small hills about a half mile away.
As soon as they pulled off the gravel road and onto the rutted path, Randy turned off Julie’s car and turned off the headlights.
“Why did you turn off the car?” Beth asked with a little fear in her voice.
“Because I don’t believe the car can make it any closer. It’s real muddy and rutted from here to where they are. Besides, I wanted a chance to talk to you before we meet up with the others.”
“Randy, you can talk to me after we meet up with the others; besides, I didn’t eat much dinner knowing we would probably roast hot dogs tonight.” Beth was hoping that if Randy thought she was hungry, he would start moving. It didn’t help in the least.
“Wait a minute; I want you to hear a new tape I just bought. You aren’t going to starve in the next few minutes,” Randy said as he turned on the radio, and put in an Eagles tape. “Do you like the Eagles, Beth?” Randy asked as he slid out from under the wheel and scooted right up beside her. He put his arm around her shoulder much like he did the first night she met him but, unlike that night, he wasn’t drunk tonight. Oh, she could smell alcohol on him but he was in full control of his faculties. As his arm went across her shoulder and down the other side of her arm, his hand lightly brushed over her breast.
“Randy, you can stay and listen to your music, but I’m walking up to the camp,” Beth said in a steady voice, but her heart was racing so hard and fast she could actually hear her own pulse beating. As she tried to get out, Randy stopped her by adding pressure to her arm and pulling her closer.
“No, baby, I want you to stay and keep me company a little while,” he said as he became bolder in caressing her breast. His other hand came around to unbutton her shirt.
“Stop it, Randy!” Beth shouted as she tried to push his hand away.
“I don’t think so, Beth, I’ve wanted you for some time and I plan on having you tonight. I’ve been told you’re still a virgin; and, you see, I haven’t had a virgin yet. You will have the privilege of being my first. Now, doesn’t that sound pleasurable? It most surely does to me,” Randy said as his breathing became quicker.
Beth was doing her best to pull his hands away from her but they seemed to be everywhere at the same time. She was crying now and begging him to stop but to no avail. It seemed as if her begging made him more excited. He finally got tired of messing with the buttons of her shirt and just ripped it open, scratching her chest in the process. Her bra clasped in the front, and when he ripped her shirt, her bra broke also. She was now bare to his rough handling. As one hand grasped painfully on her full breast, the other hand was trying to pu
sh inside her pants.
Beth was panicking now; but, instead of trying to push his hand away, she let go and reached for the handle of the door. When she found the latch, she pushed against the door open with all her might. Then she threw her weight to the opening. She tried to twist her body so she could push off with her feet; but, with Randy’s arm around her shoulder, it was just about impossible.
She screamed as loud as she could for someone to help her.
As she was turning her body to push away, she was getting herself in a worse position.
Randy, taking advantage of the situation, pushed her onto her back. Her head and shoulders were hanging out the door and her shirt was wide open. Her breasts were bared open to his bestial passion.
Randy put an arm around her waist and pushed them both out and on to the rutted ground.
Beth felt her ribs and the side of her face hit hard against rock-hard clumps of dirt when she landed.
Randy landed on top of her, knocking the wind from her lungs, and immediately he began to pin her down using his weight as an advantage. He was trying to tug her pants down, but he was having trouble because the string that tied her jogging pants had knotted. He kept jerking at the string; Beth felt the hard tugs against her back and sides. Randy’s mouth was all over her face, mouth, and neck. He was trying to force his tongue inbetween her clinched teeth. When he dipped his head down toward her breast, Beth went berserk. She removed her hands from trying to keep his from pushing her pants down and went for his eyes.
“Alright, you little tease, I didn’t want to get rough with you; but, if that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get.”
He grabbed both of her hands in one of his in a bruising grip and jerked them above her head.
He put his face down to her bared breast and bit her hard on the tender flesh. His other hand slid to her flat stomach and slithered under the tightly knotted string until he reached her most private area.
Beth screamed when he bit her and when he touched her vagina she let out a deep gut wrenching cry. Her flesh burned at the site of the bite. She knew it was useless; no one was going to hear her screams over the loud rumbling dirt bikes, but she was not going to give in.
She was determined to fight with everything she had in her. She unintentionally held her breath, as she strained and fought against him, making her light headed. She let it go and gasped for air, but his solid weight on top of her made it almost impossible to drag in a deep breath.
At one point, she felt him shift off her legs as he tried to get a better grip in order to jerk her pants off. When his heavy leg lifted off of hers, she quickly bent her knee and rammed it as hard as she could into his groin. She heard him yell a curse as he balledup and rolled over, moaning.
She didn’t waste anytime, knowing he wouldn’t be incapacitated for long. She rolled over, got up, and began to run, but the way she rolled over made her head in the wrong direction. She would have to turn around and go the other way in order to be going toward Becky and Julie. So she just ran as fast as she could. She could hear his ragged breathing and the brush crunching under his heavy boots as each running step brought him closer and closer to her.
“Come back here you little prick teaser! I’ve got something for you!” Randy shouted.
“Oh, please, God, help me!” she screamed.
She couldn’t see anything in front of her. The night was airless, muggy, and pitch black. She was soaked with her own sweat and the mosquitoes swarmed to her damp flesh, biting viciously, but she didn’t even think about brushing them off, “Run! Run! Run faster!” her mind screamed.
Her left side and lungs were burning like fire, but she didn’t slow down. “Faster, he’s coming!
Oh God, he’s fixin’ to get me!” Her aching body was trying to do what her terrified mind screamed for her to do. She lost her footing several times in the deep ruts and stumbled but she didn’t fall. She could hear him getting closer and closer and knew any second he was going to reach out his brutal fingers, grab her from behind, sling her to the hard rutted ground, and finish what he started.
Then she felt as if she ran in to a tree it was so solid. She tried to push away and keep running but hardened arms came around her. For a split second she thought she had mistaken Randy’s location, but she could still hear him calling her name and knew he was almost on top of her. Beth screamed and jerked against what held her, trying to untangle herself so she could run.
She had to get away. “Oh God, he’s almost here!”
“Beth!, Stay here, and don’t move!” Jesse demanded.
Jesse’s low solid voice penetrated deep and sudden into Beth’s fragile sanity. “Oh, God!
Jesse!” Still not thinking clearly, Beth tried to drag Jesse along with her out of harm’s way.
“Let’s go, hurry!”
“Get out of the way, Beth,” Jesse hissed, a second before he firmly pushed her to the side and met a running Randy with a bone crunching punch. Beth heard Randy cry out in an agonizing howl.
Jesse was relentless with his kicks and punches. She could vaguely see when a cloud moved away from the moon, but she knew Jesse had broken Randy’s arm because it hung at an abnormal angle and it looked as if Jesse was just warming up. He kicked Randy in the ribs and Beth had no doubt that a couple of them had been broken also. She was too dazed to wonder how Jesse ended up out here in the middle of nowhere.
Beth, knowing she had to do something, snapped out of her shocked state. “Jesse! Stop!
You’re killing him!” Beth screamed.
She hated Randy and felt he deserved to be punished, but she didn’t want him dead. More than anything, she didn’t want Jesse to get charged with his murder.
The brief moment she had been in Jesse’s arms, she sensed the rage built up in him. She had seen Jesse mad before but she had never seen him this consumed. She knew he was going to kill Randy if she did not find a way to stop him.
Jesse stopped his pummeling and looked at Beth. “Beth, walk straight about a hundred yards.
You’ll find my truck. Get in and don’t get back out.”
“No, Jesse, I’m not leaving without you. If you kill him, you’ll go to prison. He is not worth it. Please, let’s go.”
“Beth, get your ass in that truck now!” Jesse yelled.
Beth tried again and used the only thing she thought would get him away. “Jesse, I’m hurt bad. Please, you’ve got to help me.”
To Beth’s relief, her words seemed to affect him as she hoped.
“Okay, baby,” Jesse, sighed and relaxed his stance. “Go ahead toward the truck and I’ll be right behind you,” Jesse said quietly. Beth turned and started walking in the direction of the truck.
When Beth was out of earshot, Jesse said to the semi-conscious man. “Boy, tonight you made a very deadly mistake. That was not some whore you were trying to rape. That was someone who belongs to me. I could have easily ended your life tonight so you take this as your lucky warning because, if you so much as look at her again, I will kill you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yessir,” Randy said before he went unconscious.
Beth was waiting in the truck when Jesse clambered in. She knew he wasn’t hurt because, from the very first punch, Randy was a goner. There was no way he could have matched Jesse’s skill in fighting. Jesse, who had always enjoyed the sport of martial arts, was a third dan black belt and he constantly practiced to keep in shape. As far as she knew about Randy, he didn’t play sports of any kind. He was just a punk who partied and drank a lot.
Beth could feel that Jesse’s slow entrance into the truck was because he was in the same emotional turmoil that she was. She wasn’t sure how much he had witnessed, probably not a lot, but she was sure he knew the accuracy of the situation. She could not even describe the emotional state she was in—shock, fear, anger, and disbelief that it had happened to her.
She knew she was at the very point of being raped. If it had not been for Jesse’s miraculous appearance
, there was no doubt in her mind that she would have been brutally abused.
“Jess,” Beth said quietly.
“Just give me a minute, Beth,” Jesse said as he grasped the steering wheel, inhaled, and exhaled long and slow. “How bad are you hurt, Beth?”
Beth could not hold back any longer; she burst out crying hysterically. “I don’t really know.
N-not too bad, I guess. Nothings br-broken and I’m not cut anywhere. Oh God, Jesse, I was so scared. I tried to fight him but he was so st-strong and he wouldn’t let me go. He ripped off my clothes and b-bit me. H-he…”
“Why in the hell were you out here with that man, Beth? Can you tell what possessed you to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and leave with a man? Is that the same guy Cody was talking about, the one who had his hands all over you at the Simm’s party? Are you so immature that you didn’t know what he was going to expect from you? Surely you can’t be that naïve, Elizabeth!”
“Jesse, I didn’t know he was the one who was coming to get me. It was supposed to have been Julie and Becky. The car was already going down the road when I found out it was Randy driving and not Julie. Then I looked in the back seat and found it was only the two of us in the car. I had no idea he was even going to be here. I told him to take me back home but he told me not to get all worked up over nothing. He gave me the perfect excuse why he came to pick me up. He said he was going to take me straight to campsite, and I believed him. It wasn’t until we were a quarter a mile away from everyone that he started coming on to me. I could see my friends and their boyfriends in the distance and screamed for them to help me, but they couldn’t hear me because they were riding the dirt bikes.”
“Beth, do you have any idea how terrified I was when I turned off the truck, got out, and heard you screaming. I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know where you were or what was happening to you…” Jesse tiredly rubbed his hand down his face. “Beth…come over here,” Jesse said more tenderly and held out his arms.
Beth slid over to his side of the truck and he put his arm around her, pulled her close to him, and cranked up the truck.
Unbroken Promises Page 7