Lather

by Nicki Rae

  “What the fuck, Emily? Do you want me to hurt you?”

  I don’t care if he takes his anger out on me physically, I just can’t handle the alternative. He strokes himself as he sits back on his knees and his eyes move the length of my body. I feel a cold chill run down my spine. He moves his hands to my shirt and starts to push it over my head. He bends down, and takes one of my breasts in his mouth, and clamps down.

  As I yelp from the pain, someone busts in the door. Both our heads whip to the side and I am in complete shock at who is standing there.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Justin screams with fire in his eyes.

  I am in complete shock, but thankful that someone is here to save me from this lunatic. I see the anger in my captor’s eyes as he was no doubt caught off guard and very much pissed about it.

  “Fuck off!” he says and begins to move over me once more.

  In the next moment, I hear gun shots ring out. I follow the sound to the person who has just fallen limp on top of me. Once reality sets in to what just happened. I scream. My eyes move back to Justin who is still standing there with the gun pointed in my direction.

  “Are you going to shoot me, too?” I say trying to remain calm so not to spook him. I don’t know if he is here to save me or kill me himself.

  “I would never hurt you, Emily.” He says eerily calm.

  He walks over to me, lifts the lifeless body from atop me, and slings him like a rag doll on the floor.

  “I’m so glad I was able to get here before he hurt you.”

  He reaches his hand up to my face and his finger moves over the cut just under my eye. When he brings his fingers back down, I see my blood running down his finger. He has a twinkle in his eye as he puts the finger in his mouth and sucks the blood from it. I am completely repulsed. He sees the look of disgust on my face and laughs.

  Without a word, he unhooks my hands from the head board.

  “Justin, you just killed him?” I say, still in shock.

  “Would you rather I let him continue what he was doing?”

  “I’m glad you were here to stop him but what are you doing here?” I say, not sure I want to hear the answer.

  He doesn’t say anything as he helps me back into my clothes.

  “Justin, what the fuck? Answer me!” I command.

  “It’s time you go back to sleep now, doll.”

  “No!” I scream and start to struggle. But he is just too much for me with my bound hands. He brings the cloth to my face and within minutes, I am out.

  Chapter 24

  *Logan*

  Once I figured out who had Emily, I knew I had to get to her as quick as I could. It is hard telling what the crazy bastard is planning to do to her. Or, what he has already done to her. I shake that thought out of my head. It took me all of just a few minutes to decide that I wasn’t calling Evans. I need to handle this guy on my own. He has had it out for me, since I met him, for some reason. I know he was trying to get with Emily, but she is and always has been mine.

  I got his address from some guy my brother knows. It took a lot of threatening for me to get him to talk. When he finally gave it up, I sped here. I finally pull into his apartment complex, an hour and fifteen minutes later. If I weren’t searching for my kidnapped girlfriend right now, I might be impressed. I reach over to my glove box and pull out my Smith and Wesson 9 mm. I give her a kiss for luck and get out of the car. I put the gun in the back of my pants not really wanting to use it unless necessary.

  As I am walking through the parking lot, I absent mindedly search for his car but really I am just looking around because I have no idea what he drives. I walk up to the building and walk in. I go up the two flights of stairs and to the back of the hallway. I find his door and start knocking casually. I don’t want to alarm them, if they are here by beating the damn thing down; that would be a dead giveaway.

  After a few minutes of knocking unsuccessfully, I decide the gun is needed. I look around to make sure there isn’t anyone around. I take the piece out and shoot the lock on the door. I walk in with the gun still in hand. I still hear nothing. I scan the living room before I move in any further. There are cigarette butts in an ash tray on one of the in tables, but no one in the room. You would never know that this is the house of a kidnapper; it is spotless.

  I continue looking around but find nothing that means anything to me, so I move toward the hall and continue my search. I come to the first door in the hall and kick it open, nothing.

  I move to the next door and repeat the process, nothing there either.

  The only other room left in the place is the bathroom. I walk in, turn the light on, and check behind the shower curtain.

  FUCK! I yell exasperated.

  With my back up against the wall, I slide down. I put my head in the one hand not holding the gun and drape my gun hand over my knee. What now? After a couple minutes, I get up and call Tyler. Maybe he knows somewhere else this guy might be holding her.

  “Hello?” Tyler picks up on the first ring.

  I am walking back to my car when I ask, “Look, man, I know Justin has Emily. I am at his house now but there is no sign of them. Any ideas where else he could have taken her?”

  “Justin?” he questions.

  “Yeah, I knew there was something going on with him.”

  “Are you sure, man? I mean I knew he was a dick to you but I never thought he would do something like this.”

  I don’t have time for this, “Do you know or not?” I growl at him.

  He pauses for a minute, thinking I assume. After a few minutes he says, “Jon’s parents have a house out on the lake where we go fishing. I don’t know if he would be dumb enough to try and break in but that’s the only place I can think.”

  Great and that’s two hours away. “Thanks, man. Give Mom a kiss for me.”

  I end the call and immediately head in the direction of the lake.

  Chapter 25

  *Emily*

  “We are here beautiful; wake up.” My eyes flutter open. I am lying on a couch. I look around the room; nothing looks familiar to me. This must be Justin’s family home.

  Hearing those words coming out of his mouth makes me want to vomit.

  “That is what Logan calls me, you are not allowed.” I just want to spit in his eye.

  “I will call you what I please, Emily. I am the one in control here.”

  I can’t see his face but I can hear the coldness in his voice. I know he is trying to scare me, and most any other time it probably would; however, I cannot let him get the best of me. I will never get out of this if I do.

  “What do you plan to do with me?” I ask him, not really sure I want to hear the answer.

  “I am showing your boyfriend that I own you, and he can do nothing about it. You have kicked me in the teeth for him one too many times, Emily. It is time he learns he doesn’t always get what he wants.”

  “I don’t understand why you are doing this, Justin; I thought we were friends?” He laughs in response.

  He pulls his gun from his pocket and I freeze.

  I gather my wits back from the ground and feel the need to keep quiet. I don’t know what I have done to him to make this happen but I don’t want to end up like the man back at the apartment.

  He sees the look on my face and moves toward the couch, gun still pointed at me.

  “You really have no idea who I am, do you?”

  Ok, now I am really confused.

  “Of course I know who you are, Justin. We go to the same school and work together.”

  He laughs and shakes his head. He looks me square in the eyes.

  “How many times, Emily? How many times did you drink until you had no idea where you were or what you were doing. I was always there with you. You cried to me, while your so-called best friend Shayla was trying to pick up any guy she could. We danced, we talked, and I thought when we met up again at Ball State, you would remember. But again, you were stuck up Moore’s ass. Ev
en before you and Logan, I knew you were special Emily.”

  I am in utter shock. I honestly do not remember Justin being at any of those parties. I kind of feel guilty for leading him on, even though I didn’t know I was leading him on. I close my eyes in exasperation; I really did get myself into a mess. Justin comes over to me and moves his fingers down my jaw line. I instinctively pull away and I can see that makes him mad.

  “Even before you and Logan or you and the liquor, you and Shay would come over and hang out with my cousin, Missy. I would always watch from a distance but I always told myself that we would be together and here we are.”

  Missy’s cousin? I had no idea. Could this possibly get any worse? I look over to Justin to give him an apologetic look. He smiles back and in that moment, I can see the sociopath that he really is.

  “B-but Justin, you said yourself that I was usually completely wasted when we were together, how could I possibly remember you?”

  I need to play this smart or I feel like he is going to snap.

  “I know that if I weren’t drunk when we were together that I would remember you beyond our time at the deli. I mean if you had at least mentioned it to me, maybe I would have…”

  He cuts me off, abruptly.

  “Are you saying this is my fault, Emily?”

  Shit! Not smart, Emily.

  I try to think of anything that will divert the situation. I look around the room trying to find anything that may help to change the subject when suddenly I have a though.

  “Where are we Justin?” I look him square in the eyes.

  “You will find out soon enough.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He smiles and I know he is going to tell me no more.

  “Who was the guy helping you?”

  “A good friend of your boyfriend.”

  “Why would a friend do this to Logan? I don’t understand.”

  “He is a college student with a drug problem; I didn’t even have to ask him twice.”

  I cannot believe this! It really is true what they say; you can’t trust anyone. Oh, how I wish Logan would get here, I’m not sure how much longer I can keep him talking and not trying to hurt me.

  I have no other ideas, so I just start screaming for help.

  Justin comes over and I feel his hand across my cheek in an instant.

  “I hate you! If you think this is going to get me to be with you, you are fucking crazy.”

  I spit at him but he just laughs.

  “So all of our conversations were fake? You planned to kidnap me the entire time? I don’t know how I didn’t know you were a crazy bastard!”

  He stands over me and gazes down into my eyes. Once again, he is eerily calm and places his hand on my shoulder; I flinch.

  “You don’t mean that do you, Emily?”

  All of a sudden, I am scared shitless. But Logan is out there probably going out of his mind trying to find me, so I have to be strong.

  Chapter 26

  *Logan*

  I am standing outside watching through the window when I see Justin slap Emily. That is all it takes. I am going to murder the son of a bitch. I pull my gun from the back of my pants. I practically run to the door. I kick it open and go straight for Justin. He is ready for me though, as I enter the living room, he has his gun pointed at Emily’s head. I stop, dead in my tracks. I see her and she looks broken. She has bruises starting to form on her face. Her lips are swollen and I can tell that they have been bleeding. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy will shoot her, if I am not careful.

  “I am going to put my gun down, Justin. I was standing and listening at the window, so I know that it is really me that you want. So, please let her go.” I say as I am slowly putting my gun down on the ground.

  I have no idea what they were talking about but he doesn’t need to know that. The next succession of events seems to happen in slow motion. I hear his gun fire. I look toward Emily, scared that he has just shot her. I hear Emily scream as the bullet soars right next to my face.

  “Fuck that was close!” I say, more to myself that anyone.

  I move and am focusing on dodging the bullet when Justin lunges at me

  “Logan!” Emily screams again. I can hear the terror in her voice.

  “You’re scaring her man, give it up.”

  “You think everything should just be handed to you, don’t you? You want Emily; you get her. You treat Emily like shit; you still get her. You think I should give you this gun. Well, if you get it from me without getting shot again, you will be real fucking lucky.”

  *Emily*

  He is on top of Logan but they are facing the other direction, so I can’t really see what is going on. Logan is trying to get his legs out from under him, so he has a chance of getting Justin off him.

  “Come on Logan, I have seen you get out from under guys twice his size.”

  I am pissed that I can’t do anything since my hands and legs are still tied.

  That must have pissed Justin off because as soon as the words leave my mouth, he glares back at me.

  “You can blame your boyfriend for this, it is his entire fault. If that little tramp had stuck to the plan, none of this would be happening.

  My brain stopped processing what he was saying after I heard “Logan and some tramp.”

  “What do you mean, if that little tramp would have just stuck to the plan?” Logan says with disbelief in his voice

  Justin laughs sadistically.

  “She had one job to do and that was to keep you happy and satisfied so you wouldn’t try to come crawling back to Emily. You would be out of the picture, so I could get to her with no problems. But for some reason, you couldn’t see past the end of your own moral compass. She couldn’t even get you to into bed once.”

  I feel like the floor has just fallen out from under me.

  “But I saw them together.” I say, more to myself than anyone.

  “She almost had him. They got back to his room and he decided you were worth more than that and told her to get out.”

  I think I am going to be sick. All this time I have been putting Logan through hell because I thought he cheated on me. Even when he told me he didn’t cheat, I still didn’t believe him. I don’t know whether to be happy or mad.

  I don’t even think about the fact that I have been kidnapped any longer. All I can think about is Logan and the look on his face all of those times we fought about this. I am completely disgusted with myself. I didn’t trust him and our relationship enough to believe him.

  I see Logan finally able to get his legs up and somehow flip Justin on his back. However, in the process the gun has fired.

  *Logan*

  “Oh my God!” I hear Emily scream.

  I have so much adrenaline pumping through me that I don’t even feel any pain. I just lunge forward and take Justin down. We struggle for a few minutes before I see the blood start to stain my shirt.

  My focus is redirected when I hear the faint sound of the sirens. Tyler must have called Evans and told him where we are. Justin hears them, too. He takes the palm of his hand and shoves it up under my nose.

  “Fuck!” I yell as pain starts shooting through my head.

  I am momentarily disoriented and that gives Justin just enough time to shove me to the side.

  “Logan, are you ok?” Emily screams, bringing me back to the moment.

  I lift my head to watch Justin running to the back of the house. I stand and have to take a minute to steady myself. Between my nose and this damn gunshot wound, I think I have lost a little too much blood. I am able to finally start moving and head for the back of the house. I hear the door close before I get to it. Once I reach it, I look through the window but I don’t see him. I pull the door so harshly that it sounds like I pulled it off the hinges.

  Just then, Officer Evans walks up behind me. Evans stands there with his gun drawn as the other cop takes off after Justin.

  He sees that I have a wound and says,
“We need to get you out to the ambulance.”

  All I can think of is Emily, who is frantic.

  I look up at the Evans and tell him that I am fine.

  “You have to find that son of a bitch, Evans!”

  “We will Logan. You need to get to the hospital.”

  I walk over to Emily but as I start moving, I feel a little uneasy, again. I look down to my shirt. Shit! I must have lost more blood than I thought.

  I pull the guy away from her who is cutting her bounds and take the scissors from him. The first thing I want do is envelope her in my arms. But considering I am full of blood that may not be such a good idea.

  “Logan, you really need to go to the hospital.” Evans says to me.

  “Let me make sure my girl is ok first, Evans.” I say, not even looking at him.

  She buries her head in my chest and we both cry.

  “Oh. Be careful, baby.” I say to her as she hugs me a bit too tight.

  “I love you, Logan. Don’t ever leave me again!” she says to me.

  I chuckle a little, “Babe, you don’t have to worry about that, I am never going anywhere again.”

  I sit back on my knees and begin to cut her free.

  *Emily*

  As soon as he cuts me free, I am in his arms. I want to smell him, touch him, and taste him. I reach up on my toes and kiss him and he kisses me back. In this moment, I don’t care that there is a room full of police and medical staff. I don’t care that the last year of my life has been hell. I want Logan to know that he is the most important person in my life. The man that is standing in front of me is all I care about.

  But, all too abruptly, we are brought back to reality by a police officer clearing his throat. Logan pulls away from me and gives the officer a death stare.

  “I’m sorry, but Logan you really need to get to the hospital. And, Emily, you will need to talk with the police.”

  I start to protest but Logan cuts in.

  “Not right now, Evans. She is coming with me. She can talk to the police later.”