Painful Deliverance
~~ Painful Deliverance: Book One ~~
ANN M PRATLEY
Copyright © 2016 Ann M Pratley
All rights reserved.
~~ Warning: This novel does contain explicit adult content ~~
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 ~ THE DEPARTURE
2 ~ THE SOFTENING
3 ~ THE DISCOVERY
4 ~ THE BEGINNING (THREE YEARS EARLIER)
5 ~ THE TRAIN TO A NEW LIFE
6 ~ LEXI & LINCOLN: THE FIRST YEAR
7 ~ LEXI & LINCOLN: THE SECOND YEAR
8 ~ LEXI & LINCOLN: THE LAST SIX MONTHS
9 ~ LINCOLN: THE CONFESSION
10 ~ THE FINAL CHAPTER
THANK YOU!
INTRODUCING: DARKNESS OF HEART
INTRODUCING: FRIENDSHIP OF DESIRE
NEW RELEASE: THE GOLDEN DESIRES
BONUS EXTRACT: TOTAL FREEDOM
UPCOMING RELEASE: TOTAL NEW BEGINNINGS
INTRODUCING: CRUISING THROUGH TO FULFILMENT
INTRODUCING: ALESSANDRA
BONUS EXTRACT: DRAB TO SEX GODDESS IN 365 DAYS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
1 ~ THE DEPARTURE
'He won't find me. He won't find me. He won't find me,' Alexis chanted inside her head, over and over, as the bus pulled out of the terminal. She looked around her like a small animal who knows there is a predator nearby - a hunter - but does not know where it is, or in what form it will take.
Letting her eyes skim over the other passengers on the bus, an elderly woman caught her eye and gave her a sympathetic smile, startling Alexis and making her turn away. It made no logical sense that the woman would be on this bus, planted only as a way to find her, but her paranoia had now reached a level that was intensely terrifying to her. She knew she could trust no-one, and that meant pulling into herself and making herself invisible.
She looked out the window, purposely travelling in daylight so she was not in a situation where someone could be lurking in the dark and seeing into the light bus without her equally seeing them. Her eyes remained alert to everywhere, and every movement, whilst at the same time she sunk deeper down into her seat and pulled her cap lower over her eyes.
That morning she had gone to a second hand charity store and bought a man's overnight bag and as many second hand clothes as she could fit into it. Being so well worn she knew they could absolutely not have any digital way of being tracked - no digital footprint. She knew this thinking made no logical sense, of course - that he could use something like a store item recording system to follow her if she bought new things from a new store. But being as rich and powerful as he was, and she would not put it past him to use technology however he could to try and locate her. He had done it before. He would do it again.
She had thrown away her mobile phone and SIM card after writing down phone numbers of friends and family members on a small piece of paper that she clung to tightly. She had called her telecommunication voicemail and changed the greeting to say that she had the flu and would return calls the next day. That would take care of what he would hear when he dialled her number, and give a reason why she was not answering. Then she had reset the phone, making sure everything on it had been completely deleted. That was before she snapped it in two, and then drove a hammer through both halves of it. The SIM card had suffered the same fate, before half was tossed into one rubbish bin in the central city, and half into another two blocks away. Far away from where she had been living, but equally far away from the bus terminal. Just in case.
As she sat back and felt the bus now moving on its journey, providing a soothing vibration through her body, she fought the urge to sleep. 'Not yet', she continued to say to herself in the darkness of her mind. She had not slept for two nights, driven by fear of what would happen if she fell asleep. No, she needed to get away first. Just to somewhere new - somewhere safe. Then she would sleep. He was quite simply still too close now. And he was determined. He had proven the lengths he would go to, to keep her close by his side. Not close enough that everyone knew that she was a part of his life, but close enough that when he wanted her to be somewhere, he expected her to be so. If she wasn't he made sure she fully understood - and felt - the consequence of that decision.
Thinking back over the past three years, she now wondered how she didn't see the signs right at the start. How she had missed identifying the depths of his nature. He was an expert of disguise, she had come to realise, albeit much too late - he was a chameleon. He could charm and delight in the presence of others, and he could smile and impress to the world at large. But in the dark of night - in privacy away from almost everyone - there was another side to him, and it was not charming or delightful, or even impressive. To her it was just … evil.
She clutched her hands tighter around her purse. In it was all the money she had been able to save in preceding months as she had planned this escape - all the cash she had saved, siphoning a little here and there as she purchased things. Even the day to day things such as food she had mastered into her plan of using a card to pay for the item and then withdraw some cash on the same transaction. That would ensure that if he investigated her bank records, he would not see any excessive cash having been withdrawn from ATMs. It was her money of course, but he knew people everywhere, and had access to resources. And he had proven in the past that he could find ways to see what she was doing financially. He could recite to her all of the shops, cafés and other locations she had been to in the past day … the past week … even the past month.
He watched her carefully, even though he had no legal right to. But at least he had been forward about that - not in a friendly, informative way, but rather in a mocking, know-it-all way. But in doing so, revealing the lengths he went to, to monitor each and every little thing she did, he had helped her to think about everything she did, and to plan different ways to do things. Him having money or not, she had simply had to find a way to create a digital footprint that was not accurate in what she was really doing.
She'd had to make him believe that everything was normal, and that she was happy … and that she certainly had no desire whatsoever to leave.
~~~~~
Over the past week she had put in place ideas for making it seem like she would not have left, for as long as possible. She had to design a plan that would enable her to be long gone by the time he even noticed she was not around.
He ran his life on a tight schedule. Over the three years she had been seeing him, she had come to know how he lived. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings he met with members of his company's board to discuss ideas for future growth. On Wednesday at 4pm he hosted a meeting for senior management at company headquarters, here in Melbourne. Afterward he extended that to an expensive dinner that took him through till at least 9pm before he would head back to his apartment.
And today, Friday, he flew from Melbourne to Brisbane - a two hour flight each way - and stayed there for the whole day - with his phone turned off - before returning on the 7pm flight back. He would not be turning his phone back on until at least 9pm.
It was now 11am. He would already be in a meeting that would run all day long. He would not check his phone - giving these clients his full attention on this day each and every week was of utmost importance to him. He would not try and call her - she was a distraction that he would not indulge in when he was so wrapped up in his business. He knew, as well as she did, that even when they only talked now, three years into this 'relationship', it was like lighting a match to a fuse. There was no respite from the friction and the tenseness that came with the two of them being in the same room together. Even speaking on the phone together had started to result in the same, so it was not his preference to call her for
long chats. It was his way instead to only give clear, concise and direct instructions to her before abruptly hanging up.
She had been analysing possible places to go on this day, for weeks now. Never in one place though, and never in her home or on her phone. She had taken to using cash to catch various buses to different suburbs around Melbourne, and using library computers to do the research she wanted. If he even thought to delve into library computers to see if she had been looking at anything discretely there, at least it would take him time to track down all the computers she had used throughout the sprawling city.
She had not leaned on any of her friends or family to provide her with assistance. She could not put them in any danger and even if they told him they had not heard from her, she knew he would check their phone records to see if they were lying. And if they were lying, what he would do to them was not something she could even bear to think about. So she was doing this completely alone. She had purposely not called anyone over preceding weeks. She knew there was a chance they would be worried - even more so if he contacted any of them to ask where she was - but she dared not make any kind of contact with them. Not even a letter sent via 'snail mail'. Not even a postcard. And certainly not any message through any kind of technology.
She cursed herself for having indulged him at the start, all that time ago. Thinking back now to when they had met, she could still remember how she had felt at the moment they had met in person - the extreme level of nervousness she had felt inside of her. The sense of importance and desperation she felt for him to like her. The need for him to look at her and want her.
These things she had wanted, desired - dreamed of. And she had got them all - in abundance.
In her mind they were so mismatched, she realised now as she sat on the bus and took some time to contemplate how she had ended up in this place in this time. She had never quite understood how they came to see each other a second time after that initial meet. How he happened to be driving near her at the right time, in the right place. He had wealth, he had power, and he had a charisma about him that lured people toward him naturally - men and women.
She had always been an introvert. She remained in her own world, afraid of what other people would do to her emotionally if she let them get too close. She came from an area others would call a slum. She was awkward in company. And she worked as a checkout operator at a small supermarket in what was renowned to be a bad part of the city.
She was a good employee - where she came from had only built in her a resolve that resulted in an impeccable work ethic. She was the one called to clean up the spills or do any jobs that other people who worked around her would say no to. And even though she could not easily be among people, she had forced herself to smile and greet customers at checkout. It was a different way of interacting with people - the faces who passed by her every day in that job would probably not pass her again, so they were safe. They would not want to know anything about who she was or where she was from. They would smile back - they might even ask her how her day was going - but as soon as they walked away, they would completely forget about her. That level of interaction Alexis could handle. That was acceptable, in return for earning money so she could have a roof over her head and food in her stomach.
It was her biggest regret of having to do this - of having to leave. Her job was a good job. It wasn't everyone's dream job, but it was a good job. It was regular hours and regular pay, and it suited her to be an anonymous face that no-one would remember by the time each day ended and the world reset once more.
Breaking her out of her daze and thoughts was the sound of the bus driver, speaking over the loud speaker, informing passengers that they would be at their destination in twenty minutes. Alexis was startled, thinking that it seemed like she only just got on board, but looking at her watch she saw that three hours had passed. She sighed to herself. The upcoming stop would not be her destination - it was only the beginning of her journey, and she had much, much road travel ahead of her yet.
~~~~~
As she felt the bus come to a stop, she immediately noticed her nerves kick in once again, and the hairs on her arms stand up in paranoid fear. She took a few minutes before stepping off, to look through all of the windows of the bus, in all directions. It made no sound sense that he could be here - he wouldn't even yet know she had left Melbourne - and yet she was driven to be cautious. It was a part of her nature before she had even met him, but that level of need for caution had intensified since he had come into her world. And it had grown to colossal proportions in recent weeks, since she had started to think about getting away.
Finally, being certain it was safe to leave the confines of the vehicle, she stepped down and into the sunlight. In Brisbane it would be 2pm. He would only have just finished lunch and would be guiding the client back into the conference room he always had set up for this purpose each week. He held control of everything about these days - the location, the time and even the catering. The client was far too important to him in his work, and he would not risk offending them by even pulling his phone out of his pocket to look at it during lunch. It would be turned off, and it would stay turned off. Until 9pm. At 9pm he would call her with an instruction. These days - every single Friday - he always did.
Alexis looked around her and took a moment to take a deep breath and feel the sunlight on her face. She did not know the name of this town - she did not want to know. She wanted to pass through silently and leave no impression on anyone, so if anyone asked, no-one would have noticed her.
She made her way to an information centre and picked up a small map to find out where longer distance outgoing buses would leave from, and once there, assessed timetables to pick the next town she would go to. She had already investigated bus timetables and routes, of course, but she had not booked anything, and she had avoided choosing any particular town for any particular purpose. No, if she wanted to leave no trace, she would not make any definite plans. She would deal with every decision as it had to be made, and she would just keep moving forward as she could.
Looking at her watch to see the time, and looking at the timetable, she walked inside and asked to pay cash for a ticket on the bus that looked most attractive to her. It gave her just under two hours to wait - time enough to find a public bathroom and use the sink there to do whatever washing up she could do to freshen up and change her appearance slightly, before she ventured into the small supermarket she could see to buy enough food to get her through the next leg of her journey.
In the public bathroom she looked at her reflection. She had mousy brown hair - it was her natural colour - but for the moment she would not think of colouring or cutting it, deciding to only take that step when she finally reached wherever it was that she would end up. She pulled out another cap she had bought - she had purchased four in total at the used clothing store, all quite different from one another. She didn't know if it would make any difference or not in concealing herself, but at 50c for each one, it was worth a try.
She pulled her hair tight and wove it around her hand, forming it into a tight ball, before slipping the cap over it, making it seem like she had short hair. She had already washed away all trace of any makeup that might have been residual, and she had put on a bulky old jersey and jeans that were tidy enough that they would not be overly noticed for being too shabby. She didn't want to be noticed for good or for bad.
Standing back and looking in the mirror she saw a nobody. She was slender in physique, having lost so much weight over the past year or so, and she knew she could now be construed as a woman or a man from a distance - and under the view of a security camera. Taking a deep breath she stepped out into the sunlight again and walked into the supermarket, eyes straight ahead so she would not face upward, revealing her face, nor downward, which would look like she was someone purposely trying to avoid security cameras.
It was a nervous hour more before the bus appeared that she would next jump onto. It would take her through the nig
ht and deliver her to another town early the following morning. For now, she stocked up on a large bottle of water and a healthy supply of fruit and baked goods to keep her going.
Once again she settled down into a seat, this time for a much longer period, and this time she would let herself sleep. If he found her on the bus she would be woken anyway, so she may as well try and recuperate some of the lost slumber while she had a long journey of many hours ahead of her, she thought to herself.
The bus moved forward, and she watched out the window, saying goodbye and thank you silently to a town that unknowingly had let a woman on the run slip right through it. A woman with a determination to get what she wanted - to start a brand new life. A life without pain. A life that would enable her to start rebuilding her soul once again.
In Brisbane it was now 4pm. He would call her in five hours. In five hours he would know she was at that moment not accessible to him, and his questions would begin.
In five hours Alexis would still be asleep, on a bus, in the middle of nowhere. It was a terrifying thought but she would sleep, because what else could she do?
~~~~~
"Wake up, little lady," Alexis heard a man's voice saying to her, as she felt a gentle prod on her arm.
Immediately she jumped and the driver saw a terrified look cross her face before she seemed to become alert and realise where she was.
"I'm sorry to have startled you, but it is time for you to get off the bus now," the man continued, with nothing but kindness in his eyes even though she was obviously very wary of him.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled quietly as she gathered her things and made her way off the bus, forgetting to look through the windows first to make sure no-one was nearby who looked like they might be looking - or waiting - for her.
As her feet touched the ground she cursed at herself inwardly for overlooking what she considered to be such an important thing, but then forced herself to relax. If he was going to find her, he was going to find her - if he was even likely to come after her. As she was travelling further and further away from Melbourne, she was feeling just a sliver of relaxation falling over her. But she didn't want that - she wanted to always be alert, and never to get complacent.
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