by Leanne Davis
It was all inconvenient and annoying. It took patience and smarts. But he was always able to do what others couldn’t. He was able to focus on his goal and ignore any discomfort reaching that goal caused him.
He heard them come home. He heard muffled conversations and footsteps all evening until night finally quieted them. He used that time to sneak into the kitchen for some water and food no one would miss, stretching his legs. He laughed to himself. They were all tucked away in the house thinking the police outside would keep them safe. When he had come in the house before the police had even gotten there. And now here he stood, right in the kitchen, and he could do whatever he wanted to those inside the house. He was rather enjoying the agony that all this waiting was causing Cassie.
Yes, her time was coming.
He thought at first of using Tim against her. He was surprised by how few feelings he had for his own offspring. Tim was easily forgotten to him.
But Cassie…she was not. She was the reason he’d spent those years in prison. She was the reason he’d lost his job, and his life.
And she had to pay for that. And pay dearly.
And it was about time Cassie faced him for everything she’d ever done to him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cassie hadn’t known that life could be morphed from just one day. Her head reeled with all that had happened to her. She now had a name and face for her father. Harry and Estelle had called already checking on her and Tim. Their concern was out of Cassie’s realm of experience, and she was surprised how good it made her feel.
It was a shock to think that her son now had family in his life who cared about his well-being. Something she had never had.
And then there was John. The ease with which he talked to her, kidded her, touched her was new and exciting. Each gesture or word he bestowed toward her, she wrapped up in her head to pull out later and examine and feel again, like little presents she needed to gawk over.
Luke treated her like she imagined a brother would treat a sister. He tried to cheer her up and get her mind off Marcus and her fears about Tim. Nancy kept their interactions light and easy, but Cassie sensed that Nancy felt a tenderness, a motherly protectiveness that no one in Cassie’s life had toward her. And Cassie liked the feeling a lot.
It all scared her too. It seemed too good to be true, and way too good to be happening to her. Things like this, good things and people, rarely lasted in Cassie’s life. She was afraid that if she blinked wrong, the incredible Tyler family would disappear. She was paranoid, she knew, because so few decent people had come into her life.
But they were so easy and comfortable together and with her that she was beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe this would work out.
She wanted to believe that Marcus would just forget her and leave. With the police involved now she wanted to believe he’d move on and get as far away from her as possible. That’s all she wanted. A chance to live her life quietly, freely, forever.
****
John had finally gone into work for the first time in a week. There was a new layer between him and Harry, one both of them were unsure what to do with.
John had a lot to do, and yet his thoughts kept falling back to Cassie. Between worrying about her, wondering if she was okay, and wondering what she was doing, he wasn’t getting a whole lot accomplished. They had been inseparable for a week, and now he was finding it surprisingly hard to be away from her. She was like a drug he couldn’t get enough of, a little taste and he now needed and craved more. He realized too that there was nothing lethal about Cassie; she was intoxicating, simply because she was Cassie.
She was so endearingly shocked by all that was so normal to him. His family, instead of burdening or annoying her, delighted her. She seemed to like them more than he did. She was so touched by every small gesture or nice word that it made him want to fill her up with them. He wanted to wipe away all the bad thoughts and years that had tormented her for so long.
And now he was dating her. It made him feel more about Tim too. Each time Tim wanted to play or asked questions, he was compelled to answer and play to make up for the years Tim didn’t have that. John began to wonder what would happen if Cassie and he did work out. The possibility of Tim being his seemed to have taken seed in his brain and blossomed to a flower he didn’t want to cut out. He welcomed it in fact. Which intimidated him because it was all so fast and so soon. Could this be the real thing? And did he want it to be?
****
The note was lying on John’s bed, thrown carelessly in the middle of it. Cassie’s heart felt like a stone had been thrown against it. She’d made the bed that morning. There had been nothing there. She was sure of that.
Her hand shook as she reached across the smooth bedspread to grab the sheet of paper. She recognized the handwriting. There was no mistaking that Marcus Leary had been in there, and could be in there now. Cassie frantically searched, she was sure Marcus would step out of the closet or shower stall and kill her right there, here and now, with everyone else downstairs and her alone up in this room.
But no one was there. Just her and the note. The note that said her son was going to die if she didn’t come to his specified meeting spot.
The note dropped to the floor. She fell to her knees before it, grabbing at it with her sweat-slick, shaking hands. Her. Son. Would. Die. Marcus had out and out said her son would die.
He had been inside the house. Today. He could have taken Tim. Cassie could hear Tim downstairs, laughing and talking with Kelly. Her heart skipped. No. No. No. She’d die ten times over before she’d let Marcus near Tim.
All the promises she made were easy to break when she realized how easily Marcus could have gotten to Tim today. She didn’t know how Marcus had come into what was supposed to be a protected house, but he had done it. And with that the chilling realization that there was no escaping Marcus Leary washed over her. There had never been, she supposed, any real hope of escaping her past.
Cassie crumpled the note. Her hands shook. Her stomach was in tight knots. She wanted to call John, his parents, the police. But Tim. There was Tim. And nothing had changed for her there; she’d do anything to keep him safe from Marcus. And that was her resolve. That was her one truth. She stood up slowly, her legs trembling. She took in a deep breath as she headed downstairs.
****
The road to the North Head Lighthouse was as creepy as any setting in a horror movie, especially at four o’clock in March, on a gray day, with a dripping forest hugging the two lane twisting road, and rain showers starting and stopping at will. The road was slick and black from water, her car splashed and skidded through the thick muddy puddles. Her hands were as slick with sweat as the road was wet. She gripped the steering wheel frantically as she drove toward the monster at the end of the road.
She drove through the park; the same one John had shown her and Tim on that brilliant sunny day not so long ago. But now that day seemed like a hazy safe memory, like a kid’s memory of a long ago Christmas. She came to the parking lot, which was empty. She parked and chills coursed through her. Her gut screamed at her to flip the car into reverse and peel out of there, driving hard and fast away, still safe and dry. But she didn’t. She stopped and shut the car off. She hesitated before pulling the key out. She looked around. Where was Marcus’s car? Where was he exactly? Was he going to come over and get in her car? Jump out from behind one of the trees? What the hell was he going to do to her?
The rain started again, and she nearly groaned at the eerie setting and timing of weather. A long trailing scarf of fog covered the trees around her. The path leading out toward the lighthouse looked forlorn; grim and haunted, covered in long streams of rain. Shadows lurked everywhere, a person could literally be hiding anywhere along the path. Cassie shuddered as her feet became cemented to the floor. No way could she leave the car and walk down that trail. It was like walking into a long dark cave. No way could she do it.
Tears filled her eyes. Why was he doing
this to her? Why prolong this? Why make her go through this terror? But she knew the answer. Precisely that. To scare the living daylights out of her. To prolong his control over her, to make her rue the day she’d ever met him. And fuck if he hadn’t succeeded in doing just that.
The slimy little bastard.
Cassie grabbed the door handle and flung it open. She refused to fall into the pathetic mass of nerves Marcus expected out of her. She refused to let a little rain and shadows make her become the weak victim Marcus thought she was. This was the same place that she, Luke, John, and Tim had explored in dazzling sunlight. It was the same place. There was nothing different, other than a little rain, and gloomy afternoon shadows setting in.
And Marcus Leary at the end of the path. At least she knew it. It wasn’t a surprise. And neither was the setting Marcus picked.
Cassie looked around. Why did she always assume Marcus knew her so well? Didn’t she know Marcus just as well? Didn’t she? Wasn’t her coming here as she had just as predictable as his sneaking into the house to scare her? To set up theatrics and smoke screens to play mind games with her? The weasel thought he could win because she’d be scared and shaken and beaten down to his will. Just as every other time with him.
Not this time however.
Cassie’s hand squeezed protectively over the syringe she’d taken from the center console of her car.
Not this time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Marcus was there. He stood in the open, for anyone to see him. As he turned toward her, Cassie drew in a sharp breath. The reality of seeing Marcus’s face again was far more powerful than she remembered. Her knees were about to give way, and her stomach did flip flops. She feared she was going to be physically ill at the sight of him. He looked the same. So much the same that no time at all could have gone by since she’d last seen him. This man who had stalked her and terrorized her family. This man who had known she’d show up alone. He hadn’t even taken the precaution of mildly hiding to make sure she followed his instructions. He’d known. He’d known what no one else did about her. They thought she’d react rationally and protect herself with their help. But not when it came to Marcus and not when he threatened her son. Marcus knew that about her.
Marcus looked so ordinary, and so unassuming, it was almost sinister. The cold, calculating violence hiding in him was well-disguised. He would disarm anyone with how mild-mannered he seemed. Marcus Leary’s lethal nature was concealed by how likable he was, and of course, with how easy it was to forget him once he left a room.
He looked at Cassie long and hard. Slowly, he walked to meet her.
“Hello Cassie.”
“I’m here. What do you want?”
“No one knows you’re here do they? You wouldn’t risk Tim, would you?”
She gritted her teeth.“You got me here, what do you want?”
“To see my wife.”
“I’m not your wife.”
“Yes you are. Only somehow I don’t think wives are supposed to play house with other men like you are. Though I will say the accommodations are lovely.”
“Enough of the crap Marcus. Yeah you got into the house. Just as you got to Kelly. Why? What is it you want from me?”
“You know I’ve wondered that for years. At first, I wanted revenge, simple cold blooded revenge. Then time went by. And I realized death was too easy. Too painless. And that’s what I intended for you. Revenge and pain. Oh I could do a lot to hurt you, wouldn’t you agree? There’s Kelly, and of course Tim. Tim would be the ultimate for you wouldn’t he? You took to him like a mother bear to her cub. And now that you’re cheating again, there’s always John, and John’s family that you’re playing house with. Do you see my endless options? There are so many. I’ve thought out so many scenarios. Really I have. And then damn it but I find myself rejecting them all. Do you know why? Do you?”
Cassie’s blood stopped moving, like she’d suddenly succumbed to hypothermia, and her heart and organs weren’t functioning properly. The chill went so deep inside her it was like her whole body had stopped working.
“Because you’re like a poison. A God damned poison is what you are. Even me you’ve managed to poison with your venom. Don’t you see? Those things I did; it’s all your fault. I never was a physical man, until you. Look at what you’ve done to my life. I hate you, yet here I am, my entire life wrapped up in you.”
Cassie didn’t move a muscle or twitch during his long rant. Marcus’s eyes were glazed over and his face was flushed. He believed everything he’d done was her fault. Somehow he thought he was the victim of her.
“And now what Marcus? You’re going to punish me?”
“You poisoned me. You ruined my life. What have I got now? I lost everything, and I don’t even have a reputation to build a new life on.”
“Reputation? People just now know the truth about you,” she said recklessly. “You’re sick Marcus. You need help.”
“No, Cassie I need you.”
Her mouth opened at his unexpected plea. Of all the terrible scenarios she’d imagined, his statement caught her off guard. He reached a hand out and gripped her arm tightly, like a handcuff had suddenly been snapped around her wrist. He easily pulled her too him.
“That’s right. I know everything you are. I know what you’ve done to me. So that means this time I’m in control of you. I won’t be denied my wife any longer. I thought hurting you was the answer. Then I realized that I wanted you more. You’re my wife don’t you see Cassie? We belong together, always have. Just us. Tim was the mistake. He took you away from me. He made you do terrible things to me. But no more.”
Cassie’s breath caught. “No more?” she asked softly, unwilling to believe Marcus could get to Tim.
“Yes, no more. I’ll leave him be. I’ll never harm a hair on his head, as long as you are with me. As my wife.”
Her head was going to spin off her body. Marcus wanted her back? As if they could leave here and live a life together? She looked into his feverish eyes. He really believed everything he was spouting at her. That somehow he could possess her as if she were some kind of sex object and she’d fall into line because it would keep those she loved safe.
“You’re not going to hurt me?”
He pulled her against him. “No. Not as long as you’re with me. But if you ever betray me, or leave me, I will hunt you and Tim down and take out that revenge I was talking about earlier.”
“But you think I’m poison.”
“You are. And I’m infected. But as long as I have you, I’ll be okay. Don’t you see?”
She did see. He was not only cold and violent, but without a soul or a mind. He was crazy. Not funny-crazy, but serial-killer, homicidal, crazy. He believed somehow that possessing her would cure him of all that had gone wrong. As if she was somehow both the cause and cure of his violence.
Her mind raced as she tried to decide what to do. He had a hold of her. They were within feet of the edge of the cliff. He was strong enough he could push her off. He appeared to have no gun on him, but who knew what he’d do next? Should she pretend to go along with him? Quietly pretend she was his? Calm him down until she could do something?
Would he believe her if she acquiesced? It was the only chance she had.
“All right, Marcus. What next then? You know you’ll have me as long as Tim is safe. I promise.”
He grinned; his feverish eyes looked her over. “Here. Now.”
She nearly choked on the bile that filled her mouth. “No. In the car.”
She had to get him away from the treacherous cliffs. The wind picked up as the shadows grew deeper; the daylight was now a tepid gray against the black storm clouds over the ocean. The waves were thunderous. The lighthouse looked like the edge of the world. The low, chain link fence was a feeble barrier from the rocks and thrashing waves below. She was sure that Marcus was on the brink of insanity.
They were standing on the physical edge of his insanity. All he had to do was flin
g her, and she’d be dead. Or both of them. She wasn’t so sure he was into just revenge against her. He seemed to have lost connection with reason. How long before he snapped and, using his own theory, decided to kill that which controlled and made him inferior?
“Come on Marcus; let’s just go to my car, before the storm hits,” she pleaded.
“I’ve waited so long for you,” he said, whispering into her ear as if he hadn’t heard her. “There’s been no one but you.”
She cringed. His sick fascination with her was far worse than she was prepared for.
“So long—”
Suddenly, he seemed oblivious that they stood outside on a cliff next to a lighthouse with a storm minutes from hitting them. He pressed closer to her, still clutching her wrist. He moved her intimately along himself. She wanted to kill him for making her feel him. She wanted to kill him period. But his grip was too tight for her to escape. He had grabbed the hand she needed, the hand that held her lifeline; the small syringe. If only she could convince him to move, to walk, to go toward her car. Somehow to shift positions so that she could fight him. But as it was, she was impotent against him. She was trapped by the man who thought she was somehow poison, and the only way to stop her was to possess her.
“Marcus please, let’s go before the rain starts. It’s only a minute to my car. Please Marcus, please,” she begged; hoping her sudden pleading was plausible to him. He seemed excited by her voice.
He didn’t answer. He was lost. Lost in his own reality he’d created. A crazy reality where the two of them were together. He gripped her breast in a painful pinch. Her cry of surprise seemed to insight him more. He backed her away from the lighthouse and for a moment, vertigo hit her as she thought he was going to back them off the cliff. Then the fence was digging into her lower back, and she nearly cried out with relief. She had to do something. He was about to rape her, or worse, rape her and then throw them both off of the cliff.