“Did you think… what? Think it would be some kind of a turn on? Think I’d get off on seeing you hurt? I’ll give you points for creativity, Cassandra, but you’re way off the mark.”
She looked up. His eyes were blazing. His mouth had curled into a sneer. If he truly thought that her intention was to incorporate Iris’ misfortune into the scene that he had set, then he was more twisted than she had even imagined.
Cassandra turned and slapped him across his face.
“You’re sick! You know that? This wasn’t about you.”
He massaged his cheek and sneered at her.
“Not even just a little?”
“Not at all,” she spat back. “And unlike you, I got there in time.”
It was a low blow, a harsher blow than her flattened palm across his face. She watched him double back from it and turn to the wall. She could see him playing and replaying the worst moment from his past and trying to make it come out differently. He couldn’t, and he slammed his fist in frustration. It was a lost cause.
But they didn’t have to be.
Cassandra sighed and moved to his side again.
“I’m… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
He met her eyes with a muted fury. Cassandra bit her lip.
“But you did.”
He moved away from the wall and straightened his tie. He was leaving the room, leaving her. Cassandra started after him and grabbed his sleeve at the top of the steps.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
He pulled away from her started down.
“Oliver! I didn’t mean—”
Jeff and Faye appeared at the sound of her voice. Oliver glared at Jeff and snapped his fingers.
“Get the car,” he ordered.
Jeff didn’t need to be told twice, and he was out the door.
“Faye,” Oliver started. “I’m leaving. Can you…”
Her hands were shaking. She felt certain that he was going to demand that every trace of Cassandra be eradicated before he returned.
“What do you need, Ollie?”
He gave no answer as he looked back at Cassandra. She steeled herself for her walking papers.
“I… I…”
He couldn’t finish his thought and simply headed for the car. Cassandra didn’t know where he was going or if he was coming back.
Now it seemed that it was her turn to be horrified.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“So you ignored orders?”
Oliver was on the edge of his seat, his lips close to Jeff’s ear as the driver turned the car on the road into town.
“I… yeah. Sorry.”
“And why did you do that?”
Jeff glanced at Oliver in the rearview mirror and saw the beads of sweat below his cap. He looked from Oliver to the road.
“Jeff?”
“I… I don’t know, Mr. Chambers.”
Oliver fell back against his seat and rubbed his face with his hands.
“Perfect.”
Oliver’s mind drifted back to Cassandra at the foot of the stairs. He had wanted to tell Faye to see that she stayed. Even though he wasn’t sure what he would do with her once he returned.
Cassandra had broken the rules and used his ultimate failure against him in an effort to justify her transgression. He didn’t know if he could trust her.
Did he even want to? He turned the possibility of sending her away around in his mind.
He couldn’t do that either.
Only one thing was certain. He didn’t want her hurt. Everything was arranged to keep her from all harm. And he’d failed there, too. He would have to redouble his efforts to keep her even closer.
“Boss?”
Jeff’s voice shook Oliver from her reverie.
“She was… she is determined. She had to do it. And I was just trying to help.”
That was Jeff. That was always Jeff.
He had written the postcard.
Jeff was already tattooed and lurking in a basement apartment with when the cries came up from just above. Pipes were passed, but Jeff couldn’t tune out the sound of the blows. Whenever he broached the subject with his family, the response was always the same.
None of our business.
They spoke the words in slurred, stoned tones.
So Jeff took it upon himself to knock on Lily’s door. He told Oliver that she kept the chain latched as she peeked out at him. Even if Lily had let him in, what chance would he have had against the man of the house?
So he asked her if there was someone he could call. Lily was afraid that the phones were tapped. Jeff had offered to dial from his line, but even that seemed too dangerous. In her terrified state, all she could think to do was scribble an address on a napkin and hand it to the boy before closing the door. Jeff went to the corner store. He purchased a postcard with a tranquil image of the New York City skyline. He scribbled his address and four words.
Please come now. Hurry!
Then he waited and Oliver arrived. Too late as Cassandra had so accurately pointed out.
Once Lily was gone, and he was led off in cuffs, Oliver was left to clean up the mess and collect her belongings. He barely knew what was hers in this place so far from home.
Then Jeff appeared with tears streaming down his face.
“What do you want?” Oliver had demanded.
Jeff sniffled and wiped his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I should have done it sooner.”
He spilled the story of the unending nightmare that had been Lily’s final act and the Hail Mary pass that was the postcard. But the boy had tried to do something. If nothing else, it gave him a chance to see Lily, to hold her one last time before her suffering stopped.
He pressed Lily’s bag to his arm started to take him home. When Oliver saw what his home was, he decided to do one thing right. He took Jeff under his wing. Oliver had ideas of turning the kid into a Rhodes Scholar or grooming him as the heir apparent for an empire he was now even more determined to build. Jeff showed little interest in facts and figures. Cars were his bag. So Oliver put him to work in that corner of his empire and made him a driver once he was of age. Jeff always seemed appreciative, and Oliver knew that Lily would approve.
“Boss?”
The car idled before an intersection.
“I know,” Oliver said. “And I’m… I’m glad that you were there.”
Jeff relaxed and adjusted his cap.
“So now what, Boss?”
Oliver’s face darkened.
“You know where he is?”
Jeff’s face brightened.
“I know where we left him. Miss Dodd really did a number on him.”
Good for Cassie.
“Wanna see if he’s still there?”
“Absolutely.”
They pulled up to the B&B. Jeff parked and hurried from the driver’s seat to open Oliver’s door. They entered the lobby, and Oliver fixed his stare on the desk clerk who was preoccupied another patron.
“We were promised gluten-free dining. And this?”
The man tossed a piece of toast in the desk clerk’s face.
“Not what we paid for.”
Oliver had more pressing concerns than this jerk’s digestive issues. He pushed him aside and started to address the clerk.
“Excuse me. I’m looking—”
The other patron got in Oliver’s face.
“Hey! Wait your turn, guy. I’m talking here.”
“If that’s what you call it. But I—”
“What? Think you can just cut ahead because you’re… you’re what? Like entitled or something?”
“This is important.”
He had another piece of toast in his other hand.
“So is this! I’m trying to keep with a program here.”
“Sir—”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not some… some guy on your payroll.”
Oliver’s patience was wearing thin.
“If you were, you’d
be calling me that.”
Jeff laughed, and the desperate-to-be-gluten free patron bypassed Oliver and grabbed Jeff’s collar.
“What are you smiling at?”
“I—”
Oliver took him by the wrist and pried him away from Jeff.
“Leave him alone.”
The patron started to protest, and Oliver plucked the piece of toast from his hand and shoved it into the man’s mouth.
“And eat a piece of real bread. It’s only been a staple forever.”
The patron choked on his toast and backed away from Oliver. He spit his masticated bread on the floor and made like he was going to strike a blow for his diet. Oliver stopped any chance of that and lifted the patron from the floor. He had him against the wall.
“Now go away. I have a real problem.”
Oliver lowered the patron, and he wiped the wet crumbs from his mouth as he headed up the steps, his tail between his legs. Oliver took a deep breath and turned to see Jeff at his side.
“Nice, Boss. You okay?”
Oliver cleared his throat.
“I will be.”
He approached the desk clerk again. The man didn’t appear to know which way was up. Oliver needed to point him in the right direction.
Several hundred dollar bills from his pocket were a good start.
“I hear there was a rumble. See my friend here?”
The clerk could barely look at Jeff.
“Do you see him? You know him. Right?”
The clerk nervously nodded.
“Fine. He escorted two ladies out of your fine establishment with a lying menu.”
Jeff smirked as the clerk’s breath slipped between his lips.
“So you remember?”
The clerk finally nodded.
“Great. So where’s the other guy?”
“I—”
“The…”
Oliver suddenly realized that he had no way of describing the man except that he was another monster who needed to be put down. He didn’t even know his name.
He turned to Jeff for help.
“What’s his name?”
He saw Jeff search his recent memory for the answer.
“Um… Adam? I think. Yeah. Adam.”
Oliver turned back to the clerk.
“Adam. He still here?”
The clerk shook his head and pointed to the door.
“No. After… after your friends left, he hit the Hornet’s Nest.”
That was nothing compared to what Oliver had in store.
Jeff took Oliver by the arm.
“A bar. What else? It’s just down the street.”
They left the clerk quaking as they headed for their new destination.
The Hornet’s Nest was such a cliché that peanut shells littered the dimly lit floor. Oliver scanned the room of day laborers and decided that whatever else happened, Cassandra would not be allowed on the roads these men supposedly paved. Jeff touched his arm and nodded at a table in the corner. Oliver saw a young man with his own set of bruises courtesy of someone in Cassandra’s merry trio, and he stepped forward.
Adam didn’t look up as Oliver pulled a chair to his table and sat with an icy glare.
“Yeah? What’s your deal?”
Oliver signaled for Jeff, and he was at his side.
“Boss?”
“What he’s having.”
Jeff scanned the glass closely and was off. Adam took another swig.
“Beer, idiot. No secret.”
Oliver wanted to smash his skull between his palms and leave the remains to mingle with the peanut shells. But Cassie had already left him bruised. She’d done a good job of putting him in his place.
Jeff reappeared with two beers. He sat and looked to Oliver before he drank.
“Go on,” Oliver said.
Jeff gratefully sipped the through the foam. Adam laughed at the sight.
“Need his permission to piss, too?”
Oliver leaned across the table.
“Of course not. But you… you’d better pay attention.”
Adam drained his mug and sat back in his chair.
“Why?”
“Because… you’re struck my… wife.”
Jeff started to voice his confusion as Oliver held his hand before his face. Adam was working through the alcohol to process Oliver’s words.
“Your… what?”
Now there was no turning back.
Oliver grabbed his neck.
“My wife. You bothered her friend. So she had to intervene.”
Now that he was face to face with Adam, Oliver understood Cassandra’s choice.
“Hey, man. I didn’t—”
And Oliver broke.
He slammed Adam’s head into the table. The mug shattered, and Jeff was on his feet along with the rest of the barflies. Oliver caught hold of a singled shard of glass and held it before Adam’s closing eye.
“Look at me.”
Adam slowly did as he was told.
Oliver thought of slashing his eye from its socket until he could see nothing. It would be a kind of justice. But he didn’t want him blind. He wanted Adam to face what he was with an eye over his shoulder for all that was left of his miserable life.
“Look at me!”
Adam finally obeyed. Oliver nearly grazed his pupil with the broken glass.
He leaned in closer and whispered into Adam’s ear.
“Think about touching her again. Think about it. Adam?”
He trembled under Oliver’s hold and started to close his eyes. But then they slipped open and stayed open. Oliver pressed the glass under his eye.
“Thinking about it?”
Adam’s nod told Oliver that he was thinking about much more than touching her.
Oliver slashed his cheek open with the point of the glass. Adam fell back and held his face. The others from the bar tried to move forward and offer aid, but Jeff held them back.
Oliver pressed his foot against Adam’s neck.
“Now forget about it. Because if you even think it, I’ll make sure that you never see anything again. Do we understand each other?”
Adam clutched his bleeding face and angrily nodded. Oliver spat at him and turned for the door. Jeff followed, and Oliver could hear all who were left in the bar help Adam to his feet.
When they were back in the car, Jeff twisted away from the wheel and faced him.
“So now what?”
Oliver contemplated going back and finishing the job. But that would be harder to explain. He would have done it already. But Cassie was involved. He knew it would go down easier for her if he kept the bastard alive.
“Boss?”
He wanted to see her. He needed to go back, but he had yet to decide his next move. He couldn’t let her go. Her will was strong, So how to keep her safe?
Oliver stared out the window and contemplated the time he’d need to sort everything out.
“Just drive,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
He had to come back. Cassandra paced the great room as Faye applied cold compresses to Iris’s head. Iris moaned as Faye tended to her injured state. One thing was certain. Iris was in good hands.
Cassandra only wanted Oliver’s.
She kept looking to the window in the hope that the car would reappear. She didn’t mean it. She hadn’t meant it. He was just a boy who’d answered the call too late. It was good that she had reached Iris with time to spare. He’d understand if she could just hold him.
Iris rose, and Faye started to lead her up the steps. Cassandra gently grabbed her friend’s wrists as Faye waved her away.
“I got her, Cassandra. Have a drink or something. He’ll be back.”
Faye’s certainty set her mind at ease. Cassandra watched them move to one of the guestrooms and headed back to the bar. Scotch wasn’t her style, but she needed something strong.
He’d be back. When he returned, what then? Would he understand why she had broken the ru
les to see to her friend? He’d have to. Because if he didn’t, he’d send her on her way with yet another debt in hand.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Cassandra saw the lights of the car pull up the drive, and she rushed out of the house to meet him. Jeff emerged first, and he doffed his cap when he saw Cassandra standing in the night air. He opened the door, and Oliver appeared, his face fixed on a mystery that she couldn’t solve. He strode towards her and took her hands.
“Cassie.”
That was something.
She silently nodded.
“Is your friend okay?”
“Yes. Faye’s with her.”
He looked back at Jeff and nodded as he wrapped his arm around Cassandra’s shaking frame.
“See to the car.”
Jeff was back in the driver’s seat to do as he was told.
Cassandra saw her breath against the air. She reached for Oliver’s coat to shield her from the chill.
“No,” he said. “Come with me.”
He led her into the house, to their room, and locked the door behind them. Cassandra shivered more than she had in the night.
Oliver moved past her. She could feel him longing to touch her. He sat on the edge of the bed and folded his hands under his chin.
“Off.”
Cassandra was at a loss in the face of his new request.
“Oliver—”
“Your clothes.”
Cassandra’s trembling grew, but she couldn’t fight the demand in his eyes. She slowly removed her jeans and let them fall to the floor. The sweater came next. Up and over her head until she was standing in just her bra and panties.
“Everything.”
She obeyed and was soon naked under his eyes. Cassandra expected him to lunge and twist her to his side. But he stood and circled around her. When he touched her arms, she moaned lightly. His hands left her skin, but she could still feel them just above her back.
“He did this, too?”
Cassandra slowly looked at him over her shoulder. She knew he was seeing more bruises, a result of the moment when Adam violently pushed her into the wall. She nodded and watched his eyes close. He was obviously feeling the blows as if he had been in the room. He shook his head. His jaw tensed, and then he finally let out a low, long sigh.
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