Fake (A Pretty Pill, #2)

by Criss Copp

  I groan and I’m inwardly cringing.

  I continue to walk toward my car and ignore Ethan behind me, till I get to my vehicle and go to open the driver’s door.

  “Isobelle.” He repeats, leaning on the door so I can’t open it.

  “What?”

  “I was just wondering what you were here for?” He says seductively, while plunging something into his rear pocket.

  Ugh.

  “What does it matter Ethan? You made every effort to have me fired the other week; you can’t possibly be concerned about me now.”

  “I was angry then; but I realize it wasn’t your fault with the boy. I’m sorry I overreacted.” He says.

  “I’m not. It meant changes were made for the better.” I grumble.

  “How can things possibly be better for you?”

  “They are. But don’t worry; I just came to drop off my keys.” I say, before trying the handle again.

  “Don’t rush off; I was looking out for you to return the keys; I really wanted to tell you I’m sorry.” Ethan states.

  “I need to be somewhere.”

  “You off to bail out your boyfriend?” He sneers. “Emphasis on the word boy.”

  “Excuse me?” I gasp, stopping dead in my tracks.

  “Oh come on. We all know Silas has been arrested.” He chuckles.

  “How do you know?”

  “He got arrested on this property. How could we not know?” He explains, crossing his arms and placing his full body weight against the door.

  “Yes, interesting that he was arrested on this private property.” I reply.

  “In this car too I believe.” He says.

  I cock my head to the side.

  “Why did you call the cops Ethan?” I ask.

  It’s infinitesimal, the movement, but it is there nonetheless and I notice it.

  “I had nothing to do with it.”

  LIAR. I want to scream.

  “I don’t need to bail him out; his sister has already done it.” I say carefully.

  “So, you’re not his first point of call then?”

  “That is really none of your business.” I growl.

  “Look, Isobelle. I’ve been asking you out for months. I’m not a bad looking guy, I earn decent money, I have no criminal activity on my things to do list, what do I need to do to help you see that?” Ethan questions.

  “Attraction isn’t an inventory item Ethan.” I agitatedly sigh, “It’s either there or it isn’t.”

  “I’m very attracted to you Isobelle.”

  “It has to be a two way street. I’m not attracted to you.” I reason. I’m getting pretty pissed right now. “Now, can I please leave?”

  It happens like lightening. He reaches over and grabs my face, pulls me towards him and kisses me hard on the lips. My instant reaction is to jab him in his wind pipe, but since his arms are blocking that route, I go for the good old fashioned knee to the balls.

  “FUCK.” Ethan screams, doubling over and unceremoniously falling to the ground.

  I go to open the door, but he quickly manages to kick out and close the door, unfortunately onto my shoulder. I fall back against the side of the car.

  “Fuck.” I shout.

  “You fucking bitch.” He’s saying breathlessly.

  I thought I’d got him a good one; but obviously not good enough because he’s gotten to his knees and is about to get up.

  I kick my right leg out in an attempt to kick him in the chest, but he grabs it and pulls me unbalanced, so that I fall heavily onto the asphalt and awkwardly onto my other shoulder, which I feel pop and dislocate upon landing on it. I scream.

  I can hear my phone ringing in my bag, which has also fallen to the ground. I’m grappling to get up, but then Ethan has a knee in my back, pressing my stomach into the solid, gritty surface of the asphalt. Where my t-shirt has risen up, I can sense the heat from the dark pebbly surface permeating my flesh.

  “What did you have to go and do that for?” He’s shouting into my ear from behind.

  I realize the painful extent of my shoulder’s dislocation when he jolts my shoulders for a reaction; the pain is enormous.

  “You’re hurting me.” I tell him breathlessly.

  “You fucking hurt me first.” He shouts.

  “You kissed me. That’s sexual assault.”

  It probably isn’t wise to say something like that to someone who’s sitting on your back and currently has the power. I notice my phone is still ringing. I guess its Silas. Because nobody else I know would ring me repeatedly.

  Silas.

  “She’s not answering her phone.” I lament.

  “She’s probably working.” Jade offers.

  “She’s not working; she was making arrangements with her boss to let me leave.”

  “Then she’s probably in the middle of talking to her. Leave a message. She’ll get back to you.” Jade reasons.

  “Yeah.” I grumble.

  The house phone calls.

  “Shit, it’ll wake Ben.” Jade panics, racing to the phone and grabbing it up so that it will stop ringing.

  “Hello?” She says.

  …

  “Oh, Dr. Jensen. Good afternoon.” She says, mouthing to me that it’s Dr. Jensen on the phone. Um… durr. I just heard you say that Jade.

  “Yes, he’s already here.”

  She’s nodding.

  “Okay, we’d be happy for him to come home and we’ll come and get his things today if you need us to.”

  She’s nodding again.

  “Yes, Isobelle. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her yet, but she sounds like a good friend.” She says.

  I’m impatient, “Ask her if Isi is still there.”

  She gives me a narrow-eyed warning to shut up.

  “Yes Dr. Jensen. I’m very happy with his treatment. I guess people get better in their own time and at their own rate.” she says. Another momentary pause.

  “Yes and thank you. I’ll send my fiancé over to sign the paperwork now, he’s already out, so he can pop over and sort it all out promptly.”

  She nods a couple of times.

  “Thank you, Bye.” She says and hangs up.

  “You didn’t ask if Isi was with her.” I groan and stomp like a 4 year old.

  “She’s not. She left a quarter of an hour ago.” She says, as she dials Ben.

  “She left fifteen minutes ago?”

  “Yes. Dr. Jensen said that Isobelle was in a quarter of an hour ago giving her the news that you wanted to quit the program.” Jade explains, and then holds her finger up to indicate silence is required.

  “Ben? Can you go to the transition facility and sign the paperwork for Silas please?” She asks.

  “Yeah,” she continues. “They’re expecting you. Just buzz at the front door and they’ll let you through… I love you too, Bye.”

  “So why won’t she pick up her phone?” I continue our conversation and worry.

  “She could be in traffic and can’t hear it?” Jade offers.

  “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling.”

  “Don’t stress Silas. Have a drink of something and I’ll go and see if the phone woke Ben.”

  I really don’t like this. I’m probably paranoid, but the last time I had bad feelings about stuff, I was 100% correct; Shae was most definitely leaving me.

  But I don’t think Isi is leaving, I think something bad has happened to her.

  I go and sit in the lounge room and hit dial on my mobile, over and over again; waiting for her to pick up.

  Isi.

  Ethan comes in close and begins to sneer into my ear, “You’d scream sexual assault for me kissing you?”

  “No. Get off me and we can forget this happened at all.” I groan. I can feel the vertebrae in my back ‘pop’ just like when going to the chiropractor, however, I don’t like the circumstances regarding this vertebral release.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Please get off of me Ethan,
you’re hurting me.”

  “We’ve already been over that.” he replies snidely.

  He grabs my hair and reefs me up. My shoulder is screaming at me, and the pain nearly makes me vomit.

  I’m hunched over and my right hand is holding onto his, where he has my ponytail gripped firmly in his hand. He’s dragging me toward the hedge. There’s a small break in the hedge and it leads to a couple of park bench seats underneath some very pretty shade trees. I don’t want him taking me there. I have no doubt his intentions are far from honorable. I try to kick out at him, but he kicks me back and I go down. The struggle buys me time, but he’s determined.

  I’m being literally dragged into the covered clearing behind the hedge, and I know I’m screaming, but it seems nobody can hear me. Everyone is inside and visitors aren’t allowed on weekdays.

  I start crying and resume my thrashing about, but my shoulder is so painful that my thrashing exacerbates the throbbing pain and sharp stabbing it emits.

  Then next thing I know is that I’m face down in the dirt and Ethan is on my back again.

  “Fuck Isobelle. You always have to make things so damn hard.”

  “It’s daylight, you… why?”

  “If you think for one minute I’m going to face any charge of sexual assault without having actually sexually assaulted you, then your dreaming.” He shouts.

  “I told you I wouldn’t say anything.” I bargain, “I still won’t if you let me go.”

  “That’s what they all say.”

  Shit, he’s done this before?

  “Ethan, please… you’ll get caught and you’ll be in even bigger trouble.”

  “Nup, I’ll never get caught.” He says.

  My blood runs cold.

  He means to make it so that I can’t say anything, ever again.

  “Are you going to kill me?” I whisper.

  “No, I’m going to take you.” He states, and he’s pulling something out of his pocket.

  Zip ties. My ankles are wrapped up and done before I’ve quite realized what’s occurred, because I’m still relieved he’s not going to kill me.

  But now I’m even more disadvantaged.

  I’m pushing up with my good arm and bucking my body for all it’s worth, but he’s cruel. He grabs my dislocated shoulder and reefs the whole arm back.

  The screaming wail that erupts in that moment pierces my ears and can probably be heard in LA. How anyone inside can’t hear that scream is completely beyond me.

  “Shut the fuck up.” He demands and quickly slams a sock into my mouth. By the taste of it, he’s now minus a shoe. My nose is slightly blocked because of all the emotion, and now my mouth is effectively gagged.

  I’m struggling for air, and I don’t want to pass out. So I go limp. For the first time in this whole struggle, I stop struggling; so I can tell where he is taking me and plan my escape.

  I feel his fingers on my neck, checking my carotid pulse.

  He sighs, and then he’s zip tying my wrists together. I feel him lift off of me, as he stands to view his handy work.

  “Shit damn. You are a fucking feisty woman Isobelle Mulligan.” He chuckles.

  I’m struggling not to cry right now. I need to keep my focus.

  And then I hear a great big WUMP.

  Ethan is completely sidelined as a massive shadow collides with him and takes him down.

  I hear the telltale sound of a fist colliding with a face; and then I note that there’s only breathing sounds. The man that has come to my rescue is breathing hard.

  The breathing is coming closer to me. Then he’s crouching over the back of me.

  “Miss, are you okay?”

  I groan.

  He reaches around to my face, which is turned away from my sore shoulder and him and he takes the sock out of my mouth.

  “Thank you.” I manage.

  “I heard you scream. I thought someone was being murdered, so I ran to the sound as fast as I could; but I was around the corner at the front door. I’m sorry I wasn’t faster.” He says.

  I’m thinking he’s amazingly fast; that’s a long way.

  “My shoulder’s dislocated, and he wrenched it.” I explain.

  “Yep, that’ll do it.” He says.

  I notice he has an Australian accent, and I find it funny that I’ve been rescued by an Australian, when Silas has been rescuing me for the past month.

  “Are all Australians such awesome rescuers?” I ask, as he gently turns me and sits me up.

  “Pardon?” He asks quizzically.

  I get to see him now. He’s extremely handsome. Silas still has a bit of the lean boyishness about him; but this man is all man. I’m not drooling by any means; I really am stuck on Silas.

  Did I just admit that? Shit. I, fuck. I’m falling in love with him; I’m falling in love with Silas.

  This man has light brown short hair which is messy at the moment, and steel grey eyes that are absolutely stunning. His chiseled jaw is masculine perfection, and I can tell his body is divine. Any woman who has him to warm her is a very lucky woman indeed.

  “Oh,” I continue with my initial line of thought. “I’ve just started dating an Australian guy who’s always trying to rescue me from this and that. I’m a bit of a walking hazard at the moment. I seem to be attracting the wrong kind of attention lately.” I nod at Ethan.

  “You’re Isobelle?”

  I look back at the gorgeous man and nod, “How did you know?”

  “Fuck.” he stands and shouts out. “What was he planning on doing with you?” He asks worriedly.

  “I don’t think it was honorable; he was abducting me.” I whisper.

  “Motherfucking cocksucking asshole.” He laments.

  “I’m sorry.” I voice. “Obviously I’ve said something to annoy you. Can you please just call the police?” I ask.

  “Darling, you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.” He says, crouching down and wiping my hair back from my face soothingly. “I’m Ben, I’m Silas’ brother-in-law.” Ben says.

  “Oh, shit. You’re not bipolar too and going to tear a hole in Ethan’s throat are you?”

  “Oh, I’d tear him a fucking hole if I knew I’d get away with it, he’d need one to breathe after I finished smashing his face in. But I’m not bipolar.” He reasons, as he begins to dial 911.

  “I don’t have anything to cut those bonds with, and it’s obvious… police and ambulance please. It’s obvious nobody inside… sexual assault. She’s right in front of me, she’s injured, and I’ve detained the perp. Her hands are tied and I can’t undo them because they’re zip ties.”

  Ben gives them directions and sits down next to me. When Ethan begins to stir, he moves over and places him in a headlock.

  Before the police and ambulance arrive he explains his reaction to finding out who I am.

  “You know Silas is going to go mental. He’ll literally wind up in jail trying to kill this motherfucker.” He sighs.

  Ethan whimpers.

  “Not a fucking sound from you, I can’t even bear the fact that I’m touching you; all I want to do right now is twist your motherfucking head and break your neck.” He growls down at Ethan.

  “I hate that I’ll cause him more pain. Maybe I can get away without telling him?”

  Ben looks at me like I’m insane.

  “You’re not planning on seeing him for the next couple of weeks while your grazes heal?” He nods, indicating the bruising grazes weeping blood on my elbows. “And even then it will be hard to explain to him not to hug you so tight because your shoulder is in pain.” He points out. “Oh and then there’ll be the police to hide, the court case to sweep under the rug and all that other stuff that’s large and kind of hard to put aside.” He explains

  “Damn.”

  “Thought so, I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but you need to tell the truth up front, I can tell you that much. Apart from that, I suppose you’ll need to prepare to calm him down or have a fancy way of telling
him so he doesn’t immediately jump into a rage and run to kill this fucking cunt.” Ben states bluntly.

  I flinch at his harshness and then sigh.

  “Thanks Ben.”

  “Welcome to the family. Sorry about the swearing, and I’m glad to see Silas is right about a few things.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Your bloody gorgeous; and you put up one hell of a fight.” he says smiling, revealing two cheeky dimples that make him turn from being a man into a naughty boy. Silas’ sister Jade is a bloody lucky woman.

  “I still lost.”

  “Not from lack of trying, those injuries are battle worthy. I’m guessing a fair play of chance came into the fight too. Another time and you’d have won.” He reasons.

  “I’ll forgo the rematch.” I laugh. But it causes me pain in my shoulder, so I cringe instead.

  “A sense of humor too, even in light of what just happened.” he shakes his head and smiles, “If they don’t take you overnight into the hospital, let Silas look after you for just one night.” He requests.

  “I can’t, I’ve got to…”

  “It’s just one night.” he interrupts.

  “We’ll see. He mightn’t want to be anywhere near me.”

  “Oh, he’ll most definitely want to be near you.” He states firmly, just as the emergency vehicles arrive.

  ***

  “Hello?” I finally get to answer my phone, which has just been handed to me by a female uniformed police officer, as I’m about to be lifted into the back of the ambulance on a stretcher. I nod to Ben who is talking to Dr. Jensen, and he nods back.

  “Isi, I’ve been trying to call you for an hour.” Silas fearfully says down the phone.

  “I, shit. Silas, if I tell you where to find me and I stay with you tonight, will you promise me you’ll stay calm and not try to kill someone?”

  “Isi, I can only promise you that you’re freaking me out and I already want to tear someone to shreds.” He replies angrily.

  “I really need you to be calm. I need you like I needed your help the other week.” I explain.

  “Has you parents fucking done something?”

  “Silas, please. Go to the gym after I tell you this and punch stuff till you can come to me without acting on your desire to kill someone.” I bargain.

  “Isi, you better fucking tell me what’s going on, I’m about ready to explode here.”