by B. B. Hamel
For example, back in the eighties there was a reporter named Michael Leeway. He wrote a three-part series on the mafia in Ashertown, connecting corrupt politicians and other civil servants to money coming from obvious mob fronts. Michael disappeared two days after the third part was published and his body was never found.
That was just one example of many. On their own, each disappearance didn’t amount to much, but when you put them all side by side and really looked at the timeline of what was happening, it was absolutely staggering.
That was all I did with myself ever since Gage left my hotel room that night. I went to work, I did my research, I prepared my case, and I slept. I didn’t go out, I didn’t have friends, and I didn’t linger anywhere that wasn’t safe. I worked and that was it.
I missed him. I hated to admit it, hated that I felt it, but I did. I missed Gage and wished I hadn’t sent him away because I knew that he could make me feel good in a time when nothing else was really working.
But I couldn’t get involved with that. I couldn’t. It was just insane for me to want the one guy that I absolutely shouldn’t want. He worked for the mob, and the mob was my biggest problem. I didn’t even know if he would want to see me, even if I could get past everything that was keeping us apart.
Still, his words kept ringing in my mind. Even when I was my worst, when the threats were particularly bad and fear spiked through my body, I kept remembering what he said. Gage would never let them hurt me, even if I didn’t want to see him.
He didn’t owe me that, and it was insane of me to think that he was actually going to follow through. But I couldn’t help picturing his strong arms wrapped around my body, that smirk of his plastered on his face. He’d kiss my ear the way he did, fingers tracing circles around my hipbones.
Those were just silly fantasies by a silly girl, and I didn’t have time for them. I was trying to win a case against a serious man with serious backers, and it felt like everyone in town was against me.
Even Rick wasn’t as helpful as I thought he’d be. After the initial hearing, he handed over everything that I’d need and left me to it. He assigned me some law clerks to help out, but he basically ignored my calls and had his secretaries turn me away when I tried to talk to him face to face. It was like he was trying to throw me under the bus.
Which he probably was. I just didn’t want to admit that to myself.
I leaned back in my chair and glanced at the clock. It was after midnight and I was exhausted. I had to be up early again the next day to make a meeting at work, another in a series of seemingly useless and never-ending meetings.
I shut my laptop and stood, stretching. I let out a yawn and walked over to the bed. But as I collapsed onto the messy sheets, there was a knock at my door.
I froze. I didn’t order anything, as far as I could remember, but it was totally possible I called for some room service and they were just taking forever to get it to me.
The knock came again. I couldn’t ignore it this time. It was definitely real. I stood up and walked gingerly over to the door.
“Who is it?” I called out.
“Delivery for you.”
I frowned. “I didn’t order anything.”
The guy sighed. “Says right here that you did. Some pizza and fries.”
Curious, I unbolted the top bolt, but left the chain in place. I opened the door a crack.
“I didn’t order any—“
The guy was big and he moved fast. He kicked the door, wrenching the chain backward. I stumbled away from the door, a scream frozen in my throat.
He kicked again and the chain broke free. I finally managed to release that scream, but it was far too late. The man came in and grabbed me, shoving his hand over my mouth. He held me tight as he carried me over to the bed.
He had reddish brown hair and a thick beard. I’d never seen him before. He had thick arms and a full belly, and he looked like he was a football player in high school that went soft.
“Stupid bitch,” he growled in my ear. “You should have left when you had the chance.”
He shoved me onto the bed. I struggled, hitting him, but it didn’t do anything. He held me down with one hand covering my mouth and reached down to the waist of my sweats.
I knew what he was trying to do, and I began to fight harder. I kicked, screaming into his hand, wiggling and fighting. His bulk pinned me down though as he slowly managed to get my sweats and panties down a few inches.
“You dumb bitch. This is happening. I’m going to rape your ass until you’re bleeding and pathetic on the floor.”
Pure panic and terror took over me. I wasn’t thinking anymore, I was just fighting. I managed to get a knee up and smash it into his stomach. He rolled off and I screamed as loud as I could. I screamed my head off, my throat torn from the noise, but he was back on me in a second.
“That’s going to cost you, bitch,” he said, pulling a knife from his pocket. He held it to my throat as he unbuckled his belt. “Move and I kill you. That would be a lot easier, you know.”
I stared at him, not moving, eyes wide. He slowly unbuckled his belt and pulled his dick out, this knobby disgusting prick. He smiled with yellowing and crooked teeth.
“Time to get what you deserve, bitch.”
He moved the knife away from my throat and leaned toward me, pinning me back down. I kicked and struggled, but I knew there was no use. I couldn’t do anything. I was nothing, a small tiny idiot in over my head, and I was going to get raped, violated by this filthy piece of shit.
In that moment, I wished he had just killed me instead.
I felt his hot breath against my neck. I felt him press against me.
I closed my eyes, sobbing, terrified, disgusting.
Then there was a crashing noise, and he was gone. Just as he was about to shove his disgusting thing inside of me, he was gone.
I opened my eyes and saw two men struggling on the ground, grunting and fighting.
12
Gage
Rage tore through me in waves. When I found the door half open, the chain torn from its hinges and blocking it from shutting all the way, I knew what I’d find inside. I feared the worst and hoped for the best and found something in the middle.
I didn’t waste a second thinking about what I was going to do. I charged into the room and grabbed Kuzma, the dirty red-haired bastard, and threw him off Sadie. I dove onto Kuzma, punching him once, twice, before Kuzma slashed with his knife.
Pain seared up my ribs. I grabbed his wrist, grunting, shoving it aside. He fought back, caught off guard but still a killer. I held the high ground and kneed him in the crotch, dropping my weight onto the knife.
It slowly turned back toward Kuzma, plunging down toward his chest. He struggled, cursing, kicking his legs. He tried to bash my head with his, but I moved aside and kneed him again.
“Why?” he grunted.
I plunged the knife into his chest, not answering.
The bastard didn’t deserve an answer.
He went limp. I stood up and looked at Sadie. She was sitting on the bed, her eyes wide. She had pulled up her pants and crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself.
I went to her, kneeling in front of her. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head, eyes still wide. She was clearly in shock.
“Come on. We have to get out of here.”
“Gage?”
“It’s me. You’re safe.”
“How are you here?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I’ll tell you in the car. Come on. Get what you need and let’s leave.”
She stood up like a zombie, following my lead. She shoved some clothing into a bag, grabbed some papers and folders and her computer, and put it all on top of the clothes. I zipped her bag, hefted it up, and we left the room. Kuzma lay bleeding on the carpet, dead or soon to be dead.
We went down the hall and stopped outside of my room. “Wait here,” I said. I opened the door and went inside. She follow
ed me in, frowning.
“Were you staying here?”
I nodded. I threw my stuff into my bag. I checked that my gun was loaded before slipping it into the waist of my jeans. Two minutes later, we were hustling back down the hall. We got into the elevator and rode it down.
“What’s happening, Gage?”
“I’ll explain soon. We just have to hurry.”
I needed to make sure that we could get clear of the hotel room. I didn’t know if Kuzma had backup or not. He was supposed to, but Kuzma was known to break the rules when he felt like it. I was hoping that he figured this was an easy job and didn’t bother bringing reinforcements.
We got out at the lobby and hustled to the left. We went out a side exit and hurried out toward my car.
Nobody else was around. I threw open the door, got the bags inside, and got her settled. I went around the other side, got behind the wheel, and started the engine.
We pulled out into traffic and were clear.
I didn’t know if Kuzma was alone or not, but it didn’t matter. For the time being, we were safe. I kept an eye on my rearview mirror, taking back streets and running red lights where I could, but nobody was following me. I was absolutely sure of that at least.
“He tried to rape me.”
Her voice cut open the silence. I blinked, surprised at how it effected me. “I know,” I said.
“He was going to do it. I mean, he almost did.”
“But he didn’t.”
“I know. Because of you.” She looked at me sideways. “Why were you there?”
“I knew they were planning something for you. My boss ordered me to do it, but I think that was just a test.”
“So you stayed near me?”
I nodded once. “Took a room just a few doors down, just in case.”
“You were protecting me.”
“Something like that.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“You know why, Sadie. I told you already. I won’t let those bastards hurt you, not ever.”
She chewed on her lip. “I told you go leave me and never come back.”
“I don’t always listen.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah,” I grunted. “Sure.”
I pulled up out front of my place. We climbed out and I helped her inside. She went quiet again and I could see that faraway look in her eyes, that look people get when they’re haunted by something fucked up that they did. I had that look a few times in my life and knew what it meant very, very well.
She wasn’t going to be okay for a little while. Maybe in the morning she’d be back to herself on the surface, but that moment of terror and powerlessness was going to live inside of her forever. She’d always be scarred by what Kuzma did to her, and it may never heal right.
The best she could hope for was some scarring. Maybe the wound would heal and she’d come out the other side tougher and stronger. Sure, it would always be there, that scar, but she would survive it.
I was going to try and help her the best that I knew how.
My place was small, a little house outside of the main town. I tossed our bags in the corner and turned on the lights.
“We’ll be safe here tonight,” I said. “Kuzma probably wouldn’t have reported in until the morning anyway.”
“Okay,” she answered.
“You can have my bedroom. I’ll be out here.”
She looked away. “Can I take a bath? I just feel disgusting.”
“Of course.”
I led her back into the bathroom. “Thanks,” she said and turned on the water. I left to grab her some fresh towels.
When I came back, she was naked. She looked over her shoulder at me and stepped into the tub.
“Sit in here with me,” she said.
“Okay.” I tried not to stare at her. My cock was fucking hard and I knew that was totally fucked up. The girl had almost been raped an hour ago, she wasn’t thinking about sex.
The tub filled and finally she sat down in it, leaning back. I sat on the toilet bowl, legs stretched out, hands on the back of my head.
“Have you killed before?” she asked me suddenly.
I paused. “Yes,” I said honestly.
“I knew it. It just seemed so easy for you.”
“It’s never easy,” I said. “It shouldn’t be easy. But I do it because I have to.”
“You don’t have to be one of them, you know.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand.”
“They’re bad people.”
“Not all of them. The mafia gave me a place in the world, they gave me a life. I can’t turn my back on them.”
“You saved me. You killed one of your own people.”
I nodded and didn’t say anything. I never liked Kuzma much, but she was right, he was one of my people.
Still, I would kill him over and over if I had to. I would do it to save her.
“I don’t understand you,” she said.
“That’s okay. You don’t need to.”
“I want to. I’ve spent my whole life trying to put people like you behind bars but now here I am, alive only because you are who you are.”
“You would have survived without me.”
“Not like this, I wouldn’t have. I would be broken.” Tears choked her words. “Dirty.”
I looked at her for a second then moved over toward her. I sat down on the edge of the tub and put my arm around her shoulders, tracing circles on her shoulder. I didn’t say a word and she leaned against me, sitting there and staring off into space.
I knew there was nothing I could say to fix this for her. There was nothing I could say that could take away the pain she was feeling, the horror of that bastard Kuzma. It was stupid, but I did want to try and fix things for her, though I knew that was impossible. She was going to have to bear this burden and survive it.
I knew she could. I knew she was strong, probably stronger than she even realized.
We sat there together in the bathroom not saying a word, lost together. We were still in a fucking ton of danger, but for the moment, we had a brief second of peace.
13
Sadie
I woke up with a start. I took a deep breath, coming into consciousness suddenly, and looked around. Terror was lancing through me, and I needed to get up, needed to run.
The dream state wore off in a few seconds. I took some deep breaths and had to tell myself a few times that it was only a dream. It had happened, for real, but that was hours ago. That was over. The dream was just a dream and I wasn’t actually being raped.
I stretched in the unfamiliar bed, looking around.
The night before went past like a blur. After Gage had saved me from that man and killed him, everything melted past. I could barely remember what happened. I knew we left the hotel together, and Gage said something about living next to me. Then I came back and took a bath while he sat with me, softly rubbing circles in my shoulder the way he used to.
Embarrassment creeped up my cheeks. Oh god, I was completely naked in that bath and he was holding me like I was a little girl. I shook my head, shocked that I had done that, but more shocked about the way Gage had treated me.
He took care of me. He was tender, gentle, and loving. I never saw that side of Gage, and I figured he didn’t have a single tender bone in his body, but clearly I was wrong. I was a mess when he brought me to his place, but he made sure that I was safe, secure, and comfortable. He let me stay in that bath and he sat next to me the whole time, never complaining.
I was wearing a pair of his shorts and a T-shirt two sizes too big, so probably his, too. I didn’t think he actually dressed me, but I couldn’t put it past myself. It was strange, the way I had reacted. I understood that I was in shock, but at the time it was just like my systems had shut down, like my brain turned down the volume to block out everything around it. Maybe that’s what people do when they’ve experienced something bad.
I rolled over and sat up, gr
oaning. I checked a digital clock on the nightstand and saw that it was eight in the morning. I was late for work, but I was probably going to have to miss a day or two.
I clenched the sheets. I was going to have to miss more than a couple days, I realized. The mob sent someone to fucking rape me, and it would have worked if Gage hadn’t been there. They wanted to rape me to send me a message, to make me back down, to destroy me.
Well, it worked. I wasn’t going to go forward that that case, not anymore. It was just too stupid and dangerous. Rick Shakeman, that bastard, he knew what he was getting me into. He knew that I was going to be putting my life in serious risk by prosecuting these people, and he did it anyway. That was why he wasn’t taking the job himself.
I was so angry at him that I could barely breathe. I wanted to scream in his face and tell him all about what had happened to me, but I couldn’t go into work. I didn’t know what I could do, actually. I didn’t know if we were safe.
Gage killed that guy. He plunged a knife into his chest and we left him there. The police were probably looking for us since it had to have happened on camera, or at the very least they saw us in the hallways and elevators.
The cops were after us. The mob was probably after us. And there I was, sleeping until eight in the morning.
I looked around Gage’s room. I was surprised that it was actually nicely decorated. It was painted a light gray color, and his furniture was all sleek and modern. His bed was large, and there were old movie posters on the walls. They all had frames, and I smiled to myself when I realized that framed pictures in a person’s home meant that they really were an adult, as opposed to just tacking it up to the wall.
I stood up and opened the door. The smell of cooking bacon assaulted me instantly, and my stomach rumbled. I was surprised that I was so hungry. I walked down the hall and into the open living room and kitchen area.
Standing at the stove was Gage. He looked over his shoulder and waved with the spatula. “Morning,” he said.
“Are you cooking?” I asked incredulously.
“I sure am. What do you want? Eggs? Bacon? Coffee?”