“She’s fine,” he said to himself. “She has to be.”
As he collected his clothes and dressed fast, he took instant note of the fact that her threads were nowhere to be found. What had to be one of Danny’s robes was flung over the back of a chair. Surely she would have just slipped into that if she was only stepping out for a second?
“Jesus fuck!”
Danny’s bellowing made Peter bolt from the room, his fingers flailing around his buttons as he saw Danny standing before his easel with a piece of paper shaking in his hand. He twisted his head as he scanned the document again and again, and Peter had almost reached him when he pushed the page behind his back and shook a fist in Peter’s face.
“Did you know she was going to do this?” Danny demanded.
“I… she was just on the couch with me,” Peter insisted. “I didn’t even hear her get up!”
“Yeah, there seems to be a lot you don’t hear or see!” Danny snarled.
He finally granted Peter access to the piece of paper, and his eyes grew wide as he struggled to focus on the words in his hand.
Peter,
Thank you. You’ve saved me over and over again. But it’s time for me to get back to what makes sense. It was never going to work. But we did have fun. And I’ll always remember…
Gypsy xx
The page was stained with her tears, and when Danny kicked the edge of the easel by accident, something fell to the floor and spun before coming to rest. As Peter bent to see what it was, the ring, Caroline’s ring, caught between his fingers. He knew that it had to have hurt her to take it off, and his heart swelled at the thought that she would make this move to keep him safe.
Until it froze in his chest.
“I’m not letting her…” Peter said out loud.
“Hold up, stud!” Danny said as he grabbed him.
Danny forced him back to face him, and even as Peter writhed in his hold, the artist’s strength surprised him as it held him where he stood.
“Get the hell off of me!” Peter screamed. “I need to find her!”
“Idiot!” he hissed.
“What did you call me?”
“No, actually that’s my moniker now,” he continued. “Because I told her that she should give your ass a chance. And what do you do? Put her in crashing planes and get her kidnapped. Now she’s going back to who the hell knows what to save your worthless neck.”
Her father! Peter thought. He had to find a way to cut the monster off at the pass, and he looked for the burner phone and some way to contact him.
“I… no! Did she take it with her?” Peter asked.
“Take what?” Danny looked at him.
“The goddamned burner phone!” Peter screamed looking round the room frantically. “She… it had to take her some time to do this,” he said as he waved the note in Danny’s face and forced him to the floor. “And you didn’t hear a fucking thing?”
“You were sleeping with her,” Danny said. “You said you’d look after her.”
Peter was ready to slam his fist into Danny’s face when Caroline’s words echoed in his brain.
Give me something to…
He had not given her the chance to finish the thought, but now it seemed clear that she was asking for something to remember, that her mind was made up before they fell into one another.
“I should have known,” Peter said as he shifted off of Danny and held his head in his hands. “She… she had to have a plan. God, why did I let myself fall asleep?”
“Million dollar question!” Danny said as he crawled to his feet and glared down at Peter.
“If she… If she’s going back to him, I…” Peter groaned.
Her father was going to hurt her, Peter knew. Make her pay for his mistakes and all the things that were never her fault. As Peter held the ring, he wanted it back on her finger. But more than that, he had to find her.
“What’s your plan?” Danny asked.
“My… what do you mean?” Peter asked as he turned at the door.
“Have you got any clue where you’re going or where you’re supposed to look?” Danny said with a look of disgust written all over his face.
Peter wasn’t sure. Was he supposed to make his way back to the warehouse on the docks, step into a safe suit and just get down to work? Or should he go to the drop off point where money always changed hands as church bells chimed in the distance? He had no currency in his pockets now. Nothing but the ring. And there was no way he was going to hand that over to anyone but her. But his mind flashed back to Swanson grumbling as they had waited so often in the rain.
We do all the work, and he gets all the glory. No way you’d ever see him waiting to make the drop.
No way at all, Peter thought, and he reached into his pocket as Danny kept pressing him for a plan.
“Hold up,” Peter said as he dialed his cell phone.
“You’re not calling her old man are you?” Danny asked.
“He’s the last person that’s going to help me right now,” Peter said resignedly.
And this wasn’t much of a better bet.
Chapter Five
“Come close so I can see you,” my father said, holding out his hand.
My father was waiting as soon as I stepped off the elevator, holding the door open as I walked like a willing fly into his waiting web. A quick glance over my shoulder showed no sign of Peter coming after me, and I hung my head as I crossed the threshold and saw the fiendish glint in my father’s eyes.
“Caroline…” he smiled deceptively.
As soon as he closed the door, I hugged my body close and avoided his eyes as he circled around me.
“So glad that you’re home, sweetheart,” he said as he pushed his hands into my shoulders.
I shuddered at the thought of what my stepping through the door was bound to mean, and I cringed when his fingers grazed the hem of my skirt as he buried his nose in my hair.
“Hmmm,” he moaned. “You smell like you’ve been a bad girl. What have you been doing, sweet Caroline?”
Any thought of lying faded when he spun me around to face him. I knew that my face was bound to betray me with the smallest look, and my shoulders sagged as I swallowed hard.
“It won’t happen again, sir,” I promised him. “I’ll stay close to home from now on.”
“Damn straight you will, you little whore,” he spat, the smile now missing from his face.
He slapped me hard, and my face, hardly having had the chance to heal, stung as I fell to my knees and tried to keep from crying. It was no use when he fell on top of me and started to pet my hair.
“Why did you make me do that?” he asked as he stroked my locks. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is keep you protected. Who better to do that than me?”
“I… I’m sorry.”
Again I wished for Peter to somehow come flying into the room. I pictured his face and longed for him to collect me into his arms. Let him have a gun or a knife. Let him use his feet, if that’s all he had at his disposal, to smash my father’s skull in. Anything to stop him from…
“Now, come on. It’s been a long time. Too long,” my father said.
I started to struggle as he took me into his arms, but the push of his finger against my lips kept me quiet as he glared down at me.
“You’re going to be my good girl now, right?” he said. “I can always go back on our little deal if you won’t play nice.”
“I… of course,” I said. “Whatever you want.”
“That’s more like it,” he grinned.
My body went limp as he hoisted me up and carried me up the steps. It was going to be like no time had passed, I thought. He was going to come to me in my bed and touch me, make me touch him. I trembled in his hold as I sadly stared at my bare hand. Maybe… maybe if I had kept the ring I would still feel like I was Peter’s. How would he react when he’d seen what I had done?
Let him be angry! Let him not want me anymore! It’ll only end up bad for
him if he… if he…
“Here we go,” my father said.
As he set me down on the edge of my bed, my eyes drifted towards the lace-lined canopy. Maybe I could get lost in the patterns and send my mind somewhere else as he did unspeakable things to my body. Would I be able to picture Peter when the worst came to pass? Or maybe… maybe I didn’t want to. Better to save him for whatever moments I might have to myself. They had to come at one point or another.
“So…” my father’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
But not now.
My father dragged a chair close to me and sat heavily as he unbuttoned his collar, loosened his tie and ran his hand down his leg.
“Remove your dress,” he ordered, licking his lips.
“I… what do you…?” I stammered.
“Don’t play like you haven’t already been naked tonight ten times over. Strip, or I might have to make a phone call,” he hissed.
“Yes, sir.”
With trembling hands, I slowly started to unveil my body to his hungry eyes. A light draft passed through the window, and I shot a sad stare towards the glass. If I was fast enough, I could plow into the pane and cut my body to ribbons before I fell to the hard ground below. A battered face. A broken neck. Anything would be better than what he was about to do to me, and I nearly made the move when my father stomped his foot to the floor.
“Take too much time, and I’ll do it for you,” he threatened.
Wanting his hands off of me for as long as possible, I resumed undressing. Through my quivers, I felt silent tears pouring down my face. Was there a way that I could die on the spot before he touched me again? It would keep Peter in the clear and spare me this… this…
“Caroline…” he moaned.
Looking through a bleary haze, I saw my father’s hands undo his trousers and release his cock. Then he stroked himself with a great groan. His eyes rolled back in his head as he got himself off to the sight of my young body, and I started to conceal my body under my arms when he slammed his foot into the floor again and licked his lips.
“I’ll have you where I can see you, all of you, and nowhere else,” he demanded.
Just a few hours ago, this body, my body, was Peter’s. He had caressed me with words of love and stroked me with loving lips. Worlds away from his sweet stare, I felt filthy, but I took some small comfort in the idea that my father was too old, too far gone to hurt me as he had before. Life as his living porn star was far from what I could have been at Peter’s side, in his hold, but if it spared me from my father pushing his way inside me, I could bite down and find a way to survive.
“On the bed,” he demanded.
So much for that hope. I stared sadly at the mattress and started to shake my head when my father zipped up his pants, unfurled his belt and smacked the buckle into my bare legs.
“I said lay down!”
Crawling and crying, I made my way to the mattress and lay like a cold slab with my hands at my sides. My mind flooded with all the ways he had hurt me when I was still in his good graces. So what would he do to me now?
“I saw you,” he started as he circled the bed and kept hitting my legs. “Looking out the window. You dirty little…”
He fell to his knees and brought his clammy lips to my cheek as he pulled on my hair.
“Think you can run at the first chance?” he said menacingly.
“No,” I muttered. “As long as… as long as Peter stays safe, I promise that I won’t…”
“Now why should I fucking believe you?” he snarled.
He slapped my face, and I painfully curled to my side as he forced me to face him and mashed his mouth against mine. My arms flailed at his back, and as soon as I felt faint, I was ready to give in to the swoon when he pushed me back and leered down at me.
“But I guess it is something that you came home,” he said. “Now, how to keep you in check…?”
Reaching into his pocket, my father revealed a long length of rope. My wrists already burned at the thought that he was going to bind me to the bedpost and leave me with little or no movement except perhaps my nails grazing the wood as my head futilely turned from side to side. Would he gag me and deny me the chance to draw the deep breaths that I so desperately needed?
“How long until you find another way to leave?” he asked.
“I… don’t know what you…”
“And someone might hear you. Or see you. Even all the way up here,” he said, almost to himself.
He sat on the bed and forced my naked body into his arms as he pushed a cloth into my mouth and flung me over his shoulders.
“I have something much more private in mind,” he said with a short laugh.
Something coating the damp on the cloth made me drowsy, and I had no strength to wriggle away from him as we moved back down the steps. My father stopped before the bookcase full of volumes that I knew the man had never read, and I saw him begin to pull something from the shelf, when the entire wall suddenly gave way.
“This will do,” he muttered.
The revealed room was gray and cold, and my father tossed me to the floor. Pulling the makeshift gag from my mouth, I coughed and choked, struggling towards a lonely bed as I pulled my body to the sheets.
“Your new home!” he said as he surveyed the space with sick pride. “Walls so thick that no one will ever hear you scream. And no way for you to get out. Caroline…”
I scrambled towards the wall and hugged my knees to my chest as he touched my face and nibbled at my hair.
“Now you have to stay mine,” he said. “Even our boy won’t find you. If he lives long enough to get in line.”
He kissed me full on the mouth, and I had no strength to whimper under his lips when he pulled back and patted my cheeks.
“Got a few phone calls to make,” he said. “And then… then you’ll be all mine.”
I tried to follow the path of his fingers as he punched a keypad just beside the door, but he moved in front of the numbers before he had finished. Before he could leave the room, I moved to the end of the bed.
“You… you won’t hurt him, right?” I pleaded. “If I let you, you won’t…”
“Let me?” he asked turning to look at me with a short laugh. “Caroline, you’re all out of wishes. Now just wait here like a good little girl. I’ll be back to take care of you before you know it.”
As soon as he was gone, the room was completely dark save for one dim light glowing in the corner. Standing on shaking legs, I made my way to the only door in sight. The handle would not give way, but I still pounded even as I believed my father’s words to be true and feared that no one would ever hear me.
“Peter?” I whimpered sinking to the ground. “I… I didn’t think it would be like… like this.”
A lonely dark hole; a place where my father would come day after day and night after night until just the thought of his cold company would be the one thing left in the world that I would have to look forward to. Falling away from the door, I touched the air and recalled Peter’s face, almost felt his kiss.
“Hold me, Peter,” I whispered.
Sinking into the feel of my own arms alone, I almost heard his voice trickling into my ear. His smile hit my hair, and I thought that I had the ring back when the dream suddenly disintegrated under my eyes.
“No! No, don’t leave me here all alone! I… I take it back. I… I can’t…”
I looked around the room and all I could see was only the one light. No hint of his eyes or the feel of his hands. I climbed back to the bed and, shivering, I wept into the hard pillows as I cradled my breasts and tried to bring him back.
“Peter? Find me. Please…” I pleaded.
Chapter Six
Danny made his doubts known as Peter took off into the night. And even as he waved him off and told Brett to get off of Penny and bring the car back around, Peter thought that he was already off on a fool’s errand.
“Where we headed?” Brett asked as Peter climbe
d into the backseat of the car.
“Regular spot,” he said in a dark voice. “Think you can remember the way?”
It took a few seconds for the words to seep into his brain, and Peter waited with clenched fists as understanding finally spread over Brett’s face.
But then he did nothing more than shake his head.
“Thought you were done with all that,” Brett said.
“Old habits must die hard,” Peter snapped.
“So why are you…?”
“Will you just fucking drive already?” Peter shouted.
Brett spun the car away from the curb, and Peter kept pressing his fingers together as they headed deeper into the night. Dangerous? That didn’t even begin to describe the plan. No, not a plan. This was a shot in the dark if ever there was one, and Peter had no way of knowing if he had a hope of making it out the other side. After what had gone down in Harrison, the old boy might want to slice him off at the waist where he stood. But what if… what if he told him that…?
“Here good?” Brett asked, interrupting Peter’s thoughts, as he slowed the car down.
“Fine,” Peter said as Brett pushed the car into park.
Peter took a deep breath and stared towards the church. He didn’t know if this plan would work but for Caroline’s sake he had to give it his best shot. He refused to consider what might happen to her if his plan failed.
“Umm…” Brett began nervously.
“What is it?” Peter hissed as he ducked his head through the half-open window.
“So I… do I just… like… wait here?” Brett asked.
“Yes you do. And… Brett?”
Thinking that this might be the last moment that he would ever see him again, Peter patted his wrist.
“Give me ten minutes,” Peter said. “If you don’t see me come back, you get lost, okay?”
“But…?” Brett frowned.
“No questions,” Peter said. “Go back to Penny. Make an honest woman of her.”
“We’re already engaged,” Brett said. “It’s… like a good feeling.”
The best, Peter thought. And more than anything, he wanted it back for himself.
The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set Page 34