by E. C. Towers
Linda was the first to come to her senses and got up, hooking Jessica’s arm to get her going. Tim groaned as he started to come to, barely able to open his eyes because of a pounding headache growing in his head. But he woke up just in time to see Jessica get up off the bed and start to run past him. As if on instinct, he made a mad grab for the air and was able to catch her ankle. He completely came to, as he had to hold on tight to Jessica, who bucked and tried to kick him off.
He pulled her down to the floor, and she landed awkwardly on her elbow, crying out in pain.
“Jessica!” Hardie screamed and ran towards them with both hands on Tim’s gun. “Let her go, Tim! Let her go!”
Tim sneered at Mr. Pretty Boy pointing the gun at him.
“Go ahead, shoot me, motherfucker. I would love to see you get ass-fucked in jail. You sure gots a purty mouth!”
Tim cracked himself up and tightened his grip on Jessica’s ankle, pulling her down violently. She attempted to scramble towards Hardie as soon as she hit the ground, but Tim yanked her back, wrapped his arms around her neck, and squeezed his arm around to choke her out.
Jessica coughed and gagged before he loosened his hold.
“I said go ahead, fucker, SHOOT ME!” Tim antagonized at Hardie as he stood there, stiff-armed and paralyzed.
“Okay, listen. I’ll put the gun down if you let her go. Promise. I won’t do anything funny.” Hardie hated Tim, but he couldn’t shoot him.
Tim laughed, giving up like the pussy he always thought he was.
“I’m not letting your little girlfriend go here until you put down that gun, pretty boy.” Tim cocked his head with a smug smile and waited.
Hardie slowly crouched down, put the gun in front of his foot and kicked it across the room, away from all of them. Tim saw the gun fly past his reach.
“Oh. So, you’re pretty and smart,” he said, batting his eyelashes at Hardie, taunting him as he got up and dragged his beautiful and helpless girlfriend up with him. “But, if you were smart, then you’d have known that I’m not letting your little girlfriend get away that easily.”
Hardie clenched his teeth as Tim buried his face into Jessica’s neck. His first instinct was to bullet through him and cave in his face, but he didn’t want to put Jessica into any more danger than she already was in.
Tim ground his crotch into Jessica’s backside and snickered as he saw Hardie’s eyes became black with anger. Jessica was sobbing quietly, which, for some weird reason, started to give him a hard on. He was a sick man. But this was no surprise to him.
Linda stepped forward. “Tim, please let Jessica go, or I’ll call the police right now.” Linda held her phone up to show Tim that she had already typed in the number, and all she would have to do is hit send.
“I’ll let her go, but first…” Tim backed up towards the gun slowly, making sure not to take his eyes off Linda and Hardie. There was no way he was going to lose his leverage; hostage or gun, he was in control of this situation. If he had to give up his delicious hostage, then he would need his gun to seal the deal with Linda.
“All you had to do was just let me be part of the party, but I can see you’re going to make it difficult. I can see you’re living up to what I thought you would be; an over-privileged rich bitch who thinks she’s too good for everybody. You’re so good, you won’t even have sex at your own orgy. You get off on watching everyone from your pedestal, you egomaniac!”
Jessica felt hot being next to Tim in his rage. She felt him shaking with anger as he yelled obscenities at Linda.
“You realize you’re not better than anybody else. I have a dick, and I can stick it to you so good, you’ll be booking one-on-one sessions from me nonstop!”
Spittle sprayed from his mouth as he practically growled at Linda.
“And guess what? You’re not the highest pedestal, Linda!”
His tone escalated to a screech.
“I watch you, watching everyone. I’m the all-seeing eye. I know about all you do. I know you fucked little chickie here!” Tim clamped his arm down tight on Jessica’s neck.
Hardie decided to lunge for Jessica at that moment. Tim saw him leap at the corner of his eyes and shoved Jessica into him. She crashed into Hardie, and they both fell to the ground with Jessica landing on top of him. As soon as they got up, they saw that Tim had the gun pointed at them.
“Give me the gun, Tim,” Linda told Tim, as nonchalantly as someone asking to pass the potatoes during dinner.
Tim laughed at her.
“Why don’t you come get it, Linda,” he responded with a smirked. Linda sighed and began to walk towards him.
“What are you doing?” His humor disappeared as he saw Linda approach him. “You better back up, woman, or I’ll shoot you!” Tim took a slight step back.
“Linda! Stop it! Don’t!” Jessica screamed at the top of her lungs, as she tried to get up and go after her. Hardie grabbed her before she could move.
“Tell her to back off, man!” Tim screamed at Hardie, who sat there helpless. Linda warned him to stay where he was with her eyes.
“Tim, give me the gun. I know you’re not going to shoot me. There’s a party coming up, and I know you want to go. If you shoot me, there’s no party. It’s as simple as that. Now, do you want to party with me? Or do you want to shoot me?”
She was right, but let’s get real, she was just trying not to get blown away. There’s no way she’s really inviting him to a party, he thought.
* * *
Before he could reveal to her that he smelled her bullshit, a sharp heel hit him in the forehead, and he immediately felt blood gush down his face. His eyes were blinded by his own blood and stung as he tried to lunge after Linda, who sidestepped him, kneed him in the gut and grabbed the gun out of his hand.
The air was knocked out of him, and he saw spots as he fell to his knees. Linda pointed the gun at Tim.
“Don’t move, or I will shoot you.”
She fingered the trigger as if to show him that she was serious.
“Can one of you guys please call the police?”
Tim took a deep breath and made a sudden grab for the gun. Linda accidentally pressed the trigger in surprise and shot the ceiling as he grabbed her wrist and twisted it. Hardie saw the two of them wrestle around on the ground and hurried over to get Tim off of Linda. But before he could get to them, another shot rang out and their scuffle suddenly stopped.
“Oh, my God, Linda!” Hardie crouched over her to see if she had gotten shot.
“Did I shoot him?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” he panted.
Hardie looked over at Tim, who was on his back with his eyes closed. Hardie looked for a bullet wound and saw a red stain slowly growing larger as it bled through the upper half of Tim’s shirt. Hardie helped Linda up, and they stood there and wondered what to do next.
Hardie tried to find a pulse and couldn’t.
“I think he’s dead.”
Linda slowly closed her eyes. Had she shot him? She knew she had her hands on the gun when they were wrestling, but she couldn’t remember whether or not her hand was the one that pulled the trigger.
“What are we going to do?” Jessica whispered.
“We definitely can’t call the cops now,” Linda responded, just as quietly.
“Then, what are we...” Hardie started to ask but trailed off because he knew what they had to do. They had to get rid of the body, and as they were on the already on a boat, Tim was going overboard. It was the most discreet way to do it. As if reading his mind, Linda grabbed the covers off of her bed and put it over Tim's lifeless body.
“It wasn’t your fault Linda. He probably shot himself accidentally when you guys were wrestling around.”
Jessica couldn’t believe how far things had escalated. She wasn't even sure how much time had passed; everything seemed to have happened so quickly.
“It doesn’t matter, and really, I don’t care about that, if he hadn’t shot himself, I w
ould have shot him,” Linda answered. It seemed as if her mind and her eyes were somewhere else.
“When they find his body, and it is really just a matter of when, they’re going to do an investigation. It will lead back to me, and they’re going to find out why Tim was on my boat, what he wanted from me.”
Exposure. Linda would be fully exposed. Her parties, her fetishes; it would all come to light, and she couldn’t have that. Her reputation was at serious risk.
“Putting him in the water will give me some time to leave. By the time someone realizes he's missing, and they find the body, I can be long gone.”
It wouldn’t take long for her to pick up and leave. Since she lived on her boat, she could just pull up anchor and go within a few hours.
But, to where?
“You’re leaving…?” Jessica stuttered. She looked anxiously at Hardie.
“You don’t have to leave,” he offered nervously, but Hardie’s tone was unconvincing.
“I do. I have to leave.”
There was a resignation in her eyes but also a new kind of fire that they had never seen before as if she had been ready to go for a long time.
After using the dingy to put Tim into his watery grave in the middle of the night, saying goodbye and giving her blessing to Hardie and Jessica, Linda ordered in a crew for immediate departure.
27
Familiar Ground
A few hours later, they had finally arrived, right as the sun was rising.
She didn’t know exactly what time it was when she woke up, but as Linda looked out her window, she saw the beaches of Mexico. Linda took a deep breath of air that was so thick with humidity that she practically drank the air up.
As they got closer to the dock, she saw his silhouette. He was standing there waiting for her in a freshly pressed linen suit, his shirt unbuttoned enough to offer a peek at his tan chest. He leaned against a post ever so cooly, lit a cigarette and smiled as he caught sight of Linda’s yacht moving in. He tipped his head and looked over his sunglasses, trying to get a glimpse of her.
When her yacht docked, Linda stepped out to his immediate attention. She looked beautiful in her white pantsuit, fitting her impeccably. Her dark hair styled like a Hollywood starlet, remaining perfect despite the ocean breeze.
Welcome back, Linda, he thought. She was back with him, and this time, he wasn’t letting her get away again.
Linda stepped off the boat, letting him take her by the hand to help her on to the dock.
“Welcome home, m’lady. I thought you’d never make it.”
He smiled that smile that buckled her knees, even after all these years.
“This isn’t my home anymore, nor am I your lady anymore.”
“That isn’t a very proper hello, Linda. Especially to your one true love.”
She met Derek with an indifferent stare, letting him know that she wasn’t going to allow him to press her buttons. Not anymore.
Derek offered his arm, and she grabbed it effortlessly, like old times.
“If this isn't your home, and you're not my lady anymore, then why are you here?”
Linda had been asking herself the very same question.
The End
For My Husband, Brad,
who is still and will always be my constant source of naughty thoughts.
1
Puerto Vallarta
Derek led Linda to a cabana bar near the end of the immense private dock where her yacht was moored. He pulled out a chair from one of the tiny bistro tables that surrounded the bar for her and then sat down across from her before lighting up a cigarette.
“You look wonderful, Linda. Quite stunning, as usual.”
He leaned in and flashed his perfectly straight white teeth at her. Derek was annoyingly charming and handsome, and when he flashed that grin, women found him irresistible; except her, of course. Linda knew the man that lay behind that smile, as it had also once fooled her. Behind that charm was a guy who was controlling and jealous. It was something she had put up with when she got involved with him. Derek was her first relationship that had quickly become very serious. Unfortunately, it had soured into something toxic, and she still blamed him for that.
“Thank you, Derek. And you look... well, you look like yourself.”
She smiled curtly and squirmed on the uncomfortable plastic chair. Linda couldn't believe she had to ask for help from the one person she hated the most.
“I'm going to go ahead and take that as a compliment.”
“Of course, you would.”
“And what's that supposed to mean?” he snapped back.
She withdrew back into the chair at the raise in his voice, without having decided to.
“Listen, I didn't come all this way to fight you.”
“All right, that's fair. Then come out with it. Why did you come back, and what do you want from me?”
“I came because I need your help.”
Linda looked down at her hands and waited for Derek to begin mocking her in his usual arrogant style. But when she looked up to meet his eyes, she saw a genuine concern within them.
“Of course, I'll help you, Linda.”
His tone became uncharacteristically kind, catching her off guard.
“What's going on?” he asked.
Linda proceeded to tell him everything that had happened since disappearing from his life so many years ago. From David's death to her voyeuristic tendencies, the sex parties, the drama with Hardie, then Jessica, and finally Tim's accidental death.
“Are you telling me you're on the run?” he asked.
“Well, this is more like a precaution. As far as the townsfolk know, I went on a vacation. But why else do you think I would come back here?”
Derek sat back, smiled and shook his head slowly.
“I guess you’ve forgotten that you have some unfinished business with me.”
Linda sat back and tried to see if he was just teasing her, or if there truly was some loose end she had forgotten in this place.
“Oh, Linda, I'm disappointed in you.”
Derek lit a cigarette and took his time with his first long drag.
“You have forgotten,” he said, exhaling the smoke through a slight smile. “Living the high life too much out there, honey, you forgot where you came from.”
“No, Derek, I haven't forgotten where I've come from. I had simply forgotten about you and anything having to do with you,” Linda told him bluntly. “I'm sure you can understand why.”
“You're not even going to ask what it was, are you?” he laughed softly.
Linda was still Linda after all, he thought. She had clearly forgotten, and yet here she was still trying to win the argument, bent on turning it around on him.
“It doesn't really matter,” she waved him off, standing up to return to her boat.
This was a stupid idea. There had to be somewhere else she could go. She didn't need him. With all the bad memories, she carried from this place, all because of him, why had she come here in the first place? She beat herself up for making such a rash and emotionally driven decision, something Linda almost never did. She was a user of logic, reason and facts. And the fact was that Derek was still a manipulative criminal and a drug dealer. He would only make her situation worse, in the end.
Derek stood up and blocked Linda as she got up leave.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you're going?”
He inched closer to her, causing her to stumble back onto her chair. Linda grunted as she fell and immediately shot back up again, embarrassed and infuriated. She refused to be pushed around, especially by Derek, who had pushed her around one too many times in the past.
“Get out of my way,” she said slowly, enunciating every consonant and vowel to express to Derek just how serious she was.
He moved even closer to Linda, but she didn't back down. Linda caught a whiff of Derek's familiar scent of cigars and Old Spice and was immediately taken back to her college days, when they had
first started dating. Linda had to shake her head out of the fog of memories flooding her mind in that split second. This time, instead of the anger, his scent effortlessly allowed the good memories to return, all but eliminating her guard. Memories of him showing her around Mexico, taking her to the fanciest dinners and the most elegant parties. How he could surprise her with exotic trips or just stay in bed all day to make love, eat breakfast in bed, drink as only kids would dare and then make love again in the sublime intoxicated haze.
She fought against it, trying to remind herself of how he had forced her to run drug deals for him, his violent reaction when she refused, and the sickness in her stomach every time she ignored the logical voice in her head claiming that Derek didn't really love her if he would place her in such dangerous situations.
It was her gut; her intuition; the adrenaline she heard screaming every time she ignored the truth. She always listened to her gut, and it was almost always right. Still, with Derek she ignored it like a petulant teenager would ignore her mom. Her gut rebelled at her silent treatment in the form of stomach cramps, coming every time he sent her out on a job.
She remembered with stunning detail the last time she had given in to him.
2
The Edge of Love
“Linda?” he whispered, kissing her stomach gently, tracing his tongue around her belly button.
He looked up at her with those intense hazel eyes and lazy mischievous smile; he reliably offered it when he got horny. Derek was painfully good looking. His smile alone could buckle Linda's knees.
Linda kept her eyes closed, “Mmm hmm?”
“It's time to stop, drop and roll, pumpkin. You know what I'm saying?” He kissed her stomach again, keeping his eyes up, waiting for her to agree.
Linda had heard what he had said, but she wished she hadn't. She wished she could linger in their post-coital glow just a little longer, but knew that she wasn't going to be able to. Her stomach tightened with anxiety because she knew what she needed to do next. Derek always waited to ask her until after they had enjoyed sex, after he had broken down all her defenses and she was too spent to refuse his demands. They had endured so many long and drawn-out fights because of this that Linda would always agree, even if he hadn't broke her down with sex. It took a lot less energy just to submit than to deal with Derek when he didn't get what he wanted.