by Brook Wilder
“NO!” Lori said fiercely, taking a step back. She stared up at him, shaking her head. “You can’t, Tex. You don’t know Gears. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“I’m sure I can handle him.” Tex drawled, with more arrogance than confidence in his voice.
But Lori was still shaking her head.
“Please, Tex. I… I can’t lose you. Not now.” Unconsciously she wrapped her arms around her middle.
Tex grimaced, but finally he gave in with a sigh.
“Fine. What do you want to do?”
“Just, um…” Lori glanced around the tiny house. There was really no place big enough to hide him, except for one spot. She grabbed his hand, pulling him into the bedroom. She was spurred on by the pounding, getting louder and more frantic every moment.
“Here, just hide under the bed. I’ll get rid of him and then we can figure out our next move, okay?”
Tex shot her a dubious look, then the bed with its sheets still rumpled, and then back again.
“Please, Tex?” Lori didn’t know if it was the pleading or the look of fear in her eyes, but Tex just shrugged before getting down on the floor and shimmying underneath the bed.
“This is ridiculous, you know that, right?” he said with a snort. His voice came muffled from under the mattress, but Lori was still shaking. She’d seen Gears lose his mind before and seeing Tex would definitely set him off. He could just be uncomfortable for a few minutes. It was better than the alternative.
Gears was still pounding at the door, yelling through the thin wood, but Lori still stood there for an extra minute. She drew in a deep breath, trying desperately to calm her shaky nerves before walking through the living room and pulling open the door. It took everything she had inside her to force a casual smile at the man.
Gears stood there in a ragged t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans that he’d obviously slept in. In fact, he looked like he’d just stumbled home from the club and hadn’t even made it to bed yet. She could smell the booze on him from three feet away.
“Hey Gears,” Lori said, breathing out a sigh of relief that her voice was steady at least. It was only thing that was. “I was just about to get in the shower, so I don’t really have time to chat.”
She started to shut the door again, praying that he would just turn around and leave now that he’d seen her. He slammed his hand against the door, shoving it open again as he shot her a suspicious glare from red rimmed eyes.
“Who’s here?”
“What?” Lori stuttered, trying her best to look innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gears. Now, you really should just go home…”
“I know there’s someone here, Lori!” Gears’ voice was edged with a tension that had that fear filling her once more and his eyes were glazed. He looked completely insane as he glared at her. “Don’t play dumb with me.”
“I… I swear, Gears. No one is here.” She tried again to convince him, but she wasn’t even sure that he’d heard her until he tossed an angry sneer behind him.
“Then whose bike is outside, huh? You think I’m an idiot? You think I’m just going to let you cheat on me with some asshole. WHERE IS HE!”
Lori shied back, wrapping her arms around herself without thinking about it. She never took her eyes off him, watching him like a mouse watching a cat, wondering what he was going to do next. She had never seen him this angry before, never seen him this crazed. It terrified her.
But even through her terror, she knew she had to try to get him to leave. She had to protect Tex. And, even more important, she had to protect her baby.
“P–Please, Gears. Please, just go. There’s no one here. You have to believe me. There isn’t anyone here.”
“Believe you?” Gears said. His eyes bored holes into her where she stood frozen in place. “Why would I believe a whore like you. Just like your friend. No, I won’t be fooled by you again.”
Suspicion hung on every word and deepened the lines of his face. There was nothing Lori could do as he slammed the door the rest of the way open and burst into the house. She watched helplessly as he started searching, room by room.
He tore through the living room first. There wasn’t much there, and nowhere big enough to hide a grown man, but that didn’t stop him from ripping apart the couch cushions and knocking the chair to the ground. Gears even flipped the coffee table and Lori flinched as the glass bowl that was sitting on it slid off and shattered.
Everywhere he went, Gears destroyed. Her small bathroom had the mirror smashed as he flung the door open and tore down the shower curtain. The kitchen drawers were all jerked out of their places and pots and pans and broken plates littered the floor.
Finally, he made it to the only other room in the small house, her bedroom. Lori couldn’t breathe. He slammed open the closet doors, ripping clothes off their hangars. She was sure she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen before he was done, but their luck held. He didn’t look under the bed.
Everything else lay in shambles around her, though. All her meager belongings. Everything that she owned, smashed or broken, discarded and thrown on the floor like trash.
Only when Gears was certain that no one could be hiding anywhere did he start to calm down, but there was still an insane light in his eyes that made her wary.
She was still standing in the middle of the living room, surrounded by the remnants of her stuff, when Gears stalked back towards her. Instinctively she pulled away, stepping around the tipped-over coffee table, trying to keep as much distance between them as she could.
“See? Nothing here.” Lori finally spoke. Her voice was shaky, but she didn’t think Gears even noticed. “There’s no one here, Gears.”
He was still looking at her suspiciously, but at least he was starting to calm down. He nodded, looking around the house once more without saying a word, and Lori was sure that he didn’t even see all the destruction he’d just caused. All he saw was his pet.
Lori let out a breath of relief when he finally turned towards the door, thinking he would leave now and she could get Tex and get the hell out of there, but he stopped before taking another step.
Slowly, he glanced down, and Lori nearly cursed out loud as she saw what had caught his attention. On the floor, right in front of him, was a roll of cash held tight together with a rubber band. She’d forgotten all about it. It must have gotten knocked off the coffee table during Gear’s rampage.
He stared at it for a long moment, just looking, before reaching down and picking it up. He held it in the palm of his hand, weighing it, counting the thousands of dollars that were there. Thousands of dollars that she shouldn’t have.
“Lori, Shortcake.” Gears turned towards her so slowly the motion was nearly imperceptible, but she wanted to scream. He still hadn’t looked at her. His mad gaze was locked on the cash he held. Her future, held in the palm of his hand. Lori would have laughed at the irony of that had she not been so scared she could barely stay standing.
“Lori, what the fuck is this?” Gear’s voice was calm as he asked the question, and that scared her even more than the raging and yelling. “I asked you a question, Lori.”
She could see the way he was shaking, but his voice, that terrible calmness, never changed. Lori swallowed hard, trying to work some moisture back in her mouth before answering.
“I… Uh, I’ve been saving up. That’s all. Just my savings. A little bit every week.” She tried desperately to make it sound believable, but she could tell that he didn’t buy a word of what she was saying. She would have to try something else.
Lori threw her shoulders back and tried to force a confidence that she was far from feeling into her strained voice.
“You have to go, Gears. You have to go or I’ll… I’ll call the police.”
He froze at her words. She could practically see the calm façade that he’d been wearing evaporate before her eyes.
Outraged, Gears held up the roll of cash, digging through his pocket with
the other hand before pulling out a lighter.
Lori watched, confused at first, but then her eyes widened in disbelief as Gears flicked the flame on with his thumb and held it to the cash. He was going to burn it! Everything that Tex had worked for, all the money they would need!
Her fear was gone in an instant, replaced by an anger which forced her feet forward. She leapt towards him, desperately trying to wrestle the cash away from him.
“No!”
“No?!” Gears growled the word into her face, his breath fetid, “You don’t get to tell me no! You never tell me no!”
She watched the rest of the cash burn to ash, nothing more than useless scraps of paper now, and all her hopes seemed to burn with it. It was that moment, when she was focused on the pile of black soot on her living room floor, that Gears took advantage of.
One minute she was standing there, watching her future burn and the next Gears had her pinned to the floor. The fall knocked the breath from her body. As Gears leaned over her, her only thought was to protect her baby at all cost.
Lori fought like she’d never fought before in her entire life, and she was used to having to protect herself. After living in the trailer park with her alcoholic father, and then being homeless, she’d gotten an education in fending off unwanted attention.
But there was a new desperation that fueled her as adrenaline pumped in her veins. She wasn’t just fighting for her own life. She was fighting for her child’s as well.
Lori got one arm free and clawed at his eyes. The first try didn’t land but the second one left deep, bloody furrows down the side of his face.
Gears’ mouth was open in a silent snarl, his hands reaching everywhere at once, but Lori didn’t stop fighting. She couldn’t. She knew as soon as she stopped, all would be lost. But he seemed to ignore all the blows she was able to land.
She even got her knee up in between them, hitting him hard between the thighs. Almost casually, Gears pulled back one fist and hit her across the cheek so hard she saw stars. She gasped at the pain that ricocheted from the right side of her face all the way through her body.
And then he was tearing at her clothes, reaching for the button of his own jeans, and terror, thick and greasy, filled her. She wanted to scream and cry at the same time, but no matter what she couldn’t stop fighting. She couldn’t give up. She couldn’t give in.
With a wordless roar she tried to shove him off her, but he was so much stronger than she would have thought. He stared down at her, and the look in his eyes turned her muscles into jelly. There wasn’t rage in them anymore. Not even a hint of remorse or shame. The only thing she saw in his eyes was possession. He owned her. He was just taking what was already his.
“No. Gears, no!”
His hand landed over her mouth, stifling the words. Lori used her teeth and nails, anything she could to try to break free of his unrelenting grasp, but nothing worked. Dread settled inside her at the certain look on Gears face.
Lori fought to free herself, but the small hope she had of overpowering him was burned to a cinder just like the money. She could feel her strength start to wane and knew in that moment that Gears had won.
He knew it too. She could see the light in his eyes. She squeezed her own eyes shut, unable to witness what was about to happen. But suddenly… he was gone.
Lori’s eyes snapped open and she watched in startled surprise as Tex yanked Gears off her and across the room. The older man tripped over the coffee table and fell with a crash, but his hard gaze never left Tex.
“You! I should have known,” Gears sneered, and there was pure murder in the man’s expression as he glared at Tex.
“Yeah, me,” Tex said, stepping between Gears and Lori, shielding her with his body. Gears snarled wordlessly a moment before leaping at Tex. He got in a few hits, but so did Tex. Lori scrambled back away from the two men, trying not get trampled, as worry and relief warred inside her.
Finally, Tex was able to get in a right hook that sent Gears crashing to the floor again. This time he didn’t get up.
“Come on,” Tex whispered and Lori looked up at him, surprised to see him standing over her. “Come on, sweetheart, we’ve got to get the hell out of here.”
She took the hand he held out to her and he pulled her to her feet. She was glad of the support of his arm around her as he led her outside. She wasn’t sure her own legs would support her, they were shaking so badly.
Lori sent one last look back towards the house, but Gears didn’t chase after them. He didn’t come bursting out of the house like she expected him to.
“Lori, let’s go.” Tex’s voice was still soft as he pulled her closer to the bike, helping her climb on the back before throwing his own leg over the saddle and starting the engine. “Hold on, sweetheart. Hold on to me and don’t let go.”
Lori caught the words, thrown over Tex’s shoulder and she slid her arms around his waist just like he asked. She held on as tight as she could as he pulled out onto the street and drove away from her home. She had no intention of letting go.
Chapter 5
Fury ran like lava through his veins as Tex rode. The cooler evening air did nothing to stop the tremors that shook him like a leaf or the angry heat that flushed his face. His knuckles, scraped and bruised, held the handlebars of the motorcycle so tight that they showed white.
He blew past the stop sign at the intersection on Lori’s block. There was no way in hell he was stopping. He could just imagine, Gears pouring out of the house, nose broken and bleeding, chasing after them. He couldn’t risk it.
Tex threw a quick glance behind him at Lori. Her face was still like the surface of a pond, but just underneath he could see the turmoil that she was keeping at bay, holding it off with all her strength. He wouldn’t risk it. He wouldn’t risk her, or their baby.
Tex tried to shake off the feeling that rode him, but his jaw and knuckles still ached from the fight, a constant reminder of why exactly he’d been fighting.
He had crawled under that god damned bed, hiding just like she’d asked. He’d figured she would just sweet talk Gears into leaving them the hell alone and they would sneak out after he’d left. He’d been lying there, daydreaming about Lori. Fantasizing about all the things they’d done it that bed over his head just hours before, and marveling at how much his life had changed in just the span of a day.
Then he’d heard Gears’ voice. They were too far away for him to make out the man’s words, but he could hear the low, mean tone and then Lori’s higher pitched, much more frightened voice telling him to leave.
And then had come crashes and the sound of glass shattering as Gears had moved through her small house, tearing it apart. Obviously looking for something, or someone. Tex had been about to sneak out from under the bed and climb out through the small single window, but then the man had rushed into the room.
Tex had held his breath, listening to Gears’ mad ranting while he ripped apart Lori’s closet. Finally, after not finding what he was looking for, he seemed to calm a little. Tex was sure he would leave then.
So, he’d stayed trapped there, lying under the bed like a god damned mouse in its hole, waiting for the big bad tom cat to leave. He’d waited, straining his ears to try and hear what was going on.
He could hear Lori’s voice, but once again they were too far away for him to make out the words. He’d willed the man to just shut up and get the fuck out of her house. He had been more than ready to get out from under the cramped space.
Tex had just been biting back a frustrated curse when Lori’s scream had cut through the air. It had been the single worst sound he’d ever heard.
He’d nearly topped the mattress from the bed frame, trying to push his way out from underneath the damned thing, and when he’d charged into the living room…
Tex knew he would never be able to get that image out of his head. No matter what he did, he wouldn’t been able to stop seeing it over and over again. Lori, lying on the floor. Her cheek had been bru
ised and bleeding and the hem of her dress had been torn. Gears, clawing at her like an animal, his intent obvious.
Lori had been fighting just as hard, but the worst had been the look in her eyes. The look that had said she knew what was about to happen. The look that had screamed resignation even as her body fought on.
Tex didn’t know how fast he’d driven to get to his apartment. He had blown every light and stop sign along the way, even though he couldn’t remember a thing about the trip. All he could remember was Gears, seconds away from…
He shook it off, telling himself that it was alright. Nothing had happened. He’d stopped it. He’d protected her. But if had waited just that second longer before going after her... He knew that would haunt him for the rest of the life.
Tex pulled the bike to a stop in the lot behind his place, but he didn’t get off right away. He sat there for a long moment, trying like hell to get his head back on right. It was Lori who brought him back.