by Bailey West
I was almost at my car when I saw a man step out of the shadows and stand right in front of me. I thought to myself, okay Olivia don’t panic. He’s probably just someone in the neighborhood going in the opposite direction. As soon as that thought passed the feeling of dread washed over me. I knew something was wrong. I stopped walking to turn around or cross the street, I’m not sure which I had planned on doing. I didn’t get to do either because suddenly, I felt a huge hand cover my mouth and an arm wrap around my waist. I felt a hard body behind me. They started pulling me backward. Panic set in and the first thing I remembered was watching an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show, and the guest said, “no matter what, don’t let them take you to the second location.” I started to struggle to get loose. It felt like the more I tried to free myself the tighter his grip became.
I had to think quickly. I didn’t know if they were trying to murder me or rape me. Either one would be bad, but I knew I couldn’t let them take me. Think Olivia…think. I realized that I had some space in his grip to move forward. I moved forward and reached behind me to grab his crotch. I grabbed a handful of beans and wiener. I applied pressure then turned my hand trying to inflict maximum damage. He released his grip on me and bent over in pain. I took the opportunity to knee him in the nose and slap him on the side of his neck right where his carotid artery runs. I learned that slapping a person there will cause blood to rush to their brain and hurt like heck. He went down. The second guy came for me and grabbed my throat. I fought to get his hands from around my neck, but the more I squirmed, the tighter his grip became. I used both hands and clapped his face between them as hard as I could. That forced him to release me. I saw my keys on the ground and dove for them. I grabbed my small canister of mace that I kept on my keychain. I sprayed both men with the pepper spray until the stream stopped. Both were gagging and fighting for air. I turned around, and I ran. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I didn’t turn around to see if they were behind me because that would make me slow down. I would know if they were behind me when I felt one of them grab me. I ran until I saw a city bus pulling up at a bus stop. I ran onto the bus as soon as the doors opened. I finally looked back and didn’t see anyone behind me. I looked down and realized that I still had my purse across my body and my keys in my hand. I was shaking so bad that I couldn’t open my purse to get money out to pay the bus fare.
“It’s okay sweetheart. Have a seat,” the female bus driver smiled as she closed the door and pulled off from the curb. I sat in the seat directly behind the driver’s seat. “Are you hurt?” She looked at me in her rearview mirror.
I mentally checked myself before looking down. I didn’t see any blood or anything. I was sore, but I couldn’t determine where the pain was coming from.
“I don’t think so,” I responded while trying to slow down my breathing by breathing in through my nose and out through my nose.
“Someone tried to hurt you?” The bus driver asked through the rearview mirror.
“Yes. Someone tried grabbed me while I was walking to my car. Is this bus going near a police station?”
“Yes, it’s two stops away,” she continued to speak while looking through her mirror.
“Okay…thank you.”
“I can call the police and have them meet us at the next stop.”
“Thanks, but if it’s the next couple of stops, I will be okay.”
I was on the edge of my seat when the bus approached the next stop. I was ready to run if the men came on the bus. It was so early in the morning that no one else got on before I made it to my stop. I got off the bus right in front of the police station. I walked through the front door, past a row of dingy chairs to the huge desk centered in the room. It was eerily calm and quiet. I’d never been to a police station before, but I thought it would be more like the one on television with people yelling and cursing. Someone handcuffed to a chair and a few prostitutes waiting to be booked. It wasn’t anything like that. It was empty and quiet.
“Can I help you?” The older officer at the front desk asked.
“Yes, I was walking to my car from my house this morning, and I was attacked by two…”
“Olivia?” I heard someone call my name.
I looked up and saw Brother Adams, one of the men on the security team at the church. I remember his name because he along with Brother Westbrook explained all the security measures that would be installed at the school. Not to mention that he is a very attractive man, dark coffee skin with deep eyes and thick eyebrows.
“Brother Adams.” I attempted a smile, but I really didn’t feel like it. I was exhausted and scared.
“I got this, Sergeant,” Brother Adams spoke to the cop behind the desk.
He walked around to the front of the desk and led me by my elbow to a chair.
“What happened?” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tapped a couple of keys before he put it back in his pocket.
“I was walking to my car from my house. I got home a little later last night than I normally do and I couldn’t find anywhere to park, so I parked around the corner. A man came out of nowhere and stood directly in my path as I was walking to my car this morning. Another man grabbed me from behind. I had some pepper spray on my keychain. I sprayed both men with the pepper spray and ran onto a bus that had just pulled up. I um…” I looked around. “I think I dropped my tote bag with all of my work stuff in it.” I intentionally left out the part about the self-defense moves that I used. I could hear my mother’s voice saying, “A proper lady would never fight like that.”
“Did you get a good look at either man?”
“No, I just know that they both were at least six feet tall. The one that grabbed me was larger than the one in front of me. I think one was black, and the other was white, but I can’t be sure because it was so dark outside.”
“Did they say anything?”
“No, not that I remember.”
“What’s your address? I want to send a squad car over to see if they can spot anything or find out if anyone saw anything.”
I gave him my address. He typed on his computer’s keyboard and asked me to tell him the story one more time. As I began to recall the story, I saw a large frame approaching the desk. I turned and saw Paxton standing over me.
“Pax,” I jumped up from my seat and into his arms. I knew I was safe there. He pulled me into a tight bear hug. I didn’t feel like I needed to cry until I felt his arms around me. I didn’t think I could stop shaking until I heard him whisper, “It’s okay, Ollie.”
Ollie, is the nickname he had chosen for me. He didn’t want to call me Liv or Livi or any variation of the nicknames others had used. I liked it immediately.
I knew Paxton had me. I knew that everything would be okay because he told me it would be.
“I contacted him, I hope you don’t mind,” Brother Adams said.
“No, thank you,” I said as I wiped my tears.
“Are you hurt? What happened?” Paxton asked as he gently moved my head from side to side and gave me a once-over.
“I’m not hurt.”
Brother Adams pulled up another chair, and Paxton sat down next to me. I started my story from the beginning. He held my hand, rubbed my back and wiped my tears while I recalled the entire incident.
“I’m sorry Pax, I should have listened to you last night. You said it wasn’t safe.” I started crying again.
“You don’t apologize for what some clowns did to you. You shouldn’t have to worry about safety in your own neighborhood.”
Paxton
I received the text from Brother Adams that said: Olivia’s at the station with me. She could use you here.
He knew that Olivia and I had been spending a lot of time together.
I responded: On my way.
I’d just gotten out of the shower after my morning workout. I threw on some jeans and a shirt and drove to the police station. I had all kinds of questions running through my head like, how did Olivia end up at
that police station. That’s not the one closest to her house, and it’s not near the church. How did Brother Adams know she was there? Is she hurt? Will I have to murder someone?
I was on edge until I walked into the station and looked into her eyes. I could see the fear, but she was in one piece. She was as happy to see me as I was to see her.
Brother Adams sent a couple of patrol cars to Olivia’s neighborhood. They located her tote bag a few feet away from her car, but there was no sign of the men who attacked her.
Brother Adams asked her all the standard questions for someone who had been attacked like, “did you recognize your assailants? Did you get a look at their faces? Have you had any problems with anyone in the neighborhood? Have you felt uneasy around anyone?”
She answered no to all those questions. I had a few questions of my own, but I would wait until I got her somewhere safe and she had a moment to decompress.
Olivia and I walked quietly to my truck after leaving the police station.
“I don’t think it’s safe for you to go back to your house right now. I’m going to take you to mine.”
“Okay.” She responded while looking out the passenger side window.
She had stopped crying, but her mood was somber. She was still shaking some but not nearly as much as she was when I first got to the police station.
I pulled into my parking space at my building and turned the engine off. I had a lot of scenarios running through my head about who could have tried to hurt her, but I needed to go to her neighborhood and see where everything happened before I tried to put two and two together.
I walked around to her side of the truck and opened the door to help her out. She held on tightly as she stepped down out of the truck and winced in pain. Seeing her wince made me angry…angrier. Once I found out who did this to her, I was going to make sure they never did this to anyone again. They better be praying to whomever they pray to that the law finds them first.
The elevator doors opened to my foyer. I held her hand as I led her off the elevator and into my sitting area. I was able to finally take her purse from across her body and her keys out of her hand. I had tried while we were at the police station but losing those two things seemed to agitate her, so I left them alone.
I took her purse and hung it on the coat hook. I unzipped her jacket and helped her out of it. It was ripped in the front, probably not fixable, but I hung it up next to her purse. She sat down on the couch with a perfectly straight spine and her ankles crossed. Her posture didn’t speak of someone who had just been attacked by two men, but she’d started to cry again.
I moved next to her and pulled her close.
“Pax.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m tired of being a victim. I’m tired of people feeling like they can do and say anything to me without consequence. It’s not fair.”
“I don’t see a victim. I see a strong, beautiful woman that has had to overcome a lot but you have. You could have easily let those men take you away today, but you didn’t because you’re a fighter. Fighters aren’t victims. Sometimes they lose, but they don’t go down without reminding the opponent that they were in a fight.”
“But, why me? I don’t understand why someone would try to hurt me for nothing!”
I pulled her closer to me and kissed her forehead.
“Some bad people in the world do bad things for no rhyme or reason. I’m going to keep you safe. You know that, right?”
She nodded her head and rested it on my chest. We sat quietly until I realized she’d fallen asleep. The adrenaline had worn off. I carried her to my guest bedroom. I laid her on the bed and removed her shoes. I wrote her a quick note and put it on the nightstand next to the bed. I grabbed my keys and headed out the building.
I felt like Olivia was leaving something out of her story. Not the details of the men but more like how she managed to get away from two men, all by herself. I know pepper spray works, but I don’t think they would have stopped just because she sprayed them with it.
I drove to her neighborhood and parked my truck a couple blocks from her house. I wanted to be careful just in case someone was watching her place. My initial thought when I first arrived at the precinct was that it was some neighborhood thugs that were trying to rob her. I dismissed that thought once the beat cops came back with her tote bag. The men that attacked her didn’t bother to touch it, let alone take it. I was positive that it wasn’t a random attack. Those guys took the standard grab and go position. They just didn’t factor in her having enough sense to use her pepper spray.
Something was off about this whole situation. I walked down the street toward her house. I took note of everything that I saw to include a black Dodge Charger parked about four houses down with tinted windows. I used my phone to snap a picture of the car and the plates before I continued down the street. I could see two men sitting in the car through the windshield. One black and one white. Those could be the guys, but there was no way for me to be sure. I couldn’t tell if someone was in the backseat. I kept walking past her house and turned the corner. Her car was still sitting in the same place she’d parked it last night. I voiced my concern with how far away from her house she had to park, but she didn’t seem to mind. She thought she would be safe. I knew that it was a bad idea, but I went with it because nothing like this had ever happened before and I didn’t want to force her to spend the night at my place.
I tried to visualize her story as I slowly made my way down the street. I walked the same path she walked and stopped where I thought she may have encountered the men. I looked around at the houses to see if someone had a surveillance camera that may have recorded what happened. I didn’t see any, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. I looked around at the ground to see if anything was dropped during the scuffle. I didn’t notice anything, so I continued to walk until I came to the bus stop where she caught the bus to the police station. She ran six blocks to the bus stop!
I’m missing something. Something isn’t adding up. I need Olivia to tell me the entire story.
I took out my phone and dialed a friend.
“Talk to me,” he said as soon as he answered the phone.
“I need some help. I’m sending you a license plate and car. I need all the information you can get me on the owner.”
“I will get back to you as soon as I return from France. Out.”
I disconnected the call.
14
I suddenly opened my eyes, sat up, and looked around trying to figure out where I was. Then I remembered, I was at Paxton’s condo. I looked over on the nightstand and saw a note.
‘I had to run an errand. I hope to be back before you wake up. If I’m not back, call me, and I will head back.’
I got up and went to the bathroom. I checked myself in the mirror and saw the bruising starting to form around my neck. I didn’t see any other damage. I used the bathroom then went on a hunt for my cell phone. I found it in my purse hanging next to my ripped jacket in the living room. I was about to send Paxton a text, but he really doesn’t like text messages, so I called.
“Hi,” he said when the call connected. “How was your nap?”
“It was good. I feel a little better. You don’t have to hurry back. I’m okay.”
“I’m grabbing something to eat and some clothes for you to change into then I will be there.”
“Clothes? Please don’t go out of your way for me. I think I will be okay going back home.”
“No,” he said with finality. “You will stay with me at least until this is all figured out.”
“Okay.”
I heard the authority in his voice. I didn’t listen to him when he was concerned about me parking my car around the corner so I would follow his instructions this time.
“I will be back in about thirty minutes. Make yourself at home.”
“Okay.”
We disconnected the call.
The glass windows that lined the wall in the kitchen sh
owcased a beautiful private garden. There was a pool, a patio, and a stainless steel outdoor kitchen. I found the door and let myself outside. I sat down in one of the reclining chairs near the pool and soaked up the sun.
I thought about how Paxton described me. He called me strong and a fighter. No one has ever called me either one of those words nor would I describe myself in that way but after hearing him say it, that’s exactly how I would describe myself now. I kicked two men’s asses, and I survived. I kicked Mason’ ass, and I survived. I’m a bad ass!
I chuckled and rested my back on the chair.
Paxton
I put down the grocery bags on the kitchen counter and went in search of Olivia. I went to the guest bedroom where she had napped. She wasn’t there. I came from the back of the house and saw the glass door to the garden open. I looked out and saw her resting on one of the reclining chairs near the pool.
She looked so peaceful. Her lightly bronzed skin glowed under the sun’s rays. Her hand was splayed across her stomach reminding me of the night we spent on the phone while she pleasured herself. I walked over to her and lightly rubbed my thumb along the side of her face. I didn’t want to startle her. She’d already had a long day. I noticed the bruising on her neck was starting to show. There were also some bruises on her arms that look like fingerprints.
“Hey,” I whispered when she opened her eyes.
“Hi,” she smiled.
“I guess I fell asleep again. It’s so peaceful out here.”
“It is. I don’t get to come out here very often, but I like it.”
I offered my hand to help her up from the chair. She stood slowly and then tried to stretch. She winced in pain and cut the stretch short and then followed me into the house.