One Beautiful Revenge

by J. Evans

  I pop the trunk and swing out into the warm night. I’ve removed my mask, but my black long-sleeved shirt and jeans are still too warm for the tropical climate. I’m sweating even before I lift Rosa out of the car. By the time I get us both up the steps and the apartment building’s sticky front door unlocked, beads of perspiration are rolling down my face.

  One lands on Rosa’s cheek as I lay her on the stained couch in the lobby. She flinches before letting out a low moan.

  Considering her size, she shouldn’t be conscious for another hour or two at least, but apparently Rosa has one hell of a metabolism and is already burning through the meds like a champ. She moans again and I launch into motion.

  Heart pounding, I quickly wipe the sweat from her cheek with my sleeve, place her keys into her curled fingers, and head for the door. I force myself to walk to the car, knowing that running attracts attention. But I shouldn’t have worried. There is no one to see me run, and no one to watch as I get back into the car and pull away.

  I make it through town without incident, shooting Danny a text that I’m on my way while stopped at a light near the central market.

  His response comes through a second later. See you soon, doll.

  Doll. The unexpected pet name makes me frown. I’m a lot smaller than Danny, but after carrying another woman up a flight of stairs I’m not feeling delicate or doll-like. It bothers me for another reason, too. I’m not sure what it is, but I eventually dismiss the gnawing at the back of my brain, knowing I need to stay focused on more important things.

  By the time I reach the gravel road and turn right, heading up into an isolated stretch of jungle not far from the airstrip where I brought Danny for target practice, I’m feeling pretty confident. If the second half of the night goes as smoothly as the first, we’ll be at the airport early enough to grab breakfast in the terminal before we board our flight to Samui, Thailand.

  I’m confident, but not cocky.

  I’ve never been cocky, even back before the attack, when I was an athlete who had never met a ball she couldn’t spike or a wave she couldn’t ride.

  I’ve always known that I have my faults and weaknesses. I’ve always been honest with myself, and I believe that honesty made me better. While my teammates in high school were busy blaming a lost game on someone else’s performance, I was watching video of the match and seeing where I could improve. When other surfers said they needed a different board or cleaner waves, I kept paddling back out until I found a way to work with whatever the ocean was giving me on a particular day.

  I don’t suffer from hubris, that overabundance of pride that doomed so many Greek heroes to tragic fates. I don’t fly too close to the sun, I don’t believe I can take on a six-headed sea monster and come out on top.

  So when I pull into the clearing, where the hole Danny and I dug in the forest floor is waiting, to see the rental car’s trunk open, the driver’s door ajar, and the headlights casting eerie shadows across the mouth of the pit, I don’t assume there is a reasonable explanation. I park near the trees, a good hundred feet from the other car and make as little noise as possible getting out. I can’t see if J.D. and Jeremy are in the trunk or the pit, but there is no sign of Danny anywhere nearby and the jungle is weirdly quiet.

  I resist the urge to call his name, not wanting to let anyone know I’m here if they haven’t heard the car pull up.

  Ears straining and my skin crawling with the certainty that something has gone horribly wrong, I reach into the backseat, open my backpack, and pull out the rifle. Danny wanted me to leave it buried in the woods behind the cabin, but I refused to get rid of it until after all our affairs were in order. Now, it gives me comfort to have a weapon, still assembled and ready to use.

  Scanning the clearing, I don’t see anyone watching me, but I can’t know for sure. Still, it seems like a good idea to check the car. Hunching over at the waist, I creep slowly through the shadows, feeling exposed until I’m squatting down beside the open door.

  A quick glance inside reveals nothing that would make me worry. The keys are in the driver’s seat, but Danny might have left them there, knowing no one would be around to snatch them. I look into the backseat, seeing his bat lying on the floor. But that still doesn’t mean anything. With J.D. and Jeremy drugged, he probably wouldn’t have thought he needed it.

  Still…

  I tuck the gun in the back of my jeans—grateful for its compact size—and reach behind the seats to grab the bat. We’re a good three miles from the road, far enough no one will hear J.D. and Jeremy scream, but maybe not so far that the sound of a gunshot wouldn’t carry. Just in case, the bat is a better weapon if I can get away with it.

  Gripping the cool aluminum tight, I circle around to the open trunk and peek inside. J.D. and Jeremy aren’t there. I’m guessing that means they’re in the pit, but for some reason I’m scared to go look. I’m suddenly possessed by the unreasonable fear that if I stand at the edge someone will push me in.

  Or maybe it’s not such an unreasonable fear. There’s a chance the brothers have escaped. They might have woken up too fast, like Rosa, caught Danny by surprise, and beaten him unconscious before heading back to civilization. He might be out there in the jungle, bleeding to death under a tree somewhere, and if so, I can blame myself for it.

  Blame myself, and my need for vengeance.

  There was a choice to be made, like Danny said, and I’ve made the wrong one. I should never have put him in danger. I should have kidnapped him if I had to and made him run away with me. Only now, as I realize revenge might cost me the man I love, do I realize that it isn’t worth it.

  Yes, these men deserve to be punished, but love is more important. It’s more important than the law that insists the brothers’ fates belong in the hands of the court, but it’s also more important than vengeance. It is bigger than this, bigger than the hurt and the pain and the hate. I feel that truth shudder through my bones as I start back toward the darkness at the edge of the clearing.

  Slowly, squeezing the bat hard enough to make my knuckles ache, I creep around the perimeter of the bare earth with the pit at its center, keeping close to the trees, scanning the area for any sign of life. I move quietly, carefully, the bat cocked over my shoulder, ready to strike the second I have a target. I check the clearing and the shadows beneath the trees, just in case there is someone hiding in the woods.

  Every sense in my body is on high alert, my ears straining for any sound that can’t be explained away by the wind or some night creature stirring in the brush. I am so focused that I would swear I hear the almost inaudible hum of the bug lanterns before I see them. And I certainly see the lanterns—and the scene they illuminate—long before Todd sees me, but it doesn’t matter.

  And it doesn’t matter that I know I could take Todd out with this bat if I had to, not when Todd has a knife pressed to Danny’s throat.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Danny

  “Choose well.

  Your choice is brief,

  And yet endless.”

  -Goethe

  I try to call out to Sam, but Todd wedges the knife tighter to my throat, transforming my words into a guttural cry.

  He’s going to kill me. I knew it the moment he stepped up behind me at the edge of the pit and pressed the knife into my back hard enough to rip a hole through my shirt and break the skin. I’m not leaving Costa Rica alive, but Sam still can, if I can just get the words out. I have to tell her to run, to get to the car and drive away as fast as she can.

  I chose this. I knew there were risks, but I made this choice anyway. I hope she won’t blame herself or doubt that I love her as much as I ever did.

  Because I do. So much. Even after I’m gone.

  I can handle dying as long as I know she’s okay. But I can’t go out knowing she’s alone in the jungle with Todd, that I’ve failed to protect her, and he’s going to hurt her all over again.

  “Put the bat down, doll,” he says. “Or I start cutti
ng off pieces of your boyfriend.”

  “I’m not your doll.” Sam’s breath rushes out, but she doesn’t drop the bat. She takes a step closer to the stump where Todd has me seated in front of him, with my body shielding his and his knife pressed to my throat.

  Even if he let me go, there’s no way I could run. My legs are bound and my arms tied in front of me from wrists to elbows with my own rope. I had just finished tying J.D. and Jeremy’s arms together and rolled them into the pit when Todd came out of nowhere. I didn’t hear a car engine or footsteps or anything. He just materialized out of thin air, like an evil genie, come to prevent wishes from coming true.

  “Do it now,” Todd says again, still in that calm voice that makes it clear he knows he’s won. “You know I don’t bluff. You take one more step with that bat and he loses an ear. I saw the dents in Jeremy’s head. I don’t need a matching set.”

  Sam stops, swaying on her feet for a moment before she crouches down, laying the bat in the dirt. “There. It’s down. Now let him go.”

  Todd chuckles. “Take five steps to your right and sit down against that tree.”

  Sam’s eyes meet mine and I shake my head. The movement ends in a groan as Todd’s knife slices the skin at my throat, but it will be worth it if Sam will run.

  Please, Sam, I beg with my eyes. Please, run. Run!

  “Stop,” she says, voice breaking. “Don’t hurt him. I’m going.”

  “Run,” I gasp. “Run!”

  Todd silences me by wrapping his free hand around my neck and squeezing until the world goes black around the edges. I buck against his hold, but in this position I can’t get any leverage. All I can do is arch my back, flex the muscles in my throat, and fight to keep him from crushing my windpipe. I fight back as best I can, but by the time he releases me, I’m dizzy and weak, with black spots dancing in front of my eyes and blood thudding heavily in my ears.

  “Next time you talk, you die,” he whispers into my ear, his lips moving against the sweat-slicked skin of my cheek, making me shudder.

  His whisper is more convincing than a scream. He isn’t making a threat to scare Sam. Sam probably couldn’t even hear him. He was making me a promise, one I know he’ll keep if I open my mouth again.

  Swallowing hard, I look up to find Sam seated against the tree, her legs drawn to her chest. She’s in an upright fetal position, arms clenched tight around her legs, but I can still see her shaking. Her entire body seems to vibrate, making the curls that have escaped her bun dance around her head. Her eyes are wide and she looks terrified, but I know her better than that.

  Sam doesn’t shake like that when she’s scared. She only shakes that hard when she’s angry.

  I try to take comfort in the fact that she’s going to fight back, but I’m too damned sick to my stomach. I don’t want to die like this. I don’t want her to be forced to watch. And I sure as hell don’t want her to die.

  I want to marry her on a beach in Thailand. I want to take her home to Croatia and celebrate with my family. I want to watch her hair grow out to its old beautiful brown with the red streaks in it and the joy return to her eyes. I want the happiness and the time and the love and the children and the life that this monster and his friends have done their best to ruin.

  I don’t want evil to win another round and steal all of it away before our second chance has even gotten started.

  “So what happens next?” Sam asks, her voice rough with emotion. “What do you want?”

  “I want to show you what happens to people who fuck with me and my friends,” Todd says, then adds with a laugh, “I’m kidding. I don’t give a shit about Scott ending up in jail or J.D. and Jeremy being buried alive. Or whatever it was you had planned back there with that hole in the ground. People stupid enough to drop their guard deserve what they get.

  “But I know I would have been next, Sammy, and that isn’t okay.” He pauses, teasing the knife up and down my throat. “How did you plan to do it? Strangle me in my bed after you were finished filling in that hole?”

  “Poison,” Sam says flatly. “We were going to bribe a maid to bring you a nightcap, then break into your room and watch you die.”

  Todd makes a considering noise. “Not a bad plan, but poison is kind of a girly choice, don’t you think? Weak, especially for a big guy like you, Daniel Cooney.”

  He reaches around, hitting me in the stomach hard enough to make me groan and leaving his fist pressed tight to my gut, making it hurt to breathe. “I thought you looked familiar that day at the pool, but when I saw you the second time everything clicked. That’s when I knew I had to start watching my back, and the other idiots, too. I figured you were responsible for poor, dumb Scott and that the rest of us must be on your hit list.”

  The fist he’s digging into my mid-section relaxes, his fingers uncurling until his palm rests lightly on my abdomen.

  But his touch is no less terrifying in its gentleness. If anything, the brief break in the cruelty is worse, the knowledge that the reprieve won’t last for long making my aching stomach feel like it’s turning inside out.

  “When I saw Jeremy and J.D. heading for the parking lot with that hot little thing in the red dress, I knew Danny had something to do with it.” His hand moves in a circle, caressing my gurgling belly, making me shudder. “They don’t have the creativity to convince a girl to fuck them both at the same time, no matter how much they’ve been wanting an excuse to get their cocks out in the same room again. So I followed them and then I followed you, Danny. I didn’t realize you were here too, Sam, until you came out of the house, but I’m not surprised. You two have done everything together, haven’t you? Since you were kids?”

  Sam doesn’t offer an answer, but Todd obviously doesn’t need one. He’s perfectly happy listening to the sound of his own voice.

  He turns to me and sighs, the feel of his breath hot on my neck sending a fresh wave of dread shivering across my skin. “And now here we all are, ready to learn some important lessons from each other. I am going to learn never to leave someone alive who should be dead, and you are going to learn how stupid you were to fuck with someone meaner and smarter than you are.”

  Sam claps her hands together, slowly and deliberately, drawing Todd’s attention back to her. “That’s a real hero story, Todd. So you’re the big winner. What are you going to do now, go rape some girls in Disney World?”

  The knife leaves my neck, but Todd’s hand replaces it, squeezing tight. “No, Sam. I was thinking, since you and Danny love to share experiences so much, that I’d fuck his ass while you watch. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”

  I have time to see Sam’s face go white and then Todd’s palm hits hard between my shoulder blades. With my arms and legs bound, I can’t keep my balance. I fall forward, my face in the dirt and my ass in the air.

  Bile pushing up my throat, I try to crawl away, but Todd is already behind me, cutting through the waistband of my jeans. There is an ugly ripping sound as the fabric gives beneath his jerking hands and then my boxers are down around my thighs and Todd’s knife is pressing into my stomach.

  “Don’t take a step away from that tree,” Todd barks. “You do and his intestines will be on the ground before you can take another one.”

  “Please don’t,” Sam begs. “Please don’t hurt him. Please!”

  “But hurting’s the fun part.”

  I feel him tugging at his clothes behind me and then his erection bobs free, falling heavy and thick against my ass cheek, and it feels so wrong I can’t control my response. I lurch forward, instinctively trying to escape, but he tilts the blade, jabbing it into the thin skin below my navel, piercing the skin, summoning a stream of blood that rushes down my thigh.

  White-hot pain follows a second later, making me scream.

  The pain is bad enough to stop me cold and suddenly I am aware of a hundred things all at once.

  I’m aware of the breeze stirring my hair, of the heavy leaves slapping against the trunk of the tree, of
Sam’s tortured cry as Todd adjusts himself behind me, and the moans coming from the pit as J.D. and Jeremy begin to wake up. I’m aware of the blood coursing through my veins and the terror screaming in my head and a softer voice deep inside that insists I can survive this.

  I can survive and when it’s over, Todd’s guard will be down. Not even a monster can fight back in the middle of coming his brains out.

  I grit my teeth and plan what happens next. I imagine the way I’m going to wait until he reaches the end and then hurl my body backward, pushing with my legs until he’s pinned to the dirt with the air knocked out of him. Maybe the knife will fly out of his hand. But even if he keeps it, that moment of surprise will be enough for Sam to turn the tables on him. By the time I roll away, she’ll have the baseball bat in her hands, beating the shit out of him.

  I know it will happen. I can see it as clearly as I can see anything.

  It’s as clear as my memories of making love to Sam last night under the stars, of the way she looks running out of the ocean with her hair slicked back and her cheeks pink from the sun, of the way she smiled at me the day I told her I loved her for the first time. I was only a kid, but I knew then that I would do anything for her.

  I would do anything.

  Anything.

  As Todd spreads my cheeks and puts the head of his cock against me, I know it’s going to hurt, but the worst part is knowing that Sam is watching, and hearing her sob like her heart is breaking. I know if I let myself, I could cry with her. I could break down and sob like I haven’t sobbed since I was twelve years old, wondering if my sister was going to be killed by the man who’d abducted her.

  But I’m not going to cry. I can’t. Not if I want to be ready.