Nightmare of Vengeance

by Lizbeth Dusseau

  I was to move, to turn them on with my eyes, my body, my red hair, my pretty lips. “That natural innocence, Kris. You’ve been attracting men with that for years.”

  Attracting men? I could only remember three distinctly: Ryder, Tom Quinn and Lawton Brady. They were the only ones I cared about. But if I wanted a good night, I’d better be attracting these men too. “Think of yourself as humble, submissive, the good little Oriental bride, if that works – not that being a bride is a role you seem to favor.”

  Those were Ryder’s instructions and so I danced for them as he required, losing myself in the music, thinking not of them, but my body and the feeling of freedom that seemed to take hold inside my spirit.

  After a while, I moved off the platform and into the room, taking each man in my sights and dancing slowly before them, as if they were the only man in the room. I moved even closer, straddling laps and dancing my crotch against their knees. Their hands came out to play, running up my thighs and deep into the crevice of my sex, their fingers finally touching my pussy lips and withdrawing the wet evidence of my arousal to show their friends. My pheromones gave off the scent of sex.

  They all jeered at what they found.

  When I was back on my feet, Ryder moved behind me and lowered the zipper that held the leather dress tightly to my torso. With the whole dress at my feet, I stepped out in the stiletto boots and my collar, taking my dance to a whole new level of eroticism. The hands could be bolder now, covering a tit, squeezing a nipple, running a palm along bare skin and finally fishing their way to the love nest they desired to use.

  At last, I was laid out on a table and they came at me on all sides. One for my mouth, one for my ass or cunt, one on either side to take advantage of my free hands.

  As the night wore on, I jacked them off, I sucked their cocks, I took them in my ass and cunt. Two managed to plunge their fists into my wide open pussy fucking me hard till they heard my cries – just as Mr. Wu had mentioned weeks before. The awesome experience took my breath away; I could barely hang on and absorb the pain.

  I was their entertainment – the pretty redhead with the green eyes, the pale white skin, the sexy moves and the tight cunt.

  With my sexual instincts taking over, my cunt exploded several times. I must have given them what they came for because they went away pleased. I saw their smiles. Their satisfaction. The look on Mr. Wu’s placid face. Even someone so inscrutable can register satisfaction in their brows and eyes. By the time the men slinked away, my body was covered in a sticky bath of cum; they’d been thoroughly entertained.

  Feeling Ryder’s threats hanging over me, I gave my body enthusiastically that night. But while they might have used my body, they certainly did not claim my mind. Every minute of those two long hours of sex, it wasn’t the gangbang, or Ryder, or Mr. Wu foremost in my thoughts, but Lawton Brady. His image was firmly fixed in my mind, clear as glass, standing by the diner’s side door, watching me leave with a stranger in the black SUV.

  ***

  After a night’s sleep, a long hot shower and a cup of coffee, Ryder led me back to his SUV and we began the return trip to Rio Marinas.

  “You’re taking the bar exam soon, is that right?” he asked.

  “That is my plan. There’s one scheduled in about a week.”

  “Good. That’s good. What I hoped to hear. You’re going to be more useful than I originally thought.”

  “And how is that?” I looked at him suspiciously.

  “Long as you behave yourself, Kris – and what you choose to call yourself I don’t really care, Samantha if you like, that’s fine with me. Regardless, I want you moving to LA, joining my team of lawyers. You’ll be well paid and it will be easier to keep my eye on you.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Flat out rebellion came to mind. And there were a lot of nasty things I might have said. But instead, I just stewed in my thoughts, leaving him to wonder what was going on in my ‘pretty head’.

  “Of course, you’ll be doing me favors on the side,” he continued, “same sort of arrangement we’ve had the last year. It’s not enslavement, not exactly. There will be no cuffs and collars as long as you keep your nose clean and do as you’re told. And you’ll have some freedom. You can travel. Have your friends, a normal life – just as long as you know that in a heartbeat, I can reel you in. I always have, I always will.”

  “I suppose the way you see it, Jon, I have no choice.”

  “Have you ever had a choice?” he mocked me with his laugh.

  “No. I suppose not.”

  We drove on along the highway north, then toward the fertile green fields of the California coast. Long silences followed because I had nothing to say to the man. Though, to my surprise I was the one who finally broke the silence. We were within twenty miles of Rio Marinas. For miles the question had burned in my brain, waiting to be asked: “So, how did you find me, Jon? After I moved to California?”

  He laughed before he answered, and left me waiting for the answer with a long dramatic pause. “I know you tried so hard to escape me, Kris. And you really did a pretty good job. But what I knew was that eventually you’d slip up. Get casual. Assume you’d hidden yourself too well to be found, maybe assume I’d quit seeking you out. Both were naïve assumptions. I wasn’t about to let you go. Once you made your calls to the friend in San Francisco, Brit Frances, wasn’t that her name? I had you back. After that, I almost knew your movements better than you did yourself.”

  “But how did you know about Brit?”

  He smiled in that furtive, scheming way he had. “I had a copy of your address book. I knew about everyone who’d ever touched your life.”

  “Good God. How did you get that?”

  “I copied it long before you left me. Just in case.”

  Just in case. On hearing this, a shudder of regret and fear and anxiety passed through me. This explained so much, and was all I needed to know.

  After that revelation, I sat quietly back in my seat for the rest of the trip, letting my mind wander until I was finally home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A week later I took the bar exam as scheduled, sure that I passed. After that I started planning my exit from Rio Marinas, packing boxes, telling the world that I was moving to LA, where I’d been offered a job in a prominent law office.

  Lawton and I weren’t saying much to each other, just the usual pleasantries that go along with waiting on tables and being an agreeable customer. The huge wall between us just grew taller by the day as we each retreated into our own protective shells. He never asked about the man with the black SUV and I never offered an explanation.

  My plans were well known in town, though in the interest of maintaining my privacy, I gave up only the necessary details, enough to satisfy the curiosity of those that cared. It had been my persona to be a bit remote and during those crucial days, I didn’t want to do anything out of character. With a sunny disposition to back up the conversations about my future, I had everyone thinking I was excited about the move – a new adventure in a young woman’s life.

  I couldn’t get casual about the details; too much was riding on smoothly pulling off my getaway. Everything had to be perfectly executed. I had to make people believe that I was on my way to LA, when really I had my mind set on Georgia, maybe Alabama, surely somewhere in the deep south where no one knew me and I knew no one. Having to cut myself off again from an entire world, and one I cared deeply about wasn’t easy – not as wonderful as this one had been to me. But it was a price I’d pay. I’d lose the love of my life in the process, that too, which meant that nearly every night for two weeks, I cried about the cruel things life makes one do. But though I may have cried at night, every morning I woke up more determined than ever to take back my life. I’d be damned if I’d be Ryder’s girl the rest of my life. I didn’t want to be his wife, his whore, or his attorney. Certainly there was somewhere I could go beyond his posse’s reach.

  A new name. My hair dyed blonde. And plent
y of miles to memorize the stories I’d tell to my new friends. I’d done it once and almost succeeded, and I could certainly do it again. This next time, there’d be no mess-ups, no mistakes, no assumptions about my safety to give me away.

  ***

  The packing was almost finished, and I was in my room checking through the bureau, the medicine cabinet, even under the bed, when I heard the sound of footsteps vibrating Miss Inez’ stairs. Normally at this time of day I would have been at Miss Bessie’s waiting tables, but I’d said my goodbyes the day before.

  “Samantha?” Lawton was at the door.

  Oh, I was afraid of this. He’d hardly said a word to me since he heard about my impending move to LA. A few stilted conversations to fill in the facts, but that was all, except for the good luck kiss and warm hug. Did he expect more now, in private?

  “Lawton, hi.” I looked up doing my best to smile.

  “Hi, yourself,” he said.

  “I’m about to leave.”

  “Yes, I can see. And I don’t want to hold you up. But there’s something I thought you should see.” He pulled out a copy of the LA Times he’d been carrying under his arm and opened it to the third page, bottom corner.

  I gazed down, rather absently, then looked closer, at the picture first, then the headline, the caption and the first paragraph before my legs gave way. Luckily I was standing by the bed where it could catch my limp body as I sat down. I clutched the paper in one hand, my other going to my chest in shock.

  “Your boyfriend?” Lawton asked.

  “No, never.” I shook my head. I had to let my emotions settle, my mind get a grip. I looked again at the picture, the headline, the caption and the opening lines of the obituary.

  Billionaire businessman Jonathan Ryder, heir to the Ryder Fortune, fell to his death in a climbing accident in Yosemite…

  A long litany of his life and fortunes followed.

  “I don’t want to keep you,” Lawton finally spoke. “I know you’re leaving today and probably want to get on the road.”

  I shook my. “No, no,” I could still barely speak. “I-I don’t think I’ll be leaving today after all.” I looked up more bewildered than ever.

  “Is that so?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I’m sorry about your friend. Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yes,” the life was starting to flow back into my body. “Yes, I’m going to be fine, just fine.” I think I might have even smiled.

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure, Lawton. Thank you for bringing me this.”

  “Yeah, sure. I guess I’ll see you soon.”

  ***

  My friends knew only that the mysterious man from the diner had died in a climbing accident, fell off the sheer face of a dangerous cliff. “He died as he lived,” further news accounts reported. How ironic, I thought.

  My friends gave me space to come to them with the bigger story, trusting that eventually I would. Since I’d already quit Miss Bessie’s, I didn’t need to put myself in their midst every day with the uncomfortable subject sitting like an elephant between us all.

  But sitting in my room at the boarding house wasn’t a piece of cake either.

  I had a lot of time to think through my options. I could have Lawton now, my heart leapt on that obvious good news. But was it good news? A whole lot of truth still separated me from the man I loved, and now that Ryder was no longer the major player in my life, I could do nothing less than tell Lawton Brady the truth. What a shocker that would be.

  At the very least, I owed him some explanation, but I had no idea where I’d begin.

  Inspiration finally came about eight days after Lawton placed the newspaper in my hands and walked away. A package arrived in my mail at the boarding house, and recognizing the attorneys’ names right off, I tore open the bulky priority mailer.

  Inside was an envelope, a note taped to the outside.

  Miss Ross,

  This envelope of documents was among Jon Ryder’s personal effects. He left instructions to have this delivered to you in the event that anything happened to him. He always liked to keep his personal business in order. Adventurer that he was, he was mindful that accidents like the one that claimed his life were not unheard of. Although Jon was facing some serious health issues due to a previously diagnosed birth defect, I find little truth to the scurrilous rumors that are currently floating about that he may have taken his own life. The accident was simply that; those who were climbing with him have confirmed that fact and they are to be believed. Jon had much to live for and we will all miss him.

  Rest assured that whatever the sealed envelope contains, it was not tampered with.

  Yours sincerely,

  Arthur Moore

  I knew what I’d find inside: the dozens of black and white photographs, along with a small computer disk, on which I was sure to find the entire folder of pictures Jon had taken of me. But there was even more than the compromising photographs that had been taken during our kinky sex. Included were photos of Rio Marinas taken by his ‘sources’, notes about my whereabouts, articles about Lawton, pictures of Lawton and me together, or with Miss Bessie at the diner, more of the boarding house and Miss Inez, and everyone of the friends I’d spent any time with at all. There were even several pictures that had been taken at the cabin during the weekend of my capture and enslavement. The entire file chronicled the nightmare of his vengeance in harsh and vivid detail.

  It almost made my stomach wretch to view the scenes and realize how deeply entrenched his mania had become.

  As soon as I put the last of the pictures back in the file, I knew what I had to do. I’d let them speak for themselves, or at least begin a conversation with Lawton concerning the truth about Samantha Ross – aka Kristen Davies.

  An hour later, Lawton’s housekeeper, Margarita, let me into the hill house and showed me into Lawton’s study where I found him seated at his desk. Another new persona for my former boyfriend, one in which I thought he was perfectly suited, even if it did look a little strange to see him there, a businessman not the hard-working rancher I knew so well.

  I tossed on his desk the envelope containing the file from Ryder.

  “What’s this?” Lawton asked.

  “Something you need to see. But first, before you open it, the truth.” I would go straight to the heart of the matter. “I’ve lied to you about who I am. I think you already know that. There were reasons, good reasons. I wasn’t born a liar. There isn’t some crazy gene that’s running my life, that makes me skirt the truth. The man who died was my former fiancé. I hurt him bad, left him at the alter – not that it wasn’t a good idea to stop the marriage before it started. I got confirmation of that after the fact. Six months after I left him, he had me kidnapped and raped. Then for the next eighteen months he stalked me, coming out of the blue and demanding that I submit to him sexually. For months I was petrified. I tried to move out of his reach, and when that didn’t work, I took more extreme measures. I finally landed here, hoping that he’d lose track of me. I changed my name. My friends at home know me as Kristen Davies – although I’m now legally Samantha Ross. During those early months of our love affair, I thought I was safe from the man. But I made a critical mistake and Ryder tracked me down… which when you think about it will explain a lot.” My words had rushed out so fast that the shocked Lawton couldn’t say a word, though I could see his response in his bewildered expression.

  “Look at the pictures, the documentation, Lawton, it is all there – and pretty eerie if you ask me. It’s not pretty, but there is a truth about me you’ll surely see. It’s who I am, at least in part. I know you’ve seen a lot of that woman yourself, but this will look pretty rough. And understand, while I’m not crying because Ryder is dead – you don’t know how I secretly prayed for that to happen – what he did to me was often consensual. I could have stopped it. I could have done a lot of things, but I just kept allowing it to happen, allowing it to destroy our relations
hip because I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry about that.

  “Ryder raised a darkness in me that I can’t deny. That darkness is not going to go away because he’s gone. But you have to see it for yourself. It’s all in the file, this is who I am, Lawton. So, now you have the truth, all of it.”

  I walked out leaving him dazed – before he could say a word. I moved quickly through the greatroom, out the front door to the courtyard and the gravel drive where the Jeep was parked, not realizing until I reached the car that Lawton was just steps behind me.

  I stopped and his hand was on my shoulder, pulling me around.

  “Samantha, you don’t have to run away again.” His strong voice stopped my anxiety in its tracks. “You don’t have to leave Rio Marinas, you don’t have to leave me. Your life is here and I want you here with me.”

  “Lawton, no. You didn’t even look at the file!” A huge wave of emotion came over me, and Lawton had to hold me by the shoulders to keep me from shaking.

  “Look at me, Samantha,” he demanded. And when I did, he said: “I don’t need to look at the file.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. “Listen, I’m not sure why you want to manipulate me into not loving you. You should know me better than to think I’d buy into that silly scheme. You offered up the truth, that’s all I care about and that’s enough.”

  “But Lawton—” I started to protest.

  “Don’t ‘But, Lawton’ me. I don’t care what’s in the file. I only care that whatever has kept us apart may have vanished with that man’s death.”

  I looked up through glassy eyes, wishing to God that were true. Then trembling almost uncontrollably, I fell against his chest and let him hold me.

  Epilogue

  We were naked and fucking for several hours, hardly coming up for air. I got spanked and slapped and kissed and screwed in every possible way, as if Lawton was taking possession of me once again. The way he took control, there wasn’t a single reservation in my body or soul. We both were profoundly satisfied once the exhaustion of making love finally demanded that we get some rest.