“No kids?” He winced. “Sorry. That’s really not my business.”
She shrugged. Questions were bound to come up, and she’d resigned herself to the fact Mark was the kind of person she wanted to share her thoughts with. Already she’d let loose on some of her major secrets and they felt safe with him. “It’s a long drive home. And you can always ask, Mark, as long as I don’t always have to answer.”
“Sounds fair.”
“And no, we didn’t have kids. We tried for a few years, and then we did fertility testing. Things weren’t right, so I had hormone drugs and in-vitro, but I rejected that within a few days.” She was still shaky and shouldn’t have said anything so soon after visiting a baby store. Her emotions were right on the surface, but the more time she spent with Mark, the more easily the surface cracked. “We were going to try it again when everything happened. So…no babies.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no worries. It probably was for the best.” There was no more she wanted to add, so silence filled the car, disturbed only by the sounds of Kira’s breathing.
His quiet sympathy was probably the reason she’d spilled. So far he hadn’t treated her any differently for knowing bits of her past and that’s what she was afraid of, being treated as pitiful or dumb for the past she wanted to put behind her. With Mark she didn’t feel like a loser, though in some aspects, she had earned the moniker.
“How about you? Any little Marks running around the county?”
“Nope.” He chuckled. “When the kids were small I got lots of attention from the local women, but I had little kids and two farms to take care of, so I didn’t have the time or inclination to take care of a woman too. I wasn’t up to it then, and now the kids aren’t so little anymore. They’re great, ya know? Awesome judges of character and can spot a fake a mile away.”
“Your own little tramp detectors, huh?” She smirked when he laughed.
“Yeah, I guess,” he agreed, turning down a county road to Flathead Falls. She wasn’t ready for the day to end. Like the other times she’d ridden with Mark, she wished the ride would go forever. “So are we going to do this again, honey? Just you and me? I know you said you had some issues, but I don’t want to have to wait until the next grocery, nursing home or underwear related emergency before I see you again.”
“I want to say yes, I really do, but I just don’t think so.” Declining his invitation was hard, but the right thing to do. “But feel free to call me with underwear emergencies.”
“You also said you were in a lot of debt. Don’t worry about that. I’m not one of those rich farmers who have wheelbarrows full of money.” He’d ignored her gentle let down so crazily that she laughed. “I’ll even admit I lied about owning stock in Thomas’s deodorant manufacturer, so there is no way I’d be able to offer you money anyway.”
“It’s not just that.” It felt wonderful to find humor in the one situation she hadn’t been able to squeeze any from. She’d gratefully remember his words the next time she took out her checkbook. “The money is part of it, but there’s more and it’s ugly.”
“There is still a lot of ride yet,” he pointed out.
She hadn’t planned to tell him what was happening, because she didn’t want to tell anyone. The story was personal but Mark–he didn’t seem so much like a stranger anymore. He obviously wanted to at least be friends; something she knew from his earlier confessions wasn’t an undertaking he did without thought. It seemed fair to let him understand and decide. He was too nice of a man, too much of a friend, to think she was casually blowing him off.
“I have a stalker. She followed me from Chicago, and she really doesn’t like me,” Ben explained, trying to stay as practical as possible. “She killed my husband, and I don’t know if she wants to kill me or just drive me crazy. Either way, I’m not going to let her sickness spread because of me.”
She’d said it so quickly she worried he might ask her to repeat it. When he stayed quiet for a long moment she realized he was thinking. She blew out a breath, some of her tension gone. Mark was a synthesizer, she knew that from their time together. She’d shared a lot in a short amount of time, and though his silence was disconcerting, it was also comforting in a strange way.
“You’ve told the sheriff about all of this?”
“Yes. He’s been great. He has extra patrols for my neighborhood, and he’s taken me seriously. In Chicago the police considered me one step above a criminal.” Ben laughed to take some of the bitterness out of the admission, but her treatment in Don’s hometown still burned.
“Why’s that?”
“Because I had no clue what was happening, and they couldn’t believe in six years of marriage I’d never noticed anything,” she explained, feeling stupid all over again. “Maybe I should have, but he never brought that kind of stuff home.”
“You had a good marriage?”
“We loved each other. I stayed in school, took lots of extra classes and took care of Don. I loved it.” The same confusion she always experienced when she remembered the time welled. She still didn’t fully understand where her world took its ugly turn. “It’s a classic case of the wife knowing last, I guess.”
Mark shook his head. “That’s tough. I’m glad he wasn’t abusive. Sometimes when right and wrong get skewed it leads to people hurting the ones they love. It sounds like even though he was a screwup he loved you. That’s probably why it’s so hard to come to terms with everything.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right.” She was touched by his insight and kindness when he could have judged. Mark was a better man than Don could have ever been, but still Mark found the good.
They drove in silence for a while, the flat farmland around them peaceful and empty for the most part, the occasional barn and house sprouting up from the plains.
It was nice to be in Missouri and surrounded by life instead of concrete and steel. Not only were the fields still full of thriving energy, albeit at the end of its cycle, but the people felt more real, more alive than the super-cyber ones in the city. Homegrown boys and girls had their own quirks for sure, but they were genuine and they cared. Like Mark, who showed it every chance he got.
“Are you scared?” His question was quiet, meant only for her ears along the desolate stretch of road.
“Oh yeah,” she admitted with a ragged sigh.
He nodded and she sank deeper into her seat, embarrassed by her confession, but not too much, because he wasn’t going to laugh. She knew that. Her instincts screamed he was decent and wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Admittedly those instincts weren’t so great, but Mark was an open book with his decency and temperament. He’d taken in his sister’s kids for years to raise and love. When his mother had needed him, he’d worked not only his own farm but hers as well in times when farming wasn’t profitable. Those things said a lot to Ben and having spent the day with him and the kids she was pretty confident in her assessment.
“You call me if you get scared. I’ll talk to you, come in if you need me to. Thomas mentioned the other teachers are really warming up to you, so call them. We can’t help if we don’t know, you know what I mean?”
“I do,” she whispered because her throat was tight from being so overwhelmed by his concern. “And thank you for that.”
“You’d do the same. I was terrified of undershirts, training bras and whatever else Kira needed. You helped.” His self-depreciating smile helped her find the peace to smile back a little. “Let me help you.”
“Okay, we’ll see.”
“No, say, ‘I’ll call you, Mark, if there’s something I can’t handle.’”
She sat up straighter in her seat. She liked the sentiment, but her independence in the past months demanded to be noted. “There’s nothing I can’t handle.”
He sighed. “That’s not what I mean. I know you can. What I’m talking about are those nights or evenings that get a little too long. On those nights you could call me if a friendly voice would help. Th
at’s all I meant.”
She should have known that was what he meant, and immediately relented. “Okay, I can do that.”
“I know you can. It’s the will I hope you’ll put into effect when you need to.” Mark pulled up to her apartment building and put the car in park. “Want me to walk you in?”
“Ah, actually, there’s Teddy.” She grabbed her bag with her new shoes and her purse when the sheriff’s deputy pulled up and got out of his car. “He’ll walk me in, but thank you. Really. Thanks for everything, Mark.”
“I’ll hear from you soon? Even if it’s just a phone call to let me know you’re all right?”
She looked into his blue-gray eyes that were as earnest and kind as the first time she’d met him. He was a special man and his offers, simple as they seemed, meant a lot to her and she couldn’t just walk away from them.
“Yeah, I think you might.”
Chapter 7
Ben’s fingers were a sticky mess of glue and cotton balls. Making a marshmallow costume had sounded so simple in theory. When she’d chatted with Kira, and later her fellow science teachers in the teacher’s lounge, putting it together couldn’t have seemed easier.
Kira was going to dress up as a marshmallow for Halloween. Ben decided to do the same after the science department chose to dress as food for their party. A costume appropriate for all of her Halloween plans fit into her budget.
She’d picked up a big sheet of cardboard to wrap into a cylinder around herself, but it hadn’t been real enough. After another trip to the store, she’d found herself elbow deep in cotton balls, but the tiresome process was having the desired fluffy and delicious effect.
She loved Halloween, and with all the small town plans, family parties, hayrides, apple picking and pumpkin carving, she had the day filled. She was throwing herself into it all with abandon. Mark had asked her to help with pumpkin carving at the library the day before Halloween, and she was looking forward to that too.
Every time she saw Mark she liked him more, and over the last month and a half he’d butted into her life at least two times a week. She didn’t want to be involved but more than once now she’d overheard her name connected with Mark’s and she had to admit, she didn’t hate it.
She was going to a party with them Sunday night for hayrides and apple cider. One of Kira’s backup moms threw it every year, and though Kira had been the one to ask Ben to come, she had seen the mild challenge in Mark’s eyes when she’d looked to him for confirmation. Pleasure had also been there when she’d agreed to go, as Kira’s date, of course.
The man was going to wear her down, she thought as she smeared glue on another cotton ball. He never pushed her, but in his little ways he was eroding her every resistance. Since the phone calls had spaced out and the pictures stopped, Ben was thinking maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to let herself fall a little.
She missed having a man in her life and having someone who loved her within reach at the end of the day. Oh, and the nights, they got so damn long in her empty double bed.
There wasn’t shame in her enjoyment of sex. Even from her first night with Don, physical intimacy had always been good. There had never been anything ‘wrong’ or taboo between them. If he wanted something she gave, always willing to learn, and if she wanted something she couldn’t quite explain he’d never once gotten impatient.
She wondered what kind of lover Mark would be. She dribbled a line of glue and smiled as she considered Mark’s lover clues. It wasn’t difficult to imagine him hard and hot above her, driving in playfully or intensely. Beyond that her imagination couldn’t quite place him in her naughtier fantasies.
Would he be comfortable with cock rings, vibrators and anal beads, or would he be more insistent on standard missionary? What would he think if she rode him or smacked his ass or bit his neck?
Would he refuse to play or would he just give that look he had, daring her to do whatever she wanted. The thought of the look made her shiver, because, honest to God, it was hot. The dominant expression didn’t lose its potency even as a memory.
The phone rang after another row was meticulously finished. Ben groaned, not sure she could answer with her hands covered with glue and cotton fluff. She checked the clock and since it wasn’t on the hour like Victoria’s calls usually were, it could be from anyone.
She looked at her fingers and then back to the ringing phone. It was going to get messy, but it could very well be Mark calling, and that made the cleanup even more worthwhile.
“Hello?”
She tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder while she snapped and scraped her fingers to remove the sticky fluff.
“Oh, you are home! I’m so very glad.”
The voice made her flicking hands halt.
“I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch. I bet you were worried, weren’t you? But don’t fret, our game is far from over.”
“Please, please leave me alone.” Ben rubbed at her hand, taking the frustration out on the fabric of her jeans and the skin on her fingers.
“Ya know? No.” Her shrill laugh made Ben pull the phone from her ear, and she jumped at a sound from her darkened bedroom. “Uh oh, Bennie. Who’s there?”
Ben tried to hang up and dial the police, but with the other end occupied she couldn’t. She dropped the phone and ran for her triple dead bolted door, but it was too late.
The noise had become a person, a large, heavy man with a pair of dark hose skewing his face. She wasn’t going to make it out in time, she thought, panic consuming her. When his arms wrapped around her from behind Ben knew escape wasn’t going to be an option unless she fought.
She screamed and kicked when he lifted her off her feet and pulled her deeper into the apartment. His grip alone was bruising, but Ben kept fighting. Fear and adrenaline raced through her, making her blows to him so hard her hands burned with each hit.
“Well now, darlin’.” His voice was deeper south than most of the locals. Her mind grabbed onto that fact as she kept fighting. “It’s real nice to meet you, finally.”
Ben lashed out, her knuckles making contact with his face. He swore and she tried to jerk away, but he grabbed her shoulder and held tight. He pulled back his arm and punched her in the face. Blood instantly spurted from her nose, making breathing harder and screaming impossible as blood poured down her throat.
As she fought for breath, he began to drag her toward her bedroom. She battled again, knowing if he got her to the bedroom, it would be another wall and door between her and help. She managed to trip him, but she fell too and he landed hard on her left leg. The screaming pain of the bone breaking make her vision blur.
“I love big titted women.” The new vantage point allowed him to grab her breasts and rip her t-shirt from her body. The pain from her leg was too intense for her to even fight his grabbing hands right in front of her. “Kinda fat, though. Fucking lazy if you ask me, but it won’t bother me.”
He ripped her cotton pajama pants next, pulling them down to tangle around her knees. Her panties followed as his words became growls.
“No, no,” Ben yelled, or at least tried to around the blood still flooding her mouth.
“Oh, hell, yes.” He sat up to fumble with his belted jeans.
He was fat, not at all in shape, but he was too strong for Ben to fight. She’d taken self-defense classes, but she was at his mercy and they both knew it. A cellphone rang from one of his pockets, and Ben struggled again as he heaved himself on top of her and dug it out.
“What? Fuck.” He scrambled off of her, slamming her head down twice onto the thinly carpeted floor, and then he was gone.
Ben turned onto her stomach and made herself crawl. He would be back. Over and over her mind screamed he’d be back to hurt her, so she ignored the pain radiating from everywhere and dragged herself to the door. She pulled herself up with the knob as the pounding on the door began.
“Ms. Riggs? Ben?” a young male voice called. “Hey, are you in there? I heard something.”
“Thomas,” she sobbed, trying to flip the locks with her blood soaked hands. “Get out of here. Call the sheriff.”
“But–”
“Run, damn it,” she screamed. “Get out of here!”
She heard him go, and finally Ben got the door open. She fell into the hallway to find Deputy Teddy Williams, Thomas and two other boys his age trying to get the keys from the manager.
“Help,” she whispered as Teddy knelt beside her, pointing his gun toward the open doorway. “Get the kids out of here. Please.”
She wasn’t sure if he did, wasn’t sure what was happening through the pain, but even that slipped from her mind as she passed out.
* * * *
“Okay, she’s coming around. Ben Riggs?”
“Ouch,” she mumbled as a gentle finger lifted her eyelid.
“Talk to me, Ms. Riggs. My name is Jarrod, I’m an EMT, and you were attacked. Anything in particular causing you pain right now?”
Ben tried to open her eyes but couldn’t make them work.
“Your eyes are very swollen from a few hits you took to the face, but they’re still there, no bone damage, luckily.”
“Thomas and the other boys? They’re not here?” She gagged on blood, and he tipped her sideways on a stretcher to spit it up.
“They’re out on the sidewalk with Teddy and Sheriff Jefferson,” he said. “Hand me more gauze, Mark.”
“Mark?” She coughed hard and groaned when the pain spiked.
“I’m here, honey.” Mark’s answer was harsh and hard, but his familiar hand stroking her forearm was gentle. “I was finishing up at the nursing home when I saw the ambulance. We’re going to get you to the ER, so just relax. You’re safe.”
“I don’t feel good.” She wished she could open her eyes and look at the EMT, but she held tightly to Mark’s hand instead. “He left when Thomas and Davey and Sam knocked on the door. I told them to leave. I didn’t want them to get hurt. Are they okay?”
“They’re fine, sweetheart, I promise. They’re just worried about you right now.” Mark’s soothing voice invited her to relax, but her adrenaline still poured.
Teaching Ms. Riggs Page 6