by Sam Crescent
“You killed him?”
“Yes. There’s no way anyone relinquishes that kind of power.”
“And you never will?”
“I have no reason to. I will never allow myself to fall, Ava, you need to understand that.” He kissed her temple. “And now because of everything you know, I can’t let you go.”
The threat was clear.
Any way out of here was death.
She understood why so many people were afraid of him.
****
The following day, Logan drove toward Julie’s apartment. She lived in a nice neighborhood. The kind any young mother would be happy to raise a child. She worked for him to support her two kids, to get them through high school and off to college.
She was a thirty-five-year-old woman with a ten-year-old and five-year-old. Her husband had died in a hit-and-run, and she’d been struggling until she came to work for him.
He knocked on the door. It was a Friday morning, and he hoped the kids were in school. He didn’t do well around kids.
Juliet opened the door, and her eyes went wide.
“I didn’t complain. I swear.”
He saw the black eye she was sporting. The heavy makeup clearly didn’t hide it.
“I’d like to come in if you’d let me.”
“Of course. I mean, this house is yours anyway.”
Stepping across the threshold, he followed her down the corridor toward the kitchen.
“This is your house.”
“I know. I will be back at work tomorrow night.”
“You don’t work weekends,” he said.
“But I’ve had a couple of days off.”
“I can see why.” He pointed at her eye.
She touched her cheek and turned away, fiddling with the kettle.
“I did tell Louisa it was no big deal.”
“What exactly did Luke want from you?” he asked, taking a seat. “Before we delve into what you’re afraid to tell me, your job is secure. You shouldn’t have been hurt, and you won’t be returning to work until you’re well. Also, this house is yours.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the deeds, sliding them across the table. “Now, tell me what went down.”
She reached out, taking the deeds. Her hands shook. “I can’t.” She closed the paperwork and left it, her hands folding. “He knows where I live and has threatened my kids. I couldn’t stand for anything to happen to them.”
“Luke has?”
She didn’t say a word.
“Julie, you know who you’re dealing with. I will tell you anything you say to me will be in confidence. I will have men put at your door with the guarantee they’ll protect you.”
Julie started to cry, and he didn’t like tears.
He waited. Glancing down at his watch, he was so close to leaving and being done with her.
“He said you don’t have a clue. That you’re blind and you’re not really a bad guy. You’ve got a weakness.”
“Luke did?”
“He said a long time ago, he had a nice tight pussy. One so tight and dry, it was a struggle to fuck, but when he did, she was the sweetest victory because he had something you’d never had.”
He listened as Julie told him in graphic detail what happened to her. Even as she begged him to stop, Luke kept on hurting her, forcing her, even though it went against the rules.
Afterward, Logan left her some money in the hope of helping compensate and climbed back into the car.
Grabbing his cell phone, he dialed Louisa.
“Do you have any footage from the night Luke hurt Julie?”
“No. He knows about the tapes, Logan. He had them turned off, and you’d given instruction your friends could have what they wanted.”
“Okay.” He hung up his cell phone and felt sick to his stomach.
Luke could be messing with him. What if it was someone else though?
Scrolling through his contacts, he found Luke’s number.
Pressing dial, he waited.
It went straight to voice mail.
He dialed again.
“Dude, seriously, can’t you take the hint? I’ve got something going on here, and I don’t need you to be calling me up every few minutes.”
“Why did you hurt one of my girls?”
“Did that fucking slut lie about me?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Louisa called me. She said you’d hurt one of the girls.” Logan knew he should have talked to Luke face to face.
“I see what is going on here. Ava’s got inside your head, hasn’t she?”
“No.”
“Please. Ten minutes alone with her and you want to act like her fucking superhero. I didn’t hurt anyone. I’m sick and tired of these bitches lying about me. They don’t have a fucking clue. Honestly, they want to be fucked nice and hard, and when you give them what they want, they scream rape. Don’t you find it a little boring?”
Logan knew he was lying. “I’ve got to go.”
“Dude, we’re good, right?”
“Of course.” He hung up his cell phone, turning over the ignition and driving out of the parking lot.
He arrived at his penthouse suite after lunch to find Hunter sitting at the dining room table, eating some kind of pasta.
“Is this what I pay you for? To sit and eat?”
“Ava’s trying on the new dresses you wanted. She keeps coming out. I think the blue is more her color, but she hates them all,” Hunter said. “How was your trip to Julie?”
Logan stared at his friend and his confidant.
“I want you to bring the sheriff to me,” he said.
“We’re talking about the Crow Valley fucker who likes little boys?”
“Yes.”
Hunter slurped up the final piece of spaghetti. “Do I get a reason why?”
“Luke’s lying, and I have a feeling, Ava’s telling the truth.” The moment he spoke the words aloud, he felt sick to his stomach. Hunter stood up.
“But you never had a reason to doubt. Why do you doubt now?”
“Hey,” Ava said, gaining their attention. “I didn’t hear you arrive home. So, here is the black one.”
She wore a cocktail dress with a plunging neck, and she gave them a twirl. Her blonde hair hung down her back, and he wanted to run his fingers through it.
Luke raped her.
Luke raped her.
“Don’t you like it?”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Are you sure? You don’t seem sure.”
“It is stunning, Ava,” he said.
She nodded and frowned. “I’ll go and try on the next.”
He stared at the space where she stood, and he felt like the biggest fucking loser on the planet.
“What makes you think she’s telling the truth?”
“Do you remember the night Luke and the boys arrived? I had Ava come to me naked,” he said. Just recalling the memory now with the new knowledge made him feel sick.
“Yeah.”
“She was completely turned off, and she tried to stay as far away from Luke as possible. She couldn’t stand him. When I told her what happened, she didn’t believe me.” Logan finally turned to look at Hunter. “So far Luke has been trying to cover old tracks and given little snippets of information to one of the women who works for me.”
“What kind of information?”
“How he hurt someone years ago. Tore something from them that I could never have.” He looked back over his shoulder, but there was no sign of Ava. “When I was younger, before I was arrested, Ava and I, we shared a couple of moments. They were fleeting, but I always wanted her. I never told a soul about how much I did. She was an obsession I couldn’t get out of my head.”
“Do you think Luke knew?”
“I do. The dates on the bank transfer into the offshore account, they were the same day I was arrested. The sheriff was lying, and if I could buy his silence and stupidity with a tape of him, what could money an
d power do? I bet Luke’s parents knew of his love of little boys too.”
“If this was the case…”
“I put Ava in front of her rapist and made her vulnerable again.” He didn’t even want to think of the guilt it would take for that to have happened.
She deserved more.
“Get me the sheriff. I have a feeling he’d be more inclined to tell me the truth with a bit more incentive.”
Chapter Eleven
Twelve years ago
Ava tucked some hair behind her ear and looked down at the report she’d just finished.
Mrs. Little, her English teacher, was so nice and sweet, and she allowed her to use the classroom to finish her assignment as the library had been closed.
She read over the words again, wanting to ace this essay so she didn’t affect her overall grade.
Satisfied with the way it read, she placed it in the file and slid it into the drawer where she’d been told to store it.
“Are you being naughty?” Logan asked.
She jumped back, putting a hand to her chest. “You scared me.”
“Sorry, it’s not every single day you see the town princess going through the teacher’s drawers.”
“I’m not a princess, and no, I wasn’t stealing or trying to find answers to test scores. I was handing in a piece of homework is all.”
She held her pen in her hands.
Since Halloween night, she and Logan seemed to bump into each other a lot.
“What are you doing here? Planning on stealing those selfsame notes for yourself?”
“Nah, I was looking for you.”
“You were?”
“Yeah, I was.”
“I doubt that.”
He closed the door of the classroom, and her heart picked up a notch. He was all alone. No friends around.
“Why do you doubt it?”
“No one would know where I am.” She didn’t make a habit of announcing her whereabouts to everyone. She didn’t have regular friends, just acquaintances and a few people she studied with. No real connections.
“You see, that’s where you’re wrong. They came looking for you because I asked them to.”
“And why would you do that?”
He smiled. “You’re a bright girl, figure it out.”
“I don’t have any time for games right now.”
“It’s cute you think I’m playing right now. I’m not.” He stepped up to the desk.
She stood on one side, he on the other.
“I don’t know what is going on right now.”
“Why don’t you come a little closer and find out?”
“I don’t know if I should.” She looked past his shoulder, expecting to find Luke and the others.
It wasn’t like Logan was ever on his own for long.
Not too far behind him was one of his friends.
“Ava, come here.”
“Promise me this isn’t some kind of joke.”
“Have I given you a reason to believe it is?”
“I honestly don’t know what I believe anymore.” She ran fingers through her hair. She’d taken it out of the band as it had started to hurt her head.
Rounding the desk, she stepped in front of him.
“See, I’m in front of you, now what?” She wanted to be confident, to act like it didn’t matter.
He stepped close, and she took a step back, only for the teacher’s desk to be in the way.
“I came here looking for you. Do you know why?”
“No.”
He put a hand on either side of her, and she had no choice but to lean back.
She wouldn’t look at his lips, or think about how close he was to her.
Logan pushed against her legs, and she had no choice but to open them and he stepped between them.
“Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are?”
“Logan, what’s going on?”
“I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
She gasped as his hand brushed her hip. She hadn’t been expecting him to touch her, so it took her by surprise.
He didn’t let her go. With his other hand, he cupped her face, tilting her head back.
This couldn’t be happening.
She had to be dreaming.
Wake up, Ava.
She didn’t wake up.
“I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but I can’t get these lips out of my head. I think about them all the fucking time, and it’s doing my head in.”
His lips slammed down, and it startled her.
At first, she didn’t do anything. She didn’t kiss him back, or stop him. She didn’t hold him or push him away.
Logan Stanford was kissing her passionately in their English classroom.
He broke from the kiss and smirked down at her. “You haven’t kicked me in the balls, so I’ll consider that a plus.”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Have you ever been kissed before?”
“No.” She felt her cheeks heat up as she admitted the truth to him.
Why couldn’t she shut up or stay silent?
He chuckled. “That’s okay. I don’t mind being your first. I intend to be your first in everything.”
Before she got a chance to ask him what he meant, he was already kissing her. Only this time, she didn’t stay still. She kissed him back, and she touched him. Cupping his cheek, she opened her lips as he plunged his tongue inside.
She moaned, and he groaned. Each touch seemed to ignite her need for more.
For some strange reason, she’d picked this day to wear a skirt. Logan put his hands on her knees and began to push it up, but she wasn’t ready.
She put her hands on top of his, and he didn’t push.
Instead, he touched her breasts, and this time, she didn’t stop him as it felt too good to deny. His palm rubbed across each nipple, and she gasped his name, not wanting him to stop.
“I don’t know what it is you’ve done to me, but I can’t stop thinking about you.” He growled the words as he trailed kisses down to her neck, biting on her pulse.
She closed her eyes, not realizing he’d opened her shirt until it was too late, and she didn’t care and was more than happy for him to keep on touching her.
“Do you want me?” he asked, gliding down her chest, going to her breasts. She didn’t push him away or try to stop him.
Watching him, she cried out as he sucked on one of her tits.
Oh, my God! This is really happening.
He’s got me partially naked.
When his hand traveled up the inside of her thigh, touching her, she couldn’t bring herself to stop him, didn’t want to. This was beyond anything she’d ever experienced in all of her life.
He stroked over her pussy, teasing her clit, and she knew she was getting close to orgasm. It was right there, just at the point, but she didn’t go over it. He kept her poised there, and suddenly, they both heard a noise.
His friends were shouting his name.
Logan groaned. “I’m going to have to stop there, but know I don’t want to.”
He pulled his hand away from her, helping her quickly get decent.
“I’ll take care of this. Get home safely.”
Within seconds he was gone, almost like he wasn’t there in the first place.
****
Logan didn’t linger too long.
Ava had no choice but to get dressed, feeling the spill of his arousal, and as she looked over at him, she realized something.
“I’m not on the pill,” she said.
He paused, glancing over at her.
They were getting changed in front of each other, which suddenly seemed oddly intimate.
“I know.”
“But you haven’t been wearing a condom.”
“I’m clean.”
She laughed. “I wasn’t thinking about you being clean. I could still get pregnant.” She put a hand against her stomach. “Is that what you’re hoping for?
To get me pregnant?”
“I’m not hoping for anything.” He wouldn’t look at her.
“I don’t know what is going on.”
“Ava, shut the fuck up. Stop overthinking all this. It’s boring and quite frankly, beneath us.”
“Are you planning on killing me?”
He sighed and turned to look at her. “If I give you an answer, will it shut you up?”
“I don’t know. Depends on the answer.”
“Then yes, I’m planning on killing you. I’m hoping to make your life miserable and hurt you in many despicable ways. It’s why I haven’t shared you and have no plans to. Is this the shit you want to hear? Will this make it easier for you somehow?”
“You think I’m asking these questions to make it easy? You think any of this is in some way easy for me?”
“To be honest, Ava, I don’t give a fuck.”
“Well, give a fuck for me. I know you want to blame me for everything that happened to you, but you’re looking in the wrong direction. You need to look a little closer to home to find that kind of closure.”
“Ava.”
“No. I don’t want to die, and I’m not going to have you be the one to do it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get Hunter to pull the trigger. Are you done? I’ve got places I need to be.”
“And you just stopped for a quick fuck?” she asked.
“So pleased you were able to catch up with what it is I want. Now, if you want me to make an example of you, keep on talking. If not, shut up and let’s go.”
She wanted to scream at him, to run and pound on his chest and beg him to see reason.
If she was going to die, she’d make sure in some way, he’d find out the truth.
Pressing her lips together, she followed him out of the room. He put a hand against her back, but she didn’t swat him away, even as she wanted to.
She walked with her head held high. No one stopped them.
Logan said his goodbyes to the woman on the front desk, and Hunter was outside, waiting for them.
“You know where I want to go.”
Hunter nodded.
Logan opened the door, and she climbed inside, trying to tuck herself into the far corner, as far away from him as humanly possible.