Monday, August 25th – 8:09 pm
Avery stumbled away as Ben Atkins slammed into Luys’ shoulder and spun him around. Quick and efficient, he incapacitated Luys by wrenching his arm up against his back. Using his shoulder and his weight, Ben rammed him up against the building’s wall with a thump. She winced as the side of Luys’ face hit and scraped across the rough stucco.
With a knee against the back of Luys’ thigh, Ben grabbed his other hand and cuffed him. Then he yanked him back around suddenly, and Avery found herself staring directly into Luys’ eyes. She sucked in a breath. Shock. For a moment. It flared in his eyes before he shielded the expression.
Shoulders slumped, he turned away from her gaze. He looked defeated. But she knew he could easily break away from both police officers and escape. He could kill them both if he was anything like Mayor. That is if he’d been telling her the entire truth about his physical abilities. But he could have been lying to her the entire time.
She frowned. He hadn’t thought he would get caught. But didn’t all criminals and killers think that way? They lied too. He could have distorted the truth about what she could or couldn’t do. Glancing down at her injured hand, she flexed her fingers. It was hard to believe she’d hurt it earlier.
Her stomach roiled as they pushed Luys down the walkway, and all three of them disappeared behind another building. His betrayal stung far more than she liked to admit. She’d slept with a man, found him fascinating, blinded herself to the idea that he couldn’t be a killer. She’d focused on the sister so she wouldn’t have to deal with her own demons. She’d wanted to believe in Luys, making excuses for him when any normal person would have run like hell.
In her adult life, she’d never let anyone hurt her like Luys. During her childhood, yes, there’d been others who’d filled her head with promises: parents who had assured her of a safe home, a place to feel that she belonged, a loving family with no conditions attached. Their promises had all turned empty, except for one—that family had turned out to be the most painful of them all. But she’d reached adulthood, though cautious and weary, with some semblance of normalcy. Luys, though, ripped open the old wounds of her childhood: all her self-doubts, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. And she’d let him, so she didn’t have anyone to blame but herself. She’d been alone for so long, working full-time and going to college, with no time for a deep, meaningful relationship, and then dealing with her cancer with no one to confide to about her deepest fears. Maybe it was her own fault for not making time because of her own anxieties of being hurt.
She sighed. Blaming others or herself wasn’t going to get her anywhere.
When she retreated into her condo, her entire body shook in reaction. She hit both locks on the front door and paced the room. She asked herself again, why hadn’t he escaped? He could have easily overpowered both cops. Frowning, she hugged her chest and rubbed both arms. Maybe he’d been too much in shock. Or he could have a plan, couldn’t he? Maybe he let them arrest him for a reason she could only guess at?
Her frown deepened. It didn’t matter what he was feeling. Or, for that matter, what she was feeling. She should be thrilled that he wasn’t coming back. He was dangerous, a man she should never have tangled with, and that included his sister. They’d murdered Noah Harris. They were probably planning on doing her next. And she’d slept with him. She couldn’t get the thought out of her head.
He’d taken in a lost kitten, of all things. Who would think someone that caring would be a killer? Ugh. She had. The poor cat was alone in his place, probably needing food and a refill of fresh water. Earlier, Luys had told her about his key hidden under a fake rock in the gravel by his door. She couldn’t ignore the animal. After retrieving the key, and within ten minutes, she entered Luys’ apartment, smuggled Clover, her food dish, and the litter box into her home.
Once back inside her condo, the kitten seemed excited at her new territory after wolfing down a healthy meal. After investigating each room with interest, Clover jumped onto Avery’s lap. She caressed the animal’s silky ears and cheeks, feeling some of her pent-up energy evaporating. The kitten soon settled down by curling into a ball by her head on the sofa. Avery didn’t have Clover’s interest in a nap. She still couldn’t fully relax. A hot bath wouldn’t work, alcohol might fix things for a bit, but it would lead to more feelings of depression. The gym in the complex was the only thing she could think of to calm down.
After changing quickly into a pair of leggings and a loose-fitting shirt, she grabbed a towel, her keys, and pepper spray and then locked the door, jiggling the handle to ensure no one could get in. Avery grunted. It probably wouldn’t keep Mayor out if she wanted in.
Her stomach revolted at the scent of barbequing meat wafting from the pool area when she stepped outside. Her insides hadn’t yet settled. Wrinkling her nose, she rushed down the sidewalk, making a point of checking every pathway before veering off into other parts of the complex. Even though Luys was gone, there was still Mayor. She slipped inside the gym after using the key, the air-conditioning slapping her with its frigid air, and was relieved to find only one other person in the building running on a treadmill.
She started on the weight machine. From there, she moved onto the stair stepper. A few neighbors trailed into the room, none of them familiar. Sixty minutes later, her limbs shaking from exhaustion forced her off the machine. She was still wired, but she didn’t feel like an electrical charge was going through every vein or artery anymore. Rubbing the towel against the back of her neck, she left the building and stepped into a wave of heat even though the sun had since set. A breeze kicked up, urging her back to her condo as she hugged her towel against her stomach and wrapped her fingers around her keys and pepper spray.
After veering onto the sidewalk to her building, a sigh whispered from behind. She twisted and looked over her shoulder, thinking the worse. Still, she jerked in surprise at a shadow advancing toward her. A man, from his size and height, strode toward her. Shadows obscured his features. Panic. It swept through her body as she quickened her pace, fumbled for the pepper spray from beneath her towel, and fingered the cylinder until her finger found the button.
She couldn’t stop her body’s reaction, even knowing she needed to calm down. The police had taken Luys away. The person was a neighbor going about his business. But it didn’t help when his step quickened, sounding as if he was advancing toward her.
Twisting around, hand on her spray, she peered across her shoulder again. Light from a nearby lamppost revealed his face for a moment before he moved closer. Stephen. His teeth flashed, a sharp contrast from the rest of his shadowed face.
Avery’s breath whooshed out of her lungs in relief. She clutched the towel to her chest to hide the tremors in her hands and chuckled. Even to her ears, her laugh sounded winded and forced. He’d scared the crap out of her, and he was the last person she wanted to see.
“Stephen! You startled me. How’s Cristina? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
She hoped to God he wasn’t controlling where she went and who she talked to. Avery wanted to yell at him to keep his hands off her friend, but by doing that, she knew she’d jeopardize Cristina.
A mere two feet away, he halted in front of her, his breath smelling unfamiliar, metallic, and with something she couldn’t identify. If he hit Cristina, made her bleed…. Anger welled up inside her and kept her from backing away. Something was off. The curl of his lip looked more like a sneer than a smile. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes, something’s definitely wrong. Or should I say, someone.”
“Cristina? Is she okay?” Oh, God. Did he finally put her in the hospital? Beat her bloody? “What have you done to her?”
“I haven’t done anything to her. It’s you who needs to stop. Enough with the prying, of putting your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“How can I when it’s obvious she’s being abused by you!”
“You don’t know the meaning of abuse. You have no clue. But I’ll be happy to show you.”
He lunged, grabbed both her arms, and shook her. She gasped. The shock and force of his attack sent her towel along with her keys and pepper spray flying to the ground. She strained away from his hold, but his fingers dug deeper into her flesh.
“What is with you? Stop it! Have you lost your mind!”
Avery glanced around. The gym was on the outskirts of the complex and away from the main buildings. They were alone.
“You need to cut it out,” he bit out.
“Why should I?” she recklessly asked, uncaring that she was egging him on, too caught up in the injustice of him hurting someone smaller than him. “It’s obvious you have some sick power over her. She needs a friend, not some bully who likes to show who’s in power.”
“You have no clue what you’re talking about!”
“Tell that to the bruises on her body.”
She shoved at his chest. It was like hitting concrete, but that wasn’t going to stop her. If he thought he could treat her like he did his wife, he was in for a surprise. She lifted a knee to ram him in the groin, but he twisted too quickly. He then shoved and jerked her to the side.
Gasping, Avery found herself somehow backed up into the shadows of a building. His breath was hard and hot against her face, the peculiar scent wafting into her lungs. She fought back the urge to vomit and opened her mouth to scream. He cut it off with a hand over her mouth.
“Nice try. I’m not that stupid.”
For a wild second, she thought he was going to rape her, even kill her. She should have kept her foolish mouth shut, not gotten herself worked up from pointless, self-righteous anger.
She closed her eyes and willed herself somewhere else. Come on. Transport somewhere, anywhere but here. The pressure of his hand on her mouth didn’t ease or disappear. It wasn’t working. But she’d done it once. She could do it again. She squeezed her eyes tighter. All she needed to do was center her thoughts harder.
Focusing on moving through space and time, she willed herself away from her spot and Stephen. Still nothing. The sour tang of his breath on her face told her she was wishing for something that wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t miraculously vanish, couldn’t pull herself from his vice-like grip, couldn’t scream.
She was being a victim, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
His hand on her mouth didn’t smother the whimper that slipped past her lips.
“I’m only going to warn you once.”
Her eyes snapped open as he leaned over her, pushing her backward until her head scraped the brick wall. Avery’s fisted hands were trapped against his chest. Her eyes misted with impotence as she glared up at him. She wouldn’t show fear.
His hand on her mouth shifted, and for a moment she thought it was enough to get her teeth into his palm, but the pressure didn’t ease. The pain turned relentless as he grabbed the hair at the back of her neck and twisted until he forced her to look to the side. Oh, God. What was he planning? She hadn’t seen a weapon on him.
Now was the time. She closed her eyes and wished herself somewhere else. Anywhere but here. She needed to go, go now. Please, God, teleport me from here. Seconds ticked by. All her wishing didn’t do a thing. She opened her eyes. He still loomed over her.
He yanked her closer. She stiffened. Then he ran his tongue across the length of her cheek as if he was marking her. Shock rolled through her body.
She flinched, feeling the moist warmth of his saliva against her skin.
Then, suddenly, he shoved her. The force slammed her against the wall. Her head hit the brick with a whack. She grabbed onto the building to keep herself from falling. When she got air back in her lungs, she glanced around.
He’d disappeared.