Курок Дуглас Пенелопа

“Yeah, you okay?”

I scurried inside, barely registering the cackling I heard coming from inside my house since I’d left the door open.

Asshole.

My heart was trying to jump out of my goddamn chest.

And it still didn’t answer where my family was. Or my dog.

“Lock the doors,” I told him.

He did and took off, rounding the fountain and heading for St. Killian’s, the address I’d already entered into the app.

I put my head back, still gripping the leash in my hand. Mikhail. God, he wouldn’t hurt him, would he? The dog was coming to me less and less. I didn’t know if he was warming to Damon or hiding in fear.

Rain spattered the windshield, and the driver stayed quiet as he drove, probably noticing that I was out of sorts.

It was a short drive. St. Killian’s wasn’t too far from my house if you were in a car. I’d learned from Will that Michael and Rika had an apartment in Meridian City, but they spent almost as much time in Thunder Bay now in their newly renovated home. An old, abandoned cathedral that overlooked the sea.

In no time, the driver turned off the highway, and I expected to feel the gravel I remembered from years ago when I came out here, but there was no crunch of rock underneath the car. It was paved now, and I imagined they’d also manicured the land around the church. Italian cypresses lining the driveway, maybe. A fountain or statue or maybe flowery display in front of the house.

He stopped and put the car in Park, and I grabbed the door handle, ready to get out, since the ride had already been charged to my card on file.

“Would you mind guiding me to the front door?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

He got out of his side, and I climbed out of the car, meeting him as he came around. I didn’t know him, but it wasn’t a big town. He probably knew I was blind.

I took his arm and he led me across the driveway and up to the house.

“There’s stairs,” he warned.

“Gotcha,” I replied, finding the first step. “And the door is directly at the top?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, I got it from here,” I told him.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, thank you.”

Rika told me to come over today to hang out, so I knew she’d be home. It was early, though.

The driver left me and walked back to his car, and I wanted him to wait for me, but they didn’t work like a taxi. I would just have to order another ride later.

I reached the top of the stairs and searched for a doorbell but didn’t find one. Locating a knocker, though, I rapped it twice and waited.

Please be home. Please be awake.

Damon’s friends—former friends, I’d learned—were the only people he could threaten all day and never hurt. They were just as powerful, if not more. He could be stopped.

I rapped the knocker again, three times this time, and waited, the rain growing a little heavier now as thunder cracked overhead.

“Hello?” I called, knowing it was useless. If they hadn’t heard the massive piece of iron hitting the door…

I grabbed the door handle, a heavy metal ring in keeping with the medieval style I knew the cathedral sported, and twisted, the door magically giving way and opening.

That meant they were up, at least.

“Hello, anybody home?” I called. “It’s Winter Ashby.”

I stepped inside and closed the door, inhaling the most amazing scent. A mixture of coffee, vanilla, and stone. I could feel the air above me and knew the ceiling was sky high. It smelled spacious with lots of fresh air. This place would be a nightmare to heat, though.

“Hello?” I said.

Still no answer. I dug out my phone.

“Dial Erika Fane,” I said.

My phone chimed, and after a moment I heard my line start to ring, and then I heard her phone receive the call somewhere in the house. Her ringtone played “Fire Breather” by LAUREL above me, and I smiled, following the sound. I didn’t want to invade her home, but I really didn’t have time to lose.

“Hello?” I sing-songed again.

They had to be here. I got closer to the ring, my foot hitting a step, and I climbed it, finding her phone a few stairs up. I picked it up just as it stopped ringing and went to voicemail. I ended my call.

I took another step, but this time, it brushed something, and I bent down, picking up a long and full mess of fabric. A dress.

“Keep the necklace on,” I heard Michael say. “Just the necklace.”

Huh?

I took another step but heard a moan and halted.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, his breathing labored. “You were always the sweetest little thing.”

“Michael,” Rika gasped.

Oh, shit. I dropped the dress and shot my hand to my mouth, scared they would hear my breathing. They must’ve just gotten home. Wonder what they did last night after the party.

I took a slow and careful step back down the stairs.

“But you are keeping things from me,” he told her.

And I stopped.

“I like it when you have your secrets,” he went on, his voice hot and threatening. “It drives me insane in all the best ways. And maybe I have secrets, too.”

“You want me to be suspicious of you?” she challenged.

But then she let out a breathy groan, and I took another step down, the wooden stair whining under my weight.

Fuck! I stopped, my face etched in pain. They hadn’t heard that, had they? Please, please, please… Did they even have wooden stairs in the original cathedral? Wouldn’t they have been stone? Stone doesn’t make noise.

“You’re not suspicious?” he asked. “I spend a lot of time out of town, Rika. I can get whatever I want from anyone I want.”

She whimpered. “Yeah, you can, but you don’t.”

“How do you know?”

The bed creaked, moans and breathing followed, and I shook my head, wishing I was deaf instead.

They were fighting.

While they were having sex.

It was weird.

“Because you’re not stupid,” she threw back at him. “No one will feel like me on your body.”

The headboard banged into the wall faster and faster, and my head filled with their grunts and moaning, their panting picking up pace.

“Rika,” he breathed out.

“You would never risk losing this,” she taunted.

“No,” he agreed. “I don’t want anything but this. Fuck, baby.”

“I love you, Michael,” she whispered loudly as they got caught up in what they were doing. “I’ve always loved you.”

And I stood there, no longer wincing or dreading my invasion of their privacy but feeling everything they were feeling and wanting more.

The skin touching skin. My body on fire and alive with him. His breath. His tongue. His mouth and hands. His teeth nipping at my stomach and thighs.

That feeling of wanting nothing else, and I would rather never eat again than not have him.

 

I don’t want to…make you dirty.

 

“I will find out what you’re keeping from me,” Michael growled as the bed rocked.

“You can try.”

“I should pull out right now and fucking leave you like this.”

“No, please,” she whimpered.

“Or maybe I’ll just have lots of fun getting the answer out of you. Flip over.”

Weight shifted, her body turning over maybe, and I knew the position they were in. I hadn’t done that yet, but I wanted to. Someday.

 

You won’t make me dirty. There is no you. There is no me. This is us. Us.

 

My eyes burned, and my chin trembled. I didn’t want to do those things with just anyone, though.

A body pressed into my back and I blinked, swallowing the tears in my throat.

“I was supposed to come to you for our next appointment,” Will teased, resting his head on my shoulder.

Upstairs, Rika and Michael went at it, growing louder and harder.

“Don’t worry,” he said, and I could hear the smirk in his voice. “I won’t tell them you were eavesdropping.”

I turned around, but he wouldn’t let me leave. I smelled liquor on his breath. Had he not been to bed yet, either?

“You have this look on your face,” he told me, keeping his voice low and intimate. “Are you wishing someone would do that to you or are you remembering when someone did that to you?”

That. Meaning Michael and Rika’s fucking.

I pushed past him and descended the stairs, finding my way through the great room and to the front door again.

“Need a ride home?” he asked.

“You’re drunk.” I pulled the door open. “I’ll call someone.”

I slammed the door, not caring if Michael and Rika heard me at that point, and walked down the stairs, rain pummeling my hat and shoulders.

The door behind me opened again, and before I knew it, I was swung around, engulfed in strong arms, with a mouth on mine and tongue inside me.

I grunted, trying to push him away as I tasted the faint remnants of whiskey, his tongue brushing mine and playing with me. Forced up on my toes, Will devoured me, gripping the back of my neck, his breath and heat filtering through my body like syrup, down to my toes. Every inch of me suddenly starving.

He pulled away from my mouth, but kept me in his arms. “You need to get fucked and bad,” he told me. “If you don’t want him to do it, I will.” Then he leaned in, whispering over my mouth. “And I would make that offer sober.”

He let me go, and I inhaled shallow breaths, the cool rain welcome on my hot skin.

“See you soon, Winter,” he taunted and went back into the house.

I stood there for a moment, waiting to get my shaking under control before I ordered another ride.

He might be right. I was twenty-one, plenty old enough to have a healthy, active sex life, but when it did happen again, I wanted it to be like it was for Erika and Michael. They seemed to like to play games, but it was passionate, and it was love.

The love was what felt good. Unfortunately, it had been one-sided in my past experience. I could be tempted to take Will up on his offer to let off some steam, but he wouldn’t be more than that. I wanted him as a friend.

The real question was, was he on Damon’s side or mine?

 

 

I pulled the leash out of my pocket, letting the heavy, metal clip at the end dangle at my side.

Where the hell was my dog?

“I’m not sure what you heard, Miss Ashby,” Crane told me, as he walked back into the foyer from the rear of the house. “But no one was home except you this morning. Damon left for the city before you were even awake, I was taking care of some errands, and there was no one else here.”

I stood just inside the open door to my house, the rain pouring in fat drops on the driveway behind me.

“And my family?”

“They left last night after the party.” I heard him open a drawer on one of the tables and pull out keys. “I took them to the airport myself.”

“Left?” I blurted out. “What do you mean?”

My mother and Ari were gone? Without me?

“Yes, the Maldives for the honeymoon,” he informed me as if he were reminding me. “Damon sent Mrs. Ashby and Mrs. Torrance on ahead without him. He’s supposed to join them in a few days.”

“Wait, so they were already gone when I came home last night?”

I felt dizzy, my head like a balloon floating away from my body. The confrontation with Damon played in slow motion in my mind, reprocessing everything we said and the threats he made, and all the while, they weren’t even in the house. His taunts about what he and Ari were going to do had been empty, and I’d gone to bed under this roof, alone in the house with him, with absolutely no security that my family was close.

“Yes, ma’am,” Crane finally answered.

I pulled off my baseball cap and fisted the top of my hair, closing my eyes. Fuck.

I didn’t just imagine it this morning. There was someone in the house with me. Several someones, to be exact. All those noises and movements happening simultaneously in different parts of the house? I wasn’t just scared and overly alert of every little creak. I knew what I heard, dammit.

And then someone messing with me in the theater bathroom that night? Damon claimed it wasn’t him. This all had to be him.

“I’ve searched the house, top to bottom,” he said. “There’s nothing here.”

“Like I would trust you,” I snapped.

He worked for that monster. He was paid to fall in line and protect Damon’s interests, not mine.

And Damon had a very long history of loving to scare me.

Crane didn’t argue, though. He just bowed out. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

He walked past me, his keys jingling, so I assumed he was leaving, and I called out, keeping my voice stern. “My dog is missing,” I told him. “Would you please take a look around the property before you leave?”

“Yes, Miss Ashby.”

“And my friend?” I inquired. “He got home safely last night?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I couldn’t talk to Ethan after what I’d learned, but I didn’t want him lying in a ditch somewhere, either.

“And you will not hurt him or involve him—or anyone else—any further,” I stated rather than questioned.

“Mr. Torrance would say you’re the one to answer that question, ma’am.”

Oh, I’m sure he would.

If I ran, if I complained, if I embarrassed him or misbehaved in any way, he would hurt me by hurting those close to me. It was almost impressive what a strategist he was. People could endure a lot, and he knew I’d have no problem risking myself to fight him, but risking others was a heavier burden.

Crane left, closing the door behind him, and I locked it, going around the rest of the downstairs to check all the entrances, windows, and close the doors to rooms I wouldn’t use. Finding one or more open later would give me a clue someone was in the house.

I took off my jacket and took out my phone, turning it on to call my mother.

Or trying to call my mother.

The phone wouldn’t fire up.

And then I remembered that I’d forgotten to plug it in last night to charge. I exhaled a breath, fighting the urge to cry.

Yanking open the drawer on the foyer table, I pulled out a charger and plugged in the phone, but I thought better of leaving it out in the open. Instead, I threaded the cord through the back of the drawer and hid the phone inside while it charged. He’d get it away from me if he really wanted to, but hopefully I’d get it charged enough to make some calls first.

How could my mother leave me like that? He got them packed, changed and out of the house in a matter of a few hours before I got home last night, and he or Crane hadn’t relayed a message, I hadn’t gotten any calls—that I knew of yet, but I’d check my phone as soon as it had a charge—and no one else had contacted me to let me know my mother was concerned or trying to reach me.

She hadn’t just left me. Arion would have, but not my mom. What threat or lie did he feed her to get her out of the house? Did he even handle it himself or did he use some of his dad’s hired muscle?

And were they really in the Maldives? Like all the way in fucking Asia? Ari always wanted to go. He would’ve agreed to anything to get rid of her.

But he wasn’t joining them.

He wasn’t going anywhere. Even I knew that.

Walking into the kitchen, I took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with bottled water, hooking the tip of my finger over the edge of the glass to feel when the water reached close to the top. Taking a long drink, I closed my eyes and listened to the house. To the wind and the rain and the floors, absorbing the hum of the refrigerator, the heater warming the water, and the silence.

Too much silence.

My blood coursed under my skin, and my hair stood up on my arms.

I still felt it. The same thing I felt this morning.

No creaks. No footsteps. No music.

No Mikhail.

But it was still there. The heaviness in the air.

And I knew.

I just knew.

I set out a bowl of food for Mikhail in the mud room and freshened up his water, just in case he was outside somewhere. I knew he wasn’t. He would’ve come back by now. But just in case…

And then I took my water and headed upstairs, into the bathroom, my eyelids trying to close like I hadn’t slept all night.

I set my water down, it clinking against the granite countertop, and walked over to the tub, sitting on the edge as I turned on the water. Making it as hot as I could stand, I sat there running my hand under the water, the steam wafting up to my face.

I closed my eyes, feeling my pulse thunder inside as everything else was so quiet.

I feel you.

I feel you everywhere.

The cloves on his clothes, the fountain on his skin.

The words on his tongue, the breath on his lips.

The hand on my neck, the sharp in his silence.

Down the hall. Sitting in the study. Outside in the rain.

At the open bathroom door.

Or right in the corner of the room.

Right here. Watching me.

He was always coming.

Or…

Maybe I never left. His words came back to me.

When he was in prison, he was here. When I wanted to want other men, he was here. When I danced, when I cried, whenever I was alone, and when I was quiet in a room full of people and thinking about him, he was here.

The truth was, I’d had what Michael and Rika had. I thought I had anyway. Those days were when I was the happiest. Even though it was a lie, it was the best I’d ever felt.

Damon.

It was useless to close the door. My fight wasn’t enough.

He couldn’t be contained. I had to let go.

I stood up, kicked off my shoes, and pulled my T-shirt over my head, letting it drop to the floor. I didn’t lick my lips even though they were dry or barely breathed even though I was starved to.

Calm and slow, as if my brain was floating high above my head, and I was watching myself from above, I removed my bra and unbuttoned my jeans, letting both fall, as well, and hooked my fingers under the hem of my panties, pausing.

No creaks. No footsteps. No door opening or closing.

But I felt him.

The cool October air caressed my skin, making the flesh of my nipples pebble and harden, and I only hesitated another moment before I pushed them down my legs.

Stepping into the water, I lowered myself, an inch of water underneath me and immediately making chills spread across my skin with the utter warmth. I almost groaned.

Closing my eyes again, I hugged my knees to me as the water ran, steam billowed around me, and my toes curled in the water.

The heat coursed through my body, settling my muscles and nerves, and making my limbs feel like anchors. I didn’t want to move, and I didn’t have the will to care right now.

Hurt me. You still won’t win.

No creaks. No footsteps. No doors.

Nothing.

What did he see when he watched me?

His enemy? Or something he wanted?

Was I someone to torment or something to play with? Did he know the difference?

Did he want me to like it?

What did he see?

I spaced off, feeling the hairs on my arms stand up and my skin harden like armor as I felt him, and anger and violence swirled in my gut, because I wanted to tear at him and hurt him and prove to him that I wasn’t scared yet.

That I was going fucking mad, but I wasn’t a baby.

What would he see when he looked at me right now?

My watery eyes, trembling hands, and huddled form?

Or did he see that I was alone? That I was naked, wet, and alone for so long?

So long.

I took the sponge and soaked it with water, squeezing it down over my bent knees and letting it fall down my legs over and over again. Then I did the same thing to my neck, moving my hair to one side and letting hot water run down my back.

Moving the sponge to the front of my neck, I tipped my head back, straightened my spine, and sat up tall, squeezing the water out, while letting my legs fall cross-legged and away from my body so the water could cascade down over my breasts and stomach. It caressed me, the warmth feeling so good, and I panted as I did it over and over again, rubbing the sponge down my neck.

And in your bed tonight, when it’s late and dark, and the rest of the house is quiet…you’re pissed and angry, because you think you hate me, but you slip a hand under the covers anyway, because no one will be the wiser if you indulge yourself in the memory of me…