by L. D. Davis
“I really need to talk to you,” Vic said in my ear while I made a couple of drinks.
“So talk.”
“Not now. It’s impossible to talk now. Later, after hours. Let me drive you home.”
“I already have a ride home,” I said impatiently. I walked the drinks over to two waiting customers and snatched the money off of the bar that they threw down.
“It’s our last night working together,” Vic complained. “At least give me that.”
I thought about Corsey’s words about Vic. Was it possible that it was propaganda spun up by Kyle? Thinking about it only served to make me more confused and frustrated about his insane personality changes.
“Fine,” I said as I made change for the customers. “You can drive me back to the penthouse afterward, but you have to take me straight there. No horseshit. I’m not in the mood. You got it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” he said with a smug smile. “What’s eating at your panties anyway?”
“What do you want? To sit down and discuss my problems over a cup of tea?” I snapped and left him alone to wait on more customers.
Later that night when I explained to Corsey that Vic would be driving me home, he tried very hard to talk me out of it.
“I told you he was a dangerous man,” Corsey said as he glowered across the parking lot at Vic who was standing by his car looking smug.
“Vic has never hurt me,” I argued.
Unlike your boss who may as well had dropped an anvil on my chest.
“Not yet,” Corsey said. “I can lose my job if I let you go with him.”
“You can lose your job and go to prison if you force me to get into that Escalade,” I snapped. “I don’t understand why I need a babysitter in the first place.”
“I’m not babysitting,” Corsey grumbled. “I’m…escorting.”
“And spying and stalking,” I added. I put my hand to my forehead, frustrated. “Kyle doesn’t even like me. It shouldn’t matter to him what I do and with whom.”
Corsey narrowed his eyes at me. I was suddenly aware of his tall, bulky stature. He had big ass hands that could have made Andre the Giant nervous and his muscles looked like they were about to tear through his nice cotton shirt.
“I wouldn’t be here if Kyle Sterling didn’t ‘like’ you, Miss Whitman,” he said in a low tone.
“Okay!” I yelled, waving my hands. “I’m done with this conversation. I appreciate you trying to do your job, but I don’t need you, and you can’t make me go.”
I turned away from him and started across the parking lot to Vic’s truck.
“He’s not going to like this at all,” Corsey called after me.
I ignored him and climbed inside the truck. Vic closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side to get in. Corsey was already on his phone as he climbed back into the Escalade, no doubt reporting to Kyle. As confirmation, my cell phone started ringing before we even pulled out of the parking lot. I sent the call to voicemail, silenced the phone, and pushed it into my jacket pocket.
“What the fuck is going on with you guys?” Vic asked, looking over at me. “Sounds like some kind of Fifty Shades shit. Is that what’s going on?”
“No. What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked in a rush to get away from talking about Kyle.
“That douche bag is following me,” he growled as he looked in the rearview mirror. I checked the side mirror and instantly recognized the Escalade a couple of cars back.
“It’s okay,” I said, unaffected by what had become my bizarre life. “What did you want to talk about?”
He resigned to being followed by Corsey with a sigh and glanced at me a couple of times before talking.
“We’ve known each other for almost three years now,” he said carefully. “I’ve always tried to help you out and be good to you, right?”
I couldn’t deny this. Though I knew he was an arrogant, hot headed, steroid infested meathead, he always went out of his way to appease me and offered his assistance when I needed it. It was Vic that got me the job at Steve’s. He had offered me money, use of his car and the spare room in his house, but I had declined. Some of it was a sense of pride, but mostly I was worried about what he would want in return. Corsey wasn’t entirely wrong—Vic could be a little…creepy at times. Not Kyle creepy, but the kind of creepy that made me feel uneasy. He had a habit of showing up at the same places as me and pretending it was a coincidence. Sometimes I had the feeling he was staring at me and undressing me with his eyes, but every time I looked up, he would look away with a creepy smile. Also, I had seen how he treated other women, like they were pieces of meat.
Regardless of all of that, the fact was that he was right. He had always tried to help and he had never mistreated me personally. So I nodded at him, acknowledging and agreeing with what he said, though I wasn’t sure where this was going.
“I’ve asked you out a few times, and you always said no because you didn’t think two people who work together should be together,” he continued.
I nodded again, though that rule only really applied to him.
“And after your ex died, I thought you needed a little bit of time.”
“How considerate,” I muttered.
“I know you’re moving in with that asshat, but if there really isn’t anything happening between the two of you than you won’t have any objections to us going out.”
He reached across the cab and put his hand on mine. I almost recoiled in revulsion, but I managed not to.
“Umm,” I started. “You’re kind of putting me on the spot here, Vic,” I said.
“I love you, Lily,” Vic said, squeezing my hand. “I think you love me, too, and that’s why you wouldn’t move in with me or take my money.”
My eyes grew so big they threatened to explode in my skull. “I don’t understand how not moving in with you or taking your money equates love.”
“You needed to keep everything neutral while we were working together,” he said as if it should have been obvious to me. “You didn’t want to mix business…” he pulled my hand to his lips. “With pleasure,” he continued.
“Or…” I said and pulled my hand from his grasp. “I just wasn’t interested.”
Vic laughed and then squeezed my knee. He left his hand there as he grinned over at me.
“I like that you play hard to get, Lily. It’s a real turn on.”
“I’m not playing,” I said, picking his hand off of my knee. “I’m really not interested, Vic. I don’t know why you have everything so twisted.”
“I forgive you for whatever you’re doing with that asshat,” he said, running the back of his hand over my jawline. I flinched away. “I’ll give you a little bit of time to get your shit together. I mean, I’m not completely innocent. I bagged a girl last night in the office after the bar closed. I hope you don’t hold that against me.”
Oh, my god! How could I have not seen how fucking crazy you are?
I pushed myself as close to the door as possible. I felt foolish for not paying heed to Corsey’s words. In stalking me, he and Kyle no doubt also saw Vic stalking me as well, and they probably dug deep on him, too. There were probably terrifying things about the man that I was unaware of, which pissed me off. They should have told me instead of behaving mysteriously.
“Do you?” Vic asked. He caressed my thigh and groaned.
“Do I what?” I asked, trying to sound irate.
“Hold what I did against me? I mean, it wasn’t just her. There have been others while I waited for you, but they didn’t mean anything to me, Lily. You’re all I’ve really wanted for these past couple of years.”
Maybe I needed to give him the impression that what he did was unforgivable and therefore our ‘relationship’ was un-repairable.
“You want me to forgive you for banging other women?”
He looked at me with a worried expression. “Yes.”
“I can’t forgive you for that,” I snapped.
His fingers slipped down to my inner thigh, too damn close to my crotch. I cried out when he suddenly squeezed my thigh in his meaty hand.
“Now, Lily,” he said disapprovingly. “We both know that you have fucked other guys. If I saw any of them on the street, I’d fucking kill them. Don’t push all of this shit on to me.”
Tears pricked at my eyes as his fingers dug into my flesh. Even though I knew Vic was creepy, I had not expected this. I would have never expected this in a million years. How could I have worked next to him for nearly three years and not know how deeply disturbed he was? I had told Kyle I could take care of myself, and I had cursed having a babysitter in Corsey, and now I was choking on the foot in my mouth.
“You’re hurting me,” I said as evenly as possible and blinked back my tears. I had a feeling he wanted to see me cry and beg, but I wasn’t going to give him any of that. “I’m giving you three seconds to release me.”
In the cover of dark and with my body pressed against the door, he didn’t see my right hand fumbling in my jacket pocket for my pepper spray. Spraying him in the face could make him run off the road or crash into something, but it was a risk I was willing to take as my anger began to swell inside of me.
Fortunately, he released me. I looked out of the window and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that we were close to Kyle’s building. I checked the side mirror and saw that Corsey was riding Vic’s bumper. I felt a small sense of relief knowing he was there.
“I’m sorry, Lil,” Vic sighed. “It’s just that I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’ve done a lot of shit to make this happen. Don’t give up on me.”
I didn’t know what kind of shit he was talking about. I was focusing on the fact that we were very close to Kyle’s building. I was almost surprised to see Kyle standing outside of the lobby, illuminated by a couple of lamps. Almost surprised, but not quite, because it wasn’t even the most bizarre part of my weekend.
“I’ll be in touch,” Vic said as we pulled into the circular driveway in front of the building.
I was jumping out of the truck before he could even come to a complete stop. Kyle stormed past me towards the truck, but Vic gave him a look of disdain and sped off.
“You’re fired!” Kyle yelled at Corsey who was standing outside of his Escalade.
“Don’t you dare fire him!” I yelled.
Kyle glared at me. “You have no idea what could have happened to you!”
“Yes, I rather do have an idea what could have happened to me,” I snapped with a quavering voice that made both men pause.
“What happened?” Kyle demanded, taking a step towards me.
“Nothing,” I said quickly and took a step back away from him. I wasn’t a prideful person, but I didn’t want Kyle and Corsey to be right. I was so angry that they had most likely kept vital details from me about Vic, and I was angry with myself for not knowing Vic even half as well as I thought I did.
“If something happened, I need to know it,” Kyle said patiently as he took another step toward me. Corsey was now behind Kyle, watching me with concerned eyes.
“Nothing happened,” I said and stepped into a circle of light.
Kyle’s eyes widened and then grew hard. Corsey ran his hands through his hair.
“What?” I snapped.
“If nothing happened, why is your makeup smeared like you’ve been crying?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth.
I wiped at the tears I didn’t even know had fallen. Thinking quickly, I cradled the hand I got stabbed in against my body. “I hurt my hand in the truck. I didn’t cry,” I said.
Kyle looked at me skeptically. My emotions were really messed up. The anger I felt towards Vic was suddenly directed at Kyle.
“I don’t see where it matters! I don’t understand why you have Corsey babysitting me and why you are acting so concerned about my well-being when you’re obviously not!”
“What I did this morning does not change what I said to you before, Lily,” Kyle growled, stepping forward again. “I still care about you.”
“But you wish you didn’t.”
“I really fucking wish I didn’t,” he agreed.
“Then stop,” I said.
“If I knew how, I would,” he said darkly.
I turned away from him and started into the building, but I stopped just inside the doorway.
“And do not fire Corsey,” I snarled.
I left the men outside and took the elevator to the penthouse. I let myself in with the key Corsey had given to me the night before. I went straight to the bar and grabbed the bottle of bourbon. I had taken two big swigs of the stuff by the time I got to my room and locked the door behind me. I put the bourbon down on my chest of drawers after another sip and started to strip out of my clothes. I always showered after working in the bar, but I felt extra dirty this time. My skin was crawling and I had the sensation that there was a sticky film on my body.
I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it and washed and scrubbed my body head to toe until my hand started to bleed. It had been healing fine, but I had been so into getting clean that I had not immediately noticed the damage I was doing to my hand. I got out and wrapped a towel around myself. I absently applied an antibiotic cream to my hand and bandaged it. I then turned the focus on brushing the knots out of my hair, pulling harder than necessary at the brush.
I brushed and flossed my teeth and then made my way into the bedroom. It wasn’t until then that I noticed the flat screen television mounted on the wall across from my bed. Below it on a mounted shelf, there was a slim cable box and a blue ray player. There were speakers mounted on either side of the television. Below the television equipment on a media cabinet I had also missed, was an expensive looking stereo with a remote, a vinyl player, a cd player, and a docking station for my iPod. I looked around the room to see if there was anything else I had missed, and found that there were more speakers in all of the corners of the room. My bed was made with a new black comforter and the sheets under it were red, my favorite color combination. Fresh Lilies sat in a vase on the table next to the bed, and somehow that seemed to be the most significant thing for me.
I sat down on the bed and leaned over to smell the flowers. I took another look around the room and sighed. Either this really was ‘some kind of Fifty Shades shit’ or Kyle was really good at making his guests feel wanted. Another thought hedged into my mind, but I pushed it away. I didn’t want to think about love shit.
I got up and took another hit from the bourbon bottle. I turned on the stereo and took a couple of minutes to figure it out. Soon Blue Monday by Orgy was blasting from all corners of the room. I turned in search of my pile of luggage and other belongings that I had left by the door before going to work, but there was nothing there now. I walked over to the closet door and flipped on the light. My mouth fell open when I saw how big it was. My suitcases were on the top shelf and my business clothes and nicer clothes were hanging on velvet-covered hangers, and my shoes were lined up on a shoe rack. My eyes grew big when I saw the pair of sneakers that Kyle owed me from two years ago. How the hell he remembered exactly what they looked like was beyond me. There were also a few newer items hanging in the closet. I ran my hands over the designer dress suits and checked the sizes.
“Damn, he’s good,” I whispered to myself, almost angrily.
I shut off the light and left the closet. I pulled open drawers and found my clothes neatly folded and everything separated. Pants were with pants, shirts with shirts, socks with socks, and then there was a whole drawer just for my undergarments—and some of them were also new, I sourly noted. I pulled out something to wear to bed and slammed the drawers shut.
The beginning chords of Snuff by Slipknot drifted through the room just as I let the towel drop to the floor. My leg felt sore. I looked down at it and gasped. There was a bruise forming in the shape of Vic’s hand on my thigh. I rushed over to the mirror and looked at it head on. When I saw just how close the bruise was to the j
unction between my thighs, I lost it. Even though the music was playing loud enough to drown out any noise I may make, I bit my lip to keep from crying out loud. Tears raced down my cheeks as I gingerly touched the bruise. I felt violated, stupid, and weak. I was very capable of defending myself and knocking the shit out of full-grown men, but I stupidly put myself in a bad situation and allowed Vic to turn me into a victim.
After a couple of minutes, I pulled on a pair of panties and a t-shirt and climbed into bed without turning out the lights. I thought I heard knocking on my door, but I didn’t care. I had not felt so badly since I found out about Gavin’s death over the summer, but at least then I was crying for him. This time I was selfishly crying for myself after my own idiotic mistakes.
The knocks got louder, but I rolled over, putting my back to the door and tried to make the world go away for the night.
Chapter Nine
Kyle
Lily came down the stairs dressed in the gray suit I had bought for her while she worked yesterday. Her beautiful curls were gone and replaced with shiny, straight hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. When Lily was on the clock for Sterling Corp, she always toned down her makeup, but now it was lighter than usual. It somehow made her slate gray eyes more noticeable, which was why I took note to how blank they looked. It was like looking at the eyes of a corpse.
“I like the suit on you,” I said when she reached the last step.
“Thank you,” she said in a voice just as blank as her eyes. “Thank you for buying it and all of the other things.”
I knew her gratitude was sincere or she wouldn’t have said it, but her voice was completely void of emotion. I realize I had put her through a rough weekend, and I was probably a good part to blame, but I had a nagging feeling that Vic came into the equation somewhere. Corsey told me that he couldn’t really tell what was going on in the truck, but whenever he caught a glimpse of Vic’s eyes in the rearview mirror, it gave him a bad feeling. The way Lily leaped out of the truck was also an indicator, and her teary eyes all but screamed at some kind of violation. I had to try awfully damn hard not fly off at the handle when I saw her tear streaked face. For a half a second I saw bewilderment in her eyes, but then Lily’s pride set in and she did incredibly fast masonry work by building a wall around herself without any entries for me.
