by Nicola Marsh
I hear his key in the door.
I’m out of time.
I need to be smart. Outplay him. Bluff him and beat him at his own game.
The door opens and I swear my intestines tie themselves into knots.
“Hey, you,” he calls out.
I take a deep breath and shake out my arms, like a prizefighter about to step into the ring. I’m hoping I’m not about to fight for my life.
“Hey…” My casual greeting dies on my lips as I enter the living room and see him staring at the notepad on the coffee table.
“What’s that?” He points at the notepad, where I’ve scrawled evidence of my research, and scowls.
“Nothing,” I say, wishing I could come up with a plausible lie, scrambling hard to make this sound logical. “One of the girls at work rang me, she was concerned because her friend may have been drugged on a date so I was looking up stuff for her.”
He picks up the notepad and flicks the pages, returning to the first one. “You haven’t got much beyond GHB.”
“I was only starting my research…” I trail off as he stalks into the bathroom and crouches down in front of the cabinet.
In that moment, I’m terrified. I’d assumed Avery was behind all this but if Ryan knows where the GHB is stashed… have I read this all wrong?
I edge toward the door but he whirls around and stomps back into the living room, flinging the notepad at my head. I duck.
“What did you do?”
The chill in his voice makes me want to rub the goosebumps off my arms. His gaze is frigid, his mouth twisted. I’ve never seen him like this. The affable charmer who’s always submissive to his older brother has morphed into a monster.
“Nothing—”
“So telling my wife about us is nothing?” Fury stains his cheeks crimson and his eyes bulge. “Telling her I asked you to switch the paternity test with someone else’s is nothing?”
His tone is icy, chilling, and the feral gleam in his glare freezes my blood. “Meddling with Avery’s stuff in the bathroom is nothing?”
So I’m right. Avery is behind all this. But why does Ryan know about it? And what does Avery use GHB for?
A sliver of memory shimmers across my mind… a hint of sandalwood, the cloying smell clogging my throat, making me want to retch as he’s inside me, his weight too heavy… he’s hurting me…
Sandalwood…
The significance hovers like a nebulous cloud, just out of reach. I can’t recall who raped me but I remember the fallout from that night and how goddamn soiled it made me feel. I’ll never forget that.
Ryan slams his palm against the wall and I jump. I have to calm him down, have to keep him talking until Claire arrives. If she’s held up… I can’t think of the consequences.
“You hurt me yesterday. Deeply.” I press my palm to my heart, imploring him to buy my pathetic act. “Hearing you talk about renewing your vows made me crazy. In here.” I tap my temple, making loopy circles. “Even after you rang, I wasn’t sure if I could believe you—”
“Cut the crap, Elly.” His tone is so harsh it could shatter glass. “You don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. Maggie’s supposed to be your friend and you fucked her over when you fucked me. So telling her everything has got nothing to do with you feeling hurt.”
Rage makes his eyes glitter. “You’re a ball-breaking bitch and when you couldn’t have me you wanted to stick it to me good.”
He looks me up and down, a slow perusal that makes my skin crawl. “As if I’d ever leave a class act like Maggie for a whore like you.”
Something inside me snaps.
“Too bad you’ll have to leave Maggie anyway, because you’ll be in jail.” I wiggle my fingers in a little wave, deliberately taunting him. “Let’s see how far your fortune gets you in there when you’re some guy’s plaything.”
His smile fades fast. Good, I’ve scored a point. I need to keep distracting and pray that Claire gets here soon.
“It’s only a matter of time before Avery’s paternity test – that I didn’t lose by the way and conveniently locked up for safe keeping – is retested and shows genetic markers proving he’s the father of that poor girl’s baby.”
I make a grand show of pointing at the bathroom. “Then there’s that little stash of goodies in there that you know about. Were you in on it? Did you help your psycho brother?”
I snap my fingers, like I’ve come up with something new. “Plus your alibi for the night of Jodi’s death won’t hold up when I vouch for the fact you left here early—”
“Shut up. Shut the fuck up.” He’s riled, his fingers clenching and unclenching in a way that quashes my bravado damn quick. “You women are all the same. That other one came to town to tell me about her bastard. Stupid girl saw our company’s latest award win in the newspaper and tried to find me through Avery. Sent some stupid goddamn letter outlining her terms to the company. She actually tried to blackmail me. Like I could risk Maggie finding out and divorcing me.”
His grin chills me to the bone. “So I got Avery to take care of her just like he’s always done. Good, old, dependable big brother.”
Oh my God.
Fear like I’ve never known slithers through me, cold and insidious.
Ryan fathered Jodi’s baby.
Avery killed Jodi because Ryan asked him to?
“Not that he was supposed to kill her.” A flicker of remorse darkens his eyes. “I wanted him to intimidate her, enough to get her the hell out of town. Pay her something for her silence. But the dumbass miscalculated something in the dosage and she ended up dying.” His mouth downturns in sadness. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
If he’s just admitted to being an accessory to murder – though it’s technically manslaughter if I believe what he’s saying about that idiot Avery – what’s he going to do to me to keep me silent? Claire needs to get here, pronto.
“Fuck, this is such a mess.” He drags his hand through his hair and stares at me, wild-eyed. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
The apology comes from left field. “Sorry for being a lying, cheating scumbag to your wife who doesn’t deserve it? Sorry for getting Jodi knocked up? Sorry for being responsible for a girl’s death?”
“For all of it…” His cell pings and he slides it out of his pocket. Something inexplicable passes over his face when he reads the message, before he taps a quick response with his thumb as he heads to the door.
Confused, I remain silent. He’s leaving after confessing?
“I really am sorry,” he says, sounding genuinely contrite as he opens the door.
Avery is standing on the other side.
Forty-Three
Marisa
I’ll never forget how broken Elly sounded the morning she called me after the rape; like she had no one else in the world to depend on. I’d only known her a few months and for her to reach out to me meant she truly didn’t have a close friend or family.
Having an affair with Ryan is deplorable but she’s inherently good; I know it deep in my gut where my instincts have never let me down.
Decision made, I pick up my cell to call her but there’s a loud pounding on my patio door. Nobody would come around the back yet there’s a face peering through the glass. Maggie.
Immediately feeling bad for not calling to check on her last night, I let her in. But before I can say anything she shoves me so hard I backpedal and slam into the nearest cupboard, the only thing that saves me from landing on my ass.
“I can’t believe you,” she yells, her face flushed and her mouth twisted in disgust. “You knew about Ryan and didn’t tell me?”
Confused, I hold my hands up like I have nothing to hide and edge around the island bench out of reach. “I had no idea about him and Elly, I swear.”
“Liar,” she hisses, following me around the bench. “Ryan said you knew about the affair.”
“Your husband is lying.”
I keep my voice calm and devoid
of the outrage I’m feeling. How dare she barge in here and manhandle me when I’ve been nothing but concerned for her since we learned the truth last night?
Then again, from her point of view, I have a funny way of showing it. I haven’t called her since I dropped her off and Ryan being Ryan he’s probably invented all kinds of lies to cover his screw-up.
“He’s not all bad,” she says, her shoulders slumping beneath the weight of truth no matter how much she wants to deny it. “I love him.”
She’d have to, to tolerate his usurping ways. For as long as I’ve known him Ryan has been fawning and deferent to his wife for her money, as the whole world knows except Maggie.
But I see where she’s coming from. I loved him too. He’s like a bold, rambunctious kid you can’t help but like. Everyone adores Ryan, including one of my best friends, apparently.
“I’m sorry for not calling to check up on you.” I gesture to the kitchen table. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll make us some coffee?”
“No, thanks.” She glances around, as if in a daze. “Where’s Avery?”
“Confronting Elly about telling us the truth.”
She reaches for the island bench, as if needing the support. Her hands tremble slightly and I glimpse fear in her quick look-away. “She’ll be okay, won’t she?”
Incredulous, I shake my head. “You’re actually worried about the woman who had an affair with your husband?”
She gnaws on her bottom lip so hard I see a speck of blood. “Avery’s not a good man.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
She doesn’t register my dry retort. “There are things you don’t know about… things I only just discovered.”
She swallows several times, her throat convulsing, as if she can’t get the words out and for the first time since she’s barreled in here I’m worried.
What else has Avery done?
“Ryan said Avery has this thing for helpless women… he gets off on it.”
She’s speaking so softly I struggle to hear and she can’t look me in the eye. “Avery boasted a few times recently that he had sex with women after he… uh, relaxed them.”
“Relaxed? What does that mean?”
But the moment I ask the question, I know. Like pieces of a puzzle slotting together, I know with certainty that when my husband used GHB to murder Jodi it hadn’t been the first time he used it.
But I need to be sure.
“Are you saying—”
“Yes. It’s as bad as you think. Ryan discovered a stash at the cottage and asked Avery about it. That’s when he told him—” A sob bursts from Maggie’s mouth and she covers it with a hand that’s still trembling. “I’m sorry, Ris. My husband may lie and cheat but he doesn’t drug women to have sex with them.”
The import of what I’ve discovered crashes over me in a sickening wave. Nausea churns in my gut and I dash to the guest toilet, reaching it just in time. I fall to my knees and bump my head against the corner of the vanity. The pain barely registers as the OJ I consumed this morning burns a path up my gullet and spews out in a rush.
I retch continually until there’s nothing left. I’m drained, hollowed, like someone has disemboweled me.
When I stumble back into the kitchen, Maggie has gone.
Forty-Four
Elly
“Leave us,” Avery snaps, and Ryan’s only too happy to oblige.
He glances over his shoulder once and if I’d been scared before, now I’m terrified. Ryan looks… sad. In all the time I’ve known him I’ve never seen him express any emotion resembling sorrow. Even earlier, when he’d told me how Jodi died, he hadn’t looked like this: like he truly regrets what is about to happen.
Avery slams the door and advances on me, his smug smile making my skin prickle with distaste.
“I hear you’ve been saying things you shouldn’t, Elly.” His gaze drops to my lips. “You really could put that mouth to much better use, you know.”
“Go fuck yourself.” I sound bold and confident and nothing like the quivering mess of nerves inside that make me want to vomit.
“Why, when it’s so much more fun fucking you?”
Fear tightens my throat but I swallow to ease it. “Ryan’s an asshole for cheating on his wife and a vile pig if he’s told you about us, but you’re just as bad for listening to his boasting.”
His smile widens into a leer as he continues to stalk me. “I’m not talking about Ryan fucking you.”
I back away, small, mincing steps around the sofa. But it’s too late. Even at this distance, I can smell him.
Sandalwood.
He laughs, a deep-throated, low chuckle that along with that foul stench triggers a tsunami of memories.
Him helping me up the stairs to my apartment, solicitous and kind.
Him guiding me into the bedroom.
Him taking off my shoes, sliding my panties down, lying on top of me, his weight pinning me.
Him grunting and thrusting repeatedly until it was over.
“So you finally remember, huh?” He strokes his chin, as if trying to solve some problem. “Too bad it took you this long. We could’ve had a hell of a lot more fun together than you settling for second best with my brother.”
I can’t breathe. I’m choking, like he’s wrapped his hands around my throat. I drag in breath after breath but it isn’t enough. Spots and squiggles shimmer before my eyes and I blink rapidly to dispel them.
“I knew you wouldn’t report it, even if you could remember.” His leering gaze travels over me. “Women like you never do.”
Something inside me snaps. In that instant, I know I have to fight back. I won’t be a victim, not like last time.
“What now, Avery?”
My voice is embarrassingly squeaky – I mustn’t show fear – and I clear my throat before continuing. “Now that I know you’re a rapist and a murderer, what are you going to do?”
I’m buying time, taunting him to keep speaking. Claire should be here any moment and the longer I can get him to gloat the more chance I have to live.
That’s another thing I realized when I chose to fight a few moments ago. A wealthy man like him may be able to wriggle out of a murder charge by downgrading it to manslaughter, but if I can add rape to the mix things will get a whole lot tougher.
Which also means I know too much and I am expendable.
“Hmm… what am I going to do?” He taps his bottom lip, pretending to think. “Well, now everyone knows you’re a slut they won’t find it unusual that you bring other guys here.”
He sniggers, supremely confident as always. “A guy who likes to dose you up to enhance the pleasure, huh?”
His gaze darts to the bathroom cabinet, almost eager. “Yeah, a decent dose of GHB should do it, like before.”
He shakes his head and his wild gaze darts to the sofa as if he’s remembering Jodi lying on another sofa in another cottage. “Not that I meant to kill the other one. That was an accident. And you were knocked out way too quickly with what I gave you.”
His upper lip curls in derision as his gaze flicks back to me and I see hatred. “But this time I intend to have a little fun. The last interlude between us was over too quickly.” The maniacal glint in his eyes terrifies me. “This time I’ll give you a better dose so we can have fun for hours.”
“You’re insane,” I manage to get out, my throat tight with terror. “I’ll report you for rape. You’ll be arrested—”
“Everyone in town will think you sleep around after news of your affair with Ryan is leaked and they’ll think you lured me here too.”
He chuckles, a chilling sound that rasps across my nerve endings. “Maybe you want to keep it all in the family, huh? Pretty kinky sleeping with two brothers. Ris and Claire will hate your guts for the affair with Ryan and you seducing me will be the icing on the proverbial cake.”
His eyebrow rises in sardonic challenge. “A cake I’ll get to eat.”
Bile rises and I
swallow it down. “You’ll never get away with it.”
“But I will.” He snaps his fingers. “You didn’t report it last time, who’s going to believe you now?”
He pins me with a stare that sends a shiver through me. “Ryan told me all about you. That’s some past you’ve got. Bigamist husband, breakdown, baby adopted out.” He laughs again. “So who’s going to believe you if you cry rape? Everyone in this town reveres me.” He thumps his chest. “I’m a moral, upstanding citizen. Whereas you…” He trails off, sniggering, and I hate that he’s struck at my vulnerabilities.
All those reasons he cited are why I didn’t report the rape in the first place. Not that I could remember who the perpetrator was. Now that I can, I won’t let him get away with it again.
“There are so many loopholes in your theory to rape me then blame me, you’ll never get away with it. Plus Ryan will know—”
“Just like he knew about Jodi? Ryan is spineless and indebted to me. He won’t breathe a word of this.”
He leers again. “He made his choice the second he walked out of here after I texted him that I’ll take care of everything, like I have his entire life.”
I’m fast running out of options.
Determined not to let my panic show, I point to the cabinet. “Too bad Claire knows about your stash so that part of your theory is flawed because if I’m found drugged she’ll do a blood test and—”
I scream as he vaults the coffee table, so fast I stumble backwards and almost hit my head on the mantel. Being unconscious around this madman isn’t the best plan so I reach for the first thing I can get my hands on. A vase.
“Come on, Elly, you know you want it. Stop playing hard to get.” He advances on me from four feet away. “On second thoughts, no drugs this time, just you and me.” His lips peel back in a sneer. “Is it my fault you like it rough?”
He wiggles his fingers. “A little breath play? Asphyxiation while I fuck you? I guarantee you’ll love it.”
My revulsion must show on my face because his sneer widens into a smug grin so I wait until he’s close enough. Until his hands are around my neck.
