Finding Home

by K. L. Humphreys

  “Peter, what will he do?” Ethel asks, her hand shaking as she reaches for a glass of sweet tea.

  “I don’t know for sure, but men like this are extremely dangerous. From what Mom has told me, Riccardo likes his control and you kicking him out of the apartment complex has taken that control away. He’s lashing out, he’s shown that with what he did with your bedroom,” Peter says, directing an intense stare at Trent.

  It’s a warning. Ric’s not finished with me yet. I just hope that we can do something before he tries to do anything else.

  I want to find that asshole and show him what it’s like to be scared. When I get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me. This day has gone from fucking bad to worse. Seeing Tina has made it slightly more bearable but the only good thing to come out of today is Michelle telling me that she loves me. Seeing her face when she saw her bedroom was like seeing Johnny’s face just before he hung himself. It’s something that is going to stay with me for a long time.

  “What are we going to do?” I ask, trying my best to keep my voice as calm as I can. My anger is brewing inside, and Michelle’s seen enough today, she doesn’t need me to go crazy.

  “I’m going to make some calls. I’ll have people here within the hour to install new locks and a security system. As well as someone to clean your apartment after we document everything,” Heller says, his teeth clenched. We’re all angry, we’re all ready to kill Riccardo whenever we get the chance. He’s chosen the wrong woman to try to terrorize.

  “Good, I’m going to call my chief and see what we can do about this,” Peter tells us, and both he and Heller exit my apartment.

  I want to follow them out and see what they’re planning, but I can’t leave Michelle, not right now. She needs me, and glancing over at Mrs. Ethington, I can see that she, too, is shaken. Tears gleaming in her eyes. “Ethel, are you okay?”

  She shakes her head as her eyes meet mine. “No. I promised May that I’d watch out for Shelly. That I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her like that monster did. But here we are, Shelly has a madman on her case.”

  Michelle puts her glass down on the coffee table and looks over at Mrs. Ethington. “Ethel, I’m okay. Ric isn’t going to get me. Trent, Peter, and Heller are going to do everything they can to make sure that he can’t hurt me or anyone else in this building.” Michelle’s voice is stronger now. When she first saw her room and ended up throwing up, she sounded broken, like she was about to sit in a corner and cry.

  “We’re not going to let Michelle get hurt. That fucker has gone too far, and he’ll never get this close to her again. It’s not going to happen. I’ll die before I let him.” It’s a vow.

  Michelle turns in my lap, so she’s facing me. Her hands reach up to touch my face. “Don’t say that, we both know that anything could happen to me. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me,” she practically shouts.

  Ethel lets out a ‘hmph.’ Yeah, she doesn’t agree with that either.

  “I love you Trent, and I can’t have you hurt,” she whispers so that only I can hear. “Please don’t do anything stupid.”

  “I can’t promise you that. If he hurts you, I’ll tear the world apart looking for him. Baby, I love you, and that means I protect you.” I lean in and kiss her. This time I set the pace, hard and fast. After everything that’s happened today, I need to show her how much I love her. As soon as she opens her mouth, I show her. Our tongues clashing as the kiss gets steamier. I pull away when Michelle moans. “I love you,” I tell her, this time I see the belief in her eyes.

  “I love you too.” She closes her eyes and softly kisses me. I pull her close to me, loving how good she feels in my arms. It’s something I’m glad to get used to because she’s not going anywhere.

  Ethel coughing pulls my attention. “Ah good, you haven’t forgotten that I’m in the room.”

  “How could we ever?” Michelle quips as she turns around to face Ethel.

  “Sorry ma’am.”

  “Don’t be. You two are young and in love. It’s quite refreshing. You deserve happiness.” The door opens, and Peter walks in. Immediately Ethel’s on his case. “So what’s happening? Are you sorting this out?”

  Peter tries not to smile, no doubt used to his mom’s directness. “My chief has told me to document everything along with a friend of his who is on his way. Once we have it all ready and evidence collected you can have your apartment cleaned. It shouldn’t take us much more than an hour or two.”

  “Good, I’ll go and start dinner. I’ll make enough to feed everyone.” She stands her eyes on Michelle and me. “Will you two be okay?”

  “We’ll be fine, honestly,” Michelle tells her as I nod. “Thank you for coming.” She gets up off my lap, and this time I let her. She walks over to Ethel and the two women embrace.

  Peter nods his head in the direction of the kitchen, and I get up and follow him in. My anger is rising yet again. I thought I had learned to control it while I was inside but today has shown me that I haven’t. I’m better at hiding it than I was but I can’t stop it.

  “We don’t want to take the risk of alerting the Bar Harbor police just in case they tip Riccardo off. He is one of theirs after all. Right now, we can’t afford to trust the Bar Harbor police department so we’ll be doing all investigations on the down low,” he tells me, his face hard, he’s as angry as I am.

  “He’s a dead man,” I grind out, my fists clenching as I remember the state of her bedroom. That asshole ejaculated over her bed. The sick bastard.

  “Yeah, I’m going to pretend that I never heard that. Threats aren’t going to help.” He raises his eyebrows but there’s no heat behind his words.

  “It wasn’t a threat.”

  He shakes his head like I’m a child. “Mr. Heller is working on security protocols. He’s got some friends coming to sort it out.” He says friends like it’s a curse word. “I’ll be staying here for a few days, maybe a week. Monica and the kids are on their way as we speak. We’ll be staying with Mom.”

  Before I get a chance to say anything, there’s a knock at my door. “Ah, that’ll be Samuel.” I give him a look, wondering who the hell Samuel is. “He’s a retired detective from Augusta, he’s going to help me document the scene.”

  Scene? Fuck, they’re treating it like Michelle’s a victim, and she’s going to hate it if she realizes that’s what they’re doing. “Okay, I want to talk to Michelle, let her know what’s happening.” I don’t want her to think we’re keeping anything from her. She’s capable of making decisions on her own, and having those decisions taken from her will only make her hurt and angry.

  Walking into the sitting room, my eyes instantly search for Michelle; she’s sitting on the sofa staring at the wall. Mrs. Ethington is gone, and Peter says goodbye leaving Michelle and me alone. “Baby?” I ask as I walk over to her.

  Her gaze darts to me. “Is everything okay?”

  I sit beside her and pull her into my embrace. “Yeah, Peter wanted to let me know what was happening. He’s staying for a few days, and his family is coming too. They’ll be staying with Ethel, unless you have an apartment free that they could use?” As much as I love Mrs. Ethington, I wouldn’t want to be around her twenty-four-seven.

  “Yeah, the apartment above Ethel is free at the moment, they can stay there.”

  I nod; I knew she’d offer them an apartment. It’s just the kind of person she is. In the midst of a fucked up situation she still thinks about others. “How are you doing?” My anger is still there, edging on the surface.

  “I feel so stupid. I let him into my life, our lives. I should have seen that he wasn’t who he claimed. There was always something about him that didn’t sit right with me but I just thought he was weird, and everyone’s weird in their own way.” She’s rambling, but I understand what she’s trying to say. “Why did he do this to me? That’s what I can’t wrap my head around.”

  “Baby, you may never know why he did
it. Some people are just bad to the core. Riccardo is better at hiding his crazy than others.”

  The tears in her eyes kill me, I want to help her, I want her to feel safe and secure but there’s nothing I can do other than be here with her.

  “I should have seen it. I thought I had trained myself to weed out the bad guys. After Eddie I promised myself no man, no-one would ever scare me. Trent, I’m scared,” she tells me in a haunting whisper.

  “Baby, it’s natural to be but he’s not going to hurt you.” He won’t get the chance, I’ll kill the fucker and bury him.

  “What if he gets me? I can’t go through that again.” She’s talking to herself as she absentmindedly rubs her scar.

  “He won’t.” He can’t get to her; I’ll lose my damn mind if that were to happen.

  She smiles at me, it’s one of those smiles that a parent might give to a child to placate. “You don’t know that. He might, and then what happens?”

  “Then I find you. You’re mine Michelle, and I fucking love you. Do you really believe if that asshole takes you that I’m going to sit back and drink coffee?”

  She laughs but there’s nothing funny about it. “I love you. How do you do that? How do you manage to make me feel better?”

  “It’s because I’m awesome. I need to talk to Heller, then you and I will be talking.” I can’t believe that she didn’t tell me she killed that raping asshole. I don’t judge, I would never judge. Not her, not ever. That asshole needed to be killed, and she so happened to be the one who did it. I want to find out why her father’s in prison.

  “Okay, it’s going to be hard, but I have to tell you the truth.” At least she’s going to tell me everything. “Why do you need to talk to Heller?”

  “I want to see about getting you a tracker. If that asshole takes you, I want to be alerted as soon as it happens,” I grind out, hating that there’s even a need to do this but with that unstable asshole out there it needs to be done.

  “Thank you.” Relief becomes evident in her eyes. “Go, before Ethel comes back and demands you to tell her what you’re doing.”

  “If she’s bringing me food, I’ll tell the woman what she wants to know.”

  The sound of her Tinkerbelle laugh makes me smile. “Now I have some leverage. If I want to find out something, food’s the way to go.”

  I raise my brow. “You’ve just learned this now?” Shaking my head, I walk out of my apartment and into chaos. There are about ten men standing in the lobby talking. Searching through them, I spot him, he’s talking to some dude outside. “Heller,” I yell, not wanting to go too far from the apartment in case Michelle needs me.

  “Yeah?” He says as he walks toward me. The dude’s fucking huge, he’s about six foot five and must weigh at least three hundred pounds. He’s built like a fucking linebacker. His friends however, look as though they’re part of the mob. Each one of them impeccably dressed, each one of them strapped. I can see the outline of their guns.

  “I need something that can track Michelle,” his shocked expression tells me that he hadn’t thought of that. “If that fucker takes her, I want to be hot on his tail.”

  “I’ll have it with you by morning.”

  “Dude, are you really a lawyer?” My eyes are on his friends, they’re definitely mobsters.

  “I am a lawyer, Mr. Lawrence.” There has to be more to it than him just being a lawyer. “I have friends in very high places. I’m not a saint Mr. Lawrence, and I’ve never claimed to be.”

  “Enough with the Mr. Lawrence crap. My name’s Trent.” He nods. “I want that tracker to have fucking bells and whistles on it.”

  “I have just the thing you need. It’ll sound an alarm if she’s out of the comfort zone. You can track it at any time.” I wonder how many times he’s used this tracker? “Is there anything else you need?”

  “No, you’re good thanks. Do you want to stay here tonight?” I ask, but the expression on his face gives me my answer. His nose is scrunched up in absolute disgust.

  “No thank you. I have somewhere to stay. I’m keeping close in case you need me. My boys are searching for Riccardo Montoya as we speak, and my boys are good trackers. One of my boys is searching his old apartment for clues to see if we can find out where he is.” Yeah, there’s no way this guy is just a lawyer. The smirk tells me that he’s not saying anything else.

  “Alright, I’m going to get back to Michelle.”

  “Take care of her man. She trusts you, and she finds it hard to trust.” I am guessing that means I have Heller’s approval, although I couldn’t give a shit if I didn’t. Michelle’s mine, and there’s nothing that’s going to change that. “Break her, and I’ll break you,” he warns menacingly, and I stand my ground. I’m not afraid of him, there’s nothing he can do to me that hasn’t been done before. “I like you, I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

  I laugh; he’s a big fucker, but he’s a decent guy. “I’ll take that! I’m sure Michelle would be happy that we’re all getting along.”

  “Don’t push it, though, my opinion can change at any moment.”

  “See you later, man,” I tell him, and as I move to go back into my apartment, the elevator dings.

  Turning around, I spot Ethel and Peter exiting, both carrying plastic containers. “Ah, just the person I wanted to see. I have food here. Make sure Michelle eats. That poor girl has been through the wringer.” Ethel hands me two Tupperware boxes.

  “Thank you, ma’am, and I’ll make sure she eats.” She smiles and walks over to Heller, another box in her hand. I turn my attention to Peter. “Michelle said that the apartment above your mom is free and that you and your family can stay there while you’re here.”

  Gratitude enters his eyes. “God, I love that girl. She’s going to make my wife a very happy person.” He glances over at Ethel, who is busy talking to Heller. “I love my mom, but she can be a bit much. She has to be the boss, and I let her while I’m here but she bosses Monica around, and Monica bites her tongue. So having a separate apartment is going to be heaven. Thank you.”

  “Hey, no need to explain. You’re helping us out. The least we can do is make things easier on you. I’m going to go and feed Michelle. Thanks for everything.”

  He shakes his head. “No need to thank me, Mr. Lawrence. We’re family, and family takes care of one an other.”

  I shift the boxes in my hand and reach out to shake his. “Trent,” I tell him, I hate being called Mr. Lawrence, it reminds me of prison. They always used my surname. “It’s been a pleasure, Peter. I’m sorry we’ve met under these circumstances.”

  “It’ll be nice to catch up once this fiasco is over. Thanks again, Trent.” He follows his mom. For a cop he’s actually a decent guy.

  Walking back into the apartment the first thing I notice is that Michelle has changed, she’s wearing a pair of my sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. She always looks great but seeing her in my clothes brings out some sort of primal instinct. Instincts that I have to tamper down as I don’t want to scare her.

  I close the door behind me. “I come bearing food.” Her face lights up, she must be hungry, she threw up everything she ate in the diner.

  “Thank God,” she whispers, her eyes darting to the door. She’s worried people can hear what we’re saying.

  Walking over to the coffee table, I switch on the TV, I turn the volume down, so that we’re able to talk. “Want to eat first and then talk?”

  “No, we’ll eat and talk, it’ll give me something to concentrate on. Is that okay?”

  “Yeah, that works for me, now let’s see what Mrs. Ethington has rustled up for us.” Upon opening the two Tupperware boxes, she’s made spaghetti bolognese. “Spag bol good for you?”

  “Yes, it’s my favorite. I haven’t had it in a while though.” She walks into the kitchen, and I can hear her moving about. She returns with plates and cutlery. “Let’s get this served up. I’m starving, and it smells delicious.” She’s smiling, and I owe Ethel a big thanks for
making my girl’s favorite dish.

  Once we have the dinner plated, we take a seat. “You ready?” She nods. I take a bite of the spag bol and wait for her to tell me the story.

  I never thought I’d be ready for this day if it were to ever come. I never thought I’d have the courage to tell my story. The real story. Yet here I am, ready to spill my guts, and I’m not scared, not after how Trent treated me in the car, he was nothing but supportive, and to me, that means everything.

  “I told you before how Eddie would touch me.” He nods, his features masked so that I don’t read him, I have no idea what he’s thinking.

  “I was so scared, I had no idea what to do. I couldn’t go to Grandma. Mom had told me I wasn’t allowed. That I was a liar, I was sixteen, and I was scared.”

  I take a mouthful of food, thankful for the reprieve. “It went on for a couple of weeks, he’d come into my room when Dad had passed out, and Mom was asleep. I couldn’t sleep. I knew he would be coming for me, and the fear would keep me awake.” Shivers go down my spine as I remember that fear. I remember hiding under the covers hoping that tonight he’d pass out with my dad. That night never came.

  “I wake up in a sweat most nights as I remember the things he did to me. The things he forced me to do.” Tears form, and I will them not to fall. Eddie has had far too many of my tears, he doesn’t deserve any more.

  “What?” His voice cracks, he coughs and starts again. “What did he do?”

  “He’d bite my breasts. I still have scars from his teeth marks on them. He’d put his fingers inside of me. He laughed when he broke my hymen.” I sigh, I sound so juvenile saying these things. “He told me that I was his good little pure girl. That no one else was allowed to have me. That I was his and only his.”

  “Christ,” Trent whispers, his eyes on me, and there’s no pity there, only love. I hope it stays that way.

  “He loved it when I’d choke when he’d thrust his cock into my mouth.” I cringe at the thought, how it hit the back of my throat and I’d retch. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I became a shell of who I was. Before I was outgoing and loved hanging out with my friends. When Eddie was doing those things to me, I became withdrawn and sullen. No one even cared.”