by Vicky Jones
“It was OK.”
“I got steak for dinner. You hungry? David’s out tonight at his sleepover at Bobby’s, remember? We got the house to ourselves for once.” Chloe took Shona’s hand and began to lead her into the kitchen, but Shona pulled her hand away.
“I have to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me.” Shona took a deep breath and licked her lips. “Did you sleep with Kyle when he was here yesterday?”
Chloe recoiled in shock. “What?”
Shona pulled out the panties. “Kyle gave them to me. I know they’re yours. What I can’t work out is why he would have them. Unless…”
Chloe’s voice abandoned her entirely. It was a moment too long before she could speak. Shona, concluding the worst, turned around and stormed out of the house.
“Can you tell me what room Mr. Chambers is in, please?”
“And you are?” the desk clerk of the dingy motel Kyle was staying at asked, looking over his horn-rimmed glasses.
“I’m the girl he ordered. I’m sure he’d appreciate a little discretion,” Chloe replied.
After receiving an indifferent nod, a room number and a point, she began walking down the hallway, decorated with mismatched wallpaper and a tired green carpet. Reaching Kyle’s door, she knocked on it, leaving her other hand rooted in her coat pocket holding on to a wrench she’d taken from Shona’s tool belt. The door swung open, Kyle behind it wearing just a towel around his waist, clearly expecting company. “So predictable,” Chloe whispered under her breath.
“Well now, I did not expect to see you here. What a lovely surprise.” He noted her smart blouse and pencil skirt she’d worn again today. “You look amazing. Come in.”
“We need to talk, Kyle,” Chloe snapped, barging past him.
“What’s the matter?”
“This.” Chloe held out the panties.
“What about them?” Kyle perched on the end of his armchair, his towel opening as he parted his legs. Chloe averted her eyes and maintained a safe distance.
“Why did you take them? Then tell Shona we’d gone to bed together?”
Kyle laughed. “It was just a joke. No sense of humor, that girl.”
“You told a horrible lie to her, Kyle. I need you to go and tell her that.”
He stood up and walked over to her, his cologne lingering in the air between them. “You know…we could be a proper family. Surely you want our boy to grow up with a mommy and a daddy, don’t you? Like normal kids?” His half-naked body was now inches away from her. “I’ve learned my lesson, Chloe. I’ve missed you so much. Just allow yourself to imagine life with me for a minute. You could meet your friends for long lunches, go shopping and paint as much as you’d like. David could stay in his preschool. You wouldn’t have to move him because old sourpuss Miller doesn’t want the drama of all this. Oh Chloe, if you’d come back to me, I swear it’ll be different this time. I wouldn’t keep you locked up in that house all day, like Shona does. I’m a changed man, I swear. You’re the woman I fell in love with. The woman I’m still in love with.” He placed his fingers below her chin and raised it up, then moved his lips closer to hers.
“Kyle, no,” she ordered, taking one even step back. Her fingers clenched around the wrench as she drew it from her pocket. “Touch me again and you’ll walk funny for a week.”
Kyle stepped back, shocked at her newfound assertiveness. He was smiling but his eyes were fierce. “Well, well, Chloe Bruce. Thinking she’s all tough.” His tone darkened. “But you’re playing with fire, honey. You belong to me. You and the boy. Be smart now. You can’t get away from me a second time. I own you, Chloe.” He stood there smirking at her in triumph.
Chloe was unmoved. Feeling a sense of strength, the like of which she’d never felt before towards Kyle, she stepped closer to him, the wrench gripped in her bone-dry palm. Without taking her eyes off him, she pressed her face close enough for their noses to almost touch. After a huge deep breath, Chloe placed her lips against Kyle’s ear.
“You don’t own me,” she sang in her breathiest tones.
Kyle looked at her, bewildered. Without another word, Chloe eyeballed him as she backed up towards the door, then let herself out.
Twenty minutes later, after she had stormed out of the house, Shona was standing in the bar looking down at Bertie, Edie, Dee and Lula who were all seated at a booth.
“That favor you owe me? I’m calling it in,” Shona said, her face like stone.
“Name it,” Bertie replied, folding her arms.
Chapter 42
Kyle smiled at Alice as he closed the bakery door behind him. “Well, good morning.”
Looking up from her Wednesday morning newspaper, Alice beamed. “Hello, sir, how can I help you today?”
“Well now, that’s more like it. I’d like another one of those delicious pies, please. That one the other day was just yum.” He leaned an elbow on the counter.
With a sympathetic smile, Alice shook her head. “Oh, sir, I’m so sorry, but we don’t have any in today.”
“What? But I can smell them.” Kyle looked around the bakery, confused. Alice shook her head again and returned to her newspaper. “I’ll have some of that bread there then,” he said, pointing at the pile on the table behind her.
Alice cast her eyes over it for a second before shaking her head again. “Nope, sorry. That’s all taken, sir,” she added.
“Suit yourself. I’ll take my money next door.” Kyle turned on his heels and left, leaving Alice grinning to herself as he slammed the door.
Minutes later, Kyle entered the grocery store.
“Packet of smokes,” he ordered, slamming down a dollar bill on the counter.
“Sorry, sir, all out of smokes today,” Edie replied, not looking up from her magazine.
“I can see them on the shelf behind you,” Kyle said, grinding his teeth.
“Then I don’t know what to tell you. Sir,” Edie looked up and fixed her stare on Kyle’s blazing eyes. She pressed a finger on his dollar bill and swept it back across the counter to him.
“I’d like to speak to your manager. I’ll have your job for this.”
“Boss is away. I’m in charge and I’d like you to leave. Now.”
Seeing two old ladies, who were browsing through the magazine rack, turn and glare at him, Kyle forced out a tight smile and turned to leave. When he returned to his car, though, his anger spilled over.
“What the fuck?” He looked at his hood and windows, which were now covered in egg stains, the words ‘GET LOST, ASSHOLE’ drawn in the yellow yolk smears. Over at the bar, Bertie and Dee were sniggering and pointing at him. Just about to march over there, Kyle stopped. His tires were as flat as pancakes.
“You fucking dykes,” he yelled over to them. His fury only made Bertie and Dee laugh even harder.
“If only you knew a good mechanic around here?” Dee shouted back, almost doubled over.
Kyle clenched his fists and looked over to the garage. Shona was standing on the front hosing down a patch of oil. Grinning, she looked down at her foot pump just a few feet away from her, with no intention of letting him borrow it.
It was almost seven o’clock by the time Shona was locking up. She’d been so busy that she almost hadn’t noticed the recovery truck from the next town’s garage pull up across the street to attend to Kyle’s car. Locking away her tools, she switched off the interior lights and pulled the garage doors together, then remembered she’d left her lunch box on her desk inside. Going back in to get it, she heard a voice behind her that chilled her blood.
“Think you and your dyke friends are so clever, don’t you?”
Shona spun to see Kyle’s leering face bearing down on her. Grabbing her by the throat, he slammed her up against the wall next to her tool chest. “Get the fuck off me, Kyle,” she squeezed out, her eyes bulging.
“Ahh, this takes me back to that day. You remember? The day I was gonna fuck you, but your nigger friend got himself involved. You remem
ber that, bitch? How the Bullen’s dragged him along the dirt until his skin ripped off? You picturing that now?” Kyle’s mouth was pressed up against her ear, his breath hot against her neck. “God, the thought of me being the first man to have you still makes me hard as fuck down there. How ‘bout it, huh?”
“Never.”
“What if I was to say that if you let me then I would leave town forever? You could have your little family all to yourself again.”
Shona glared through blurred vision at him. His eyes were as black as night, his body pressed up against her. Reaching out her left hand, she scrabbled around the top of the tool chest until she finally managed to wrap her fingers around the thing she was praying she’d find.
“I’d rather die than have you fuck me, Kyle.” She lifted her knee and aimed it between his legs, then punched him in the head. Like a felled tree, Kyle hit the deck.
“You fucking bitch! I’m gonna rip your heart out for that,” Kyle groaned as he writhed on the floor.
Shona stood over him, casting a dark shadow across his prone body. In her hand, now raised above her head, she held her trusty wrench, the brown leather strap enabling it to sit perfectly in her sweaty grip.
“Last time you tried that with me, you didn’t have a criminal record for assault. Now you come in here and attack me? Self-defense, they’d say it was. Sheriff Everett is my friend. You, on the other hand, are hated around here.”
Kyle, in agony, could hardly breathe, let alone reply.
“So,” Shona said. “I think you should do yourself a favor and leave me and my family alone. Or one word from me to Everett about what you just tried there, and he’ll have your ass back in jail quicker than you can spit. Now, get the fuck outta here and don’t come back.”
Kyle wriggled ten feet backwards away from Shona, then stood up, using the doors to bolster him. “No one threatens me, Jackson.” He turned and staggered out, leaving Shona alone in the semi-darkness. Seconds after he’d gone, she broke down in tears, the triumph of seeing Kyle at her mercy short-lived as the shock set in, rippling through her aching body.
“What the hell happened to you?” Chloe asked as Shona returned from work, an ugly red mark shining brightly on her neck, her cheek scratched.
“I had a visit. From your ex.”
Chloe’s face paled. “Kyle did this to you?”
“Yes.”
Rushing over to her, Chloe embraced her and guided her down onto the couch. “What did he do to you?” she asked, stroking Shona’s hair out of her eyes and taking a close look at her scratched cheek.
“Same as what he tried to do to me last time he threw me up against a wall.” Shona swallowed and looked away.
“He didn’t…”
“Don’t worry, he never got close. His balls got a sharp reminder, though, not to try that on anyone again. Only wish I’d kneed him harder.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.
“Do you think he’s really gone?”
“I hope so,” Shona replied, her voice less convincing this time.
Kyle winced as he lowered himself onto the bed in his hotel room the next morning, still feeling the force of Shona’s knee. He picked up the phone on the nightstand and dialed.
“Hello? Yes, good morning. I’d like to file a complaint. There’s a woman who’s preying on the mother of my child. I have good reason to believe she is a homosexual leading her astray. Yes, of course I have evidence. This pervert hangs around that bar, Bertie’s it’s called. Everyone in this town knows what kind of a place that is and I will not have my boy exposed to that kinda depravity. Yes, I can come in. Tomorrow? It’ll have to be early as I have to go away on a business trip. Yes, that’s why this is of the utmost urgency that it is investigated. While I’m outta town, this woman will pounce, I’m sure of it. Thank you. Yes, my name is Kyle Chambers, and yours?” Kyle paused to write the officer’s name down on the pad next to the phone. “See you tomorrow. Bye.”
He lay back on the bed, grinning.
Chapter 43
Kyle walked into the opulent drawing room belonging to the person he’d returned to Alabama to visit. Within five minutes of the housekeeper showing him in, his eyes lifted up to the staircase just visible through the doorway of the drawing room. The lady of the house sashayed down the soft carpeted stairs, then walked into the drawing room, kissing Kyle on both cheeks. Pointing a cigarette holder in his direction, she rolled her heavily made up eyes as she waited for him to fish out a lighter from his jacket pocket, then released a thick plume of smoke into his face through her rouged lips. Her light brown hair was pinned high on her head in a beehive style, her pink Chanel dress matching perfectly with her designer heels.
“Good evening, ma’am. May I say how lovely you’re looking this fine Saturday evening?”
Eleanor Bruce, with a look of contempt on her face, ignored his drawl. “Where’s my grandson, Kyle?”
“Eleanor, please. You gotta have a little patience. I’m working on it. I won’t let you down.” He walked over to an armchair and sank down into it.
Eleanor raised an eyebrow. “You mean like the last time? When you let my daughter dump you and run off with that…” Eleanor paused and sucked in her cheeks as if a bad taste had crept into her mouth. “And it’s Mrs. Bruce to you. Don’t forget your manners, Kyle.”
Kyle held his hands up in defense. “My apologies. As I said, it’s just a matter of time before Chloe comes around to my way of thinking. That busybody principal at your grandson’s school is already asking questions about her and Jackson.”
“OK then. That’s a good start.” Eleanor sat down in the chair opposite and rested the frown creasing her face. “So you’ve told my daughter that she is to come home immediately with the boy?”
Kyle shifted in his chair. “Well, not exactly in those words. Wheels are in motion, though.”
“And the lesbian?”
“I visited her a couple of days ago. Let her know not to mess with me. She thinks she’s got the upper hand because of her friends at the police station, but I got a good man on my side. He’s still got some influence over there, with the officers who want that town clear of perverts.”
“Then you need to work harder on getting him back here, don’t you?” Eleanor pursed her lips. “What’s your plan?”
“Simple. You write a letter to the authorities telling them I want custody of David, to raise him properly, with your support, of course. I’ve already filed a report making a complaint, so your letter will reinforce that.”
“Yes. It will.”
“I’m just sorry I’ve already missed six years of his life. If my mother hadn’t paid that judge to oversee my parole hearing, then I wouldn’t have even known about him.” Kyle leaned forward in his seat. “He’s gorgeous, Mrs. Bruce. Looks exactly like me.”
“And my daughter? How was she?” Eleanor’s icy demeanor cracked ever so slightly.
“Still as beautiful as ever. I’d still want to marry her if you’ll permit me to?”
“Well, her father isn’t around anymore so I guess my permission will have to be enough.”
Kyle sipped his scotch. “Have you heard from Larry?”
“Not for a while now. After the first five years of his sentence, he stopped writing me every week. He must have got the message that I didn’t want him in my life anymore. He left me with nothing after he was arrested. If it wasn’t for the kindness of Jeffrey Ellis in my hour of need, I’d be on the streets by now. I guess he had his uses after all.” She looked over to the mantelpiece where a picture frame containing a photograph of David that Chloe had sent when he was only a year old sat proudly. Turning back to Kyle, Eleanor sat upright. “So. What should I write in this letter, then?”
Chloe took the mail out of the box outside the beach house and sifted through it that sunny Monday morning. It had been almost two weeks since Shona’s altercation with Kyle and he hadn’t been seen in town since. Both Chloe and Shona were st
arting to regain a sense of normality over their lives. Until now.
“Shona,” Chloe yelled, clutching the letter in her fist. She ran back up the porch steps trying unsuccessfully to keep calm. “Shona.”
“What?” Shona yelled back, drying her hands on a dish towel.
“Look.” She held out the letter and the crumpled envelope it came in. “It’s from the Children’s Bureau. Says there’s been an allegation, from several people this time, that we are living together in sin and David is at risk.”
Shona snatched the letter from Chloe, then recoiled in disgust. “And I drink every night? Where the hell did they get that from? The odd beer is hardly every night.”
“And who’s ‘several people’?” Chloe replied, folding her arms across her chest. “I was so shocked I didn’t read it all.”
Shona skim-read to the bottom of the letter. “Says there have been four separate allegations. They’re listed here. Apparently Kyle filed the report, then Deputy Lawrence added his dime to the pot mentioning my ‘involvement in the riots’ the other year. The third mentions ‘neglect.’ That must be Miller, after you forgetting to pick him up that time.”
“We can’t fight that. They’re all true.” She wiped her tears away. “Oh Shona, what are we gonna do?”
“It says here that if I move out, you can keep David, but if I stay then they’ll investigate further. Wait a minute… It mentioned four allegations, didn’t it?”
“Who made the fourth allegation?”
Shona swallowed hard. “Your mother.”
Chloe had been sitting on the porch swing for the last hour in shock. Holding the crumpled letter, she took another sip of her bourbon and watched as the sun began to set.
“Hey,” Shona whispered. She walked over and wrapped a blanket around Chloe’s shoulders. “You OK?”
