by T. L Smith
“Fuck you,” I say. Reaching between us, I hit him as hard as I can on his cock. He yelps and falls to the side. I keep the phone in hand and run again. This time I don’t hear his footsteps behind me, but that doesn’t slow my pace at all, even though I’m wearing one heel and stockings. My skirt is bunched up, and the farther I run, the more adrenaline hits me. I hear a faint noise and raise the phone to my ear.
“Rylee, fuck! Tell me you’re alive.” I hear August’s voice.
I slow down, spin, and check around to see no sign of Anderson.
“Rylee,” he screams into the phone.
“Rylee, tell me where you are.” My sister’s calm voice breaks through my daze.
“The hill,” I manage to get out.
“I know where that is. Call the police,” Rhianna says.
I don’t stop moving.
I can’t stop moving.
I know if he looks hard enough, Anderson will find me again, and when he does he’ll be so damn angry.
“Rylee!” The asshole screams my name, and it echoes through the woods. “I’m coming for what’s mine.” Oh my God, he sounds crazed, like some sort of lunatic that has escaped from an asylum and is coming for me like in the movies.
I wipe at my face and don’t stop.
I won’t stop.
I can’t stop.
Chapter 22
August
“I know where she is,” Rhianna says, grabbing her keys and running out the door. I’m right behind her, with Noah on my heels. As soon as we’re in the car and moving, Noah starts making calls. The first call is straight to Glenn, telling him where we’re going. When he finally hangs up, he turns back to me.
“If you see Anderson, you stay away. Do. You. Understand?”
I don’t answer.
How can I answer that?
If he’s hurt her, I’ll kill him. And I’ll have no remorse for doing so.
How can you hurt someone as nice as Rylee?
“August… Do. You. Hear. Me? If you touch him, you will go straight back to prison.”
Still, I don’t answer.
I see the hill, and when we arrive, a police car drives up behind us.
Glenn gets out as we rush over to Anderson’s vehicle.
“He went in there. Look…” Rhianna points to the footprints that lead into the forest. I start running, following them. I hear their footsteps behind me, but I don’t stop. Nothing could stop me.
“Rylee…” I hear him say her name.
He’s taunting her.
Tormenting her.
My feet don’t slow as I come up behind him. When he turns around, shock is written on his face as I bend over and slam him into the ground with as much force as I can. Hands grab at me as I get up.
“Leave him! Go and find Rylee,” Glenn says, looking down at Anderson on the ground. Glenn hovers over him scanning around.
Rhianna starts yelling her name.
“Where is she?” she says in desperation.
We all split up, and as I go farther in, I find one of her heels on the ground.
“Rylee.” I don’t yell it. There isn’t anyone else in these woods but us. And it's dead quiet. It’s as if the birds know they need to be silent right now.
“August.”
I turn to find her hunched under a tree, her blouse is torn, and her face is covered in mud. I reach for her, pulling her up. She stands on shaky legs and drops her head to my chest.
“Anderson...”
Brushing my hands down her hair, I try to soothe her, but it’s hard when you have never had to do something like this before. My mother never cuddled me, and the only people in my life that have are Paige and Rylee. But I squeeze her to me so she knows she’s safe.
“I’m going to pick you up now,” I tell her, pulling back.
“You can’t, your shoulder,” she says, touching it ever so lightly.
“I’m fine,” I tell her as I lift.
She lets me and I make our way back out.
Rhianna is the first to spot us. “Rylee,” she screams and runs over.
Glenn’s head turns, and I see he has Anderson in cuffs waiting at the car.
Noah stands with them, showing something on his phone.
“Noah recorded it. He recorded it all,” Rhianna says as I breathe a sigh of relief. They didn’t hear it all, but I’m guessing they’ve heard enough. And I’m sure he said way worse while we weren’t on the phone.
“Rylee, do I need to call an ambulance?” Glenn asks.
“No. No, please don’t,” she begs.
I scan her body for injuries, noticing her scraped knees. “You should at least see a doctor.”
“I don’t want to. I want to go to work. I want to go and change, shower, and go to work.”
Rhianna looks confused.
“Work?” she says to her sister. “Ry, you need time. Dad will understand.”
“August, you can put me down.” I do as she says but keep my hand on her lower back.
“I need to get to work. I need this to not have ever happened.”
“But it did, and Anderson is going into the station because of it.” Her eyes fall to Anderson, who’s in the car now, his beady eyes watching us, smirking.
“You can work at my house,” I offer.
“No, I have paperwork I need to get.”
“We can get it, and you can work from my house,” I tell her again.
She doesn’t argue this time. She simply nods.
She steps out of the bathroom dressed in my shirt. It reaches her thighs and looks good on her.
“Feel better?”
She nods, brushing a dark lock behind her ear. “My knees sting a bit.”
When I check, they are grazed badly. “I have some stuff for that.”
“I can’t go into work dressed like this,” she says, gesturing to what she’s wearing.
The doorbell rings, and I stroll over to answer it and see her friend, Shandy, on the other side. “Thanks for coming,” I tell her, letting her step in.
Her eyes fall to Rylee, then to me. “Is she okay?” she whispers, and I give her a nod.
“I can hear you,” Rylee says, walking over.
Shandy offers her a shy smile and hands her computer over. “I told your father that you needed it for a meeting.”
“Thank you.”
They stand there awkwardly for a few seconds before I step away into the kitchen but I can still hear what they’re saying.
“Did you need me to get you anything else?”
“No, I should be fine.”
“I have you covered at work for today and tomorrow. Would it be okay if I came over after work with maybe some wine… you know, if you feel up to it?”
“This isn’t my place.”
“Oh,” she says, surprised. “I didn’t know. Sorry.”
“You’re welcome to come over,” I say as I pass by on my way out to the shed.
Rylee offers me a small smile as I head out the back door. I hear them talking but try to focus on the desk that I’m making. I only have two left for my current contract, and so far, I’m well in advance of the agreed delivery date, which I hope will be good for getting some more recommendations.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Rylee says, surprising me a short time later.
I drop my sander and turn to her. She has a glass of water in her hand.
“What did he do to you?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“You don’t have to handle it,” I growl.
“You sound like you care, August. You better watch yourself before you catch real feelings.”
“Who said they haven’t already been caught?”
Her smile could light up the darkest skies, even with the pain radiating through her tormented eyes. How someone so perfect can have such haunted eyes, I really don’t understand.
“I think I fell a little all those years ago. Back then, you were an asshole, and now,
even more so.” She steps in and sits on one of the seats in my shed. “Thank you for inviting Shandy around later. You didn’t have to do that. This isn’t my house, and I’m fine if you want to take me back to my place.”
“You’ve had a big week.”
“As have you,” she replies.
“That was the scariest thing to ever happen to me, and I have had a lot of shit to deal with in my life. To hear you scream into that phone… I wanted to kill him. If Glenn weren’t there, I probably would have,” I tell her honestly.
“I’m glad you didn’t. I like having you out here in the real world.”
“Even with all the crazy?” I ask.
“It’s a hundred times better than what I had to deal with before, so yes. Even with all the crazy.” I step up to her, hands in gloves, and lean forward, letting my lips touch hers. She kisses me back, and when I pull away she’s smiling.
I like her smiles.
“Shandy thinks you’re cute,” she says when I pick up my sander to continue work.
“And what do you think?” I ask, teasing.
She opens her computer. “I mean… the view would be better for me, you know, more relaxing… if you lost the shirt.” She winks and raises an eyebrow.
I tear off my shirt, toss it at her, and wink back before going back to work.
She stays with me in the shed all afternoon, only leaving to grab some bottled water, then coming straight back.
We work in silence.
Together.
Occasionally she throws me a few questions, but other than that, we do our own thing.
I like having her around.
Actually, I like it a lot.
Even if it can never work between us.
I see her move as she closes her computer. She stands, walks over to where I’m working, and runs her hand over the desk.
“What you create… it’s beautiful. The design, the shape… it’s so unique.” I hear what she’s saying, but my eyes are firmly on her. “It’s not shaped like a normal desk. It has grooves and isn’t a rectangle. What made you…” she trails off when she looks up at me, sucking in a breath. “What?”
My gaze slides over hers. “You are astonishingly beautiful, do you know that?”
She flicks her hair over her shoulder, a shy smile playing on her lips. “You aren’t too bad yourself, August.” She winks.
Chapter 23
Rylee
I stayed the night, and he was respectful the whole time. When I woke the next morning, he wasn’t there, but at the end of the bed was a bag full of clothes and my phone, fully charged.
I get dressed because today, I really need to get to the office. Despite what others think, I like my job. I’m good at it, and to be perfectly clear, I can’t let fear dictate my life.
Stepping down his stairs, I find August in the kitchen with Noah.
Noah offers me a kind smile before he turns back to August, whose eyes are eating me up.
His words from last night slam into me.
“Noah said Anderson spent the night in jail. His parents managed to get him out today, but if you press charges, due to the overwhelming evidence, it could go further,” August says.
“Press charges? He’s having a baby.”
“Do you think he’s harmless?” Noah asks.
I bite my lip and look down. “No.”
“Do you think he would do this again… hurt another woman?”
“Yes,” I say with a heavy breath.
“And you can live with that? What if the next woman he did it to, he killed?” Noah’s in full lawyer mode when he says, “I’ve seen it in the courts time and time again, Rylee. As a friend, and someone who cares about you, I want you to press charges, but I won’t pressure you if you don’t want to.”
“His family will hate me.”
“They already do. They asked this morning what charges they can lay on you.”
“Me?” My voice squeaks in surprise.
Noah nods. “They have nothing, so don’t worry. But they would do it to you if they could, if they could find anything.”
I watch August as he stares down at his coffee while he listens.
“Do you think I should?” I ask August.
“Yes,” he says without missing one single beat. “But it’s your choice. Do or don’t. I won’t judge you either way.”
“I have to get to work,” I say, not answering either of them right now because I need to think.
“Your car is here,” Noah says, handing me my keys.
“Thank you.” August nods. He knows I mean thank you for a lot more than what he did for me, but for also looking after me and even for inviting Shandy over. He cooked for us last night, and it felt comfortable. Not once did I feel as if he had eyes for Shandy, not like it did with Anderson. It was nice, and I’ve never had a lot of nice with a man before him.
When I leave, I drive straight to work.
Before I’m even settled in my office, my father rushes in, shutting the door behind him.
“Why are you here?” he barks. “Are you okay?” He’s in front of me in three strides, looking me over. “I’m going to throw everything I have at that family, and that kid will never see the light of day again.” He shakes his head and walks out without even waiting for a reply. I raise an eyebrow and push back in my chair.
“Hey.” Shandy pops her head in a little later. “You look better, refreshed,” she says, as she takes a seat on the opposite side of my desk. “You’ve had a few calls this morning. Warning… one was your mother.”
I shiver at those words. Shandy knows not to accept calls from my mother unless it’s at the end of the business day. Mom talks too much and doesn’t understand that my life isn’t spent wondering which color my bedspread should be.
“Did she say what she wanted?”
“She wanted to know if you’d be in the office today.”
“Okay.”
That’s odd.
But okay.
My mother has always wanted me to work until I’m married and have kids, then she wants me to be like her and stay at home. Yeah, that was never going to happen. I like to work. I like making my own money.
“Hey, I know it’s not my place, but are you all right?”
“I’m okay. Thanks for asking.”
And I am.
Each day is better than the last. And having August near makes it a little bit sweeter. I’m not sure how he can do that, make my life better, but he does.
And I like it.
I like him.
“You aren’t pressing charges?” I glance up to see my mother standing in the doorway of my office with Shandy behind her, mouthing she’s sorry.
“Come in. Take a seat, why don’t you?” I wave at the seat in front of me and she steps farther in.
“You aren’t pressing charges, Rylee,” she says again, and it’s not a question, which I thought it was the first time she said it. Now, I know it’s a direction. My mother places her bag on my desk, her hands on her hips.
Shandy shuts the door quietly behind her, and I take a deep breath, preparing for the onslaught of what my mother is going to send my way.
“And why would that be?”
“Because his family is powerful. Any disagreement with them could be detrimental to us.” She stares at me, and somehow I see a mixture of determination and hope flash in her eyes. Is she fucking serious?
“Do you know what he did?” I ask her incredulously.
She smooths her hand over her skirt before she sits in front of me. “I’ve heard. I also heard you flaunted another man in front of him, one who has been in prison, no less.” She scoffs, and it’s so loud a piece of her hair flies up.
“I didn’t flaunt him. August is a great man, whether or not he’s been in prison.”
“So it’s true. You are seeing that boy.” She shakes her head. “I expected this from Rhianna, but you, Rylee? Why you? Did I not give you enough love, that you have to go in search of it in
all the wrong places? Because that boy is never going anywhere, and as a consequence, you will never go anywhere, as you will have his name attached to you.”
“Is that all you care about?” I ask, clearly confused by her statement. “Status and power?”
“We live in a world where that matters. You know this. You work on accounts for rich, powerful people.”
“August is an amazing man, not a boy, and I like him very much. He treats me better than Anderson ever did in all the years we were together. He makes me happy. Do you care about my happiness, Mother?”
She waves me off. “Don’t try to act like you’re hard done by. I care for your happiness. That’s been my goal all of your life. I want what’s best for you, and pressing charges on Anderson is not what’s best.”
“I’m doing it. He physically abused me all throughout our relationship. Manipulated me. Then he tried to…” I shake my head. “God knows what he wanted to do. But I can tell you… none of it was pleasant, and I’m glad I got away. But if I didn’t, you wouldn’t be sitting here, Mother. You would be visiting me in jail or the hospital. Would you have preferred those outcomes instead?”
“You know I wouldn’t,” she sneers, her hands playing with her skirt. I watch her nervous tick and shake my head.
“You’ll have to deal with it because Anderson deserves what he gets. He’s gotten away with things for way too long to be let off again.”
“You’ll ruin everything,” she whispers.
“No, Anderson did that all by himself,” I reply while smiling at her.
“I agreed to a family dinner this weekend, and you’re invited,” I tell August as I enter his shed later that evening. I should’ve gone home, but somehow, I found my way back here. He looks up, covered in sawdust, and shakes his head.
“I’ll pass,” he replies, going back to what he was doing.
I enjoy watching him work, the way his muscles flex when he works and the concentration that’s etched on his face.
I enjoy a lot about August Trouble.
“Please… I already told them you’re coming.”
“We aren’t a couple, rich girl. We are just two people who enjoy each other’s company and who fuck.”
