No Escape (No Justice Book 2)

by Sean Platt

  “Woah, woah, careful throwing that word around.”

  “Why? Afraid I’ll get your bros in trouble? Tell me, Bobby, who was it that raped me? Do you know?”

  “Nobody raped you. It’s just a party that got out of hand.”

  “Who was it?”

  “I have no idea. They were wearing masks.”

  “Someone drugged me.”

  Bobby rolled his eyes. “Who?”

  “I dunno. Maybe Calum? Maybe Brianna or one of her bitch friends? I don’t know, but I do know one thing. There is no way on Earth I’d ever let two guys do that to me! I was a virgin when you and I did it. A virgin, Bobby! I was planning to stay a virgin a lot longer than that. But I love you.”

  Jordyn couldn’t say anything more.

  She turned away from him, burying her crying face in her palms.

  Silence from behind. She couldn’t believe how cold he was being. How he was questioning her.

  “If you think you were drugged, why didn’t they do anything to Sammi? Why did they only rape you, as you call it? If they were looking to take advantage of a passed-out girl, why not do both of you?”

  Jordyn spun on Bobby. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t know what to think. That’s why I wanted to talk to you, to see if maybe you remember more now.”

  She shook her head. “And what if I did? What if I remember someone drugging me, raping me? Would you stick up for me then? Would you out your bros?”

  “Yes, yes I would.”

  “Yeah, right,” Jordyn said, throwing her arms over her chest.

  A long and agonizing silence sat like roadkill between them.

  Jordyn wished he would just go away so that she could go home.

  But she couldn’t go home now, not like this. Her father would interrogate her immediately. And, as mad as she was right now, Jordyn might say just about anything.

  She wondered if Bobby was right. Was it her fault? Did she drink too much and bring these guys to bed? She was awake while making out with Sammi. And she might have been awake with the first guy. But what about the second? She didn’t seem to be moving in the video then, but at one point, the other guy was in the way, blocking most of the picture, so it was hard to tell.

  If she was unconscious, that was definitely rape. Hell, the whole thing was rape if she was too drunk to consent. But what if they were all wasted? Where did the blame lie then?

  Jordyn wished she could remember anything, anything at all. “Who put the video out there?”

  “I dunno. It was posted by someone calling themselves Slut Exposer.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “You said the only other people in the room were your friends, right? It had to be one of them who recorded it and released it. Maybe they also know who raped me.”

  “Please, stop with the R-word.”

  “Why, is it making you uncomfortable? Rape, rape, rape!” Jordyn screamed into his face.

  Bobby grabbed Jordyn by the shoulders and shook her. “Stop it. Acting like a child won’t make things any better.”

  “Let go of me,” she practically spit at him.

  He did.

  She glared at him. “You’re right. Maybe acting like a child won’t make things better. But going to the police will. Fuck you and your bros.”

  “Don’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s not the only video.”

  A sledgehammer to her gut. “What?”

  “There’s another one. One that shows you wide awake and quite the slut.”

  “No. You’re lying.”

  “No, I’m not. I saw it. You downstairs, very drunk, flirting with a bunch of different guys. You grabbing one of their dicks. It doesn’t look good.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “No. I’m just telling you not to push this, or it’ll only get worse for you.”

  “Or your friends?”

  “Fuck them, Jordyn. I am looking out for you. Cross Calum, and he’ll make your life a living hell.”

  “I don’t think he could make it much worse.”

  “Oh, you don’t know.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “He has shit on everyone. Fuck with him; he’ll fuck you harder.”

  “What’s he got on you?”

  Bobby looked at the ground.

  “What’s he got on you?”

  “He knows I deal.”

  “Deal? Deal what?”

  “Drugs to the rich kids. Weed, Oxy, H, coke, E, Molly, you name it.”

  “You’re a drug dealer?”

  Bobby nodded. “How do you think I can afford to keep my mom in our house?”

  “I thought your dad left you money.”

  “My dad was in debt to his eyeballs. The only thing he owned was that fucking car. Calum started giving me money after my dad died. Then he turned me onto the wonderful career of drug dealing.”

  “So, what are you saying?”

  “That if you go to the police, Calum will fuck you. Then he’ll fuck me. His dad knows people who will make sure my name is dragged through the mud. No school will give me a scholarship after the shit hits the fan.”

  “So, what am I supposed to do? Drop this? Pretend it never happened, so that you can play ball in college?”

  “It’s not just about me. He will find something else. Maybe that other video, or something worse. Maybe he’ll go after your dad; I don’t know. Skeletons are his specialty.”

  Jordyn considered her father’s skeletons. How hard would it be to find out about his disorder? And what could Calum do with that info?

  Bobby approached, parting his arms for a hug.

  Reluctantly, Jordyn accepted.

  He hugged her tight. “Let this pass. People will forget soon enough. Hell, I’m sure the next party will have someone blowing a donkey or something that’ll make this seem like nothing!”

  “What’s going to happen in school tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know, but we can get through it.”

  “So, you don’t think I’m a slut?” Half of her wanted to shove him.

  Bobby kept hugging her. “No, Jordyn. I think you drank too much, but I don’t think you’re a slut. I love you.”

  Those three words somehow dulled the pain. Somehow made her think that perhaps she’d get through this. That they could get through this.

  Still, Jordyn couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been so cold to her when they first started talking. Why was he only now saying that he loved her? Did he mean it, or was he playing every possible card to save his friends from a rape charge?

  Jordyn pulled away. “I’m sorry, but I have to tell him.”

  “Tell who?”

  “My father.”

  Bobby went pale. “Please, Jordyn. Don’t. He already said he’d kill me.”

  “I’ll tell him that you had nothing to do with it.”

  “He’ll go to the police. We’ll all be fucked.”

  “I can’t just forget that this happened.”

  She turned and started to walk away.

  He called after her, “Jordyn!”

  She kept walking.

  Bobby chased her, begging at her side, “Please, Jordyn. Don’t do it. My life will be over.”

  “If I don’t, then my life is.”

  “Come on, don’t be so dramatic!”

  “Dramatic? Really?” Jordyn yelled, unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth. “Goodbye, Bobby.”

  She kept walking.

  Bobby didn’t follow, but he kept right on yelling.

  Jordyn kept walking, crying as the pleading perished behind her.

  **

  Jordyn approached her front door, steeling herself for confession.

  How does one tell their father that they got raped at a party? Or that maybe she was so wasted that it was consensual sex she didn’t even remember?

  Jordyn imagined his anger. Demanding to know why she’d put herself in that situation. Why
she drank anything at all. Had she already forgotten the last time? Hadn’t he warned her, repeatedly, of how awful boys could be? How the only way to steer clear of situations like this was to avoid them in the first place?

  He would be disappointed. Maybe ashamed.

  What if he went looking for the video?

  How would he react?

  How could he ever look at her the same again?

  She wondered if there was another video. And if so, how much more was on there? How many other kids had recorded her doing God only knew what?

  Her stomach was sick. It was all Jordyn could do not to duck into some bushes off the sidewalk and vomit. But she kept walking, now just a block from her house. She kept thinking about Bobby’s plea. How Calum would destroy not only him, but her, and maybe even her father.

  Jordyn couldn’t imagine what Calum might do to her dad, but she could see the avalanche of hate tumbling down the LiveLyfe mountain. It would only get worse if another video, or more, came out.

  Calum could turn the entire school against her.

  He was the star quarterback. And his daddy was the most powerful man in town.

  What would going to the police even do?

  Could Jordyn prove she was drugged? Maybe. But how could she prove she was raped, when even she wasn’t sure?

  An ugly gray line, the kind of thing she’d seen on the news a hundred times or more, but never imagined could happen to her.

  Jordyn was too smart. Too cautious.

  She didn’t hang out with people like that.

  And yet here she was.

  She was almost to her house when her phone rang.

  She looked at the screen.

  Calum Kozack.

  * * * *

  CHAPTER 45 - JASPER PARISH

  Jasper had hoped that Jordyn would want to hang out. He needed to spend some time with his daughter to feel human again.

  He hated what had happened at Tony’s.

  It was supposed to have felt like deliverance, but Jasper had killed a man. Yes, the man was a murderer, but there was unknown data he’d not expected to find, information that shaded Jasper’s ability to determine guilt. And while Tony was attacking Jasper, and one could argue self-defense at that point, Jasper should never have been in the man’s house.

  He’d never hurt anyone unnecessarily or compromised his principles. He never took short cuts like some of the other officers around him. He trusted the process and did his job, regardless of the results. He could look himself in the mirror because he’d done the right thing. All Jasper’s life, he’d done the right thing.

  But, in an instant, everything was different.

  He felt dirty, with the breed of filth you can never wash out. The kind that stains your soul and stays forever.

  The kind that robs your humanity.

  A giant void had opened above him at Tony’s. Now it was slowly descending to swallow him whole. The void had recognized him as a good man on the brink and wasn’t about to let him sneak away.

  It prompted Tony to attack him, to remove Jasper’s mask.

  It forced Jasper’s hand.

  It forced him to enter the darkness.

  And then it claimed him.

  But being with Jordyn could help Jasper rediscover the light. Father daughter time would remind him of better days. Convince him that he wasn’t a monster.

  But Jordyn was going to meet her boyfriend at the park.

  He’d have to find something else.

  Jasper found that something else in the garage refrigerator, a 12-pack of beer he’d almost forgotten about.

  He carried the 12-pack into the living room, sat on the couch, and let the darkness swallow him. He cracked one can after another, searching for something, anything, other than the emptiness inside him.

  * * * *

  CHAPTER 46 - JEFF BROWN

  Jeff wasn’t wearing a camera to livestream tonight’s murder.

  Nor was he logged into NonAMus or a hijacked LiveLyfe account to share in the delight of his kill.

  Tonight was about Jeff, his wife, and Eugene. A long overdue reckoning.

  He had hoped to stop the wedding, but Jeff was smart enough to know that he couldn’t get within fifty feet of the temple. With his name out there, he’d be cut down in seconds.

  Jeff waited a few days until the attention died down. His name and photo were still all over the news, but his profile was sinking beneath the weight of fresh scandals.

  He was dressed head to toe in body armor. Moving through the woods was more difficult, but the extra protection was necessary.

  He had performed recon the night before using a drone from a few blocks away and determined that there was only one pair of deputies watching the house, across the street from their parked car.

  Jeff flew the drone around the back of their yard, and over another block, but he found no one else. But a flyby of his old home revealed that Sandra, Eugene, and Liam were inside. He didn’t see anyone else in the house. It seemed like he’d have only two hogs to slaughter.

  He held the same AR-15 he’d used in his prior attacks, this time fitted with an ACOG scope so he could fire from a distance, subsonic ammunition, and a suppressor to eliminate the CRACK that came from firing with a suppressor.

  He also carried two pistols in a side and back holster outside his armor.

  Jeff stepped out of the woods, about twenty feet behind the unmarked car where the deputies were watching.

  He lifted the AR-15, balanced it on his shoulder, looked down the sight, and fired two shots into the backs of their heads.

  Direct hits, both deputies slumping down and hitting the dashboard.

  A whisper from the shots. Soft enough to keep Sandra and Eugene feeling safe inside the house.

  A dog barked a few doors down.

  Jeff walked as fast as he could toward the—

  Something wasn’t right.

  He pulled a small flashlight from its pouch on the front of his armor, then shined it into the car.

  Two mannequins.

  The window shattered beside him.

  Fuck! A sniper!

  A spotlight shined on Jeff, from a car parked just ten feet away.

  He raised his rifle and indiscriminately emptied his magazine at the car.

  Someone returned fire, holes punching the unmarked car behind him.

  Jeff raced into the woods to escape, dropping his rifle as he fled.

  * * * *

  CHAPTER 47 - JORDYN PARISH

  It finally stopped ringing.

  Jordyn kept walking, planning how to tell her father everything, about the party, about the drinking, and about the videos. He’d be mad, but he would know what to do. He’d know how to handle this.

  She had to trust him.

  The phone rang again.

  “Hey, Jordyn,” Calum said, his voice sickly sweet.

  “What?” she asked, expecting his begging.

  “My boy, Bobby tells me you’re throwing around some heavy accusations.”

  “They’re not accusations if they’re true.”

  He laughed. Her stomach rolled.

  She couldn’t believe she’d endured his presence for so long.

  “I don’t know what you think happened, but I do know what I saw. What half the school has seen by now. If you think that proves anything, you’re a crazier bitch than I thought.”

  “Tell it to the cops.”

  “Oh, I will. My father is friends with half the sheriff’s department, so good luck with your little fairy tale. I have another one. Wanna hear it?”

  Jordyn said nothing.

  “My story is about a jealous little bitch who was trying to ruin her boyfriend’s friendships. She wanted him all to herself, enough that she decided to seduce his friends and call it rape.”

  Jordyn imagined him smirking and wanted to kill him.

  She said nothing.

  “She even had her friend Sammi set up a camera to record it, but then Sammi felt bad abou
t betraying her real friends, and told Calum what she and the little bitch had planned.”

  “That’s a lie, and you know it!”

  “No, it’s not. You’re the liar, Jordyn. And now everyone knows it. Game over. Why don’t you and your crazy daddy run back to South Florida.”

  Crazy daddy?

  Bobby must’ve told him.

  Damn it! He promised.

  “By the way, there is one more thing you ought to know.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sending the pic to SnapChat. And let me just say, there’s more where this came from.”

  Calum hung up.

  Moments later, her SnapChat indicated a new picture.

  Jordyn clicked.

  Her, Calum, and Sammi. In bed. All of them topless, a sheet covering them from the waist down. They were all smiling, eyes wide open.

  She stared at the photo, shaking.

  Then she threw up.

  **

  Jordyn couldn’t go home. Not like this.

  She kept walking, trying to figure out what to do, to make sense of everything.

  Date rape drugs knocked you out, at least from the little she knew. Was it possible that she’d been drugged and was not only conscious but getting naked and having sex with Calum and whoever else? Or was it possible that she was just drunk, intoxicated beyond the point of control? And if that were the case, who was to blame?

  Her father would say that whoever held the party and provided the alcohol was to blame. But it was a party filled with teenagers. It wasn’t like some pervert adult had tricked them into drinking so he could take advantage.

  Everyone was drinking of their own free will.

  Still, there was no way she would knowingly sleep with Calum or anyone other than Bobby. Nor would she make out with Sammi. And the fact that she couldn’t remember any of it only added to Jordyn’s conviction that she’d been drugged.

  She circled her block, then went onto the next one, searching alcohol and drugs and their effects on Google without a single concrete answer. People could do crazy things on drugs or alcohol and have no memory of it afterward. She read horror stories of other girls and boys, who’d been raped after blacking out. A recurring, terrifying theme.