On top of being a slut you’re also a gold digger, huh? I should have known. Maybe that’s why you tried to break up with me – I didn’t have enough money for you. Well I’m sorry I was too poor for you, with your fancy taste. Maybe that’s why you were always smiling at those random guys and ‘staying late’ after work – you were looking for the next best thing and leaving me at home to worry. Well that’s all over. Now it’s your turn to do the worrying, Dacia. And you should be worried.
I lost years of my life and now I’m on the run all because of you and your lies. They called me a stalker in that courtroom, do you remember that? When you got on the witness stand and poisoned the jury’s minds against me, playing the victim, when we all know the truth, don’t we? You could fool those miserable people with your tears and your fake stories of me harassing you, but I know the truth. I know that you’re a filthy, dirty whore, and that the world is a better place without you. And tonight I’m going to finish what I started all those years ago, and there isn’t a fucking thing you or that rich ape can do to stop me.
It ends here, tonight.
Chapter 22
Kane
Why do I always make the shower so hot? It’s like a sauna in here, not that that’s a bad thing. Actually, the steam feels nice, and the hot water bouncing against my body makes my muscles relax. What a crazy day it’s been! I woke up thinking I was hosting a dinner party for my brother and his new wife, and that my girlfriend was off having a semi-normal afternoon at the spa with her best friend. Then all hell broke loose, and I get a call that my family driver is in intensive care because he was attacked by my girlfriend’s stalker ex-boyfriend, who’s also wanted in other states for murder. Then the day ends up with me telling her that I love her; something I’ve never told a girl before, followed by the best sex of my life. I think this is what they mean when they say it’s been an ‘emotional rollercoaster.’
It’s nice to be alone for a few minutes; it gives me time to process the day and gather all of my thoughts about everything that’s been going on. Dacia and I just had the best few moments that either of us has experienced in a while, and even though I’m still basking a little, I have to go to plan B in terms of what to do about Derrick. Tonight was a fantasy, and it can’t ever turn into a reality so long as she’s only safe inside these walls. I can’t protect her forever, and if I ever want our relationship to be anything more than the heightened drama of a suspense movie, I have to find a way to eliminate Derrick.
What’s that? I heard a knock on the door, I think. “Is that you, D.?” No response, but the shower is loud, and instead of words I hear a stronger knock on the door. “Wow, you just couldn’t stay away, could you?” I jump out for a second and unlock the bathroom door to open it, “Or maybe you’re just making time while the pizza heats. . .” I don’t feel anything, but suddenly I’m on the floor, and I can see red dripping onto the floor from somewhere on my face, and the feeling of a warm liquid running down. I’m disoriented, but I gather enough strength to lift my head up. It’s steamy, and I can barely see in here, but I can see man standing over me, holding something in his hand. “I’ll finish dealing with you later, ape.” I hear those words, and then all goes dark.
Chapter 23
Dacia
Jeez, how long does an oven take to heat up? Maybe it’s like that old expression about a watched pot never boiling, only instead of waiting for bubbles to appear on the stove I’m starting at an empty oven, waiting for the little ding that tells me it’s ready to heat my yummy late night snack. It’s taking forever. Or maybe I’m just impatient. Yeah, it’s definitely the second one.
While I wait I open the front door all the way and peek out for Jordan. She must have walked back outside to chase squirrels or pee again. “Jord!” I yell, but don’t hear anything back. I don’t know what I expect; maybe some dramatic, slow motion running of a giant Rottie into the house, squirrel in mouth. Eww. I’m not worried though, that dog would never leave my side, and there are no roads around here for her to get hurt on, so I just leave the front door open so she’ll come back in when she’s ready. If she’s not back by the time my pizza is ready I’ll go out and get her. Maybe the scent of boiling cheese and sauce will carry her back inside, like in a Looney Toons episode.
The oven finally beeps (thank God), and I slide the pizza in and set a timer for ten minutes. I wonder if Kane’s out of the shower yet as I pull up a chair in the kitchen and sit my butt down. I brought my phone with me since I knew I’d have to sit around waiting for the food, so I pour myself a glass of the red wine that’s still sitting out on the kitchen table and text Mia while I sip it.
Dacia: Thanks for coming tonight. Sorry for jumping up at dinner. Needed some air and space, but all good now. Call me tomorrow.
She doesn’t write back right away, but it is late and I’m sure she’s also tired. It’s been a rollercoaster for her, too, since getting back from her honeymoon. She had just barely gotten off of her flight when she had to deal with some serious drama. I hope she’s not mad. Anyways, I know she’ll write me back whenever she gets this. But in the meantime maybe I’ll hit Kevin up and see what he’s doing. He’s a night owl, so I know he’ll be there. Hopefully I’m not interrupting any drama.
Dacia: Sooo, whatcha doing?
Kevin: Quietly throwing a party in my mind in celebration of being single again.
Dacia: That’s awesome. Have you heard from her?
Kevin: Who? Crazy? Of course I have, almost every day since we broke up. She’s like that chick in Wayne’s World who won’t accept the relationship’s over.
Dacia: You’re dating yourself with that reference – but excellent choice of movie btw
Kevin: I still sing Bohemian Rhapsody in the car every time it comes on my playlist
Dacia: So what has she been saying? Does she want to get back together?
Kevin: Something like that. Lots of apologizing, pleading, offers of threesomes to stay together.
Dacia: Wait, what???
Kevin: Yeah, she basically offered every possible sexual scenario that she thinks I’ll be interested in if we can get back together.
Dacia: That’s amazing.
Kevin: If by ‘amazing’ you mean desperate and sad, then yeah, it’s fucking amazing.
Dacia: Tell me you didn’t consider it for a minute. Don’t lie.
Kevin: Okay, maybe for a few seconds, but that’s it.
Dacia: Wait, I just thought of something.
Kevin: ?
Dacia: What if she wanted a threesome with another dude?
Kevin: Stop it.
Dacia: I mean, did she ever actually say that it would be her and another girl?
Kevin: No, but it doesn’t matter. She could have offered to bring every girlfriend of hers over for an orgy and I still would have said no. It’s not worth it.
Dacia: You definitely would have said yes to an orgy.
Kevin: Yeah, I know, that example was aggressive on my part. But you know what I mean.
Dacia: I do, yeah.
Kevin: How are you?
Dacia: I’m okay. I. . .
I stop mid-text when I see a figure in the room with me. At first I think it’s Kane so I keep texting, but when I glance up I don’t believe my eyes; it’s like I’m seeing the ghost of someone, and my eyes and mind need time to process everything. It’s Derrick! He’s standing in Kane’s kitchen, staring at me in a way that’s terrifying me to my very soul. I don’t know how I have the presence of mind, but without even looking down I type to Kevin:
Dacia: Not a joke - send police to Kane’s place right now
I hit SEND and keep my phone in my hand. Derrick’s just standing there, eerily still, and I stand up to face him from across the room. When I look at his side I see it – he’s holding a gun in his right hand; he’s come here to kill me.
“Been a while,” he says in a slow, methodical voice. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him or heard his voice that I had let myself forge
t the little details. He looks terrible; nothing like I remember him, even when I was testifying against him in court. Back then he was wearing a suit, he was shaved and his hair was in place. He had to look respectable for the jury, even if I know that there was a monster lurking just beneath that fancy suit. But now even that façade is gone; there are no more nice clothes, and he looks like he hasn’t bathed or shaved in weeks. He finally looks like what he is – a madman.
“What are you doing here Derrick?” I ask frantically. My heart can’t help but pound in my chest, and I can feel the sweat dripping like a leaky faucet, uncontrollably down my inner arm.
“Don’t ask stupid questions, Dacia. You may be a dirty bitch, but you’re not stupid. You know why I’m here.” I wish that I could describe the feeling of standing maybe ten feet away from a man you know wants to kill you. I can see the psychotic glint in his eyes, like he’s some kind of alpha predator, and I’m the wounded animal trying to limp away. He almost looks. . . happy.
“Where’s Kane?” I ask, realizing that something may have happened to him.
“The ape is locked away, don’t worry, I’ll finish dealing with him after you’re gone. I hope he enjoyed himself before, because that was the last pleasure he’s ever going to feel in the few minutes he has left. I’ll show him what happens when you touch my girl.”
“Your girl?” I yell. When he says those words the feeling inside me changes completely; it evolves from fear and terror into something like outrage. He’s trying to possess me, even now, even as he’s standing there telling me he’s about to kill me, he still needs me to be his. He may kill me, but he’ll never own me. “Your girl!” I repeat, sounding even angrier the second time. “I’m sorry, how fucking insane are you? Obviously you’d rank pretty high on the crazy meter, but thinking I’m your girl is a whole new level, you psycho!”
“You’re going to pay for your words, bitch. I promise you that. And that last thing you’ll say won’t be so bold; you’ll be begging me for mercy.”
“Fuck you Derrick!” I say the last part on purpose because I know it would set him off. He always had a thing about respect. He would use that word all the time, and anything I did that he didn’t like he’d call disrespectful, even if it had nothing to do with that. He needed to be the man; to be in control and have me take a back seat to him, so I knew that a giant middle finger would set him off. I want him angry; I want him to make a mistake.
He charges at me, gun in hand, and I dart out of the other side of the kitchen with all the speed that my legs will take me with. I can feel the adrenaline, and I’m not even sure where I’m going, I just instinctually know to run in the other direction, but I can hear his frantic footsteps just behind me, getting closer with every stomp of his boots. My heart is racing even faster than before, and I turn the corner out of the kitchen and run into the living room. God I hope Kevin got that text, I don’t know how long I have. I can hear him just behind me, but he’s so close that if I turn around to look he’ll grab me. I literally jump over the sofa in the living room and catch my foot on the way over, stumbling to the floor on the other side. I turn and see him right above me, reaching down, and I scoot my butt out from under me and jump up.
He’s raises his gun-hand up in my direction, and the only thing I can think to do is grab his hand, even though I know he’s much stronger than me. He uses his weight to push me down, and he falls on top of me as we hand-fight over the gun. I know this is a losing battle; he’s much stronger and angrier than I am, plus he’s on top of me, but I need to keep fighting, no matter what. “Stop fighting,” he says callously, “It’ll all be over soon, I promise.” His words enrage me, and give me new strength and I raise my right leg upwards as hard as I can and hit him in the groin. He breaks his grip on my hand but still has the gun, but it’s enough of a stall to let me get up as he rolls over in pain. I know it won’t last long, so I jolt towards the staircase leading upstairs. Even in this craziness I think of Kane and what this psycho might have done to him. Is he hurt? Is he dead? No, he can’t be dead; Derrick said that he was going to finish him off after he took care of me, so Kane must be alive. I could have run out the open front door instead of running for the staircase, but I can’t leave Kane alone in the house with Derrick.
I look back and see that Derrick’s on his feet again, and rushing towards the stairs. I’m already at the top, and I start to look around for anything that I can use as a weapon. I make a quick decision and run into the small library that’s up here near Kane’s bedroom. I know that Derrick will leave Kane alone as long as I’m alive – he’s much more interested in hurting me than anyone else, so I use myself as a trap and hide in the library behind a bookshelf. I find the largest hardcover book I can and hold it in my hands. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, but it’s something at least. Outside I can hear the plod of Derrick’s boots approaching, and I hold the book as if it were some kind of shield and not a first edition copy of Wuthering Heights.
“You can’t hide from me; I hope that you know that by now.” I don’t answer, I know that he knows I’m in here, and we’re playing some sick game of predator and prey, but I have to play it out until the end. He turns the corner and we’re face to face again; he’s standing in the doorway looking even angrier and crazed than before, and I’m standing a few feet back, holding a book in my hand and praying that help comes for me. I can only hold him off for so long.
“So you’ve done this to other women, huh, you sick fuck!” His gun is at his side, and he could have easily shot at me at any point in this little chase, but he doesn’t want to shoot me from across the room, he wants me to suffer, and to see the look on my face as I do. I know he won’t just fire, so I try to see if I can provoke him again, or at least stall until help comes. “How many besides me? I hear two.”
“Oh, you hear wrong,” he says sounding almost cocky, “There are way more than two, but no one will ever find them, so it doesn’t matter. But don’t worry, they’ll find you. This is too high profile of a place and the whole police force is out looking for me. Soon we’ll all be dead, Dacia, you most of all, and when they find our bodies we’ll be on the front page of every newspaper around the county. Hell, they may even make a movie about us – the crime of the century.”
“Oh Christ, Derrick, the crime of the century? Are you really that delusional and crazy? Did your brain rot while you were in jail, or have you just been thinking about this for so long that you forget that you’re just another psychopath who bullies women, not some master criminal.” I can see that he’s getting angrier with each word that I say, so naturally I just keep it going. “You really are stupid, aren’t you?”
“Stupid? Me? That’s interesting; because you’re only alive right now because I let you live. I’ve been following you for days, Dacia. How do you think I found you here? Your hair looks nice, by the way, but I liked the way you looked before, right when you gave that old guy your keys to go to your house. I watched that whole thing. Then I. . .well, you know what I did next.”
“He’s fine,” I yell back, “He’s going to live.”
“Shame. I could have killed him, of course, but he was just bait. If I left him breathing I could get to watch you all scramble; I could see the bloody ape upstairs leave for the hospital, and I could follow you and your friend back here. Easy enough.”
“You fucking psycho. The only shame is that you’re free and not rotting away in the prison cell you belong in.” With that he decides to come after me, and lunges forward as a run to the other side of the room, book in hand. I scream instinctually, and just try to keep moving my body away, and as soon as he comes near me I jet away again, this time out the very door he came in through. He’s getting frustrated of all this – he didn’t come here for a movie-like chase scene, he came to do what he’s always wanted to do to me; what he couldn’t do to me all those years ago.
“Enough bitch, you’re mine now,” I hear him yell, but my mind barely processes the sound, I
just keep moving away from him. I try to run back down the staircase when I feel his grip on me. He’s just short of getting a good grip on me, so I stumble forwards and fall down the first few steps. I’m lucky the momentum didn’t take me head first down the entire flight, or the stairs would have done the job for Derrick. I’m lying belly down over top three steps, and I can feel his hands on me, creeping up my leg to get control over me. I kick back as hard as I can; screaming as I do as if that’ll give me more strength, and I hit him square in the face as blood comes gushing out of his nose. He lets go of me temporarily, and I get to my feet and scramble as fast as I can down the remaining flight, until I’m back in the living room again, running for my life.
The next feeling I have is of Derrick’s arms wrapped around me in a tight body lock, and being tackled, face first, onto the floor. He’s got me now, and as he rolls me face up I prepare myself for the worst, but I keep fighting and squirming to get free. Once he gets on top of me, though, I feel like I can’t move, and he puts the barrel of his gun to my head and starts taunting me. “How does it feel, bitch? Do you like this? You wanna suck on this barrel like you sucked that ape’s dick before, HUH?” He’s screaming in my face and my whole body starts to shut down, like I can’t fight any longer. I know what’s about to happen, and I can’t stop it. I close my eyes and think of Kane, and hope that he’s going to make it through, no matter what happens to me. My eyelids close as he continues to taunt me, and I wait for the inevitable.
Instead of the sound of a gunshot that I expect, all I hear is gut-wrenching scream from Derrick. When I open my eyes all I see is black – the dark black coat of Jordan as she tears at Derrick’s arm ferociously, growling as she does. He’s screams are horrible, and I can see the blood pouring down his arm as Jordan just keeps tearing into it and shaking her head back and forth. He’s off of me now, and fighting with Jordan to get his arm free. I’m still dazed from the blow I took hitting the floor, and it feels like I broke my nose. When I turn around I see Derrick reach down with his other hand for the gun that fell and he picks it up and points in towards Jordan. “No!” I scream.
Impressions of Me (Impressions Series Book 2) Page 17
