Evil Of Love

by Echeverria, N. L.

  A tall, dark haired male exits the vehicle and for a moment I think it’s not her car, but then I see her. I see her long lean legs step from the vehicle. She’s in shorts and a white shirt. Her sunglasses cover most her face. She has her head down and he takes her hand and helps her, the rest of the way out. I cringe at the sight, balling my fists at my sides. This man has to be three times her size and he fucking hit her! It ignites the anger that is already lingering inside. I stay in my place though, only watching.

  He places a hand around her waist, pulling her in close. Then he looks up, almost looking straight at me, and I see the asshole behind those dark eyes. I want nothing more than to beat this piece of shit to nothing. I take notice to his grip on her waist and how tightly he’s holding her. She’s slightly hunched over and walking slowly. To the bystander they may not notice, but I’m paying close attention to her every move and she appears to be in pain. She’s got one arm around her stomach holding her side, while he’s holding her back. He doesn’t necessarily seem concerned with her wellbeing, more just concerned that someone may notice.

  I can feel the rage building inside of me. I can’t leave her with this man. I have to stay close. I watch them walk slowly pass several of the stands. She stops at a few pointing things out to him and he responds by nodding his head. No smile comes from either of their expressions. I hate seeing his hands on her. He doesn’t deserve to even stand next to her.

  Even with her glasses covering her eyes, her casual clothes and her long auburn hair tied back into a bun, she still looks stunning. I fallow them, but keep my distance. When they stop at another table I begin to walk in closer. Doing my best not to steal too many glances at them. Then I see it, her swollen lip. Did he hit her? Is that why she can barely walk on her own? Even with her makeup I can see her bottom lip is swollen and a little bruised.

  Now I stare. I stand in place, hands in pocket, looking straight at her. I need her to see me. I’m sure she already has, but I need her to make eye contact. All she has to do is give me the okay and I’ll kill that mother-fucker right here. I’ll show him what it feels like to be beat on. She doesn’t though, she doesn’t even look my way and I know she’s doing it on purpose. She doesn’t want him to be suspicious. She’s scared of him and I can see it in the way she’s carrying herself. Her head lowered, looking towards the ground as if in obedience.

  Obviously something’s up because in the past couple weeks he’s never shown up with her. He must have come for a reason. I don’t see him as the type to take a day strolling the market with his wife. Just from the looks of him and his expensive suit, I can already tell he’s a controlling, arrogant asshole.

  My jaw tightens in anger, but I stay collected, keeping my composure the best I can while watching them. As much as I don’t want to be here right now and I don’t want to see him touching her, I have to stay. I have to know she’s okay. I can’t leave her even if I can’t be with her. I can never leave her again. If she decides that she’s doesn’t want to be with me, I’ll have to break my promise I made to her that I would leave her alone. I can’t let another man beat her down the way her father did. I refuse to stand by and watch it happen all over again.

  I keep my distance, but close enough that I can see every time he touches her or grips her tighter. I’m becoming irritated with watching them and I know I need to get her alone. Make sure she’s okay and he didn’t hurt her. As soon as I begin to feel like it might be hopeless and he’ll never leave her side, I watch him lean down and whisper something into her ear as he pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and walks away from her. He walks through the crowd of people towards me while talking on his cell phone. As he nears me its takes everything in me not to charge him, but instead I stay in my place and let him pass by. I turn and watch the same black vehicle that dropped them off, pull up and he climbs in, leaving Steph by the table full of hand crafted jewelry. Where he’s going I have no fucking clue and seriously don’t give a fuck. I’m just glad she’s alone.

  I wait till I see his car pass out of view and I go to her. To my dismay she doesn’t walk towards me, she doesn’t even look my way as I near her. She continues to appear to be admiring the jewelry, so I step up next to her, hands in my pockets and also look at the items laid out on the table before us.

  “Are you okay?” I whisper, my eyes still focused on the table.

  “I’ll be fine,” she responds, distantly. I can’t be losing her already! She can’t lose herself.

  “Can we talk?” I request, hoping she’ll give me a few moments to find out what’s going on.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispers, clutching her side, she begins to turn away from me.

  I gently and discreetly place my hand on her arm. “Please,” is all I say and she turns to face me. She looks up at me, her sun glasses still covering her eyes, but I don’t need to see behind them to know she’s hurting.

  “Okay,” she whispers. “I don’t have much time though. The driver will be coming back for me.”

  “Come with me,” I request, placing my arm around her waist, helping her walk with me. I don’t know what happened or why she’s hurting but it’s killing me right now to see her like this. She only nods in response and allows me to help her walk with me. As soon as we make it to my truck, I open my door helping her in before going around to my side. I don’t care when the driver is coming back. I’m going to find out what happened and the only way to do that is to get her out of here and somewhere private.

  I start up the truck, but before putting it into gear I turn to her. Placing a hand on her thigh she turns to face me so I reach up with my other hand and slowly remove her sun glasses. Underneath is something I never want to see again. A woman, broken, hurt and lost. A beautiful girl who no longer has anything left inside her. He’s breaking her until there is nothing left. Just like her father. Her cheek is swollen and bruised, but I don’t say anything. I place her glasses on the dashboard and place her face in my hand running my thumb over her cheek and a tear falls from her eye. I want to help her, but I can only do so much. She needs to let me in.

  “What did he do to you?” as soon as I ask I regret it because tears start running down her cheeks and I can see the pain is too much for her.

  “I can’t do this Eric. I can’t do any of this,” she croaks through sobs.

  “What do you mean? Do what, Steph?”

  She wipes her tears away and looks to me, “I can’t be broken anymore. I don’t want to hurt anymore.”

  “Come with me! Let me take care of you.” I take her hands in mine.

  “I can’t. I want to, Eric, but I can’t.”

  “God dammit! Why?! Why the hell not?!” I yell as the frustration builds, then I feel her pull away and tuck her hands between her legs, tilting her head down, looking at her lap, as if I’m going to scold her. “Don’t pull away, Stephanie.” I say, grabbing her hands back in mine. “I would never hurt you, trust me.”

  “How?” she hollers, looking straight at me, tears brimming her eyes again. “How can I trust you, Eric? How can I trust a man I haven’t seen for ten years when I can’t even trust my own husband?”

  “Please, let me help you. Talk to me, Stephanie.” I don’t want to lose her over what this man has done to her. “What did he do?”

  She doesn’t respond. Instead she turns slightly so that her back is facing me and pulls up her shirt. When I see her battered skin all I want to do is kill the bastard. Fresh blue bruises cover her sides and part of her back, which explains why she was having a hard time walking. He probably broke a rib or two and here he was acting like nothing happened.

  “He kicked me. I don’t know how many times, but once he was finished I knew the damage was bad.”

  “And your lip and cheek? Did he hit you too?” I grit through my teeth in pure rage.

  “Yes, and he bit me,” she whispers, shame in her voice, as if it’s her fault.

  “I can help you, Steph; I will help you get
away from him. You don’t deserve any of this. Fuck! Look at yourself. Look what he did to you,” I say pulling up the side of her shirt again, exposing the blue bruises covering her side. She grabs it though, pulling it back down. “Why do you let him do this?”

  “What do you want from me, Eric? I stood up to him last night for the first time in over two years and look what happened. Look what good it did me,” she cries, letting out a sigh of defeat.

  “What’s your drivers’ number? I’m calling him and you’re coming back to my place. You’re not going home right now.”

  “I have to go back eventually or it will only be worse.”

  “Is that why you won’t leave him? You’re afraid?” I ask.

  “At first that wasn’t it. At first I just couldn’t think of hurting him, but now, yes, I’m afraid. I’m scared of what he will do, not just to me, but to you Eric.”

  Her large brown eyes wide with fear. If only she would understand that as long as she’s with me, he can’t hurt her. I won’t let anything happen.

  “Please, just come with me back to my place. We can figure this out. We’ll find a way to get you out of there and keep you safe.”

  “Okay,” she responds with a little bit of hope ringing in her voice.

  Finally, I think I’m getting through to her.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Travis

  “Vanessa! I told you not to schedule any fucking meetings for me today. This better be important.” I watch as the blonde haired woman apologizes several times explaining how important it is. I didn’t want to leave Stephanie today. I have a bad feeling and I don’t know what it is yet.

  “Mr. Barnes, this should be quick, but the CEO of the credit union wanted to speak to you about a possible merger. I knew how important an offer like this is to you so I told him you would be here. I apologize, I can contact him if you need me to reschedule.”

  “I’m already fucking here, right? What time should I be expecting Mr. Jones?” I grit through my teeth, beyond annoyed with this woman.

  “He should be here in thirty minutes.”

  “Okay. Don’t bother me until he arrives.” I don’t wait for her response as I storm into my office, slamming the door behind me. I’ve got to cool off before this meeting, but thoughts of Stephanie are running ramped through my mind. I don’t know what I would do if she told anyone about what happened. I doubt she will or at least I hope I scared her enough to keep her mouth shut. She has to come to the realization that she belongs to me and I will not tolerate her talking back to me or thinking she can stand up to me. I grab my phone dialing the one number of a person I know that may be able to help.

  “Hello, this is Matthew Steels. How may I help you?”

  “Mr. Steels, this is Travis Barnes, I’m hoping I can get your help.”

  “Travis, how have you been old friend?” his voice rings through jolly and it gets under my skin. I don’t have the patience for small talk, but I indulge him anyways.

  “Wonderful, business is good. How about you?”

  “Just fine. What can I help you with, Travis? It’s been awhile since I’ve had a call from you.”

  “Yes, yes I know. But I have an issue. Well, I don’t know what it is, but I need someone that can help me get some information. You know, do some investigation. You still do that, right?” I incline.

  “Yes, of course. Only under the table though, so as not to jeopardize my job with the law firm. Who is it that you would like me to investigate?”

  “My wife.”

  ***

  Stephanie

  “Lay down here, while I go grab a few things,” Eric gestures to his large bed and I do as he asks. My sides and back hurt so bad as it is, I can’t be upright much longer. He helps me onto his mattress before turning to the bathroom. Lying on my back hurts like hell, but any other way is worse, so I take to my back and spread my arms out to my sides, propping up slightly against his dark pillows. I listen as he bangs through the bathroom, obviously searching for something. He comes rushing around the corner with a small white bottle in his hand and sits on the edge of the bed next to me.

  “Here, let me help you get your shirt off.”

  I comply by sitting up and holding the groans of pain inward even though I want nothing more than to cry out. Once I’m up I lift my arms as he pulls my shirt over my head. Slowly, I lay back down into the position that seems to give me the most ease.

  “I’m going to gently rub some of this on your ribs and back. I know you’re bruised up so I’ll be careful, but hopefully this will help with any inner pain or bruising,” he states.

  I’m not sure what’s in his hand, but I nod in agreement. Rubbing his palms together first and then scooping out some of the contents of the white bottle he’s holding, he places some on my ribs, just under my bra line. Gently rubbing in the soothing gel and I close my eyes to relax under his touch. Once he’s done with one side he climbs to the other side of the bed continuing to rub the gel into my tender skin. Every so often I flinch or moan with pain and when I do he stops for a moment making sure he isn’t hurting me.

  “Can you lie on your stomach?”

  “Yes,” I reply. “This feels so good, thank you.”

  “Of course. I really don’t know if I can handle seeing you like this again Steph. Your lip and face are swollen and your sides are completely blue. This isn’t right,” he sighs and I turn over to my stomach, exposing my back.

  “We’ll figure out something, Eric. I don’t want to get hurt anymore either,” a tear falls down my cheek as I say it. I can’t believe I’ve let this happen, I can’t believe I’ve allowed Travis to do this to me.

  Eric begins to rub the gel on my back gently and the warm feeling is soothing. “When’s your fight, Eric?”

  “Two weeks away. You’re still going be there right?”

  “I promised, plus I need to figure out when and how to get out of that house. I need to talk to him, Eric. I need to reason with him, get him back in a good mood. Let him know he’s in control. I know how he works and what it takes, I just hope it won’t upset you,” I whisper, almost gritting my teeth, thinking about what I’m going to have to do to get Travis smiling again.

  “Why, Steph? Why do you feel like you have to please him? If anything you should be going to the police and having him arrested,” his weak voice almost ringing in defeat. I know he wants me to stay here and never go back to Travis, but I have to close things. I have to end it on the best possible basis that I can in order to avoid future problems. I don’t know how easy Travis will let me go, but I at least need to face him before I disappear. I need to show him I still love him, always will, even though he’s hurt me beyond repair. There is nothing that will change the fact that he was there for me when I had no one.

  “I need to end everything with him, Eric. I need him to know how he hurt me, but also how he was there for me when I didn’t have anyone and that I’ll never forget it. I know I can’t tell him I’m leaving. I know I’ll have to disappear, but you’re stuck here for the fight. Let’s leave together the night of the fight. I’ll go anywhere with you, Eric.”

  “If you would let me take you tonight you know I would, fuck the fight, there will be plenty more. You’re what’s important right now.”

  “Two weeks, Eric. I’ll be ready and you’ll be able to see your fight through. I’ll do my best to keep Travis happy and keep myself safe.”

  “I don’t even want to think about you being with him, Stephanie. It kills me to know you’re going back to him tonight. You should be going to the police.”

  “Please, Eric. This is the best way right now,” I plead with him, needing time to say goodbye and plan my escape. Two weeks is plenty of time. I’ll have everything ready and leave with him after he finishes his fight.

  “We need to keep our distance this week and next. I’ll talk with you on the computer, but I need to minimize my trips to the market.”

  “I can’t go very long without seeing you
, Steph.”

  “Eric,” I turn my head to the side so I can see his face, his hands still gently rubbing along my side and back, “I’m not doing this to hurt you, we’ll be together, soon. How about we meet up on Thursday of this week? You can pick me up outside my place. Next week we’ll get together again. I just can’t risk anything at this point.”

  “Okay, I can accept that. But we have to talk every day. Oh, which reminds me,” he says, jumping from the bed, wiping his hands on a towel he has on his dresser before pulling out a small black cell phone from his top drawer, “this is for you. I meant to give it to you before, but got so wrapped up in enjoying you, I forgot. Just keep it close to you so Travis doesn’t find it, but at least if anything happens you will be able to call me.”

  He walks it over to the bed, placing it on the nightstand before sitting back down and continuing his gentle rubbing on my back.

  “Thank you, Eric,” I respond, my heart swelling with love.

  “You could say it’s more for my peace of mind than yours. I just need to know you have a way of getting ahold of me if anything else happens.”

  “I really appreciate it, but I can’t risk him finding the phone on me. I don’t know how far he can go Eric and I’d rather not give him a reason to be mad. Save the phone. Save it for the night of your fight. Give it to me then when we leave together.” He doesn’t say anything, just nods in understanding. He gently kisses my forehead and continues to massage my back.