by Amy Patrick
I shook my head. No, go on ahead. I’ll be fine.
But you will come to my apartment later?
Raising my brows I gave him the isn’t-that-obvious expression. I don’t have much choice now, do I? You’ve sprung the inescapable trap.
I regretted my irritated snap almost as soon as I’d said it. Culley had just, quite literally, saved my neck. I owed him. But I was tense over having to do a job for Audun when I’d sworn I’d never work for him again. And the thought of moving in with Culley—tonight—had my nerves jangling like a wrist full of bangle bracelets. When I’d left Altum, I vowed to finally take control of my life. Now it was spinning completely out of control, and there was no telling where I would land. Right in Culley Rune’s apartment apparently.
I expected to see his usual smug smirk, but instead his eyes held a shade of something I could only interpret as pain. He spun around and walked away.
See you at home—love.
I took a step after him.
“Ava!” Audun’s sharp voice put a quick end to any thoughts of following Culley and apologizing. Well, I’d be seeing him soon enough.
He was my new roommate.
Chapter Twelve
Assignment
Audun’s stride was long and brisk, leading me through a busy secretarial area toward a glassed-in conference room.
Inside it, a lone figure sat at one end of a shining, mile-long conference table. My assignment. A human girl who looked every one of her fourteen years—actually she looked more like a sixteen year old to me. It was sometimes hard to tell with the clothes that young girls wore and with makeup. She wore a lot of it. Short and pretty, she seemed very small in there all alone.
Audun opened the door, gesturing for me to precede him. I walked in, and he made the introductions.
“Crystal, this is my associate Ava. She’s going to listen to your testimony as part of the pre-trial discovery process, and then we’ll get you right back to your Saturday.”
“Okay,” she said in a small voice. The girl was scared, and she had a right to be. This was not a normal part of pre-trial discovery.
Yes, the plaintiff’s lawyer or the prosecutor, if it was a criminal trial, had to share their witness list with the defense team, but the defense had no right to question one of their witnesses ahead of time, much less in a private meeting like this one.
I wondered what kind of high-powered client Audun’s firm was defending. And what this girl knew about what he or she had done. Audun did not leave us alone but took a seat at the opposite end of the conference table. I sat in a chair nearest Crystal.
“So you got to take a trip into the city today. Going to do anything fun after this? Shopping maybe?” I made light conversation, attempting to soothe her obviously frayed nerves.
She glanced up at the honeycomb-like light fixture above us. “Um... maybe, I don’t know. I had a track meet today, but I guess we probably won’t make it back in time for me to run my events.” Her gaze darted to my face. “Will this take long?”
“Not at all,” I said, though I really had no idea. Obviously someone had swayed her parents to bring her here and give us unsupervised access to their daughter. What did they think was happening in this room? Maybe it was just a small thing, and I could get the job done in time for her to compete in her events. Maybe she’d seen some bubbleheaded starlet shoplift a bracelet or something.
“So... why don’t you go ahead and tell me what you’re planning to say on the stand?” I knew the drill with trial witnesses. Erase what they saw or heard—poof—the client walks free. I’d done it many times and helped exonerate who knew how many guilty people. I tried not to count—or wonder about what they’d done since I’d helped them walk free.
“Oh—right now?” she said. “You want me to tell you what he did to me? I didn’t know I’d have to say it more than once. It’s... embarrassing, you know?”
My throat tightened. She was the victim in the case? I hadn’t bothered to ask Audun what kind of case this was—I never had in the past—I wasn’t used to questioning him. It wasn’t like it would’ve changed anything anyway if I did have forewarning about the kind of trial his client was facing. I was getting a sneaking suspicion I already knew, though—important client, underage girl. Yuck.
I swallowed back a gag and urged her on. “You won’t have to repeat it. This is the only time you’ll have to say it. I promise. Just start from the beginning, when you met him.”
“Okay... well, I went to the concert with my friend Rachel. I was spending the night with her because her parents are cool about whatever time she wants to come in at night and we were planning to stay after the show and wait by the artists’ exit to see if we could get an autograph. I was so excited because Aiden’s my favorite singer. Or he was.” She stopped and sniffled.
Aiden? Did she mean Aiden Ray? He wasn’t Elven, but he was one of the top earning pop stars this year. If I wasn’t mistaken, he’d won a Grammy as well. He was also about twenty-five years old. My belly did a sickening flop.
“Go on.”
“We did wait after the show—we wanted to see him, like up close. There were lots of girls there, lined up, you know, outside the stage door near where his tour bus was parked. Some of them had pictures for him to sign or whatever. I didn’t have anything like that—I was hoping he’d sign my hand. It started raining, but I didn’t even care if I got wet. I just wanted to see him. I would have waited all night.”
She sat on the edge of her chair, gripping the black leather seat cushion on either side of her spindly legs. Her eyes were far away, revisiting the scene in her mind.
“After about forty minutes the band came out. And then he did.” Her voice choked with tears. “He was so beautiful in person... I started screaming and calling his name. He was signing everybody’s things and taking selfies with them. And then he came to me. He tried to sign my hand with the marker, but I’d been out in the rain awhile. My skin was all wet, and the marker wouldn’t work. I was so frustrated I started crying. And that’s when he invited me to come into his bus.”
“And you went?”
She nodded. “He said I could use a towel and dry off and then he could sign my hand in there. Of course I went.”
“Did Rachel get on the bus, too?”
“No, the body guard said there was not enough room. He said only one person at a time could be in there with Aiden.”
“I see. What happened when you got in the bus?”
“He went to the bathroom and got me a towel. He brought a robe, too, and said I could take off my wet clothes and put it on if I wanted to. He said it was his robe. I was... it was so nice of him to give me his robe. I thought about it. But I didn’t want to take my clothes off. I was too scared. He shrugged like it was no big deal if I did or I didn’t and then he took a soda out of the refrigerator for himself and one for me. He poured them into glasses and then he took a bottle of alcohol—I’m not sure what it was, if it was rum or something else. But he poured some of that in the glasses, too, and then he handed me one. ‘To warm you up,’ he said. I took a sip of it, but it tasted really bad—like strong, you know. So I put it down and used the towel to dry off my hand. He signed it for me, and I said thanks and told him I should go back outside because Rachel was waiting for me. He asked why I was leaving so soon.”
She stopped talking here and seemed to consider something before continuing the story. “It was weird, but I did want to leave. I mean, I’d been dreaming of meeting him for like, years, and there I was alone with him, but all I wanted to do was leave. I was... afraid of him, of how he was looking at me. But he asked me to stay a little bit longer. He said how tired he was from the show, how lonely he was. That all he did was travel around and he never met anyone nice like me, that all he met were these skanky girls who were trying to have sex with him. He said I was different, I was nice to talk to. So... I relaxed a little bit. He asked me to sit beside him on the sofa there, and he talked to me. He told me
about his parents getting divorced and how his mom was always pushing him to work when he was a kid and trying to turn him into a star. After a few minutes he held my hand. He asked me about my parents and my school and my friends. While I was talking, he leaned over and started kissing my neck. He told me I was beautiful—the most beautiful girl he’d seen out of all the places he’d been, and the nicest, and that made him... made him want me.”
Crystal closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath. “He put his hand on my face and turned it so I was looking into his eyes. He has the prettiest eyes, you know? And then he kissed me. He was a really good kisser—not like the boys at school. I liked him kissing me. I was freaking out a little inside like, Aiden Ray is kissing me! Me! I was so happy. And then he started doing more.”
“What did he do?”
Her face reddened. “He was touching me and pushing me back till I was lying on the sofa. He moved so he was on top of me. He kept kissing me all the time. He pulled my shirt off and I let him, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that, but it was all happening really fast. And I liked him so much. I kept thinking I should stop, and I wanted to stop but I also didn’t want to say anything, you know?”
I nodded, but actually I didn’t know. Contrary to what we’d told Culley’s father, this fourteen-year-old girl literally had more sexual experience than I did.
“Did anything happen that you didn’t want, Crystal?”
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she nodded rapidly. “He opened up his pants. And then he reached under my skirt and tried to pull my underwear down.” She sobbed. “I don’t even know how it went that far. I wasn’t planning to do all that with him. I freaked out. I started saying no over and over again.”
She broke down and cried. Heart wringing in my chest, I reached out and patted her back.
“I’m so sorry... so sorry. Did he stop?”
She nodded and resumed her story, talking through tears. “He did. But he was so mad. He asked me if I was a virgin, and I told him yes. He asked me how old I was, and I told him fourteen, and he got even madder. Like, he stood up and started yelling, asking why the hell I hadn’t told him I was fourteen. And I was crying and saying, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ He never asked how old I was when we were talking. I didn’t know he wanted to have sex when he invited me to come onto the bus. He told me to straighten up my clothes, and then he opened up the bus door and told his bodyguard to get rid of me. That’s how he said it—‘Get rid of her.’” She let out another sob. “And the thing is, I wasn’t even going to tell anybody what happened. It’s so embarrassing, and I don’t like talking about it or even thinking about it. But when I didn’t come out of the bus for a long time, Rachel left the arena and went home and told her parents where I was, and they told my parents. I had to tell them what happened—I couldn’t help it, and they said it was assault and they were going to press charges. I just want it all to go away. I wish I hadn’t gone on that bus with him. I wish I’d never met him. I never, ever want to have sex with anyone if that’s what it’s like.”
“Does anyone else know? Anyone besides your parents and Rachel? Anyone from school?”
She shook her head. “Rachel doesn’t even know—I told her all we did on the bus was talk. And that he gave me some alcohol.”
“Okay.” I knew what I had to do—to maintain my cover—and to help Crystal. I messaged Audun.
Let’s get the parents in here next. I’ll have to work on them, too.
Very well, he said, a satisfied expression crossing his face. He lifted the phone at his end of the table and said a few words to someone.
To Crystal, I said, “Listen to me now.” I took her hand.
Her face glazed over in a trance-like dull expression as my glamour kicked in, and I continued. “You and Rachel went to that concert. You waited outside afterward to see Aiden, and he invited you to step into his bus to dry off your hand so he could sign it. You talked for a few minutes, and then he offered you an alcoholic drink, which made you feel uncomfortable. So you left the bus and went back out to look for Rachel. She had already left. That’s all that happened. You enjoyed the concert, you got your hand signed, and you fulfilled your dream of meeting Aiden, but you didn’t like him as much in person as you’d expected to.” I squeezed her hand tighter. “He never touched you. You are still innocent, Crystal. One day when you meet the right guy and fall in love, you’ll have a normal relationship. You won’t hate sex or have any bad memories that haunt you about meeting Aiden Ray.”
She nodded. When I took my hand from hers, she blinked several times and looked around. “Are we all done?”
“Yes. You did great.”
Her bright smile faded slightly.
“Will Aiden be in trouble for giving me that alcohol?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” I stood and gestured for Crystal to walk with me toward the conference room door. “That was not a smart thing for someone his age to do, and he’s going to have to give you and your parents a large sum of money as a punishment to help him remember never to do it again.”
That wasn’t all I had planned for Mr. Aiden—not by a long shot. He was going to pay for what he’d done to Crystal and probably countless other girls. But I wouldn’t state the rest of my intentions toward him aloud in Audun’s presence. I couldn’t let him know this was personal for me—or that I’d erased Crystal’s haunting memories of the incident for her sake more than his client’s.
As soon as she left the room, Audun was in my face. “Why did you tell her my client would be paying a settlement?” he demanded.
I kept my tone calm and even and matter of fact. “I had to leave her a partial memory because there were too many witnesses to her getting on that bus. If I removed everything, we’d have to bring in the bodyguard who saw her disheveled and upset, all the girls who saw her get on the bus, Rachel, her parents, and of course, Crystal’s parents as well as anyone they might have told about their plans to come here today. They all know something happened. Now they’ll never know what.”
Through the glass walls I watched a secretary escort her parents toward us. I turned back to face Audun. “That’s just to name a few of the potential witnesses who could show up if this goes to trial—too many potential loose ends. If your client is smart, he’ll cough up some money for the Maggio family as fast as possible. He should be thrilled to settle out of court on a complaint of corrupting a minor by giving her alcohol. That won’t even make the back page of the paper.”
Audun visibly calmed. The conference room door opened, and the Maggio’s came in, their eyes brimming with obvious confusion over why they were there.
“Thank you for meeting with us,” I said, inviting them to take a seat at the table. “Your daughter is a brave girl to tell you the truth about what happened with such a big celebrity. I hope you’re proud of her, and I think you’ll be happy when you hear the settlement we’re prepared to offer on your complaint concerning the alcohol he gave her.”
“Alcohol?” Mr. Maggio slammed his hand on the tabletop. “This is about sexual assault. That man molested my little girl.”
I placed my hand atop his, cringing inside at what I was about to do. This father was entitled to his fury. He was also suffering, as was his wife. I had to concentrate on the fact I would be removing that pain from them by erasing their memories of what Crystal had told them about the night with Aiden.
“No sir.” I took Mrs. Maggio’s hand as well. “Aiden Ray invited Crystal onto his bus, which was improper, and he gave her an alcoholic beverage, which was also wrong. You are right to be angry. But that is all that happened. That is the exact story she told you. And Mr. Ray is going to pay handsomely for that foolish error in judgment. He’s agreed to settle with you out of court for five million dollars. You will never speak to the media or anyone about this. And in return, I can promise you, he will not be corrupting any other young girls.”
When they came out of the memory-zapping spell, both Mr. and Mrs
. Maggio were smiling. “Well, five million is most generous. I hope Aiden Ray has learned a lesson. I know Crystal has,” Mrs. Maggio said.
“I think so, too,” I said. “She’s going to be fine.”
They left the room, and Audun and I were alone again. Very slowly he strolled over and stood directly in front of me, looking into my eyes. “You have changed—and it’s not just your relationship status with my son. You’ve started thinking on your own. I’m not sure I like it.”
I lifted my chin, forcing myself to meet his gaze evenly, though inside all my nerves were scrambling backward to get away from him. “I’m growing up.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yes. Well, next time you will consult me first instead of coming up with your own creative—and very costly—solution to a problem. Do not forget who’s in charge here.”
“Of course. I can’t forget anything. May I go?”
He smirked. “See Miranda at the reception desk for a cash stipend and a new phone on your way out. I want to be able to reach you when I need you again.”
I held my head high and maintained control until I’d rounded the corner, out of his line of vision. Then I ran to the ladies room and burst into muffled tears inside one of the stalls. Next time? No. I couldn’t allow there to be a next time. I couldn’t keep doing this to people—no matter their age. Now that I knew better, I had to get out of the Dark Court. I had to get away from Audun. And I had to find a way to stop him from using and hurting people.
He’d never stop—literally never. He’d continue in his evil ways his whole immortal life unless someone did something to stop him, and it looked like that someone would have to be me. I didn’t know how I’d manage it yet, but I had to find a way to get the information the Light Court needed and then get away from here as soon as possible.
Chapter Thirteen
Roomies
Knocking at the door of my Manhattan flat felt like standing at the threshold of a past life.
The last time I’d been here about four months ago, I’d done some modeling jobs, gone out dancing with my roommates, and of course done Audun’s bidding, following his instructions without thinking of any of it too much.
