by Kylie Walker
He looked around and realized he was in the car, down the street from the apartment where Kelly had been staying. Shit! He needed to start finding a place to sleep at night. He was going to fall asleep in the wrong place at the wrong time and ruin everything. He picked up his binoculars off the passenger seat. He could see the Bentley still waiting out in front of the apartment building. He hadn’t been asleep that long...good. He sat the binoculars down and thought about his dream. He smiled and rubbed a hand over the front of his aching crotch. He needed to find a woman soon. He was brought out of his reverie by the sight of Kelly coming out of the building. He didn’t need the binoculars to know that it was her. He knew how she walked and how she stood...He knew everything about her. She was his...and he was going to kill her. Soon, Kelly.
Kelly made conversation with the doorman as Jake Stark looked on. A few minutes later, they both stepped into the waiting car. What the hell is the Stark family’s obsession with her? They’ll find out soon enough just like he did that she’s nothing but white trash and definitely not worth all of the trouble they were putting out for her. It had been almost two weeks since Derek Stark had his “accident” and Jesse had been watching her every move since.
The building she was staying in not only had a doorman, but an armed security officer at the front door. Who the hell do these people think they are? Whenever she left the apartment, she was with Kevin or Jake. She went to the hospital every day. Today was the first day Jesse had seen her get into the car alone and get out at the hospital alone. She was getting braver...he just had to be patient a little while longer. He pulled his hands into a fist and opened them up. He did it again...Soon.
He waited until the brown Bentley pulled out into the afternoon traffic and then he pulled the stolen Ford Bronco away from the curb. The Bronco was at least twelve years old and a non-descript dark blue color. Some soccer mom in Rhode Island put all of her kid’s stuff in it, started it and went back in to get them. Jesse simply walked up, climbed in and drove away. That was a week ago. If the kids hadn’t been there, he may have gotten busy with soccer mom...she was kind of hot. But he didn’t have time for that kind of headache. He’d probably have to find another car soon. He didn’t like to keep any of them too long.
He followed the Bentley onto the Interstate and realized they were heading to Rhode Island. Shit! He hated that hell hole.
He’d been happy when Kelly started staying in Manhattan. He loved New York and since he planned on keeping her alive long enough to make damned sure that she experienced pain like nothing she’d ever felt before...he would really prefer to do it in a swank apartment in Manhattan over a dump condo in Rhode Island, but he would do whatever he had to. She would die one way or the other.
He seriously considered grabbing her earlier when she came out of the hospital. As she hurried out to get into the waiting Bentley he thought about just grabbing her and throwing her into his car. He forced himself to wait though. If he took her out in public he wouldn’t have any time to spend having fun. He’d just have to kill her and that would be the end of it. He’d spent a lot of time anticipating this...he had to keep his patience in check or he would blow it.
He could see her head in the back seat of the car up ahead. He wondered if she was screwing Jake and Kevin too. She always was a little slut. If the stupid little bitch thought riding around in a two-hundred thousand dollar car made her any less of a piece of trash, she was wrong. She was just trash in an expensive can.
He let himself imagine all of the things he would do to her when he finally got the chance on the long three hour drive to Rhode Island. It thrilled him to imagine what it would feel like to slice open her flesh...to watch the light drain out of her eyes. He was surprised when they passed the exit that would take them down to her condo and instead took the one two exits up. He realized as soon as they got off the freeway that they were going to the Krav Maga studio where she either took classes or screwed the instructor in the back room. He’d never been able to get close enough to actually see what she did in there. He’d try and get a better look today.
Stark’s car dropped her off and then it took off again with Jake inside. Jesse parked his stolen car a few blocks away. He would probably just leave it there and find himself another one before he took back off for New York. He always wore latex gloves while he was in the car, but he used an oil rag to wipe everything down anyways...just in case. He wasn’t going to get arrested for something stupid. He had too much to do.
He crossed the street on foot and standing at the edge of the big window, he looked inside. He could see a tall man with a lot of muscle, surrounded by about ten women and one man. They were all in work-out gear. Kelly wasn’t in the group so he went around the building to see if there was another way in. There was a door in the back that led to the alley, but it was locked up tight. Damn it! He would really love to know what she’s doing in there.
*******
“Dance,” Max told her.
Chloe started moving her feet, dancing around Max’s massive form as he threw a series of jabs towards her face. “Put those hands up. Protect your face.” Chloe put her hands up like Max told her to and concentrated on keeping her feet moving. She “danced” and dodged the easy punches he was throwing at her. Every once in a while his hand would touch her head gear or her face, but he wasn’t throwing punches to hurt her, he just wanted her to practice defending and deflecting. “Okay, take a break and get some water. Where’s your head at today?”
Chloe got out of the ring Max kept set up in the bag room for sparring and she grabbed her water. After taking a long swig of it she said, “Tomorrow is the day they’re going to start waking Derek up. It’s been two weeks of pure hell but...”
“But what?” Max asked her.
“But, we don’t know what he’s going to be like when they bring him out of it. They have no idea what kind of damage all of this has done to his brain. The doctor said he could wake up with all of his cognitive and motor skills or he could wake up with none of them, or he could wake up somewhere in between.”
“But...he’ll be awake.”
“Yeah,” she said. She felt so ashamed to admit it, but as much as she needed to see him and talk to him...she was scared to death. At least while he was in the coma she could imagine what it would be like when he came out of it. In her imagination, he was as perfect as he’d always been.
“Okay, let’s work out some more of that anxiety,” Max said.
They both climbed back into the little ring and Max put on the mitts with the yellow dots in the center and told her, “Okay, you’re throwing the punches now...follow the dots.” Chloe nodded and Max started moving. She threw a right cross and then a left jab and a right jab and then a hook and an undercut... “Again!” he told her. She did it again, following the dots, choosing her punches as she went along. The muscles in her arms burned and sweat was rolling off of her, but she felt good.
When Max thought her arms had enough he had her work on her kicks on the bag for a while. Then lastly, they got back in the ring and Max said, “Okay, sweep me off my feet, but don’t go down with me. You do not want to go down to the floor with this guy.”
Chloe had a flash of memory...she was on the floor and Jesse straddled her, holding the knife...With that vision in the forefront of her mind she used her legs to sweep Max’s. Her first try, they both almost went down. She jumped back and righted herself and he was able to regain his balance again. He grabbed her again. This time she put one of her legs in between his and she used the inside of her foot to put pressure on his ankle. When he took a step to get her off of him, she used both of her legs to sweep the other one out from underneath him. Max hit the mat with a thud. When he looked up at Chloe he was smiling. Chloe was grinning from ear to ear...if she could take Max down; Jesse would be a piece of cake.
“Never stop fighting,” Max told her.
Chapter 7
When Jake got to the studio to pick her back up, Chloe was sh
owered, dressed and ready to go.
“How’d it go?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Good. I knocked Max on his ass!”
Jake grinned and gave her a high five. “That’s awesome. At least I’m not the only one you beat up recently.” They both laughed and he asked, “Are you hungry?”
“I am starving,” she said.
“Me too. I went by Derek’s office to sign those papers his staff was asking about and I honestly didn’t stop signing or reviewing things until I finally just told them I absolutely had to go.”
“Is his work getting way behind?”
“I think we took care of the pressing things today. Dad and I both have power of attorney so they can scan or fax things to either of us if they need a signature. They’re just all so saddened and they seem kind of lost without him.”
“I know how they feel,” she said.
He nodded. “Me too. I need to go by the marina and check on the yacht. Do you want to just get something to eat on the pier?”
“That sounds good.”
Jake asked the driver to take them down to the marina. As soon as they turned into the parking lot, Chloe felt sad. She thought about the last time she and Derek had stayed on the boat together. It was the night that she’d been sure Jesse was watching them. She’d had that feeling many times since. She’d even begun to start trying to plan a way that she could be alone, just to get it over with. She didn’t want anyone else around when she took Jesse on. She couldn’t bear for anyone else to get hurt.
She and Jake went onto the boat and Jake went down into the engine room to check on things down there while Chloe cleaned the old things out of the refrigerator. She had the water on washing dishes when she heard a creak. It sounded like someone stepping on an old wood floor...or the wooden stairs that led down to the living quarters. She stopped and listened. She didn’t hear anything else, so she went back to her dishes. A few seconds passed and she heard it again. She turned off the water and said, “Jake?”
The creaking stopped and no one answered. Her heart began to pound relentlessly inside her chest and her breaths started coming faster. She could almost feel the adrenaline flooding her veins.
“Jake?” she called out again.
Silence.
Chloe dried her hands on the dish towel and took a step towards the stairs. She heard the creak again.
“Who’s there?”
Silence.
She closed the space between her and the foot of the stairs. They went halfway up and then there was a blind curve where you couldn’t see anything until you turned the corner. There was no one on the bottom half.
“Jake?”
This time she said it louder.
Still silence.
She reached out and took hold of the banister and pulled herself up onto the bottom step. That was when she heard the all-out pounding of footsteps running across the top of the yacht.
“Jake!” she yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran up. When she reached the top, she slammed into a wall. It was Jake. He’d heard the commotion and heard her call out to him. He’d come up to see what was going on and Chloe ran right into him.
“Did you see him?”
“Who? Was Jesse here?”
Chloe’s heart was slamming so hard against the wall of her chest that she felt like she was having a heart attack. She was trembling. “I didn’t see him. I heard someone on the stairs and when I started up, he took off.”
“Stay right here,” Jake told her.
“He’s gone, Jake. He accomplished what he wanted to do today.”
“What do you mean?”
“He only wanted to scare me. He accomplished that. It was always one of his favorite things to do. He takes a perverse pleasure in it. It pisses me off!” The fright turned into anger, just like that. “I worked so hard to be ready for him. I did everything I could think of to chase the fear away. I knocked you on your ass; I knocked Max on his ass! I’m ready, damn it! Why the hell does he still scare me?”
She was trembling and she felt the tears welling up again. One of them started to spill over and she swiped at it with the back of her hand. “Shit! Damn him! Damn him!” She broke down into sobs and Jake took her into his arms and just held her there while she cried. It was several minutes later before she was finally able to pull herself together. When she did, she was embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping at her face once more.
“Don’t be sorry. He’s pure evil, Chloe. He scares me. It’s normal to be afraid of evil. We wouldn’t be normal if we weren’t. If I knew he was going to come at me face to face and fight me like a man, I wouldn’t have any qualms about it...and to tell you the truth, hand to hand - one on one, I firmly believe that you can take him too. But you’ve said it yourself a hundred times...that’s not how Jesse operates. Chloe just the fact that you stepped up on those stairs when you thought that he was there, scares me to death. You could have been hurt.”
“I’ve been hurt and now he’s hurting the people I care about. I just can’t run and hide anymore Jake.”
“Please Chloe; don’t do anything to put yourself in danger.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m serious. Imagine me having to tell my brother when he wakes up that something happened to you. Please don’t make me do that.”
“I won’t.” She was already trying to figure out in her head how to get enough time alone to lure him in.
This needed to end.
*******
They finished their business on the boat but they did it together, Jake didn’t leave her side. Then they walked down the dock until they got to the pier. They walked out almost to the end of it and they ordered a clam chowder bowl from one of the little food stands. They took them and sat on one of the benches about halfway out. Chloe was picking her bread bowl apart, tossing pieces out to the seagulls that gathered around them. After she hadn’t taken a single bite in fifteen minutes Jake said,
“You know, if you starve yourself your body starts burning muscle and all that work you’ve been doing will have been for nothing.”
She rolled her eyes at him and took a bite.
He laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” Chloe asked arching an eyebrow.
“You’re going to give my brother a run for his money.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re just something else,” he said, still being vague.
“Clarify,” she said.
“Let’s see...in the couple of weeks that I’ve known you I have found you to be stubborn, obstinate, easily aggravated, overly...”
“Thanks, I think I get it.” She stopped him bluntly by putting the palm of her hand up towards his face.
He laughed again. “For the record, I can also see what my brother sees in you. I meant what I said before, I’m proud to count you as family.”
Chloe chuckled. “Thanks.”
“Don’t let the psychopath rule your life, okay?”
“I don’t intend to,” she said.
Before Jake could say anything else they heard the voice.
“Well I’ll be damned! Is that Jake Stark?”
The voice came out of nowhere and Chloe jumped up off the bench like a shot. It was the first time she’d heard that taunting voice in over two years...but there was no doubt, it was Jesse.
Jake recognized it as well...either that, or Chloe’s face said it all. “Where are you, you cowardly little fuck?” Jake was looking down off the side of the pier. The beach was crowded and they were eight or nine feet off the ground.
“Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”
“He’s underneath us!” Chloe could see him standing underneath the pier smiling up at her. She wanted to jump up on the bench where he couldn’t see her. It freaked her out for him to be right below her. She didn’t want him to know she was scared though.
“Hey Jake, I’m real sorry to hear about your brother. That was a bad deal. I he
ard he was a vegetable?”
“You’re dead you little fuck!” Jake looked at Chloe.
She was already on her phone calling 911. He took off running towards the end of the pier. Chloe looked down as the voice on the line said, “911 operator, what is your emergency?”
“My ex-boyfriend is wanted for the assault and attempted murder of my best friend. He’s here on the beach.”
“What’s your name ma’am?”
“Chloe Green.”
“I have to run Kelly! It was good seeing you. I’ll see you again real soon okay, babe?”
“Fuck you!”
“Ma’am? Are you safe ma’am?”
By the time Jake got down to the sand, Jesse had disappeared into the crowd on the beach. He was just gone, without a trace. Chloe told the operator she was fine and that Jesse took off on foot. Jake gave chase for a while but ultimately, he completely vanished. They waited around and gave a statement to two seemingly disinterested policemen. The attack on Chantelle was in New York. The police in Rhode Island would rather not get involved if they didn’t have to.
When they finished up with the police, they both realized they’d lost their appetites. They left and headed home. By the time they got back to New York, Chloe felt like her sanity was hanging by a thread. She collapsed into Derek’s bed, curled into a fetal position and cried a torrent of angry, frustrated tears. She vowed that this would be the last time. After they wake Derek up tomorrow and she knows that he’s going to be okay, she’s going back to Rhode Island and one way or the other she was going to finish this thing once and for all. She’d cried too many tears for him. She wasn’t his victim any longer.
Chapter 8
Derek was dreaming...or maybe it was a nightmare. Yes, it was definitely a nightmare. Jesse Donovan was there and he had his arm wrapped around Chloe’s neck. What does he want with her? Chloe’s eyes were glazed over and Derek could tell that she was about to pass out...but he couldn’t get to her. He could feel real terror in his chest. Jesse was holding her just a few feet away from him but his legs wouldn’t move. Why won’t my legs move? Jesse was laughing as Chloe lost consciousness. Derek was screaming for someone to help...but no sound was coming out of his throat. He felt like he was choking when he tried to talk. Move damn it! You have to help her!
