A Safe Place To Fall (The Fall Book 1)

by Jessica Kile

  “Your skin is so soft,” he whispered, running his hand slowly down her arm and grabbing her hand in his.

  She swallowed the whimper that about escaped when he pulled her arm up over her head.

  Please hurry, Drew.

  She would even be thankful for Chris, if he would just show up.

  “I have so many plans for you,” he told her, running a fingertip from her hand down her arm to her breast.

  “Like what?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  Just keep him talking. Give Drew time to get here.

  His breath was warm against her mouth and smelled of liquor. “I've wanted you since high school.”

  “Why didn't you ever say anything?” she asked, trying not to let it show that his touch repulsed her.

  “I tried,” he admitted, his hand progressing down to her stomach. “I left notes.”

  The secret admirer notes from her junior year of high school suddenly made since. There had been a total of five notes, but they had stopped as quickly as they began. At the time she figured it was probably somebody's idea of a joke.

  Knowing that her secret admirer had been Devin made Lana realize just how urgent this situation was. He had been waiting a long time to get her where he had her now. It was unlikely he would give her up without a fight. If she didn't play this game by his rules there was a good chance she would not make it out alive.

  His hand, resting on the back of the couch, grabbed a hand full of her hair and pulled. “You didn't give a shit about me though.”

  Lana cried out. “I didn't know it was you!”

  “All you gave a shit about was your grades,” he snarled. “Then the night at the graduation party, I thought I might actually stand a chance.” His other hand gave her left leg a painful squeeze. “But it wasn't me who got into your pants that night. Instead, it was my cousin who got you to spread those thighs.”

  She turned her head away, new tears falling, and whispered, “He raped me that night.”

  He laughed. “You're really something. You know that? Why not just admit you let yourself go for one night?”

  “Go to hell!”

  The slap across her face was unexpected. “You will show me respect! You're not talking to that pussy you've been messing around with!”

  Lana was sure she would have a bruise in the shape of his hand across her left cheek. This guy really was unpredictable. Minutes ago he seemed calm, maybe even loving, to the outside world. Now he was a loaded gun waiting to go off.

  A knock on the door announced the arrival of the take-out food.

  “Don't you say a damn word,” he whispered into her ear before roughly shoving her away.

  There was no way she was going to be able to wait for Drew to save the day. Devin was too unsteady. If she didn't find a way out of this situation on her own and soon; she would be dead.

  She looked toward the bedroom; Drew had a gun in the nightstand. If she could just get to it, she would have the upper hand. Of course they would need silverware for the food; she could act as if she were getting forks and grab a knife. Like it or not, those were the only two options she had.

  Once the delivery guy was gone Devin deposited the food containers onto the coffee table.

  He looked her up and down with lust filled eyes. “You know what,” he said, roughly grabbing her hand and yanking her up off of the couch. The stiletto heels caused her to stumble into his muscled body. “You can eat after I get what I want.”

  Oh God!

  She refused to allow this to happen again. Not when she had finally been able to put the awful memories of Shawn in the back of her mind. This time she had the resources to fight back. And fight she would.

  Her arm felt as if it were being jerked out of its' socket as he roughly dragged her into the room she had been sharing with Drew the past few weeks. Thankfully, he had chosen the one room she knew contained a gun. All she had to do was manage to get to it.

  The door was slammed shut and locked. Lana was tossed roughly onto the bed causing her to bounce a few times. Her head slammed against the head of the bed rattling her brains a little. Before she could get her body to move, her arms were jerked up over her hand. The clink of the handcuffs locking into place sealed her fate.

  Lana jerked her arms frantically in a lame attempt to get free. Things were not going as she had hoped.

  “Why are you doing this?” she begged to know through tears.

  With one tug of his hands the fabric of the dress tore apart leaving her bared to his prying eyes. “Because you don't want me any other way and it's time that I get what I deserve.” His hands moved to her breasts squeezing them painfully hard. “These are mine.” His knee forced its' way between her legs pressing against her most intimate part. “This is mine. You belong to me.”

  She turned her head away. If only she could detach herself from the scene unfolding. There had to be a way out of this!

  **********************

  Drew punched the steering wheel in frustration and tossed his phone to Shawn. “Keep calling until someone answers.”

  The traffic remained at a stand-still due to a bad car accident. Damn it! He did not have time for this bullshit. Tracie had not answered any of his thirty phone calls. Something had to be wrong. He needed to get to them.

  “Shouldn't we be calling the cops?” Shawn suggested, pressing the redial button on the phone.

  “They're supposed to be on their way,” Drew informed him, slowly creeping the truck forward. “But they're probably dealing with this shit too.”

  “No answer,” the man in the passenger seat confirmed. “If he hurts her, I'm going to kill him myself.”

  “That's funny coming from the guy who raped her,” Drew said, not bothering to disguise his hatred for the man.

  “I regretted that night as soon as I woke up the next morning,” Shawn admitted once again dialing the number. “I should've gone to her then and apologized, but I was too much of a coward.”

  Drew's hand squeezed around the wheel in irritation. The guy could say whatever he wanted; it would not change Drew's opinion of him. A guy could not rape a girl and expect to be forgiven. That just did not happen. The only thing saving his life right now was the fact he had alerted Drew to who had been after Lana for the past few months.

  “Save your breath,” Drew said through gritted teeth. “If you both would've stayed in Charleston this would not be happening right now.”

  “My aunt asked me to come here with him,” Shawn informed him. “He was determined to come here all of a sudden. She was afraid he would get himself into trouble if he came alone.”

  Drew snorted. “She put the wrong man on the job.”

  The other man remained silent.

  ************************

  Lana closed her eyes and tried to ignore the fact that she could feel Devin's breath on her face. He operated different than his cousin. At least Shawn had made it fast and as painless as possible.

  Her arms were starting to ache from being attached to the headboard. She was not sure, but she thought he had tightened the cuffs too tight.

  She cast a glance at the nightstand. The gun was mere inches from her; if only she could get to it.

  Now laying fully on top of her, he pressed his arousal against her. “I want inside you so bad.”

  You have to get to that gun..like now!

  Lana pulled against the handcuffs once again, praying her plan would work. “This isn't fair. You can touch me but I can't touch...”

  “You wanna touch me, baby?” he interrupted, grinding himself against her. “I think we can arrange that.”

  She tried not to look relieved. Hands getting freed was step one of her plan. Now all she had to do was figure out how to reach the gun before he knew what she was about.

  The handcuffs clicked open and her arms dropped down to the mattress. Her hands tingled as the blood rushed back into them. She would need a minute
to recover if she ever wanted to stand a chance at getting that gun.

  You have to go with it. Make him think you want this as much as he does. If you don't he will never let his guard down.

  Lana pushed passed her revulsion and raised her hands to caress his now bare chest. He had a skull tattooed above his heart. She traced the tattoo with her pointer finger and arched her hips, forcing a moan out.

  “I want in now,” he told her.

  This was it! She had to move on with the plan right this second. The thought of what would occur if she didn't act was too disturbing to think about.

  With more bravado than she felt, Lana shoved against his chest forcing him over onto his back. Naturally, he pulled her with him.

  Lana pushed the disgust back and allowed him to kiss her roughly.

  Minutes later she pulled her mouth away from his, and moved to reach down to the nightstand. “I'm not on the pill,” she explained as she reached into the stand.

  She felt around blindly for the weapon. Finally her hands closed around the cold metal of the gun. Taking a deep breath she ran through all of the steps that Drew had shown her. Drew had promised the gun would always be loaded and ready to shoot. All she had to do was pull the safety, aim, and shoot. Piece of cake. She could do this.

  “Hurry up, baby.”

  As you wish!

  Lana sat up quickly, pulling the gun out of the stand. She aimed the gun at his chest. “I'm not your baby.”

  His laugh sounded half-crazed. She had a loaded gun aimed at him, and the jerk-face laughs? The urge to actually pull the trigger was strong.

  Quickly, without taking the gun away from her target, she climbed off of the bed. She really wanted to put a bullet in his chest, just because he was so sure she wouldn't do it.

  “Go ahead, shoot me,” he mocked still laughing. “I dare you.”

  If she listened to the voice in her head she would pull the trigger. That would be murder and she couldn't sink to that level.

  “I will,” she lied, backing slowly to the door.

  “No, you won't,” he confirmed. Apparently, he was completely insane, because he got off of the bed and began to stalk her.

  You can't let him take this gun!

  Knowing she had no choice Lana closed her eyes tight, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened!

  What the....

  Devin laughed. “You forgot about the safety, baby.”

  She opened her eyes just in time to see him charging at her.

  They went crashing to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, both fighting for the gun. Devin easily over powered her by wrapping his hands around her neck. Instinct made her drop the gun to struggle to pull his hands away from her neck.

  She realized her mistake when he grabbed the handgun. A shot rang out into the quiet of the room.

  It's funny how in the split seconds before impact she could resign herself to the fact she was going to die. Not exactly how she had wanted her life to end. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she would live to be an old lady with Drew by her side as she took her last breath. Was that not meant to be?

  **************************

  Chapter 23

  It took Drew an hour to get to the apartment. He still couldn't get the picture of Lana laying in a pool of blood out of his head. Devin was gone by the time Drew with Shawn right behind him, busted through the bedroom door.

  The police got there after it was over. The responding officers immediately took off in hopes of locating Devin before he could get too far away.

  Everything had happened in such a blur. Drew refused to leave Lana's side, so he sent his car to the hospital with Shawn, and rode in the ambulance with her. Her moans of pain were enough to make him want to run after Devin and take his time killing him.

  The bullet had gone into her right arm, shattering bone on contact. It was amazing she had not blacked out from the pain alone. Somehow she had managed to be able to tell the cops and paramedics exactly what happened.

  Chris, Tammy, and Tracie beat them to the hospital once they were informed of the situation. Tammy took it upon herself to call Lana's parents, because Drew couldn't bear to make the phone call. How did you tell a mom that her daughter was about to go into surgery, because you could not protect her from a crazed stalker?

  Drew paced in the surgical waiting room. He did not know if he actually believed in God, but he found himself sending up silent prayers. The doctors had promised it was not a fatal injury; she should even gain full mobility in the arm. Even knowing this he could not help but worry.

  Tammy nudged his arm with a coffee cup. “I thought you might need this.”

  He accepted the cup out of politeness. The last thing he needed was caffeine. “I should've known. The way he looked at her in class...”

  “There's no way that you could have known,” she argued wrapping her arms around him in a sisterly hug. “He was dating her friend.”

  Drew wrapped his arm around his sister's shoulders and looked over to where Tracie was curled up in a chair staring into space. “Has she said anything?”

  “She's blaming herself because she left Lana with him,” she informed him softly. “Lana lied and told her they had been secretly seeing each other.”

  That was his girl, always thinking of everyone but herself. She had been more concerned about getting her friend out of danger than getting out of there herself. Part of him wanted to scream at Tracie for not at least coming and telling him about the so called affair. If she had just told him what Lana had told her, he would have been able to figure out the truth. Then maybe he could have gotten there in time.

  “It's not her fault,” Tammy whispered, clearly reading his mind. “She came to tell you that Lana had a sick friend she needed to take care of. She didn't know that Lana was trying to send her for help.”

  Drew rested the side of his head on the top of hers. “I should've made Chris stay at the apartment while they were getting ready.”

  His sister sighed. “That's not your fault either.”

  “She's right,” Lana's mother said, coming up to them. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you can't blame yourself for this.”

  Lana's parents had gotten to the hospital in record time. Drew was not sure what traffic laws they had broken to get there. He was just glad they would be here when Lana came out of surgery.

  “I was stupid to leave the girls there by themselves,” he told both of the women. “They didn't stand a chance at fighting him, that's why Lana made sure to get Tracie out of there.”

  “You supplied Lana with the ability to defend herself,” Tammy pointed out.

  “And she got shot,” he reminded her. “I didn't take her out more than that one time to make sure she knew how to use the gun.”

  “I love my daughter,” Sandra stated with a faint smile, “but the girl has never been a quick study. Chances are even if you had taken her out to shoot twenty different times she still would have forgotten to pull the safety.”

  It was kind of the older woman to try to take the blame off of him but it still did not change the facts. Devin was able to get to Lana, because Drew had left her alone with another woman. He should have known better than to trust Lana would be safe on her own for a few hours. The other guy had been watching and waiting for the moment he could get Lana on her own. Drew had handed that opportunity to him.

  Lana was still in surgery by the time Drew's dad arrived at the hospital with information about Devin's apprehension.

  “We finally hunted him down at some night club,” his father informed the group. “He's claiming they are a couple, and she got mad and tried to pull a gun on him.”

  “Bullshit,” Drew shouted, moving away from his sister and beginning to pace once again. “He cannot claim self-defense. They weren't dating!”

  “I know that, son,” his dad said patiently. “We have all of the evidence to prove that he has been stalking
her. He won't get away with this.”

  “He is also claiming that a Ms. Tracie Danvers was present when they began fighting,” the older man went on. “According to him, Ms. Danvers told Lana the two of them had been having an affair for the past couple of months.”

  “He's lying,” Tracie spoke up from her spot in the chair closest to the reception desk. “I mean we had dated, but he wasn't cheating on Lana. That's not why she pulled the gun on him.”

  “He's also claiming his cousin has knowledge of his relationships with Lana and Ms. Danvers,” he went on.

  “I knew he was dating Tracie,” Shawn spoke up from his position by the big window as he stared out over the parking lot, “but I had no idea he was stalking Lana until it was too late.”

  Drew's dad nodded his head. “He doesn't realize how much information we already have against him. Don't worry, kids, Lana will get justice.”

  “You better be right,” Drew said quietly, “because if he gets away with this, I will kill him.”

  Sandra's eyes widened, but she remained silent.

  “You will have to beat me to it,” Lana's father spoke his first words since arriving at the hospital. “If you care so much about my little girl, why did we find out about all of this after that weasel shot my girl?”

  “Now, Conrad, calm down. I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for why we were left in the dark.”

  Drew sighed. He had wanted to tell her parents immediately after the texts had started getting more threatening. At times he had even suggested as much, but Lana had been against them knowing about any of it. She had feared they would make her move back home. As much as he was beginning to love her, he was beginning to think she would've been safer in Charleston.

  “She didn't want to worry you,” was all he said.

  ***********************

  Lana looked around the sterile, white, boring room through half-opened eyes. Steady beeps filled the room. Voices, that oddly sounded like her mom and dad's, could be heard out in the hallway. The drugs must have been affecting her hearing.