Claiming Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 2)

by Nikki Wild

  He took pity on me, putting me up in his bar…

  Old Greg would be so angry if he knew I came back here, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of looking him in the eye after the way I’d left. He was so kind to me… Kinder than I ever deserved. Maybe I’d head out there in a few weeks once I’d settled in. He deserved an apology.

  “You going to eat, or just sit there thinking?”

  Mom had brought me a bowl of chips and some ranch dressing. I hadn’t so much as touched it since I’d come to the table.

  “Go ahead and eat up,” Mom smiled. “After you’re done, go pretty yourself up, company’s coming.”

  That pit came back into my stomach. I’d been worried about that all afternoon… it had been a festering feeling, eating away inside me.

  But I knew better than to cross Mom.

  She had taken me back in.

  She had given me a roof, and food.

  Well… I looked down at the plate. Some food.

  “Hurry up in there,” mom shouted.

  “Okay, Mom,” I answered, forcing a cheerful smile across my face.

  “Thanks a ton, Hon,” she answered.

  After that, I was left in the quiet.

  The crunching of the chips shattered the silence with every crispy bite. Agonizing, piercing chomps controlled my attention, ringing out in the quiet like a rhythmic, mounting growl of danger.

  When I was done, I set the dish in the sink and found Mom. She was sitting in a recliner, watching some old silent film on the living room TV.

  “Over there,” she motioned with a wrist.

  I followed her gesture and lifted a package off of an end table. It wasn’t particularly large or heavy, but it seemed ominous to me.

  “Bring that over here.”

  I did as I was told.

  Mom raised her saggy arm, muted the television, and turned to face me.

  “Open it up.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What’s not to understand? I got you a present.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond.

  So I nodded, pulling the tape off the box and opening it up. Turning it over, a small orange bottle fell into my hand.

  “See there? Momma’s gonna take care of you doll. I got you your medicine.”

  I turned the bottle over, eyeing the little pink pills inside. I hadn’t seen these things in years.

  “I know how anxious you get… The depression. All those panic attacks? You’ve been so high strung since you came back, dear.”

  “I don’t like the way these things make me feel, mom. They make me a zombie.”

  “I don’t want any back talk. We have company tonight and you’re going to be on your best behavior. You take two of those or you can get out,” she said, pointing toward the door.

  Trent

  The address wasn’t in Riverton – it was hours and hours away, another quiet spot called Point’s Hallow.

  My cell signal was shit out here. When I finally arrived at the village, I accidentally crossed a small bridge and passed the entire place up, expecting to find it just beyond the next bend. It was only after fifteen minutes of nothingness, driving through trees and wilderness, that I realized I’d probably missed the place altogether.

  Turning around in the fading light of day, I backtracked to the bridge. Standing guard at this side, apparently marking the edge of Point’s Hallow, was a seafood restaurant. With nothing else in sight, it commanded the eye from its perch, raised on stilts over the river. Painted along the side was the name: Jack’s.

  Some landmark, I thought to myself.

  Back across the bridge, I investigated. None of the roads were marked, making my job tougher than it needed to be. The population couldn’t have been any more than maybe eighty or a hundred people, judging by the sparse houses. Almost nobody was around, and I didn’t want to start banging on doorknobs…

  The single person I saw wandering about, a woman in smeared overalls with ratty hair, looked at me suspiciously as I pulled up and flicked up my helmet visor.

  “Is this Point’s Hallow?”

  “Who’s askin’?”

  “I’m looking for a girl. Name of Angel.”

  “Angel?” She laughed, exposing a few missing teeth. This place was seriously in the sticks. “You must be a friend of hers!” She was suddenly suspicious again, eying me strangely. “Are you a friend of hers?”

  “I am,” I confirmed confidently.

  The woman peered at me a moment longer, and then nodded. “Good. Yeah, she’s here. Got back into town a few days ago. You know where to find her?”

  “Willow Grove Drive,” I told her.

  “Yep! That’s it, her and her parents…you know how to find it?, don’t’cha?”

  “I’m from out of town,” I bluntly explained.

  “Right,” she cackled, sizing me up on the motorcycle. “Might’ve noticed by now, they ain’t no street signs… No fancy gee pee usss for us folks in Point’s Hallow, we don’t need ‘em… anyway, here’s what you do…”

  She rattled off directions, involving a handful of turns that apparently centered on particular trees and piles of scrap. “You got that?”

  “I do. You’re really helping me out here.”

  “Great. Tell ‘er that ‘Tricia said ‘hi!’”

  “You’ve got it, ma’am,” I nodded.

  She positively swooned as I kicked back into gear and drove towards the house.

  Her parents.

  Old Greg had said she was in danger. He’d spent a few minutes telling me what a piece of shit Angel’s stepfather Roger was before hurrying me down the road.

  But maybe he wasn’t the only piece of shit in this town.

  I paused, letting the engine rumble as it idled between my thighs.

  My thoughts reflected back to what Old Greg had said. Sure, I’d known a lot of that myself, but it was easy for me to justify how I treated people. When someone else explained it, someone who barely knew me…it sent a shiver up my spine.

  You take what you think belongs to you.

  You don’t accept ‘no.’

  You CAN’T accept ‘no.’

  I shook my head.

  This wasn’t my decision. It was hers.

  I shuddered.

  No. Extenuating circumstances.

  My asshole of a manager sent her away. He filled her head with complete bullshit. She never would have left it I was there. I needed to let her know how I felt.

  And if she didn’t want to come with me, I’d leave her… Once I knew she was safe and sound back at Old Greg’s bar, away from the danger.

  With a heavy heart, I continued on my way. Tricia’s directions had been a little on the bizarre side, but she led me the right way. After a couple of turns, I spotted the silent tire swing, dangling from a tree in the front yard.

  I remembered Old Greg’s words from before, when he’d given me the address: If you pass the tree with the old tire swing, you’ve gone too far.

  A dirt road was to my side, heading into the trees. I turned onto it, driving as quietly as possible through the shadows until I saw it.

  It was just as Old Greg had said.

  The green house was in even worse shape than the Riverton bar. A window was busted out; the roof was caving in from a fallen branch. With the sun set and the shadows growing, the place looked like it had come straight out of a horror film.

  Angel’s HERE?

  My shaken confidence exploded into a blaze of conviction.

  No, I thought to myself.

  This isn’t good enough for her.

  No matter what happens…

  I killed the engine and kicked down the stand, parking next to an old truck on the edge of the street.

  She deserves better than this.

  And I’m gonna give it to her.

  Every step I took towards the front door, my fresh insecurities burned away. With each heavy stride forward, my doubts, my fears, everything inside that told me that I
might not be good enough for her faded away.

  It all burned to ash in my throat, and the ash blew away in the wind. Here I am, filthy and contorted king that I am, ready to make a change.

  I raised my fist to knock at the door.

  That’s when I heard my Angel scream.

  Angel

  The medicine hit me like a sack of bricks, dulling my senses within minutes. Just like before, the pills pushed their digging, constricting fingers into my head, forcing up a wall between the world and me.

  I hated it.

  My speech slurred and my vision shook. Even my mind had started to drift. I’d planted myself on the couch and was content to count the dirty spots on the carpet, at least for as long as I could.

  Mother means best. She just wants me to feel better.

  An hour later, as I was absentmindedly running my fingers through my hair, I heard something outside. Quietly and gradually, I peeled myself up from my seat and stumbled over to the window. The old Ford pickup, rusted halfway to hell with a brutishly cracked windshield, was as unmistakable as the day I saw it last.

  Oh God, no.

  Roger had come for me.

  “Mom? MOM?”

  Her exasperated voice came from deeper in the house, somewhere towards her bedroom. “What is it, dear? I can’t understand you.”

  “Roooooger... Rooger…” I could barely utter the warning. My tongue was tying itself in knots, rebelling against that blackened name.

  “Oh, don’t be alarmed,” she called out cheerily. My mother came into the room, a smile slathered across her face. “He’s a good man, Angel. He cleaned up his act! Joined the church and everything. When he heard you’re back in town, he just wanted to pay you a little visit.”

  “NO!” I shouted, stumbling away from the window.

  Standing above me, Mom’s small smile soured. She suddenly looked at me like I was disgusting to her. “The Devil’s in you, girl. Has been ever since the accident. Always making you say evil, wicked things…”

  I watched as she opened the door, my mouth hanging open. I had to calm down. Losing control of myself was only going to make things harder. I needed to get the hell out of here. My feet struggled to gain purchase on the floor, the medicine dulling my senses with a drunken, crippling high.

  The door opened, Roger’s smiling face peering in.

  The sight of him burned terror into my mind.

  “Sally!” Roger grinned. “And you brought our little one…”

  “I’m gonna head down to the store and let you two get reacquainted,” Mom smiled, glancing from him to me. I felt something inside me struggle to scream; it was caged up, struggling to penetrate this damning haze. “Roger, be a dear and teach this girl some proper manners.”

  No. You CAN’T leave. Don’t do this to me!

  I bitterly tried to say something – anything – but the words came out sideways. Mother just smiled and gave Roger a pat on the arm, thanking him for coming before stepping out the door.

  I sat there in stunned silence, my vision pulling into a tunnel. Time seemed to stretch forever. Roger found himself a seat on mother’s recliner and waited patiently.

  Five minutes passed, then ten. The medicine had taken hold. I was slipping away, just like I always did…

  “I see you’re scared,” he said, his voice full of malice. “You never should have run away, my little Angel…”

  My mouth was moving, but no sounds were coming out.

  “I’ve missed you, babygirl,” Roger grinned. “It’s been too long. I thought I’d never see you again… but here you are. We’re back where we should be… together.”

  A memory flashed into my head.

  It was the night that Trent took me away from Riverton. I the early hours of the morning, with the sun rising ahead of us, he was driving so quickly. I’d almost blacked out from the anxiety of being brought back to the accident… but I’d focused on the logo on his dashboard.

  I had made it my stone.

  It had kept me hanging on.

  Roger was the demon from my past, threatening to engulf me again. If I was a fallen, burning Angel, casting myself down into the dirt from the life Trent tried to show me, then he was Satan himself.

  The words came back, whispered into my soul.

  I will be no burning Angel.

  My eyes focused onto his, unwilling to lose to him. I could barely form the thoughts, but they came, pushing through the darkness. No matter what he might do to me – what he might take from me – he was not going to have my soul.

  Maybe Trent would have deserved it. He’d pulled me up from the shattered, meaningless life I’d been living. Maybe he would have changed. He had the capacity for kindness and generosity, deep inside that arrogant mind of his.

  But I’d fled the safety of his arms, because I thought I was bringing him down… but also because I knew I didn’t deserve it. Because I didn’t want him to have that kind of power over me, neither him nor anyone else.

  What had that gotten me?

  I’d been trapped here, with my mortal enemy. But now, even though my body’s sluggishness was going to betray me, I knew more than ever that I would never give in.

  I will be no burning Angel.

  “How much do you remember, sweetheart?” Roger asked, carefully watching me and grinning ear to ear.

  “Stay… Stay away…” I managed to barely murmur, the words sounding far less coherent as they left my throat. “You can’t… I won’t let you…”

  He laughed heartily.

  Of course I didn’t have any control here.

  That didn’t mean that I’d go down without a fight. Even if I didn’t have an ounce of strength in my veins, I’d resist whatever vile things my stepfather had in mind… I would never give in.

  “Don’t worry,” Roger said, reaching out to the little table next to the recliner. He lifted up the bottle of pills mother had given me, glancing at it and giving it a little shake. “When I’m done tonight, you won’t remember anything ever again.”

  Something snapped inside me. I couldn’t move… I couldn’t fight him… but I channeled every last drop of resistance I had into my final act of defiance.

  I did the only thing I could… I screamed.

  Trent

  Without a second of hesitation, I threw my weight into the door, tearing it free from its rotten hinges in a burst of splinters and debris.

  There she was. Angel was looking up at me from the floor with wide, glazed eyes full of surprise and sudden recognition. Her scream had been cut short by my sudden arrival, but a new sound had risen up in its place.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  The voice was cold and fierce, but as I turned, the man who spoke them looked neither of those things. He was older and frail, but Old Greg had been wise enough to give me a physical description of Angel’s monster. Without another word, I knew what a piece of shit I was staring at.

  “Hello, Roger,” I grit my teeth.

  Confused and furious, he tried to clamor to his feet from the recliner. I was faster, knocking his ass straight back into the chair. With his filthy, oily head slumped to the side, Roger was out like a goddamned light.

  He deserved worse. It took every last ounce of self-control to resist snapping his thin little neck in front of her.

  “Get up, Angel. We’re getting out of here,” I said, looking back to my girl against the floor. She didn’t respond or make any move to climb to her feet.

  “…Angel?”

  Something was very, very wrong.

  Angel was mumbling to herself as I kneeled down next to her. I could already see that she was a pale reflection of her former self… as if the life had been sucked out of her.

  “What the hell did they do to you?” I questioned, hauling her up into my arms. Her limp, dead weight brought my rising worry to new, horrified levels.

  Angel’s head rolled to the side, but she weakly shrugged her shoulder to the side. When she did it again, moving her head
with the motion, I followed the direction to the bottle of pills.

  They fucking drugged her.

  “Stay with me. I’m getting you out of here.”

  I thought quickly, deciding I’d need to show this bottle to someone. Maybe I could get her a counteracting agent if she didn’t pull back from this soon… and it would certainly give us ammunition against her parents.

  We can cross that bridge when we come to it.

  She smiled weakly as I snatched up the pills, then walked her out to the bike and secured her on the back of the seat. My suspicions were confirmed as I held her steady – there was no way in hell that she’d be able to hang on. Improvising, I pulled my belt off and used it to strap her tighter against the backrest. Climbing on, I fired up the machine and felt her grip me weakly.

  We have to get out of here.

  Out of this town, out of this goddamned state…

  As I twisted the throttle and started down the road, the blast of a shotgun went off behind us. Frail bastard that he was, Roger must have managed to get up out of his goddamned chair.

  “Hang on!”

  I gunned it around the first turn and blasted down the nearly abandoned roadways. Angel’s arms tightened around my chest just enough to let me know she was there. I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste my time looking for police in this Podunk little town. I needed to get Angel somewhere safe, then we could figure out what happened back there.

  The biting wind seemed to bring Angel back, miles ticking by as she pressed herself against my back, her strength ever so slowly returning.

  That’s my girl…

  I rode long and hard, putting as much distance behind us as I could. My destination was well in mind. Angel and I were leaving Alabama behind… tonight. But there was no way I could do that without giving Old Greg another chance to see his granddaughter, safe and sound.

  “You came for me…” Angel whispered softly as we came to a stop outside the old Riverton Bar. Her legs shook lightly as she stepped off the bike, but she quickly gained her footing. She didn’t even need to lean on me that much.

  Sure, the motorcycle had presented a logistical problem at first… but the wind had done wonders to snap her back out of that drug-fueled cloud.