I stepped inside, shaking myself off like a wet mutt, and the receptionist gave me a weird look as I asked about Tripp like Chase had told me to. She pointed me in the right direction and I walked over there quickly and quietly, not wanting to draw more attention to myself.
The interior of the gym was seedy at best, stinking of sweat and other unpleasant odors. I made my way down the hall like the girl in the front had told me to, and then I came to a stop in front of a door which was already slightly open. Voices were spilling out into the hallway, and I listened, even though I’d been taught not to eavesdrop.
“So some chick’s got you so whipped you refuse to fight anymore?”
“Yeah, you could say that…”
“And she’s totally off-limits, too. Classic Chase…”
“Shut up. It’s not all about her. It’s the right thing to do, with Dad’s election coming up and all.”
The masculine voices were bickering good-naturedly, and I could hear someone striking at a punching bag. A strange feeling had taken over my body, like a warning that this place wasn’t safe.
That’s stupid, I tried to tell myself. Chase is in there with his cousin, and neither of them want to hurt me. I’ll just go in there, introduce myself, and Chase and I can leave together. Nothing to it.
I took a deep breath and opened the door that led inside the gym. Two pairs of eyes looked towards the door, meeting mine.
One, a familiar blue-grey gaze, filled with passion and lust. Chase.
The other, darker than any brown, pure blackness consuming the pupils until they were nowhere to be seen. A dark look. A look I’d seen before.
“Hey, Lina.” Chase’s voice greeted me, but my mind was elsewhere. I was still glued to the spot with those black eyes boring into mine; right into my body and my soul. I felt like I was going to be sick, like someone had just slapped something delicate out of my hands and made me fall to my knees, leaving me there to try and gather up the broken pieces.
The pieces…everything now fitted so perfectly together, like a horrible, morbid puzzle. Something dark loomed in the corner, threatening to consume me whole.
Blackness flashed before my eyes. I wasn’t in the gym anymore.
* * *
I was in a crowded room, thick with BO, music and cloying perfume. People were dancing and milling about, and I was standing in the corner, my eyes focused on nothing.
He came closer to me. I looked away, shy and stupid. So damn stupid I never saw it coming, taking the drink he passed to me without even suspecting something might be wrong with it. I was just happy to have his attention.
He said goodbye, and then he was off. The darkness of his eyes had made me feel sick; like I’d seen something horrible in that handsome face and barely made it out alive. But now it felt like the darkness was back, eating away slowly at my insides.
I felt dizzy.
I felt sick.
“I need to lie down,” I complained to my boyfriend, Travis. He was totally drunk on cheap beer; probably high on something, too. He’d gotten into weed lately and his telltale red-rimmed eyes spoke volumes. “I don’t feel good.”
“Go upstairs to one of the bedrooms,” Travis said, giving me a grin. If I wasn’t there to make out and let him cop a feel, he didn’t have any use for me. Why did I even expect him to walk me upstairs?
I made my way up there by myself, each step harder than the one before. I’d felt weird all day, but now my legs and eyes were even heavier. I needed a nap, and I needed to get to one of the bedrooms before I fell asleep standing up.
The first door I opened revealed a couple on the bed, sucking each other’s faces off. They yelled at me to get out, and I stumbled out of the room, unable to even close the door. I kept walking, holding onto the wall to keep me going.
The room was swimming. I hadn’t had much to drink; only half a cup of beer and that was it. It felt weird, because I knew I’d have to lie to my Mom later. I’d told her I was at a sleepover with Michaela, and she’d probably lose it if she knew Travis had dragged me to some high school party with booze.
I opened my eyes and I was in a different room. Darkness flashed in front of me again, total blackness and then searing white.
I stumbled towards the bed, but my legs weren’t holding me up anymore. I fell on the floor, scrambling for something to hold on to. I felt like I was being dragged away, even though I was alone in the room… I was alone, right?
Blackness. Black eyes. So dark I couldn’t make out the pupils.
“Good girl.”
I was drifting. It was just a dream. A weird, choppy dream full of those eyes with no pupils. Darkness consumed me, and I kept coming up, like a drowning person coming to the surface, taking deep gulps of air.
“Such a good girl.”
Someone stroked me, softly, then forcefully pulled down my panties. My skirt was somehow on the floor.
A weird, horrible dream.
My head lolled to the side. I was tired…it was so hard to stay awake.
“Be a good girl for me, baby…”
Something poked at me, in a place where it shouldn’t be. I’d let Travis touch me, and I’d even had sex with him. Clumsy sex that made me think I’d never enjoy it, but I still wanted to try.
This was different. Intrusive, probing, and needy.
Wrong.
So wrong.
I kept trying to wake up from the horrible nightmare, but I couldn’t. My lids were heavy, and my body even heavier. Unable to move, I flopped on the bed, or maybe someone threw me down on it. I was too out of it to understand what was happening.
A voice kept whispering in my ear, the same thing, over and over again.
Good girl. Such a good girl. Be a good girl for me.
I blacked out, the final flash of darkness so intense that it bowled me over. I was thankful for it this time around, though, because even darkness was brighter than those pupil-less eyes.
* * *
I knew that voice.
I knew that face.
I knew those black eyes.
And I didn’t even remember…not until I saw him again.
The darkness threatened to eat me up again, clawing at me from a place where I’d pushed all the bad memories—the things I didn’t remember the next day, the pain I thought was a hangover from the drink I’d had...
It was coming from deep inside, from my most private place where I’d kept it hidden so well that I didn’t even know it was there. Sometimes it had threatened to come out when people had said certain words to me or tried to touch me in darkened rooms, but I’d never known why or what it really meant. I’d always just thought I was a little messed up in the head.
But now I knew why.
The shadowy fingers of my nightmare wrapped themselves around my heart, squeezing hard. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.
“Lina, are you all right?”
Chase’s voice cut through the darkness, but it was muted, hollow. I kept staring at the other man in the room.
Tripp Stryker. I’d only known him as Strike. The cool college guy who’d hung out at our high school parties every once in a while, his black gaze following me everywhere I went.
Strike had given me the drink I’d had that night.
Strike had followed me into the room.
Strike had touched me, taken advantage of me while my mind was foggy and dark.
Strike was Tripp Stryker.
Chase’s cousin had raped me.
My hand flew to my mouth, covering up the gasp that escaped my lips. And then it was as if the glue that held me in place gave out, and I was running faster than ever.
I felt the wetness of rain on my skin, and I relished the feeling. The darkness faded away, the fingers uncurling from my heart and fading until they were nothing but a horrible memory.
And as I ran through the rain, there was just anger. Pure, seething, red-hot anger.
Chapter 19
Chase
I watched
Lina dash out of the gym like a bat out of hell, and my eyebrows crinkled together in confusion as I mentally debated whether or not I should go after her. She’d been staring at Tripp like she knew him from somewhere, but I had no idea where they would have met.
“What was that about? Have you two met before?” I asked, turning back to Tripp.
He shrugged. “Nope. Bitches be crazy.”
“Don’t call her a bitch. She’s not.”
“Pretty rude of her to just run out on us like that, though. Anyway, who cares?”
I cared. Clearly something was bothering her, but judging by the way she’d run out on us, she obviously wanted to be alone. I decided to give her some time and catch up with her later. Whatever it was, she’d tell me when she was ready.
“Right. Well, anyway…that was Lina,” I said. “My future stepsister.”
And my future wife, if I get my own way.
That thought had just popped into my head. I’d never even considered getting serious with a girl, let alone settling down and getting married, but Lina made me want it all, despite the drama our familial ties might cause for us. I wanted a house with a white picket fence, two-point-five kids, some pets…and her, of course. The whole cliché.
We already had Goldie, so we weren’t exactly going slow on the pet side of things.
“Uh-huh,” Tripp replied. “Anyway, you really sure you wanna quit fighting? One of the organizers wanted me to tell you that there’s a pretty big event coming up soon. Lots of bets on the fight, and that equals lots of cash for you if you win, which you will. And a nice cut for me, of course.”
“Nah, I’m good. I’m probably being watched like a hawk by Dad’s opposition at the moment, and the last thing his campaign needs is a scandal like that coming out.”
Tripp scoffed. “Right. Fuckin’ politics, man. This is exactly why I didn’t go into it, even though my parents wanted me to follow the family traditions. I can’t believe the amount of shit you put up with.”
“Well, Dad might be a dick sometimes, but he tries,” I replied, unwrapping the tape from my hands. “I don’t want to completely screw things for him, especially now that he’s got this whole new family to support.”
“Yeah, I guess. Anyway, back to this allegedly off-limits chick you’re seeing…it’s not Jessie Bond, is it?”
“Huh? No,” I asked, wondering why on Earth he’d think I’d sleep with Jessie.
“Dammit. You won’t tell me, and I’m still trying to figure out who it is. Fucking the opposition’s daughter would be pretty bad and off-limits,” he said with a chuckle. “And Jessie is pretty hot. Wait…don’t tell me it’s Lina?”
My expression somewhat betrayed me, and he laughed, although there was something strange in his eyes. “You and me…we’re so similar,” he said.
He had it right, but I didn’t want to confirm it. The less he knew about it, the better. That way he wouldn’t get in much trouble with the family when Lina and I inevitably broke the news of our relationship. No doubt my father would be interrogating everyone, trying to find out who already knew so he could put them on blast. There was already enough bad blood between him and Tripp’s side of the family, so I didn’t need to create more by dragging Tripp into my secrets and lies.
“Be careful with that, if it is her,” he continued. “She seemed a little nuts. Who knows what kind of crazy shit she might say or do if you ever broke it off with her? I’ve hooked up with some real nutters before. Tried to accuse me of all kinds of shit after I ditched them.”
“She’s not like that. Speaking of chicks, are you still seeing that Amy girl from your office?” I asked, trying to change the subject. He didn’t know the first thing about Lina, yet it sounded like he was trying to warn me away from her. He was probably just concerned about what our family’s reaction would be when they found out, but still…I could deal with that without his input.
He shook his head. “Nah. She moved back to New York.”
“Oh well. She was twenty-five, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Oh, nothing, I just remember seeing her that one time. She looked so much younger. Honestly, I would’ve guessed she was seventeen if you hadn’t told me otherwise.”
“Yeah, well…you know me. I don’t like old-looking chicks.”
“There’s a fine line between a woman looking young for her age and looking like a teenager, though,” I said with a grin.
“Says the guy who’s probably banging his stepsister, who is actually a teenager.”
I shook my head, wishing he’d drop the subject.
“Just kidding, man. Eighteen is cool. You’re young anyway. By the way, I know you already answered this five times, but I’m gonna ask one more time. You absolutely sure you wanna drop the fighting gig?” he said.
“Yes,” I replied, impatiently waving my hand. “I’m done with it.”
He sighed. “All right. I’ll let the guys know.”
I was finally off the hook. Now there was no way anyone would find out about what I’d been doing in the underground scene, even if they were following me around everywhere with a spy-quality camera.
My father’s election was safe, and so was I.
* * *
I finally returned home, hoping Lina would be in a better mood and ready to tell me what had happened earlier. I trudged upstairs and knocked on her door, and she called out.
“Mom, I’m really not feeling well. Don’t worry about dinner. I think you were right last night; I’m coming down with something.”
“It’s me, not your Mom,” I replied. “Can you let me in?”
There was a long pause before she answered again. “I can’t. Not now.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
I sat outside her door for a full half-hour before I finally heard the lock click on the other side. I rose to my feet and looked at her, and my eyes widened as I took in her appearance. Her eyes were red and puffy with mascara streaked around them, and she was dressed in an old, faded robe. She looked completely and utterly exhausted.
“You really are sick,” I said. “Hold on, let me get you some tea.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sick,” she said, her voice almost breaking. “Sick in the head, maybe. But I know why now…I know why.”
Her whole body trembled as she spoke, and I wrapped my arms around her. “Lina, what is it?” I asked, softly stroking her back through the soft chenille fabric of her robe. “What are you talking about?”
She drew back and gazed up at me, her eyes fearful. “I don’t know how to say it,” she whispered. “Not to you. Or anyone. I don’t think I can.”
“You can tell me anything,” I replied. “Absolutely anything. Hell, you can even tell me it’s over between us if you want…not that I want it to be over…but you shouldn’t be afraid to say things to me, even if you think I’ll be upset. Whatever’s bothering you, I wanna hear it, no matter what.”
She hesitated for another long moment and then motioned for me to come in. I followed her into the bedroom, and she sat at the end of the bed, her knees curled up at her chest.
“Do you remember the first night we met?” she asked, not meeting my eyes.
“How could I forget?” I replied.
“And you remember how I ran away?”
“Uh-huh. You’ve run away from me more times than I can count,” I said, squeezing her hand. “But you know me. I don’t give up, at least when it comes to you.”
“So then you remember me also running away when you said certain…certain things to me.”
I scratched my head. “Yeah, although I could never figure out what it was that upset you so much.”
She replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “It was because you called me a good girl both times.”
I shook my head slowly. “I’m not following.”
She chewed on her lower lip before answering again. “Something happened to me when I was younger. I think my subconscious always knew, but I couldn�
�t remember. I must have blocked it out. I didn’t even know that was a thing that could really happen. I thought it was just something that happened in thriller movies or whatever.”
My pulse began to speed up. “What happened?”
“I went to a party when I was high school. I was with my boyfriend at the time…Travis. He kept leaving me alone, and one of the times he did that, this guy came over to me. I only knew him very vaguely. Older guy who used to hang around high school parties. He…he gave me a drink. I was stupid, and I wanted to fit in. So I took it. That was the only drink I had. Then…then I…”
I had a sinking, stabbing feeling in my guts as she continued, like someone had unleashed a school of piranhas deep in my belly.
“Then what?” I asked softly, putting my hand on her arm and rubbing it encouragingly.
She jerked away. “I started feeling really tired and sick. There’d been a flu going around, so I thought maybe I was getting that. Or maybe I was just tired because I’d had a long day. I couldn’t go home, because I’d lied to my Mom about going to a sleepover, so Travis and I had planned on crashing at the party house. I went upstairs to find a room, and everything was just…it was like I was swimming. I could barely see straight. My whole body was almost completely out of control.”
She took a few deep, shaky breaths and then continued. “Then…it’s hard for me to remember. I remember someone coming into the room with me. He locked the door and started touching me. I remember looking up and seeing his eyes. It was the same guy who’d given me the drink earlier. He kept touching me and saying I was a good girl, and…then…”
I didn’t need to hear any more. I knew exactly what had happened to her. She’d had her drink spiked by some fucking piece of shit, and he’d taken advantage of her. He’d raped her.
“Who was it?” I asked, although somewhere deep inside me, I already knew. Why else would she have reacted the way she did earlier at the gym?
Score - A Stepbrother Romance Page 13
