The General Store: Where Innocence Goes to Die

by A. L. Moore

  Liam reached around me and punched him in the shoulder. "My house," he said, clearly having given it some thought. “Tom’s not stupid enough to go there."

  "I've got to go home," I said peering up at Liam, but no one was listening.

  "What about her parents?"

  Liam gathered his jacket and my hand in one swoop and shuffled us out of the booth. "Justice called already, so they can't file a Missing-Person.” He spoke strategically as if it were all planned out in his head.

  "Liam.” He kept walking, busily talking to Jayson. “LIAM,” I shouted. "I need to go home. Now."

  "Calm down, Justice," he said, squeezing my hand and eyeballing a family in a blue minivan that were taking their time leaving. "I promise, I'm going to take you home. There's just a couple of loose ends we've got to tie up first."

  Chapter 18. Busted

  It was a weird sensation to have people watch me, but they did as I climbed on behind Liam. I slid my arms around his middle, clasping my hands across his hard stomach and shook my hair from my face. I’d brushed it the best I could with Liam’s comb in the diner bathroom. Holding on to him, with Jayson on the bike next to us, I felt free and dangerous. I squeezed my thighs tighter around him as we backed out. Two girls, who looked to be about twelve or so, watched in awe. They reminded me of myself watching Robyn back in the day. Their dad glanced over a couple of times, too. Whether it was me, the bikes, or some combination of both, all eyes were on us as the engines filled the humid morning air. It was exhilarating, flying down the highway with them. All of the trouble to come slid to the back of my mind. My parents could lock me up and throw away the key, but I’d still have this moment of complete and total freedom to keep me company.

  When we got to Liam's, he and Jayson were deep in conversation before we ever made it inside. Liam looked pensive as he put the kickstand down and reached for my hand. There was something wrong, other than Tyler and Tonya wanting to kill us, but I didn’t know what. I couldn't follow everything that transpired between them, but from what I gathered, someone had been trailing Jayson when he'd made drop-offs.

  They stopped for a smoke on the front steps, and I went inside. Nine o’clock in the morning or not, it was hot out. The living room wasn't as clean as the last time I’d been there. Clothes were strewn over the futon as if Liam had dumped them from the dryer, and empty cans littered the table. I pushed the clothes over and sat down. I reached for the remote just as Harley scratched at the back door. I grabbed the water dish and refilled it on my way to let her in, but it wasn't the dog. A large hand clamped roughly over my mouth.

  ***

  The familiar smell of wood burning, and vanilla filled the air when I came to. My head felt groggy, weighted like after a migraine. I tried wiping away the blurriness and struggled to sit up. I recognized the room. I was back at the cabin, in the big bedroom. I wasn't tied up, but I might as well have been. My arms and legs were like boulders, too heavy to move. Movement by the door caught my eye. I rubbed my eyes again and blinked away the haze until Alec came into focus. His tatted arms crossed over his white tank top as he stood stationed against the door like a security guard. His eyes sparked to life when he caught sight of my face.

  "She's awake," he called gruffly to someone in the hall.

  I prepared for Tyler, but Tonya was the first one through the door, her blond hair pulled away from her well made-up face. Despite the mascara, her eyes were red from either smoking or lack of sleep, but they sparked. She’d clearly been waiting for me. She paused long enough to let Alec stick his tongue down her throat. He patted her backside and disappeared, closing the door behind him. I didn’t have time to react. Tonya grabbed me by the hair, pulling it out by the roots and slapped my face, hard. I was too out of it do anything but fall limply to the pillow. She didn’t like that.

  "Come on," she complained, straightening the half dozen rings strategically placed on her fingers. "Scream for me. I've been waiting all night to hear you cry. You know Liam likes it loud. Are you loud for him, you little prick tease?” She pounded my face over and over. “I bet you are. The quiet ones always are.”

  "That's enough, Tonya," I heard the only voice I dreaded more than hers. Tyler.

  My hair clinched in Tonya’s fist. She dragged me off the bed, my knees colliding painfully with the wood floor. I cried out and she backhanded my face.

  "No,” Tonya seethed. “She thinks she can make out with my man in front of the whole world and get away with it. I think she needs to eat some teeth." Another backhand rattled my teeth.

  "I. Said. That's. Enough," Tyler said firmly, grabbing Tonya’s hand until she released me.

  Tyler motioned for Alec to take Tonya out. She didn’t protest, tucking stray strands of blond hair behind her ear as she smiled down at me. I licked warm blood from the corner of my mouth. The knowing look of amusement in her eyes hurt much worse than her clinched fist. She knew what was coming as well as I did.

  "Wait outside," Tyler instructed Alec. “Close the door.”

  Tyler gazed at me speculating, his index finger running across his lips. I flinched as he lifted his hand, smoothing my hair from where Tanya had grabbed it.

  "I’m not going to hurt you,” he said in a voice meant to be soothing. My face burned where he rubbed his thumb from my damp, heated cheek to my bleeding lips. “You're a hard girl to get alone, but we finally made it.”

  I tried to turn my head when he kissed me, but he grabbed my chin roughly, holding it in place. "I know you can do better than that," he mused, lifting me from the floor by my chin. "Kiss me like you kissed Liam last night?" His calloused hand trailed my thigh, inching closer to my denim cut-offs. “Did he touch you like this?”

  "Please Tyler," I cried, watching desire spread down from his face.

  He grinned and kissed me harder, pain lancing from my busted lip. "You don't have to beg," he breathed against my ear. "This has been a long time coming.”

  Walking us backward to the bed, he gave me an eager shove. His hand held my shoulder down as he moved on top of me. His weight made it hard to breath. He pressed into me once, twice…I lost count. My heart pounded against my chest. I kicked with all my strength, but my leg barely connected with him. He backhanded me forcefully, making me wish for Tonya's fist.

  “Don’t make me hurt you, Justice. I didn’t want it to be this way. What I had planned, you would’ve enjoyed,” he said, taking his time to remove my clothes. “But you let Liam ruin that,” he said dropping them piece by piece to the floor.

  I couldn’t stop the tears from pouring. I clutched his forearms, begging, “Please, Tyler. Please don’t do this.” My voice came out in broken sobs.

  “It’s your fault it has to be this way.”

  His eyes were molten lava as they raked over my body. Nothing I said changed his wanton expression. My tears only seemed to fuel him.

  “I bet Liam was gentle,” he sneered, tugging at his jeans. “Don’t worry. I’ll show you how a real man does it.”

  His weight came back full force as he rocked painfully into me. I clenched my eyes shut and for the first time in a long time, I prayed.

  ***

  I’d never felt pain like that before, my knees, my face…everything hurt. Tyler lay next to me still breathing heavily. His finger trailed lightly across my forearm. I dared not move an inch. He liked the struggle. My tears and pleas had been met with groans of pleasure, and it was my fault. I’d brought it on myself. I’d used Tyler to get to Liam, and he’d used me to his heart’s content. An eye-for-an-eye as they say. Speaking of eyes, mine were dry and very sore to the touch. I wanted to look in the mirror and examine the bruising, do an inventory of my body. Though, it didn’t feel much like my body at the moment. Not with the bright sun shining on every displayed, tortured inch of my skin.

  I was afraid to reach for the quilt. There was no point anyway. Tyler knew my body better than I did now. I felt like a dried-out dishrag that’d been used to wipe out a clogged toilet. Th
e rancid smell of body odor and sex filled the room and the fact that it was partially coming from me, was enough to make me want to heave. Tyler’s wet lips brushed against my cheek before peering out the bedroom window when a car door slammed. I used his momentary distraction, carefully reaching for my clothes. I struggled into my shirt and underwear, fisting my shorts and shoes and darting out the door. I pushed by an unsuspecting Alec and pummeled into John’s hard chest. He grabbed me around the waist, lifting my feet from the floor. I struggled, kicking him in the shins, twisting in his arms and clawing his skin, but his grip was stronger than even Tyler’s. Alec and a furious Tyler reached us in no time. Tyler reared back, his knuckles white to hit me, when Tom appeared at the other end of the hall.

  "Who busted her face,” Tom asked. He shook his head, disappointed. I instinctively crossed my legs as his eyes took in my exposed skin before darting back to my face with a frown.

  "That was Tanya," Tyler said, holding his hands up. “She got in there without me knowing it.”

  "Get some makeup and cover it up," Tom barked at Tonya, and she needs pants. "Marco will be here any minute."

  “Wouldn’t it save him time if she just left them off,” Alec smirked.

  "He's coming here?" I breathed painfully, picturing the dark man from behind the department store.

  "It made more sense," Tom said as if explaining a task at the store. "Marco likes to test what he's getting, and it's hard to do that properly in a car."

  "Liam's already given his stamp of approval," John said, passing me over to a wide-eyed Tonya. “What’d you think Ty?”

  I didn’t look to see Tyler’s response. I couldn’t. Tonya had me by the hair.

  "Easy with her," Tom scolded.

  Tonya shoved me into the bathroom floor, my head connecting with the cabinet.

  Just on the bruise,” Tom instructed from the hall. “Marco likes the natural look."

  “That counts you out, Tonya,” one of the guys, I think John, snickered behind us.

  “Your sister, too,” she shot back.

  Once Tonya closed the door, the tears came back full force. My body started shaking, and I couldn't stop crying. Tonya shook my shoulders heatedly.

  "I can't cover it up, if you don't stop," she said aggravated, dumping more ivory liquid into her palm.

  "Tonya, I know you hate me but please, don't let them do this. I just want to go home," I pleaded, trying to find a shred of reason in her black rimmed eyes. "I didn't even know Liam had a girlfriend until I got here last night. I swear. Please, please don’t let them do this."

  "Don't waste your breath," she said, blotting powder on my face. "I’m so sick of little high school bitches swooping in like they own the place. Batting your big blue eyes at our guys. You’re an easy lay,” she said blotting a wet sponge around my eyes and leaning back to admire her work. “They always come back." She dusted the excess powder on her cut-off denim shorts and dug through the small make-up bag. The green tank-top she wore was knotted just below her chest, revealing a small cut below her naval. Checking my nails, I wondered if the cut was from me. More likely, it was from one of her many rings.

  “Did you really think Liam would leave me, for you?” She chuckled darkly, her hands fussing with my hair. She drew back with a fake pout when I wiped my nose on the back of my hand. “Oh, you did. Didn’t you? That’s so sad.

  “Liam is mine and so are the rest of them. When I want them. That doesn’t make me any less Liam’s girlfriend. Something you will never be. Liam’s a man like all the rest of them. You come in all doe-eyed and legs, getting his attention. Of course he took you up on it. No one turns down a free meal. That doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean he likes you.

  “Besides, even if I wanted to help you, which I don't, the deal is done. Marco’s coming personally to pick you up, and he never does that."

  She reared back to look at me and sighed. “That’s all I can do. I don’t have a magic wand.”

  I took one quick look at my caked face in the mirror. A bloodied gash ran below my eye from the sparkling ring on Tonya’s finger. The bruises were scattered and already bleeding through the thick make-up. Tonya ushered me down the hall to where the guys sat around the living room. John made room for me on the couch. I flinched when Tyler leaned across the coffee table and adjusted my hair until it shadowed the largest part of the bruising on my sore face. “Don’t act like you didn’t like it,” he said, grasping my chin and forcing his tongue in my mouth before shoving me to the cushion.

  Tyler went back to the recliner, throwing his leg over the side and flipping on a sports channel. John and Alec settled on either side of me, relaxed and content as if it were any other day. The seconds ticked by like minutes and with each one, the urge to bolt grew stronger. I fought the feeling to the point where I was shaking again. My breaths were coming too quickly. I was having a panic attack.

  “Deep breaths, Kid,” Tom said, pacing in front of the window.

  The conversation stopped abruptly when tires crunched to a halt outside. I looked quickly to the back door as Tyler went out the front. It was my only hope. John’s hand clamped down on my thigh. “Don’t even think about it.” I wouldn't have had time regardless.

  Tyler came back with a grinning Marco. In pale, khaki pants and a white buttoned shirt, he looked fresh and clean, in a room filled with filth. I knew better. He was the devil himself, stepping into my own personal hell. His face lit up behind an expensive pair of aviator sunglasses when he saw me. He pulled them off, folding them into his shirt as he regarded me with interest. He looked older in the daylight than he had in the alley. There were deep crinkles next to his dark eyes and around his mouth when he smiled. He wasn’t as old as Tom but close. Late thirties, maybe.

  "Justice," he beamed, stepping in front of me and stroking the gash beneath my eye. He leaned in closer. His breath smelled like peppermint and tobacco. “What the hell happen to her face?”

  Tom gestured toward the door where Tonya had escaped. “Cat fight.”

  “No matter,” Marco hastened, the wrinkles smoothing across his forehead. “It isn’t deep. Should heal quickly.”

  Tom glanced at his watch, impatiently watching the front door. "The back bedroom is ready," he said, crossing his arms.

  Marco grasped my wrists and pulled me to my feet. I looked around the room panicked, but everyone had disappeared. There was no one to help and nowhere to run.

  "After you,” Marco said, his eyes like an x-ray machine, covering me from head to toe. It was the very same look that had consumed Tyler only moments ago.

  Tom cleared his throat, "Let’s take care of business first, Marco."

  "Of course," Marco sighed, only releasing me with one hand. "That's the problem with you, Tom. ‘Business before pleasure’ is an outdated expression. I think business should be pleasurable," Marco said, motioning for the guy he’d come in with to open the briefcase.

  More money than I’d ever seen in my life spilled onto the table.

  "It's all there," Marco said with the wave of his hand. "Now if there's nothing else…”

  Tom and Tyler were too busy counting the money to even look up. Tonya glared in from the bright window overlooking the porch, not an ounce of remorse on her painted face. It was all I could do to get my legs to move forward. I was having an out-of- body experience, like this was happening to someone else. Marco reached around me and pushed the bedroom door open, locking it behind him. The smell from earlier carried around the room. I managed a small look at Marco as I clung to the wall by the door. His whole demeanor had changed. His mouth was set in a firm line. The carefree smile he’d walked in the cabin with gone.

  “Down,” he said sternly, pointing to the floor in front of him.

  He towered over me, sliding the brown belt from his neatly creased pants. He wrapped it carefully around his hand. I hesitated, my eyes on the wide belt, afraid he was going to hit me. His eyes lowered, heated in anticipation. I carefully knelt to my knee
s, praying silently to myself, "Please God, get me out of here. I'll go to church. I'll be good. Please. Please. Please." Marco's lips curved up as he stepped closer to my face. Then the door hit the floor with an ear-piercing crash.

  "Freeze," a man in a police uniform said, pointing a gun at Marco’s stunned face. Marco pushed me out of the way and scrambled over the bed to the window. The cop grabbed him just as another came through the door. The second cop helped me from the floor and led me down the empty hall. Tom, Tyler and Tonya were face down on the floor in the living room. I was shuffled to a uniformed woman, armed by the door, who led me to the backseat of a waiting car. John and Alec were in the car next to me. I watched, far beyond the state of shock, as everyone piled out of the cabin in handcuffs. My own set dug painfully into my wrists. I’d never seen so many cops in one place, except for in the movies. There were at least ten cars spread in every free area among the large trees.

  "Not a word about Liam or Jayson," Tonya mouthed when she was stuck in the door to my left.

  They drove us to the large, red-bricked building just on the outskirts of town. I’d seen the bars on the windows from the road, but I’d never been inside. I didn’t see the car with the guys as I filed in behind Tonya. In mini-shorts and her stomach exposed, she looked like a prostitute. Glancing down at my dirty shorts and torn t-shirt, I shuddered to think I looked the same. The cop led us to a paint chipped, ivory cell. It was empty except for a toilet in the back corner with, what I assumed from the smell, was a broken flusher. I sat down on the worn metal bench bolted to the floor and hugged my trembling knees to my chest, thanking God to still be alive. Tonya paced the floor, complaining to anyone who walked by, and threatening to kill me if I gave anyone up. Her long, painted nails and fake blond hair didn’t frighten me anymore. Demons weren’t so scary when you’d stared in the face of the devil.

  I was still relieved when a cop took Tonya away, but I grew more anxious the longer she was gone. I’d figured they’d taken her for fingerprints or maybe a mugshot. I waited anxiously for her return. Every time a door slammed, I was afraid of getting a new cellmate. Surely, they wouldn’t put Marco in with me. When the cop finally opened the cell again, I spotted Tonya being fingerprinted at the other end of the long hall.