Her Carnal Games Series

by Chanel Ivy

  Emma pulled me back at arm’s length, looking me over. “Oh, sweetie. What did he do to you?” she asked as she brushed my hair back, picking bits of rocks and dirt out.

  “It all happened so fast. He was yelling at me in the parking garage at work, and then he just attacked me. I couldn’t stop him,” I sobbed.

  “We need to get you to a doctor. You’ve got a few nasty cuts, especially on your head, and they’re still bleeding. Did he... did he rape you?” she asked quietly.

  “He was just about to when you showed up with your trusty pipe. How did you find me?”

  “I heard what happened with Stuart this morning, and I have a GPS tracker in your car. When it showed you out here, in east bumble fuck, and you weren’t answering your phone, I knew something wasn’t right, so I thought I’d rather play it safe than sorry,” Emma replied, hugging me again.

  “I should be upset that you’re not only monitoring my internet searches but also tracking my whereabouts, but at the moment, I’m thankful we have a fucked-up relationship,” I laughed softly, clutching my head.

  “You’re safe now, and that’s all that matters. Here, let me help you up.”

  I stood slowly, and my head began to pound and spin more ferociously than before. I winced at the pain, and I had to sit back down.

  “I have a first aid kit in my truck, let me run down and get it. I’ll be right back. Then we can get the hell out of here,” Emma said before kissing me gently on the lips and turning to run back down the stairs.

  I sat with my head in my hands, trying to get the room to stop whirling. Just as I was about to try and stand again, I was attacked from behind. Stuart had gotten up and tackled me to the ground. His head was pouring blood as he knelt over me, trying to grab my hands, but the blood made me too slippery, so I was able to pull away easily. I raked my fingernails at his face ripping off chunks of skin in the process. He pulled away long enough for me to flip over onto my hands and knees and crawl to the pipe. I picked it up and swung it like a baseball bat connecting with his temple. Stuart flopped to the floor, and I don’t know what came over me, but I began hitting him over and over again. I buried the broken pipe into his body until I could no longer lift my arms.

  Emma came running up the stairs. When she saw what I had done, her face turned as white as snow.

  I glanced at her. Her reaction brought me back into reality, and I dropped the pipe at my feet. The sound of it clamoring to the floor was like a gong going off in my ears. I looked at Stuart’s body on the ground, and I couldn’t tell where his face had been. It was all just a mush of blood, bone, and bright pink and white tissue.

  I started to fall to my knees, but Emma caught me before I could, and she cradled me in her arms. I was covered in blood spatter. I looked at my hands covered in gore, and his skin lodged under my nails. The rank smell of copper filled my nose, and I instantly vomited.

  Emma walked me over to a broken window for some air and sat me on the ledge. She opened the first aid kit and began wiping at my cuts and scrapes with alcohol pads. Then Emma moved down to my legs and my feet. I was so numb that I barely felt the sting of the solution in my open wounds. When she was out of cleansing pads, she wrapped the rest of my injuries in gauze and told me to sit for a moment.

  Emma pulled her phone from her jeans and quickly began talking. I strained to overhear her, and I think she said something about a cleanup crew and a doctor, but she promptly finished her conversation and returned to my side, delicately wrapping her arm around me.

  “Do you think you can stand?”

  “We... we can’t just leave him here like this. We have to call the police. I... I... I murdered him,” I blathered as I broke out into sobs once again.

  “Sweetie, what happened when I left?”

  I wiped what was left of my shirt over my face avoiding my left eye that was starting to swell shut. “Stuart woke up and attacked me again. I got away, and I hit him with the pipe. He was down, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was so scared he was going to get up again, so I just kept beating him. Oh my God, I murdered Stuart. Look at his face. There’s nothing left!” I screamed.

  “Shh. You have to listen to me very carefully, Mia,” Emma said, grasping my face in her hands, forcing me to look into her fiercely bright blue eyes. Those eyes gave me so much comfort, even at a time like this. I felt calmer merely looking at her. “There’s a very fine line between self-defense and what you did. If we call the cops, I can almost guarantee that you’ll be arrested for voluntary manslaughter. I know you were defending yourself against him. He was trying to rape you, I knocked him out, and he tried to hurt you again. You did what any rational person would do. If you didn’t kill him, he would have killed you. But the police are going to take one look at his smashed-in head and put you in handcuffs. I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “What are we going to do then? I have to go to a hospital. I most certainly have a concussion, and God only knows what kind of infections I’m going to get from being dragged through this building. I need a tetanus shot...”

  “Mia, Mia, stop. I’m taking care of everything. Do you remember those people I told you about? The ones that watch over me?”

  “The ones you made me sign the NDA for?”

  “Yes, unfortunately, they are one and the same. They are going to make it like this never happened.”

  “What do you mean? Like in a mob movie where they have a cleaner come in and sanitize the crime scene?”

  “That’s a pretty good example, yeah.”

  “No. I can’t live with this on my conscience. I have to do the right thing. I have to call the police and turn myself in. If they arrest me, then so be it. I did it. I murdered him. I didn’t have to bash his brains in, but I did, and I should pay for that.”

  “You really think you should pay for Stuart kidnapping you, beating you, and trying to rape you? What do you think he was going to do with you afterward, Mia? Look around. If he was just going to beat and rape you, he would have done it in the parking garage. It was his intention for you never to leave this building alive,” Emma said bluntly.

  After what she said, my brain sort of shut off. I remember her walking me down the stairs and sitting me in her truck while she gathered my belongings from my car. Another vehicle pulled up. It was a white van with no markings on it, and four large guys got out to talk to Emma.

  She told them to do a full cleaning of the car and the area leading from the car to the second floor where the body was. They never spoke; they only nodded in understanding and grabbed large black boxes from the van before heading upstairs.

  Emma returned to the truck, and without another word, we left the scene where I had murdered Stuart Hodges.

  Chapter 4

  We didn’t head to the beach. Instead, we headed into a private gated community along Lake Norman. Emma’s main home was here apparently, and it was a vast estate. You couldn’t even see the houses from the road in this development, only large stone and iron gates surrounding massive swaths of property.

  I stared blankly out the window at the dark passing landscapes. The moon was full and bright, casting eerie shadows outside. I didn’t want to close my eyes because every time I did, all I saw was the brutality of what I had done. The blood on my hands. The skin under my nails. It felt like I was never going to be clean again.

  “We’re here, and a doctor is waiting to see you, Mia. His name is Dr. Bryce Jenkins,” Emma said as she stopped the SUV. I looked out the window, and we were in front of a huge mansion that looked like a Greek palace. “He’s been my doctor for as long as I can remember. He’s a good guy, but don’t say anything about us being together. That still has to be a secret. At least for now.”

  Her words brought me out of my traumatic induced stupor. “We’re together?” I asked my voice a mere whisper.

  “I can’t not be with you, Mia. You do something to me that no one has ever done. You make me feel like I’m worth something... like I’m more than just this c
ontrolling persona that people have to respect because of my money or my power over them. You genuinely care about me. You want to know more about me, and you’re willing to risk your own wellbeing to do so. The look in your eyes the night I gave you the papers and told you that you deserved better... it crushed me. I knew the very first moment I saw you there was something exceptional about you. When I got to know you, and I felt it, when I truly felt it, it scared the shit out of me. I’ve never felt this way before, and I’m scared that I’ll fuck it up. Plus, there’s a lot you can’t know about my past, which is why I keep people at a distance, but after today, that may all change.”

  “Why would it change now?” I asked, stunned at her statement.

  Emma sat back in her seat, taking a long deep breath before speaking again. “As terrible as it sounds, what you did today, and what they are doing for us in return to cover it up, brings you into the fold, so to speak. They now hold leverage over you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’ll explain later. Let’s get you inside so the doctor can take a look at you and get you cleaned up.”

  Emma escorted me inside the lavish home decorated in soft hues of lavender and cream. There was an old Victorian vibe to the decor, and everything seemed fragile or delicate. It was not at all what I expected. The beach house was more of Emma’s style with clean lines and modern decor.

  We walked past the kitchen, and the staff was bustling about preparing food. I quickly turned away. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. Especially here after Emma’s warnings.

  “Don’t worry, Mia. These people have been with me for a very long time. They won’t say anything to anyone. You’re safe here.”

  Her words were as comforting as her arm around my shoulder, helping me to walk was. I felt like one of the ornate vases we walked past, bump me the wrong way, and I might shatter into a million pieces.

  Emma helped me into a bedroom that was bigger than my entire apartment, where a doctor and a nurse were already set up. She sat me on the edge of the large soft bed that was covered with a white sheet. I tried to pull the pieces of my skirt together to avoid exposing myself to everyone in the room, and I felt embarrassment redden my cheeks further.

  A man in a white coat stepped in front of me, shook Emma’s hand, and turned to me. “Good evening Mia, I’m Dr. Bryce Jenkins, and I’ll be taking care of you along with Nurse Jackie Simpson here.” The woman in the corner wearing light green scrubs gave me a quick nod hello. “So, I’ve heard that you had some trouble this afternoon and were beaten pretty badly. Where would you say your most severe injuries are?”

  I looked up at the doctor, ashamed to recount the events of this afternoon. “My head is probably the worst. I was thrown headfirst into a concrete barrier, I almost lost consciousness, and then I was punched in the same spot, here, when I did lose consciousness,” I replied, motioning to the general area over my left eye and forehead.

  “You have two severe lacerations that are going to require a few stitches, and it’s safe to say that you are concussed. Where else are you injured?”

  I went on to recount the rest of the injuries that I could remember while the nurse got to work on undressing me. Dr. Jenkins was polite enough to ask if I wanted him to leave the room while I was naked and having my wounds cleaned. At this point, I didn’t care. He was a medical professional, and it was nothing he hadn’t seen before. If Emma trusted him, then so did I.

  Once my abrasions were thoroughly cleaned out, Emma helped me into the bath so she could wash out my hair and rinse the rest of the dirt and grime from my body. There was nothing sexual about it, yet the act of her washing me was so intimate. It made me almost forget the events from earlier. The warm water coursing over my tender skin as her gentle hands washed away my sins. It was incredibly therapeutic. I found myself drifting off to sleep when Emma shook me quickly to wake me.

  “Mia, I don’t think you’re supposed to sleep with a concussion. Stay awake with me. We’ll finish getting you cleaned and stitched up, and the doctor will let us know if you can sleep. I’m sorry, baby.”

  I was exhausted and groggy. All I wanted was to sleep in Emma’s arms, but I knew she was right, so I fought off the desire to rest as hard as I could.

  Emma toweled me off gently and helped me into a clean pair of soft sorts and a light tank top before bringing me back into the bedroom. Nurse Simpson and Dr. Jenkins were both waiting for me with a clean sheet on the bed and a torture tray ready to go.

  Nurse Simpson bandaged my legs, and Dr. Jenkins went to work on the stitches on my face. When I was younger, I hated needles. I had a severe phobia called trypanophobia. Just the mere thought of my skin being pricked by something sharp gave me nightmares. Now, after being pregnant and having a child, that phobia was long gone thankfully.

  I lay there as still as possible with the paper draped over my face as the doctor worked. I ended up with seven stitches above my left eye and three just above my left temple. I was given intravenous antibiotics to make sure I didn’t get an infection, and the doctor gave me the tetanus shot I was so worried about from being dragged up the rusted metal staircase.

  Dr. Jenkins looked at me with compassion in his eyes, and I saw why Emma trusted him so much. “Mia, I know this is hard to talk about, especially so soon after what you’ve gone through today, but do we need to give you anything to prevent a pregnancy?”

  I was expecting the question at some point, but it still hurt to hear it.

  Emma jumped in. “I stopped him before he could do that,” she replied for me.

  “I understand, Emma, but I need to hear it from Mia, please. Mia?”

  I played with my now clean fingernails, not wanting to say the ‘R’ word, but I knew that’s what he was looking for specifically. “No. He wasn’t able to... to rape me.”

  “Good. Well, you’ll be happy to hear that our crew did an HIV test in the field, and the perpetrator was not HIV positive, but I’m going to keep you on a broad-spectrum antibiotic for a few days to be sure there will be no infections.”

  I hadn’t even thought about HIV, but I should have. His blood was everywhere. I was covered in it. The thought brought me right back to the gruesome scene, and I felt my hands start to shake.

  “Mia, are you okay? What are you feeling right now?” asked Dr. Jenkins as Emma rushed to my side.

  “I just can’t get the pictures out of my head. There was so much blood, and he was so angry.”

  “It’s common to have incredibly detailed flashbacks when you’ve been through something as traumatic as you’ve just gone through. I’m going to give you something for the pain and to help you sleep. It should also be a dreamless sleep, so that will help. You need plenty of rest, and I recommend that you talk to someone about your experience. Keeping it bottled up will not help you work through your feelings of regret, anger, guilt, and a various range of other emotions,” Dr. Jenkins replied softly.

  Emma squeezed my hand. “So, it’s okay for her to sleep? Even with the concussion and all?”

  Dr. Jenkins smiled at both of us. “Yes. She is awake and able to hold a conversation. There are no other symptoms, such as dilated pupils or trouble walking, that I would be concerned with. Sleep will be the best thing for her right now. Her body needs time to heal and recover. Nurse Simpson will be staying with the two of you here, and I’ll be on call should you need me. You’re in good hands, Mia.”

  Nurse Simpson helped me get under the covers, and Emma lay down next to me, brushing my hair with her fingers tenderly. Dr. Jenkins emptied a clear syringe into my IV, and I was off into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 5

  For the next two weeks, I stayed at Emma’s home in secret. The people at work were told that I was flown out to London with Emma for client meetings, and there were no real questions asked. Matt texted me a bunch of times, asking me how I was and how London was going. He joked that I had kissed and made up with Emma after all. I played coy and told him it
was a work trip and nothing more. Emma sent me pictures she had taken on her last trip to England for me to text to Matt, helping with my cover story.

  She had become very caring over the last few weeks. I enjoyed the softer side of her personality, but I missed her commanding presence as well. She was completely different than she was inside the office. She mingled with the staff, helping them cook in the kitchen and clean up. They were all like one big happy family. It was nice to see this part of her life. It was like I was getting a glimpse behind the curtain.

  We still hadn’t had a more extended discussion regarding the people who cleaned up my mess for me and who wanted to keep us apart in the first place, but after everything she had done for me, I was not going to push the issue. I was going to give her the space she needed to talk to me on her terms. I had learned my lesson from mistakes past.

  It was Friday evening, and we had just finished a delicious dinner when Emma grasped my hand in hers tightly. Her look was one of pure lust. I had not seen her this needy in quite some time, and it instantly turned me on.

  She batted her heavy lashes at me as she made little circles on my wrist with her thumb. “I don’t know if you’re feeling up to it, but...”

  I immediately interrupted her, “I thought you’d never ask.”

  “Really? I figured with everything that happened; you still might not be ready,” she asked, completely surprised.

  “Hell yeah, I’m ready. What he who shall not be named did to me was appalling, but that doesn’t change my feelings for you in the slightest. You protected me. I’m still your pet, right?” I asked, giving Emma a wink.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice. Come on. I have something to show you.” Emma replied, almost giddy.

  “Oh, boy. It’s not another room full of tigers, is it?” I laughed.

  “It could be.”