by Marie Skye
Perrie was on screen, her jacket in her arms, wearing her jeans and a lace bra. What. The. Fuck?
“What is this?”
“It’s called Hidden Cast. She does her podcast, and we watch and place bets on if she’ll strip down.”
“What?”
He looked at me laughing. “Yeah, man. How did you not know about this?” He clicked on a few things. “There’s an entire directory. See, look, this girl here basically fucks herself and records it for her boyfriend.” He clicked on another screen. “This one here is the dressing room. You won’t believe how many people are fucking in a dressing room. This one here is my favorite—hidden camera in the actual toilet. You can see any pussy you want.”
I stared in disbelief. “Do they know people are watching?” It was a stupid-ass question but I had to ask anyway.
He shook his head. “Are you serious? Not at all, that’s why it’s fun. I tell you what though, if you weren’t here, my keyboard would probably be sticky right now.”
I suddenly felt sick. I remember Perrie saying something about how she hated her job, but they offered more pay the later her podcast went but it had weird stipulations. She only agreed because of the extra money. I strongly doubted this was something Perrie would agree to had she known just how perverted her boss really was.
“All I know is that I plan on fucking her. My dick has been hard since I came across this site. And hey, since you are roommates, I figured you can help me out, man.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic baggie. “Slip one of these in her drink or something and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Rage took over me as I grabbed his laptop and slapped the fuck out of him with it. Blood splattered as his own tooth fell from his mouth.
“Ash, what the fuck?” He stood up and swung, missing me by almost a damn mile. Fucker couldn’t hit me even if he wanted to. He took a step back, still clutching his mouth because we both knew he was no match for me.
A little too calmly, I replied, “Get the fuck out now.”
“Fuck you, Ash, I’m calling the cops.”
I reached for my phone. “Good, please do, so I can let them know how you basically tried to convince me to help you rape a girl.”
He spat out blood. “It’s your word against mine.”
“Is it?” I pointed to the picture frame behind him, as well as across from him. “You think I would be stupid enough to not have cameras in my home?” I actually didn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. I held up my phone, the 9 and 1 already pressed. “Oh, hey, did you want me to dial or did you want to do it?”
“Fuck you, man,” he spat again. “Fuck you.” He grabbed what was left of his laptop which was nothing and left. I tried Perrie’s number again.
“Dammit, Perrie, answer!” I grabbed my keys to my bike to head to where Perrie was. I was willing to bet my own life, she had no idea she was being recorded.
33
Perrie
“That’s all we have for tonight. Thank you, guys, I’ll see you later.” I signed off and waited for Claire to give me the thumbs up that we were off the air. Quickly putting my jacket back on, I grabbed my stuff and headed out but stopped abruptly when I saw Ash pacing in front of his bike. He looked pissed, in fact more pissed than I’ve ever seen him. The moment he saw me, he stalked over to me.
Before he could say anything, I stopped him. “Did you forget I hate you? Nothing’s changed Ash, go home.”
“Did you know?”
I rolled my eyes. I was too tired for this mess right now. “Know what?”
“Did you know your podcasts were being recorded?”
He was an idiot. “Of course they’re being recorded, it’s a podcast. Sometimes we have to play a repeat.”
“No, I mean recorded, as in on camera.” He took out his phone to show me in the studio, in just the negligee. I froze. That wasn’t me. That couldn’t be me.
But it was.
“Where did you...” I couldn’t even finish that sentence as a panic attack started to bubble up inside me. I grabbed his phone and clicked on a few other screens. It wasn’t just me in the studio. There were small videos of me at my desk with a camera pointed directly at my breasts, another had a camera pointed directly at my ass.
I dropped the phone as if it had physically burned me since it might as well have. Ash’s look went from anger to worrisome. “You didn’t know did you?” he asked. At least I thought he did. I couldn’t hear him over my blood rushing in my ears and my heart beating so fast. I suddenly couldn’t breathe and scratched at the jacket I was wearing to get it off.
I remember falling as if I was going down a rabbit hole.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Then everything went black.
I jumped at the sound of sirens and slowly opened my eyes. I recognized my surroundings not as my own, but Ash’s. I was back in his room. I looked up and Ash was staring down at me. He softly smiled before he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Was that a really bad dream?” I whispered. He shook his head and dread went through me all over again. I didn’t think so. I wasn’t that lucky. I felt sick. I felt betrayed. I felt violated. I felt dirty. I sat up trying to think. I didn’t have to though; Ash had already done it for me.
“We need to file a police report. Do you have any of your things there? If so, I’ll get them, you’re not going back there.” I dropped my head in my hands. Everything was happening so fast.
“Claire,” I whispered.
“I already talked to her. She was just as shocked as you were. She’s also filing a report.”
“Did everyone know what was happening?”
Ash sighed, leaning against the headboard. “I doubt it. The supposed website isn’t actually searchable, so I’m guessing dark web or some shit. Luckily, I know a few hackers. They were able to infiltrate the server as well as the list of names that had access to it. But that wasn’t even the tip of the fucking iceberg.”
I braced myself for whatever he had to add. “There was a forum—a highly active one. There was also one where your friend Felix admitted to placing cameras in bedrooms of the girls he hooks up with. You weren’t the only one being filmed.”
My eyes grew wide, as I started to scramble out of his bed to run to my room to check for cameras but Ash held me still. “I already traced yours. There was one, but Crouton was blocking its view,” he said smiling. I sighed in relief. I had never been happier for a plant in my life. Emotions started to get the best of me as I bowed my head. “Hey, look at me.” He placed his hand under my chin so I had to look at him. “It won’t happen again. I promise you.”
I nodded as he pulled the covers up around us and I laid my head against his chest as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He saved me months ago and didn’t even know it. I guessed I couldn’t hate him anymore. Maybe because I kinda loved him.
Epilogue
Perrie
Three months later
“What does that do?”
I silently laughed as the nurse smiled at Ash. “It’s just alcohol to sterilize the area.” For five days straight, two times a day, I was given a bone marrow stimulant. It’s now D day. I flinched as I moved to change positions. Before I could even ask, Ash placed the heating pad on the area of my back that had the most tenderness.
“All your vitals look good, are you ready?” I nodded as they prepped my arm with the needle injections as well as anywhere else on my body. Ash was already paling but still decided to be a trouper and held my hand. “Deep breaths, in and out, in and out,” the nurse spoke softly to me. After a few minutes, she stood up. “Alright. Eight hours. You got this, okay?”
I nodded, relaxing against the recliner. I looked to Ash who still looked pale as he stared at my arms. “Hey,” I said to him. “You better get it together, we’re back here tomorrow.”
He winked at me. “Wherever you are, I’ll be, babe.”
I sat back
and closed my eyes. The past few months had been absolutely insane. Once word got out about the secret recordings, shit hit the fan. That so-called sponsorship Frank claims we had? Totally false. The company even released a statement expressing their disappointment that not only were their names used in an attempt to advance a place of work, but also volunteered to cover all legal fees for any of the women that wanted to come forward.
Frank was fucked. Frank also got sixty years, on top of the other sixty years from the Federal Government. It turns out Frank didn’t like paying taxes but loved embezzling. Oh, and there was that weird fact that he associated with terrorists.
Bad Frank.
Those with access to the website didn’t fare any better. There were two hundred and sixty members. The secretive spying was nothing compared to everything else they found. I imagined bigger prisons would need to be made.
As for Ash and me? Well, sometimes things change. Sometimes things are said and done for a reason. Sometimes greater things have to happen for you to get your shit together. But don’t worry, I don’t hate him.
“I can’t believe I’m taking you home to meet my parents.” I threw a few more things in my suitcase then mentally looked everything over to make sure I had enough.
“Well you know, when two people fall in love, it’s only natural they meet each other’s family. It’s like we’re officially serious now.” I rolled my eyes and hit him with a pair of balled-up socks. “But truth be told, I can’t pass up Thanksgiving food. It’s why I packed all my sweatpants,” he said, coming to stand by me while I surveyed the items in my suitcase. Ash grabbed the snorkel from my suitcase and threw it across the room.
“I mean this with no judgment, but you can’t even swim, when would you need this and why?”
I shook my head. “You never know, we could suddenly pass an ocean that needed to be snorkeled.”
“It’s a three-hour drive, Perrie.”
He was no fun. I zipped my suitcase up and prepared to lift it when he yelled and practically shoved me out the way. “No heavy lifting. Did you just forget you donated stem cells?” Of course, I couldn’t forget. The back pain still reminded me. “I’ll load it into the van, you about ready?”
I nodded, looking around the room. Most of everything was in boxes, with a huge pile going into storage and a very small pile of what was going in my van. Or I should say, our van. When I was resting in between treatments, Ash was finishing the van for me. I didn’t even have to tell him my vision, he knew where I was going with it and got to it. The best part? The toilet/shower. After the holidays, we planned on putting the rest of our things in storage and hitting the road. I took one last look around before finally locking up and joining Ash. A few hours later we pulled up to my parents’ house. “You nervous?”
“A little. I mean it’s always nerve racking bringing your lover home to meet the family,” I found myself admitting.
“Lover. I like that word; it sounds almost forbidden.”
We both got out of the car and walked up to the door, and I took out my key.
“Hello!” I shouted out. “We’re here.”
“Perrie?” I nodded, running over for a hug, but also being mindful that I was still healing.
“How was your drive?”
“It was great, the roads weren’t too bad.” I turned toward Ash who was still by the door and I waved him over. “This is Ash.” Ash put out his hand for a handshake but that was just stupid on his part as he was engulfed in a hug, taking him by surprise.
“Ash, these are my parents, Walt and Martha.” It still made me a bit emotional referring to them as my parents. It was a few weeks after everything occurred that they gave me the chance to change my life…
“Now, we know you’re an adult, and you’ve grown into a fine young woman and we couldn’t be prouder.” I looked from Walt and Martha, Martha already tearing up. “We want you to know that you don’t have to say yes to this and regardless, we will always love you as our own, just like we always have.”
Walt took a deep breath and nodded to Martha, who held out the huge envelope she was holding. “If you would allow us to, we would love to adopt you.”
I stared at the envelope in complete shock. With my father deceased, and Jacqueline giving up her maternal rights when I was five, I was technically still an orphan. Looking to the both of them, tears streaming down my face, I said, “I thought you would never ask.”
Martha practically pushed me out the way, latching onto Ash. Walt stood at a distance eyeing him up and down as if any moment he was going to demand Ash do a thousand pushups. Since Walt is a retired drill sergeant, I had no doubt he would expect Ash to do just that, and Ash better if he knew what was good for him.
He finally walked closer, arms still crossed. He said nothing as he stared him down but Ash never looked away. “Do you put raisins in your potato salad?”
Ash was taken aback by the question but quickly straightened. “Sir, raisins in a potato salad is an absolute abomination and anyone that says otherwise should be tarred and feathered.”
Walt grunted and kept the stern look before his body relaxed and he finally smiled. “Welcome to the family.”
The End
About the Author
Marie Skye is a USA Today and International Bestselling Author. She's your average career driven woman by day, and a hidden lover of all things dirty by night.
She currently resides in Austin, TX where there really is a difference between breakfast burritos and breakfast tacos, but she really doesn't know what the difference is.
If it's dark and full of inappropriate material. She's attracted to it. She prefers making her characters work for their happy ever after if they get one, and she has no problem making sure they endure every obstacle to try to get there. She's known as not having a filter, and if she's asked for an opinion, be prepared to get a response that's most likely a mixture of sarcasm and bluntness.
Marie is the type of person that can be friends with anyone, but if you have cake, you're pretty much her best friend.
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