Chapter 30: Twenty-nine

Yeah, I don’t think I want to confess anymore.

You can see for yourself what happened next.

Shaky and uncertain that I was really doing the right thing, I blew out a breath and then inhaled slowly, trying to clear my head. Everything inside me wanted me to chase after Reese. Forget Patricia; I ~wanted~ to be with Reese.

But I had to make sure Reese was safe first.

I’m not sure how long I took to bolster myself into walking next door, but I finally shook the hesitation and regret from my limbs, left my house, and kept my promise to Reese by remaining outside, just barely easing through the gate that separated my yard from the landlady’s.

Patricia stood at the back door, waiting on me. When she saw me, she held it open, but I shook my head, refusing to move closer.

“Can you make this little talk quick?” I growled. “My sister is home alone.”

Patricia made my skin crawl with the pleasure in her voice as she said, “Well, it looks like you’re already worked up and ready to go, so don’t worry. I doubt it’ll take us long at all.”

“~It’s~ not going to happen,” I promised. “And do you mind never spying on me again? Your rude, creepy vibe just went through the roof.”

She fluttered out a non-concerned shrug, her silhouette showing me that she was wearing a silk robe and little else. “I thought you said the little babysitter was just your friend.”

“And I thought I said it was none of your ~damn~ business,” I bit back. “That part’s still true.”

“Tsk, tsk. There’s no reason to be insolent, Mason.”

“Jesus, why do you care if I get a girlfriend or not? What do you care if I have sex with every female in Florida? You’re the one who sent me to other women in the first place.”

“But, darling, sex is not the problem. Everything would’ve been perfectly fine if you’d only screwed her and moved on. It’s you falling in ~love~ with her that’s the problem. Because once you fall in love, you’ll want to be all monogamous or some such horseshit. I know you, you will. And judging by the way you look at her, you already have. But I can’t allow it. I can’t allow some silly little twit cheerleader of a girl to play havoc on ~my~ extracurricular activities. I’m not finished with you yet.”

“Well, I assumed you were. You brought your fiancé over to Sarah’s party and paraded him around in front of my mother like you were taunting her for not having her own man. You don’t ~need~ me anymore.”

“Mason, Mason, Mason, you poor deluded boy. You couldn’t be further from the truth. Ted is a dear, sweet man. Rich, charming, handsome. In fact, I will love being married to him.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t cheat on him,” I snarled, tempted to turn away and leave this stupid conversation where it was; we were repeating old arguments and getting nowhere, and it was aggravating as hell. But I knew she hadn’t played her ace yet. I had to learn what she had against Reese.

“But, sweetie. I won’t be able to help it. He just doesn’t do it for me in the bedroom. Not the way I’ve trained you to. I need you more than you realize.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because I’m never touching you again. We haven’t been behind on our rent in over a year.”

She hummed out a sympathetic sound as if she felt concerned for me. “Well… With inflation and the economy the way it is, I’m afraid I might have to raise your rent.”

“I don’t care,” I hissed. “We’ll pay it. Whatever it is. And if it gets too ridiculous, we’ll just ~move~. You have no hold over me whatsoever.”

Patricia chuckled softly.

“Is that so?” she murmured. “And what if I called a certain police officer I know to tell him about an illegal prostitution scandal going on over at the Country Club?”

“Go ahead,” I challenged, beginning to wonder if she had any troublesome information about Reese at all. Had she just played me? Again? “I don’t give a damn. I’ve already stopped taking clients anyway. No one is going to arrest me for speculation and since I’m finished, no one can catch me in the act.”

“Wow, you think you have it all figured out, don’t you?” She shook her head slowly.

“Yeah, for once, I do. Now when are ~you~ going to get it through your thick head that it’s over? I will ~never~ have sex with you again. There’s nothing you can say or do to get me to walk back into your house.”

I knew that would get her to reveal anything she had if she did in fact ~have~ something.

And here it came.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, sounding way too pleased with herself. “Really. Because I was just about to tell you I know your girlfriend’s little secret.”

I shook my head, unable to believe Reese could have ~that ~bad of a secret.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I said, encouraging Patricia to just spill it already.

“Nothing, really,” she murmured, still stalling. “I mean, I’m sure she’s told you all about Teresa Margaret Nolan. Hasn’t she?”

I tilted my head, never having heard the name before. “Who?”

“Oh, Mason.” Patricia tsked, sounding wickedly delighted to reveal, “Didn’t she ever tell you her ~real~ name? That concerns me. It doesn’t sound as if there’s enough trust and honesty in your sweet little monogamous relationship if the girl hasn’t even told you she legally changed her name to Reese Alison Randall just a few short months ago. I mean, not that I blame her. If my ex-boyfriend tried to kill me and promised he’d finish the job the next time he saw me, well, I’d probably run halfway across the country and change my name too.”

Oh, shit.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

I’d known Reese’d had a bad past because of some guy; she’d admitted as much, but it all started to make sense. The scar on the back of her neck, the way she’d jump at shadows sometimes, the reason she came all the way here from Illinois in the first place. Waterford wasn’t exactly a reputable Ivy League university. It wasn’t on the coast. There was nothing spectacular about it at all.

“No,” I whispered, anyway, not wanting to learn what kind of horrors my girl had survived. I shook my head, my limbs going cold with dread.

“You think I’m making this up?” Patricia taunted. “He cut her. With a knife. It was actually life threatening; she was in the hospital for over a week. I’m sure you’ve seen the scar. It’s somewhere on her neck, I believe.”

“Oh, God,” I uttered, hating how much she knew, even as I asked, “What happened?”

Patricia simpered, sympathetically. “Your girl has quite the taste in boys, let me tell you. It was nasty. Nasty business indeed. I guess they were high school sweethearts, and all was well with that until he started to get a little too controlling for her taste. The first time she tried to break up with him, her sophomore year, he dislocated her jaw. The second time, during her senior year, he broke her arm…after pushing her down a flight of stairs.”

Shit. Reese ~had~ said she hadn’t played basketball her senior year because of a broken arm. I clutched the gate to support myself, picturing Reese unconscious and mangled at the bottom of a stairwell.

“That’s when she finally decided enough was enough,” Patricia went on. “But he still refused to take no for an answer. He stalked her and harassed her for months after she dumped him until he broke into her parents’ house to kill her. And he nearly succeeded.”

“Jesus,” I rasped.

~Not Reese~, I wanted to say. Not my sweet, cheerful, amazing Reese. What kind of monster would do that to ~her~?

“Miss Teresa missed her high school graduation because she was in the hospital. And her naughty boyfriend got out on bail almost immediately. So she skipped town with a new name. And since the case against him was dropped, Mr. Jeremy Walden has been completely pardoned. Ergo, he started looking for her. Her parents’ home was broken into last week. I’ll give you three guesses who ~I~ think did it.”

“Did he find anything?” I asked, unable to help myself.

Patricia shrugged. “It’s hard to say, though I will tell you, that boy will do anything, ~anything~, to get his Reese’s Pieces back. Just think, Mason. If he almost killed her when he was in love with her and wanted to ~rekindle~ their relationship, what will he do this time, now that he wants revenge? Wouldn’t it be awful—simply horrible—if someone accidently ~leaked~ her whereabouts?”

Next to me, the gate waved as if it had gone unsteady with fear as well.

“You wouldn’t,” I said, putting a load of warning in my tone.

“Of course I wouldn’t, sweetheart,” Patricia agreed fakely. “I would never do anything to upset you. Not when you’re going to give me what I want.” Her tone changed from cajoling to severe. “Right?”

“~No~!” a voice cried from the other side of the gate right before Reese shoved it open and came tumbling into Patricia’s backyard.

Shit. Oh, shit. Why was she ~here~?

“Reese?” I caught her elbow and pulled her close, wrapping my arms around her, grateful she’d survived the monster who’d hurt her, glad she was alive and okay, and yet devastated she was here, hearing all this. “Christ. What’re you doing here?”

Latching onto me, she cried into my chest. “You said it yourself, my curiosity has no filter. I had to know if you were really going to go to her.”

“Dammit.” I squeezed my eyes shut and stroked her silken hair. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it.” She looked up at me, the tears on her cheeks glistening in the moonlight. “You can’t sleep with her.” Her fingers curled around my shirt. “You told her no. That should be enough. She’s blackmailing you. What she’s doing is…it’s demented. It’s a violation of you in the most personal, private, vile way imaginable. I refuse to just stand here and let you fall for this, especially because of me.”

I just held her, saying nothing. When she trembled in my arms, I knew what I had to do. I pictured her trembling exactly like this, scared and fearing for her life because of that monster who’d tried to kill her. No way was I going to let her go through that again, not if I could help it. I’d do anything for Reese.

She wasn’t going to like this—hell, ~I~ wasn’t going to like it—but I cupped her face and eased back enough to read her expression.

“Is it true?” I asked, even though I already knew it was.

She sniffed and her tears thickened. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but—”

“Shh. It’s okay. It’s all right.” I pressed my mouth to her brow and wiped at her wet cheeks with my thumbs. Then I found her scar to remind myself why I was doing this. She sobbed out a dry heave and clutched me tighter.

“I swear, Reese,” I told her. “I’ll never let him find you. He won’t ever hurt you again.”

Then I dropped my hand from her and took a significant step back.

“Mason.” She reached out, but I spun away, evading her grasp.

Patricia waited in the doorway, the sight of her robe sliding off one shoulder making me feel sick to my stomach. She looked so smug as I stepped up onto the back porch that I took the perverse and trite pleasure of purposely knocking my shoulder against her and unbalancing her as I stepped past her, entering the house.

From that point on, my brain went blank. On autopilot, I crossed through her laundry room and then strode into her kitchen. Limbs numb, heart pounding, throat constricting, I couldn’t believe I was doing this. The one thing I swore I’d never do, yet here I was in the devil’s den, about to do it.

Just as I swore to myself I’d stay away from Reese, I couldn’t keep my word on this promise either, and I felt like shit.

I kept repeating in my head that it would keep Reese safe, but that didn’t help. Nothing helped.

Patricia had always been my most dreaded client. She and I had totally different taste when it came to sex.

She liked restraints and control games, calculating wordplay, and merciless punishments, not to mention her fixation of sticking unnatural objects in orifices they didn’t belong. I didn’t care what kinds of kink people got into in the privacy of their own home, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were things I liked doing too.

I think that’s why she was so fond of forcing me to do them, because she knew I never had fun, and that control of getting me where ~she~ wanted me was like a high to her.

God only knew what she wanted me to do tonight.

I went straight to her bedroom, rolling my eyes when I found it lit with candles, and the sheets on the bed pulled back neatly. None of her toys were out, however, so that was a good sign.

I fisted my hands at my sides and tried to control my heart rate as I remembered all the times I’d told myself I would never step foot into this room again. All my nightmares had originated in this place. Why was I back here? How had she maneuvered me right where she wanted me?

A cold sweat trailed down my spine. My vision went blurry, the edges fading to black until I blinked repeatedly, trying to see better. My heart wouldn’t stop beating out of rhythm, letting me know my body was going into distress, believing I was being threatened and endangered. I wasn’t sure if I was about to have a panic attack or a straight-up heart attack. I kept battling the flight-or-fight instinct to either run out of there or start swinging, punching walls, mirrors, or even Patricia herself as she stepped into the room, smiling victoriously at me.

Fuck, I couldn’t believe I was doing this.

My equilibrium went wonky. Vaguely, I knew I’d just lost Reese; half my soul felt ripped out of my chest from that realization alone, but I swear the other half was going to wither and die the moment this woman touched me.

“Damn, I’ve missed seeing you standing in my room just like this.”

I rolled my eyes, not moving a muscle except to bunch my jaw and brace against her touch when she started toward me.

“So, now would be my turn to say ~I told you so~,” she sang softly, crowing over her win as she trailed her fingers across my shoulders when she walked a slow circle around me. I gagged and swallowed down the taste of bile. Stopping directly behind me, she stretched up on her toes and whispered into my ear, “I told you that you’d see the inside of this room again.”

I shuddered in disgust, my stomach revolting at her words.

She chuckled and stopped once she was standing in front of me again.

“The shirt.” She made a motion with her index finger. “Take it off.”

I shot her a look to kill, my hands fisting at my sides. She arched her brows meaningfully. “Unless you’ve changed your mind. I’m sure Teresa’s boyfriend would just ~love~ to get a call from me.”

I wanted to snarl at her and command her not to call Reese that. ~Teresa~. It was still unreal to learn she had a completely different name.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I muttered, eyeing the door with a longing glance.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” She caught my chin and yanked my face around, forcing me to look her in the eye and take in her narrowed glare and pinched lips. “I have you right where I want you; we’re taking our time and lasting the entire night.” Her lips spread with pleasure. “Remember that time I kept you tied to my bed until dawn so I could climb on and ride you whenever I wanted?”

Dread curled down my spine.

No. Not again.

Swallowing a hard knot in my throat, I ripped off my shirt. In the past, she’d only used her restraint system as a form of punishment. If I complied and did everything she wanted, I’d get out of here faster.

She laughed smugly at my sudden obedience. Not moving an inch as she stepped close to trace the slopes and dips of my pecs and abs, she bragged, “I was the first to ever touch these.” Her expression momentarily screwed into a grimace when she focused on my tattoo that said, ~Make Me~. But just as quickly, she ignored it and carried on. “You’ll never be able to escape the fact that I came first. I ~own~ you like no one else does.”

~Fuck you~, I screamed silently inside my head, just barely keeping myself from saying it out loud. She really couldn’t own me. She didn’t even ~know~ me.

Feeling as if I were being smeared with depravity every place she got me, I glanced up at the ceiling and gritted my teeth when she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to my chest. When I didn’t react enough for her pleasure, she bit me, making me flinch. Then she sucked at my flesh, marking me, marring me with her filth, and crumbling my soul to ash within her wicked grip.

This was what I was, a dirty toy for dirty women to play with.

I’d tried to escape it, but it was a futile effort. I’d always be a second-rate human, good for nothing but rich bitches to control. I’d gained nothing. I hadn’t grown up at all or learned any lessons. I was just the stupid, naïve kid whose yard she’d walked into two years ago before she’d convinced me to fuck her.

I felt sick to my stomach. A cold sweat covered my skin. Why the hell was I doing this again? To help Reese? Except doing this exact same thing with Monica hadn’t helped Reese at all, had it? Would it really protect her this time either?

I didn’t know, but I was too scared to take the chance.

Closing my eyes, I tried to go to my happy place, to block out what was happening when Patricia reached between my legs and grabbed me roughly through my jeans. But all I saw in my happy place was Reese, and pain squeezed tightly around my chest.

Her voice echoed through my head. ~The light is inside you~, she’d told Sarah, ~not anywhere else. No one else can really make you happy but you. You just have to remember to turn on that place inside you that makes you glow, and you’ll make it through any hard time that comes at you~.

Come on, come on, come on, I begged my inner light. Turn the fuck on already so I can see what to do. Sleeping with this woman didn’t feel right. But leaving Reese vulnerable felt worse. No matter what I did, it’d be wrong. Why wasn’t there a ~right~ side to any of this?

~Then do what you WANT to do~, a little voice inside me said. ~If you’re fucked either way and no way feels right, why be fucked and miserable~?

Jesus. That realization felt so logical and ~right~ that I opened my eyes, feeling my inner light finally click on. I looked down at the woman in front of me who was unzipping my pants.

And I caught her wrist, stopping her.

She looked up at me, her robe falling open to reveal the pure white teddy she wore. “Ask me,” she commanded, her voice filled with triumph.

This was where I was supposed to ask her what her fantasy was.

But the only thing I said was, “Fuck you.”

Then I spit in her face, making her screech out a strangled gasp of surprise, before I snatched up my shirt and walked out of her bedroom, leaving her sputtering behind me.