The Return

Having to go home to a small minded small town is one of those things you hope you never have to do. I knew I never wanted to go back. The problem was, after 14 years of marriage, we finally found out I couldn’t have kids. My husband was a lawyer who had gone into politics and he had always seemed reasonable to me, but when he divorced me, it came as a huge shock. Worse was when he took everything. The house, all of our things. I was lucky to get out with my clothes and my old car. All I had left was the old house my parents had left me in this shitty little town.

It looked almost exactly the same, nothing updated, nothing new. Just older and more faded. The house was exactly the same too. All the old furniture exactly as it had been for 50 years, the dishes in the cupboard, the old appliances. Even the clothes in my parents closet. My room was just as I left it after I had graduated highschool, right down to the Coldplay poster on the wall. There was even old homework still in the little trash can next to my old desk. It was like stepping through a time machine.

I looked around the old house, empty now for 6 years, looking for any immediate issues. Leaks in the ceiling, cracks, all the good stuff you find in a home that’s been empty for years. It actually seemed pretty solid for the most part, though the old garage door was off track and permanently shut unless I could fix it. The faucet in the kitchen didn’t work either, though the one in the bathroom did as long as I only wanted cold water. I went down to the basement and looked at the ancient water heater, knowing there was no way it was going to work. I had no idea what to even look at on it to see if it would turn on.

Instead of dwelling on it, I went back upstairs and sat down on the old couch, the cushions so worn down it felt like sitting on bare springs. Dust puffed up from it, making me cough and jump up, hurrying away from the cloud of it.

This really freaking sucked.

Suck it up. It could be worse. I could be stuck in a hotel spending money I didn’t have while trying to pull my life back together. This could be a fresh start. A new beginning.

A new beginning right back where I’d started out and dreamed of escaping for 18 years.

I decided to tackle my parents’ room first, boxing up all the clothes and other things and putting them out in the garage with the tons of boxes already out there. I would have to go through those later and maybe have a garage sale or something. Maybe I could make enough to get the hot water heater fixed?

I spent that night in my old bed after changing the linens and it felt so odd to be back in that room and that bed. It had been 17 years since I had been back here in this house. When my parents were still living, they had come to see me in their RV a few times a year and when they died, I’d had them cremated and sent to me since they were traveling when it happened. The RV had been completely totalled, burned down to a metal frame and nothing else. The house had already been locked up for them to travel so I wasn’t worried about hurrying back here and taking care of it. Then I’d sort of forgotten about it until Rick had divorced me and the judge hadn’t granted him this house as well, though he had tried for it. He’d gotten our house, the cabin and the summer house on the beach. I’d tried to ask him why he tried to take this house too and he yelled at me right there in the courtroom.

“You took EVERYTHING from me, Ava! Everything! You took YEARS of my life from me! You KNEW I wanted kids, a family!”

I think that was what hurt the most, the fact that he blamed me for not being able to have children, like I had tricked him somehow. And without the ability to have children, I was nothing to him at all. A doll for him to dress up and take to business parties and charity events. Someone to volunteer and organize and head up things in the community so he could brag about everything we did for the community. I was an accessory, and a disposable one at that once I became less useful.

He hadn’t even waited for the divorce to finalize before he started dating a girl who was still in college. A girl who was tall and curvy, built for having children.

I’d told myself I wasn’t going to cry again, but now here I was, wiping my eyes again and hating myself for being so useless. I hadn’t finished college, I’d met Rick my freshman year and he’d swept me off my feet. He was much older than I was, but I hadn’t cared. He took me around the world, showing me things I never imagined I would see, charming me, romancing me. When he asked me to marry him, I’d said yes without hesitating, I was so in love with him. I knew when he’d started demanding certain changes in me that it wasn’t really right, but I would have done anything for him. Including a breast enhancement, lip injections, fake hair extensions. He didn’t make me surgically alter my ass, that was the only thing he was already happy with, but I felt like he wanted to change everything else about me. I was fine with it, I WANTED to be perfect for him. I wanted to be everything for him.

I didn’t look back once after meeting him, not to lament not finishing college or ever having a career of my own. All I knew was charity events and organizing community events and volunteering to run things during fundraisers for charities. My whole life revolved around making his life better, making him look good.

Now me, as a person, I was useless. I was nothing without him, because he was all I had lived for. I felt helpless and lost. Where did I even start? Find a job as a waitress somewhere? I wasn’t qualified for anything.

No. I shook off the feeling sorry for myself and got out of bed, wiping my eyes. First things first. I started taking pictures of all of my high end name brand clothes, then I went up to the library and used their computers and internet to post the clothes in marketplace online. I would check back on them later.

From there I walked the single block to the hardware store, then had to step out of the way as a man came out backwards, talking to a man inside.

He turned and I stared up at him in horror.

Gerrid Hightower had been the quarterback, the dreamboat, the boy every girl in school had a crush on. He was still completely and utterly hot. I had never had a crush on him, but my heart still tried to stop beating as he turned and grinned down at me. Being noticed by one of the popular kids, even almost two decades later, was both thrilling and terrifying.

“Hey there,” he said lightly, holding the door open for me. “You new in town?”

“Umm… yes and no.”

He gave a single chuckle. “Well which is it?” he asked, stepping back inside behind me.

“I used to live here a long time ago but I moved away. I just got back yesterday.”

“Well welcome back. What’s your name?”

“Ava…” I answered breathlessly, wondering if he would remember me.

“Ava, pretty little name for a pretty little lady. What brings you here to this store, Ava? I’m a handyman of sorts, I can fix about anything.”

“Umm… I was just going to ask a few questions about my hot water heater?”

“Oh, ask away,” he grinned.

“Oh… umm… how do you turn it on? Make it work? It’s a really old one, like… 50 years old.”

“Well turning it on should be easy enough, what kind is it?”

“Umm… the kind that’s in the basement?”

He chuckled again. “How about I come take a look?”

“Oh, no! That’s ok. I was just going to ask and maybe see what I would need to fix it.”

“It’s no trouble, I’m off this afternoon anyway.”

“No, really… I… can’t afford it right now anyway, I was just figuring out how much it would cost!”

“Well, that’s a city girl talking,” he grinned. “I will take a look for free.”

“Umm… Thanks Gerrid, but really…”

“Oh ho! Now I guess I owe you an apology! We obviously already know each other, at least you know me. I don’t recall meeting you before? I am sure I would remember you.”

“She was in our class, Hightower,” the man at the counter rolled his eyes. “Ava Lowell?”

I looked at the man, then gave him a tight smile. “Hello Brian.”

“Ava,” he nodded.

“Ava Lowell?” Gerrid asked, confused. “Wait! You were that tiny little thing! I remember you! Pixie haircut, right?”

I nodded, my face turning red.

“See, now you HAVE to let me come and take a look, my way of apologizing for not recognizing you! You live on Pine, right? The old brick house that’s been empty so long?”

“Oh… umm… yeah?”

“Yeah, I did some tree work on it two years back after a big storm,” he offered, opening the door for me with a smile.

I stepped out, feeling a bit of dread welling up. I didn’t want to owe Gerrid Hightower anything. He’d always been a dog back in highschool and I couldn’t imagine a man with a face and body like his changing at all.

“Umm, it really is ok. You don’t have to do this. I just wanted an idea of what was needed,” I told him nervously, twisting my keys in my hands.

“It’s no problem at all! I can’t let a pretty little thing like you go without hot water, can I? Come on. You need a ride or should I just meet you there?” he asked, his hand on the handle of his truck.

“Umm… I have a car, I left it parked at the library.”

“I’ll see you at the house, then,” he grinned.

I felt a little sick as I walked to my car. It was fine, I told myself. It’s a small town, that’s what people do. They help old classmates. Right? And he was probably flirting a little, but I could just let him know I wasn’t on the market. I just went through a bad divorce and I wasn’t interested. I didn’t have to tell him that I’d never been interested in him, I’d always thought he was a complete asshole. My crush had always been on Mike Hanover, the valedictorian. He was so cute and so incredibly smart. He’d never looked my way once, but I’d had a crush on him since 5th grade. He’d started dating Alicia Freemont in 8th grade and they’d dated all through school and got married as soon as they were out of highschool. That hadn’t stopped me from being head over heels for him right up until I met Rick. Mike had been the only one of Gerrids friends that wasn’t a complete douchebag.

I pulled into the drive, looking at the truck in front of the house with another feeling of deep foreboding. Getting out, I went around the car and met him halfway from his truck.

“I got a call,” I lied, I didn’t even have a cellphone.”I need to go to the realtor’s office and sign a few papers I missed.”

“Oh, that can wait,” he grinned. “Melinda will be there till 6. Come on,” he smiled, taking my keys from my hand and going up to the door. He let himself in, then held the door open for me as I blinked in a stunned sort of shock. He shut the door when I came in and dropped the keys in the dish by the door as he looked around. “Wow. This place is… retro? It needs a huge facelift, doesn’t it?”

“Umm… It was my grandparents, then my parents. They never really changed much. Especially once they started traveling, they didn’t really need to. Umm… the basement is through there, the door next to the garage door.”

I followed him down the steps and watched him circle the hot water heater and furnace. “Well, good news and bad news,” he called.

“Ok?” I asked nervously. “Good news is, I can fix it. Bad news is, I’ll have to wait for parts. Parts won’t be cheap on this old model either. You might be better off upgrading. I might be able to jerry-rig it for a temporary fix, but that might now work either. For now you may have to do the old heat water on the stove trick. That old stove work?”

“Umm… I didn’t check it? And there’s no running water in the kitchen? But there is in the bathroom.”

He snorted a laugh. “Looks like you need quite a bit of work done!”

“No, I will get to it eventually! I can take care of all of it slowly. None of it is…”

“Stop acting all worried, Ava,” he smiled his dazzling smile. “None of this is a big deal and if I didn’t want to help I wouldn’t be here. Now come on, show me the rest of the house so I can see what else needs done.”

I felt a little anxious as I led him up the stairs and showed him the sink. He looked under it, then nodded. “I have what I need to fix it in the truck,” he told me, turning to the stove. “Avocado green,” he grinned. “They don’t make’m like these anymore! Still works! Oven too. When did you get the power turned on?” he asked, opening the fridge and sticking his hand in.

“Day before yesterday? I called before I came to have it done.”

“Well, don’t put anything in here that might spoil. You can keep things cool, but nothing will keep. I can look and see if I can fix it, but let me look around and see what else needs fixed.”

“You really don’t have to,” I told him quickly.

He just grinned at me as he went down the hall and stepped into the bathroom. I hovered at the door until he came out and opened the door across the hall.

“That’s just my old bedroom!” I told him quickly as he looked around.

“Wow. Guess your folks didn’t believe in updating anything or moving on?” he asked, sounding like he was a little surprised.

He stepped out, then went down to the last room, my parents room.

“Guess you’ve been working on this room? This where you’ll be sleeping probably?” he asked.

“Umm, yeah. Probably, it is the master bedroom.”

“Yeah. Foundation seems great, no leaks that I saw anywhere either. I’ll get up in the attic and on the roof later,” he told me, turning a circle in the room. He looked down at me again, then grinned. “Why don’t you come over here a minute?” he asked, catching my arm and pulling me to sit on the bed. “How could a girl as hot as you have possibly escaped my notice?” he asked, pushing me to lay back on the bed and leaning over me.

“Get up! I… look. I just got out of a bad divorce and I’m not looking for…”

“Of course you are,” he teased, leaning closer. “It’s what all you girls wanted. A chance at me. My bed for a night. That’s why you got me here, right?” he asked, leaning closer and trying to kiss me.

“NO! No, I told you NOT to come! More than once!”

“You tried to play it off, but an idiot could see you wanted to get me here alone in your bedroom,” he rumbled, taking hold of my wrist as I tried to push him off of me. He caught my other wrist and held them both above my head in one hand as he smirked down at me. “All you girls always tryin’ to get me into your beds. Some things never change, do they?” he asked, sliding his free hand down and cupping my breast through my shirt and bra. “Fuck these tits are nice, babe.”

“Stop! Stop it now, I mean it! I don’t want this, I don’t want you here at all! I never liked you, Gerrid! I always thought you were a jerk!”

“Sure you did,” he chuckled, sliding his hand down further and unbuttoning my pants. “Just relax, babe. I got you,” he whispered, kissing my jaw.

“STOP!” I screamed, trying to kick at him.

“That’s enough of that, babe,” he growled, his massive hand gripping my thigh painfully. “No more of that bullshit, ever. I don’t like it.”

I stared up at him in horror, shaking my head. “Please don’t do this?” I pleaded as he started shoving my pants down. “I really don’t want this? Please? I just want to…”

“Shhh, babe,” he rumbled, trying to kiss my lips again. “No more fake protests. I know what you want and I’m here to give it to you. Nnn, fuck. I like that bald little pussy. That looks good enough to eat,” he breathed, looking down at my exposed sex as he worked my pants down further along with my underwear. When he got them far enough, he shoved them off with his long legs before moving up to undo his own jeans.

“Please please please,” I begged, shaking my head. “Don’t do this! I don’t want this, please!”

“No more babe,” he growled, jerking my hips around so I was under him. “I know you want my cock. You want me. You’ve been dreaming of this,” he whispered, then spit on his fingers and rubbed it over my pussy.

I squealed in revulsion and his hand tightened painfully around my wrists.

“Shut the fuck up!” he grated through clenched teeth. “Knock that shit off right now! You want this! You ALL want this!” he roared, then rammed his thick cock into me.

I let out a wail of shock and horror as he spread me open and pounded into my inner wall hard enough to bruise me.

“Fuuuck,” he groaned, his head tilting back as he closed his eyes. “You feel so fucking good. So fucking hot, babe. So fucking tight. You like this cock, babe?” he asked, easing out slowly, then pushing back in just as slowly.

I shook my head, sobbing as he leaned over me and held my face in his free hand. He was slow and gentle after the initial push, making love to me as he whispered to me. All I could do was shake my head and pray for it to be over soon. When it started to feel good, I opened my eyes and shook my head harder. No! No, I didn’t want that! Not for him!

“Fuck, baby,” he whispered. “I can’t wait to eat that pussy. Hold your tight little body up against the wall and make you ride my face. You want that baby? You want me to make you scream for me? Nnn, fuck. God you fucking feel good, baby. You want my cum, Ava? You want me to cum on your face? Your tits? Inside you? You want to swallow it for me? Mmm, baby, tell me where you want it!” he groaned. I only sobbed, shaking my head.

He shoved off of me suddenly and pulled out, shoving my shirt up as He stroked his cock above me. He came, shooting a long rope of hot cum all over my bra, part of it hitting my neck. The next long rope landed between my breasts, then another over my bra again before the last one shot out onto my stomach.

“Fuck, baby,” he panted, falling into bed next to me as he grabbed my arm so I couldn’t get up. “That was fucking hot. I love the lacy frilly bra, the white looks great over that hot pink lace. Should have taken a pic of your bra and matching panties. Those are real fucking nice.”

“Please let me go!” I begged.

“A minute, babe,” he panted. “Just stay close here a minute. Let me catch my breath, then I’ll fix the sink.”

“No! I just want you to leave!”

“Don’t get all dramatic on me,” he laughed, rolling to his side to look down at me. “That was fucking good, babe. Don’t go getting all pouty on me now, you know I hate that shit.”

How could I possibly know that?!? What was wrong with him?

“Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up and you can put your clothes back on,” he grinned, then leaned in and kissed my lips before I could turn away.

I felt completely numb as he cleaned me off, taking my bra off for me and tossing it down before pulling my shirt down.

“Your tits look great through that shirt,” he grinned. “Come on. I have my tools in the truck,” he told me, grabbing my hand and pulling me outside with him to his truck.

I looked around, still numb as he handed me a small bag, then lifted a large toolbox out of the bed. He pulled me right back inside and kicked the door shut before letting my hand go as he swung me towards the kitchen.

“Pull up a chair, babe, you can hand me tools.”

“I don’t want you to fix anything,” I told him, a bare whisper. “I just want you to leave!”

“I told you to quit pouting, Ava,” he admonished. “You’re just fine. I’ll make sure you get yours before bed tonight, ok? That make you feel better? If I make you come for me? Make you scream my name?”

“No,” I shook my head, confused at how obtuse he was being. “No, I don’t want you in my house! I want you to leave! You just RAPED me!”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t be such a drama queen. You brought me here to fuck you, you got what you wanted and you fucking loved it. I bet your pussy is still wet for me, isn’t it? No more of that talk, Ava, or I get to spank you like a bad little girl. Is that what you want? That get you off? Being spanked? You want daddy to spank you? Make you be a good girl for him? I can do that,” he smirked. “Open your mouth to complain again and I’ll know that’s what you want.”

I sat there miserably, glancing at the door. How long until he left? How long would I have to put up with this? His… craziness.

He finished the sink, then got up, smiling down at me. “All fixed! I’ll pull out the fridge and take a look!”

He pulled me along with him, moving my chair close so that he could reach me again. He kept stroking my leg and putting a hand on my thigh as he used his other hand and tested things.

“Doesn’t sound like there’s enough coolant. Fridge this old, they don’t use the same stuff anymore. Better off getting a newer used one. I have a friend with an extra one in his garage he just keeps beer in, he’d probably trade you since this will keep his beers cool enough. This’ll be a bitch to move, but I can handle it no problem. Noticed all the old windows too. I know a guy that replaces those for energy efficient ones and he owes me a favor. We won’t have to worry about if the AC works till spring or summer, but I’ll need to take a look at the heater pretty soon. I’ll get the size and pick up a filter, too. What do you want for dinner? I’ll have it delivered.”

“No, it’s ok. I’m fine,” I told him quickly.

“Don’t be silly. If you don’t pick, I’m just getting a pizza. That ok? Yeah? What do you want to drink?”

I just stared at him in complete disbelief. After what he had done, he was just going to pretend everything was fine and normal? What kind of man did that?!?

Getting up, he pulled me to the living room as he dialed the phone. I pulled back when he went to sit down. “I haven’t vacuumed those yet, they have years of dust on them. Enough to choke a horse.”

“Good lookin’ out babe,” he grinned, tapping my nose with his finger. “Hey Ron! Gerrid. My usual, but a large not a medium and a two liter of pepsi. Different address too, hold on. What’s the address here babe?”

I told him glumly and he repeated it back to the man, then hung up.

“Why don’t you grab the vacuum and I’ll take the cushions out and shake them out?” he asked, picking up two cushions from the couch.

I stared at him with my mouth open, then sighed, pulled out the old vacuum cleaner and hooked up the extension so I could use it on the furniture.

When the pizza arrived, he brought it in with a grin and set it on the dining room table, pulling me to sit down next to him. “We can finish up a few more things after we eat,” he promised, putting a slice of pizza on my plate. “I’m gonna need to install you a dishwasher too,” he noted, looking around the kitchen as he ate. “What do you think, right there next to the sink?” he asked.

I shrugged, watching him warily.

“That’s the best spot,” he nodded. “You know, I can paint this room too. Update it, paint the cabinets. I could make it look great in here as soon as you switch out that ugly old stove. I’m guessin’ you ain’t working yet? That’s why you’re waitin’ on everything? I could find a stove pretty cheap, one newer than that one that’ll look better. Maybe even free. I’ll ask around, I have a lot of friends in this town. You’ll be needin a washer and dryer too. I’ll put out feelers on that too. Eat up, babe. Still a lot left to do before bedtime!”

Taking a bite of the pizza, I sighed glumly. What the hell was wrong with him? Did he think of sex, even taking it like he had, as some sort of payment for his work? Why was he doing all of this after taking what he wanted? Why couldn’t he just leave and leave me alone now?

After he ate, he cheerfully started doing other little things around the old house, then he saw the garage door.

“I can work on that tomorrow after I get done with what I have scheduled,” he told me, looking it over.

I said nothing, just glowering at him. Tomorrow my doors would all be locked.

It was dark out when he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the bedroom. “You have any blankets for this bed? A sheet or something?” he asked.

“Just my blankets in my old room,” I answered slowly. He didn’t think he was spending the night here, did he?!?

He did.

He grabbed my blankets off the bed and tossed them on the fitted sheet before grabbing me with a grin and tossing me on the bed.

I immediately tried to sit up and move to the other side of the bed and off, but he caught my ankle and pulled me close.

“I made you a promise, babe,” he smirked, undoing my pants as I tried to push his hands away.

“No! Not again, please! What’s WRONG with you? Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I cried, trying to twist away.

“I said that’s enough!” he yelled, grabbing my arms and pinning me down painfully as he put his face in mine. “You won’t act like this again, do you hear me? Do I need to punish you before you’ll listen, Ava? I will if I have to! That’s enough!”

I stared up at him wide eyed, my breathing rapid as my heart hammered in my chest. He was… not right in the head!

Standing off of me with a rough shove, he started taking his clothes off, glaring down at me.

He still had an amazingly sculpted body for a man in his 30’s. I didn’t understand it at all. He was hot as hell, a perfect body, what was his hangup with me? I was a no-one back then and I was a no-one now. Useless.

Leaning over me, he yanked my pants off roughly, then my shirt before standing and looking me over. His look went from angry to hungry as he looked at my face and smirked. “Babe… you are so fucking hot.”

Liar. I was just an easy target for him to do what he wanted with. A vulnerable woman all alone with nothing.

He pushed my legs apart and I tried to wriggle back, but he grabbed my thighs and looked at me with a cold and commanding look. When I went still, staring at him in a panic, he pushed my legs open wider and looked down at me.

“Love the pussy, baby. Shave or wax?”

I shook my head, too afraid to speak.

“Answer me, Ava,” he snarled loudly.

“Neither! Neither… he… my ex took me to get it all removed. Electrolysis.”

“Fucking hot,” he breathed, running his fingers over my mound gently. “I fucking love it, baby,” he half whispered, moving closer, positioning himself so that his face was a few inches away from my pussy. “You like having your pussy eaten baby?” he asked excitedly.

“No!” I cried quickly, though I actually had no idea. Rick had never done that for me.

“Then you haven’t had it done right,” he smirked, his eyes moving up to meet mine.

“Gerrid, please!” I implored.

“Hush, babe,” he rumbled, then leaned in and kissed my mound.

I let out a whimpering cry and closed my eyes wishing I would wake up and this wouldn’t be real.

He kissed my mound again and again, moving lower as he did until he kissed my clit. His tongue darted out, licking quickly and making me twitch slightly. My eyes opened along with my mouth as I sucked in a breath. His tongue darted out again, then he licked slowly up and down my entire slit, making me shiver involuntarily. Turning slightly, he kissed my labia on one side, then sucked on it, pulling and tugging with his lips. He moved to the other as I squirmed and blinked up at the ceiling, trying to block out the feelings he was bringing up.

It felt good, but it wasn’t overwhelming, just… very nice.

His lips moved to my inner folds and he sucked again, his tongue swirling and flicking before he pulled back, sucking hard, letting them slip out as he pulled.

I was panting, trying not to focus on it, trying not to let the bliss in.

His lips closed around my clit and he sucked again, more gently this time, pulling gently as he sucked over and over again, moving his head slightly to pull.

“Oh god,” I whispered,” shaking my head. It felt amazing. Everything I had read about and more, it was divine!

He opened his mouth slightly, pulling more of my mound up with my clit, then his tongue began rolling my clit and pressing against it, rubbing back and forth.

I whimpered again, but it was in ecstasy this time. This was so much better than I had ever imagined!

His hand released my hip and I realizedI had relaxed my legs for him completely, opening to him. Slipping his hand around, he eased a finger into my pussy, then twisted it, turning it upward and curling it slightly to rub from the inside.

I let go completely, no longer fighting or trying to stop it. I wanted more! I wanted to come, I could feel it building up. I went tense, trying to urge the feeling closer, pull it to me.

Gerrid growled, and I realized I had tightened my thighs around his head, but he seemed to like it as his mouth worked harder and faster.

I let out another whimpering wail, lifting my hips up off the bed, pressing into his mouth. His finger worked faster inside me and his mouth sucked harder, his tongue working furiously.

“Yes,” I whispered as it rose up, then clenched my teeth as it hit. Sweeping over me like a torrent, it was so different from anything I had done for myself with a vibrator. It was bigger in every way, making my body shiver and tremble almost violently.

Gerrid moaned, his mouth still sucking and working me as I let out a keening wail through my clenched teeth. A sharp, very different pleasure spiked up, almost painful and I felt fluid squirt out of my pussy as I cried out in shock.

I came down, confused and out of breath, my muscles not wanting to move at all.

“Mmmm, baby, that was fucking hot,” he laughed throatily, lifting up to run his hand over his wet chin and neck. “I think you like having your pussy eaten, don’t you? Your ex just sucked at it.”

I looked back up at the ceiling, not bothering to correct him.

Grabbing my leg under my knee, Gerrid moved up on the bed, pulling my leg up with him as he moved. I didn’t even have time to open my mouth to say no before he shoved his hard cock into me. I was so wet, he slid in with ease and I hissed in a breath as my body immediately woke back up.

“Fuck, baby, you feel so fucking good,” he breathed, letting out a deep breath as he held himself there a moment. “Like your cunt was made for my cock. How long have you wanted my cock, baby? How long have you dreamed of it? Is it better than you imagined? I fucking know it is, baby. Look at you. Fuck, you are so fucking hot, baby! You feel so good!” he groaned, pumping slowly.

He kept talking, his words turning softer as he stroked my face, but I hardly heard him. My body wanted more than what he was giving me. I wanted faster… much faster.

I moved my hands down to his hips and pulled as I lifted my own hips, trying to force him to move faster.

“Mmm, baby, this what you want?” he asked, shoving in hard and deep, hammering into me rapidly. “This how you like it, Ava? Fuck, you’re gonna fucking cum again, aren’t you?” he asked wondrously. “Fuck yeah, baby,” he growled, moving even faster.

I cried out, it was all too much! The pleasure spiked painfully again, a bliss filled explosion as more fluid squirted out of my pussy.

“Fuck, baby! I’m coming!” he panted, then growled lightly as he shoved in and held himself there, thrusting very shallowly as his cock throbbed and spilled into me.

“No,” I whimpered, shaking my head as he collapsed on top of me.

“Holy fucking shit, baby,” he panted, trying to catch his breath. “That was fucking amazing!”

I shook my head again, regretting giving in to him, wishing my body hadn’t betrayed me so utterly.

“Fuck,” Gerrid panted, rolling off of me to the side of the bed closest to the door. “I need a fucking shower but I can’t do cold showers,” he laughed. “I’ll have to wait till morning when I get home. My dreams will be amazing, smelling your pussy all night,” he laughed, rolling to his side and pulling me higher on the bed as he moved up. “You get the wet side, but it’s low enough you won’t even notice it,” he grinned. “Tiny little thing you are, your feet are a foot away from it. Bet you’re wiped now, aren’t you?” he asked, leaning over me, propped up on his elbow as he held me around the waist with his other hand.

I looked away to the far wall, not answering him. My cheeks were burning with shame, I was so humiliated!

“Come on over here, babe,” he rumbled, pulling me against him and turning my face to his. Forcing a kiss on me, he held my jaw tightly in his hand. His kiss was hard and forceful, not soft or pleasant at all.

Finally letting my face go, he curled around me with a low rumble and sighed as he pulled me in close against him. Within minutes, he was snoring softly, his face nuzzled in my neck and hair. I could only lay there, still stunned and confused and completely defeated.

Was this my punishment for ruining Rick’s life? For not being able to give him children? For being a completely useless human being?

Once I was sure he was asleep, I tried to ease out of his arms slowly, but he was a light sleeper, immediately waking and jerking his arms around me with a growl. Three more times it happened and he woke every single time. The fourth time he sat up and leaned over me.

“Damnit, Ava! Stop waking me up! You know I have to work in the morning! Be still and go to sleep! Do you want me to beat your ass?”

I went still, hunching around myself and going stiff.

He had to work in the morning, that meant he would leave. He would leave and I could lock him out. I could go into town and talk to the police and tell them he was a psychopath. Be rid of him.

I lay there planning, going over my options, thinking about what I needed to do as soon as this creep was gone.

An eternity later, I was still laying there, sore and stiff as the sun came up. I started wondering what time he would have to go to work and if I should wake him, but I didn’t have to wait long as his phone alarm went off across the room in his jeans pocket.

“Fuuuuck,” he grumbled, rolling out of bed and fishing for his phone to turn off the alarm. “It’s too fucking early,” he mumbled, falling back into bed as I eased off the other side. “Lay back down, babe,” he sighed. “Just two more minutes, I have the snooze on. C’mon.”

I glanced at the door, then decided it would be better to humor him for five more minutes than it would to try and run and piss him off. I eased onto the bed and he immediately yanked me close and rolled over the top of me, groping and kissing.

“Wait! You said sleep!” I panted, trying to twist out of his grip.

“Nnn, babe, I said get back in bed,” he grinned. “I’m gonna fuck you till you cain’t fucking stand, baby,” he chuckled, shoving my legs apart roughly.

“Gerrid, please!” I cried, trying to roll away.

“Mmm, fuck yeah, baby, beg me to fuck you,” he rumbled, moving down enough to press his fingers against my vulnerable pussy, rubbing almost painfully hard against my clit as he shoved a finger into me dry. “Nothin’ better than starting the day off right,” he breathed, pulling his hand up to spit on his fingers, then rub it over my slit as I cried out in revulsion.

“Gerrid!” I yelled, my hands trying to push him back as he moved up and pressed his cock to my now wet slit. “Don’t, please!”

“Shhh, baby,” he groaned, then pressed the head of his cock to my slit and rubbed it along the wetness there. “Fucking hot,” he whispered, then grabbed my leg and pulled it high before grabbing the other one. He shoved them both high as I cried out, folding me in half before pressing his cock to my slit again and ramming in with a roar through clenched teeth.

I screamed as his cock slammed into me, the pain of it immediately turning into bliss and waking my needs.

“Fuuuuuck, Ava,” he breathed, lifting himself up to get a better angle as he held himself up on my doubled over legs. I could hardly breath and the pain was tremendous, but my body didn’t seem to care as I immediately got excited. I could see the muscles in his chest and arms working as he held me down and started pumping his hips into me, it was both beautiful and heavenly as his cock pounded into that spot over and over again. The pain, the forced submission, being held down, it all seemed to roll together and feed the excitement and need. I liked it. I never imagined I would like it, but it felt so good, being controlled, being made to submit.

My body was his.

I let out a wail of surrender, feeling half delirious as he fucked me.

He came quickly, throbbing and pulsing inside of me, his cum filling me and making me whimper and beg for more. I wanted to be completely full of his cum! All of me.

His breathing was rapid and heavy as he leaned over me and I was still writhing with need. I wanted to come still! I wanted more pain and more control! I wanted to be owned completely! I wanted to be filled with him everywhere!

“Please, Gerrid,” I begged as he eased out of me. “Fuck my ass and fill me up with all your come,” I begged, not even hearing myself as I pleaded with him deleriously.

“Mmmm, baby, gladly. I will take care of you tonight, I promise. Be ready for me, babe, I am going to take you places you’ve never been,” he rumbled, kissing along my jaw as he got up. “Touch yourself for me,” he commanded as he started to pull his clothes on.

I didn’t hesitate, reaching down to rub my clit.

“Finger yourself too,” he demanded.

I slid two fingers into my sopping wet pussy and rubbed harder around my clit as he watched me.

“That’s fucking hot baby,” he smirked. “That’s my perfect fucking girl. Get yourself off for me, baby. All day. I want you to stay right fucking here in this bed and make yourself come for me and think about me all day. I’m gonna pick up a few toys for you baby,” he promised. “Keep you nice and full and satisfied while I’m at work. Another finger baby. Fuck yourself nice and hard. You close baby? Mmmm, I’m gonna make you squirt for me again tonight while I’m buried in your ass. You want me to fill you full, baby? Bring a toy for your cunt while I fuck your ass?”

“Ohhh…. Yes!!! Yes please!” I begged, writhing on the bed as I tried to bring myself closer.

“You want me to eat that ass?” he asked, his mouth in my ear now.

“Mmmmm, I don’t know… I want to come! I want you to tell me what to do, Gerrid! I want to be yours, I want you to own me! Please! Tell me!”

“I want you to come for me, baby,” he purred, kissing along my neck as he reached down and slid a finger into me alongside my own. He fucked me with it slowly, then eased it out and slid it down to my ass and pressed it in.

I hissed in a shocked breath, my eyes going wide as his thick finger filled my ass. “Ohhh! Gerrid! That feels… oh god, don’t stop!” I begged.

“Mmm, baby, fuck!” he growled, ramming a second finger into my ass and fucking me with them roughly.

“Oh god!” I cried, letting the pain and excitement and bliss roll me completely. I came with his mouth on mine, whimpering into him as he held me down.

“Fuuuuck, babe!” he breathed, pulling back to look down at me in wonder. “That was so fucking hot! You are perfect babe, so fucking perfect!”

I only let out an exhausted sigh as he leaned in and kissed my head, then stood. I closed my eyes for a moment, then when I opened them again, the room was warm and the light was odd. Sitting up, my body ridiculously sore, I realized it was afternoon. Maybe even evening. I had no idea.

Jumping up, I ran to the front room and locked the door, then the deadbolt as well. I went to the back door and locked it as well, then let out a relieved sigh.

As amazing as it had all felt, I didn’t want him and his craziness back here, not at all.

How could I find out what time it was? I really needed to get a phone. I remembered there was a wall clock in the hallway, but it looked like it had stopped working years ago. I had zero idea what time of the day it even was! It didn’t matter, I realized. My day would be normalized tomorrow. I put water on to boil and ran more water in the tub as I waited for the water to heat. It had been years since I’d had a bath of any sort, let alone a shallow and tepid bath. I didn’t care, I was clean. I felt much better after I was clean and from the look of the light, it was starting to get late as I dressed and went through the rest of my things.

I heard his huge truck pull up and I felt a little nauseated as I went to my bedroom window and peeked out. He was carrying a couple of shopping bags with his as he walked up to the door, smiling. When he hit the porch, he was out of my view from the window, but I still sat there, watching and listening. Waiting for the knock. The yell. Would he yell? I should have gone next door and asked to use a phone! What if he didn’t just leave? What if he threw a fit and caused a scene?

“Babe! I’m home!” he yelled.

From INSIDE the house.

I spun to the doorway of my room in absolute horror. How had he gotten in? I had locked everything up!

He stopped at my door and looked in, grinning. “Hey babe! Come in here, I have a few things for you!”

I stared, my mouth open.

“Come on!” he laughed, coming in and grabbing my hand, pulling me out to the living room.

“How did you get in?” I finally asked as he sat me down.

“Keys?” he laughed. “You feeling ok, babe? Here, look at this. I hope this phone will work for you? It’s the best they had at the store. I can order you another one online, a better one, but this one will work for now, right? I have my name programmed in for you. Here. I put the groceries on the counter in there. Nothing perishable. I have a microwave out in the truck too, I’ll bring that in in a bit. I have chinese ordered and it will be here soon, that ok with you? Wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a variety. You know, I was thinkin’, babe? This place is in pretty rough shape. You should just come stay with me while I fix this place up for you, then you can rent it out. Give you some pocket money for yourself for things you want. It makes sense, my place is pretty nice. You wanna come and check it out? I can move you in no problem, have this place done in a couple weeks. You could have tenants and an income for yourself by the first. I can take care of everything else. C’mere, babe. This laptop work for you for now? It’s not top of the line, but I was going to see what you needed before I went all out, you know? Like, you wouldn’t need a fast processor if you weren’t into gaming, or a huge memory if…”

“Gerrid!” I interrupted, shaking my head. “No… you don’t have to do any of this, I don’t want any of it! I’m not…”

“Don’t be that way, babe. I know your pride is huge, but you don’t have to worry about it, I want to do this for you. My girl needs a phone and a way to get things done from home. I’ll get internet hooked up real soon too. Unless you just move in with me, I already have internet. Will that laptop work or do you need something different?”

“Gerrid, stop! I’m not your girlfriend! I’m not… anything to you! I’m just a girl you went to school with a long time ago and then you ran into and… raped. Repeatedly. I don’t want you here, Gerrid! I want you to take all of this and leave, now.”

“Babe,” he smiled condescendingly as he leaned closer. I stood quickly and he stood too, his hand darting out to catch me. Shoving me back to the wall roughly, he held me against it as he looked down at me with a heated gaze. “I told you, Ava,” he whispered. “Don’t go acting up, I don’t like it. Not at all. I want my good, perfect girl from this morning. That was nice, wasn’t it? Isn’t that what you want, Ava? A life like that? No more acting out, my Ava. You know I hate it. Come sit down with me and see what else I got you,” he told me, his tone dangerous. He led me to the couch and made me sit down with him. “I noticed you didn’t have much by way of toiletries, just that old bar of soap and a bottle of Pert that looked like it’s been there since the eighties. I liked the way this shampoo smelled and this conditioner is special for curly hair. This soap smelled nice and…” he went on, pulling out all kinds of things from the bag that were actually useful. Things that I definitely needed, like deodorant and toothpaste. If he wasn’t a psychopath, it would have been incredibly thoughtful. “Do you like the smell?” he asked, holding the perfume to my nose.

“Yeah,” I answered quietly, warily. “Thank you, for all of this. It was nice of you.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” he shook his head quickly. “This is all necessities, you need these things. I want to make sure you have all you need and all you want too. That’s the chinese, sit tight, babe,” he smiled, leaning in to kiss my head as he jumped up.

He went to the door and I picked up the phone, trying to turn it on, watching as he met the delivery boy more than halfway down the walk.

It finally made the loading screen, then opened the setup menu. I growled in frustration, trying to exit so I could dial 911.

“Come eat!” he called happily, kicking the door shut and stepping in. His eyes went to the phone and his smile froze on his face. “Here, I’ll set it up for you,” he said a little coldly, taking the phone from me. “Come on. Grab the paper plates out of that bag. I figured there’s no reason to have to try and do dishes with no hot water, right? I called Gene today by the way and he has a cheap water heater he pulled from another house when they upgraded. He also has a fridge and range for pretty cheap from the same house. They upgraded everything when they put it up for sale. Here, you like chow mein?”

I nodded slightly and set the plates out, along with the plastic forks.

“Good! You like the nail polish I got you? I liked the colors, knew they’d look good on you.”

I nodded again, eating the food he put on my plate. I was actually starving.

“I brought my laptop too, and a couple movies. Thought we could watch them in bed. I have a TV to set up in your room, but it’s sitting in my garage right now. I thought if you were going to move in, I could put it in your room. It can be whatever you want, an office, a craft room, gaming room, whatever you like to do. What do you like to do?” he asked, looking at me as he ate.

I stared at him a moment, then shrugged. “I… used to volunteer a lot.”

“Volunteer?” he asked.

“Charity fundraisers. I organized them and set them up. Raised money for causes.”

“Oh… well that’s really cool! A big heart is awesome! What else?”

I looked away, blushing. “I did it for my ex… he had me do it so that… he would look better. It looked good that his wife was so active in charity work… mostly I liked organizing it, putting it all together and making it happen. Don’t… don’t think that I was doing it to be altruistic. It was for press.”

“But still, you did good things, even if you feel like they weren’t for the right reasons. Good deeds are good deeds. What were your hobbies?”

I looked away again, looking around the old kitchen. “I didn’t really have any. I went to dinners with Rick, organized charity fundraisers, handled PR for him, just sort of… did everything for him.”

“Oh… guess that’s why you left him? You were sick of him using you that way?”

I blushed furiously, tears welling in my eyes. “He divorced me when he found out I couldn’t have kids,” I blurted out, hurt and angry. “He wanted a family, a family looks better in the press.”

“Geez, babe. I’m sorry he did that. That really sucks. My first wife left me too but she was less of a bitch than yours was. He sounds like a real piece of shit. So you don’t really know what you like? Maybe you could have fun finding out? Hey! Hey, Ava, you know what? Remember my little sister, Genny?”

“Yeah?”

“She runs a wedding planning business and she was just saying she needed an assistant! You like planning things, that sounds right up your alley! You want me to talk to her, introduce you so you can hear about it? See if it’s something you like? You don’t have to work if you don’t want to, but it sounds like something you would like. I want you to be happy.”

I stared at him, a little torn. Who the hell was this man? The job did sound amazing, the thought of planning weddings actually thrilled me. “Ok,” I breathed, wondering what I was getting myself into. I couldn’t let myself get sucked into this man’s craziness, no matter how enticing it was.

“Good!” he grinned, his eyes shining happily. “I’ll call her in the morning! She’ll be stoked to have someone with experience and not a highschool kid who is on their phone all the time. Finish eating, babe, I want to show you the toys I brought!”

I swallowed hard as I hid my face, remembering that morning and all the things I had said. The way I had lost myself to him and begged him to… do things to me.

“I thought we were going to watch a movie?” I asked softly.

“We will! But after… I am going to fulfill every promise I made to you,” he grinned, his smile smoky now.

I felt both thrilled and terrified.

He finished, then got up and went outside as I finished eating. He brought in a microwave, still in the box and set it up as I watched him, then put away groceries from the bags as I stared in confusion and dread.

There was something wrong with him… but it was also just a tiny bit endearing. He was trying so hard… but it was also just him. That was who he was, he wasn’t just trying hard for me. He wasn’t going to let me go, but he was going to keep trying and trying to spoil me. Not with high end products from salons like Rick, but with normal things from the local drugstore. For some reason that was more special to me than Rick just handing me a credit card and sending me to the salon. More personal and sweet.

When he finished, he turned to me, his face pleasant as he took my hand and pulled me up. He picked up his overnight bag and another large shopping bag and led me back to the master bedroom.

“Help me with this,” he grinned, yanking the sheets off the bed. He pulled out a bed in a bag bedding set and I helped him make the bed as he grinned at me. “I admit, I love the thought of having to get another one tomorrow,” he told me, his eyes shining. “I kinda hope I do.”

I blushed and he pulled out two big fluffy towels from the bag and set them on the chest near the door.

He opened his bag and set a laptop on the bed and another smaller shopping bag on the nightstand on that side of the bed. I looked at the bag in a sick sort of fascination as he grinned at me.

“Clothes,” he told me, pulling his own shirt off.

I hesitated, then pulled off my pants and got into bed, not looking at him. He said nothing about not taking off my shirt, just pulled me close as he opened his laptop and showed me five redbox movies he brought, all very different.

I actually smiled before I could help it and tapped the action movie. He grinned and popped it in before turning off the light and getting back into bed.

This was ok, I told myself. I would take care of being rid of him tomorrow, but tonight I could just put up with it. Maybe even try and enjoy it.

He held me to his chest and rolled his thumb over my arm below my sleeve as we watched the movie. I woke up to his alarm, jerking sleepily.

I had fallen asleep?

He had let me sleep?

He grumbled and grabbed his phone, looking at it in the dark room.

“I gotta go to work, babe,” he rumbled, rolling me off of his chest as he leaned over me. He pressed his lips to mine and kissed me passionately, stroking my face. “I’ll have to keep that promise tonight instead, Ava,” he smiled. “You passed out and looked so sweet and peaceful, I didn’t have the heart to wake you. You must have been damned tired,” his smile was… loving. I didn’t get it at all.

What was his deal?

“I have to get to work, babe, I wish I had time for a morning quickie, but I’m running behind. I didn’t reset my alarm for today. See you this evening,” he grinned, kissing my nose, then getting up. He dressed quickly and I sat up, watching him.

Was I just a tiny bit disappointed?

I hurried to my room after he left, watching out the window as he pulled away, then hurried to get dressed myself. I grabbed up my keys and noticed two extra ones on the keyring. House keys, not mine. I was guessing they were his…

Wow.

I hurried to my car and drove straight to the police station, thinking over what I needed to say, almost feeling a little guilty after all Gerrid had done for me. Still, I didn’t hesitate as I parked and walked in, ready to unload.

Instead, I stood there staring at Mike Hanover, still completely adorable, especially in the uniform and badge. Holy fucking hell.

Gerrids best friend.

This wasn’t going to work…

“Hello, how can I help you?” Mike asked me with a friendly smile, his eyes taking me in quickly.

“I… uhhh… ummm… no. No, it’s alright,” I breathed quickly, backing up and stumbling into the door.

I turned and fled back to my car, then hurried away.

What were the damned chances of that? Of Mike Hanover, Gerrids best friend, being the town sheriff? And still completely smoking and dreamy with his brown eyed smile.

Shit!

I stopped at the library and checked the ads. They all had comments, and one woman was asking for all of them and wanted a deal. Others were willing to pay full prince for individual pieces… but the thought of getting rid of all of them for a lump sum sounded better and she had commented first. I messaged her, told her I didn’t have a phone but to meet me at the Casey’s at 6 PM and I would be there with the clothes.

She immediately texted me back and said she would be there.

I felt a relief wash over me at the thought that I would be able to get a few things I needed, then I started considering what I needed to do about Gerrid now. Should I go to the next town over and the sheriff there?

I was in sore need of caffeine, I wasn’t used to going without for this long.

I walked out and across the street to the little diner and ordered a cup of coffee, trying to think of what I should do.

To my horror, Mike came walking in and he looked around as if looking for someone, spotted me, then came and sat down across from me, leaning on the table to look at me with an intense gaze. “Hello, Miss?”

I stared at him with wide eyes, feeling both trapped and in awe that Mike Hanover was looking at me, focusing those beautiful brown eyes on me. I noticed distractedly that he wasn’t wearing a ring.

That didn’t mean anything, it could be a job requirement not to wear one.

Why was I thinking about whether he was still married or not?!?

“Are you alright?” he asked, leaning even closer.

“I… I… Umm…”

“Let’s start with a name,” he said gently.

“Ava?” I answered, wondering if he would remember me.

He nodded. “I thought that was you, but I wasn’t sure. Are you alright Ava? You seem… upset.”

“I…”

I froze and looked past him as the door opened and Gerrid came in. He looked around quickly, and when his eyes landed on me, he looked half terrified. Hurrying to me, he sat down next to me and put his arm around me.

“Hey babe! I thought that was your car! What are you doing here? You hungry? Jill, can I get a coffee and a menu for my girlfriend?”

“Gerrid,” Mike spoke guardedly, his eyes flickering to me, then back to Gerrid. “You know you aren’t supposed to be here. Sheila still has a restraining order on you.”

“We worked things out, we have an understanding now. Besides, I have a new girlfriend now. You remember Ava?”

“I do remember Ava. We were just talking. Catching up. Remember, her and Lydia were good friends? She was at my house all the time, we knew each other real well.”

I blinked at Mike. What? I hardly knew his sister, I couldn’t pick her out of a line-up.

I realized the lie was for Gerrid.

He knew. He knew Gerrid was off and he was trying to make him go away. Trying to give him a reason we would be talking that had nothing to do with me making him leave me alone.

“I… yeah, I think I kind of remember that,” Gerrid frowned. “So what were you two talking about?” he asked, turning and kissing my head as the waitress brought him coffee and handed me a menu. “The omelettes are good here, babe. You need to eat something hot and fresh, ok? I’m picking up your hot water heater at lunch.”

“Umm… thanks. I’m not hungry, I just needed a coffee.”

“You need to eat something, babe, even if it’s just toast. Jill, get her some toast, white bread.”

“Gerrid,” Mike called calmly. “I needed to talk to Ava about some personal legal matters too. Codes things about her parents house.”

“Oh, I am taking care of all of that, Mike! Don’t sweat it, I will have it up to code in two weeks! I am bringing my lawnmower over tonight to take care of the lawn and bushes. And it’s alright, she’s my girlfriend, I can know all of that. I’ll be the one taking care of it.”

“Still. The law requires I tell her alone and she can decide what she wants you to know.”

“Well, we’re going to be married soon. I’m practically her husband.”

I looked at Mike in true alarm and he looked me over. He gave me a nod. “Gerrid, I am going to take her up to the station to have her sign some papers, she has to sign that she read all the codes she has to fix. How about you sit tight and I will have her back here in two minutes.”

“I’ll drive her,” Gerrid shrugged, standing and tossing a $20 on the table.

I jumped up and grabbed Gerrids hand, smiling up at him. “It’s ok!” I told him brightly. “You are right… I am starving actually. If you order me an omelette, I’ll be back by the time it’s done, ok?” I asked, then pulled him down for a kiss. “Officer, I will follow you in my car?” I told Mike, leaving quickly and getting in my car.

I pulled away before either of them could catch up to me.

Mike met me at the station and he waved me in quickly and led me straight back to a back office and shut the door. He yanked up the phone and hit a button. “Joe, I need you to come in and man the front right away. It’s fucking Gerrid Hightower again and another girl. I may have to arrest him for real this time, he seems worse than usual. Thanks. Sit down Ava. I understand why you were afraid, but Gerrid and I haven’t been friends since just after highschool.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I… I’m not really sure, but he… sort of peaked in highschool. He couldn’t get over that girls weren’t chasing him anymore and he wasn’t king of the world. He had been completely aimless, had nothing lined out, I don’t know what he thought would happen. There’s no such thing as popularity out of school and he just sort of… I don’t know. It started with his first wife. She took off in the middle of the night, disappeared. He claimed she was kidnapped, but when I tracked her down, she said she had run. He was too intense and possessive and hyperfocused on her. She couldn’t deal with it. He married again, a girl that was just out of highschool who still remembered him as the popular god, but then she divorced him less than a year later. After that… he dates briefly and they all either leave, disappear or file restraining orders. Last time he was a little… he tried to keep her at his house. He didn’t kidnap her, but he didn’t really let her leave either. Does that sound familiar? Is that what he’s been doing with you?”

I stared at him, then shook my head. “He… saw me at the hardware store and said he could fix my hot water heater. He came over and… raped me. He keeps doing things for me, like it’s all normal, but he wouldn’t let me leave and he raped me again and again… he took my keys and had extras made for my house and made me one’s for his house… When I try to tell him to stop, to leave me alone, he gets angry. He hasn’t really hurt me, but he threatens to. Basically just tells me to play along. It’s… insane. He is over the top with trying to take care of me, but… I don’t want it. I don’t want him… and he…”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to say more,” he said gently. Picking up the phone, he hit another button. “Fenton, I need you to pick up Gerrid Hightower. Arrest him on charges of rape and kidnapping. He should be at the diner. I will call in county.”

He hung up and looked back at me. “Here’s the thing, Ava. I will arrest him, but his family is still as loaded as they ever were. He’ll be out on bail by tonight. I will get the paperwork for an ex parte, but he is notorious for ignoring them, and… it seems to me that he has finally gone off a deep end. He went from convincing a girl to go out with him to kidnapping and rape. I’m sorry, Ava, but I am going to need you to write out a complete statement. Everything he did. You can stay in here, you won’t have to see him when he’s brought in, alright?”

“Thank you, officer,” I half whispered.

“You can call me Mike, Ava,” he smiled softly. “Didn’t know you were back in town?”

“Just got back a couple days ago,” I blushed.

“Wow, he moved in quick, didn’t he?” Mike looked worried. “He really is going over the edge.”

“Ava?” Gerrid yelled from the front. “Babe?”

I jumped up from my chair as Mike hurried out and shut the door.

“Gerrid, man, you can’t just come in the station yelling like that.”

“Where’s Ava?”

“She said something about asking about Holly Neirmier as she walked back. Going by the paper to see her.”

“I didn’t see her!”

“Was she inside? Hey Joe, there you are. Gerrid Hightower, you under arrest for kidnapping and rape…”

“BULLSHIT!” Gerrid raged. “Mike, this is bullshit and you know it! She’s my girlfriend! Uncuff me you fucking prick! AVA! Get out here and tell them! We’re going to be married! You are MINE! Mine to take care of! Get OUT here!”

I backed away from the door as his voice faded like he was being taken to another room.

A few minutes later, Mike came back, his face red with anger. “Sorry about that, you alright, Ava? Is it still Lowell?”

“It’s Lowell again,” I shrugged. “Just got divorced.”

“Sorry to hear it, it sucks. I know. I’m going to set you up in here with the statement, alright? I need to do a few things out front, but nothing you need to worry about at all, alright? You good?”

“I… do I have to be in here alone?” I asked, feeling weak for being afraid of being alone in here again.

“No! No, of course not! You can come out and sit at Luke Neirmiers desk. I didn’t know if you wanted to be behind a door or with people. Come on. You want anything? Water? Tea? Coffee?”

“Coffee would be great, please.”

“Cream? Sugar?”

“Just black, thanks,” I answered, sitting at the desk he directed me to. He set out a bunch of papers for me to fill out, then brought me out a mug of coffee before going to his own desk. He made calls and filled out paperwork and I found myself peeking up at him often.

He was older, but he looked very much the same. Thicker, not as slender and lithe as he had been, he had filled out a lot. He was still hot. He did have a bit of grey showing at the temples and I assumed it had to do with the stress of his job. It still looked hot on him.

I finished long before he did and I looked around, pretending I wasn’t watching him as he worked, his pen moving rapidly across the page.

“So you and Alicia are divorced?” I asked finally.

“Yeah. Few years now… Shit. I guess ten years now? Almost eleven.”

“That was pretty quick?” I prompted.

“Yeah, things changed. Well. She changed. We went into it knowing we didn’t want kids, we agreed on that. I got cut right away. A couple years in, she wanted me to reverse it, she suddenly wanted kids. I still didn’t. I said no, we agreed on no kids before we were even out of highschool. So she divorced me. Married Frank Zaldano and they have four kids now. More power to’m. Guessin’ you didn’t marry local?”

“No. No, I was married to Rick Haverstead.”

“Senator elect Rick Haverstead?” he asked, shocked.

“Yeah. Him.”

“Shit! What happened?”

“Opposite of you, sort of? Found out I couldn’t have kids and he divorced me. He wanted a family to put on TV with him.”

“Shit. No offense, but he seems like a real douchebag,” Mike half laughed, still not looking up from his work. He was used to multitasking. “I didn’t vote for him.”

I smiled.

“So back home, huh? How is the old place? It really need a lot of work?”

“Umm… I’ll get it all taken care of eventually,” I answered. “It’s not so bad.”

“I wondered what happened when the lawn service stopped mowing there. Guess now I know. Want me to send over the boy who mows for my neighbor?”

“Umm. Maybe in a few weeks?”

“Oh, yeah. You divorced a lawyer, didn’t you? You’re probably strapped as hell right now. I know the feeling on that too. You know? I sort of can’t mesh you.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

He finally turned and looked at me, looking me over again. “I remember you from school, but… I don’t remember you being… so well put together. You had quite the glow-up.”

“Glow-up?”

“My niece told me about it,” he laughed. “She says when someone is awkward or plain in school and grow out of it to become hot, it’s called a glow-up. Like growing up, but for getting attractive instead of aging.”

“Oh. Umm, thanks, I guess.”

“You’re still shy, but your looks… are just slightly off. I have a thing for faces, that’s why I wasn’t sure about you at first.”

“Rick… he had a thing about perfection. My lips, my lashes, my… chest. Everything. He changed a lot about me that he said needed enhancing.”

Mike snorted and turned back to his paperwork. “Douchebag,” he mumbled. “For the record, you didn’t need all of that. Yeah you are hot now, but you were cute back then. Sweet even. Now you look… almost unapproachable and cold. Too perfect. Not bad, not at all, don’t take it the wrong way. Just saying I prefer the sweet you and not the perfect ice queen. Not that you seem like an ice queen, as soon as you open your mouth, you go right back to sweet, but I mean just to look at. Fuck. I sound like a dick, sorry. Not used to this. Talking to women who I’m not taking statements from.”

“Yeah,” I answered, blushing.

I left him to his paperwork, feeling mortified. I looked like an ice queen? Some plastic, cold bitch?

A man in a suit walked in the front door and Mike stood up, throwing his pen down. “Are you fucking serious? He hasn’t even had his call yet! Who called you?”

“I am here to see my client,” the man sneered.

I recognized his predatory look immediately. He was a lawyer, the expensive kind that disdained regular people.

“He’s in his usual cell,” Mike growled. “Joe, let him back!”

I watched the man walk by, his eyes appraising me as he went by. I saw recognition in his eyes and I sighed. Rick would know about this in an hour.

“You alright?” Mike asked, his eyes taking in my discomfort.

I waited until the man was gone. “He knows Rick,” I told him. “He recognized me. Rick is going to find out about it soon.”

“What will he do?”

“I don’t know… I am going to guess he is going to squash the story. He won’t want to read about how he sent his wife home with nothing to a dirty old town and she got raped by highschool jock. His opponents will have a hayday like they did when he divorced me for not being able to have kids. He made me sign an NDA and told his PR team to say that I had lied to him. I told him I could have kids and tricked him into marrying me. That I had known all along I couldn’t and kept telling him I was pregnant and lost the babies, breaking his heart over and over again and it was always lies because I have been infertile my whole life. Made me into a complete villain. His opponents spun it and tried to interview me, but I told them the truth. He made me sign an NDA and I couldn’t tell them the truth. That’s exactly how I put it. Pissed him off so bad, he tried to make me retract it and say I was just being petty, but I left. Came home.”

“Shit! What a complete asshole! Total douchebag, I knew it. Sorry. About the kids thing.”

“Thanks,” I whispered. It was the first time since I had been told that anyone had offered me condolences. I’d been heartbroken and it had all just spiralled after that day.

“You want some more coffee?”

“I can get it,” I told him quickly, getting up and going back to the little coffee station.

“Jokes on you!” he called. “Rule is whoever drinks the last cup has to make the new pot!”

That made me smile slightly as I pulled up a chair to stand in to make coffee in the huge industrial sized coffee maker.

“That’s… hilarious,” Mike called.

I looked over my shoulder and he was leaned back, watching me with an amused grin.

“That’s the biggest thing I remember about you, how freaking tiny you are. Even in the senior photo of all of us, you stuck out because you were so much smaller than the two girls you were between.”

“And you stood out because you and Gerrid were flipping off the camera,” I told him, closing the top of the coffeemaker.

“So you do remember me,” he laughed. “I wasn’t sure.”

“Of course I remembered you,” I told him, almost offended, then realized he had no way to know I was head over heels for him for so long. “You and Gerrid, your friends and girlfriends ran the school. Everyone knew you,” I covered.

“Yeah, more people know Jack Fool than Jack Fool knows people,” he laughed.

The lawyer came back out. “The judge is expediting his bail,” the man told Mike. “You should be getting a fax soon.”

“Yeah yeah. You realize it’s not going to be as easy this time?”

“You think?” the man smirked. “Scorned ex wife trying to get the attention of the man she is still in love with? Trying to smear his good name? Using a poor local boy in her revenge scheme. It’s a shame, really,” the man chuckled, walking out the front door.

“Prick,” Mike growled. “Ava, I’m super sorry, but I need to take you to the hospital. Get a rape kit done.”

I nodded. “I understand,” I told him, feeling sick. Not just for having to go through that, but for what the man had said. Would Gerrid really get off that easily?

Mike was quiet for most of the ride to the hospital the next town over. When he finally spoke, he sounded stressed. “Ava… I’m really sorry about all of this. You’ve had an absolute shit time of all of this and now… it’s just going to get worse. You were such a sweet kid, you don’t deserve this.”

“I’m the same age as you, I’m not a kid,” I told him quickly.

“No, I mean, back then. When you were a kid, you were so sweet. Always smiling, always happy. Always nice to everyone. Yeah you were shy and quiet, but you were a total sweetheart too. You were never sour or mean like so many people were back then.”

I looked out the window, blushing again. Of course I smiled when he was around. I had wanted him to notice me and he hadn’t.

No. Apparently he had. Apparently he had seen me.

“You were never as much of a dick as Gerrid and his other friends were,” I told him softly.

He laughed. “When your dad is a cop, you sort of have to stay on the straight and narrow. He was a complete hardass. I’d like to say I was a good kid, but mostly I was terrified of being caught being a bad kid.”

Mike waited out in the waiting room at the hospital while I was taken back and he gave me an apologetic look when I came back out. The woman they had called in came out with me to speak to Mike.

“We got pictures of all the bruises once we saw how bad it was. And the doctor documented all of the tearing and… other things. It’s all in the report and he got a good DNA sample. It should all be enough to put this guy away no matter what his lawyer comes up with, Mike.”

“Thanks, Meri. How’s Ryan?”

“He’s fine. Hangin in there, you know? Best he can. He mentioned you the other day, said you came by?”

“Yeah, I stopped in to drop off a few packs of those cards he likes.”

“He told me. He said he got a foil? I have no idea what he meant, but he was excited. Here, just need you to sign this and you can go.”

I glanced at Mike in the car and he offered me a tight smile. “Hungry? Every time I come to this town, I make it a point to go to Taco Bell since it’s the only time I can get it. They don’t have one anywhere else close.”

“I’m ok.”

“My treat?” he grinned.

I laughed. “Fine. A burrito sounds good. Oh! Oh shit! I was supposed to meet a woman this evening! What time is it?”

“7:40?”

“Shit! I hope she doesn’t think I flaked. I’ll message her in the morning and try and explain.”

“Ava, maybe you don’t remember how small this town is, but she probably knows exactly what happened. What do you want to drink?”

I ate on the way home, then peeked at him again as he drove, him trying to eat tacos. “Who’s Ryan?” I finally asked.

“Local boy. His mom OD’ed and he went into foster care… when he got diagnosed with leukemia, he had no one. He lives there at the hospital and he has no one still. His make a wish thing was about becoming a cop for a day and he did a ride along with me… I go see him a couple times a week. He’s a good kid.”

“That’s… really nice. You really eat that much Taco bell?”

He barked a laugh. “Ok, you caught me, I have a thing for tacos. Fast food is what I live on.”

“Your girlfriend doesn’t cook for you?” I asked, trying for casual.

He snorted again. “I stopped dating. Maybe I’ll start again when women my age stop wanting kids and flip their shit around babies and get that baby fever.”

“You hate kids?”

“I don’t hate kids, not at all. I just know it fucking sucks. My dad was a single dad after my mom took off and he was a shit dad. Divorce sucks, people suck and I know I would be a shit dad too. I wouldn’t do that to anyone. Plus, the fucking world has gone to shit. I have to go into elementary schools and teach kids how to hide from mass shooters, Ava. Do you know how sick that makes me? So much hate and division and just… a fucking mess. Suicide among teens is a fucking epidemic. I couldn’t do it. Put a kid through all that, someone I’m supposed to love? No way.”

“That’s a very dour outlook. Some could argue you could make their life better? You can make the world better and teach them to make a better world.”

“Plenty of kids already here that need help,” he shrugged a single shoulder.

“Like Ryan?”

“Exactly.”

I went warm all over as I peeked at him again.

After a few minutes, he spoke again. “Ava, by the time we get back, he will be out. You said he has keys to your place? Joe served him the ex parte, but… do you have another place to stay? A friend to stay with?”

“No,” I answered quickly. “No, but I’ll be fine. I’ll just park by the old McKinney barn and sleep in my car.”

“The hell you will,” he laughed. “It’s not much, but I have a recliner? As long as you don’t mind sharing it with a big old mutt who thinks it’s his chair when I’m not in it. I’ll take you to get your things, ok?”

“I don’t know if…”

“I’m going to insist on this, Ava,” he smiled. “I can’t let you trespass and become a vagrant in my town.”

I smiled and looked down at my hands. “I don’t want to be a burden,” I told him quickly.

“You wanna help out? You’re welcome to do the dishes. I fucking hate dishes. Shit, that’s his fucking truck parked up the street watching for you, isn’t it?” he asked angrily as he pulled in front of my house. “Go in and pack a bag, I am going to stay on your porch and watch him. Be quick, ok?”

I nodded, wide eyed as I looked at the truck parked down the dark street. I ran in and packed, shoving my clothes into a bag before running back out.

“That was quick?”

“Don’t have much and I haven’t really unpacked yet,” I breathed.

“Let’s go,” he told me, opening the door for me as he watched the truck. He pulled away and immediately, the truck followed, the lights coming on. “Fucking hell,” Mike growled, then pulled his phone out.

I turned and looked at the truck, feeling sick as it moved closer and followed Mike all the way to the police station. As soon as the car was parked, the truck parked across the back, blocking us in.

Gerrid jumped out as Mike got out of the car. “Gerrid, I know you were served, you need to get back or I’ll arrest you again.”

“I need to talk to her! I just need to talk to her! She’s mine, Mike! She’s my fiance! I’m going to marry her! She loves me! She’s always loved me, she’s just confused. She wants attention! I need to talk to her, tell her how much I love her, that’s all! She just needs to know how much she means to me! Babe, come on! I can make you squirt for me again! Make our bed wet. That was hot and you loved it, begged for more! I can make you beg for me again! I’ll never let you sleep instead of making you cum again, I promise! I’ll always satisfy you! Every night, I promise! Please, Ava, just come out here!”

I hunkered down in my seat and closed my eyes as Joe came outside to stand with Mike.

“Gerrid, I swear by all that is holy, I will arrest you and lock the fucking door overnight! Leave her alone! I SAW what you did to her! The bruises, everything! You won’t get your hands on her again, or even your eyes if I can help it! You need help, man. Serious fucking help! Leave her alone and get the fuck out of here!”

“Ava!” Gerrid yelled, trying to push past Mike and Joe both.

“Fuck this,” Mike growled and put Gerrid down on the ground with some sort of wrist twisting move that was too fast to see. He cuffed him, then jerked him up and pushed him inside.

I sat in the car, shaking.

This was too much! I got out and hurried to my own car, then pulled away and headed out of town. I couldn’t do this! I tried to keep my composure, but a mile out of town, I was sobbing and feeling like this was all just shit! Nothing was ever going to be right again!

Lights in my rearview made me break down even more as I pulled over and laid on my steering wheel.

The door opened and Mike squatted next to me. “Ava! Ava, this isn’t the answer. Come on. Neirmier, drive her car back for me,” he told another officer as he pulled me out of the driver’s seat. “Things are going to be fine, I promise. Come on,” he soothed, buckling me into the passenger seat. “I am going to get you home and Hank is going to drape himself over you and work his old mutt healing magic on you. You’ll be right as rain by morning. Once this is all over, we’ll get you settled in and things will be better. Promise.”

I curled up and hugged my knees, laying my head on the seat.

“Ava? You alright?”

“Fine,” I whispered.

“That wasn’t very convincing. How about you tell me about you, Ava. You know what I’ve been up to, it’s pretty fuckign apparent. What have you been up to? Besides politics?”

“I’m not into politics, not really. I was just… PR.” I told him about what I did for Rick, what I had been doing since highschool.

“So you never finished college?” he asked.

“No.”

“You could, you know. Finish. Do you want to?”

“I don’t know. I feel like it’s late to try and do that?”

“They have online stuff now! It’s super easy! If you want. I mean, if you don’t, it’s not like, a requirement. Just, if you do… Fuck. I’ll just shut the fuck up. Sorry. Small talk isn’t my forte.”

“I don’t think college was ever for me,” I told him. “I never knew what I wanted to do, I never had a thing like most people did. I was just going to see what was easiest, what I liked. I kind of liked organizing and running events.”

“Maybe you could be an event planner or something? The shipping company in Freemont is hiring right now, they need someone to organize their shipping routes and trucks and drivers.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. That sounded horrible, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Or there’s all kinds of work from home stuff right now. If, you know. You want. Hey, I bet that the Goodwill in Freemont is hiring too?”

“Oh?” I asked, noncommittal.

“Yeah, that’s a shit idea, isn’t it? Well, you can always look online, I’m sure there’ll be a lot of things that you’d like. You don’t have to decide tonight.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, wondering why he was babbling. He was completely awkward and for some reason, that made me feel better.

Perfect Mike wasn’t perfect. He was human just like me.

“Hey! Do you cook?” he asked excitedly.

“Umm… I have before? I don’t normally? We had a cook.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, I guess you probably aren’t great at it.”

“You know of a chef job?” I asked with a small smile.

“Oh, no. I just thought maybe if you knew how to cook you could cook something. Save me from a diner dinner tomorrow.”

I felt myself blushing again. He was planning on me staying through tomorrow evening? Probably tomorrow night too?

“This is my place,” he told me with a tight smile. “No making fun or turning your nose up at the mess.”

I managed a smile as I started to follow him into the house. He took my bag quickly and led me to the door, then pushed it open for me.

The dog that lifted it’s head from the single chair in the small living room wagged and got down to sniff me.

“She’s good people, Hank,” Mike told the dog, setting my bag next to the bathroom door.

It was a small house, almost tiny even. The bathroom looked claustrophobic and the bedroom was big enough for a full sized bed and a chest of drawers, that was it. I could see both from where I was standing. The kitchenette was part of the living room and the single chair was all there was room for. There was a single stool at a round of counter that stuck out and there were dishes piled up in the sink.

The house had a definite funk to it as well. Like dog and… old food. Maybe beer as well, I couldn’t really tell.

“I’ll grab you a pillow and blanket,” he told me, looking around with a small shrug. “It’s my extra pillow so it’s not like, you know, fresh out of the linen closet or anything and the blanket is the one that lays across the foot of my bed for when it gets cold. Umm. You need a drink or anything?”

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

“Cool. Uhh, there’s a clean towel on the back of the door in the bathroom, I only have the two of them. The clean one is the red one. Umm… Hank will wait for you to lay down and get comfy before he climbs on you… umm, shit. He’s as big as you, isn’t he? You think he’ll be too heavy?”

“He’ll be fine,” I reassured Mike.

“I should probably sleep out here and let you have the bed. If you don’t care that I can’t remember when I washed the sheets last, you can sleep in there?”

I giggled then, I couldn’t help it. “You are so incredibly… male,” I laughed, looking around.

“I said no making fun!” he yelled in mock offense.

“I’m not making fun, it’s just… sort of refreshing. You aren’t… perfect.”

“Not by a long shot,” he snorted. “Did you really think I was?”

“For decades,” I answered, looking around. I realized what I had said out loud and turned around completely to hide my embarrassment and went and looked at a picture on the wall. “That’s you and your dad. I remember him. He used to come over and have drinks with dad in the garage while dad worked on the Scout. Before he sold it.”

“They were friends in highschool. Sorry, by the way. About your parents. I liked them.”

“Thanks. Sorry about your dad.”

He shrugged. “The job isn’t meant for everyone… A lot of people saw it coming. Even I saw it coming at the end. It didn’t surprise anyone. So, you thought I was perfect? Back in school? You noticed me like that?”

“Every girl noticed you like that, you were one of the Lakeview Gods,” I answered, trying to play it off.

“Not me. Gerrid, yeah. Even Brad and Beau, but girls never came at me like they did them.”

“You were taken.”

“That never stopped them from going at the others.”

“Alicia was terrifying, no girl would dare cross her.”

He laughed. “She was full of complete sass, wasn’t she? Especially back then. I think you’re wrong though. I never had the same flair the others had, the same charisma. I was too quiet, not as outgoing. Too subdued and less of a challenge. There may have been one or two girls with crushes, but I think they were certain types of girls. Alicia who was super outspoken and bossy and went after what she wanted. Wanted someone quiet that she could just boss around in public. Or a girl who was quiet like me and appreciated a more subtle guy. And one who smiled every time she was around me.”

I peeked at him and he was grinning a crooked grin with his sparkling brown eyes.

Yeah. He had just figured it out.

I looked back at the picture, blushing. “So it would be alright with you if I had a shower?” I asked him.

“Sure, yeah, go for it. Water pressure is shit, so don’t get super hopeful. It does get hot though.”

“Do you have real soap and shampoo?” I asked hopefully.

“Yeah… I mean, if you don’t mind that it’s all in one. It’s just regular body wash and I use it on my hair too.”

I giggled again. “So incredibly male.”

“Who do I have to impress?” he laughed.

“I’m going to shower,” I smiled, closing myself into the tiny bathroom.

The stand up shower was small enough that I wondered how he managed it at twice my size. He was very right on the water pressure, it was a trickle that took forever to rinse off the soap.

When I came out, he was on the chair in a t-shirt and sleep pants, the dog curled up glumly on the scrap of carpet.

He turned and grinned at me. “Ready for bed or did you want to watch TV or something?”

“TV?” I asked, looking around.

“It’s in the bedroom on the wall,” he laughed. “There was no room in here, no wall space or place to put it. I sit up on the wall or lay down to watch it when I watch it.”

“Where do you even find a house this small?” I laughed, looking around.

“It used to be a shed, it was turned into a mother-in-law house, then the main house burned and this was all that was left on the property. I planned on building, but… this suits me just fine. What do I need more space for? I’m hardly ever here, I have all I need.”

“How do you bring girls here?” I asked, still laughing.

“I don’t! Ortega saw it once when I sent her to pick up a clean uniform for me, that’s it. She retired a couple years back. So, TV or bed?”

“I guess it’s both,” I smiled, going into the little bedroom and climbing onto the bed to the far side. I grabbed the extra blanket and the pillow that was along the wall and curled up, sitting against the wall.

“Alright. I’m watching The Boys right now and I’m on like episode six,” he told me, falling onto the bed next to me and half laying against the wall. “You need something to drink, there’s beer in the fridge or tap water. Might have to clean a glass for it if you want water.”

“I’m fine,” I giggled again.

“Keep laughing,” he grinned, turning the show on.

He lay there quietly, watching the show and I had a hard time following what was going on. “So the superheroes are the bad guys?” I asked him.

“Yeah, sort of. Some more than others. Shh.”

I smiled and laid back, trying to pick up what was happening. When the next episode came on, I thought I had been following along, but then I guessed I hadn’t.

“Who is that?”

“Shh,” he teased with a smirk.

“As hosts go, You’re a bit lacking,” I told him, still giggling.

“I’m not hosting, I’m protecting. I’ll make sure no one gets close, otherwise you’re on your own,” he laughed.

“That works for me,” I giggled again, a little relieved that he wasn’t overly solicitous and creepy like Gerrid was. I watched the show, but stared though it as I thought about what I was going to do. What was going to happen.

I jerked awake to darkness, complete and total. I started to panic, sitting up and feeling around me, meaning to go and find a light.

My hand and knee landed on a body and there was a grunt as the body jerked and hunched.

“The fuck Ava?” Mike grumbled. “Jesus, you tryin’ to kill me? Fuck! What the fuck? Holy SHIT that fucking hurts!”

“I… I thought you were sleeping in there! It’s dark! I just wanted some light! I was afraid!”

“So you jumped on me and pile drove your knee into my junk? Holy fuck!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Shit, I thought you were tiny but I think you weigh about 800 pounds!”

I relaxed slightly, his joking helping me calm down. “Sorry,” I told him again.

“Hank! Get her!” he called loudly.

There was a canine groan and then the whuff as the dog shifted in the old chair out in the living room. I giggled. “He’s vicious.”

“Just wait till someone comes to that door that isn’t supposed to,” Mike growled, still rocking. “Fuck! I think I may puke.”

I laughed outright then, knowing he was just messing with me. “I didn’t feel anything at all,” I told him, laying back down.

“Because your knee killed it! Fuck! You ok? You need me to turn on the bathroom light?”

“No, I just… forgot where I was for a second and I couldn’t see anything. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone, I guess.”

“Maybe ask next time?”

I smiled, but I was still stressed as I curled up facing the wall. Did Gerrid know I was here? Would he get out and come here to find me? Was Hank really a guard dog or just old and lazy like he looked?

I fell back to sleep thinking about it and that made me dream dark dreams.

“Ava,” Mike mumbled, poking my arm, making me jump awake with a cry of fear. “You’re whimpering and twitching in your sleep. You need a sleeping pill or something?”

“No… no, I’m fine. Bad dreams. Sorry.”

“S’fine. Just didn’t want you to keep dreamin’ if it was bad,” he mumbled, then went back to sleep.

I slipped out of the bed and went into the living room. I turned on the light in the bathroom, then shut the door most of the way before climbing into the chair with the dog. He groaned at me and stared at me a minute, then stood and let me in, falling down half on top of me after I curled up.

It was the most uncomfortable chair in the entire world. The padding on the seat was worn down, I could feel springs in the seat and the wooden boards in the back of it. The dog stank to high heaven and he was so heavy laying on my hip. I tried to move, but the dog just made a whining noise and didn’t move.

I was trapped.

A noise came from the bedroom and Mike came out. He blinked at me and went to the bathroom, then came out leaving the light on. Grabbing me under the arms, he pulled me out from under the dog and held me out in front of him as she went back to bed. I felt like Simba being held up by the monkey in lion king as he raised me up to stand on the bed.

“Lay down,” he grumped. “I don’t care if you make noise or move, I just woke you up to stop the dream. Don’t sweat it. Go to sleep.”

I curled up again, but couldn’t sleep. What time was it? There were no windows in this place. Was it morning? Close to morning? Did Gerrids lawyer have him out of jail yet? Was he looking for me?

“Ava, try to sleep,” Mike mumbled.

“What time is it?” I asked in a whisper.

“Two something. Middle of the fucking night, go to sleep.”

“What if he’s out?”

“It didn’t go over the scanner, he’s in holding till morning when we process him. He isn’t out and he won’t be out till tomorrow. Go to sleep.”

“Are you sure? What if someone called the lawyer again? What if it’s Joe?”

“Joe fucking hates Gerrid. Sleep.”

“What if…”

“No what ifs,” Mike grumped, moving his arm and letting his hand fall over my mouth. “Sleep.”

I laid there a moment, his hand covering my mouth, then turned my head slowly until his hand slipped off to my neck. I thought he would pull his hand away, but he was already asleep again, his hand on my neck.

Surprisingly, the human contact was a comfort. Enough of a comfort that I fell back to sleep and didn’t have another nightmare.

“Let go, Ava.”

I opened my eyes sleepily and blinked at the white fabric. I was curled up on my side curled around something and clutching it, my face an inch from a white fabric wall.

“Ava, let go,” Mike whispered, tugging on his hand.

It was his arm I was clutching for dear life and his chest and white t-shirt in front of me. I let go, my hands springing away from his as I gasped. “I’m sorry!”

“Don’t sweat it, I didn’t care, I just need it to get out of bed” he laughed, getting up. “Go back to sleep.”

“What are you doing?” I asked, half fearful.

“Taking a piss!” he called, closing the door to the bathroom.

I let out a sigh and turned over, still tired.

When I jerked awake again, there was a soft light from the bathroom, but it was still so dark. I turned, but the other side of the bed was empty. I sat up, looking in the living room, but it was empty too. I listened, but there was only silence.

Jumping up, I turned on all the lights and paced, starting to panic.

Finally, I saw a torn up cereal box and writing on the cardboard side.

‘At work, will come by soon. Don’t open or unlock door, I have a key. I will knock twice before I come in.’

That was all.

I paced again, looking at the dog who was watching me like I was stressing him out.

I let out a sigh, then went and did all of the piled up dishes. I made the bed, then cleaned the bathroom and he still wasn’t home.

Where the hell was he? What time was it?

I pulled the dog into the shower and gave him a bath and he just stared at me like I was crazy as he sat there and let me lather him up in human soap.

At least he smelled better.

Finally, I curled up on the bed and turned on the TV.

Hank came in and got up in the bed, laying his head in my lap.

I petted him and scratched his ears as I picked a movie and was just curling up to watch it when there were two knocks on the door. I watched from my spot on the bed as the door opened and Mike came in with a bag. He looked around, shocked, then looked at me.

“Hank! What the hell, man! You know you aren’t supposed to be in my bed!”

Hank blinked at Mike, but didn’t move his head off of my lap.

“I brought you donuts,” Mike scowled, tossing the bag on my lap as he grabbed Hank’s collar and pulled him off the bed. “Did you tell him to come up here?”

“No, he just did it,” I shrugged.

“Did you… give him a bath?!?”

“Yeah, he was stinky.”

“He’s a dog, he’s supposed to stink! You made him all girly and now he thinks he can get in my bed!”

I giggled and opened the bag.

“I came home because he’s out. I took the rest of the day off, but I’m on call. I have some errands to run and I know you said you did too. Get dressed and I will take you for yours first.”

I jumped up, hurrying, glad to be out of the tiny house with no windows or way to tell what time it was.

Mike came into the library with me and stood close by as I got online.

“That’s Hannah Montgomery, I know where she lives. Tell her Mike Hanover will bring you by. She’s at home, she’s a stay at home wife. That the shopping bag in your back seat?” he asked, taking me back out to his car.

“Yeah?”

“We’ll go by and grab it, but I want you to leave your car at the station. There’s an extra room there with a cot, I want him to think you’re staying there. I kept Neirmier on the door the whole time he was out front and he kept yelling for you like he thought you were there. We all acted like you were. He wouldn’t think I would have you at my place, I never have anyone at my place. Stay low, I’ll grab the bag.”

I hunched down fearfully, even after he got back, not wanting to be seen in the car by anyone. Mike didn’t say anything about me sitting up, so I stayed down.

“I’ll take these to the door, keep the doors locked. I have the keys.”

I only nodded as I moved down to the floorboard and laid my head on the seat.

“Here,” he thrust a wad of money at me as he got back in. “Need anything else?”

“Not until I am back in my house,” I told him.

“Alright, we’re going on my errands then. I’ll let you know when to get up and get your seatbelt on. I’m going to drive across town first and go up 23rd, see if his truck is near your place. Just lay low until I tell you it’s safe, ok?”

“Alright,” I agreed. “Do you know if there’s any press releases yet from Rick?”

“Haven’t looked. Fuck him. Shit. His truck is parked in your drive. Is that…? It’s a fridge in the back of his truck. Fucking hell. I took your keys off his ring, but he must’ve had more. I’m calling Joe, he’ll be on it. You can sit up, he’s there and busy. He isn’t trying to find you right now. Buckle up.”

I sat in the passenger seat staying quiet as I thought about Gerrid in my house. What was he doing? The rest of my things were there…

“Ava?” Mike called, snapping me out of my own thoughts. “I asked what your extras were back in school?”

“Extras?” I asked, confused.

“Extracurriculars.”

“Oh… I didn’t have any.”

“None?!?”

“No. I wasn’t… super involved with school. My mom was super involved with the church and I had to go with her a lot. I was involved in the youth group… not because I liked it, because I was already there and they needed someone to run it. My best friend was from church too, she was home schooled.”

“You used to come to the games,” he stated.

“Yeah… just the football games.”

“Any special reason?” he asked lightly.

“To watch the games?”

“Right,” he laughed. “What do you know about football?”

“Not a lot… nothing really.”

“What position did Gerrid play?”

“He threw the ball.”

“What position did Brad play?”

“He caught the ball.”

“What position did Max play?”

“He bent over and gave Gerrid the ball from between his legs.”

“What position did I play?”

“Halfback. You always ran the ball, though sometimes you caught short passes. A few times you even threw the ball.”

He gave me a smirk. “So the only position you know anything about or the name of, is my position?” he asked. “But you were there to watch the games. Nothing else, just the whole game. How often did I score?”

“Not very often, you mostly ran the ball down the field. You did have a game where you scored three touchdowns though. It was the end of the season senior year, second to last game. We still lost though, by three points. I don’t think you really cared though, you didn’t stop smiling for days.”

He grinned. “It was a little gratifying to finally get some endzone play. I was the brains, good enough for getting the ball down there, but never for scoring. I was sure coach had it out for me, always calling me Einstein and Darwin. I wasn’t… as macho as the other guys were. I wouldn’t use steroids or any of the other things coach had some of the guys using. My dad would have fucking killed me if I had. Proving I could do it without all that bullshit… I felt like I got mine back. So it was me you were watching. Specifically.”

“I may have noticed that you were more… to my taste than your friends were. And you were… very attractive. And… incredibly smart.”

“So were you. You were in the same classes as me, remember?”

“Not like you, though.”

“Remember our Junior year when I had fallen asleep right after practice and didn’t have my homework done? You handed me yours to copy down real quick before class started, saying you were only doing it because you knew I knew the answers already, I had just forgotten to do it.”

“I remember,” I told him, blushing. “You told me you could kiss me.”

“Yeah. I very specifically remember the look on your face when I said that. That sort of panicked, hopeful look, then the daydreamy expression you had the rest of the class.”

“I did not!” I laughed.

“You did! You totally did!”

“I didn’t! I know I didn’t, because I felt absolutely sick! I knew I had looked at you weird because you gave me a confused look and arched your eyebrow like you do and I knew I had looked like a complete idiot, fawning over you and you had totally judged me for it!”

“I didn’t judge you! I didn’t! I remember thinking ‘holy hell, hot little Ava might have a thing for me’.”

“Bullshit!”

“Hand to god. You were so adorable, so small and quiet and shy and sweet. I used to wonder what it would be like to hold a girl your size. You had that little pixie cut and you looked like a little pixie. I may have had other thoughts too, but I’m sure you can guess what a normal teenage boy thought about in highschool. I’ll leave it at that. Seriously, though. It had thrilled me, I didn’t judge you at all.”