Layers Off (25 page)

But the email I got from Olivia irritated me.

Hi Kat,

Can you set up a group for students against bad teachers? You know, to warn others.

Liv

At first I wasn’t sure what she meant, but my gut tightened when I thought back to the reasons why I would want the kind of group she was asking.

Olivia, what would you warn them about?
I wrote back.

Not to stay for extra help after school hours,
she replied the next day.

A chill coursed through me when I read each of her messages. The following day, they kept coming every hour.

Not to wear skirts to class.

Sit close to the exit door.

One favor for the teacher will not get you a better grade.

Not to take Mr. Donato’s science class.

That last message did it for me. It was happening again. The bastard had the balls to assault another girl. I should have stopped him that day. I should have told someone what had happened. And now, because of my stupidity, someone else would get hurt. I wanted to involve the authorities, but Olivia insisted I didn’t. I wasn’t sure why.

Thank you for your support, Kat, but today after school I’m going to stop him once and for all.

From the tone of her message, I was afraid Olivia wouldn’t go to the principal or just knee Donato in the groin. She would take ‘care of it’ herself. From what I could read between the lines, she’d been through too much with Donato. That afternoon I left my high school through a bathroom window, so my own security guy couldn’t follow. He’d inform my parents and I, at their request, wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near the school. I rushed across town in a cab. Only a few students remained in the halls of my old high school, mostly on the first floor. Running up every second step felt like trying to surface from a pool of molasses. Upstairs, the hollow halls carried one voice I recognized and another one I was sure belonged to Olivia. I quickened my pace, but this time I tiptoed, listening in.

“Please don’t.”

“Stay still, Olivia. This is what you wanted, remember.”

“No, it’s not.”

“You have to earn your grades in this class, my way,” he said. “You’ve been teasing me enough.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt me anymore,” she said, and he didn’t respond. My legs sped up on their own as an audible struggle ensued. Moans and groans later I was by the class door, oddly not locked the way Donato had done with me. He’d either become careless or thought that he could get away with anything.

“No!” Her muffle tore through my own body.

“You think you can stop me with this?” he asked. Something clunked to the floor and I saw Olivia’s purse fly out of her grip. A gun stuck out of the side pocket.

“What were you going to do, hit me over the head with a purse?” he laughed.

She let out another sob. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“You’ll only get hurt if you don’t listen.”

I gently pushed open the door and tiptoed inside. Donato’s back was turned to me. He forced Olivia to lie back on his desk. A blade glistened in his palm, right against her ribcage.

I wanted to yell, “Get the fuck away from her!”, but I was afraid he’d startle and jab her. Plus, I knew exactly what Donato was capable of, and even if he pulled away, I had a feeling he’d happily accommodate his little escapade for a party of three. And I wasn’t about to be forced into anything by this asshole.

Slowly, I edged against the wall to the side where Olivia’s purse lay on the floor. By this time she was sobbing, “I don’t want this, please stop.”

The agony I’d felt a year ago surfaced. This could have been me. If I hadn’t stopped Donato on his first advance, he could have forced me onto his desk the same way he had Olivia. But I was strong then, and I had to be even stronger now – for her.

In response he lowered his zipper, and then inched his hands to her knees, spreading them apart. She tried to fight, but now he stuck that blade so close to her throat I was afraid she’d stop breathing just so that the knife wouldn’t cut into her skin.

I slid the gun out of her purse and aimed it at his back. Olivia must have planned this ahead as the suppressor was already affixed. I’d shot this kind of a gun before. Although it wasn’t one of the best, I knew I wouldn’t miss. I removed the safety latch, and the moment his hand grazed up Olivia’s inner thigh, I fired at his back, aiming perfectly so the bullet would go right in the bastard’s heart. He’d never hurt anyone again. It seemed to happen in slow motion. I saw the bullet cut through the air, and the delicate smell of gun powder drift from the nozzle.

Olivia didn’t even scream.

Donato’s grip loosened the moment it hit him. I saw him raise his hand to his chest and touch where the blood spilled over the front of his shirt.

Olivia jumped off the desk, grabbed her purse, and fled. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t run after her.

He turned around slowly, and not surprised at all, looked at me. His last words before he fell to the floor shocked me.

“Thank you.”

It would be a while before I could understand the meaning and weight of his gratitude. It was those confusing words that kept me in that class. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for. It all seemed like a dream. Blood pooled from underneath Donato’s body. I dropped the gun, but didn’t hear it clunk, and picked up my phone to dial for my security guy, who was probably frantically looking for me. I sat by the back wall, frozen. I’d shot guns and rifles many times before. I respected the weapon the way I’d been taught. I knew my aim was near perfect, yet I still couldn’t believe that I’d killed a man.

Grant, my security guy, arrived in the class within fifteen minutes. I sat against the wall with my knees pulled up to my chest. He picked me up and quietly carried me out to his car without being detected. He took me home and spoke to my parents about what he’d seen. My mom handed me a glass of orange juice, insisting I drink it all. It tasted bitter. Things were fuzzy after that. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a comfortable chair, listening to the rhythmic voice of a stranger.

I didn’t remember saying a word.

From there we drove for almost half a day, then boarded a train in Quebec, Canada. The first morning I woke up, on our family vacation, it was just that – a getaway we so desperately needed because of my father’s busy work schedule.

C
HAPTER
26

Julian and Tristan had been searching for Olivia for over a week. My only hope to get through the trial was disappearing quicker than a boulder in quick sand. It seemed no one had heard from her after high school. She’d moved out of her house, and her parents hadn’t heard from her ever since. What if we couldn’t find her? What if she didn’t remember that day – shock could do that to people, or so I’d heard. What if she didn’t want to testify? The list of my
what ifs
grew every hour, and when I asked Julian the last one, he opened his laptop without answering and started clicking away. What if she was dead?

An hour later he came back to the balcony where I sat. In my mind, I was slowly counting the days of freedom I had left, multiplying them into hours and minutes. Julian’s fingers touched the back of my neck. He pressed them in, slowly uncoiling the tension near my spine.

We only had a week left before the hearing, and I was afraid this was going to be the last week we had together.

“There’s no death record,” he said.

“At least that’s good news.”

“Kendra, try to relax.”

There was only one way I could, although with everything going on right now, I had doubts whether I could actually bring myself to that place of bliss only Julian was able to get me to. How could I go on if I went to jail – locked away, behind, bars, cuffed? Or worse, somebody’s brand new bitch.

Cold chills returned to my body. Strong smell of earth, mold, and moisture lingered. I feared if I closed my eyes, I’d begin willing death again. I rubbed my wrists where the memory of ropes still burned. How would I ever live through this?

“Come inside, K.” Julian’s mouth lowered to the top of my head. His warm breath rekindled the hope I learned to have. “Don’t think about it.”

He took my hands off my wrists and kissed the imaginary rope burns, bringing me back to the present. I inhaled his fresh scent, letting it overpower the dark aroma filling my lungs. Julian’s tender touch soothed the aches I remembered spreading through my body.

“Come back to me, K.”

His pleading eyes were level with mine. “I will rip this world apart and demolish every single prison before I see you go to jail. Congressman Donato will eat shit before he can say a bad word about you in that courtroom. He knew very well the kind of a bastard his son was, and nothing he can do will tear you away from me.”

I simply wrapped my arms around his neck and let him lift me. Julian scooped me underneath my knees. Feeling the movement of his muscles beneath his thin shirt, I cradled against him as he carried me to our bed.

“Make love to me as if it’s not our last time, but our first of many,” he said, already hovering above me. I couldn’t deny him this last request. Julian’s filled shorts poked against my thigh as he took my bottom lip between his. He pulled on it gently, seeking some kind of approval. My hands slid down his chest to the hem of his shirt. I broke our kiss for a moment and pulled it off him, revealing a thin carpet of dark curls. I ran my hands over his pecs, savoring the feather-like tickle between my fingers, then hooked my hands around his neck and pulled him to me.

This was what I wanted to remember if I went to prison. The two of us together.

Julian’s hungry lips took my mouth again, this time harder, with the passion of the young man I met so many years ago. His tongue slid in, taking mine in its possession, its persistent strength spreading my lips, lingering between my gums like he was discovering me all over again.

His weight over me made me feel safer. The bulky muscles were like my shield, a cocoon of protection from the rest of the world. I dug my fingers into his back, insisting that he press harder. Feeling my body begin to writhe underneath him, hips twisting against his hard cock, then rubbing myself in that blossoming center swelling between my legs, Julian was beginning to take me far away from this world.

My shirt flew up and over my head, and Julian lowered my bra cups beneath my breasts. My nipples ached, hard and sensitive to each scratch from his skin. He flicked his finger over one, then the other, and then hungrily took them into his mouth. I arched my back higher, placing my full self deep into his mouth.

Hooking his fingers into my shorts Julian removed them in one swift pull. His hand roamed up my thigh and to the inside of my leg, cupping my sex. The heat of his palm on me there spread like a wildfire, sizzling across my body.

“I love feeling how much you want me, K,” he said into my mouth.

“Always,” I replied.

The sound of ripping fabric surged through my veins. It seemed Julian didn’t bother with removing my panties the old-fashioned way. The smell of my arousal floated around us, and I yanked the shorts off his hips, springing him free. Feeling Julian’s fingers spread my juices between my slick folds, I desperately needed him inside me. I needed him to claim me, own me, and rock me perpetually. This night couldn’t end. I’d savor every moment I could until the hearing in his arms, with Julian inside me.

When his mouth finally pulled away, his hazel eyes were aflame with ancient appetite of a needy man. I found my chest heaving at the promises he held in that one look. My limbs coiled around him like ivy vines, needing the hot-blood pounding under his skin to nourish them.

I stared at the hollow in his neck above the collarbone, wanting to lick it the same way I had when we first made love in his office. I pulled him lower, sinking my tongue there, tasting the saltiness of his skin mixed with just a hint of his soap from the shower.

He groaned from the depth of his lungs and I spread my legs for him – only him – always him.

“I love you, Kendra.”

And with those words, he thrust inside me, jarring me up on the bed, hitting my depth with his firm dick. Julian supported himself on his arms, rocking us in that torturous rhythm that begged for more. A moan escaped my throat. I curled my knees upward and stretched my feet to the top of his shoulders, resting them there. My ass tilted higher, anchoring me for a deeper plunge.

My body jerked at each advance and I grasped my breasts, squeezing them, rolling my nipples between my fingers, forcing the sting of my pinch to zigzag toward my cleft. Julian’s onslaught rippled from my pussy, tingling in all the right places.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” The adoration shone from his eyes.

He slowed the tempo, nearly pulling out of me, but not quite, teasing me with his tip. And when his hand came to rest at my dampness, every nerve in my body responded. He circled his thumb, watching me. I bit my lip and pressed my breasts together, feeling as if I was about to float away. And on the next flick a sharp spasm spread through me, quaking along my skin, breaking me apart in front of Julian. I cried out in joy, feeling tears spill from my eyes. A swell of happiness and near-agony tore through me as the thought that this could be our last time together returned. And I curled into a fetal position and sobbed.

“Shh, I’ve got you.” Julian folded me into his arms, smoothing my hair back, cooing into my ear. “You’re with me forever, I promise.”

And as much as I wanted to believe him, the law was certain. Murderers didn’t go free. They were meant to rot in jail like carcass left out in the sun in the middle of summer.

“K, look at me.”

Julian forced me to turn around. “Open your eyes.”

I listened, seeing him through salty tears.

“You’re one of the strongest women I know. I. WILL. NOT. FUCKING. FAIL. YOU. Do you hear me?”

He held my face in his hands. “Answer me, K. Tell me you believe me.”