One Way Or Another You Will Pay (24 page)

“Feel
this.” He takes my hand and places it on his crotch. “Mm?”

I’m
not listening to him.

I
heard a sound. A tiny creak of the floorboards.

Warren?!

Has to be Warren, because I didn’t hear the door open.

Another
creak. Oh, God, don’t let it be Warren! Tom will take pleasure in shooting Warren in front of me.

The
knife, I have to get it!

To
my utter dismay, Tom freezes and looks behind him.

I
hold my breath as he sticks his neck into the hallway, his gun trained on me. I’m flirting heavily with the thought of grabbing the knife.

But
he returns to me too quickly, appearing satisfied that no one is around. “Now where were we?”

Again,
I hear a creak.

Thinking
quickly, in an attempt to distract him, I open my thighs wide.

It
works, his eyes fly to my crotch and his breathing labours. “Ooooh, yeah. That’s what I’m talking about!”

Okay.

“You know what I remember most about you?” My voice is breathless, come-hither, and my eyes are half-mast.

Use
his name, he likes it.

“Huh,
Tom? You wanna know?”

Maybe
it is Warren who’s awake and maybe, given the chance, he’ll sneak out of the house and run for help.

“I’ll
bet you do remember
something
I’m good at, huh? It wasn’t all bad, right?” I speak rapidly in an attempt to engage him, hog his hearing.

He
nods as I speak. “See, this is what I like – you and me talking. This is
interaction
! What I fucking talked about all the time. Inter…
action
.”

Another
tiny creak and I just know I didn’t imagine them.

Please,
Warren, don’t come into the room and try to save me. Run for help, boy!

Even
though his eyes are fixed on my crotch and even a little glazed, to my dismay, one of his hands reaches for the gun.

As
he does, Bear appears behind him, brandishing a baseball bat.

Both
Tom and I see Bear at the same time.

Before
Tom can react, Bear slams the bat onto Tom’s arm. A distinct sound of snapping can be heard amidst the thwack.

With
a scream, Tom drops the gun and holds his hand. Bear smashes the bat into Tom’s ribs, then his back. Tom folds like an accordion.

“Bear,
you’re alive!” I cry, relief flooding me.

Thank
you, God! Thank you, God! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

As
Tom curls up on the floor in agony, trying to hold his obviously broken arm, Bear grabs the gun, makes it safe, and shoves it into his belt.

While
he does this, I quickly scramble to fix my clothes, worrying that the kids will wake up and witness this horrific scene.

Bear
looks at me, breathing loudly, bat raised and ready to strike again. “You okay?”

I
nod. “I’m fine, I’m fine!”

From
the pain I feel when I move, I do believe Tom may have broken a rib or two of mine, but it’s okay. I know how to handle it. Tom has broken my ribs before.

“He
didn’t …?” His eyes drop to my crotch.

“No,”
I pant. “No, he didn’t!”

Bear
eyes me for a moment, his eyes searching my face, before he leans in and gives me a quick hug.

I
cling to him. “Oh, Bear, I thought you were dead.”

“I’m
here. I’ve been outside this house for a while now, waiting for the right moment. I needed him to get inside the house so that I can do what I planned to do.”

Although
I have many questions, I don’t ask, terrified that Tom may get control of the situation again.

Both
Bear and I have keys to Soong’s and, whenever we’re in the area, we water her plants and collect mail. That is probably how he managed to sneak into the house.

Bear
shakes me off. “Check up on the kids and shut the door on your way out.”

“Must
I call the cops?”

“Nope,”
Bear says. “Not yet. I wanna talk to this fucker. Been waiting for this day. We’re gonna get to know each other. Well, he’s going to get to know me, today.”

Bear
effortlessly lifts Tom by the throat and slams him into a chair.

Tom
screams in pain.

“That’s
right, scream like the girl you are, fucker.”

“Arsehole!”
Tom hisses.

I
race upstairs and look in on my kids. All asleep. Quietly, I shut the door again and hurry back downstairs.

I
enter the room just in time to see Bear placing a chair across Tom and lowering himself into it.

“Illiterate!”
Tom mutters.

“Yep,”
Bear says, “you’re the educated one. Too bad you’re moaning in pain like a pussy with a dangling arm, while I’m here, with
your
gun, in control of the situation. Huh? Tell me again, how smart you are? You, who sits in a room all night and slaves away for your jailers, three hundred and sixty five days a year, spinning money for them like you’re Rumplefucking
fore
skin? ”

“Fuck
you!” Tom spits.

“Who’s
going to fuck me? Not you, for sure. You had your chance and you couldn’t.”

“You
blindsided me, that’s all.” Tom spits.

“You
know what, I came to a gun fight with a baseball bat. Not even a knife. Just a measly bat, mate. You had a gun, so you had the upper hand. Too bad, I quickly
took
away your upper hand. Smashed it. Huh? Who’s smarter now? Who outwitted who?”

Tom
snarls and curses.

“All
your scheming, all your plotting and planning, all your seduction, even with the skivvy who helped for how many years, again?” Bear gives a dismissive wave. “Only for you to be at Arena’s mercy.” Bear shakes his head.

“It’s
not like it’s the first time. I mean, I fucked you over when you murdered your child. Me, a cop with a lousy college education. Huh? I fucked you over so badly, you almost got life. Huh? And you know what? It was all her idea.” He jerks his head toward me. “My Missus. She orchestrated it.”

Tom
narrows his eyes at Bear.

“She
wanted to fuck in your bed while you lay sleeping.” Bear laughs. “Oh, and your skivvy, she fucked you over in the end.”

“No,
she didn’t!” Tom says.

“She
did.”

“She
wouldn’t.” Tom seems adamant.

Bear
leans in, a smug look on his face. “She called me after you left, told me that you had followed Arena here. Told me about you hiding at the Simons. But what she didn’t know, was that I was outside this house, waiting for you to make your move. You had her wait, with two babies in the car at 3 AM, while you commit murder? Where the fuck is your heart, you …?” Bear smashes his fist into Tom’s face.

Blood
runs down Tom’s face.

“You
like hitting women? Huh?” Bear boots Tom in the stomach, sending the chair that he’s sitting on crashing to the floor.

“I
sent her home,” Bear says, his breathing labored. He reaches to pull the chair upright again, then looks at me.

He
looks at me. “Tell him everything you
ever
wanted to tell him. Don’t spare him, now. Don’t hold back. Now’s your chance, okay? You’ve got power right now.”

I’ve
never been in a situation to tell Tom what I thought of him. Never been able to confront him about Sasha’s death. It was a dream to have this kind of power.

Yet,
right now, I am a loss for words.

“You
have a small dick,” I say and burst out laughing.

Bear
laughs too. “Babe, you can do better than that.”

“Shut
the fuck up, you bitch!” Tom spits. “My dick is not small.”

“You
fuck like an old man.”

Again,
Bear and I laugh.

“Here,”
Bear says, handing me the bat, “fuck the shit out of him. Go on, baby. Do it. You’ll feel better.”

I
take the bat but don’t hit Tom.

“I
feel sorry for him,” I say, holding the bat in striking position. “I mean, you humiliated him in front of me, honey. That’s bad enough. Big, strong bitch, who works out every day and is superfit, gets his arse…”

“Shut
up! you bitch. You whore! You…”

Without
thinking, I swing the bat and slam it onto Tom’s shoulders.

“You’re
right, sweetie, I do feel better.” I look up at Bear and smile. “Can I have another…?”

His
gesture toward Tom is dramatic, a be-my-guest look on his face.

I
raise the bat. Tom looks at me, his uninjured hand in front of his face, fear dancing in his eyes.

I
know that look; I sported that particular deer-in-headlights-and-unable-to-do-anything-about-it look throughout my life with Tom.

Whenever
he advanced toward me, I would automatically raise my hands to protect my face. But he was smart, the bastard would get my face even with both my hands in front of it.

I
think he worked out and perfected a technique as to how to circumvent hands, because he was so good at striking me on the face, in spite of my raised hands.

In
fact, Warren also used to hold his tiny hands over his face whenever Tom neared him.

The
thought of Warren feeling such fear at such a tender age sends me into a rage. I slam the bat all over Tom, his shoulders, his head, his back. Not hard enough to break anything, but enough to humiliate him.

Breathing
heavily, I flop into a chair and glare at Tom.

With
eyes blazing with hatred, he wipes blood from his mouth with the back of his uninjured hand.

When
I move he shrinks back in fear, his eyes darting between the bat in my hand and my face.

“How
does it feel?” I ask. “To be helpless and at our mercy?”

He
shrugs.

“You
did the same thing to Ingrid. I read her diaries.”

His
eyes bulge.

I
nod. “She kept her diaries, even though you asked her not to. I have all of them. It’s really incriminating. Both of you are in big shit.”

“Bullshit!”
he says. “I don’t believe …”

“Details
like you’re never going to believe. Read about how you courted her and how much money you gave her to buy the house, about your kids, Warren and Sasha.”

“She
sold you out big time,” Bear says. “She really did.”

“You’re
lying!” Tom says.

“Told
us how you made money for Rogers and …Rodney, is it…?” I squint at him.

Tom’s
eyes dart around. “You’re …you’re …lying.”

“And
when you go back inside,” Bear says, “Rodney and Rodgers are going to fuck you in the arse for ratting on them, boy.”

Tom’s
eyes flit between the two of us, his eyes bright with fear. “Kill me,” he says. “Kill me now! I’m not going back.”

I
shake my head. “Death is too easy. You’re going to live.”

He
shakes his head. “Kill me now. Please. Shoot me. Just fucking SHOOT ME!”

I’ve
never seen Tom beg before. It’s an empowering sight.

When
his begging fails, he switches to baiting.

“I
won’t rest until I get you, Arena. I can’t. You’re my kryptonite! I survived in prison because of my quest, my dogged determination to get you and fuck you.” He looks at Bear. “I want to rape your wife. In front of you. Kill me or I will. I promise! I swear! Somehow, I will!”

I
believe him.

“I
almost did tonight. Even if I get nothing done and I never make it out alive, I will get to Arena first. Nothing will matter after that. That is all I want, all I ever want.”