15

All of my plans and ploys went out the window when the man approached me before I could even start to lay the trap. I was glad my phone was already recording in my pocket.

"You're Arabella Baker, right?" Mr. Fuller asked as he jogged from his vehicle towards the sports bar he hung out at regularly. There was a sports game playing that night, and I learned he met up with the same group normally.

I slowed in my pace and did a double take, instantly deciding to change tactics when I saw the glee in his eyes. I knew that look well.

And it wasn't a good one.

"You have the wrong person."

"No, no, I don't," he chuckled darkly. "You're Arabella Baker."

"How on Earth could you possibly know that with such certainty?" I demanded as I turned to face him. "We've not met."

He smirked at me. "You run a business. You see people all of—"

"And you're not memorable, but I don't allow men into my bakery, so enough with the games." It was hard not to smirk when I saw the rage in his eyes.

"Your picture was all over," he drawled. "The woman who was allegedly brutalized and tells such a story that—"

"That's funny, because most people say I'm the owner of the super popular Karma Bakery," I said with the same tone of disdain as I used some power on him to loosen his tongue. "I find only pigs and predators bring that up upon meeting me. Is that your thing? You like women you see as already being prey?"

Yes. It was all over his face.

"According to you they didn't do anything wrong," he said instead. "Who would believe a woman like you?"

"Like me? A victim?" I smirked at him. "Oh, this act might work on your normal prey, but this didn't happen in this country, and the men who brutalized me were already found guilty and punished. You don't matter enough to get the details. Those with authority and power already did." I snickered at him and turned to leave.

And he reached out and grabbed my arm. I broke the hold and swallowed a shiver when I saw the glee in his eyes that he thought I was afraid of him.

"Put your hands on me again and I will break you," I warned.

"Not call the police?" he mocked.

"Darling, you'd be in the ground before they could get here to save you," I chuckled darkly.

"I regret sending you flowers," he sneered. "You seemed so pretty and timid, having others speak for you and even opening the bakery with those stupid rules to keep out men like that would do anything really. But you're nothing like your image."

"You mean the image you built up in your head," I drawled and stepped into his space to show I wasn't afraid. "Aren't you embarrassed?"

"Embarrassed? Why the fuck would I be embarrassed?"

"You sent flowers to a woman you've never even met like a pathetic loser because you had this idea of her being some timid victim you wanted to make prey all built up in your head."

"You are prey," he snapped, my power making his mouth work faster than his brain. "You were their prey, and once you're prey, you won't ever be predator. You'll just be someone else's prey next. That's how it works."

"Not for you," I purred. "You were so pathetic you tried to call and talk to me after I posted that I didn't want losers sending me gifts? You were one of hundreds. You weren't special, but only the most pathetic called and tried to use it as a chance—"

"Shut your fucking mouth, you slut," he growled.

"Or what?" I chuckled darkly. "You going to get me? You going to show me my place?" I gestured around to the lit-up parking lot. "Please try it. The only reason they hurt me was because they ganged up on me. I'm more than able to take you on. So go right ahead. See how it works for you."

"I could, and there's nothing you could do about it," he snapped.

"Oohhh, big words neither of us believe." I tilted my head and studied him. "I'm not normal prey, am I? No, I'm too much of a challenge. You're an ugly slob. I bet you go for younger ones. Ones who don't have money and power like me, right?"

"They know their place unlike a bitch like you!" he seethed.

And then he realized what he'd said. He went pale as he retreated so fast he tripped over his own feet and landed hard. He scrambled to his feet and was at his car as fast as he could. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of his license plate, letting him see me do it.

"You got it all," I asked Kary when I was out of sight.

"Yeah, fuck, Mom," she whispered. "Are you okay?"

"No," I admitted. "No, but I will not let those girls be hurt. Call the parents in and tell them I will call child services tonight for—everything. The man is creepy as fuck. Get them there and see if Sgt. Adams can come. Call whomever."

"I already did. I did the moment you left because…"

Because the girls deserved to be heard even if I didn't get the proof. Their parents needed to be better parents, and the twins would make them pull their heads out of their asses.

I only had one thing to say to that.

"I am so very proud of you both," I praised.

"Love you too," she whispered and hung up.

I took a cab back to the bakery to make it like that had been the plan instead of the reality that I used my power to appear anywhere. Plus, my SUV was already at the bakery, and now things would get tricky, so it was best to just jump through the hoops.

Everyone was pretty much there when I arrived, which shocked me, but when I saw the annoyed look on Justina's face, I knew she'd had to get involved. Right after I walked in, Sgt. Adams did and glanced around.

He simply sighed and gave me a tired look. "I'm going to need coffee to keep up with whatever I'm being dragged into, Ms. Baker."

"The school is in your jurisdiction, and we have concerns the administration might try to sweep too much under the rug," Justina said. "Especially since we already have one former student willing to go on the record." She nodded when I couldn't hide my shock. "I promised her that you would allow me to make sure her college wouldn't take her spot or punish her somehow."

"Your damn right I won't," I agreed, glad we were on the same page and she knew me well enough that she could make that promise without even having to tell me. I glanced at Irene with an apologetic look.

"Something's going on at school, and my brother's being a stupid man," she said before I could. "I'm caught up enough to figure that out." She gave him the look he deserved. "Shut up. I'm the only reason you got out from under our parents too. You soaked up a bit too much of their sexism, and I won't let Grace suffer for it."

Grace swallowed loudly. "I'm sorry I didn't come to you, but you've been…"

"I love you so much, baby girl," she whispered, going over to her and hugging her tightly. "I don't care what shit I'm dealing with or my grief. I will always be here for you."

"You would, but apparently I was absolutely the right person to make the tiger show his stripes," I told them. Emily's parents started to argue with me and bitch about me going over the line, and I lost my patience. "Shut up and listen because you're about to see why you are horrible parents."

I put my phone on the high-top table and played the recording of my phone call to Kary so I could get the guy.

Mary swore under her breath right in the first few seconds, guessing how hard it had been for me to endure some asshole treating me that way.

When the recording was done, I met Grace's dad's eyes with the anger he deserved. "The only mistake I made in what happened to me was that I didn't trust my gut and push back before I was brutalized." I looked at Emily's parents. "That when I told my older brother my concerns that something was wrong and he brushed them off, that I should have had family who listened to me!"

"He really raped her," Emily rasped. "And I missed it. I believed her that it was school—do you think it was more than once? Why didn't she even tell me? Oh god, what if he has pictures of her?" She turned to face her parents and I was so proud of her. "Would your fucking reputations have meant more than that?

"I'm not your fucking property! You're supposed to love me more than what people think of you. Your job is to protect me! Aren't you ashamed that you've been failing at it? That you've left me to handle this alone." She gestured to me. "My boss who barely knows me immediately did all of this the day we talked to her. What is wrong with you that you are—"

"That's enough, Emily," her mom snapped.

"Oh no, you don't get to pull the parent card when you allowed her near a sick monster and you didn't listen to her," I seethed. "He was touching her hair. He was saying things about her looks and body. If you don't understand that was already over the fucking line, then you are—I would put any man in the fucking ocean if they did that to my daughters!"

"My client doesn't mean that literally," Justina cut in.

Sgt. Adams snorted and gave her a look to save it. "Legally, I would say the same. As a father, I fully agree with her."

Glad he did.

"I'm sorry, Gracie," her dad whispered, reaching for her. He acted like he'd been slapped when she stepped away and moved towards Irene.

"I should be able to tell you any time a man makes me uncomfortable. It's not me being sensitive that a man in his forties says my new hairstyle makes me look older or more attractive," she rasped. "Or that he wouldn't let me leave the door open and checked my phone was facing up on the desk like he was worried I would be recording what he said."

Sgt. Adams couldn't hide his shock at that one. His gaze met mine and I nodded, seeing the red flag I did.

"I have questions if he's targeting them because they work here," Emily's mother said. "He said that he sent you flowers and you rebuffed him. This could be all your fault that our daughters were pulled into your drama. Again."

"Over the line," Kary growled.

"Way over the line," Sgt. Adams agreed.

"Now I'm your daughter and you care?" Emily chuckled darkly. "You were going to toss me out if I messed up my chance to get the guidance counselor's recommendation and a few inappropriate comments about my looks weren't something to bitch about, right, Mom? I should be lucky to be pretty enough that he would notice and put me ahead of others."

Mary caught me before I reached the woman. I had gone towards her fully intending to… I wasn't sure.

Slap her. I hope I was only going to slap her.

I felt a bit better when I saw her dad seemed a bit upset at hearing that, but he cleared his throat. "Okay, we can discuss this more at home. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Ms. Baker, but we're her parents and will handle it from here."

"Will you actually?" I challenged, not hiding my disgust. "Or will you threaten to toss your child out again? How embarrassed are you that you're this incompetent and now others know it? Will you punish her for that?" I simply raised an eyebrow at him when his eyes filled with anger. "I suggest you choose how you handle what comes next very carefully."

"Are you threatening us?" her mom seethed.

"That's your first reaction?" Justina asked, not hiding her disgust. "Seriously, everyone has parents, but not everyone should have children. Unreal."

I couldn't agree more. "Emily is over sixteen, so what does that mean in this state, Justina?"

"She only needs to be in the military, married, or have full-time employment to no longer be beholden to her parents instead of waiting until eighteen," Justina purred. "There's no formal emancipation process in Massachusetts under those terms unlike the others we've had to handle that were in the system."

"Meaning with all these witnesses, I could declare Emily has a full-time position with me, and she could live in my apartment above the bakery right now," I told them. "How would that look to all of the people you're so worried about how you appear? More so than the well-being of your own fucking daughter?"

"You've made your point," her dad bit out.

"Oh, I've not even begun to make my point," I warned as I took a step closer making it clear I wasn't backing down and would go all the way with this. "She works for me, and that means Justina and her firm are already Emily's attorney if she needs her. It's in her contract, even part-time. She could take you to court and sue you for neglect and emotional damages."

"Dayumn," Megan's mom whispered. "You really are a momma bear with your employees. I knew it from the day those men came here, but this is… Wow."

"I told you," Megan chuckled. "Can they both sleep over at our place tonight? Just so everyone can settle with this and we can figure out a plan or—"

"We don't need you putting more nonsense in Emily's head," her mom snapped.

"Hey, don't talk to my daughter like that," Megan's mom seethed. "I'm with Arabella on this. You're a moron for not seeing that Mr. Fuller was a slimeball. I get he didn't turn on the charm for me because Megan's not on the AP track, but he oozes gross and wrong. I knew that from the parent and college meetings.

"And you should thank Megan that Emily had a safe friend she could come to who listens to her since you brushed her off! You're glad she's pretty so disgusting men notice her and she can use that? What mother tells her daughter that? Are you in the 1940s? Was the recommendation worth her being raped or is that too far for you?"

"Of course, that's too far," Emily's mom shouted. "I didn't know he went that far! He said she looked pretty and her skirts were cute. So what? You think she won't have that in the workplace? In life? She needs to learn how to handle that sort of attention and—"

"She is a child," Kary growled. "Your child! You are the one who is supposed to protect her from that! Not teach her to fucking accept it. Of course, she'll have to deal with it when she's an adult! A forty-year-old saying these things to and about a sixteen-year-old is a pedophile! Why are you not fucking getting that? She's a kid. Your job was for her to never experience what she is now. You failed!"

"We deal with that shit all of the time at college and even one professor who makes comments about us being hot twins and wishing he was younger," Mary told her.

"What?" I seethed. "Who?"

"We handled it, Mom," she told me, keeping Emily's mom's gaze. "Because you showed us how to handle it when we were young. You shielded us when we were kids so we knew how to handle it and the line now that we were adults. That is the way a parent should fucking be. Not tell her to suck it up and this is the world. What else have you allowed to happen to your kid?"

"Is she even safe to be in that house?" Kary pushed, giving me a worried look. "Seriously. She knew a guy was interested and flirting with kids, petting her hair, was in her daughter's life, and didn't handle it. She's not safe with a woman like that."

"Now wait just a damn minute," Emily's father cut in.

"I agree, and I'm just as wrong," Grace's father whispered, shocking all of us. "He never touched Grace. I should have listened, but you knew he touched Emily. I didn't know that."

"You shut down the conversation before I could tell you," Grace rasped. "You said I was being too sensitive and seeing monsters everywhere because of Arabella's influence."

"You bastard," Irene seethed.

"I was wrong," he accepted. "I was really wrong. I'm sorry, Gracie." He looked to Megan's mom. "If Grace wants to stay with you tonight and you're fine with it, thank you."

"She's always welcome at our house," she accepted.

"Or we could take them to the guest house at your place," Mary offered. "If you all just want the night off. Talk to Sgt. Adams about what comes next."

"We beat that bastard bloody and tell the school what's going on," Grace's dad said firmly.

Unfortunately, that was not going to be the answer and we all knew it. That would simply have him in jail and make Mr. Fuller look like the victim.

So no, that was not the plan we would go with.

But I had wanted to do the same.