Chapter Forty-Nine

Tessa

I’m not sure how long I sit, huddled with Rita. I almost called Ben five different times, but what if Garrett wasn’t bluffing? I’m about to finally hit send when someone knocks again.

Rita scurries out of my arms, barking, as she runs toward the door.

My heart feels like a herd of wildebeests is stampeding over my chest. I gulp as I rise, walk to the door, and look through the peephole.

I heave a sigh of relief. It’s my neighbor, Laura Templeton, holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Hi, Laura,” I say through the door, hoping my voice doesn’t shake. “I’m not decent. What’s up?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, Tessa, but I heard about your father. I just wanted to drop these flowers by. I’ll just leave them here in the hallway.”

“That’s kind of you. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to call me. I can pick up groceries for you. Anything at all.”

“I appreciate that.” I pause a moment. “Actually, Laura, is anyone else out there in the hallway or the stairwell? Two men?”

Laura looks side to side as I watch through the peephole. “Not that I saw. Were you expecting someone?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “Thanks, Laura. I really appreciate the thought.”

I watch out the peephole until Laura is out of my view. She lives one floor down, which means she took the stairs.

Thank God. That means they’re gone.

I have to get to work. It’s only my third full day, and I’m already late. But first I have to warn Ben.

I doubt Garrett and that horrid altar boy could truly have anything that could threaten Ben, but I can’t take the chance. Once I talk to him and he assures me they’re bluffing, I can call the police and have those two psychos arrested.

Rita scurries around my legs. She probably has to go out. I grab her leash and fasten it to her collar.

My heart thuds as I unlock my deadbolt. I look up and down the hallway.

They aren’t still here, are they? Laura would have seen them in the stairwell. I probably should have called 911, but I couldn’t take that chance. I’ll protect Ben at all costs.

I walk toward the stairwell—

And Rita begins yapping like a rabid dog.

“We knew you’d have to come out sooner or later,” Garrett snarls, grabbing me.

Where did they come from? Rita lunges at Garrett and sinks her tiny teeth into his leg.

“Fucking dog!” Garrett yells, kicking at her.

I let go of her leash. “Run, Rita! Go!”

But she doesn’t leave me. She takes a shot at David next, but one woman and one scruffy dog are no match for two men. Garrett punches me in the face.

Pain explodes through my head as blood spurts from my nose. The coppery liquid crawls down my throat, and I swallow it down along with the nausea.

“I hope you like prison!” I shout at him. I grab for my phone, but it slips through my fingers.

“I hope your boyfriend likes it too!” he yells back.

I spit a glob of blood out of my mouth. “You drugged me, you asshole. You laced my alcohol with ketamine, and it caused a reaction with the Echinacea I took for my allergies. I almost fucking died, Garrett!”

He looks me up and down and then rolls his eyes. “You don’t look dead to me. Now you’re going to drop those charges.”

“At least let my puppy go!” I yell at David. “Please!”

“She’ll just slow us down,” Garrett says. “Let the dog go.”

“Fine.” David releases a wriggling Rita, and she runs back toward my apartment.

I pray silently that Laura or another neighbor will find her until I can get back to her.

And I will get back to her.

I won’t let these two degenerates get the best of me.

I tug against Garrett’s strength, looking for a weak spot. His groin, if I can get to it. I’m wearing stiletto pumps. I can do some damage with those.

“Let me go!” I yell.

“Not until you drop the charges,” Garrett says.

“I can’t. It’s the DA’s call. Not mine.”

“Without you as a witness, there’s no case.”

He’s right, of course. Nothing is worth this. Nothing is worth anything happening to Ben. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll drop it. But you have to swear never to come near me again.”

“I’m only too happy to abide by that request, you little bitch.”

“You have to let me go first,” I say.

“Nope. You’re calling the DA right now. Here in the stairwell. Tell him you’ve changed your mind, and you’re withdrawing your complaint.”

“My phone is—”

“It’s right here.” David shoves it in my face. “But you’re not calling here, where anyone can walk by. We’re going back to your apartment.”

“The hell we are.” I wipe more blood from my aching nose.

They drag me back into my place, anyway.

Rita scurries inside and into her kennel. Poor baby is scared to death.

Garrett’s face is red with anger as David shoves my phone into my hands.

I look down at the screen and start to tap in the number for the DA’s office. Then I pause, my finger hovering above the keypad.

I look back at Garrett.

He leers at me. “You going to do it, or do I have to chop your fingers off and put the number in myself?”

“Yes, sorry.” I blink several times and look toward the ceiling. “Just can’t remember the number offhand. And I don’t have it saved in my contacts.”

“Look in your recent calls. You’ve called them before, haven’t you?”

I nod my head slowly.

He raises a fist. “Then move it,bitch.”

I recoil at his fist. Where is the justice here? How can I allow this man, this rapist, to roam the streets free? He won’t be able to slake his thirst with my body alone. Don’t I owe it to his future female victims to take a stand here?

“I swear to God, if you don’t call that motherfucker right now…”

I put up a hand in defense. “I’m going.”

But I don’t type anything into the phone. I tap the screen a few times, then put the phone to my ear.

I’ve called this number several times. It’s an automated line. First they ask for my extension, and then I’m connected directly to Trish.

I wait a few seconds and then pretend to type a few more numbers. “I’m putting in her extension,” I explain.

Garrett doesn’t respond.

I wait a few more seconds. Then I start speaking.

“Hi, Trish. This is Tessa. Tessa Logan.”

I pause for what I hope is a believable amount of time.

“Yes, I’m calling about my complaint regarding Mr. Garrett Ramirez.”

Another pause.

“Yes, I would like to withdraw—”

But I’m cut off by my phone’s ringtone. I look in horror to see that my mother is calling me. Probably checking up on me after the funeral, making sure I’m doing all right.

God, she has no idea how much she just fucked me over.

Garrett reacts immediately and pounces. He tackles me to the ground, his hands wrapped tightly around my wrists. My phone clatters to the floor.

“Do you think I’m a fucking moron?” he asks through gritted teeth.

My whole body trembles underneath him. “No…of course not…”

“You think you’re clever, you little slut?”

I shake my head. “My phone…it’s…”

He chuckles. “What are you going to say? It’s broken? It has some weird defect where incoming calls interrupt ongoing calls? Do you think I’m that fucking dumb?”

I don’t answer.

He slaps me across the face, hard. Then he lets go of my wrists and clamors for my phone.

Shit, that stings. I bring my hand to my face and rub it.

He shoves the phone back in my face. “Fucking call the DA. And this time, you’ll be putting it on speaker.”

David squats down next to me. “I’d do what he says, gorgeous. Don’t want that pretty little face of yours to get fucked up, do you?”

I stifle a sob as I get to my feet. I look around my apartment. Poor, sweet Rita is still shaking in her kennel.

I’m out of ideas.

I take my phone, tap in the number of my contact at the DA’s office while Garrett glares at me and David locks the deadbolt on my door. I press the speaker button so Garrett knows I’m not trying to trick him this time.

“Thank you for calling the Suffolk County DA,” the recording says. “If you know your party’s extension, enter it now.”

I tap in the numbers.

Shit. Goes to voicemail. “This is Trish McCoy with the DA’s office. I’m sorry I can’t take your call. Please leave me a detailed message and I’ll return your call as soon as I can.”

“Hi, Trish, it’s Tessa Logan. I’m calling because”—I clear my throat—“I’ve had a change of heart. I’d like to withdraw the charges against Mr. Ramirez. Please give me a call. Thanks.”

I throw my phone down. “Satisfied?”

“I will be,” he says, “as soon as you take off those clothes.”

My jaw drops.

He laughs wickedly. “Not for me, of course. Been there, done that. For my pal David here. Seems he’s had his eye on you for fifteen years. Since you fit into those little white panties.”

“No.” I back away. “Absolutely not.”

“You’re going to show me that grown-up pussy,” David sneers. “Or Ben Black goes down.”

I gulp.

Ben didn’t do anything. He couldn’t have. He’s a good man. An honest man.

The man who helped me see myself as I truly am—a strong and independent woman who’s no one’s victim.

The man I love.

Rita runs out of her kennel, barking and snarling. She leaps at David, clawing at his leg.

He kicks her away. “Get this fucking mutt off me!”

“Rita, baby. Go to your den.”

She snaps at him again.

“Rita, den. Now!”

She cocks her head at me, and for a moment I think she’s wondering why I’m not letting her protect me.

“Go, Rita.”

She finally walks back into her den and lies down.

“Fine,” I say to David. “Do what you want to me, but first, at least tell me what Ben did. Why you think he’s going down.”

“How about you ask him about Travis McKee?”

I furrow my brow. “Who the hell is that?”

A grin spreads over David’s face. “He never told you?”

“Aren’t you two inlove?”Garrett pokes me in the chest. “Can’t believe he’d keep secrets from a conniving little cunt like you.”

I try not to react from Garret’s physical contact. “Ben would never do anything wrong.”

David takes a step toward me. “Really? He’d never, say, knock the teeth out of a corpse to keep it from being identified?”

My stomach drops to my feet. “You’re lying…”

Garrett shrugs. “To be fair, he did kill the poor fucker before he did that.”

I swallow. “Ben would never—”

“He’s a fucking murderer,” Garrett says. “Like I said, ask him about Travis McKee.”

“For Christ’s sake, who is Travis McKee?”

“The escaped con that your boyfriend dumped in the Boston Bay fifteen years ago. After he stabbed his poor ass to death while orchestrating a failed robbery.” David takes my white panties out of his pocket and holds them to his nose. “Around the same time I was getting these from you,” he says with a snakelike grin.

I grimace at David, but then the gravity of what he said hits me like a ton of bricks, and the last thing I’m thinking about is my communion panties.

Ben?

A killer?

No. No way.

“It’s not true. Ben wouldn’t—”

“Ben would,” David says. “And he did. My brother has proof. But that proof will never see the light of day, as long as you let me do what I want.”

I gulp down the nausea again. My nose has stopped bleeding, and I feel the blood drying and crusting over my chin and neck. I’m sure I look like something out of a horror flick. It no doubt turns this psycho on.

If what they’re saying is the truth—and I have a really awful gut feeling that it is—then I have no choice. I don’t want Ben to go down for this. All I have to do is let David have his way with me, and the man I love will be free from his past.

“Why you want a full-grown woman when you obviously have a thing for little girls is beyond me.”

“Shut up, bitch.” David stalks toward me and punches my jaw.

This pain isn’t like when Garrett broke my nose. This is dull and throbbing, rather than sharp and shattering.

Damn it. No. Just no. He can take what he wants from me, but he’ll have to fight for it.

If he wants my clothes off me, he can rip them off himself. I swallow, cross my arms, and glare at him.

“Oh, she wants to play hard to get, does she?” David runs his spindly fingers down my arm.

I shudder.

He grabs my wrists, forces my body to the ground, and pries them away from my chest. “Lucky for you, I like it when a girl resists. Makes the pursuit all the better.”

I dart my gaze over to Garrett.

“Don’t mind him,” David says. “I agreed to let him watch.”

My stomach flips over on itself.

Garrett’s gaze burns into me as he starts rubbing his crotch. “I always wanted to know what it looked like to see you get fucked, Tessa. I always felt like an actor who never got to watch himself on stage.”

I don’t respond, but I wriggle my wrists in an attempt to free myself from David’s grasp.

“I might need you to help just a little,” David says. “Hold her wrists down so I can unbutton her blouse the rest of the way.”

“Be glad to.” Garrett gets on his knees behind my head and holds my wrists down. I can see his erection tenting his pants.

I swallow down the gag. Puking all over these two will only make it worse.

David undoes a button. “This is a nice blouse, Tessa. Nice fabric, nice color.” He looks into my eyes. “Though I always preferred you in white.”

Oh my God. I can’t believe this demented piece of shit.

I spit in his face.

He closes his eyes in reaction, and in that split second I twist my body to maneuver my feet into the right position and kick him straight in the balls.

He keels over on his side, yelping.

“Crafty little bitch, aren’t you?” Garrett sneers. “But how are you going to take on two of us?”

I look up at him from the floor. From this angle, every feature of his face is overpronounced, bringing out the true ghoulish nature of his soul.

It’s weird, but right now I’m feeling that old Tessa spark burning brighter than it has since this asshole took it from me in the first place.

“You might be able to overpower me, but I won’t make it easy for either of you.”

Garrett releases my wrist and draws his arm back for another punch. But I react quickly, grab my phone, and batter him right on the forehead with it.

It’s not much, but he’s stunned for long enough for me to get to my feet. I get to the door, fling it open, and run down the hallway—

Thud.

Right into the hard chest of a police officer.

My heart skips. “Help me. Please!”

Another officer arrives out of the stairwell. “Ms. Logan?”

“Yes, that’s me. Help me! There are two men in my apartment—”

“Tessa!”

Ben’s voice. Thank God!

“Ben!” I yell. “Help me!”

A moment later, the door is open, the two uniformed officers enter my apartment, guns drawn.

Ben and I stand in the doorway. I shiver in his arms.

“You two,” one officer says to Garrett and David. “Hands behind your head. Now!”

Relief swirls through me as Garrett and David are placed under arrest.

I melt against Ben. I had gotten away on my own, but knowing he’s here eases my burden. “You came for me.”

He pushes me away slightly, looks into my eyes. “We need to get you to a hospital, baby. Your nose, your jaw. Are you okay? Are you hurting?”

The pain explodes in me. I wasn’t feeling it much before, but now? With my adrenaline draining?

God, it fucking hurts.

Ben’s jaw is rigid and clenched. “Did they…?”

I shake my head. “No. Just my nose and face.”

“Your blouse is unbuttoned.”

“But they didn’t. I swear it, Ben.”

He pulls me against him. “Thank God.”

Braden—who I’m only now realizing is here as well—turns to us. “Get her to the ER,” he says to Ben. “I’ll take care of this for now. But the cops are going to want a statement from you, Tessa.”

“I’ve got a fucking statement to make too,” David blurts out. “And you know what it is, Black.” He sneers at Ben.

“What’s he talking about?” I ask, hoping Ben will deny it.

He wraps his arm around me and leads me out of the apartment. “Nothing for you to worry about. Come on.”