6. Flight Doesn’t Mean Escape

Just fucking perfect.

Pressing her foot down on the accelerator, she merged onto I-26 heading northwest out of Charleston. Her hands shook and tears burned in her sinuses, but she managed to get on the expressway without killing herself.

"Let me count the ways I can fuck up my life," she muttered as she passed the I-95 interchange that would have taken her to school. She'd have to go back but couldn't face it just yet.

If her situation hadn't been so dire, she might have laughed at the sight of Dr. Pappas in cheap leather pants and a vest over his short-sleeved white dress shirt. God, he looked ridiculous, but his presence in the club raised a lot of questions she wasn't sure she wanted answered.

Had he followed her? She shivered and swallowed hard before remembering he'd gotten there before her. The thought of him with an impact toy was unsettling enough. Besides, unless he hacked her phone or email, there was no way he could have known she'd be there.

Then again, his absurd outfit meant he'd done at least a little planning before going to Club BDE.

Dr. Pappas wasn't the only one she wanted to avoid. She definitely would have dodged Mr. Bastian and Mr. Desmond before they spotted her.

Daddies D and B, indeed. How could she have been so damned stupid to miss the connection? Mr. Damian had asked about her tattoo, and he was Mr. Desmond's brother.

Tania didn't know what was worse. Actually, she did. She could avoid Bastian and the Elliott brothers forever and ever, amen, but she'd have to face Dr. Pappas three days a week until the end of the semester if she wanted to graduate. There was still the issue of him being on the judging committee for her senior project too.

She shivered and tried to think. Her scholarship didn't have a moral turpitude clause, but the school did. It went without saying that Dr. Pappas would threaten her with exposure if she didn't agree to be his graduate assistant, but he'd also been in the club, and she had zero qualms about calling his dumb ass out. After all, if he hadn't been there, he wouldn't have seen her.

Unfortunately, he was tenured, and she was an undergrad. He'd get a slap on the wrist and a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, and she'd get expelled, despite having done nothing wrong.

"Boys will be boys. Close your mouth and open your legs. Don't complain when they call you a slut for doing what they want because they'll call you a bitch if you don't, and lie about it anyway," she mocked. "You'd be so pretty if you smiled."

You'd be so pretty with a knife in your chest.

Fuck's sake, she couldn't even go to the grocery store without some asshole telling her to smile. She scrubbed a hand over the carefully applied smoky eye she'd learned from YouTube and screamed her rage to an uncaring sky.

"I don't want to be pretty!" She stomped on the accelerator and screamed again. "I don't want to fucking smile, and boys should grow the fuck up and be men! What stupid ass shit is it to spend six figures to be a woman's first lover anyway? It's like they're dogs pissing on fire hydrants."

Teeth bared, she swerved through traffic, passing slower vehicles in a desperate attempt to get away from the shitstorm of her life.

The blue lights flashing behind her, with accompanying sirens, were just a passing annoyance that didn't surprise her in the slightest. In fact, it was almost mundane.

What was a speeding ticket in the grand scheme of things?

She pulled over, angling her car to protect the trooper. Instead of lamenting her fate, she grabbed her registration and insurance card from the glovebox and her license from her purse.

Once she had her documents in hand, she lowered her window and waited for the trooper to lean down and peer at her.

"Ma'am, do you know how fast you were going?"

"No, sir." She handed him everything he'd eventually ask for but didn't look at him. "I have pepper spray, but no firearms or other weapons, and you have permission to search my car. If you could just give me the ticket, I'll be on my way."

"Ma'am?"

"What?" She forced herself to look at the surprisingly young officer, whose nametag read E. Reyes. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else to give you. I've never gotten a ticket before."

He cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at her smeared makeup and the reddened marks on her arm from where Dr. Pappas grabbed her. "Are you safe?" he finally asked.

"Define safe." Tania sighed and leaned against the headrest. "Sorry. I'm fine. Just give me the ticket, please."

"Here, take this." He pressed a card into her hand and straightened. "It's about twenty miles west and has private security. Nobody will get to you there."

She glanced down at the card containing the name and address of a women's shelter and sighed before handing it back. "This isn't for me, but thank you for offering."

"Ma'am…" He leaned down and rested his elbows on the door. "They can help you."

"No, seriously, I'm good." She hesitated, then added, "I'm a college student. One of my professors is trying to coerce me into being his fuck toy slash grad assistant, and I kind of did something stupid, but I'm not in danger of him hurting me."

He glanced at her license and shook his head. "Ms. Andersen, you might think he won't hurt you, but there are all kinds of hurt."

"Tell me about it." She gave him a wan smile, then added, "It's going to be okay. Do you know why?"

"Um…why?"

"Because I met someone tonight who is truly kind." Tania laid her hand atop his and her smile warmed. "Just out of the blue, I met a South Carolina state trooper who gave me the address of a women's shelter instead of a ticket, and didn't tell me I'd be prettier if I smiled while he steals my work for his own gain. Meeting him gives me hope that not everyone with a Y chromosome is a dick."

"Ouch, but you didn't meet me quite out of the blue." He chuckled, then added, "You were doing ninety-five in a seventy zone."

"Whoops." She squeezed his hand, then let him go. "Now, about that ticket…"

* * *