Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2) (9 page)

Chapter 19

“What a stupid song.” I shook my head and took off toward the DJ to get him to play something else,
but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a barefooted Gabrielle being led away from the dance floor by that guy Jeff she’d been dancing with. My hackles rose as tiny pinpricks stung the back of my neck as they disappeared into the woods. I thought I should follow them, but then figured it was none of my business and began walking back to where Jackson and I had been talking. Jackson was now dancing with Lena, so I stood watching, but I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind of Gabrielle being pulled into the woods in her bare feet. My intuition might be wrong, but I didn’t like the way he’d been holding her on the dance floor, and it just didn’t seem like Gabrielle to go running off into the woods with some guy she hardly knew. Not the way she’d acted a few nights ago, and not the way she’d slapped me when I’d tried to seduce her.

Deciding to let the song go
and go with my gut, I headed toward the woodsy area. Besides, I was curious as to where they were going, or more so, why—not that I wanted to spy or watch them if they were going to start making out or something—no, I had no intention of sticking around for that, but I didn’t know this Jeff guy, and Jackson couldn’t tell me much about him. Yeah, I’d seen him in the bar, and from the way I’d heard him talking, he didn’t seem the type Gabrielle would go for, but who was I to say? I had no right to interfere, it wasn’t as if I were jealous or anything. Gabrielle had made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t interested in me, but it didn’t seem right for him to be pulling her into the woods, especially in her bare feet, and I just wanted to make sure everything was alright. As I got closer, a muffled scream came from further within the thicket and I quickened my pace. I heard the sound again, but this time it resembled more of a moan. Could they be having sex? I slowed down thinking I didn’t want to intrude, when I heard Jeff, say, “I told you to shut the fuck up. I guess I was wrong about you. It looks like I’m gonna have to hurt you after all.” 

I t
ook off running, swearing at myself for spending too much time debating the issue.

“What the fuck are you doing?”
I yanked the asshole off Gabrielle, tossing him to the ground like he was nothing more than a sack of rice, his dick waved like a stiff flag above the opened zipper of his pants. I glanced at Gabrielle. She seemed to be out of it for a few seconds, but came to and rolled to her stomach in an effort to crawl away. I wanted to help her up, cover her bare breasts, but I had no time before Jeff bounced back to his feet, tugging his dick into his pants and charging, head-butting me in the stomach. I went flying backwards with him landing on top of me. I outweighed the son of a bitch by at least ten pounds, and was easily two or three inches taller, but the guy had muscle, which I found out when his fist landed hard against my jaw, clipping my lower lip between his knuckles and my teeth. The taste of iron coated my tongue. I shoved him off and swung with my right arm, clipping him in the left jaw. He swung back and hit me in the same spot, this time the ring on his finger cutting my lip on the outside. Ignoring the sting of the cut, I threw out my left arm, catching him in the stomach. He stumbled back, but I didn’t waste any time before I sent another punch into his face, then another, and another, and another; not giving him a chance to reciprocate, until he was finally down on the ground, barely crawling to get away. I yanked him back up, ready to swing again, but the way he swayed, relying on my fisted hand around his shirt to steady himself, I realized he was out of it and let his limp body fall to the ground. He didn’t move.

Whimpering
sobs came from Gabrielle as she sat on the ground scattered among leaves and dirt. Her once beautiful dress was torn and hung loosely down, exposing the breasts she tried to cover with her hands. I took off my coat—something I had almost done earlier because of the heat, and was now grateful I hadn’t—and draped it around her shoulders. She clutched it tight together in front.

“Are you okay?” A stupid question I supposed. Of course
, she wasn’t, but she nodded.

“He … he was going to … rape me,” she stuttered.

Was
?

Was
, I repeated to myself. I’d never imagined that one simple little verb could bring such joy and relief to me. “I’m glad it was just
was
.”

She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Is he dead?”

“No. The asswipe will live. Unfortunately.” I reached my hand out to her. “C’mon, we need to get you out of here and call the cops.”

“No. Wait.”

“For what?”

“I … I don’t want to spoil Lena’s wedding
and honeymoon. She’ll never leave if she knows about this.”

I considered what she said and for some reason, I agreed with her. It wasn’t something I wanted my brother to have to think about either. A moaning sound came from Jeff
, and I got up and slugged him again, sending him back into unconsciousness. I looked around, realized where we were. Jackson and I‘d used to play around in the woods close by when we were kids. There was a tire swing hanging from a tree several yards away. “Okay. Hold on. I’ll be right back.” I ran to the swing and untied a portion of the rope connecting the bottom of the swing to another piece of rope. Our uncle had made it adjustable for us to move it higher and lower to accommodate longer legs. The variable portion of rope was more than long enough for what I needed. I brought it back to Jeff and dragged his body to a smaller tree. I yanked his limp arms behind him and tied them together before securing the rest of the rope to the tree trunk. “We’ll wait until after Lena and Jackson leave tonight and then call. In the meantime, we can leave him here. He’ll be secure.”

“I can’t go back to the reception. Not like this. And you, your lip is bleeding.”

“So is yours,” I said, skimming the bottom of her lip just below the cut with my thumb. “I’m sorry.” I sat down on the ground next to her, our backs leaning against a large boulder.

“
You came just in time,” she whispered.

Thank God for that, I thought.

“How did you know he’d brought me out here to …? You know.”

“
I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t know that’s why he brought you out here. I saw you dancing with him, and the next thing I knew the two of you were running off to the woods. I almost didn’t come. I figured you were going off for privacy and it was none of my business.” Except, I’d been pissed about it, I recalled silently, but I didn’t need to tell her that. In fact, a strong pang of jealously had swept over me at the sight of Gabrielle in the arms of that creep, swaying and laughing at his most-likely asinine jokes.

“
But the more I thought about it, I didn’t like the way he appeared to be dragging you along, and when I noticed you were barefoot and your shoes were still at the edge of the dance floor, I thought something might be wrong. I didn’t think you would run off to the woods without them on purpose. I have to admit, curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to check things out. There was something about that guy I didn’t like. Even the way he was dancing with you set off alarm bells for me. He’s new around here, and I’ve seen him in the bar a couple of times, but I still thought there was something a little bit off with him. I didn’t think it was something like this though.”

“Thank God for your intuition
,” she mumbled.

“Well, I almost turned back
. I didn’t want to come barging in to rescue you, only to find I was intruding on a very private moment. Then I heard his low clenched threat telling you to shut up or he was going to have to hurt you. Sorry it took me so long to realize what was going on. Are you going to be okay?”

Her hands were shaking, but she managed a soft, “I think so. Mostly because you stopped
him.”

Jeff moaned and opened his eyes
. Shock covered his face at discovering his hands tied behind him and he struggled under the restraints. He stopped the moment he noticed us sitting there. “What the fuck?”

Neither one of us said anything to him. Gabrielle just lowered her gaze to the ground and clutched the jacket tighter.

“You can’t keep me here!” Asswipe shouted.

“
Wanna bet?” I said.

“Let me go or I’ll get you for assault and battery.”

“Excuse me? You’re going to press charges against me?” I laughed.

“Yeah. You snuck up on me and beat the crap out of me when w
e were in the heat of a very intimate moment, you jealous asshole.”

“You have a weird sense of what intimacy is,” I retorted. “I didn’t
detect any intimacy happening. Seems to me, you needed a lesson on what the word ‘no’ means.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. She wanted it. Ask her.”

I wasn’t about to do that. There was no point. I shook my head and he continued. “The way she danced with me, her actions screamed ‘fuck me!’ Any guy would have done what I did.”

Gabriell
e stood, walked over to him and slugged him in the same spot I’d pummeled his jaw to a pulp just a few minutes ago. Then she spit in his face. I smiled. Her actions gave me more satisfaction than when I’d beat the crap out of him. I suddenly had a newfound admiration for Gabrielle Demeres. When she came back and sat next to me in the dirt, she pulled the jacket tight. “How long do you think we need to wait?”

“
Dunno. Not too long I’d guess. I think Lena and Jackson might be wrapping things up and getting ready to take off after they finish the last dance they were having before I followed you out here.”

“Lena’s going to wonder where I am.”

“Yep. Jackson will wonder where I’m at too. I don’t know how we can avoid that.”

“Do you have your phone on you?”

“Yeah.”

“We can call
Weezer, tell him what happened and he can make some excuse for us.”

“That might work. What type of excuse?” I needed to ask. I kn
ew what I would like to say. I’d tell him we were off getting to know each other better, but, of course, that would never fly with my brother as a good enough reason for missing his send off.

“I don’t know.”

She took my phone and dialed Weezer’s number.

“Hey,
Weez.” She kept her voice amazingly steady and controlled. “Could you do me a favor? … Yeah. Um …” she glanced at me. “I left the party with Brodie. We went to get some more rice for people to throw. …Yeah. But … um … we had a flat tire on the way. Could you let Lena and Jackson know we won’t be there to say goodbye and tell them we’re really sorry?” Silence ensued for a few seconds and she frowned. “Everything is fine. Really. Don’t worry. Tell them not to wait … I don’t know how long it will take. … No, I don’t want them to miss their plane. Tell her … just tell her I’m sorry and to have a great time. … Okay. Thanks.”

She pressed the end button and
handed me back my phone. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth.”

I nodded.
“You didn’t need to.”

“
I don’t think he believed me though because he kept asking me if I was all right. He’ll make sure they know we’re okay and not to worry.”

I nodded
again. “You did great.” I tried reassuring her. I was certain Weezer thought we were off having a good time together, and I really wished we were. Anything beat sitting in the dirt with bloody lips and torn clothes, staring at the likes of the perverted Jeff Adams.

We sat there for about a
n hour until finally the music stopped. I crept to the edge of the woods and saw that most of the guests were gone. I came back and sat next to Gabrielle. “I’m going to call the police now. Are you up for it?”

She
closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and took in a large breath of air. “Yeah. I’m ready.”

We didn’t have to wait too long for the cops to arrive. As soon as they found us in the woods after I’d told them where we were, Jeff began complaining and accusing me of assaulting him, denying
all of the accusations Gabrielle made against him. They took one look at Gabrielle, then handcuffed Jeff and took him away. The female officer asked Gabrielle a gazillion questions before they left, including the dreaded question; “Was a rape kit necessary?” Thank God the answer was no because he never got a chance. They told her she’d have to testify in court, and told me the same. As we walked out from the woods, the music of crickets caught my attention and I remembered.

I’d never been one to pass up an opportunity, even given the circumstance
s. Maybe it wasn’t the right time, but I decided to seize the moment regardless. I draped my arm around Gabrielle’s shoulder and said, “That was supposed to be my dance, by the way.”

Chapter 20

“Are you up for it?” Brodie asked as we approached the hardwood planks still
laid out in the middle of the yard. The rental company wouldn’t be by until tomorrow morning to retrieve them. I looked down at my torn gown. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go inside and run to my temporary room in Brodie’s house and shut the door, throw myself on the bed and cry. I knew that wouldn’t solve anything.

I
hadn’t been raped. Almost, but not. I could hold on to that. Thank God for that. Thank Brodie for that. Brodie had come to find me. Why? Brodie. Of all people. The one guy in the world I didn’t think I could trust. Didn’t want to trust. My face hurt where Jeff had punched me, and I probably needed to put some ice on my lip, but then, Brodie’s mouth was in just as bad of shape as mine. We both needed ice.

We stopped walking just before reaching the wood floor. “There’s no music.” I pointed out and Brodie shrugged.

“We have music.” He took my hand in his. “Close your eyes and listen.”

I did as he suggested and didn’t hear anything at first. Then
, there it was. Crickets chirping, frogs croaking, and a swish of breeze blowing through the tree branches with leaves ruffling against one another around us. Sounds of the night. Beautiful sounds. I smiled and opened my eyes. “Okay.”

He led me onto the floor and took me in his arms. His fingers wrapped around my left hand
, his other settling gently against my waist. He held me. So much differently than the way Jeff had held me a few hours earlier. I followed Brodie’s lead, and we moved our feet to the music of the night.

This was a side of Brodie I
hadn’t known existed. A tender side. I decided that I liked it, and suddenly, I didn’t feel so dirty anymore.

Brodie pulled me in a little closer
.

I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against his chest. He led me around the dance floor, swaying with each step to the beautiful sounds of the night. I kept my eyes focused on the hardwood floor until Brodie placed his finger under my chin, lifting my face so my eyes met his. His lips were mere inches from mine. I couldn’t breathe. His breath was sweet as he whispered close to my cheek, “You’re okay. You’re safe with me.”

And I felt safe.

After changing out of my torn gown
, I showered off all traces of Jeff from my body, every spot he had touched me, every spot his lips had pressed against my skin, everywhere, even the places he never had a chance to make contact with before Brodie had pounced upon him. I shrugged into a t-shirt and cotton sleep shorts, ready for bed. I had agreed to stay at Brodie’s for the night to help him clean up from the reception tomorrow. Besides, I didn’t really want to stay in Lena and Jackson’s big new house alone, not after what had almost happened tonight. I knew Jeff was in jail, but I couldn’t shake what had happened so easily, at least not yet. I’d been so scared. I hadn’t given myself to anyone, not willingly anyway, and not all the way. The thought of someone taking me under those conditions sickened me, made me feel weak and vulnerable. I’d been violated before, but there was never any penetration. Thomas was always careful never to do that to me. He’d always said I should save that for when I fell in love. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was saving. It seemed to me he’d already taken everything I had. Thinking about Jeff only made me angry. Angry at the way I’d let him trick me, angry for allowing myself to be in that situation. I swore I would never tolerate being in a position where someone touched me without my consent again. How could I have been so stupid? I knew in my heart I was going to be fine. I would survive this night, this violation, just like I survived those others so many, many—much wanted to be forgotten—years ago. I would never forget though. Wasn’t that why I wrote the book?

A knock on the bedroom door yanked me from my thoughts. I opened it to find Brodie holding a
bag of ice in his outstretched hand for me and another pressed against his own mouth.

“You should come
out; sit and hold this to your face for a while. I can put on a movie.”

I rubbed my hand gently over the spot where Jeff had punched me.
I took the ice and touched it gently to my mouth. “Thanks, but I probably should go to sleep.” I turned back toward my bed leaving him standing in the doorway. With one knee on the edge of the mattress ready to climb in, I stopped. Who was I kidding? I was being stupid. There was no way I’d be able to fall asleep, so I stood back up and turned to face him. “On second thought, I don’t think I could sleep much anyway.” I followed him to the living room and took one corner of the sofa, tucking my legs up next to me.

“Here, take these.” He
held out a bottle of water and two round, red pills.

“What’s this?”

“Ibuprofen. It should help with any swelling, and ease the pain a bit.” Brodie took up the spot at the opposite end of the sofa with the remote in one hand and the bag of ice pressed to his chin in the other. “Any preference?”

“Anything non-violent.”

“Hmmm … that might be tough. There’s violence of some sort in just about everything these days.”

“True. I don’t care. Anything you want then.”

“Let’s see. How about a comedy? Woody Allen or Mel Brooks?”

I shrugged.
They weren’t my favorites, but I was willing to watch anything that might take my mind off what happened tonight. Maybe if I got bored with something I’d fall asleep. Otherwise, I feared I might be awake most of the night. As Brodie scrolled through countless titles on the screen, the trees blowing in the wind outside the window caught my eyes. I studied them as they swayed, the way they withstood the abuse from the wind was amazing. I wanted to be like the trees. Able to stand tall the next day after being slammed by something I had no control over, only dropping a few fragments of my self-esteem the way the trees only lost a few of their leaves.

“Wait, I got it.”
Brodie smiled and flipped the TV over to the internet and downloaded
Zoolander
. Perfect! I thought and curled up into myself, leaning my elbow on the arm of the sofa and my mouth against the cold compress I held in my hand.