Insatiable (33 page)

"No, he left and took the car. I'm out here in the middle of nowhere, please help me!"

"Okay, give me your address and I'll come get you."

Deena hesitated for what seemed like ages. "Deena, are you there?"

"I'm here." She'd calmed down long enough to give Aurora the address.

"Deena are you alright? I mean did he hurt you very bad? Do you need an ambulance?"

"No. Please, can you just get here as fast as you can? I want to be long gone before he comes back!"

"I'm leaving now Deena. Don't worry, you're not that far from me. I'm on my way, call me if you need me."

"I will, but please hurry!" Deena shouted into the phone before hanging up.

He clapped his hands together triumphantly. "Bravo Deena! That was a stellar performance. Now, go and wait by the door. Don’t forget, you need to get her inside the house you got it?"

Deena did as she was told and inched towards the door. The thought of bolting crossed her mind as she got closer and closer. He must have sensed what she was thinking because a heavy, calloused hand reached out and grabbed her by the neck. She winced in pain as a heavy fist landed on her back. "And don’t even think about running, you stupid bitch. I told you that I would set you free after all is said and done. And all isn’t said and done yet is it?" He grabbed a handful of her hair and twisted it. He could almost hear the follicles being ripped from her head. It was only when she nodded that he released his tight grip on her.

"I don’t like the idea of you going to get this woman on your own. Let me go with you."

Liam sat at the edge of the bed and watched as Aurora got dressed.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

She shook her head, went over to him and kissed him on the mouth. "That's just because you've never been here when I've gotten any calls. I'll be fine really and no, I can't take you with me. Honey, the last thing a battered woman wants to see is another man. But not to worry because I am going to ask Mari if she'd like to come along. She wants to work here, so it’s the perfect opportunity to start showing her the ropes. I'm going to run over to the house, get Mari and then we'll be on our way. Be back soon, Love you," she said. After grabbing a sweater and a blanket for Deena, she ran out the door.

"Love you too Aurora."

"Thanks so much for inviting me along." Mari sat alongside her, they were headed to pick up Deena. When Aurora asked her if she wanted to accompany her, Mari didn’t hesitate and immediately grabbed her coat and shoes. Rosie went about making a pot of coffee and getting a room prepared for Deena. She knew all too well what the young woman would be going through and feeling. She was glad that she was now at a point in her life where she would be able to help. She'd stay awake with her all night if she had to.

"The turn off should be coming up," Mari almost whispered. It was the middle of the night and the only light was coming from the headlights of Aurora's car. Mari moved closer towards the window and tried to peer through the pitch black night.

"There it is!" She shouted and pointed towards the right. It was a sharp cut off, and Aurora hesitated before taking it. Mari only had to glance her way to let her know that she understood her frustration. "I know what you're thinking, but there's a woman in trouble," she said to Mari. She was thinking about turning around and going straight to the police. But it was too late now, they were already there.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Aurora stepped on the gas and made her way down the narrow dirt lane.

"Mari, I want you to stay inside the car alright?  I'm not sure that she's still alone in the house, and she was probably planning on me coming alone. I can only assume that she doesn’t want an audience. So please, for your own safety, stay in the car."

Before Mari could object, she thought about her own situation and how she'd felt embarrassed every time the police showed up at her door. Her clothes were almost always torn and tattered, there was always blood dripping from one orifice, or another and the look of utter humiliation could not be hidden from anyone's view. She'd always felt exposed.

"I understand," she said. At the moment she wished she hadn't forgotten her cell phone. She had wanted to call Nick, she needed to hear his voice.

"Here, take this." Aurora handed Mari her cell phone before looking wearily at the run down bungalow.

"If I'm not out in ten minutes, call Nick and get someone out here as fast as you can."

Even though the bungalow was small, it gave off the most uneasy feeling and neither Aurora nor Mari could shake it. "Maybe we ought to call Nick now, and wait for help."

"No, Mari. I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I've never gone out on a call like this before. I'm use to either going to the hospital or to the police station. This, coming to pick her up, it just makes things incredibly personal. But I'm sure it'll be fine." Aurora tilted her head and after a quick glance around, she saw no other vehicles near the tiny house. "Okay, I'm going in," she breathed a heavy sigh.  "Remember what I said, any sign of trouble, you haul ass out of here. I mean it Mari, I want you to drive the hell out of here you got that? Promise me Mari." Seeing the intensity in her eyes, Mari nodded her head. "I need to hear you say it, Mari."

"Yes, I will drive out of here and go for help."

After giving her a tense smile, Aurora opened the car door and stepped out.  The walkway leading up to the bungalow was overgrown with thick weeds and brush. She took a nervous glance back towards the car before forcing herself to knock on the door. The only comforting thing, she noticed, was that a yellow hued porch light illuminated the front door. Nervously she ran her tongue across her dry lips. "Quit acting like a coward Aurora," she whispered out loud before calling out to Deena.

"Aurora, is that you? I'm in here. Please, the door is unlocked. I need help!"

Hearing Deena's shouts brought Aurora out of her fearfulness. She twisted the door knob and opened the unlocked door.  The first thing she noticed was that the place seemed to hold no life at all. "Deena? It's me Aurora. Where are you?" She thought she saw a woman standing in a doorway, shouting at her to run, but she couldn’t be sure, he'd snuck up behind her and hit her in the back of the head with a large stone.

When the door slammed shut, Mari knew that Aurora was in trouble, and she swore she heard a muffled scream. Her hands shook as she dialed 911, calling Nick would have to wait. When the dispatcher asked for the address, Mari had never in her life been so proud of her memory. She blurted out the address and was told to wait for the police. It was then that she remembered what Aurora had made her promise, she had to go and get help. But the call had already been placed to the police.

She scooted over to the driver's side and sat staring at the front window of the bungalow for a minute. She thought about going to the door, but then she realized that the two of them in trouble would not help the situation and Aurora wouldn’t want her to play hero.  When she saw what looked like the silhouette of a man dragging something, she quickly put the car in reverse and punched on the gas pedal. It wasn’t until she had made it back to the main road that she turned the car around and pulled off to the side. She then put in a call to Nick, when he didn’t answer, she hoped that he had heard the call and was on his way. Two seconds later, Aurora's phone rang and Liam was on the other end. By the time she'd gotten off the phone with him, her breathing had gotten unsteady. "Hang on Aurora, the cavalry's coming," she said and checked to make sure that the doors were locked.

"Looks like she didn’t come here alone," he murmured and let out a heavy breath. He'd just finished dragging Aurora's lifeless body to the sofa.

Deena leaned against the doorjamb of the kitchen as she watched her only chance of escape lying unconscious on the dilapidated sofa.

He was staring at his handy work, and he hadn't noticed that she was once again edging towards the door.

"Go." He'd said the words, but was he talking to her? Was this a sick game? A game where he'd tell her to run and the moment she did, he'd shoot her or stab her in the back? She'd seen all of the weapons he'd brought in from the trunk of the car. Hell, he'd shown her most of them, but she pretended to be stoned, just in case.

"If you don’t leave now, I'm taking you with me. And I have a feeling that you know exactly where I'm going. So again, if you don’t want to go, leave now!"

Deena was so close to the door now that she could almost reach the doorknob.  She looked at her captor as if she were awaiting further instructions.

"I said go! And tell the cops that I've got the place booby-trapped. No one comes in!" He shouted and made a jerking move towards her. Deena dug her bare feet into the wooden floorboards and took off running. She ignored the searing pain under her feet when she hit the frozen ground. Her breath came out fast and in large, dense puffs as she made her way towards the approaching lights.

"I've got work to do," he said and pulled out the rope he planned to use on Aurora.

Liam sat in his car punching the address that Mari had given to him into his GPS. Aurora was in trouble, she'd told him. She'd walked into a bad situation and she needed help. He was about to take off when he realized that Rosie was in the house by herself. Yes they had security, but he didn’t want to take any chances, not after the phone call he'd just gotten.  He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Martin pull up in the driveway. He stuck his hand out the window and gestured towards the house. He'd wasted too much time already, he had to get to Aurora.

Before he made the turn off to the bungalow, Nick noticed Aurora's car sitting on the side of the road. Mari was already standing outside of it, flagging him down. Nick quickly pulled over and told her to keep a look out for Liam. "Let me go with you," she pleaded.

"No, wait here. We don’t know what the situation is yet, and I don’t want to have to worry about you too," he said. "I'll update you as soon as I can." After giving him a quick kiss, and telling him to be careful, Mari stood back and watched as he sped down the gravel road.

Chapter Twenty One

When he pulled up on the scene, Nick saw a young woman being led over to the back of an ambulance.  The bruising on her face told him that she'd suffered greatly at the hands of her captor, but he still had no idea of just who her captor was. One thing was sure though, if the bastard could do that to a young woman, there was no telling what he had in store for Aurora.

"Wakey, wakey." She heard the words faintly. She felt heavy and groggy, something was constricting her breathing and her hands were bound behind her back. When she tried to shake the fog from her head, the pain shot through her like lightening.  A sharp slap to the face brought her out of her haze.

"I said wake the fuck up." The voice was in her ear now as she sat bound to a wooden chair. As her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, she slowly turned in the direction of her captor. She squinted and winced when he forced her chin closer to him. When he asked her if she recognized him, and she shook her head no, he took no offense to it, why would she? He'd never met her, and she'd never met him, not even when she started dating his brother was she introduced to him. He'd been sent away to live with his great aunt near Seattle. And by the time that she and Randy had gotten married, he was locked up in that horrible place. So, through no fault of his own he had not been able to meet her.

Of course it didn’t help that everyone except his brother had disowned him. "But you made sure to take him away from me didn’t you?" He kicked her leg. "Sit back and relax Aurora, I'm gonna tell you a little story," he said and smirked as he slapped her back into consciousness. "But pay attention because we haven’t much time," he said turning towards the shadows that were descending upon the house. There was a reason why they hadn't broken down the door.
There's a method to my madness
, he grinned. He knew that the unexpected passenger Aurora brought with her would guarantee the arrival of the police. And by freeing Deena when he did, she was certain to run into them.

He'd known that she was coming the minute she turned onto the gravel road. Years of hunting in the woods of Washington State had taught him to be very observant.  But it wasn’t until he'd peeked out the streaked up window that he saw that Aurora was not alone. He'd thought fast on his feet though and quickly came up with a new plan. Setting Deena free hadn't been part of his original plan, but at the moment it was his only choice. It had to be done, and now things were going perfectly. He was sure that Deena would tell them about all of the weapons that he'd hauled in from the car and that he was holding local do- good-er, Aurora Collins hostage. That'll cause them to haul out the big guns, he thought to himself. When she mumbled the words, "who are you?" He instantly transported from his thoughts.

"He's a sadistic bastard!"  Deena was shouting and her voice trembled. "He's been following her for months, watching and waiting," she told the officers. She also told them that his name was Benjamin Parker. The brother of her dead husband. "He said to tell you that he's got the place booby-trapped and that no one is to go in! He's got some sick revenge thing out for her, thinks that she's responsible for his brother's suicide or something!"  Even though she was in severe pain, Deena had wanted to help Aurora, the conversations that she had with her, albeit faked and forced, had made her realize that Aurora wanted nothing more than to help.

And seeing the look on her face right before Benjamin struck her was something that she'd never forget. Aurora looked at her as if she'd been betrayed by a friend, someone she knew. And even though Benjamin had raped her repeatedly and thought he'd kept her drugged most of the time, she all but feigned most of the symptoms.  After he'd give her the pill, he'd always go about his business, and when he did, she managed to spit it out and shove it under the mattress. So while he lie there raping her and revealing his deepest, darkest secrets to her, she was taking it all in. She remembered almost everything he'd told her including who he was, and what he planned to do. By the time officers were finished questioning her, one of them had put a call into SWAT and told them to gear up.