Then, one day she’d seen Ashley alone in the street. At first she’d had to do a double take, not recognizing the pale, gaunt figure trudging despondently along the sidewalk. Frightened, emaciated, and twitchy, her best friend had refused to talk to her, terrified that Karl was watching her at all times. Her arms and face were covered in bruises, and she looked as though she weighed barely seventy pounds.
She remembered the conversation well. “Ashley, this has to stop. You have to leave this guy. For your own safety, you have to leave this guy.”
“I can’t.” Her best friend had burst into tears, and she’d immediately wrapped her arms around her as though she were a small child. “He swears he’ll hunt me down and kill me if I ever leave him. Please help me, Kendall. I just don’t know what’s right anymore.”
Staring into the sunken, haunted eyes before her, it was then that Kendall came to the conclusion that Ashley was unable to think rationally for herself. Whatever the consequences, she decided to intervene by calling the cops.
Now, fast-forward six and half years, and she heard the angry breathing of the same disturbed individual creating an ominous silence on the other end of the line. Kendall figured there was a price to pay for the compassion she’d shown her best friend.
“How did you get my number, Karl?”
“Ashley, who else?”
“She wouldn’t.”
“Sure she did. When I came out of prison, I headed straight for her.” He forced out an evil laugh. “Let’s just say the lady was surprised to see me, having moved out of state and all, but once she’d gotten over the initial shock, it felt real natural for us to start up exactly where we’d left off.”
Kendall’s blood ran cold, and she thought she might faint. The idea of him destroying her best friend’s life again made her shiver.
“She took a little finding, but true love never quits.”
The way the deluded bastard spoke had the effect of turning her fear into rage. “Don’t you dare hurt her, you sick fuck.”
Clearly toying with her emotions, he laughed again. “Hurt her? But I love the lady. You know that, Kendall. Anyway, Ashley tells me you got a fancy new job.”
“No. She’s wrong. She doesn’t know anything.”
“That’s not what I hear. I hear you’re working for that newspaper tycoon. Now what’s his name again?” Obviously enjoying her discomfort, he theatrically stretched out his response. “Oh, yeah, now I remember. It’s Mac Buchanan. My lady tells me you done real well for yourself. Tells me you head up his financial department.”
“No. I haven’t seen or spoken to Ashley for more than six months,” she lied. She was in regular contact with her best friend by telephone and Skype, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Wanting a new life, Ashley now lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was her seventh move in the six and a half years that Karl had spent in prison. Such was her continued fear of him and what he might do to her should he find her again, Ashley had aimlessly flitted from state to state in an effort to be rid of him and his memory.
And yet, still he’d found her.
Karl Graves was a sick individual, but he was also extremely intelligent and resourceful.
“Haven’t seen her for six months, you say? Don’t fuck with me, bitch. You ain’t gonna pass no polygraph, spouting bullshit like that.” Kendall heard him take an angry, deep breath on the other end of the line, and she figured the main event was about to begin. “I’m gonna tell you where we go from here. The way I figure it is this. You owe me for six years and eight months. Have you any idea how hard it is to get a job after spending half your adult life behind bars? No. Of course you fucking don’t, because everything has been handed to you on plate, what with your wealthy parents and your fancy education. You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You’ve never had to work for anything, have you, bitch. Anyway, let’s just say it ain’t easy, and my time inside sure doesn’t look good on any job application.”
The more he spoke, the more she despised him. What the hell did he know about her life to judge her like that? Kendall saw where his diatribe was heading, but she’d resist this sick individual at all costs. “You want money, don’t you?”
“Clever girl. It was your evidence that sent me down. Without your pious lies on the witness stand and all that wiping away of crocodile tears, I’d have walked.”
“You deserved everything you got.”
“Shut the fuck up and listen. I’m an intelligent guy. Out in the real world, I’d earn an easy one hundred and fifty thousand bucks a year. Times that by six and a half, and we’re in the right ballpark. What do you say we just round it up to a million bucks, bitch.”