But I would.
I would make sure she knew someone was looking out for her.
"Go to the hospital," I told Marie, leaving no room for questioning. "She needs someone there. Go there and make sure she gets all the help she needs. Now and when she's discharged. She probably doesn't want to see you-and I don't blame her, because I never want to see your face again, either. So sit in the waiting room, don't let her know you're there, do whatever you have to, but make sure she gets help. You both need it."
I turned around and walked away, leaving Marie and her fucked-up life behind me while I went to take care of something that should have been dealt with twelve years ago.
17
Nothing looked the same as I made my way down Gabi's old street. I'd been to the house plenty of times when we were in high school, when I used to pick her up for dates or to hang out. She never allowed me to come inside, though. At the time, I had brushed it off and assumed she was embarrassed about it since my house was so much bigger. It never bothered me, and I never thought twice about it until now. Until I found myself driving down the same street with the knowledge of what truly happened under that roof. It did nothing but fill me with more rage.
Before I even made it to the driveway, I saw him outside. He was working under the hood of a car. I came to an abrupt stop and parked on the side of the road before finding myself running in his direction. He never heard me coming up on him. My knuckles slammed against the back of his skull and I could literally hear his forehead bounce off the engine with a sickening thud.
He grabbed the front of the car and cursed before righting himself and facing me. He took a look at me and then cocked his arm to swing. Instead of hitting me, he stumbled, off balance from hitting his head. Blood gushed down his face, impeding his vision, but I didn't show him any sympathy, nor did I give him time to get his bearings straight before my fist connected with his jaw, knocking him into the car. I didn't stop there. When he fell to the driveway, I continued to land punch after punch to his face.
I felt a pop and heard cracks as my fist met his nose. Blood flowed, and I couldn't tell if it came from his mouth or from his obviously broken nose. "You motherfucker!" I shouted at him as I continued to assault him. "Fucking rapist. You get off by touching little girls, you asshole?" The only thing that saved him from being sent straight to hell right then and there were the men that came running to his aid.
They yanked me off him, but it wasn't easy. I didn't relent without a struggle. There were two of them, and they were rather scrawny. I elbowed one in the face to get him off me, and he went down immediately. The other hightailed it as I stared him down. I'm sure I looked like a crazed lunatic.
As soon as they were gone, I went back to Todd. I stood there and watched as he gagged and coughed on his own blood. After the slight satisfaction, I dragged him up by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the engine, leaning over him. He could barely open one of his eyes, but I made sure he heard every word I spat at him.
"You're a fucking piece of shit. You don't deserve to live after what you did to her."
"You can't prove anything," he muttered between his gasps for air.
I grabbed his face, digging my fingers and thumb into his cheeks, and got close to his ear so he would hear everything I had to say. "When I'm finished with you, you'll be begging the law to take you away. You'll be praying they lock you up." I searched the ground and noticed the metal pipe for his hydraulic carjack laying on the cement. I let him go long enough to pick it up.
He began to cry like the spineless piece of shit he was.
"Did Gabi cry like this when you'd come into her room and rape her? Did she beg you to stop? Because that's what you're going to do now. You're going to beg me. But I'm not going to listen. I'm going to do to you what you did to Gabi. I'm going to shove this pipe up your ass so hard it'll come out of your throat." My voice was thick and strained as I growled in his ear, swiping the pipe along his jaw.
He cried harder and actually began to beg. I wondered if Gabi crossed his mind during any of this. If he thought about how much she probably begged him to stop just before he took everything from her. I wondered if the images of her bleeding all over the bathroom floor flooded his mind at the thought of me doing the same to him.
Rage consumed me and all I could think about was degrading him, violating him the way he had done to an innocent girl. And then I thought about beating the life out of him with the same pipe I'd use to tear him open. I wanted him dead. He needed to know exactly how it felt for Gabi, and then I wanted to kill him. He didn't deserve to live after what he'd done.