My knees hit the back of the bed and he pushes me down. The crazed look in his eyes tells me that he’s going to do more than fuck me. He has every intention of hurting me as much as he can. I can sense it even though he never says a word. The silence is thick, suffocating me. I watch in terror as Henry chokes me. A bead of sweat rolls down my temple. His eyes track it as his hands grab at my thighs and shoves my hem out of the way. The beautiful panty is ripped away. When Henry goes to crawl on top of me, something crunches on the floor under his foot. I hear it, but the sound doesn’t register. My heartbeat is a million times louder.
Henry straddles me. His pants are still on, half undone, and his hands reach for my face. He leans in close, pinning me to the bed. Resting a hand on either side of my face, he strokes me over and over again—slow and creepy. The whites around his eyes are exposed as he stares at my neck without blinking. His hands drift there to the soft spot at the hollow of my throat. His thumb strokes the vulnerable place softly, like he knows that pressing into it will crush my windpipe.
I’m going to die. My death wish is finally coming true, and it’s not until this moment that I realize how much I want to live. This can’t be the end, it can’t be. I worked too hard and came too damn far on my own to be killed by this man, but there’s nothing I can do. I can’t bite, kick, or claw my way out of this. It’s not until that instant that the tears start cascading down my cheeks.
Henry closes his hand into a fist and positions his thumb on top of the soft skin on my neck, staring, like he’s mesmerized. He savors the moment, slowly twisting his wrist and feeling me gasping for air as the pressure increases, bit by bit. Before Henry pushes all the way down and buries his thumb in my neck, the door is kicked open. Wood shards fly across the room as the doorjamb breaks apart. Henry looks up just in time to see Gabe coming at him. One of the old guy’s beefy hands collides with Henry’s side.
As Gabe lands the punch, he says, “Ride’s over, asshole.” Henry is launched off the bed and hits the floor like a rag doll. Gabe walks around and says, “This is from me, personally.” Gabe’s leg swings, and wheezing sounds of pain come from Henry.
Jumping off the bed, I run over and grab Gabe’s arm before he can kick Henry again. “Don’t,” I plead and tug on his arm. “Just get me out of here. Please.”
Gabe stops and turns back to look at me. “Gather your things, Miss Stanz, and meet me in the hallway. There are consequences for messing with Miss Black’s girls. I need to make sure the message is received.”
I’m shaking. I don’t notice it until I try to nod and can’t. Taking my purse, I turn my back on them both and walk out the door.
CHAPTER 8
“Avery, you all right?” Mel asks as she skewers a hotcake and pops it into her mouth. I couldn’t manage to tell her what happened with Henry. I covered the slight black and blue on my cheek and smile a lot, hoping that she won’t ask questions.
As it was, Black asked a million questions and wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault until Gabe spoke. The only bright side to today was the huge check. Apparently when a client tries to kill one of Black’s girls, we get compensated.
The money is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to get rid of it, but I can’t. I know that would be stupid, but it feels tainted. I nearly died earning that bit of cash.
“Yeah, you’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.” Marty picks up a sausage and makes an obscene gesture.
Mel sneers at him. “Cut it out, dickwad. You don’t have to pretend to be bi or homo or whatever the hell you were doing before. And I think Avery forgave you way too fast for pulling shit like that, so don’t piss me off or I will stab you with my fork. Then, my pancakes will get bloody and I’ll have to kill you with my spoon.”
Marty blinks at her. The shock is short lived. He grins. “I bet you’ve done lots of things with a spoon.” He winks at Mel and then stabs a sausage and hands it to her. “It’s demonstration time.”
Mel’s amber eyes widen as her mouth falls open. “Holy shit. You did not just say that to me. Did he really just say that, Avery?”
I’m lost in thought, wondering about everything and nothing. My mind skips between things that seemed pointless at the time, but now mean something. If that light at Prairie Drive didn’t take so damn long, I would have never met Sean. There are little things like that flooding my mind, and I can’t stop them.
Mel bumps my shoulder. “Hello? What’s with you? He told me to suck off a sausage in the middle of IHOP.”