Hush - Fighting Fate #2 (6 page)

Relief flooded me when I heard Mom’s off key singing floating out through the doorway to the kitchen.
Thank god it wasn’t her receiving Ken’s malice this time.

Glancing over to the den, I saw Aaron’s large figure through the gap in the doorway.

Ken’s voice cut through the noise again. “…five grand, Aaron!...fuck were you thinking?…can’t believe you were jumped…”

I leaned forward, trying to hear what they were talking about, but the music was too loud for me to make any sense out of the few words I was catching.

The door to the den flew open, startling me, and Aaron stormed out, heading right for me. I tried to make out I was just on my way down, but the angry set of his shoulders froze me in place.

Then I saw the bruises on his face. I gasped. Holy hel
l. Did Ken do that?

He glared at me as he passed. The bruises looked even worse up close, and there was a
little dried blood on his lip from where it’d been spilt open. The dryness of the blood told me it had been done a while ago, so I didn’t think Ken had done it. I wondered what shit he’d gotten himself into now?

Trying to shrug it off, I rushed to the kitchen to see how the lasagna was doing.

I’d just finished eating when Ken sauntered into the kitchen wearing his tuxedo. He gave Mom an appraising look before his eyes finally found mine, turning malicious.

Mom fussed over him, pouring him a glass of scotch,
before taking my plate and washing it. I watched her move around Ken with an increasing sense of anxiety.

T
he second Mom excused herself to go brush her teeth, he turned on me. “You have a transaction to make tonight.”

I gawked at him.
“What? I can’t! I’m going to a party,” I said with horror.

His eyes narrowed. “You know
, Kaeli, I hear an awful lot of accidents happen to women who wear stilettos.”

I felt the shock spread over
my face. No! “You wouldn’t,” I whispered.

A wicked smile spread over his face, and his eyebrows shot up, saying everything his voice didn’t:
Wouldn’t I?

Suddenly, I felt sick.

“TJ wants you there before seven. You’d better hurry. I don’t think you want to find out what he’d do if you were late.”

Chapter 12

Noah

Friday nights at TJ’s weren’t pretty.
Even after a year and a half of witnessing them, I still found myself a little shocked by what went on there.

The music pumped hard, the sound creating invisible waves in the air t
hat made my blood pulse with each beat. The usual girls were there, most of them half naked, ready to please any one of us at any time.

This was the part I had a hard time with. N
ot one of TJ’s gang minded sharing – even if the chick they were ready to get it on with just climbed off one of the other guys five minutes before.

At first, I participated in what was necessary to keep up my façade, but then I decided
it was easier to play the hot headed jealous kind of guy who didn’t like to share, or touch a girl who’d just been screwed by someone else. They liked to rib me about it, but they accepted it as though it was just part of my drug fucked state of mind.

Unfortunately, it didn’t mean I could avoid sex the whole time though – that would’ve looked suspicious, but it did mean I could choose willing participants, and follow through with it within the privacy of my own room instead of disgracing her in front of a room full of people.

Tonight, I decided to take the drug fucked way and avoid the skanks completely. I’d just settled back in the arm chair with a pipe in hand, eyeing Lilly – Davo’s favorite, with distaste, when I caught TJ smirking at me with his cell in his hand. I casually lit the pipe, sucking in the fumes, and watched him saunter over.

“You might get lucky tonight after all
,” he said. “It seems Ken’s out of stock again.”

Fuck. The thought of Kaeli coming here in the middle of one of TJ’s parties was sickening. I forced a knowing grin on my face.

TJ laughed. “I thought you might like that. We already have it packaged for him, but she doesn’t need to know that. Take all the time you want.”

“
Fuck, yeah,” I smirked.

I took another draw on the pipe, desperately trying to figure out how the hell I was going to
shield Kaeli from everything she would see, finding no answers other than dragging her upstairs as fast as I could.

Finishing up with the pipe, I put it away and went to the kitchen to wait.

Chapter 13

Kaeli

The bus moved slowly through the darkened streets, methodically winding its way towards the southern suburbs. I pulled Mom’s coat tighter around me, trying to cover the parts my short dress didn’t reach.

I scowled as I recalled the snide grin on Ken’s face as he and Mom left for their charity event. He’d known I wouldn’t have enough time to change before I had to leave
to catch the bus.

I didn’t know how it was possible to feel so differently towards your appearance, purely based on the people who were going to see you. I’d gone from feeling exhilaratingly sexy, to outright sleazy, all within the space of Ken’s announcement.

I knew at Ryan’s party there’d be a lot of girls showing way more skin than me, but knowing I was going to a house full of drug dealers, and let’s face it, probably rapists, I suddenly felt very exposed – like I was going there with a big neon sign on my forehead that said
‘fuck me’
.

Every part of me w
as screaming at me to go home. To turn the hell around and hide under my bed covers, but I knew I had to be strong for Mom. I had no idea what Ken would do to her if he found out I didn’t make the delivery, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

My stomach turned as I remembered his words.
You know Kaeli, I hear an awful lot of accidents happen to women who wear stilettos.

My eyes stung. God, I hated him!

The bus jolted to a stop where I needed to get off and, holding Mom’s coat tightly across my body with one hand and Ken’s bag in the other, I hobbled down the steps.

The dimly lit corners
of the back streets felt a lot more unsettling than the last time I’d stormed down there cursing Ken and his distorted view of normalcy, and I knew it had everything to do with the fact that I now knew what to expect.

The closer I got to the house of hor
ror, the faster my heart raced. What the hell was I doing, willingly going back to that place? I knew that Mitch guy hadn’t gone as far as he could’ve last time I was there, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t this time, did it?

And I distinctly remembered them arguing about ‘turns’. What if their fucked up rules meant that it was someone else’s turn? What if it was that Pock guy? My stomach clenched and my throat jerked like it was getting ready to puke.

All the reasons were in my head. I knew why I had to do it, but my sense of self-preservation was screaming at me with all its might.
God! Please keep me safe!

Turning down
the alley that led around to the back of TJ’s house, I slipped into the deeper darkness, trying to avoid tripping over the discarded rubbish and boxes that seemed to be covering most of the ground.

I s
lowed when the rusty old carport came into view and stopped at the backdoor I was now supposed to use. My chest was literally jumping with each pump of my heart. I tried to slow my breathing - tried to reign in the panic, but I couldn’t convince myself the fear I was feeling wasn’t real. I knew it was. My whole body was shaking with it. I didn’t want to go in there.

Tears of hopelessness pricked my eyes. I knew all the rea
sons why I had to go in there, but fear had frozen me to the spot. I didn’t know how to get myself to make that final move.

Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I thought of Mom. I thought of the smile she wore as she’d walked out the door tonight. I thought of her coming home, still happy, and climbing into bed with that rare contented smile on her lips.

A tear ran down my cheek.

Before the image could leave me, I reached out and knocked.

After a few panicked heartbeats, the door swung open and Mitch glared down at me from the threshold. For some strange reason, relief flared inside me. He stared at me for a few seconds, his eyes flashing with something I couldn’t quite decipher as his gaze trailed over the tear I hadn’t yet wiped away. Then he stood back, gesturing for me to come in.

I
tried yet again to swallow my panic down, but when it refused to budge, I looked up at Mitch with despair. His jaw tensed as he watched me, and I thought I saw pain flash in his eyes, but I also knew I couldn’t trust what was mind was telling me anymore. It was in a complete state of emergency.

Swallowing hard, I forced myself to step
inside.

Being inside their house again only intensified the panic even more. I couldn’t push the memory of Pock from my mind. The cold look in his eyes, the dark intent of his hands, the stale, acrid stench of his breath
. It all made me want to stick to Mitch like glue. After that forced kiss the other day, I knew I had to be crazy to think like that, but I knew without a doubt I’d rather take whatever Mitch handed out than Pock. He was evil.

Loud mu
sic played from the other room, and voices, wild and free, floated into the kitchen with it. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, though not the kind I was used to smelling on the street. It was strong and smelled sickly sweet.

Mitch took Ken’s bag from me with one hand, and
grabbed the top of my arm with his other, leading me towards the other room. I looked up at him with alarm, reflexes telling me to pull away and run, but the hard stare he gave me made me think twice.

With a firm hand, h
e pulled me into the other room.

The lights were dim and smoke choked the air. I coughed, my throat automatically closing
in protest, and my eyes watering against the intrusion. I stumbled behind Mitch, helpless with my limited senses, and tried to get my bearings, searching the room for the voices I could hear.

When
my gaze finally found the source of at least two of the voices, I wished they hadn’t. The blonde guy I’d seen last time, Davo I think his name was, was with a small dark haired girl on the lounge, and from what I could see, she was naked below the waist with her legs wrapped tightly around his waist as he half kneeled, half lay on top of her. It wasn’t until I saw him rocking violently that I realized what they were doing.

I gasped with horrified shock, instantly averting my eyes, but instead of finding relief, I only found more scantily clad girls with TJ’s other guys, passing a strange looking pipe between them.

Mitch threw Ken’s bag onto one of the guy’s laps. “Check it,” he demanded, then turned to me, thrusting his hands into my jacket pockets, pulling out my cell and thrusting it into his own pocket.

He grabbed me by the waist, forcefully turning me so my back
, thankfully, was to everything going on. Untying my jacket belt, he unbuttoned it with sure fingers and pulled it open to reveal my clothing underneath.

I watched him pause for a few heartbeats, his eyes widening with surprise as he gazed down at my
very short fitted dress and knee high boots. I tensed under his gaze. His eyes shot up to seek mine, his breath noticeably faster, but before I could think any more about it, his hands reached under my jacket, running quickly, but softly, over my body, searching for God knew what.

I gasped at the small jolt of thrill that shot through my insides.
What the hell? I was seriously losing it if I was feeling a thrill at being touched by a drug dealer. Mitch’s jaw tightened a fraction before his hands disappeared, leaving me feeling strangely confused.

“She’s clean,” he said, his voice rough.

I didn’t know who he was talking to. I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off the hard set of his jaw.

“Good.
Have fun.” I recognized TJ’s voice from behind me.

Have fun? What? My head suddenly cleared, registering what he meant.
Shit! No! These people were disgusting. I knew I had to be strong for Mom, but to what extent?

Mitch grabbed my jacket again
, roughly pulling at it, overlapping the edges until my dress was concealed beneath it. He glanced up at me sharply, anger flashing in the depths of his eyes. I couldn’t hide my fear. I knew it was etched all over my face.

He jerked his head towards the stairs. “Let’s go.”

My eyes widened and I shook my head in a panic.

His expression hardened even more. “You want me to fuck you down here so everyone can watch?”

The world stopped spinning. It was in that moment I realized I was still holding onto the hope that he wouldn’t go any further than he did the last time I was there. Despair washed through me and my eyes stung even more.