“Has something else happened?” I felt sick asking, my first thoughts going to Michelle or Riley, fear for their safety dominating any concern I had for myself.
“He called me late last night, it should be a report on the news this morning, so I don’t see any harm in telling you. Craig's mother and sister were found murdered yesterday evening.”
Nausea filled my stomach. Not at the thought of them being deceased, they were horrible enablers of Craigs, not to mention they’d always treated me like a piece of shit. The thought that I knew someone who wasn’t just capable of trying to kill someone, but actually following through, and that I had come close to becoming one of their victims. Despite my reservations, I still managed to ask, “Do they think he had something to do with it?”
“My friend couldn’t tell me details, but since I had spoken with him about what I suspect happened the night you almost died, he felt obligated to tell me that Craig is now missing and considered a person of interest in their deaths.”
The feeling of power that I was starting to grow back within me from being away from the toxic abuse felt like it was going to dwindle down into nothing but smoldering embers.
“What do you mean he’s missing?” My words came out barely above a whisper, my fear threatening to take hold of me as panic started to rise.
“They’ve been looking for him to question since his car was found at their house. My friend told me it’s not confirmed that he’s the killer, but he’s not off the hook. I already spoke with the directors of the clinic; they’ve made sure he’s completely banned from the entire campus. He won't be getting near you here, Rae.”
I nodded even though I felt less confident in that statement than he did. Daxton didn’t know Craig like I did. He didn’t know what all he was capable of when he didn’t get his way. If he had murdered his mother and sister, there was no telling what he would do next. His bond with his mother had always been strange, like a toddler who couldn’t learn to detach from his mother’s breast. If he hadn’t shown me just how far he was willing to go by attacking me, I would have said there was no way he would have hurt her. Craig was either spiraling or finally showing the world his true face.
I made the mistake of lifting my eyes from the trail just long enough that my feet managed to trip over a larger rock. Before I could hit the ground, one of his hands was around my lower back, the other grabbed my left arm, keeping me steady and upright.
“Careful now, I would hate for something to happen to you before I get the chance to break you open and see what makes you tick,” he must have sensed my growing fear after the news he just laid on me, because he continued, “This isn’t going tobe what breaks you. You’re stronger than that man ever will be, murderer or not, he doesn’t hold a spark compared to what you have burning inside you.”
My heart lodged itself in my throat, constricting my airway as my stomach tightened. The words he spoke stocked the embers of my dying resolve. His arm was a solid wall of muscle along my back, his grip firm and tight on my arm. I lost my ability to speak for a moment, even though I had spent most of the night obsessing over his words and how to respond to them.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” I swallowed hard as I met his gaze. Daxton towered over me, his body solid against mine. Even as I gained back my footing on the trail, he didn’t let go. “What I wouldn’t give to be inside your head,” He nearly purred as he reluctantly released me.
“You’ll have to wait your turn, it’s a little full in there at the moment.” After swallowing down the lump in my throat, I was able to answer him, meeting his intense gaze as he looked down at me, wanting to rise to his challenge.
“Trust me, Raelynn, once that monster is gone from your head, I’ll be the only thing to occupy your thoughts. Every desire from your heart, every breath from your lungs, will be the reason I climb out of bed in the morning. Because I intend to break you down until you rebuild yourself stronger than you’ve ever been to the point you’ll be damn near unrecognizable.” With every word, hetook a step forward, slowly walking me backwards until my back hit a tree, bark pressing mercilessly against my spine.
The fear I felt before when hearing about the murders evaporated from my body as Daxton took control. I should be terrified, though, afraid even, not at what he was doing, but at how badly I wanted it. He had to know what type of effect he had on me, how my body seemed to crave him taking over, silencing the panic rising within me. His arms raised, bracing themselves on either side of me against the tree, his biceps straining against the fabric of his sweater.
Tawny eyes held mine, his gaze so intense I couldn't look away. My heart started to beat rapidly, though this time for a reason far different from fear. A slight stubble had grown against his sharp jaw, something I hadn't noticed when we were with the group; up this close it was hard to miss. Daxton didn't just back me into the tree; his entire body pressed against me. Every hard part of him meets every soft part of me.
Slowly, he brought his right hand away from the tree, his thumb and forefinger gripping my chin tight enough to be bordering on being painful. Our faces were close enough together that our breaths mingled, his steady as a drum, mine erratic and unpredictable. An eternity seemed to pass as I let his eyes drink me in before he finally crashed his lips into mine.
Desire built from my core as his mouth moved against mine. Heat flooded my veins as his grip moved from my chin to the backof my head, hand gripping my hair tightly at the base of my skull. His other hand moved from the tree to grip my neck, hard enough to restrict my air but not enough to cut it off completely. As he squeezed my neck, my pussy throbbed, aching as I felt his hard length press against my lower stomach.
I opened my mouth as a reflex to draw a deeper breath against his hold on my neck, but he took the opportunity to plunge his tongue in, silencing my ragged breathing and forcing me to open to him. I let him press me harder against the tree, the bark digging into my back as a welcomed pain as he drew away from me, his mouth starting a descent along my jawline to my exposed neck. A moan escaped me as he reached the sensitive spot between my neck and my shoulder, my hips pushing forward against him, desperate for any sort of friction. It’s a good thing I was already in a mental institution, I was fucking mental, making out with my therapist in the middle of the woods like it was normal. Like any of this was normal.
With his grip still firm against my neck, he released my hair and drew back. My hands gripped his sides, fisted in his sweater, drawing him tighter against me.
“You are too strong to let him win,” he breathed, his mouth hovering over mine without making even a whisper of contact, “And I'm going to make sure I'm around to watch you beat him.” He grazed his lips gently against mine, a contrast to how harsh he was before, and I couldn't help but feel theevidence of my desire for him between my thighs. How slick he made me when he took control and caused me the most delicious pain, I could only imagine how much more he was capable of, how much more I wanted him to take from me.
Freshman Year High School
Steam from the running shower filled the locker room as I closed the door quietly behind me. No one would know I was here. The rest of the team had left long before the starting quarterback began his shower. He wasn’t quiet about his routine both before and after practice. The superstitious, arrogant meat head.
Setting a trip wire outside the shower door was almost too easy; his rap music was playing loud enough to cover any sounds I made. Fishing line was easy enough to come by to tie across the lower-level lockers. With how hot he was running the showers, the steam would still be thick in the air when he came out, concealing it completely.
I hid myself behind the laundry hampers at the end of the open hall. There was no door leading from the showers into the rows of lockers; there was just open space. From my position, I’d easily be able to see him exit. My hands tightened around the tools I had stolen from the woodworking shop. Sometimes, the benefits of going to a small town school were worth it when the overly trusting teachers kept the doors unlocked.
Josh finally emerged from the showers, rap music still blaring from the Bluetooth speaker he set up on top of the lockers. Cocky prickwalked out without so much as a towel covering his junk. Sure, he was traditionally good looking on the outside, but on the inside, he was rotten, worse than the thrown out fruit that lay out spoiling in the sun. He deserved it after what he did to all those girls, manipulating them into pleasing him and then spreading their naked bodies around for the entire school to see. He took it one step too far, much farther than the damage a photo could ever do, when he failed to listen to the word “stop” the other night.
He never saw the trip wire I had set out, as his ankles made contact with it, pitching him forward into the bench between the rows of lockers. I sprang into action, even though he hit his head on the bench, I couldn’t waste any precious seconds to keep him down. If he was able to get up, if he was able to gain his bearing, then he’d have the upper hand.
Gripping the hammer with both hands, I came out from behind the hampers, the music covering the sound of my rushed footsteps. I left the saw behind, not needing it just quite yet. Josh had rolled over on all fours, one of his hands gripping his head where he was cut open from hitting the corner of the wooden bench. He never once looked up, never saw me coming as I swung the hammer as hard as I could and made contact with the back of his skull.
He screamed, his agony a symphony to my ears, the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. I wondered if he thought the same thing when girls would cry and beg him to get off of them? My hit was hard enoughto send him flying to the side, flipping him over, where he landed on his back.
I didn’t hesitate, didn’t slow my swings as his eyes opened and he saw me. My aim wasn’t just toward his head; I wasn’t too picky with where the hammer made contact with his naked body. Swinging at his less-than-impressive dick wasn’t an accident; hearing his screams made it worth having to get close to the STD infested anatomy.
