Of course not.
But then what the voice had said finally hit me and when it did, it hit me all kinds of wrong.
“What do you mean after everything I’ve done? What have I done?”
He laughed, but it was humorless. It rang out in the darkness like a death knell.
“You’ve been a busy boy, and you know it. Roping in a man to marry you, pretending to be innocent and sweet, then abusing him for years before you clean him out of every penny he’s ever earned. I’d call that very naughty behavior, wouldn’t you? I’ve been hired by your ex to get his money back, Worthington. You’re going to give me all the information I need or things are going to go very badly for you.”
The more that deep voice spoke, the angrier I became. How dare he accuse me of being an abuser? How dare he think I took what didn’t belong to me? Whatever Terrence had told this person was nothing but lies and I wasNOTgoing to go along with this bullshit!
“I didn’t steal anything that wasn’t mine by rights. I took back what was stolen from me over the last few years. I didn’t do anything to Terrence to abuse him. For fuck’s sake, he’s been torturing me for years, and I have the scars to prove it! He stole my life, my home, and my family’s company from me and thought he could do whatever he wanted with me. But I got away. I was free, and now he’s convinced you that I’m the bad guy. Well, I’m not. If you hurt me, you’re hurting an innocent man. Not that you care, but I’m telling you right now.”
The car slowed down, and we began going down what felt like a side road or driveway. The man didn’t answer me, and finally, the car slowed to a stop. I heard him get out, walk on gravel, and come around the back to open the back of the SUV. The blanket was pulled off me, and I was hauled up to a very uncomfortable sitting position. The blindfold was ripped off my head, taking some hair with it, making me flinch to the side. The man grabbed my left arm in a punishing grip and hauled me upright again. When I looked up in the dim moonlight and finally saw his face, my reaction was instant.
“You? Why?”
Jeremiah’s best friend looked down at me with disgust and slapped my face once, then twice, hard enough to make everything blur.
“Why? Because scum like you shouldn’t be able to take advantage of people. You make everyone believe you’re this innocent guy, getting over a bad relationship. He should be coddled and taken care of, they say. But it’s all a lie. You’re a thief and a liar and an abuser, and you shouldn’t be allowed in the world to fool good people into stepping into your web of lies.”
I was stunned by the venom in his words and couldn’t form a response for a few seconds, but then I started, “That’s not true. You have to listen to me. I was the victim. He used me and hurt me and stole from me. I just wanted what was mine back and to get away. I swear.”
This bought me a punch to the gut and another hit to the head, but I fought to stay conscious. I needed him to believe me.
“Whatever you want to tell yourself, but I’ve seen the evidence. You took all the money and changed all the passwords. That’s what I’m here to get from you. He wants all the information you stole, and you’ll be free. Just play along, and it’ll all be over soon.”
At that moment, my mind finally snapped into a place it had never been before. I didn’t care about life. I didn’t care about death. I didn’t care about pain or suffering, or anything that might happen to me at the hands of this man I had thought was nice and safe. The world was a complete and utter lie. But I was determined to tell the truth.
“I didn’t do anything but take back what was rightly mine. I was tortured, abused, humiliated, and used for years by that sadistic cunt I was stupid enough to marry. When he finally told me he was about to sell me to the highest bidder to use and fuck and hurt, just so he could pay off a fucking debt, I took back what was mine and left him. Now you want me to give back everything he stole in the first place?”
He didn’t respond, so I continued sealing my own death warrant. It was inevitable, anyway.
“I thought you were nice and safe and a decent human being, but my judgment obviously sucks. You’re evil if you believe the lies he’s telling you. Just look at my back, and you’ll see what kind of monster he is. Doesn’t matter that I enjoyed some of it at first. He pushed too far. So, if you expect me to give back what was rightly mine to begin with to that sadistic asshole who’s given you a pack of lies you believed, then fuck him and fuck you, too. I’d rather die than give him one more piece of me to gloat over.”
This time the hit was to my head, and for the second time today, I blacked out. It was probably for the best.
