I heard myself urge Luke to take me.
I needed him more than I ever had. I needed to feel like his completely. I clawed his back and whimpered as he lifted me to new heights of passion. We made music together and when we came, we made cries of surrender, as though finally—it was official.
We belonged together.
Ella
In the days that followed, the knots in my stomach slowly loosened, and I stopped looking over my shoulder every time I was out of the house. The police had gotten back to us. Stan had been given a warning. He'd denied that it was him who had been in that car and they found no evidence that he owned a blue sedan.
Still, he'd gotten off with a stiff warning and as one day melted into the next, I became convinced that the stiff warning had worked.
Luke had been working from home for the last few days, but I knew he was needed at the office. I urged him to go and if anything happened, I would call him. Paul had gone off to the grocery store to stock up on food and the lady from the cleaning service had been in and left already.
It was just Molly and me in the house and we were in the backyard playing with Bean. The sun was out and we were both dressed in matching sundresses I had made myself. Luke had convinced me that if I allowed myself to live in fear, then Stan would win. There was no way I would let that happen now.
Molly's laughter rang out every time Bean caught the stick while in midair. He had grown bigger too, and more attached to Molly.
My phone sang that familiar tune in my pocket and I picked it up without a second thought.
"What are you up to?" Ruby asked.
I smiled when I heard Ruby's voice on the other end. "Molly and I are in the backyard, enjoying the sun and playing with Bean.”
"That’s some life you have there," Ruby said.
I laughed.
We caught up on each other's news.
Bean sprinted off towards the house, with Molly hot on his heels.
"I gotta go," I said to Ruby. Ending the call, I sprinted after Bean and Molly.
"Molly," I called as I entered the house.
They weren’t in the kitchen and I went to the living room. As I walked through the door, a hand appeared from nowhere and clamped over my mouth. A familiar sickening stench rose up my nose.
Fear gripped my chest. I looked around, wildly twisting my head this way and that way until I saw Molly on the couch, her hand on Bean. I was glad she was restraining him. He was a puppy and there wasn’t much he could do to save us.
"Don’t get any ideas," Stan said and pressed cold metal against my neck.
I knew even without even seeing it, that it was a gun.
“Did you think me and you were done?" he said and let out a bark of a laugh. "That will never happen. We're bound for life. You made a big mistake by telling the police. "
"Please," I tried to say. All I could think of was Molly. How could I get her out of the house? I thought about Paul. I didn’t want him to come back soon. Not when Stan was still in the house. I had no doubt that he would shoot him.
Oh God, what was I going to do? I knew he wasn’t going to kill me. His interest was in me. I had accepted that. I needed to make sure he did not hurt Molly or anyone else.
“Let's go," he said abruptly and pulled me toward the door.
Molly made as if to stand.
“Make her stay!" Stan barked. "Unless you want her to come with us.”
"Molly, I have to go out for a while. Sit and wait there for Daddy, okay?"
She looked confused and unsure about what was happening, but to my relief, she nodded and sat back down.
Stan spoke in my ear, his breath hot and already reeking of alcohol, "I’m done playing games, so listen to me very carefully. I have a car outside. We’ll walk together and enter as if we're old friends. If you do anything stupid, like scream or run, I’ll go back in there and put a bullet into that kid’s head."
I stifled a cry. "I promise I won’t do anything.”
He opened the door and we stepped out. I did as he had instructed and slipped into the blue sedan. The one he had tried to run me over with.
"Good girl," he said, when he got into the driver's seat. He stared at me. "If you had cooperated this well from the beginning, it would not have come to this. We would have been so happy." A mad glint came into his eyes. "But you had to go and report me to the police. Do you know what you've done?" His voice rose in rage.
I shank away from him.
"Don’t worry I won’t touch you," he said, lowering his voice. “Not here anyway. Not when there are nosy people looking out their windows, poking their noses into other peoples’ business.” He switched on the child locks in the car.
I jumped at the clicking sound. Any thoughts of throwing myself out of the car were gone. As he drove away, I prayed silently that Paul wouldn’t be too long and Molly would do as I said… just sit there quietly.
"How have you been?” Stan asked conversationally, as if we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while.
I knew then that he was now completely insane. He had lost his mind. Being bullied in prison must have done that to him. My insides turned to water.
He sensed my stare and stared back. He smiled. A friendly smile. But it did not reach his eyes.
Dread came over me. I knew without a doubt that he intended to molest me first then probably kill
