The Filthy Series: The Complete Dark Erotic Serial Novel (25 page)

“The cuts on your belly. The day you…the day I found…” There was devastation in his eyes as he stared at my unmarred flesh.

“He liked to make me bleed. It made him hard.”

Rhett reached out and touched my stomach. The movement seemed involuntary, as if he didn’t even realize he was doing it. His warm fingertips against my skin made me shiver and he jerked back gripping his hand with the other. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

I didn’t drop my shirt. Instead I held it up, my stomach rising and falling with each breath. It was systematic, a rhythm.

“He won’t ever hurt you again.” He said the words with such assurance that I wanted to believe him.

“Yes, he will.”

He blinked at me. “I won’t let that happen.” For a moment I thought he would reach for my hand and hold it, like he had at the hospital. He had hardly left my side and the feel of his hand in mine was more of a comfort than he would ever know. Even when Sarah was there he had clung to me, as if I was his lifeline and not the other way around. She had held my hand too, the other one. She had cried a lot, so much that I was certain I would drown in her tears. But when we left the hospital and came back to the apartment earlier today, the hand holding stopped and I missed it more than I had ever missed anything before.

“He always wins, Rhett. Always.”

For the briefest moment he looked terrified, his eyes swimming with fear, but it was only for a moment until it was gone entirely, replaced by determination.

“Not this time,” he said. And I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think that the hell that had become my home had finally ended. But it would never end. Taylor would be back for me. It was only a matter of time.

THREE

Why did I agree to this?

The words played over in my head as I walked into the Dallas County prison. “Fuck this. I’m not doing it.”

“Wait.” Cayden put his hand on my chest, stopping me. “This needs to be done. He’s threatening a law suit if you won’t see him about representation.”

I scoffed. “I don’t give a shit.”

Cayden pulled his hand back and nodded. He was around my age, but he seemed younger. The newest partner at our firm. He was one of those pretty boys I never would have agreed to hire, not to mention he wasn’t all that great when it came to practicing law, but his daddy owned the firm and I had no choice but to accept his presence.

I’d been avoiding what I was about to do for almost a week. Faye had been home for about four days and this was the first time I left her side. I’d been doing everything from home, and when I went anywhere, she came with me, not that I’d been doing anything exciting.

I didn’t want to see my father. I couldn’t bear it. The thought of him, just his image in my head made so fucking angry I wanted to break something. And I had. I’d broken numerous pens, snapping them between my fingers when I should have been writing with them. I’d shattered one of Sarah’s favorite china pitchers when I was in the kitchen. I was going to make tea for all of us one evening, but as I reached for it, all I could see was my dad. His body on top of Faye’s. That was all it took. I turned and hurled the expensive pitcher at the wall. It exploded into hundreds of pieces scattering everywhere.

Sarah had jumped up to help, panic in her eyes and voice as she fluttered around me picking up the big pieces and fetching the broom. Faye hadn’t though. She hadn’t even moved a muscle from where she sat on the couch. A show played on TV, but she wasn’t watching it. She was watching me. I wondered what she saw. Did she see my father when she looked at me? I didn’t look like him, not even the slightest, but that’s what ate at me the most. That no matter what, I would always be the man who didn’t save her. The spawn of that piece of shit. And she would always see that.

“This is important, even Roger said it was something you should do.”

I glanced at Cayden. We were standing just in front of the door that would take us to the visitation check-in area. He had his hands in his pockets and he looked a little freaked out. It made me wonder what I had been saying and doing while lost in my mind thinking about how fucked up things had become.

“I know it’s what I should do.” I took a step forward, my legs moving on their own accord toward the doors. “I just can’t promise it will be pretty.”

I clutched my hands in my lap, my thumbs fidgeting while I waited. Other inmates had already started to file in, sitting across from their loved ones. Their orange jumpsuits bright against the stale gray room.

If anyone looked at me now they would think I was the loved one, visiting the unfortunate person in jail. None of them knew about the hate that festered inside me. Cayden didn’t get to come in with me and I was more troubled about that than anything else. With each passing second the hate, the anger bubbled and roiled around inside me, multiplying until it was out of control. My leg bounced.

And then he was there, being led in. He looked the same. Calm. Collected. Though his hair wasn’t as smooth and he looked stupid in orange. Satisfaction snaked through me at the evidence of healing black eyes that bled from purple into a hideous yellow around his nose. Even with the injury, he still wore an arrogant expression on his face that made my leg bounce faster.

The prison guard hooked his cuffs to the table when he sat, the metal chair scraping on the concrete floor.

“You got twenty minutes,” he said leaving us there. I didn’t watch the guard walk away. I couldn’t look away from him, my father.

“You came.” His blue eyes stared daggers at me, seeming to bore into my very skull. I imagined how his mind was working, how he was spinning his lies to convince me that he wasn’t in the wrong. He was good at that, deceptive.

“I don’t know why you would want me to represent you. We both know you’re guilty.”

I expected him to yell at me. To pop off and put me in my place. It’s what he always did when I said something he didn’t like. He was a man who had things done his way and his way alone. There was no room for anyone else’s wants or needs. Just his. He controlled everything in his world.

But he didn’t yell at me. He kept looking at me, his eyes hard, his lips pressed together in a thin line. “She wanted it.”

My heart pounded in my chest. “Fuck you.”

“She did, son.” He leaned toward me, his eyes certain, boring into mine. “She always wanted it.”

My leg was bouncing out of control and my hands were clutched so tightly in my lap they started to tingle.

“She wanted it? When she was nine years old?”

He leaned in closer and I could smell the sweat on his skin. “She loves me.” He seemed so certain, so sure of his words, as if he had never spoken anything more true. And that’s when it hit me.
He believes it.

“Do you really think that?”

“She does.”

“If she loved you then why were you hurting her?” I hated that my voice cracked. That I was here at all in this fucked up place, my heart in my throat, begging my father, desperate to know why he raped my little sister.

“She hurt
me
.” He bit the words out like they were poison. His eyes were red now, tears rimming them. “She broke
my
heart.”

I shook my head back and forth, reality sinking in, really sinking in. “You’re sick. You don’t hurt the people you love. Not like that. Not the way you hurt Faye. She told me about the baby.”

Dad’s eyes widened and he leaned back. “
My
baby.”

“
Her
baby.” I found myself much in the same boat with Faye, any thought of that baby belonging to him, burning away at my skin. It was what I thought about as I laid in bed every night. How I left that day when she propositioned me. The things that happened to her in the months following that event. How I had no idea. How I left her there for him to ruin, to destroy.
I
let it happen.

“She broke my heart. And I hurt her back. That’s all. She loved it. Even when I hurt her. She loved it.”

“Stop.” I held my hand up. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t think I could stand it. “I’m not doing this. I’m not representing you.” I looked him right in the eyes. “I am going to do everything I can to bring you down. I am already working hand in hand with the prosecution.”

He chuckled, the red rim of tears around his eyes gone, as if they had never been. It was that hideous sound he made in the bathroom. “So you’re gonna put me away, huh? For beating up on a known prostitute in a bathroom. I’ll just twist it, say that she was into pain and shit. I’m sure I could get someone to testify that that’s what she likes. I’ll get some bogus charges and I’ll be out of here.” He leaned forward, a cruel grin spreading across his face. “And she will come back to me. She always does. Always.”

“He always wins, Rhett. Always.”
Faye’s words rang in my head. I clenched my hands tighter, knowing if I didn’t I would swing them at him. I would pummel his face until there was nothing left. Until he was a bloody useless pulp.

“You want to hit me, don’t you?” He smirked.

I shook my head hard, sucking in a deep breath. “You won’t get that lucky, old man.” I stood up. “I’m done here.” I nodded to the guard. “I won’t be representing you and neither will anyone at my firm.”

“Doesn’t matter. I just wanted to see if you cared about her as much as I thought you did. I just wanted to see it in your face.”

I paused mid turn and looked down at him.

“And that’s fine. You can have her while I’m in here. But when I’m out of this shit hole, you’re dead and she’s mine.”

I pressed my palms on the table and leaned in, putting my face only inches from his, my breathing was labored, my pulse racing, my hands throbbed, desperate to tear him apart. But instead I took a deep breath and looked right into his eyes. “You’re never getting out of here. I know how dirty your hands are. And soon the world will know. Everything.”

He knew what I meant, what I was referring to, and for a moment, the barest, smallest moment, I saw it. The falter in his gaze, the panic and fear that my words ignited. Something dark rose up inside me and laughed. The look was gone a moment later, covered with that cocky arrogance I was used to, but it didn’t matter. I knew deep down Taylor Hale was terrified, fucking scared of what I knew, what I would reveal. What I would find when I dug deeper into the shady life he’d been living all these years. If he could fuck a little girl, he could do anything. And I would prove it. I would fucking prove it. I would eat him alive.

And when I turned away from him I was smiling and I was certain it was the most sinister smile to ever cross my face.

FOUR

How did someone pick up the broken pieces of themself? Where would they begin? I didn’t know the answer to those questions. But I’d been wondering it since I came home from the hospital three weeks ago. I was getting better, physically. The bruises were practically gone and my cheek was healing just fine.

But this time was different. When I came home to Sarah and Rhett’s apartment, I didn’t get my hopes up that I had a future, something bright and shiny waiting for me down the road. I knew better than to hope for something like that. It didn’t matter that Taylor was in jail. None of that mattered because he would find a way out. He would find his way back to me. He always did. It didn’t matter the time that elapsed; he would always come for me. It was just a waiting game.