Page 21 of Damaged

It was dark when Rogue walked into the downtown Burbank coffee shop a few days later.

He ordered a double macchiato with half and half and carried it over to lean against one of the pillars that littered the room. Noisy conversations filled the air along with laughter.

It was easy to spot Melissa Anderson as she sat alone at a table and cupped a paper coffee cup between her hands. She wore a black corporate power suit along with a Louboutin pair of high heels.

While the suit had probably fit her at one point, now it did not. She was thin, so thin that her collarbone was visible above her white dress shirt and her face was all angles.

Instead of darting glances around to look for whoever had taken her request, she sat lost in thought.

He waited until the top of the hour and made his way over to the table near the window and sat down. It didn’t matter if she saw his face. He had a sixth sense about people and if there ever came a time where he was wrong and they caused him trouble, he’d eliminate them.

It was as simple as that. It wasn’t personal, it was survival.

“Mrs. Anderson.”

Her tired green eyes caught and held his across the table and he realized that if she gained a bit of weight and let her brown hair loose, she’d be a very attractive woman.

“Nobody will help me,” she whispered as if that were the only thought she had in her pretty head.

“Tell me.” He kept his voice low and she did the same even though it was impossible to overhear them in the busy place.

He’d picked this spot for that very reason, along with the fact that if this turned out bad, he’d have an easy escape. Plus, he had taken the time to disable the surveillance cameras last night. There would be no evidence of their meeting.

She whispered almost inaudibly, but he heard every word. Her husband, Tony, and his friend, Doug, had been molesting her thirteen-year-old daughter, Audrey. According to Audrey, her father and his best buddy had been touching her inappropriately for years, and then four months ago, they raped her. That was when she finally told her mother.

“Did you press charges?”

She nodded, silent tears running down her face. “There wasn’t enough evidence. He was let go for insufficient evidence of molesting her but charged with spousal abuse. How can they do that?” Her voice wobbled.

“He must have been very careful. Most sexual predators are,” Rogue said, sipping at his coffee. “But that’s neither here nor there. I want to observe him and his friend and then I’ll reach out and talk to you again.”

“Will you help me?”

“I’ll have to see.”

“I have a restraining order against him for the domestic violence, but he still has visitation rights with her.”

So, the fucker got arrested on suspicion of sexually molesting his daughter and now has a restraining order against him forbeating his wife. But the guy still had access to his daughter? That was some fucked up judicial system right there.

Rogue frowned. “Does she see him alone?”

“She’s refused the last four times, but he took us to court and this time, she has to go. I’m working with the lawyer to get it changed.” Melissa hugged her thin arms around herself, trying to rid her body of an internal chill that would not go away. “She’s terrified.”

Rogue grimaced. In his opinion, the courts weren’t worth a fuck for getting sickos off the streets. There wasn’t a thing the courts could fix that a bullet to the head wouldn’t do.

And even more damning was the fact that the courts locked sick fuckers up and eventually let them out again, a bullet to the head was a final ending.

When following Tony and Doug the next day, it was easy for Rogue to see that the two men had their ethical systems all fucked up. They went from openly harassing women on the streets to groping waitresses at diners and bars.

They drank most of the time and Rogue knew the money Tony spent was from his wife. Because Melissa had the job, she was being forced to pay him alimony.

How fucked up was that? He beat her and she divorced him, but still had to pay him money because she was a highly paid professional woman.

Rogue went home and sent a text to Melissa that he would take the job and would contact her when it was finished.

Now, he had to plan. He wasn’t the type to make the kills look like hits. It was better all the way around if they looked like accidents. That way, nothing bounced back on Melissa or Audrey.

The only hiccup in the whole damned thing was the sexy blond man standing in the way of him entering Tony’s building.

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