Page 42 of Small Town Beast

He stepped towards her and she automatically shrank away from him. Even though a second ago she’d been twerking on his dick. But now the spell was broken and they were once again in strange waters.

“You never need to be scared of me,” he said, halting in front of her.The scarred side of his face looked like the ridges of the mountains. She saw the kindness in his eyes, but it was buried deep and she didn’t need more trouble.

“You need to go,” she repeated. “Please just leave.”

He reached past her, picking up a pen and paper on the messy kitchen counter. He wrote something down, needing nolight. She heard the sound of a paper tearing. He tacked the scrap to her fridge with a magnet.

Then he left, going through the front door. She heard the steps creaking under his heavy tread. She heard a truck start in the apartment parking lot. She stood, frozen, until she heard the vehicle pull off onto the road and rumble away into the distance.

She was alone again.

The darkness felt suffocating. Though it wasn’t working, she still jiggled the power switch. Bright light seared her eyes; the power had magically returned.

And now she saw there was a number tacked to her fridge, and under that number was his name:

SAVERIN.

Only later did Tanya find the money under her pillow, but when and how he’d put it there she had no idea.

Six

Chapter Six

As he left Tanya’s house one word pounded through Saverin’s brain.Mine.

He shot past the high school where he’d led the Florin Buffaloes to State Finals, beating their Goldsville rivals for the first time in half a century. Past the Millpond, Red Oak Holler, and all the other places he knew like the back of his hand.

I still have her panties…

A doe froze in his headlights. Saverin braked, letting her cross. Instinct made him pause. Sure enough a white-dappled fawn came out of the thicket and bolted after its mother into the trees.He drove slower after that.

He wasn’t supposed to want her. Somebody like her.

But what did that mean?Somebody like her…

Those words belonged to the old Saverin; the new man understood that nothing in his life was now certain. Maybe the ideas he’d held for so long were just delusions. Lies.

He’d stolen something from Tanya, actually. It was a book he’d seen once at his high school library before it was removed. The english teacher Mrs. Hartleby made a big fuss about that, and there was drama, and then Mrs. Hartleby resigned.Somebody taped a piece of paper that said GO HOME YANKEE on her blackboard and Saverin agreed she should go home, though it did feel bad to see Mrs. Hartleby taking down her maps and putting away her picture books of places like Africa and India and China. She had tried to hide a box of books in the library but the vice principal found out and was making her remove it.

“They’ll never change,” Saverin heard her muttering as she was stuffing the books somewhat violently into the box. Her fluffy hair was in a mess and her glasses were tilted on her face which was then streaked with tears. Walking past, he picked up one of the books that had fallen from the box.Rootsby Alex Hayley.The cover was strange and ripped in the corner.

It was kind of nuts, the idea that a book could be so dangerous it had to be removed for everybody’s safety. And Saverin knew the book in his hands would change his life if he read it. But his friends were waiting so he handed it to Mrs. Hartleby.

“Thank you, Saverin,” was all she said.

And he hadn’t thought about Mrs. Hartleby or the book since, until he saw it sitting on Tanya’s shelf.

The same damned book.

With the rip in the corner.

She could never go back to the Turnkey. Nobody was going to touch her again.

Breaking in, putting a knife on her tits and ordering her to spread her legs had nearly lost her. His rage had been senseless. He was going to do anything to get her. There was nothing he was not capable of, when it came to Tanya.

But there wasthat thing…

Her race.

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