Page 1 of Stone Cold Bad
ONE
JADE
“Iwill plunge this letter opener into your fucking eye!”I screamed.
Ray’s hand clamped around my arm.My forearm looked like a brittle matchstick in his thick iron grasp.He squeezed hard enough that I was sure I could feel my bones squeaking against each other.The letter opener fell to the floor.
Ray’s fingers were leaving a mark on my skin.I spit at him and waited for him to smack me.I’d never pushed him this far when he was drunk, but I’d been dragged to the limit.I just didn’t care anymore.I wanted to be free of the bastard.
I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed back the bitter taste in my throat.Ray’s movements were clumsy, slowed by the alcohol.He spun me around, slammed my hands down on the desk and pounded my fingers once with his fist for good measure.I cried out in pain.
“Stand still, little bitch.Can’t fuck a moving target when I’m this drunk.”
I swallowed again to keep from puking my guts out all over his desk.Although it would have been fitting for the asshole.It hadn’t always been this way, the bile, the tension in my jaw at the thought of having Ray’s hands on me, but now all I could think was I wanted him dead.Sometimes, when he was grunting with exhaustion, pumping me, trying to get his whiskey soaked cock off, I would close my eyes and wish that his fucking heart would explode, right while he was inside of me, touching me, making me sick to my stomach.Then I would push his ugly dead carcass off of me, step right over him and walk out the fucking door for good.But no such luck.
“I told you I’m not in the mood,” I tried one last plea.There had been a time when the man still had a thread of conscience, and he would have listened.But that man was gone, replaced by a greed driven, alcoholic madman.
His fumbling, cold fingers yanked the hem of my tight skirt up above my waist.I flinched as his callused fingers dragged along my skin and tugged down my panties.
I heard him spit on his fingers.He knew I wasn’t ready for him.I was never ready anymore.That was how badly I hated him.I kept my legs tight together as he tried to push his fingers between my thighs to lube me with his spit.
“Fucking cunt,” he growled.“Piece of trash.You’d still be on the street without me.”His thick hand came up on the back of my head, and he shoved me face first toward the desk.I turned to my cheek just in time to avoid breaking my nose.
“Have it your way,” he growled.He shoved the spit covered finger into my ass and I squirmed against the hold he had on me.He was damn strong.Even drunk, he was a goddamn beast.It was why everyone was afraid of Ray.I hadn’t been afraid.Not until the booze.He couldn’t stop the drinking even though it turned him into a raging monster.
My hands slipped forward as he held me against the desk.My fingers grasped for something, anything.My pinky brushed a pen, and I had a brief vision of me stabbing it into Ray’s brain.He pushed my feet wide and my arm flung across the blotter.The pen flew off the desk.A smooth marble paperweight rubbed up against my thumb.
Ray stopped.I glanced back hoping he’d somehow decided it wasn’t worth the fight.But instead, he had his hand around his cock, desperately milking himself to make himself hard.Tonight the whiskey had been my ally.
While he was staring down at the limp dick in his hand, I grabbed the paperweight.I spun around, and before he had a chance to lift his face, I crowned him on the head.He stumbled back, and his eyes rounded with fury just before they rolled up in his head.He came down like a big tree falling in the forest.
My heart was pounding so hard I was sure it would push open my ribs and hop out of my chest.I didn’t stick around to see if he was dead.The paperweight dented the wood floor right next to his head.
I raced to the bedroom and shoved a few things into my backpack.I crept down the hallway and out to the entryway.I kept imagining Ray’s thunderous footsteps behind me, but it was my own pulse pounding in my ears.He was out cold.Maybe even dead.I might be spending the rest of my life in jail, but it would be so fucking worth it.Any dank, smelly jail cell would be better than living with Ray.
I opened the front door and ran out into the night.I had nothing and I had nowhere to go, but I couldn’t stay one more day.
Creepy swirls of fog curled up around my black boots as I crossed the front lawn.Once I hit the sidewalk, I broke into a run.My hard-soled shoes made the click-clack sound of a flat-footed horse as I ran toward the highway.
Visibility on the road would be minimal, but I was willing to take my chances with oncoming traffic.The heavy mist was a nightly occurrence, a gift from the ocean that coasted in and blanketed the entire area well into the next morning.It brought a bone chill with it that cut right through my thin sweatshirt.I pulled the hood up over my head, covering my nearly white blonde hair with a black sweatshirt and concealing the only thing that might be visible on a night like this.
I looked back once before turning onto the onramp for the two lane highway that would take me the hell out of Wilmington.The turret on Ray’s big, gaudy mansion looked like the top of a haunted house beneath the eerie, fog-shrouded glow of the moon.I wouldn’t see that house again.I would pull a Cleopatra and stick a poisonous snake down my bra before ever going back there.
A truck’s headlights nearly blinded me as the vehicle waddled toward me.With visibility so bad, most cars were moving at a snail’s pace.I was glad for that.I pulled the backpack higher on my shoulder and stuck my thumb out hoping the driver had good eyesight and some compassion in his heart.
The truck spit up grit as it pulled off the highway.I raced toward it thinking I could very well have just flagged down a chainsaw murderer like in one of those horror movies.But it didn’t even give me pause.It was still better than going back to Ray.
The driver, a middle-aged woman with a curly pile of red hair and a friendly smile, rolled down the window.There were two kids sleeping in the backseat.“Honey, you’re practically camouflaged in that black sweatshirt.Where are you heading?”
It wasn’t a question I’d prepared for, especially because I had no fucking clue.“I can go as far as you’re willing to take me.”
She looked at me a second as if she was reconsidering after my shady answer.Then her nice smile popped up.It was a mom smile, the kind some kids, lucky kids, get to see every morning when they head out to the breakfast table.Never got to be one of those lucky kids.“I can get you as far as the marina.But you’ll have to ride in back.”She motioned to the backseat.“You don’t look like a crazy person or murderer, but you understand.”
“I’m fine with that.Thanks so much.”I ran to the back of the truck, tossed my backpack into the bed and climbed inside.I was free ...for now.
TWO
COLT
