Page 78 of Hurt for Me

Hearing his good ole boy drawl made her want to vomit.

“Or should I call you Rae now? Or maybe Mistress V?”

“What do you want, Bobby?” she said through clenched teeth. “Besides fucking with my kid.”

“You have a lovely daughter. Smart too. We knew she would get the message across to you.”

“What message is that? That you’re a pathetic piece of shit? Tell me, how did you escape the fire?”

“When a person’s skin is melting, they have a tendency to wake up.”

“And did you drag Clint out with you? Did you save him?”

“I was a bit preoccupied with saving myself.”

“Such a great friend.” Her body relaxed a little in knowing Clint wasn’t going to creep back like Bobby had, like the Terminator coming out of the flames. “What did you do? Have Mommy and Daddy pay off the investigators to lie and say there were two bodies so you could slip away and start a new life?”

He huffed out a laugh. “There were two bodies, Nancy Drew. That used-up Hispanic chick was in Clint’s closet, waiting to be disposed of. Just another poor Jane Doe with no dental records.”

Maria.Rae was too stunned to catch her breath.

“You know, we had a lot of fun watching you and that detective fuck in the garden. Like two cats in heat. So raw and unlike the shy, scared girl I remember. Not so scared now, huh? You should be.”

She swallowed hard and made herself speak. “I should’ve poured the gasoline on you instead of that recliner.”

“Oh, but you didn’t,” he said, the coolness of his voice making her nauseous. “If it makes you feel any better, I have third-degree burns on my legs. Do you have any idea how painful skin grafts are?”

“For you? Not painful enough.”

He made a low growling sound, like an animal hungry for an attack. “This is what you’re going to do,Rae, so listen because I’m only going to say it once. We know the detective has the video he took on a flash drive somewhere on him. You will get it from him without him knowing. Then you will record yourself destroying it. You will then send the recording to a number that will be texted to you tomorrow. If you haven’t sent the recording two days from today, you and everyone you care about will suffer immeasurably. Do you understand?”

The room seemed to be spinning around Rae for a second, and she couldn’t find her voice.

“Do you understand, Rae?” he repeated.

She swallowed over the thick lump seizing her throat. “What if I can’t get it from him?”

“You will.”

Then he hung up.

For several minutes, she couldn’t move, her eyes glued to a photo on her desk, one of Lily when she was about five. She had wanted to try ballet, so Rae had spent the money getting her signed up, but then Lily quit soon after she took the dance studio’s photos in her little pink tutu. When Rae asked her why she didn’t want to dance anymore, Lily had told her a boy kept trying to kiss her, and the teacher ignored her pleas to make him stop.

Rae let out an odd, guttural laugh. A crazy person’s laugh. No girl was safe in this world, not even a little girl trying to learn ballet. And now she knew, no matter what, she couldn’t escape her past, and it would drag down Lily too. The laugh turned into her sobbing into her arm. She didn’t know how long she stayed like that, but she eventually stopped herself. She had to stay strong and do what she needed to do to keep her family safe.

Rae thought about Dayton. She didn’t know if he’d try to stop her from taking the flash drive, so she decided it would be better not to tell him about the call. But he had the footage, presumably on him or at his house. Why didn’t those crazy fucks break into his home and get it themselves? Not that she’d wish it on him. Maybe they didn’t want to risk it. Dayton probably had security cameras at his place. Seemed like everyone did now since the self-monitored kind were a lot cheaper. Most people in her neighborhood had those doorbell cameras, same as her, ready to catch porch pirates in action.

She let off a scream in her head and dialed Dayton’s number.

“Hey,” he said. “I was just thinking of you.”

“I was thinking of you too.” She bit her bottom lip hard, hating herself for what she had to do. “I know Carli’s back home with you now from your mom’s, but I’d really like to see you. Do you think I could maybe swing by later this evening? I could bring some wine.”

He was silent on the line for a moment. “Uh, yeah, that sounds nice. Is nine too late?”

“No.”

“I’ll send you my address. Just text when you get here.”

---