Page 86 of Hurt for Me

Dayton’s face lost all color, his eyes turned to steel. “If you touch my daughter, I will fucking kill every one of you.”

“You have until Thursday to figure it out.” Then Troy told Rae to hang up. Dayton immediately tried to call back, but Troy took her phone from her hand and threw it on the ground. He released her and leered at her tight Domme outfit. “Pull up the information you have on me on your computer.”

Reluctantly, she sat at her desk and pulled up his client information. The photo of him came up, along with what she now knew was his fake background information.

“Delete it all. Now.” Once she did, he said, “Thank you for your cooperation. I really don’t like destroying pretty faces if I can help it. I’ll let myself out.”

CHAPTER 53

RAE

2009

Ben wasn’t kidding when he said she’d be doing a lot of work to earn her GED. He had bought her a thick prep book and showed her where she could go online to take free practice tests. After failing the first one, she knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d imagined. All the good grades she’d earned her freshman and sophomore years in high school meant nothing because she didn’t know enough to pass. Not yet anyway.

For the most part, she had been alone in her studies over the last two weeks, but Ben’s work as a graphic designer meant he could work from home some days. During those times, he’d help her study by quizzing her and checking her progress with the practice tests. The more time she spent with him, the less she understood why he was with Marilyn. They were total opposites. Where Marilyn was extroverted and overly talkative, almost bordering on manic at times, Ben was laid back and quiet.

If there was one thing they did have in common, it was their desire to uphold appearances in public. At the house, Rae rarely saw themshow each other affection. But when they went to their church, which was one of those megachurches that preached more about politics than anything in the Bible, Ben and Marilyn held hands and gave every impression of being a loving couple.

“How did you and Marilyn meet?” Rae asked Ben after he quizzed her over some math problems in his office.

He rested the prep book on his desk. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious. You’re both so different.”

“Haven’t you heard the phrase opposites attract?”

“Yeah,” she said, although she thought couples needed to have at least some things in common. “But ... never mind.”

“No, what were you going to say?” He fixed his brown eyes on her.

“It’s just ... you don’t really talk to each other.”

Ben looked away from her, glancing at the design work he had pulled up on his computer. “Talking’s not our thing.”

“What is your thing, then?”

He turned back to her. “You shouldn’t be asking me personal questions like this.” He sucked in a breath. “I think we’re good for today. You’ve got this section down.”

Rae didn’t mean to overstep a boundary, but she wanted to understand the weird dynamic between Ben and Marilyn and why they kept secrets from each other.

“What would happen if Marilyn knew about you helping me with the GED stuff?” she said.

He stared at her. “She would think I had an ulterior motive.”

“Why would she think that when you’re just helping me?”

“You’re not this naive, Rae.” He leaned forward in his office chair. “You’re young and pretty, and most men would have a motive in helping you. And after what you’ve experienced, I’m sure you know what that motive is.”

Rae shrank back from him, and he noticed.

“I’m not one of those men.”

She had no way to know for sure if he was telling the truth. “Why do so many men want to hurt women?” She didn’t say it because she expected an answer. It was only a question she had asked herself many times, and it fell easily from her lips.

“Because it’s easier for men to take something than to earn it,” he said after a moment. “Men are taught to take things because it shows they’re powerful. And a man without power is nothing in our society.”

“Do you believe that?”

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