I froze, but then a boom of thunder cracked, and I jumped a mile.
He didn’t say anything. His black hood covered his hair and shaded his face from the one tiny strip of moonlight.
I forced myself to breathe and act cool, like I did this every day. I tossed the money through the darkness, letting it arc up, and then land at the man’s feet. “It’s all there,” I called. “Every dollar. You can check it if you want.”
He didn’t say a word.
He didn’t make a move to pick up the bag.
I swallowed thickly. “I want to make a change in our agreement. Three times the product. So we can do a weekly party…”
I could feel his gaze on me. It crept over me like dirty, dark spiders, crawling and creeping, inching their way across my skin, searching for a way inside me.
I didn’t want to look intimidated. But my body took an involuntary step back before my brain could issue a command not to.
The man took a step forward.
“I’m good for the money,” I tried again, fighting to keep a tremble out of my voice. “I can pay more often than once a month if you want.”
He took another step forward, stepping over the bag I’d tossed to his feet.
My heart seized.
He wasn’t picking it up.
I stumbled backward, fumbling in my pocket for my car key. I clamped my fingers around it, pointing it in the man’s direction and praying that in the darkness it would look like a knife. “I’m armed!”
The man’s laughter cackled across the space between us. “You stupid bitch. Do you really think I’m that dumb?”
Lightning flashed, lighting up Caleb’s face.
My gasp was lost to the wind, but it brought with it a rush of fear. I spun and fled, running back to the car. My thighs burned with the effort of propelling my body, and my feet slid out from beneath me, sending my hands down into the mud. Pain jarred through them, but I pushed myself upright and kept going.
I couldn’t hear if Caleb was behind me. The roar of my blood in my ears and the rain coming down around me drowned everything else out. I was sure I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear it.
The car loomed in front of me, like a flashing safety beacon. If I could just get to it, I could lock myself inside.
I ran for the driver’s side door and yanked up the handle.
It didn’t work.
I jerked it again and again, screaming out my frustration, all while knowing that Caleb was right behind me.
A sob burst free.
“Searching for this?”
I spun around.
He had my key clutched in his fingers. I didn’t even know when I’d dropped it.
I lunged for it, but he was taller and quicker. With a glint of pure malice in his eye, he threw the key over the cliff face.
I watched it sail over the edge and disappear into the blackness of the night.
Caleb stalked me, advancing on me like a demon in the night. “I was going to make you my wife, Bethany-Melissa!” his shout pierced through the buffeting wind. “I gave you a ring. A house. Everything you wanted. All you had to do was be good.”
“Vincent!” I screamed. “Vincent!”
Caleb’s fingers were around my neck in a second, the force pushing me up against the side of my car. My spine thudded on the cold, slick metal with a bone-jarring thud that rattled my teeth. “Vincent!” My screams turned to sobs.
“Who the fuck is that?” Caleb snarled.
I tried to recoil from the stench of alcohol on his breath. Up close, he didn’t look well. His normally clean-shaven jaw was dark with several days’ worth of stubble, and even in the dim light, his eyes were clearly bloodshot.
“Is he your lover, Bethany-Melissa? Is that who he is? Do you scream his name like that when he’s fucking you?” He laughed. “I know all about the men you’ve been fucking behind my back. Sandra told me everything. How many men have you let into your pussy? More than just one. Three? Five? You filthy slut.”
He let go of my throat and grabbed my breast roughly, squeezing it so hard I yelped.
“You like that? You like it rough? Is that how they give it to you?”
I shook my head. “Caleb, please. You’re hurting me!”
“I thought you liked it like that?” He slammed his lips down on mine, hateful and hard.
I tried to scream again, but that was a mistake. Caleb took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into my mouth, disgusting and thick and slimy with the taste of scotch.
I scratched and tore and slapped at his face, but the man was stronger and bigger than me and wouldn’t be swayed. He attacked my mouth before dragging his lips across my cheek, his sharp stubble scraping along my skin. “Scream my name like you scream his, whore.”