All I can do is be ready for it and keep the knowledge firmly in my head that I can do this. I have to do this. Jesse has to be stopped and my life must start again. I have all the tools at my disposal to do that. I just need to be ready to use them when the day comes. I need to keep everything that I’ve learned in the forefront of my brain along with an image of Kelly and what he did to her that night, an image of poor, sweet Chantelle who only ever wanted to help, an image of Roxi and Lexi who are firmly in my corner and most of all, an image of Derek who has become a staunch supporter and who I look at as my future. I’m ready. I’m strong. I’m capable. I will no longer live in fear.
She closed the journal and put it away, taking a deep breath before she opened the front door to the world and headed for studio. When she got there, Max greeted her at the door. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
“I’m a little nervous,” she said. That was a huge understatement.
“That’s okay. Channel it,” he said. “Use it all, every emotion.”
Chloe nodded. “I’m ready,” she said with a deep breath.
“Okay, remember if it gets out of hand and you need it to stop, you say my name. Otherwise, I’m Jesse. Tom will be outside the window watching and filming. The only copy of that tape will be the one you take home, okay? If you want me to look at it with you to evaluate what you do right and wrong, I’ll be happy to.”
“Thanks Max.” He reached out and clapped her on the shoulder.
“I’ll see you in there,” he told her.
Chloe went inside the glass-walled room. Knowing Tom was watching both comforted her and unnerved her at the same time. It was creepy standing in the dark, knowing that someone was watching you. She’d worn her street clothes like Max had told her to. Everything they did was to add another element of realism to the exercise.
As soon as the lights went out, the adrenaline flooded her system like an intravenous drip. Her heart was pounding and she felt like it was on the verge of exploding. Her eyes were wide, and doing their best to adjust to the lack of light. Her body was ready for flight...but first, she was going to defend herself. She was going to incapacitate him so that when she did run, she would know for sure that he wasn’t coming after her.
Chloe heard the door open and shut. A sliver of light came in and she didn’t see him, but she assumed that Max had too. She listened carefully allowing all of her senses to take part. She could hear the soft sounds of him breathing and she turned slightly, quietly slipping out of her shoes at the same time, so that she would be facing him. He wore a solid black, armored suit for these exercises so he blended in with the darkness but as she concentrated, she could detect just a hint of his dark silhouette against the darkness of the room.
“Kelly,” he whispered. She shuddered at the name. The next time she heard it outside of these walls would be from Jesse’s mouth. “I found you, Kelly. You knew I would, didn’t you? Have you been waiting for me?” Her chest hurt and she could feel her respirations trying to rise. She concentrated on controlling them. “I hope you know that you’re going to pay for hurting me. You’re going to pay for ruining my life. You’re a stupid little cunt if you think otherwise.” God, Max was good at this. Chloe felt the goose bumps rising on the back of her neck. The voice was so close, almost upon her. She just needed him a little bit closer...
“I’m going to kill you bitch, but I’m going to make sure you suffer first...” Chloe struck out and a scream escaped from deep in her throat. It was a primal sound that would have normally unnerved her, but in this situation, it felt good. She felt her knuckles connect with his neck and at the same time she brought her knee up sideways and simultaneously kneed him in the soft part of his side. Then she moved back so quickly that she felt the brush of his gloved fingertips brush against her hair as he reached out for her.
Attack! Retreat!
“You bitch! You think you can beat me?” he was coming towards her again.
Attack!
This time she brought her fist up in an undercut and caught him underneath the chin...
Retreat!
He charged at her and she spun around to run and his strong arms came out, wrapping her up in a hold with her body crushed back into his massive chest. She couldn’t breathe and she felt herself begin to panic. Max put his mouth to her ear and said, “I think I’ll wait until you’re dead to rape you...it won’t be much different. Sex with you always was like fucking a corpse.”
Channel it, Chloe...don’t let the panic take over. Turn it into anger...
She brought her foot up and kicked back hard, hitting him right on the knee cap. When he stumbled forward, his hold on her loosened and she was able to twist out of it...
Attack!
She turned and brought her knee up, hard. She felt it land against the suit Max wore but in her head it was crushing against the soft tissue between his legs. Max went down to his knees cussing her like Jesse would.
Retreat!
“Fucking cunt! You’re only making this worse for yourself.” He was talking in a winded voice and for a second Chloe started to worry that she had hurt Max...then she snapped back into the zone.
Attack!
While he was on his knees, she kicked him hard in the face. She heard the crunch of Max’s face guard and she imagined it was the cartilage in Jesse’s nose breaking. Retreat! He fell back to the mat but she wasn’t finished with him yet.
With Max’s words reverberating in her head...
If there’s nowhere to run, you have to be prepared to kill him;
she took a step back towards him. She felt more than saw his arm shoot out towards her feet. Using every ounce of strength and weight she could muster she brought her foot down against it. He yelled and as he pulled it into his body, it drew him slightly over on his side. She began kicking him, low in the kidney area and then getting out of the way before he grabbed her. When he had curled himself into a ball she brought her knee up and her body down. She slammed into the side of his head with all of her weight behind it. The lights came on and she saw Max there in his suit, lying on his back.
“Oh shit, Max! Are you okay?”
He laughed and pushed himself up. Pulling off the helmet he was wearing that would likely leave a nasty bruise on Chloe’s knee he said, “I’m fine, Chloe. I don’t feel a thing in this suit. But you know what?”
“What?”
“If I’d been Jesse and you would have landed that strike on my head, I wouldn’t have gotten back up.”
––––––––
D
erek’s driver picked Chloe the next night at seven to take her to the yacht for dinner. Derek usually came himself, but he told her he was making dinner for her and he didn’t want to burn down the yacht. Chloe wore the classic, “little black dress” tonight with a pair of three inch black heels and a light silver chain. She was feeling really good about herself after her session with Max and she was looking forward to telling Derek all about it.
When the driver opened her door and she stepped out he asked her, “Would you like me to see you to the boat, Miss?”
She looked across the little ramp that led to the slips. Derek’s yacht was lit up and the lights along the decking were shining brightly. The sun was just going down so it wasn’t fully dark yet. “Thank you, but no. I can take it from here,” she told him. She made her way to the wooden ramp and from there she could see that the driver was still standing next to the car watching her. She appreciated his diligence and she smiled and waved at him. He waved back as she was stepping onto Derek’s yacht.
He wasn’t up top but she assumed that he would be down in the living quarters in the kitchen. She made her way down the steps and as she got to the bottom landing, the first thing she noticed was that it was dark down here. She could see a light coming from underneath the door of the kitchen, but that was the only one.
“Derek?” She called out and waited.
The only sounds were those of the water lapping up against the hull of the boat. She took a step further into the darkness, keeping her hand on the rail of the steps for security. She felt a little flutter of anxiety begin to rear its ugly head in the pit of her belly.
“Derek!” She called out, louder this time.
Still no answer, but somewhere to her right and below her, she heard a sound. It was like the shuffling of a shoe against the smooth wood of the floors of the boat. Her heart rate began to rise and the anxiety swelled up into her chest. She turned to head back up the stairs and that was when all of the lights went out, plunging her into darkness. She still had the railing in her hand and she started up. She’d only taken one step when she heard the low rumble of a man’s voice. She froze and willed herself to slow down her breathing and listen. She couldn’t hear what he said and she couldn’t even discern the tone or the pitch of it...it was just a rumble...a warning.
Chloe took a slow, cautious step backwards and very quietly, she slipped off her heels. Then she waited...she heard him, moving towards her down the stairs. The backlight illuminated his shadow. All she could tell was that it was definitely a tall, broad-shouldered man. She let the idea that maybe it was Derek flit across her brain...but that not only didn’t make sense since he’d been expecting her, it was clouding her thinking.
She needed to clear her mind and...
Attack!
She lunged forward with her fist out and threw it into his midsection with all her might. When he doubled forward with a grunt, she grabbed his arm and with a loud grunt and everything she had in her, she sent him sailing towards the floor. She heard him hit with a satisfying thump and “Ugh!” She retreated then, heading for the steps she grabbed the banister and when she was about halfway up she heard,
“Chloe?” It was Derek’s pained voice, coming from the floor below her.
Oh Shit!
What did she do?
“Derek?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Why the hell did you hit me?”
Chloe rushed back down the stairs and when her feet hit him she knelt down beside him. “Jesus, Derek! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
He tried to laugh, but it came out as more like a grunt. “I think you broke my ribs.”
“Oh shit! Damn it! I’m so sorry. Why were you walking around in the dark?”
“Help me sit up,” he said.
She slid her hand behind his head and as she helped him lift to a sitting position, the lights blinked on and off once and then came back on. There was still only the light from underneath the kitchen door and the lights that shone down from above deck but it was enough that she could see his face. His right cheek was dark red where he’d hit the floor with it when she took him down. She’d been proud of the thud when she thought it was Jesse, but now remembering the sound made her wince. “The lights kept flickering. I went down to the machine room to check the fuses. I never heard you come in. I’d just flipped the switch down there and was on my way back when they went off again. I was going to see if I had a bigger flashlight before I went back down to the machine room because it’s pitch black down there.”
“Oh damn! I feel so bad!”
He laughed again and reached up and put his big arm around her. He pulled her off her feet she was crouched on and into his lap where he was still sitting on the floor.
Letting his lips brush softly against hers he said, “You’re deadly baby, that’s kind of hot.”
In spite of the adrenaline and anxiety that was still coursing through her veins, she laughed. “I’m two and “0” this week.”
“You kicked someone else’s ass too?” he asked her. She laughed again.
“Yeah, my instructor. I’ll tell you about it at dinner. Let’s get you up off this floor and check your ribs.”
Chloe helped him up with considerable effort. She was discovering there was a great deal of difference between the strength she felt when she was loaded with adrenaline and that of an ordinary day. She was no weakling anymore either way, but the adrenaline seemed to pour into her muscles and make her feel indestructible. She held onto him on the way to the bathroom.
“I think I’m okay,” he said.
“We’ll see.”
When they got inside the bathroom she flipped on the light switch. Sometimes still she was consumed all at once by how incredibly gorgeous he is. The bright fluorescent lights illuminated his deep blue eyes and he had a smile playing along the corners of his full, sexy lips. She had to shake herself and focus on the task at hand instead. She would re-visit those lips later...
“Take off your shirt,” she told him.
He let the smile slowly spread and he said, “Are you trying to have your way with me now?”
She grinned back and said, “When I’m trying, you’ll know it. You won’t have to ask. Now strip!”
With the grin still in place he unbuttoned his shirt while Chloe searched the medicine cabinet in hopes of finding some kind of salve to put on him. He was going to be sore even if they weren’t broken. She had her back to him and when she turned back around she felt her breath catch in her throat. His hair was disheveled from the “attack” and his cheek bright red. It gave him a just woke up look. The best part was that he’d done as she asked...or ordered, and he’d taken off his shirt. Her eyes consumed his body, all the bulging hard lines and ripples and she had to quell the hunger she felt ignite in her core...at least long enough to doctor up the damage she had done to him.
His right side was reddening, almost growing darker as she looked at it. She used the fingers of her left hand and starting at the top of his ribcage, she felt along each one, gently.
“Does that hurt?”
“No,” he said. His voice sounded husky and she looked up at his face. He was looking at her with desire smoldering in his sexy blue eyes.
He smiled and she said, “Stop that, I have to check for injuries.”
“I’m not doing a thing,” he said.
She looked back down at his chest. That was almost worse. She let her fingers continue down, softly prodding along each rib until she reached the bottom of his diaphragm. That’s when she felt his lips touch the top of her head. When she looked back up at him he let them slide down the side of her face and pressed them against her ear.