Skank (4 page)

Before he could recover, she dragged herself away from him and crawled to the other side of the kitchen. She didn’t have the strength or focus to go any further. As she started to see stars, one of the wait staff returned for another round of food and drink.

She remembered the young man. His name was Paul. He was a college student working his way through school and had worked their parties before. She watched him approach her and stoop down. Then he saw Kennedy on the other side of the kitchen.

As dizzy as she was, she couldn’t miss the heated anger and hatred that crossed Paul’s face. Very slowly, he caressed her face and said, “My mom used to be married to a monster just like him.” He stood quickly and barred the kitchen door from anyone else entering and returned to her. “Ms. Carmen, what can I do?”

Hearing the words spill from her mouth told Carmen that both her lips were busted. “I need to leave before he can recover. I can’t stand. In the walk-in pantry there’s a small duffle bag. Get it for me. My vision is compromised. Will you help me up and help me leave out the back, please?”

Paul reached into his back pocket, yanked out his cell phone and made a call as he found the bag. He threw it over his shoulder then very gently lifted Carmen into his arms. As her body rebelled from the pain she whispered, “Thank you.”

* * * *

Paul gave Kennedy a murderous look as he walked out the back entrance of the kitchen. He gritted through clenched teeth, “It’s muthafuckas like you that give all men a bad name. A pair of bruised balls is the least you deserve, you sick bastard.”

As he got her settled on the floor of the receiving elevator he said, “I need to unlock the kitchen door. I’ll be right back.” He was gone for only a few minutes before he returned and gathered her into his arms again and said, “I got a friend who’s a nurse and won’t ask any questions. She’ll meet us downstairs at the loading dock in the back of the building and take you to her place and patch you up. I know it ain’t much, but at least you’ll be safe from that fucker. No matter what, he’ll never learn where you are from me.”

* * * *

As Paul gently set her in his friend’s car, Carmen grabbed his hand and squeezed fiercely. Her left eye lid was so swollen she could scarcely see out of the eye, but this young man had saved her and she would show her gratitude for she knew she’d never see him again. “Paul, thank you.” He had set the duffle bag on her lap. Slowly she unzipped it and reached inside and pulled out an envelope. She pressed it into his hand. “No amount can ever be enough for what you’ve done for me tonight. But I hope this will show you how very grateful I am for your help.” She sank into the passenger seat of the car and let darkness take her.

* * * *

Seven weeks later, Carmen Powers sat across a conference table from her husband, Kennedy. They were finalizing their divorce. Their attorneys were hashing out the details, but she felt anxious. Not because her marriage was over, but because she could feel the waves of hatred pouring from Kennedy from across the table.

After she escaped him the night of the party, she’d taken Richard’s advice and filed for a divorce the next day. She never returned to their penthouse and had remained in seclusion while she waited. This was the first time Kennedy had laid eyes on her since the night of the party.

Something about him was off. She had known his cruelty, but his rage towards her was different this time. She couldn’t put her finger on it and forced herself not to wonder. Soon she had her answers directly from the source. She watched as he rose and walked over to her side of the conference table and took a seat.

“You think you’re so clever,” he leered at her. “I’ve instructed my attorney to give you the fucking divorce. Not because I want it, mind you, but because if I don’t, I will be ruined in this town. But mark my words, if you and I ever cross paths again,” he leaned in and whispered evilly in her ear, “I’ll finish what I started in the kitchen.”

As he pulled back, she looked him square in the eyes and said, “All I want is my freedom, Kennedy. Once I have it, I can promise you that you’ll never see me again.” He growled at her, stood and returned to his previous seat.

Three and half hours later, the attorneys had finalized her divorce decree. Her attorney was relentless on a few issues. He wanted to hang Kennedy by the balls. He had seen how brutally Kennedy had beaten her when she hired him for her divorce. Her attorney wanted the bastard to pay. He felt she was entitled to more financial compensation and her divorce was not happening until he got it for her.

Carmen had pleaded with her attorney to just get her freedom. That was all she wanted.

“What he has done to you for the past six years is a crime, Carmen,” he had told her repeatedly in their weekly meetings. “You won’t let me have him arrested, and I understand why. But I will make sure you get the monetary compensation that you deserve. You hired me to represent you and I will, but what he did to you is inhumane and that, for me, makes it personal. I will get you your divorce, but you have got to trust me. He owes you this money for years of pain and suffering and he knows it.” Once she relented to her attorney’s advice, he had unleashed on Kennedy and gotten her more than she would have ever dreamed possible and her divorce.

Once she and Kennedy had signed the final paperwork, the mediator collected it and said, “The official documents will be mailed to each of you in seven to ten days. But as of the date of your signatures, the marriage of Kennedy Matthew Powers and Carmen Isabel Meeks-Powers is dissolved. You are both free to go.”

Carmen watched Kennedy storm out of the conference room with his attorney trailing behind. Her attorney gave her a gentle hug, collected his briefcase and left also. She dropped her head in her hands. It was over.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head and an inner peace she had never known washed over her. She smiled to herself as she stood and walked out of the conference room. Her life was her own once again and she intended to live it on her terms.

Carmen let the waves of the ocean lap at her naked feet. Today was a glorious day. Every day was a treasured blessing. As she walked back to her beach house, nestled on a secluded strip of shorefront on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, she thought every moment of her life was perfect.

With the impressive settlement from her divorce, Carmen had bought the house with the thought that here was where she would live for the rest of her life. Peace never looked so beautiful.

She walked the shoreline collecting shells and digging for clams. That was something her cleaning lady, Luca, had shown her how to do. Carmen found it to be easy—she just had to look for the tiny bubbles of the air hole as the waves receded. She liked to hum quiet songs to herself. She was happy. She was blissfully happy, and the thought of how her life had changed in the past four months had her smiling like a loon.

She heard her stomach grumble and suddenly remembered she had not eaten. Heeding the demands of her belly, she headed back to her bungalow. Leaving the pail on the porch, she went straight to the kitchen and opened her fridge. There she found a large bowl of cut up pineapple and a huge banana nut muffin. She sat at the table and was about to dig in when she heard her front door open and close.

Her cleaning lady was early. She called out, “I’m in the kitchen, Luca.” She took a bite of her muffin and nearly choked when a man she had not seen in months strolled into her kitchen. “Simon!” she gasped.

* * * *

Simon stared at her. My
God, she’s even more beautiful than I remembered.
Her hair was a wild mess. Her real hair—not the extensions and weaves. It was windblown and all over her head. Dark, thick, wavy locks. Her sweet, thick lips were formed into a surprised
O,
and how he wanted to kiss them. He’d been searching for her for months. Finally he had found her, and she was more desirable than he could imagine. She looked different. Her flawless red-brown skin was darker from the sun. Her deep, sparkling brown eyes were glowing with contentment. He could not believe how much he had missed her. “You are a hard woman to find, Carmen Meeks.”

She swallowed and asked, “Simon, what are you doing here? How’d you find me?”

He strode over to the table and sat down. “I found you through your attorney. It wasn’t easy, mind you. Your lawyer is very protective of your privacy. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Since he wouldn’t release the information, I went around him and got real friendly with his paralegal. She was very grateful for the attention and the cash bribe.” He forked one of her pineapple chunks and popped it into his mouth. “And I’m here to collect my second payment for my silence.”

Her face fell at his words. Slowly she set her muffin down. “I promised to tell you the truth about that night.”

He nodded.

“It’s an ugly story, but not a unique one. I grew up dirt poor and from the wrong side of the tracks. I wanted a better life—the kind of life that was glamorous and came with money and respect. I was dumb and naïve and thought Kennedy was my ticket to that life. I was wrong. Horribly wrong.

“I thought a guy like Ken couldn’t be that bad. He’s from a good family. He’s educated, loaded with money. If I could be what he wanted, then he would make me his wife and I’d be happy. I turned myself inside out for him.

“I became anything and everything he wanted me to be. I dressed like a temptress for him. I wore fake hair for him. I changed my eye color with contact lenses for him. I never stepped one foot out of our home unless my facial make-up was flawless. I was the perfect accessory to his demanding lifestyle.

“I became the perfect hostess for his parties. I was the consummate lady on his arm. I was the nasty, freaky slut in his bed. I was his…punching bag.”

Simon stiffened at her last words. “No matter what I did, Ken always found a way to punish me for it. After six and half years of ass kicking, I’d had enough. I knew he’d never give me a divorce. That would tarnish his perfect image. I knew this because I’d asked for a divorce once before and he almost killed me.”

She sighed and toyed with her muffin. “I had to devise a way to secure my freedom with as little fallout as possible. I knew my best chance was at the dinner party. I had to get caught in a very compromising position that would force Ken’s hand.

“So I maneuvered you, Richard and Maximus to play as my accomplices in my bid for freedom. All Ken talked about the day of the party was making sure I gave you three extra special attention. He especially wanted you three to have a good time because he was desperate to do business with each of you in the future.

“In a way, he was why you three were invited to my bedroom. I wanted to take something from him as he had taken so much from me over the years.” She looked up at Simon. “That’s the truth, as promised.”

Simon looked at Carmen. He really looked at her. And for the first time, he saw the unrelenting will of steel behind her natural, beautiful, dark brown eyes. She had more courage than many men he knew. He couldn’t imagine how much she had suffered at that bastard’s hands. To think of her beautiful face battered or her sweet, soft body covered in bruises literally turned his stomach.

She was the bravest person he had ever known. And now that he had the whole story, he squashed every flicker of guilt for his subtle threat to Kennedy.

As far as Simon was concerned, the sick bastard deserved it and a lot more. “I have a small confession to make. The night of the party, I noticed that you were off the floor for a lot longer than normal. I went looking for you. When I didn’t find you, I asked a young man working at the party where I could find you. It was the way he looked at me. The way his eyes flared with anger when he said that I should ask Mr. Powers about his wife. I found the weasel in the kitchen. He was slouched over, cradling his balls.”

He noticed that Carmen’s gaze dropped and she had a tiny smirk on her face. “It was the scratch on his face that made me want to attack him, but I held back. I found the young man again and persuaded him to tell me what he knew. He had no love or respect for Kennedy and recited what he’d witnessed in the kitchen. He said you were no longer at the party and that’s all he knew. When I pressed him for your whereabouts, about where you’d gone, his face turned stone cold and he walked away and never said another word.”

Carmen trembled and he grabbed her hand, squeezed and went on. “I found Ken a few minutes later still in the kitchen trying to mask the scratches on his face. I never let on that I knew you were gone but I made a point to stress that it would be to his benefit to cooperate fully with whatever you wanted. And if he didn’t, then his days as a real estate broker superstar would be over.”

Carmen gasped, “So that’s what he meant the day of our divorce. You blackmailed him.”

“Not just me. Richard and Maximus noticed how pissed I was and asked me what had set me off. I told them what I learned from the young man, who I later learned was named Paul, and Max and Richard couldn’t wait to give Ken a piece of their minds and some not so subtle threats.”

Carmen slowly pulled her hand from Simon’s. “So now we both know the truth.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Thank you, again.” She started to rise and quickly sat again. She slid closer to the table. “I guess you’ll be heading back to New York.”

“Maybe,” he pierced another pineapple and ate it. “I’m thinking of staying here for a while.”

“You can’t!” She caught herself. “I mean, you have a life waiting for you in New York. Won’t you miss the glamour, the attention, and the women?”

He actually laughed. “No. Why would I want to go back to New York when what I want more of is right here?”

Her throat swallowed visibly. “More? Here? Me?” He nodded and slid his chair closer to hers. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Simon. I mean, we—”

She never finished. His mouth covered hers and he took what he had been craving for months, her kiss. He sank his tongue deep and devoured all of the resistance right out of her.