Finding YOU Finding ME (You & Me Trilogy Book 2) (15 page)

He
was looking at me with a crazed manic look in his eyes. “Ah good times,” he
said. “You’re the best girlfriend I’ve ever had.”

“I
was never your girlfriend or anything,” I said.

“But
you were nice to me,” he said. “Friendly to me, let me hang out with you at
church and at school sometimes.”

“I
was being friendly. That is a far cry from being your girlfriend,” I said. From
the crazed look in his eyes, I knew I was talking to someone who was mentally
unstable, stuck in some kind of sick fantasy world which he thought I was part
of. There was probably no reasoning with him, but at the moment, it was a way
for me to buy time before the police would arrive or Collins.

Billy
leered at me, his face filled with lust. “You are one hot babe, you know that,
Sammy. Always were. What guy wouldn’t want to bang you when they can?”

“You
don’t have permission to, Billy. It’s my body, it’s my will. You. Don’t. Have.
The Right. To Touch Me!” I yelled into his face.

Billy
backed off and got up. “Wow, bitch alert.” He gestured to me to his friend who
still had his mask on, sitting at the kitchen counter. “Must be because she’s
with a rich boyfriend now so she’s so high and mighty,” Billy continued on.

He
laughed. “This is the perfect plan. I get to have my cake and eat it too. I get
to have Sammy, do what I want with her, while you get to collect the money from
the boyfriend.”  He laughed again. “Like your kind of thinking. You’re a smart
one, if not just for a kid.”

The
assailant got up from the bar stool and walked over to me, his eyes bright blue
and looking at me with interest. He licked his lips. “She looks prettier today
in that dress than when I saw her at the Center.”

What?
I’ve seen him before?

He
came over and raised his hand to touch my face. Softly and then reverently. He
looked over at Billy and said, “We keep her as hostage only.”

“What?”
Billy asked, angry. “I thought you said I can do whatever I want with her.”

“That’s
before, now I’ve changed my mind,” the boy in the mask said.

I
tried to see his eyes again. Maybe I can figure out who he is by his eyes? Blue
eyes? Where have I seen them before?  They were almost the same shade as
Collins’ light icy blue ones, but his eyes were wider, not as kind as Collins
eyes, but…

“Tate!
You promised,” Billy said.

Tate.
The name hit me like a punch. Tate. Collins’ brother who just got out of jail.

“I
didn’t promise that you can hurt her,” he said, looking at me and licking his
lips nervously.

“So
what are we supposed to do with her?” Billy asked. “I know what I want to do.
Been dreaming about it for years.” Billy turned to me and said, “You know,
Sammy, I masturbate to you when I go to sleep at night. Does that make you feel
powerful? Does that make you want to slap me?”

I
clench my teeth. Despite Billy’s football player looks when we were in school,
there was always a reason why I never felt attracted to him. He was mean,
smelled badly, and would torment me. “Billy, whatever sick universe you came
from, saying all that and threatening me like that will not make me want you.”

Tate
came over, and took my hand leading me to a seat at the kitchen counter. “Don’t
mind him. He’s a sicko. He’s dense in the head. Wouldn’t know the difference
between a lady and a dog.”

“Tell
me something I don’t know, Tate,” I said. His eyes ran from my eyes to my lips
and back to my eyes again. He licked his lips nervously.

“Gosh,
my brother is one lucky SOB,” he said looking around the apartment and then
fixating his eyes on mine.

“Why?”
I asked.

“He’s
got all this,” Tate said. “He doesn’t have to worry about anything. He’s got a
girl like you.”

“That’s
because he’s worked hard for it, Tate. It wasn’t always like this for him, you
know. He had it bad when he was younger…about your age, I think.”

“I’m
not a kid, if that’s what you think,” Tate said.

I
looked at him from head to toe. No, he wasn’t. He was tall, about six foot, and
muscular, built like a quarterback. Looking at his body, I would guess he was
eighteen or even twenty. “No, you’re not,” I said. “You’re a man, I can see
that clearly.”

This
brought a smile to Tate’s face. “So I keep telling everyone.”

“So
how old are you, Tate?” I asked.

“I’m
fifteen,” he said. “I’m not that much younger than you, Samantha,” he said,
licking his lips nervously again.

“You
know how old I am?” I asked, looking at him through his mask.

“I…I
know about you,” Tate said. “I’ve seen a photo of you, and then I found you
online. Then I read in one of your posts that you were working at Sawyer
House.” He shuffled his feet, looking down. “I called once and got a Susan. I
knew Susan was you, Samantha. I heard your voice on your father’s church
welcome video on the website. Collins mentioned you once when he visited me in
jail. I just had to meet you.”

“We
were going to meet,” I said. I gulped remembering how Collins wanted me to
befriend Tate, be his tutor, and maybe even a possible girlfriend before he
realized that he loved me and wanted me for himself. Now the irony of it all. I
was facing Tate, whom Collins had planned for me to meet from the start. But
under completely different circumstances. “Look, Tate,” I said. “What you’re
planning with me and Collins, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“You
don’t understand,” Tate said. “It does. Collins closed all doors of
communication on me. One day, he stopped trying to get me out of jail legally.
So the only other recourse was for me to accept our dead beat father’s proposal
in order for him to get me out of jail.”

“Tate,”
I reached out my hand to take his. I never felt the need to communicate more
clearly than this moment. “You can get out of it. Come stay with Collins and
me, and we can help you get back on your feet again.” I looked at him deep in
his wide blue eyes.

“You
mean that?” Tate asked.

“Yes,
I do,” I said. “I mean it with all my heart, Tate. I want to help you.”

Tate
visibly inhaled, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. Thank God, he could cry
I shouted inside. That meant he wasn’t a psychopath like Billy. He could feel.

“Let
me help you,” I said, taking both of his hands into mine now. “I don’t want to
see you go back to jail. You have so much potential. I can see that, Tate.”

“Why
do you care?” Tate asked so softly.

“Because
I see Collins in you, Tate. He was once where you are. He lifted himself up to
the man that he is today. I can see you doing the same, Tate. You have it
within you. You just need to believe you can go on the right pathway and not
fall back into being in jail, wasting away your life like that.”

“I
can almost believe you,” Tate said, closing his eyes. “I want to believe you.”

“You’ll
have to stop this plan you have with Billy before anyone gets hurt,” I said
softly, not wanting Billy to hear.

“It’s
more complicated than that,” Tate said. “Billy’s out because someone sprang for
him, paid for his bail, and pulled some strings, too. We both owe my dad and
his partners for us getting out of jail. Now we have to do whatever they want
to pay them back.”

My
heart fell. It was more complicated than I thought.

“Hey,”
Billy’s obnoxious voice boom from across the room. “I’m getting hungry. So Mr.
Brains, what are we going to do?”

“Do
you have anything to eat?” Tate asked.

“In
the refrigerator,” I said, thinking Barbara stocked it already.

“I
check the fridge already,” Billy said. “As soon as I got here and was waiting
for her to show.” He came over and said, “Go make that phone call to your
brother, man. It’s time.”

“I’ve
changed my mind,” Tate said, looking at me. “My brother has enough to help us
start over again. We don’t have to do this.”

“Like
hell we do,” Billy said.

“No
we don’t,” Tate said. “I don’t want a life like this forever. We can change
things…”

“Okay,”
Billy said. “Okay, so I wasted all my time getting to know this place,
pretending to be the maintenance man in this building for a week so I can check
out this apartment and the security system. I spent so much of my fucking time
getting this ready, and now you’re telling me it’s a no go because what? You
want a piece of your brother’s girl’s ass? You want to win her over like some
kind of gentleman?” Billy leaned into me, grabbing my wrist and using his free
hand to grope my breast. I struggled to get loose, but he was too strong.

“Let
her go,” Tate said.

“The
only way to win over this girl, and I know, is aggressively. Trust me, she
likes it rough. It turns her on…” He leaned in and licked my face with his long
tongue. I tried to move my face, but he held it with a vice grip. Then he moved
his mouth over to crush his mouth against me so hard that I thought I bit my
lips until it bled.

Immediately,
Tate was on Billy, wailing on him, while Billy punched Tate back.

I
got a chance to step back while Tate and Billy went at each other. Billy was
larger, stronger, and bigger. He tore off Tate’s t-shirt, while Tate grabbed
Billy’s to pull him to him so he can punch him in the face. Billy blocked it,
and punched Tate across the face. Tate stumbled back, and I can see him steady
himself before standing tall, ready to fight Billy again.

He
squared off his broad shoulders, his chest going up and down, causing his hard
abs to ripple up and down. Like Collins, who had a tattoo of a dagger on his
shoulder, Tate had tattoos all over his body. I looked away. He really didn’t
have the body of a kid. As far as I knew, he was built like a fully grown man.
He would have no problem finding himself a girlfriend once he’s settled and no
longer on the streets.

Billy
rammed into him before Tate knew what hit him, and knocked Tate against the
wall, where he slumped down into an unconscious heap.

My
mouth was opened in shock. I knew I had to get out now. There was no way to
reason with Billy, and the way he looked, like an angry bull, he wasn’t done
with his rampage yet.

I
ran for the door, but he blocked it, catching me at my waist, and lifting me in
the air. “Let go of me!” I cried.

“No,
Sammy,” he said. “I never had the satisfaction of sticking it in you, and it’s
haunted me all these years.”

“Move
on!” I shouted.

“Can’t,”
he said. “You’re my ideal girl, Sammy. No one else compares to you, and you’ve
ruined that for me. I have to have you so I know.”

“I’m
not your ideal girl. I’m not anyone’s ideal, Billy. Take me off that damn
pedestal, and know I’m just a girl, a real life girl. Take me out of your sick
fantasy world, please, Billy and let me go!”

He
crashed into my bedroom, threw me onto the bed. He began unbuttoning his pants,
unzipping it, then pulling it down.

I
was suffocating. This was not sexy at all. This was not what I wanted.

“Now,
I’ll finally get to have you,” Billy said, lunging towards me, and missing.

I
grabbed the nearest heavy object… my Bose radio/alarm clock and chucked it
towards him. It hit him on the head, and he was dazed for a while. I got up to
run to the bedroom door, but he was quick enough to block it again. “I’m
getting tired of you avoiding me,” he said.

“It’s
not avoiding,” I said. “It’s running. I want nothing to do with you, Billy. Get
that through your thick ape-like head!”

“I
waited too long to let this go,” Billy said. “Your Dad put me in jail, you
know. Now I want revenge. I’ll taint his precious pure daughter that he’d
warned me away from. I’ll make sure you’re nice and dirty so no one will ever
want you again!”

I
tried not to listen to his threats. I knew he was trying to scare me, to get me
to melt down and not fight back. But as soon as I stop fighting, I knew that
would be it for me. This time, Billy wanted more than sex from me. He wanted me
dead.

I
bolted to the bathroom, closed the door, locked it, and then to the closet
where the half-door to the Production Room was. I shifted through the gowns and
found the door, opening it, making sure the gowns didn’t look touched, and
slipped through, locking the half-door behind me.

I
turned around, facing the controls in the control room within the Production
Room. How safe was I here? How long before Billy would find me in this hidden
room?

I
looked around…the room I was so afraid of had become my sanctuary.

I
walked over to the Casanova bed…I was so tired. The exhaustion finally hitting
me like a boulder as I laid on the comfortable luxurious bed. This was my
chance to rest, to gather my strength again before I have to face Billy.

I
knew I was going to face him. I had to in order to move on.

Chapter
18

           
T
he half-door from the closet door shook
violently against its hinges. Billy.

            He
had found the hidden door in the closet, and now he was trying to break the
door down.

            As
the door rattle violently back and forth, I ran to the door on the other side,
slid it open, and ran to the living room. Now was my chance to get out, while
Billy was preoccupied. I got to the door, and before I could open it, the door
flew open, revealing a worried Collins.

            “Sam!”
He called. “Thank God you’re alright…” he stopped in mid-sentence as he looked
around and assessed the room and situation. His eyes rested on the slumped body
of Tate on the ground. Then, his eyes widened as he attempt to grab me to pull
me outside of my apartment.