When Smiles Fade (38 page)

Emma stopped in her tracks before turning toward the kitchen, assuming that if she offered them a beer, it would appease the anger she saw in Ethan’s expression. It was tough resisting her natural urge to charge at him, regardless of his friend’s presence, and rip him to shreds with her bare hands.
Just be nice
, she told herself.
Try not to kill him right now. It will ruin
everything
.

“I was just going to get you two a beer,” she said lamely, trying to pacify Ethan.

“Well now,
that’s
a good girl. Come on, Pete. Let’s follow Em here so she can get us a beer,” Ethan said mockingly.

As she opened the refrigerator, Ethan stepped up beside her and stared down into her face.

“Pete here wants a little lovin’,” he leered. “He’s always telling me how
hot
you are, and I agreed that he could taste some of that ass. This way, you can get that slut inside out of your system. And at least I’ll know
who
it is you’re fucking. I promised him you’d give him what he wants tonight. Besides, I know you’ve always wanted to screw him.”

Emma started to shake. “No fucking way, Ethan,” she said. “I won’t do it.”

“I never
asked
you if you would do it,” he sneered. “Now take him to our room and show him a good time. You do it all the time at that whore job of yours.”

“No, Ethan, stop it! I’m
not
going to fuck your friend. I don’t want him. It’s just your delusional mind that assumes I want every man I see. So take your drunken asses out of here and leave me alone!” she warned him in a steely voice.

Ethan pounced on her and seized her by the shoulders. Then he pushed her roughly toward the kitchen table. His face twisted with drunken anger as he issued the familiar, ominous warning: “Don’t make me lose my head!”

He snatched the worn tablecloth off the table and ripped it in half. Then he pushed Emma, face down, onto the table. As she lay on her belly, he pulled her right arm up and pinned it behind her back. Pain shot through her shoulder and elbow, keeping her locked in place on the table. She kicked him in an effort to free herself, but Ethan told Pete to hold her down. In a hurry, his friend held tight to the arm behind her back while Ethan yanked her legs apart to stop her from kicking, tying them one at a time to the legs of the table. Then he moved to her arms, roughly pulling each one and tying them each by the wrist to the table’s legs at the other end. When he was satisfied that she was securely held down by her bindings, he pushed up her nightshirt. He took out a pair of scissors from a drawer in the kitchen and sliced through her underwear, flinging the lacy bits and pieces into the air with complete disregard for what he was about to do.

Turning to Pete, he said, “I told you she was a no-good bitch. Maybe a good, hard fuck will do her some good. Go for it, bro!”

Pete eyed Emma with lust as she begged them to untie her. He had wanted her from the very first time he had seen her. Now, as she lay tied to the table, he knew he finally had his chance to nail her. It was a stroke of sheer luck that Ethan wanted him to have sex with her. Pete watched, his desire flaring, as Emma fought in vain to loosen her bonds. Her magnificent hair shimmered in the soft moonlight, her lean muscles flexing as she attempted to free herself. The harder she fought, the more her struggles turned Pete on. He turned to his friend once more for approval.

“Go, man!” Ethan egged him on, slurring the words. “Fuck her hard! Fuck some sense into her!”

Pete needed no further encouragement. He walked over to where Emma lay, dropped his pants, and straddled her. Then he entered her with brute force. The alcohol in him made it hard for him to come and he kept slamming himself into her until he finally exploded and collapsed on top of her.

All through this act of rape, Ethan had been studying the expression on Emma’s face, his fury growing steadily as the minutes passed. He could not contain his rage that Emma had actually fucked another man. He had always known that she was a compulsive liar who cheated on him. No matter how much she protested to the contrary, his twisted mind convinced him that she enjoyed fucking other guys and had been doing so the whole time she was with him. Ethan’s twisted view of reality finally won out over any common sense that the nitwit had been born with.

Minutes after Pete had finished, Ethan offered him a beer and the two stood in the kitchen laughing at Emma as she lay tied to the kitchen table, exposed and humiliated. But even as he doubled over in laughter, Ethan kept glancing over at her, hating her for her participation in a sex act with a man other than him.

Shortly afterward, Pete left the apartment, telling Ethan he’d be waiting for him in the car. Once alone, Ethan came back into the kitchen and stared at a sobbing Emma who couldn’t bring herself to accept what she had just been put through. She couldn’t reconcile herself to the fact that Ethan had not only urged his friend to rape her, but had masterminded the whole sick scene.

Ethan leaned down and gazed into her eyes. “You fucking little whore!” he cursed. “You bitch whore! Who the fuck do you think you are, cheating on me?”

“Fuck you, Ethan!” Emma cried out. “You did this to me deliberately! I hate you! And believe me, you’ll pay for this! How could you do this to me?”

“How could I?” he rasped. “How could
I
? It was clear that
you
wanted it all along. I watched you the whole time while it was happening and I could tell you enjoyed it. You got
exactly
what you asked for! You’re a fucking embarrassment! Pete will tell all of my other friends that I’m living with a no-good slut who fucked him while I stood here and watched.”

Ethan’s own words seemed to inflame him. He swung around, picked up the wooden rolling pin Emma used to make the occasional pie, and slammed it down on her body with as much force as he could muster. He continued hitting her and reveled in the sight of the welts and bruises that instantly sprang to the surface of her skin. The blows he landed on her carried the full impact of his raw strength, and while the pain was indescribable and tore harsh screams from deep within her, it was the sound and searing sensation of her bones breaking that Emma’s mind seemed to focus on.

Infuriated by the shrill screams that grated on his nerves, Ethan yanked the dish towel from the sink, wrapped it around her neck, and twisted it tight. Emma’s eyes began to bulge as she tried to suck in fresh air. Ethan let go of the towel only after she fell unconscious. Satisfied and feeling like a new man, he left the apartment to meet Pete. On his way to the car, he assured himself that he was finally the man of the house. Emma would now submit to him the way he’d always wanted her to. Besides, he promised himself, it would be a very long time before he forgave her for cheating on him with Pete.

Shortly after Ethan left, Katie came back to drop off the juice she had gone to buy. Unsuspecting, she walked into the apartment and found a naked and battered Emma strapped to the table. Her gorge rose and vomit splashed all over the kitchen floor. She grabbed a butcher’s knife from the block on the counter and looked around quickly to ensure she was alone. In a panic, she checked for Emma’s pulse the way she’d seen people do on TV. To her relief, her friend was still alive. Bloodied and beaten, but still alive. She watched Emma closely, knowing that her friend had just lived through some kind of horrible nightmare most people couldn’t even imagine. Chills ran up her spine and she had to struggle not to flee the apartment, still stinking of the malice that had prompted the sadistic brutality whose results were there for her to see.

Snap out of it
, Katie told herself as she rushed toward the screams coming from Izzy’s room. She found the child sitting in the middle of her bed, scared and crying. Relieved that she was unharmed and had not witnessed the horrific scene in the kitchen, Katie pulled out her cell phone and looked for a particular number. She scrolled until she had found the right name and pressed “send.”

Salvatore answered on the second ring, irritated that someone was calling him so late at night. “Yeah?” he huffed into the phone.

“Um, hi, this is Katie, Emma’s friend,” Katie said in a rush.

“Who?” His voice was impatient.

“Katie. I’m Emma’s friend. She works at Double Visions. You know her by her stage name, Amme,” she explained.

Salvatore was instantly on alert. “Yes, Katie,” he said. “Emma has told me a lot about you. Is everything all right?”

He realized it was a foolish question. If everything were okay, she wouldn’t be calling him.

“No,” Katie started, then burst into tears. “Ethan has hurt her really bad!” she blubbered. “Really, really bad! Please help!”

“Where is she?” he demanded with authority.

“We’re at her apartment,” Katie responded.

“I’ll be right there,” he said, hanging up the phone.

Katie put the phone in her pocket and rushed back to Emma. She began to hyperventilate as she looked at her friend’s broken body. She didn’t dare untie her for fear of causing more injuries. Instead, she bent down and gently stroked the back of Emma’s head.

“I’m here,” she whispered. “And Salvatore is on his way. Everything is going to be fine,” Katie comforted.

Salvatore knocked at the door thirty minutes later. With him were three of his men. The state in which he found Emma, beaten, exposed and unconscious, made the blood in his veins run cold. Without a word, he strode over to the kitchen table and gently untied her bonds. He motioned to the three men who had accompanied him and they gingerly carried her to the sofa and laid her on it. He gave Katie two precise instructions: she was to go get something for Emma to wear and pack enough clothes for Izzy and her.

“Do it quickly,” he commanded with an air of power.

In less than thirty minutes of his arrival, Salvatore had Emma in the car and they were being driven to his apartment in the city. He called the family doctor on the way there.

“We’ll be there in thirty minutes,” he said crisply. “Get over to my place as fast as you can. Hear?”

With Izzy asleep in her arms, Katie sat in the back of the sedan with Salvatore. Emma lay between them, still unconscious. He reached across and touched Katie’s hand in a gesture of reassurance.

“This will all work out,” he murmured. “She’ll be fine. Just relax.”

He uttered the words with such certitude that Katie allowed herself to let go of her fear and laid her trust in this man she’d never met and didn’t know.

The “family” doctor was already waiting for them when they arrived at Salvatore’s apartment. The men carried Emma in and placed her in the bedroom their boss indicated. Katie followed; the beauty of Salvatore’s plush, immaculately done-up home was completely lost on her. Her mind and heart were focused entirely on Emma.

When the doctor finally emerged from the bedroom to give them an update, Katie’s heart lurched. But as he launched into a description of her friend’s condition, she found herself breathing again. The doctor explained that Emma had four broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a lot of tears and bruising.

“This guy fucked her up real good, Sal,” he said grimly. “If he had beaten her anymore, he might have killed her. She got lucky.”

Salvatore’s pulse quickened at the words and his impulse to avenge what had happened to Emma began to play in his mind again. He was annoyed with himself for not taking care of the rotten motherfucker sooner.

“What do we need to do for her now?” he asked, anxious to make Emma as comfortable as he possibly could.

“She’ll need to stay off her feet for about a week so those bones can start to heal,” the doctor said. “Other than that, give her the painkillers I left on the dresser every four hours and keep an eye on her. If there is any change in her condition, call me right away. And I’ll be checking in on her tomorrow.” Then the doctor pulled Salvatore into the bedroom, “Sal, you know who did this to her?”

Salvatore nodded.

“Well, I know she must mean something to you. That fucking bastard tore the shit out of her. She should be dead right now, Sal. You understand what I’m saying?” the doctor asked to imply that the guy who did this should have to pay the price.

“Yeah, yeah, I understand. I’ll take care of it,” Salvatore confirmed.

Salvatore went into the other bedroom to check on Izzy, who was still sleeping. Gazing at the expression of complete trust and peace on her face, he was comforted. His thoughts returned to Emma, and he blamed himself for not having taken care of the problem called Ethan long ago. Then he walked back into his living room and called one of the men who worked for him. It was a call he should have made a long time ago, he told himself grimly.

Emma regained consciousness the next morning. Not remembering what had happened to her and not knowing where she was, she tried to get out of bed. The excruciating pain that shot through her broken ribs jolted her into awareness. She looked around the room. It was beautiful and tastefully decorated. She wondered if she was dreaming. Then her eyes wandered to a chair in the corner where a man she recognized sat sleeping.

“Salvatore?” she managed weakly.

He woke instantly and sprang to his feet. Then he came over to her and knelt by the bed.

“Hush, Bella,” he said. “You’ve been badly hurt. The doctor said you can’t get out of bed for a while.”