Chapter 30
30
Juliette
“ A re you sure Dylan will like this?”
“Am I sure your boyfriend will like you in a sundress that shows off your cleavage and your legs? Yes, I’m positive,” Jenna said.
“It’s not too low? My boobs look huge.”
“No, it’s not too low. Yes, your boobs look big and luscious.”
“I do look luscious, don’t I?”
“Yes. So take it off and go buy it.”
I closed the door to the fitting room and couldn’t help smiling as I looked in the mirror one last time. It was so unlike what I normally wore, and I did look good in it. I spun, smiling at the flair of my new dress. I couldn’t wait to surprise Dylan the next time we went out.
“Come on. You need new shoes to go with the dress.”
I got lucky at the next store and found a perfect pair of nude-colored sandals, then Jenna bought a beautiful ombre skirt, and we headed towards the food court.
Dylan’s text was the only blip in an otherwise perfect day. I hated how this issue with Kayla was hanging over our heads and I hated how helpless we were, just waiting for her to either forget us and move on, or to do something big enough that the police would intervene. I wrote back to Dylan that I’d be careful, but it ate at me knowing he was worried and there was nothing I could do to help.
I stopped short and spun towards Jenna. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I need to buy one more thing. Lingerie.” Okay, maybe lingerie wouldn’t actually help with the problem, but it would make him happy.
“Yes!”
We were like nervous teenagers giggling through the racks I usually skipped over.
“Sweet or slutty?” Jenna held up a black strappy thing.
“Both? But I would hogtie myself in whatever that is.” I held up a flowy white teddy. “How about this?”
“Looks like a virgin bride on the cover of a cheesy romance novel.”
I barked out a laugh.
“Ooh, got it,” Jenna crooned. She showed me a lacy red tie-up corset, panties, and a garter belt. “Sexy and sweet.”
“Yes! But in black.”
“Absolutely.”
I tried it on, and my breath caught when I looked in the mirror. I barely recognized the woman staring back at me, but I loved her. She was beautiful. Sexy.
A few minutes later, we continued to the food court to finish off a successful day of shopping with frozen yogurt. I snapped a picture of the unmistakable pink striped bag and sent it to Dylan.
Me: I’m going to stay at your place tonight. I’ll be wearing this, waiting for you to come home tomorrow.
I pulled into Dylan’s spot in the garage under his building and gathered my purse, giddy with excitement. Using my key to his apartment, sleeping in his bed, waiting in his bed—in my new lingerie—for him to come home…it felt amazingly intimate to be so comfortable in his space, so fully entrenched in one another’s lives.
I grabbed my bags from the car, swung the door closed, locked it, and headed through the garage towards the lobby door. I only made it a step from the car before I was pulled to a sudden stop. I screamed and spun around.
Jeez, I was a mess. I’d closed the car door on the handle of one of the bags. I muttered to myself as I juggled the bags to open the door again, twisted around so the bags were away from the door, and closed it again more carefully.
Just as I took a step away from the car, I heard a cold, evil laugh from behind me.
It could have been anyone laughing at my clumsiness. I’d never heard Kayla’s laugh before. But somehow, even before I turned around, I knew. I could feel the hatred rolling off her.
Her maniacal laugh echoed through the cavernous garage, reminding me unnecessarily that we were alone in what might as well be an underground dungeon. I was on my own. I didn’t even have my keys in my hand like Dylan always told me to do. Bags of lingerie, clothes, and shoes weren’t going to help me.
I just wanted to run away. But I couldn’t without first seeing what I was running from.
I slowly turned to face Kayla.
Oh shit. I should’ve run. The woman standing before me was not the same woman from the store. This woman wanted to hurt me, if the sharp knife in her hand and the hatred in her eyes were any indication.
“You and Dylan ruined everything. He made Leo leave. I have nothing and it’s all your fault, you stupid bitch.” Kayla took slow steps forward as she spit the venomous words at me, waving the knife threateningly in front of her.
I took one step back for each step she took forward, but it wasn’t putting any distance between us. I was too afraid to turn away from her, though.
Fuck. I hit the cold, hard metal of a truck. I tore my eyes away from the knife, desperately looking for a way out, and finding none. I was stuck between my SUV and a pickup truck, and they were as tall as Kayla and me. No one could see us. Even worse, I’d stupidly dropped my bags, and now they filled the aisle. I had trucks on both sides, the bags behind me, and Kayla in front of me. I was trapped.
“I was waiting for Dylan, but you’re a pleasant surprise. Fitting, isn’t it? Dylan took Leo from me. Now I’ll show him how it feels.”
My heart pounded. With my eyes on Kayla and the truck at my back, I sidestepped, freezing when my foot landed on the uneven softness of my bags. If I tripped, I’d be helpless. She’d gut me like a fish flopping on land, which is exactly how effective I’d be trying to get up and away. Fucking dyspraxia.
No. I refused to accept that I’d trapped myself with my own damn bags. I just had to be smart. Wait until she was distracted.
No, not wait for her to be distracted. I had to be the one to distract her. I needed to delay her from doing anything crazy. Eventually, someone would come into the garage and hear us, but who knew how long that could take?
“Kayla,” I started, but it came out in a whisper, my voice trembling.
If I could keep her talking, maybe it would keep her from using the knife. But I could barely talk under normal, everyday pressure. How the fuck was I going to talk my way out of this? I inhaled a slow breath. I had no choice.
“Wh-what happened with Leo?”
“He left me. He skipped town because Dylan ratted him out for fucking up his money. Now I’m alone again. I have nothing. You and that bastard ruined my life. So it’s only fair that I ruin yours.” Kayla swung the knife wildly towards me.
Fuck, asking about Leo was the wrong tactic. Tears burned my eyes, but I fought them back. Stay strong.
“Help!” I screamed.
“Shut up!” Kayla raised the knife.
Help would come. I just had to hold her off a little longer. How the fuck could I do that though? What could I say?
Kayla didn’t give me a chance to figure it out. “I don’t even know what Dylan sees in you.” She sneered, using the knife to point up and down my body as she closed the distance between us.
“You talk like an idiot.” Kayla smiled as she pointed the knife at my face.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk or beg or scream. I couldn’t breathe.
“I’ll make Dylan regret fucking with me. He thinks he’s so perfect. Do you think you’re perfect too?” Her deranged smile grew bigger as she slowly moved the knife closer. “You’re not, bitch. I’ll make sure Dyan never forgets it. He won’t want to kiss these dumb lips that can’t talk. Not after I slice them up.”
The cold, hard tip of the knife touched my top lip and I jolted into action. I jerked my head back, away from the knife, and threw my hands between us.
She laughed that evil laugh again and swung the knife back and forth, taunting me. I tried to dodge her. Fuck! The damn bags. A sharp jolt of pain surged up my ankle, but worse, I felt the ground shift beneath me. No! I couldn’t fall. Anything but that.
The truck was my saving grace. I leaned against it, dropping one hand against it to brace myself. The throbbing in my ankle was a horrifying warning that it might not hold my weight.
With a chilling grin, like the villain in a horror movie, Kayla raised the knife over her head.
I tried to block it with my hands.
I was too slow.
Fire. Pain seared like flames across my mouth. I screamed. I couldn’t stop screaming.
Until I felt the blade against my throat. I stopped screaming, but I couldn’t stop the tears streaming down my face.
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you make me. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Bitch.”
I wanted to nod, but I couldn’t with the knife at my neck. I had no choice but to do whatever she wanted.
“Good. I’m in charge now. I’m going to get what I want. I’m going to make sure you and Dylan pay.”
She grabbed my necklace, the one Dylan bought for me on the riverwalk, and yanked, the chain easily giving way. She threw it somewhere behind me, and as silly as it may be, that made me want to cry harder.
“I got that stupid mouth of yours. What’s next?” Her eyes traveled down my body and back up, burning into me with contempt. “Your hair is a frizzy mess. There’s no way he likes it better than mine.”
Kayla’s hand shot out and grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking my head painfully to the side. She whipped the knife, now red with blood, off my throat and hacked it through my hair. She held the knife in one hand and a chunk of my hair in her other. She laughed and dropped the hair.
I felt blood dripping down my chin and neck. My neck stung, and I knew she’d cut me there too, but not like my face. It was like a hundred hornets stung my mouth. I couldn’t even tell where. It burned everywhere.
“You dress like an old lady. You don’t even try to impress him.” Kayla laughed. “I’ll help you make this shirt sexier. Hands up.”
I didn’t move.
“Hands up!”
I numbly lifted my hands, too scared to defy her. Hopelessness filled me. I couldn’t fight her. I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t get away.
“Good girl.”
Kayla smiled and touched the tip of the knife to the center of my neck. She slowly slid the knife down my throat, over my sternum and down my chest, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. She scowled, her eyebrows drawing down in frustration, like she was the one being wronged. She grabbed the hem of my shirt and raised the knife back to my throat to do it again.
I couldn’t stop the wail that tore from me. She was going to kill me if she did it harder.
The tip pressed into my throat. I froze, held my breath, afraid the slightest inhale would help her impale my jugular.
Kayla laughed.
I tried not to picture her face covered with blood spurting from my arteries. That wouldn’t happen. Couldn’t happen. I tried to ignore the pain. Tried not to think of anything but getting away.
I pulled in a small breath and screamed. “Help!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Her face. Furious. The pain. Oh God.
I clamped my pained lips, fighting the urge to scream or vomit or run or drop to the floor or do anything at all. I needed help and I needed it now before she killed me.