Chapter Five #3
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could that man have the audacity to hurt another woman? But why would Annie even agree to see him after what had happened to Callie?
“Annie will never go to the police,” Edward continued. “They know they have her under control. But if she told Damian, he could be a threat to them, so they needed to ensure he stayed quiet.”
“They tried to kill Damian to protect my father?” Ryan asked, stunned.
“It’s just my theory,” Edward replied. “You need to find out from Annie what happened.”
.
Ryan took Edward’s advice. He needed to talk to Annie, but he didn’t want Callie to know.
If Lawrence had hurt Annie, Ryan had no idea how Callie would react.
He needed to be careful how he told her, so he wanted to be sure.
Ryan didn’t have Annie’s number, but he didn’t want to give her a chance to avoid him.
He and Marco decided to go to her apartment, hoping to find her there.
Fortunately, building security remembered Marco from when he had carried an unconscious Annie home a couple of months earlier.
He agreed to let them into the building, especially when they told him it was a wellness check.
Security confirmed he hadn’t seen Annie leave her apartment in a few days.
The information concerned Ryan, and when Annie finally answered the door, his fears were confirmed.
She was using again. Annie opened the door, barely dressed and stoned.
She let out a loud laugh upon seeing them and invited them in.
The apartment was a mess again, with empty bottles and drug paraphernalia littering the kitchen and living room.
“Come on in,” Annie slurred. “Drink?” she asked.
“No, thank you,” Ryan replied.
As they passed the kitchen counter, Annie grabbed an open bottle and took a long drink.
Ryan caught Marco’s eye, and they were likely thinking the same thing.
Annie needed help. She invited them to sit, then flopped onto the sofa.
Ryan took a seat next to her, but Marco remained standing by the kitchen.
“Are you here to tell me Damian is dead?” Annie blurted.
“What?” Ryan replied. “No, no, he’s not,” he said quickly. “There’s no change.”
“Then why are you here?” Annie asked.
But she seemed to have her own ideas. Her expression suddenly changed, and she grinned at Ryan, then at Marco.
“Annie, I want to know if my father hurt you,” Ryan said quickly before she acted on whatever misinterpretation she had about why they were there.
“Your father,” Annie repeated with a laugh. “Did he hurt me? Define hurt?”
“When was the last time you saw him?” Ryan asked, trying not to get frustrated with her. She wasn’t thinking straight, and he knew it would be hard to get her focused.
“Did he hurt you?” Ryan continued gently. “The last time you saw him, did he hurt you?”
“God, Ryan! You actually do care?” Annie said.
She got up, having forgotten she already had a bottle in front of her, and grabbed another from the kitchen. Instead of returning to the sofa, she stopped in front of Marco, and Ryan saw Marco tense immediately.
“He’s a good guy,” Annie said to Marco, pointing at Ryan. “He’s nothing like his dad. What about you? Are you a good guy, too?”
She leaned in close to Marco, trying to be flirty. Marco backed away until he was up against the wall, with nowhere to go.
“I’ll take a beer,” Ryan said quickly, trying to rescue Marco.
Annie nodded and returned to the fridge, where she pulled out a bottle and brought it back to Ryan. For a moment, she seemed to have forgotten Marco. When she sat next to Ryan, she was much closer than before.
“Please tell me what happened with my dad,” Ryan said, leaving the beer untouched on the coffee table.
“Is this some kinky family thing?” she said, running her hand up Ryan’s leg.
Before he could stop her, Annie sat on Ryan’s lap.
Marco moved to pull her off, but Ryan gave him a look that said to wait a moment.
He just wanted Annie to talk, and if trying to seduce him helped, he’d let it continue for a moment.
She leaned in to kiss him. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back to stop it, but he kept holding her as he spoke again.
“Did he hurt you?” Ryan asked again. Annie was still sitting on his lap, but now she was staring into his eyes, trying to decide what to say.
“It’s because of him,” Annie said, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m like this because of him. Ryan, your dad likes things that aren’t good.”
“What did he do?” Ryan asked softly, though he feared the answer.
“He likes being rough,” she continued. “Actually, he prefers it when I try to fight him. But that usually leaves me hurt. So I get high enough to be almost passed out, and he’s usually done quicker. Alcohol doesn’t get me there fast enough. So when I stopped using the drugs, he got rough again.”
She stopped talking. She was crying. She leaned forward and embraced Ryan, resting her head on his chest. He put an arm around her to comfort her, waiting for her to be able to continue.
He thought he would be sick. He knew his father abused Annie, but understanding the extent of it was fueling a barely controllable rage.
After a moment, she straightened again and looked into his eyes.
“I didn’t want to get high,” Annie continued. “So he started getting rough. He wanted me to fight him. I didn’t bother. He choked me. I didn’t stop him. I just lay there, hoping he wouldn’t stop choking me. I blacked out, and when I woke up, he had finished and was gone.”
Annie fell forward again, sobbing into Ryan’s chest, and he held her.
He caught Marco’s eye and saw Marco clenching his teeth, trying not to react.
Ryan was trying not to react, but hearing again that his father had assaulted someone, in this case raped and nearly killed her, was making him see red.
He thought he might be having a stroke as his blood pressure spiked with his anger.
Eventually, Annie calmed, and Ryan thought she had fallen asleep, but then she moved to look at him again.
“Callie really got lucky with you,” Annie said. Ryan wasn’t ready to stop it this time, and when she leaned in, she kissed him passionately.
“Annie, don’t,” Ryan said, quickly lifting her off him and standing. Annie looked at him, mortified, then began to sob, hiding her face in a pillow.
“Please help me, Ryan,” Annie begged. “I can’t live like this anymore.”