Six Weeks Later…
It’s strange…it really is. Going to work, my career, is no longer the highlight of my life any longer. The highlight of my life is now Bain. A criminal in prison for life. I never thought I’d ever find myself in a position like this, but here I am.
The things going in my work life now are almost like background noise, static playing over the much more magnificent soundtrack of my life that consists exclusively of the serial killer who I go to visit on a twice-weekly basis now and who, when I’m not with, I’m simply dreaming about being with, wishing I’m with and counting down the minutes to when I get to be with him again.
I tried to do what Kelly told me to do and turn on my “dude-brain” so I could make it all about sex with Bain, but in the end, that simply wasn’t possible. In the end, it wasn’t Bain’s past that got in the way of things; it was his present. He was simply too charming. Either that or we were meant for each other.
Every time I arrive, our connection strengthened. That first time, I barely even made it to the half-hour mark. The second visit I stayed the whole hour, and every visit after that I was searching for legal loopholes that would allow me to stay longer. Sadly, I never found any, and my relationship with Bain was forced into stops and starts shorter than film with a low-running time.
Still, these visits became the highlights of my week, and to my surprise, Bain proved himself to be quite the gentleman, even capable of making conversation about my work and being there for me to vent when I needed to.
“This merger may be the end of me,” I sighed to him yesterday after an especially long day at the office. “The partners, former husband and wife, are both pretending to be amicable during negotiations, but in reality, both of them are trying to screw the other one out of tens of millions of dollars.”
Bain laughed and pulled me closer, enveloping me in the security of his warmth and his scent. “Sometimes I wonder whose business is more honest, yours or mine. At least in mine, when you went at a man, he knew you were coming. Enemies were enemies, and everybody knew it. Betrayal carried real consequences and so did breaking your word.”
“Yeah, well sometimes I wonder if I was crazy for getting into this business in the first place,” I laughed, snuggling closer.
I was joking, but was I? Even now, as I look over the merger papers for what feels like the ten thousandth time and feel my eyes start to go starry, I wonder if this really is what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Truth be told, I’d much rather be at home with Bain, doing the whole wife and mother thing while he went off and earned money for the family. I know that’s so old fashioned and Kelly might scold me for it, but it’s true. I’ve done what I set out to do; I made something of myself, got to where I wanted to be, and I don’t like it. I want something else from my life – something more, and I’m not going to get it being a lawyer.
Feeling my eyes start to glaze over, I stand up, push my chair in, and head to the break room for some coffee. There’s one saving grace about being here rather than at the prison; the espresso machine here makes something actually palatable compared to the muddy water they serve there. I’m just finishing pouring myself a cup when I smell that familiar stench of too much Armani cologne waft up from behind me.
“Share a cup?” Rick’s voice is like jagged fingernails being raked up the skin of my back. I try not to visibly recoil at the sound or hunch my shoulders too high.
“You can have this one,” I tell him, turning and handing him the cup I was planning on having for myself. He takes it from me, but at the same time, takes hold of my wrist with his other hand.
“It’s been a while, Elena,” he says, his voice low, something like a smile plastered across his face. “Have you forgotten about the little…conversation we had?”
“No,” I reply, my lips tight. “I have not.”
Rick’s chest rises. He’s laughing at me. I amuse him. “You really are a firecracker, aren’t you? Do you have any idea what I could do to your career?”
I look up at him, at his arrogant smirk, at his expensive suit and haircut that probably cost several hundred dollars, and something inside me snaps.
This isn’t a man. Rick hasn’t hit the gym in years and couldn’t overpower me if he tried. Bain, on the other hand, could pin me down beneath him with one arm and have his way with me if he felt like it, but he managed to romance me with a series of letters. Rick here is resorting to blackmail.
I twist my arm as hard as I can, spilling the coffee all over Rick’s wrist. He recoils in pain and cries out.
“What are you doing!?”
I step close, getting right up in his face.
“You can’t do a damn thing to my career anymore, Rick. Because guess what? I quit!”
The feeling in my chest as I stride away from Rick is better and more triumphant than any feeling I’ve had when being a part of a winning case. I’m never going to be bullied into sleeping with a man, especially not one as sleazy and gross as Rick. I’m walking quickly past the intern desks when I hear Rick’s angry voice boom behind me.
“Oh, by the way!” I turn and see him red-faced, glaring after me. “Your little prison boyfriend? Yeah, he escaped this morning. Might want to watch yourself in case he gets possessive and decides to come and make your little fling long term.”
Rick grins at me like a bastard as my heart skips a beat, and I whirl around and head straight for the elevator. Thankfully, the mail courier is coming up, and I manage to slip in and immediately thumb the button for the parking garage. I ride down alone, my ex-boss’ parting words ringing in my mind as I go to my car and begin to drive home.
Could he be serious? Could Bain really have broken out of prison, and if so, would he really come to see me? That would be the first place the police would look for him. It just wouldn’t make sense for him to do that, and of course I’m not in any danger. Bain would never hurt me. In fact, Bain is the one man on Earth I know I can count on to protect me. If he saw what Rick did to me back there in the break room…
I don’t even want to think about what he would have done to him.
When I pull onto my block, I see flashing police lights and three cruisers parked out front of my house. Could they have picked up Bain trying to come and see me already?
No. More likely than not they’ve put a protective detail out to make sure that if he does come for me, they’ll be ready. Rather than deal with that, I immediately pull a U-turn, pull out my phone, and call Kelly.
“Please be home, please be home,” I mutter. She answers on the third ring. “Kelly! Hey, are you home or at work?”
“Home. Why, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. I’m gonna come and see you, okay? I’ve got to tell you something.”
“Okay. Are you sure everything’s okay? You sound…stressed.”
“Yeah,” I lie. “I’ll explain everything when I get there.”
I hang up and quickly drive over to Kelly’s, my mind racing and my heart pounding like I’ve just finished working out. How could any of this be real? How could Bain have broken out of one of the most heavily guarded prisons in the country, and more importantly, why? Now I won’t be able to see him. Our bi-weekly visits are over, and worse, if the police catch him – when the police catch him—they’ll lock him up somewhere so deep that they probably won’t even let him write to me ever again.
It’s over. Bain and I are over. And why? Because our arrangement wasn’t enough for him? It couldn’t possibly be because he wanted to come and do me harm. I know him better than that.
But my mind is still like an unsettled milkshake as I pull up to Kelly’s and park. My whole life, I’ve been a woman who prided herself on figuring out the solution to the problems I’m facing, but I don’t even understand how to approach this one. I don’t even know where to begin.
Maybe Kelly can help.
I grab my purse, hop out of my car, and head for her building, but that’s when I hear it – the sound of a branch cracking behind me. My heart leaps and I whirl, but not in time.
A wet rag is thrust over my mouth and nose, pressed and held there by a firm hand. A chemical scent fills my nostrils, and like an idiot, I try to scream, filling my lungs with whatever it is the rag’s been doused with. I taste sweet on my lips and tongue just before the edges of my vision begin to go dark. My legs go weak, and I feel a strong hand cradle my lower back just before I pass out.
A voice mutters something…something I can’t make out…
…and then everything goes dark…
