Soul of Freeman. 3rd Book of the Freeman Series.

Chapter 2

"Your face. Your eye." Kathy pointed at Allie's swollen eyelid.The girl could barely open her eye.

"I was robbed last night." Allie sat on the bed. "Some teenager took my car and my suitcase."

Her mother-in-law gasped. She placed her purse on the chest of drawers and hugged the girl again.

"This is all Dean's fault." Her voice filled with sadness. "My dear, I don't know what's going on with him. He made the kids and I change our phone numbers and forbade me from talking to you."

"I know what happened," Allie sniffed. "He never loved me and now he's holding my children hostage."

"No." Kathy held Allie's jaw with both hands and lifted her head. She swallowed her tears. "I know my son. He would never do something like this. Maybe the drugs Rebecca put in his head are making him act this way. For God's sake, I saw him cry for you. He gave you a kidney."

Allie shook her head and brushed her hair behind her ears. Kathy was right. It was all too sudden and weird. That didn't change what she had seen in the bedroom.

Stupid. Dean had never called her that.

"How are the kids?"

"They are fine for now. I agreed with Dean that we should tell them you are on a business trip."

"But I'm not—"

"I know, I know. I don't like that either but I am as confused as you are."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Allie shrugged.

The mother-in-law opened her purse and pulled out a brown card. 

"Here." She handed Allie the plastic rectangle. "It's a prepaid. There's ten thousand in here. Get yourself a place and some new clothes."

"Kathy—" Allie held the card with both hands and held it against her stomach.

"You're my daughter, too. How could I live, knowing you're struggling?"

The daughter brought her hand against her mouth and started sobbing. She stood up and hugged her mother like a little sick kid. Kathy rubbed her back, rested her chin on Allie's shoulder and closed her eyes.

***

After crying all day, Allie decided it was time to get to work. She wasn't just going to sit down and watch her ex-husband take everything from her. The only thing she could do at the moment was to confront Dean again, so she bought herself some shades, a pair of khaki slacks and a polkadot blouse.

 "Thank you for driving me here, Furaha."

 "My pleasure," replied the company chaffeur as he parked in front of the company office building. "Now, ar' you going to tell me what happened to yoah eyes?" His Burundian accent got thicker as he got serious.

 "My eyes?"

 "The shades don't fool anybody."

 "I...I had a terrible night."

 "Andrew said you were on a business trip. Yet, here you are. Mr. Freeman took over your office. Did you know that?"

 Allie lowered her head and opened the passenger door.

 "No. I have to go, but thank you again."

 "Mhm," Furaha frowned, watching her exit the car through the rearview mirror.

***

The ex C.E.O. ran out of the elevator and through the hallway. Gloria, her long time secretary was sitting at her desk as usual. Before reaching the office door, Gloria propelled toward her.

 "Goodness, Ms. Allie, this is going to be so awkward but you can't be here."

 "Gloria, we've known each other for a long time. You know who I am." Allie attempted to walk around her but the woman kept blocking her.

 "Mr. Freeman's orders."

 "Don't make me push you." Allie clenched her jaw and widened her sight.

 "Ms. Allie, please."

 Allie pushed the secretary aside and ran through the door.

Dean stood up and crushed his fists against Allie's old desk.

 "You can't be here!"

 "We're gonna have a talk." Allie locked the office door. "You can take everything from a woman but you can't take her children. If I haven't seen Andrew and Daniel by tomorrow morning, I'm calling the media and I'm telling them what a con you are."

 Dean's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets. He walked around the desk with his index finger pointed at the space in front of him. As he got closer to her, he leaned back on the armrest of a chair and interlaced his fingers.

 "Fine, you go ahead and tell them everything. That only guarantees that you will never see the twins again."

 "Oh yeah, are you gonna stop me?"

 "I can send them away. Really far away...to a military academy. They'll go to a really good school where they'll have everything and they'll forget about the mother who abandoned them."

 "You better not even dare to do that!" Allie yelled and hammered her fists against his chest.

 Dean grabbed her wrists and pushed her onto a couch, making her shades fall from her face. At the sight of her wounded eye, the man's semblance softened.

 "What...what...who did this to you?" He got on one knee and removed her locks carefully. His thumb caressed her cheek.

 "Dean, please, let me see them. I won't say anything."

 "Allie, who did this to you?" He inspected her closely.

 "I don't care about my face. I just wanna see my kids," she cried. "They need me. Do it for everything we've been through together. I was there for you so many times. If I wouldn't have helped you recover your memory, you wouldn't have remembered Meryl. At least, do it for that and I promise I won't bother you or try to take the company from you."

 She could feel as Dean's eyes scanned her body slowly. His left palm fell on her lap. His hand moved up her thigh, making him sigh. He raised his head to meet her gaze, then pecked her on the lips. He continued going down her neck and locked her arms in place.

 More confused than before, placed her forehead on his shoulder.

 "Stop. You know I'm in love with you. You know this hurts me."

 "Let me feel your skin one more time," he whispered.

 The girl had no other choice but to let him. His breath on her neck was poison. She knew she was biting the apple, but she was too hypnotized to do anything about it.

 He unbuttoned her blouse and squeezed her right breast while sucking on her left n****e. She opened her legs and moaned.

 His hands slid under her buttocks and lifted her up and over the desk. As she unbuckled his belt, he pulled her slacks and panties at the same time.

 "I love you," she said before he covered her mouth.

 The tip of his hard on rubbed against her opening. Her hips thrust toward him, wanting to feel his length. Without a warning, he rammed into her.

 He groaned at her tightness and held on to her thighs.

 "Allie, you're—." He began to speak incoherently as if he kept stopping himself.

 They both looked down at his rod moving in and out of her womanhood. He lifted her ankles over his shoulders and thrust violently.

 His expression in ecstasy was all she needed to feel okay. She was ready to forgive him even if society would shame her for it, even if it wasn't the right thing to do.

***

Allie observed Dean as he fixed his tie. He picked up his suit jacket from the back of a chair and dusted it off. She finished buttoning her blouse and wrapped her arms around his waist.

 "I'm not done getting dressed." He coughed and took a step back.

 "So, um, what will happen now?"

 Dean turned into ice. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down but he never blinked. He coughed again and stared at his jacket.

 "We'll arrange a day for you to see the kids. As long as you stay out of the way, I have no problem with you seeing them."

 Every organ in Allie's body moved out of place. He had used her again and he was standing there as if he hadn't been affected by what happened between them. His emotionless eyes let her know that he didn't care.

 She was meat to him.

She thought of something to say—something that would hurt him, but if she made him angry, she risked losing her children. Perhaps, he viewed s*x as payment for his mercy. The girl nodded and put on her shades.

***

Olivia would've known what to do. Olivia would've gotten the job done. Olivia would've made sure they never had to come back to the States to beg for their lives.

Grayson thought of many things as he beat the naked girl in front of him. His nose was bleeding again but he didn't care. Screams filled the hotel room.

Wayne, his cousin, kicked opened the double doors behind him and pushed Grayson off the bed. He lifted the woman bridal style and took her into the bathroom.

The shower head was on for twenty minutes before there was silence. Grayson held his nose and covered his broken lip with the white bed sheets. He stumbled up to grab his boxers but he plummeted back down to the side of the bed.

He grunted, then smirked at the mini fridge in front of him. He crawled toward it and opened the door to all kinds of small bottles of liquor.

Smirnoff it is.

He unscrewed the cap and chugged the contents although the alcohol burned his lips. Soon, the pain would be over.

"No more!" Wayne yanked the bottle and put it back in the mini fridge. He threw a pair of pants at his cousin's face.

"Where's the w***e?" asked Grayson.

"I gave her a couple hundred and let her go," replied Wayne. "What the f**k, bro? You almost killed her."

"She didn't want it in the ass. She made me mad."

"She made you mad? Are you sure it was her? 'Cause you've been mad since you got knocked out."

Grayson opened the mini fridge again and swung a crystal bottle at the air conditioner. Wayne clasped his neck and shoved him against the bed.

"Hey, get it together!"

Grayson began whimpering like a child, making his cousin loosen his grip.

"I need you sane," Wayne said in a firm voice. "Kai needs you sane." He slapped the drunkard on the cheek. "Kai...needs...you. You hear me?"

"It's gon' be okay." Grayson nodded and took a deep breath.

"All right. That's what I wanna hear."

"It's gon' be okay."

Wayne slapped his cousin casually again and noticed a flyer beside him. There was a picture of a slice of pizza and a number underneath it.

"Put some tampons in your nose while I order some food." He shoved his hand inside his pocket and grabbed his phone.

***

Allie left Dean's office disoriented. She felt as if everyone knew she had been cheated. Her fingers kept pulling on the v-neck of her blouse although it wasn't revealing. One arm hugged the opposite elbow. Her eyes focused on the elevator.

 "Ms. Allie?" Gloria stood by the elevator door. She was a small woman with soft features and big glasses.

 "Oh, uh, yes, Gloria?" Allie fixed her hair.

 "I want to apologize about earlier. You've always been so good to me but if I got fired—" Gloria played with her fingers.

 "No, Gloria," Allie interrupted. "You did the right thing."

 "Okay, thanks. I'd like you to know that you're the best boss and if you ever need something...I'm here."

 They heard a ding and the elevator door opened. Allie walked inside it and made eye contact with her ex-secretary.

 "Actually, I'm looking to move into a new place and I need some recommendations."

 "Sure." Gloria entered the elevator. "Are you thinking of a big property, penthouse, loft?"

 "Something modest."

 "Gotcha, I know this condo downtown. My uncle is renting it for eight thousand a month."

 "No, I'm thinking something way cheaper than that."

 "Oh, like, five thousand? Three thousand?" Gloria watched Allie's facial muscles contract as she said random numbers. "One thousand?" She almost yelled in disbelieve that her billionaire boss was looking to save money.

 "Do you know anyone that would rent a one bedroom apartment for less than five hundred a month?"

 Gloria's jaw dropped. This had to be a joke or a billionaire's version of a retreat. Maybe Ms. Allie was filming an episode of Undercover Boss. It didn't occur to the secretary that her rich and powerful boss had no dollars to spare.

***

The poor girl jumped on a stained couch in the middle of her new apartment. Seven roaches crawled from the floor to the wall and one climbed over her foot, following his friends. The girl cringed, tapped her feet, and shook her whole body.

 She sat up in a fetal position, looking around suspiciously. Everything about the place scared her, including the broken stove. At first, she didn't understand why it was so hard for her to live in that environment. Before receiving her mother's inheritance she had been homeless and worked odd jobs in awful conditions. At least then she wasn't as heartbroken as she was now.

 She was missing love. 

 As the cockroaches went into the ceiling light bulb, the doorknob jerked.

 "My key ain't workin' again. Open the f*****g door!" a middle aged man with missing front teeth yelled.

He banged his palm on the wooden door.

Allie looked through the peephole in a terrified state.

"Go away. I'm calling the police," she yelled at the stranger.

"What? Who's there?"

"I said I'm calling the police!"

The man took two steps back and darted his body through the door. The impact impelled Allie against the wall.

"Who are you? Why are you in my house?" The stumbling man pulled out a knife. His eyes were bright red. His beard had pieces of onion intertwined with dry noodles.

"Your house?" Allie's fingers shook. "I...I...jjj...just rented this place. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Who sent you?" The man spit through his teeth and swung the knife in front of her.

Before Allie screamed again, somebody tackled the man and snatched the knife out of his hand.

"This ain't your place and I ain't better see you around here no more." A bald man with big muscles shoved the toothless criminal out of the apartment.

He soon was back in front of Allie, tapping her shoulder.

"Ma'am, you okay?"

Allie swallowed and slowed down her breath. She nodded.

"Why did he attack me?"

"He was on drugs. Would you like me to call the police?"

Allie shook her head and dropped on her couch.

"I think I better fix your door lock. My name is Chris. I live next door." He extended his arm for a handshake, but Allie laid on the the cushions beside her and closed her eyes.

Allie didn't know when or how long she had fallen asleep but there was light coming from a small window. She gasped, remembering the last person she saw before she closed her eyes.

 She approached the door and tried to turn the doorknob. A key chain hung from a short hook on the wall. She grabbed the key to try it on the new lock. As she opened the door, a single yellow flower rested on the floor by the wooden frame.