Chapter Nine
2752 Words
Chapter Nine
Damn it. Eliza had forgotten that Freddie was coming by to collect his paycheck that morning. Right, no reason to panic. Don’t let him see that he still gets to you. Just give him the check and send him on his way.
“One second,” Eliza said as she retreated into the house to pick up her checkbook. Freddie stood outside the door awkwardly, but she wasn’t about to let him into her home again.
She emerged from the living room and handed him a piece of paper with a rather generous amount, which she scribbled on just to get rid of him sooner.
“I was supposed to be paid in cash,” Freddie insisted in a low drawl. His words were partially slurred and his vacant look suggested that he was going through some sort of d**g-induced hangover.
“I don’t have any cash on me. I’ve written you a generous check for your five hours of work.” Eliza’s tone was taking on hints of frustration, but she maintained calm and control.
“I don’t take checks.”
“Then I’ll talk to my boyfriend, and we’ll see what we can do. Come back tomorrow.”
“I wanna speak to him now,” Freddie said aggressively. Before Eliza knew it, he pushed past her and marched into the living room.
“Andrew’s not here at the moment,” she told him loudly and firmly. She was on the verge of panic, but she didn’t want to let it show. Freddie feeds off fear, don’t let him catch you cowering.
“I think you should leave, and we will contact you about the money,” she told him sternly.
“And I think that I’ll just wait here until that boyfriend of yours comes home with my money!” Freddie yelled.
Eliza couldn’t take this anymore. Her head was splitting with a roaring headache, and her nerves were on the verge of convulsing into a fit of panic. “Get out of my house, Freddie!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. Her eyes were wild with rage as she stared up at his thick, sullen face. How dare he stand here and demand money from me?
Freddie stared back at her with a look that was barely human. His eyes filled up with a rabid look of pure, s******c loathing.
“You think you’re so much better than everyone, don’t you?” Freddie snarled.
Eliza stood dead in her tracks. She refused to let her gaze drop. Freddie was just like a vicious dog, and she had to play the eye contact game to show him who was boss.
“You think you can do whatever you want because you have a house and a push over husband? Well let me tell you something, Thunderthighs. You ain’t s**t. Just because your daddy got you a fancy job on TV, doesn’t mean you’re better than me!”
She had to give it to Freddie; he had a hidden talent of knowing exactly how to hurt someone. He could read a person and excavate their hidden insecurities within a matter of seconds. Then he strung together all the insults in a way that would push the knife in even deeper. Even though Thunderthighs didn’t sting as hard as it had eleven years ago, the way that Freddie integrated it into the sentence made her want to smack him across the face. Furthermore, the jab about her getting her job because of her ‘daddy’ made her face turn red with anger. It was true that her dad had pulled some strings for her in Boston, but she had gotten her job in Birkbridge without any help from her father. She landed the job fair and square from Jim, who had instantly taken a liking to her. And in exchange for hiring her, Eliza had helped Jim to build an empire out of his measly TV station.
Eliza could feel the vein in her forehead throbbing. Her rage had escalated too far to hide, but she figured that at least she wouldn’t show any fear. She wasn’t scared of this d**g-ridden shell of a man who stood in front of her. This was her house, and he was going to have to leave, pay or no pay.
“Freddie, I’m asking you to leave one more time, and then I’m calling the police,” she warned him coldly.
“I’m not leaving until I get paid.”
“Then I don’t have much of a choice.” Eliza calmly walked over to the phone.
“No you don’t, you dirty b***h,” Freddie growled. Before Eliza knew it, she was wrestled onto the ground by Freddie’s bony hands.
“Get off me!” she yelled. Finally, Freddie had achieved what he had wanted all along; he had made her express fear.
Eliza tried to get up, but Freddie’s paws were clawing at her, preventing her from pushing herself back up.
“You fat s**t. You think you’re hot s**t, don’t you?!”
Freddie managed to push Eliza’s hands onto the ground as she struggled.
“Oh no you don’t, I’ve got you now, b***h. Let’s see how hot you really are...”
As he held her down with one arm, Freddie raised his other hand to Eliza’s blouse and started tugging at it.
Eliza’s soul felt like it was being wrenched from her body. Her entire body felt numb, as if she were being taken over by a foreign spirit. Before she knew it, she was standing with both feet on the ground, looking down at Freddie, who was writhing around on the ground, holding his wrist. His hand looked like it had been subjected to rope burn; the entire circumference was red and raw.
After a moment on the floor, the fire returned to Freddie’s eyes and he got up. Eliza ran into the bathroom, and to her relief, remembered that she’d left her phone there just before Freddie came by.
She picked up the phone and immediately saw three missed calls from Hayden. He must already be waiting for me at the café. Without thinking, she pressed the call back button. Hayden picked up, his voice calm and dreamy.
Instead of talking, Eliza started to sob. She had been holding in a wide spectrum of emotional distress throughout her ordeal with Freddie, from the moment that he got in the door until the instance where he tried to sexually assault her and she fought him off. As the numbness faded, the flood of emotions caught Eliza off-guard, and she was unable to speak.
“Eliza, what’s wrong?” Hayden’s voice suddenly had an alertness to it. Eliza felt as if he were reading her mind through the phone. It was as if he was able to sense the heightened danger.
“I...” she began, her words drowning in tears. “Freddie, a man who painted our house, he came over and demanded money. I gave him a check and then he pushed me, and then he tried to r**e me!” As she said these words, Eliza’s heart felt like it was being ripped out of her body. Her throat was sore, as if she’d just swallowed an oversized apple without chewing it.
Hayden’s voice remained leveled, but there was an element of impending danger in the way he spoke. “Are you safe?”
“Yes, I’ve locked myself in the bathroom.”
“Is he still in the house?” Hayden uttered with such sharpness, his words could cut glass.
“I’m not sure but I don’t think so. He might’ve left.”
“Ok. Listen to me, Eliza,” he said, his tone both stern and comforting at the same time. “No matter what you do, stay in the bathroom. Don’t unlock the door for anyone. What is your address?”
Hayden hung up the phone. Eliza put the toilet cover down and sat on it. She stared at her phone for a minute, her thoughts flittering in and out. Eliza had never felt this detached from her own body and mind. It felt as if she had taken on multiple personalities within the past twenty minutes. She didn’t even fully understand how she had managed to fight Freddie off. Granted, he was skinny, but he was also a giant, and his arms had been freakishly strong. The memory of the struggle was blurry, but Eliza recalled the way that Freddie had grasped at his wrist as he writhed around on the ground. Her survival instincts must’ve kicked in during the attack, and she used all the power she had to grab his dirty arm and thrust it away from her blouse.
Time seemed to slow down and speed up for the following ten minutes. Eliza didn’t even notice the sound of the back door unlocking as Hayden broke into her house, and she also didn’t hear him rummage around, checking all the rooms of her house to make sure that the coast was clear. When he convinced himself that Freddie could not be found, Hayden knocked on the bathroom door. “Eliza, it’s Hayden. He’s gone, you’re safe now. You can come out.”
It took a few moments for Eliza to jump out of her trance-like state and register the sound of Hayden’s voice. She unlocked the door weakly. Her energy felt completely drained by the fight.
“Hayden, thank you for being here. I’m sorry I missed the coffee...”
Hayden resisted the urge to smile. “Eliza, you’re worried about missing out on meeting me for coffee during a time like this? You are one tough lady.”
Eliza’s spirits lifted a little as she looked up at Hayden’s face. How could a man who seemed so edgy also appear so gentle and caring?
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” he told her. “It’s not good for you to stay here until we can make sure that this man won’t be coming back.”
The following half hour was a blur, as Eliza came back slowly to her senses. Hayden drove her to a hotel, where he booked a large suite. “My place in the mines isn’t so nice, plus I share a room with my brother. It’ll be more relaxing if you get a place with some more space,” he told her.
There was a big hot tub in the middle of the large suite, and Hayden ran Eliza a hot bath as soon as they walked in. He ordered some room service, which arrived within seven minutes, precisely at the point when the bath had filled up to the brim.
Eliza looked at him reluctantly, wondering whether he would be here the whole time. She wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable about getting in the hot tub while he was there. Just as she was thinking that, she had her answer. Hayden was putting on his coat, which meant he would be going somewhere.
“Stay here for the meantime, call in sick with work. It’s not safe for you to be out in case this asshole tries to cover his tracks by doing something drastic.”
“Where will you be?”
“I’m going to deal with this man. I’ll make sure he never tries to hurt you again.”
“Are you sure? I mean... shouldn’t we call the police?”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Hayden replied, his smooth voice picking up some hints of darkness.
“Be careful,” Eliza said in a worried tone. As soon as those words left her mouth, she felt a little foolish. Freddie could never do anything to Hayden, could he? Unless he called his d**g dealing friends... but he probably wouldn’t have time for that. Eliza looked at Hayden, and the expression on his face assured her that he would be just fine.
“Don’t worry,” he replied with total confidence. “I’ll be fine.”
Hayden left, promising to return within two or three hours. Eliza texted Jim to tell him she was feeling under the weather. She switched the jet function on in the hot tub and started to peel off her clothes. Eliza stepped into the water gradually, the hot water caressing her body. She allowed herself to submerge completely under water as the bubbles fizzed all around her body. Eliza came up for air and leaned back against the tub.
The strong little bubble-making streams of water tickled her back, her legs and her arms. She took a strawberry from the room service platter and washed it down with a glass of champagne. Now her body and her mind were filled with bubbles. Eliza shifted in the tub and angled her body sideways. The new position made her feel the bubble streams pump onto other parts of her body. One of the particularly strong streams of water was hitting her between the legs, and the sensation was beginning to feel increasingly pleasant.
She leaned her head against the rest, allowing the muscles in her back and shoulders to relax. Eliza began to think about Hayden as the reality of what he was about to do was finally sinking in. He’s about to singlehandedly deal with my attempted r****t. But what would he do? Give Freddie a speech, rough him up a little? Or would he corner him in an abandoned building, possibly near the mines, and lock him up? Maybe he’d t*****e him even, or burn down his house. According to coffee shop gossip and the help of living in a small town, it was widely believed that Freddie kept and sold drugs from his house, so burning it down would certainly teach him a lesson.
Eliza was not malicious or s******c, but the thought of Hayden fighting for her honor made her body tingle. He’s doing this for me.
She imagined Hayden coming back to the room after he had dealt with Freddie, with drops of blood on his shirt and a look of victory in his eyes. Eliza would be lying on the bed, waiting for him to return impatiently.
As she visualized this scenario, the strong stream of water massaged her c******s. The sensation felt so good that her legs began to shake with pleasure. She pictured Hayden ripping off his blood-stained shirt and walking over to the bed, his pace steady and slow. She would look into his wild eyes as he stepped out of his jeans. When he approached the edge of her bed, she would sit up on her knees and caress his taut abdomen. Slowly, she would work her hands down and hook her thumbs over the edges of his underwear, tugging them down gently.
Eliza flipped another switch on the Jacuzzi, and the strength of the bubbles doubled. The strong stream began to pulsate with double the intensity, forcing her to moan with pleasure. She imagined Hayden’s strong, toned arms gripping her around the waist as they embraced. He would kiss her neck and work his way down. Eliza felt the intensity build as the water massaged her sensitive area. She thought about her hands all over Hayden’s body as she wrapped her legs around his waist. The pleasure grew more intense, and Eliza floated with bliss as she climaxed. As her soul returned to her body, she felt the warm water caress her.
Before getting out of the bath, Eliza opened a tiny shampoo bottle and emptied the contents all over her hair. She used her hands and nails to massage the lather into her long, brown locks. Then she stood up and washed her body with shower gel, taking her time to let the foam caress her skin. After rinsing off, Eliza put on a fresh, fluffy white bathrobe and towel dried her hair. She propped up a few pillows on the bed and leaned against them, picking up the remote to flick through some channels.
By the time that Hayden returned to the hotel, Eliza was fast asleep. He gently picked up the blankets and placed them over her body, and she began to stir. When she opened her eyes, Hayden was sitting at the edge of the bed, watching her with calm eyes. His hair was a little scraggly, but otherwise he looked completely calm.
“Hi,” he said as her eyelids came up and her eyes rested on his.
“Are you ok?” Eliza asked, scanning his body for any signs of fighting.
“I’m much better than ok.” He smiled. “I felt better the very moment I walked into this room and saw you lying there. You’re very pretty when you sleep.”
“Thanks,” Eliza mumbled bashfully. She wasn’t feeling very pretty because her hair was all tangled and frizzy.
“I like your hair like that,” Hayden said, his hand coming up to touch it. Once again, it felt like he had read her mind. For a few moments, they sat in silence as he stroked her long, flowing locks. Eliza felt safe, cared for. She closed her eyes and finally felt her thoughts begin to evaporate as she felt more and more at ease.
Hayden kicked off his shoes and lay next to Eliza, taking her hand in his. They lay down for a while, eyes closed but not sleeping.
- Writer
