Page 2 of Ruthless Ambition
Now that I was alone, I looked at Dave one more time. It seemed the others were waiting for the jerk who had just left me. I couldn’t hear what they said to him, but they seemed to form a tighter group around Dave as his head dropped lower, his chin almost on his chest. One of them prodded him with the tip of the baseball bat, and when Dave didn’t move, I knew I needed to call for help. But my cell was in the car, on the floor where Dave had knocked it. I watched as he got prodded again, and my mouth opened in shock when he dropped to his knees.
“No!” I screamed. “What are you doing?” Running forward to help him, I was caught up in strong arms as they held me back.
“How well do you know your guy?” someone asked me.
Ignoring them, I struggled to get to Dave. “Dave, talk to me, tell me what I can do.”
“What’s his last name?” someone else asked me as Dave’s attention remained fixed on the road.
“What?” Everything that was happening was surreal. The hooded figures, the face coverings, the baseball bats, the beaten-up car, and the light drizzle that had begun to fall — it was like a horror movie — and Dave just knelt there on the blacktop with his head bowed. What was wrong with him?
“You know,” one of them spoke, sounding almost jovial, “I don’t care what the fucker’s last name is either.” He smashed his baseball bat off the hood of the car, so close to Dave that he flinched in fear. “But what I do know . . . is that Dave likes to tie up hisdatesin his bedroom, and then he lets his buddies in, and they all take turns.” The guy leaned into Dave’s face. “Don’t you, Dave? You like to watch your buddies fuck your dates without their consent, don’t you?”
A strangled sob escaped Dave, and I realized I’d stopped struggling.
“You been to his room yet?” the guy holding me asked almost gently. “Has this happened to you?”
“No.” My voice was a whisper. “This is—” Clearing my throat, I tried again. “This is our first date.” Was it true? I didn’t know, but Dave wasn’t denying it. Wouldn’t you deny it if it weren’t true? “Dave?”
He said nothing. His head remained bowed, and his posture was one of defeat.
“How? How do you know this?” Looking around in the dark at five shadows, all of similar build and height, was intimidating, but now I felt saferwiththem.
“The girls finally talked to therightpeople.”
What did that mean?Theseguys were therightpeople?
“Jer,” one of them spoke, and I recognized his voice as the guy who caught me when I ran. “Take her back, she’s seen enough.”
I really had, but did I just blindly follow, taking their word for it? And when I saw that the baseball bats were still clutched tightly, the car no longer of interest, it was clear who the target was going to be.
“Don’t,” I protested. “This isn’t right. You should call the police.”
“Get her out of here. Take her to Orchard if she has questions; they’ll tell her what she needs to hear.”
Strong fingers wrapped around my arm, and I was being led away. I heard the first thud and automatically went to look back, but my companion jerked me forward. “Eyes ahead. Looking back won’t change anything, and all you’ll get is nightmares.”
He helped me into the SUV and even put on my seat belt. My hands lay useless in front of me as my body entered a state of numbness that was from more than just the cold.
“If you’re gonna puke, can you give me warning?”
“I’m not gonna puke,” I told him.
“Okay, ’cause you look like you’re going to throw up,” he muttered.
“I’m not going to be sick.”
“Uh-huh.”
We were driving on the road back to college when I suddenly unbuckled my seat belt. “I’m gonna throw up!”
As he swerved onto the shoulder, I leaped out of the car, and even as I wretched in the grass, I heard him grumbling about being right.
Asshole.
* * *
“What the hell happened to you?” my roommate, Chrissy, demanded as I entered the room. My companion left me at the front door, making sure I got in safely, careful to avoid the light.He was looking out for me but also eager to remain hidden. Whatever, my brain was fried.
