Cy
The meeting with the attorney was surreal. I still can't believe my mother took Everett out of her will and added Evie in. Maybe she was sorry for all that happened. It doesn't change anything, though. The damage is done and has been done for years. She was the one who had the power to stop all the abuse I endured at the hands of her husband. Her. Yet she didn't. I'll never forgive her for that. And her leaving me everything does nothing for me. I don't want it, just like I know Evie doesn't, yet I have it. I have to figure out what to do with it and her house. There's no way I'm living there again. The place holds nothing but dark, painful memories. Memories I want to somehow strip from my mind. I can't, however. They will always be there. Always haunting me in my waking hours and plaguing my dreams.
We drive back to Evie's apartment. She's going to pack a bag and grab her stuff for work so she can stay with me over at Parker's for a few days. I have a lot to do this week and it's easier to have her with me there. We can spend the weekend at her apartment.
The ride is spent in silence, as is the walk from my truck, up the stairs, to her apartment. We stop outside as she inserts her key into the lock.
"That's weird," she says.
"What?"
"The lock looks damaged. My key won't go all the way in. What the hell?" She turns the knob and the door opens. She steps inside before I have a chance to stop her. Then, in a matter of seconds, my nightmares become a reality. Every fear I have regarding Evie is playing out before my eyes.
An arm from behind the door reaches for her as soon as she's inside. I rush forward and find Everett pulling her to him, holding a knife to her throat.
"Shut the door," he growls. I do as he asks, not wanting him to harm the woman I love. "Well, well, well. I figured I'd get her, but to get you as well, Cy, is a gift all on its own."
"Let her go," I command through clenched teeth.
He smirks. "You'd think by now you'd know I never listen to you. If anything, I’m the one to order you around. Remember your place," he hisses. My hands fist at my sides. I want to rip Evie from his grasp but can't without harming her. Not yet, at least. He licks along Evie's neck and her eyes widen in fear. "From the moment I first laid eyes on your precious Evie, I've wanted to taste her. To know what she would feel like under my hands." He reaches up and roughly cups her breast. She squeezes her eyes shut.
"Let her go. Take me in her place.”
"So valiant, coming from the boy I've had on his knees, begging for mercy. No, I think I'll have her, and then I'll come for you." Everett licks his lips and grinds his hips into her ass. I recognize both of those moves. I wish I didn’t. It takes everything in me not to buckle to the ground and beg for her release. I know I could overpower him. I'm stronger, fitter, faster, and with any other person, I would have done something drastic to get my Evie back. But he's different. He knows all my weaknesses. He knows how to make me do what he wants. For years, he made me feel as if I was nothing, only there for him to use as he pleased. But I remain standing. I remain steadfast in my need to get Evie out of his arms.
He holds the knife to her neck, close enough that a small trickle of blood runs down the blade to the handle. His other hand moves behind Evie. Then his pants and boxers slide down his legs to the ground. No. God, no. He reaches around to the front of her jeans and undoes them, pushing them down with his hand then foot. He cups her mound.
"Why are you doing this?" Evie asks as a tear falls down her cheek.
"You have everything I want. You have Clarissa's son, who now holds all her money—my money—and my house. Cy is going to stand here and find out how it feels when I take away what's his. I'm going to fuck this pussy of yours, and then I'm going to slit your throat. All while he watches, and he's not going to do a fucking thing about it because he's weak. He gave up fighting me long ago. He hid behind those sluts for years, but I'm back now, and I'm going to destroy him." He uses his knee to part Evie's legs.
"No! Stop!” I shout, lunging forward just shy of him. “You don't have to do this."
"Shut up," he seethes and presses the knife harder against her.
I'm frozen in place, unable to rescue Evie. If I move closer, she’ll bleed out. Then every memory comes flooding back. I can't move—can't think past what's inevitably going to happen. What he did to me so many times, I can’t let him do that to Evie. I have to move—have to fight. I need to break through the fear, which is coursing through my body, causing my hands to shake, and sweat to break out on my brow. I have to help her.
"Up against the wall," he orders Evie. She turns and faces the wall next to the door. He shoves her roughly into it then leans back to fist his dick and line it up behind her. Over his shoulder, he looks at me, his mouth turned up in a sadistic smile. "You're going to watch me enjoy this pussy. You're going to see how a real man fucks. And when I'm done, I’m coming for you.”
A tremor starts in my chest and slowly works its way through my body. Fear constricts my lungs, making me wish this was another one of my nightmares. It's not until he moves his hips forward, his dick almost touching her entrance, that I do something. I move on instinct, my will to save Evie stronger than my fear. I’m able to evaluate the situation and figure out how to save her.
Everett made one very critical mistake. He exposed his back to me and isn't paying attention. Little does he know, I'd sooner die before letting him penetrate her. No matter how afraid I am, how royally fucked up in the head from years of abuse at his hands, the moment he tries to fuck her, that is the moment I become unglued.
I walk up quietly behind him, then grip his arm, which is holding the knife to Evie's throat, surprising him. I grasp his arm to the point I'm waiting for his bones to break. I pull his arm, along with the knife, away from her throat. As I’m doing this, he’s still trying to fuck her. But she shifts her body, realizing what I’m doing, blocking him from her.
With the knife no longer to her throat, I kick my leg out, sweeping his legs out from underneath him. He lands on the floor with a hard thud. Evie scrambles away, trying to pull up her pants as she goes. This motherfucker tried to take her from me. He tried to take my whole fucking world away. Now, he's going to pay.
The knife is still in his hand, but I stomp my foot down hard on his wrist. He screams out in pain and drops the knife. Swooping down, I pick it up in a matter of seconds and am straddling his waist, his arms pinned to his side by my legs. I hold the knife to his throat and watch as blood starts to seep from where I cut him slowly. I could care less if I kill him. The level of rage flowing through my body is nothing like I've ever felt.
He's still naked from the waist down and I feel him try to flex his hips up. My eyes go wide. He's hard and now he's trying to get me again, but this time it's in front of Evie. I go stone still. The knife in my hand is drawing more blood from him, but I can no longer move. I may be clothed, but he still makes my body tense when he’s near, and he’s too fucking close right now.
"You think you're going to kill me? You don't have the balls to do it. They aren't big enough to finish me off, and I would know." He snickers and flexes his hips again.
Then I hear Evie at my back. I don't turn around, not wanting to take my eyes off Everett for fear he'll somehow get out from underneath me. "Not on my watch, asshole,” she angrily says behind me.
His body jerks beneath me as I hear a solid thump. Everett's face twists in pain. She must have kicked him in the balls. Evie gets down on the ground beside me and grips his jaw in her hand. "If your sad looking dick ever comes near Cy or me again, I'm going to cut it off myself." Then she releases him, forms a fist, and punches him in his nose. An audible crunch is heard as the bones break. Blood starts pouring from him.
She looks at me. "Are you okay?" This woman is asking me if I'm okay when he almost raped her. God, I love her.
"Are you?"
"I will be once he’s handcuffed and they haul his ass off to jail."
Sirens can be heard in the distance getting closer. "When did you call?"
Her voice shakes while she speaks this time. "When I was zipping my jeans." Her eyes hold mine while I keep Everett pinned below me. "You don't have to tell them anything about what happened in the past," she says. "What he did tonight is enough to lock him up at least for a little while. He attempted to rape and kill me."
When everything happened, and Evie saw me on the ground outside my house with a gun pressed to my head, I was adamant about not wanting anyone to know what happened to me all those years ago. I felt ashamed and didn't want anyone who used to follow me around in high school to know what was going on with me at home. But now...now everything has changed. I no longer give a fuck what people think. The only one who matters is Evie. She knows me. She’s seen me breakdown in the middle of a nightmare and freeze while my stepfather attempted to rape her. She knows the bad parts of me and sees the good. She’s with me, despite all my faults and how fucked up I am.
"I'm going to tell them," I state.
"Are you sure?"
"He's not going to say shit," Everett spits out. "He's as much of a pussy as he always was." Evie pulls back to hit him again, but I grip her elbow to stop her. Then I lift my fist and crack him across the face.
"I'm done talking to you, you piece of shit. You've ruined my life for too long. You're going to jail. I'm going to hire the best attorney in the country and make sure you don't see the outside of a prison cell for a long ass time." He opens his mouth like he's about to speak again but that's when the police burst through the door and take in the scene before them.
Not understanding what's going on, they tell me to drop the knife and raise my hands. I do so without hesitation. Luckily, one of the cops is Jim, and he escorts me off to the side while the others lift Everett from the floor. I turn away when I see his naked waist. I hear rustling and know they are putting his pants back on him. Evie quickly gives them a rundown of what happened, and Everett is cuffed and hauled off to their car.
I tell Jim, "There are additional charges I need to file."
"Can you come down to the station and we'll take your statement, then Eve's?" I nod as she stops by my side.
We walk out of Eve's apartment, while her neighbors peer through their windows at us. It's not every day this kind of thing happens in Arrow Falls. As a matter of fact, crime in this town is nearly nonexistent. It makes me wonder what else goes on behind closed doors no one knows about.
Down at the police station, which resembles a building the size of the local burger joint, we sit in a room with cameras mounted on the ceiling and a two-way mirror. Jim asks if I want Evie to leave while I give my statement. For a moment, I hesitate. Do I want her to hear the gruesome details of what happened when Everett abused me? She’s heard some but not all of it. Does she want to know what took place behind closed doors? Her answer is in her eyes. Not a yes, but they tell me no matter what is said, she will still be here for me. Yet, I ask her anyway.
"Once you hear this, there's no going back,” I tell her.
"I’ll stand by your side, regardless of what happened or happens. There's nothing you can say to drive me away. I'm here for good."
I nod and face Jim. Over the next couple hours, I lay everything out on the table: years of sexual and mental abuse. I tell him how I begged my mother to listen to me, over and over again, only to be told I was lying and Everett would never do those things. I show him the scar on my arm. I pour out memory after memory, down to the day it all came to a head and I tried to kill myself. I tell him how Evie saved my life and how without her, I wouldn't have found the will to go on. She showed me true compassion and how far someone would go for another person. How persistent she was when I tried to push her away. Then I skipped to seeing my mom in the parking lot the day of her accident. I tell him about the attorney and how my mom cut Everett out of the will.
Then Evie takes over. She gives an account of what happened at her apartment. Even though he was about to rape her, she remembered everything with vivid detail.
As I listen to her, red-hot fury heats my veins, followed by cold shame at not intervening sooner. I should have lunged for him earlier. It should never have gotten to the point it had.
Somehow as the shame was taking over, Evie turned to me and cupped my cheek. Her thumb caressed over my facial hair, her eyes so full of love. She knew what I was thinking somehow. She got it. She understood what happened with me. And she didn't breathe a word of that to Jim. She only told him how I saved her before he could rape her. I don't deserve her accolades. If anything, I was late to react. It's something I will always regret. At least I was able to stop him in time. That's the only saving grace.
She did tell Jim about Everett threatening to rape me as well. That part was hard to listen to, but it needed to be said. If I wanted Everett to spend the rest of his life behind bars, every incriminating act had to be revealed.
We stood once we were done and I glanced up at the cameras. All my pain and suffering was now documented at the Arrow Falls Police Department. The incident at Evie's would make the paper. The formal charges against Everett would be filed. I needed to hire an attorney. I wasn't kidding when I said I'd find the best one money could buy. Soon the whole town would know what happened to me. The thought doesn’t scare me as it once had. It won’t if I have Evie by my side.