Her blood chilled. “Disappeared?”
“Well, left,” Toby clarified. “Not as in I think he killed them or anything. As in they dropped out of the lifestyle and quit coming around to local events so they wouldn’t cross paths with him.”
“Oh.”
“We don’t run into him very often,” Logan said. “Well, especially not lately. We had our own run-in with a predator. Ours was a woman, though.”
They told her the short version of their story about Julie, who stole their hearts, their trust, and their money.
When they finished, she felt as angry as both men had looked moments earlier. “Well, then, since we’re sharing, here’s my version of events. He sweet-talked me, consent this, boundaries that…until the night of our honeymoon when he tied me down, gagged me, and used a cane on my ass. This was after we’d gotten married at the courthouse because he said we couldn’t afford a wedding. I didn’t even get a decent damn wedding out of it. Then he told me that since I signed a slave contract, I was his property to do with as he pleased.”
The men looked horrified. “You didn’t leave then?” Logan asked.
“He immediately followed it with a forced orgasm scene, so it kind of cancelled it out. Later, I chewed him out over it and he looked all sorry and innocent, said he was just playing, that he thought I wanted something like that. The truth is, he was pushing the boundary to see how I’d react. I didn’t realize it until later. He was back to his sweet self for a couple of months. Then I realized he was slowly taking all control away from me. Stuff I never agreed to in the beginning, mind you. Not consensually taking control. A little thing here, a comment there, until a year in, I realized that he pretty much ruled my whole life without me realizing it. When I tried to sit him down then and talk about it, he once again trotted out the slave contract, but this time Mr. Nice Guy didn’t come back.
“It took me the better part of a year to work out my escape plan and figure out how to access the bank funds. During that time I had to endure ‘play’ that was really abuse. He got off on me begging him to stop, and he took plenty of pictures of me while I was restrained. He only bruised me on my ass, and said that the slave contract was my consent. He said if I tried to report him to the police, he’d wave that and they’d say I was a freak and not do a damn thing.”
She almost felt ill retelling it, but in a way it felt good to finally get it all out to someone besides Eliza and Rusty. “And he took pictures of me, naked and bound, during forced orgasm play, that kind of bullshit. Threatened to send them to my parents if I left. He took away my ATM cards and checkbook and gave me cash for stuff. He paid all the bills. One day, he left his computer up when he went to work, and he hadn’t logged out of the banking website. So I made a wire transfer to Eliza and Rusty and got the hell out before he got home. He’s lucky I left him half of what was in the account, because I made twice as much as he did. I was supporting us.”
“Bet that pissed him off,” Toby said.
“It did. But since I was a co-owner on the account, he couldn’t do shit about it. And believe me, he tried.”
“You’re lucky you got out of there,” Logan said.
“I know. I feel badly for anyone else he’s suckered in.”
“How long did the divorce take?” Toby asked.
“Too damn long. But worse, he harassed me. Stalked me. I had to change my cell number, finally ended up leaving Sarasota because he just wouldn’t give up. Even after the divorce was final. I didn’t want him going after my friends, too, so I left town.”
“Wow,” Logan quietly said.
“What pisses me off even more,” she added, “is that for all these years I gave up my friends, stuff I liked to do, my hometown, because of him.”
“You haven’t played with anyone since then?”
“No. And that sucks, too, because, believe me, I enjoyed it.”
“We’d play with you,” Toby gently suggested. “I mean, if you ever wanted to.”
Logan nodded.
“Watch out, I might take you both up on that with the stress I’m under.”
“Sorry,” Toby said. “Guess that’s kind of a douchey thing for us to say right now.”
“No, no apologies, please. It’s nice having real men pay me a compliment like that, instead of made-up stuff Chewi says.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Gawd, that makes me sound really fucking pitiful, doesn’t it?”
“No,” Toby said. “It makes you sound human.”
Chapter Six
When Eliza and Rusty arrived for dinner, Rusty pulled Rebecca aside. “Apologies,” he muttered in her ear. “She’s on a mission and is convinced you three need each other.”
“Message received, loud and clear.” She loved Eliza to death, but also knew her friend’s attempts to shove the three of them together weren’t necessarily what any of them needed.
“I’ll warn the guys,” Rusty said.
“Can’t you rein her in?”
He snorted. “You’ve known us how long?”
“Sorry. Forgot who I was talking about.”
“Uh, yah, I guess ya did.”
Dinner was roasted chicken and vegetables and, aside from Eliza’s pushy matchmaking, it was a wonderful evening.
“If you ever need to park your RV down here,” Logan said, “you’re welcomed to use our shower and bathroom. Or even park here in our yard. We have room.”
“Thanks. I might have to take you up on that until we get the house cleared out. I can park over there but not sure what shape the RV hookup is in. And I can’t use the house bathrooms right now.”
“That’s perfect,” Eliza said. “They’re right next door and everything.”
When Rebecca tried to shoot her stink-eye, Eliza just smiled at her. “Hey, I have a grown daughter with whom I survived her teenage years. You have nothing on her, lady. Just keep making those faces at me.”
Toby and Logan smiled. Well, that was something, at least. In this macabre situation, she could make someone find humor in it.
By the time they were ready to leave, Rebecca had relaxed a lot around the two men. She even hugged them. “Thank you for dinner. And everything. You’ve been very kind.”
“We mean it,” Logan said. “Anything you need, any help, let us know.”
“Thanks.”
As they drove home, Rebecca shot death glares into the back of Eliza’s head where she rode shotgun.
“Still not quitting,” Eliza said. “And again, I had a teenager. You’re an amateur.”
* * * *
Rebecca drove over Wednesday morning to meet the work crew at the house. Josh and his brother, Mark, were there to lead the charge. The two large construction Dumpsters had already been delivered. Rebecca moved her uncle’s truck out of the way so the crews could place the storage units there when they arrived.
Mark went over things with her while Josh took control of the work crew. If they were sharing a woman, and there was one more of them, that woman was very lucky indeed. They were good-looking men in their own ways, although she found herself more drawn toward Toby and Logan.
By lunchtime, the crew had already cleared out the living and dining rooms and had started on one of the bedrooms. They brought out the desk and other paperwork and set them in the shade under a tree so she could go through it. One of the two storage units was half-full, and one of the Dumpsters was almost completely full. It wasn’t that there was a lot of junk, but between the furniture that couldn’t be salvaged because it had fabric that had been permeated by the stench of decomposition, the bugs, or both, a lot of stuff couldn’t be saved.
At least the kitchen hadn’t been gross. The floor was clean, and there wasn’t any overly spoiled food in the fridge, just some that had recently expired. But the fridge itself was clean, and there were only two dirty, but rinsed, dishes in the sink. Even the cabinets in there were in good shape.
They opted not to worry about anything except getting rid of the food, both in the fridge and the nonperishables, for now. The men would bring boxes tomorrow so the dishes, pots, and pans could be gathered together and put in the storage units.