Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel) (30 page)

Sunny backpedaled into a sitting position and pushed as far into the headboard as she could. Her mouth opened, but she couldn’t seem to produce a scream as the dark shape in the corner of the room moved slowly toward her.

A deep resonant voice spoke from the shadow. “Hi, Sunny.”

Her body tensed, and Sunny could smell the pungent odor of her own body as fear seeped through her pores and sweat drenched her t-shirt. She squinted in the darkness and tried to see the face that went with the voice.

“I’m not here to hurt you.” He moved closer. “I just want to talk to you. I would never hurt you.”

He stepped forward into the dim light that cut across the bed from the hallway nightlight.

Hank.

Sunny released her breath slowly, and the mattress groaned as he sat on the edge of her bed.

It’s okay.
It was just Hank. She knew him. Her heart skittered to a stop. She knew he was a big, strong, overbearing, obsessed guy who had pinned her against the side of her house as he pushed himself against her. He had kissed her, and touched her, and she had been powerless to try to stop him. Jake’s warning of how strong Hank was rang in her ears.

She tried to pull her legs closer to her body. He dropped his hand to rest on her bare skin, and she was amazed at the size of his hand as it engulfed her calf. He let out a sigh, and his chin dropped to his chest. He looked so sad, like a little lost puppy…
oh no…puppy
!
Where was Beau?

Sunny’s head snapped to the doorway, and she let out a whimper as she spied Beau’s lifeless body on the floor of the hallway, a half-eaten cupcake on the floor by his head.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Hank motioned to the dog’s body. “I had to take care of him so I could talk to you. Last time he tried to attack me when all I wanted was to see you.”

Last time?
Fear and sadness waged inside of her.
Hank had been the mysterious man that had tried to come through my window
!
And now he had killed my precious Beau!

Pushing aside her fear, Sunny could feel the anger in her build over this man who invaded her home, her bedroom, and hurt her dog. Suddenly her paralysis broke. Sunny scrambled forward lashing out with her arms and legs as she hit and kicked at the figure on the bed and she let loose a ferocious scream of rage and terror.

For such a big man, Hank moved with lightning speed as he pinned Sunny back against the headboard, his left hand crushed against her mouth. Her kicks were ineffectual, and he easily held both her wrists in one of his meaty palms as he held her body down with his hip.

Who was she kidding? This man played football. He spent years tackling men double her weight. Her fear returned tenfold as Sunny realized the minimal effort it took for him to completely immobilize her
.
 

Hank leaned his forehead against the side of her head and spoke directly into her ear. “I just want to talk to you. I told you I wasn’t going to hurt you. Why did you tell Matt you didn’t want to see me
?
Why are you acting like this?” His breath was hot against her ear, and she could smell the stale scent of coffee on his breath.

Sunny twisted her body and tried to pull away from him. His fingers still covered her mouth, squeezed against her cheeks, as he shifted and his grip tightened on her wrists. She tried to turn her head, but his enormous hand covered most of her face and threatened to cut off her breathing. He moved his fingers from her nose, and Sunny inhaled a deep breath. His hand smelled vaguely of French fries and chocolate, and his class ring cut into the side of her cheek, but at least she could breathe.

Her eyes scanned the dark room for something to use against him or to distract him. Sunny wanted to weep as she tried in vain to come up with a means to get away, but she couldn’t move, and she was struck again by how little effort it took him to completely restrain her.

A single drop of sweat rolled down her arm. The beating of her heart tripled. She was powerless against this huge man.

* * *

Jake blearily opened his eyes to find himself stretched out in the recliner. He had one arm thrown carelessly over his head and the other tucked down the front of his shorts, his hand cupping his package to ensure it had neither fallen off nor been penis-napped while he blissfully slept. The credits to
Die Hard
rolled along the television, and he didn’t know if the absence of dialogue or something outside had caused him to awaken. The clock on the wall read quarter to twelve, and he knew he should be in bed.

He brought his left arm down to release the recliner and stood to stretch. As long as his right hand was there, it made itself useful and gave himself a full-on package scratch. He pulled his hand free from his shorts and leaned down to pick up his empty soda can and paper plate, the remains of a ham sandwich sliding sideways as he picked up the plate.

Jake headed for the kitchen, looking out the big front window he passed on the way. Something felt off, and he paused to study the darkened street in front of Walter’s house. There, that dark car parked down from Sunny’s. It had been there earlier tonight.

Hurrying into the kitchen, he tossed the trash on the counter and reached above the refrigerator to where he kept his gun. He grabbed the gun and a small flashlight, then snapped off the back porch light to better conceal himself in the darkness. He pushed his bare feet into his sneakers on the way out the door, the untied shoelaces of one snapping against the driveway pavement as he jogged toward the dark car.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, and he cautiously approached the car, his gun held ready at his side. Peering through the window, he saw the front seat full of crumpled fast food wrappers, a silver Thermos, a red and white baseball cap, and Kit Kat wrappers strewn across the floor. He shined the flashlight into the backseat which held more trash, a gray gym bag, and a child’s baseball mitt and ball. The car was empty, and Jake let out a long held breath as he dropped the flashlight into his pocket.

He leaned back against the passenger door of the car and looked up at Sunny’s house. He studied each window as he looked for anything out of the ordinary, anything to give him an excuse to ring the bell and make sure she was all right.

Suddenly, a scream of rage and fear pierced the night, and Jake took off running for her house, the flashlight banging against his leg with each step. He leaped the bushes along the side of the house as he headed for the back door where he had seen her use her hide-a-key last week.

He reached the back door and slid his hand along the top of the door frame. His breath was coming hard, and in his haste, he knocked the key free, and it fell into the garden next to her back stoop.

Damn
!
He dropped to his knee, his left leg squishing the pansies Sunny had planted this summer. His right hand still held the gun, and he braced himself against the house as he dug furiously around in the dirt with his left as he tried to find the dropped key.

* * *

Calm down.
He said he wasn’t going to hurt me.

As if he sensed her calm, he relaxed against her and took his hand away from her mouth. Knowing her strength was no match against his, Sunny switched tactics and hoped that if she could talk to him, she could get him to let her go and leave her house. She tried not to shudder as he smoothed her hair against her head.

“Hank, why are you here?” Sunny asked softly.

Hank dropped his head onto her shoulder and spoke into Sunny’s neck. “I just wanted to see you and talk to you. I think about you all the time. After Linda left, I was so lonely, and then you came into my life. You seemed so nice and funny, and your hair smelled so good.”  His head slowly came up, and he buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply.

“Linda took Mikey back to stay with her at her mom’s,” Hank continued, “and I sit alone in my apartment and dream of how my life with you could be. I know I could make you happy, Sunny-D.”  He kissed Sunny’s neck, his breath hot against her throat.

Sunny cringed and pulled her head back as she tried to shrink away from him. Hank pushed closer, and his hands tightened against her wrists as he continued to talk.

“I know I call you too much, but I need to hear your voice and know you aren’t out with someone else. But then you answer, and I get all flustered. I can’t think of what to say to you, so I just listen to you breathing. I like the way you breathe, Sunny.”  He kissed her neck again and moved closer to her face. “I can’t get you out of my mind. I sit outside of your house. I watch you laugh with your friends, and I want them to be me. I know we could be good together if you gave us a chance. I need you, Sunny.”

Hank kissed Sunny’s jaw line, and then in an awkward display of passion, his lips crushed against hers. His huge chest pressed down upon her as his kisses became more urgent.

She tried to scoot sideways away from him, but he was too strong, and his large body easily held Sunny pinned under him. A tear slid down the side of her face, and Sunny tried to control the panic that welled up inside of her.

It’s all right
.
He’s just kissing me. I can handle this.
Sunny kept her lips pressed firmly closed, but the feel of his wet lips against her made her want to gag. She could smell his sour breath and feel the moist trail of saliva he left against her throat.

She tried to assure herself that she was going to be okay. But, then she could feel him getting hard against her leg, and the panic had her arching her back against his enormous bulk. He shifted to get his knee between her legs. Using all her strength, she tried to keep her knees tightly together, but he easily forced her legs apart and pressed his knee against her inner thigh.

“I like you so much,” he said against her mouth, and he released one of Sunny’s wrists to move his hand up to cup her breast.

Sunny gasped as his hand touched her so intimately, and she shook her head from side to side as she whimpered. “No, please, no.” 

Hank took advantage of her speaking to force his huge, disgusting tongue into Sunny’s mouth, and she could taste the flavor of old coffee. Her tears flowed freely, and she used her now freed hand to beat against his broad back. Sunny used everything she had to push him off or to slide free from under him, but he was so heavy and so strong. Her efforts proved useless. His mouth was wet, and she cried out against it as his hand squeezed and groped her breast
.

All of sudden, his weight lifted, and Sunny watched in confusion as his body was raised from hers and sailed backwards across the room. She gasped for breath and struggled to get free from the bedspread, then realized a third person was in the room.

Jake!

Hank had not magically levitated from her body, but had been physically thrown across the room. Her savior now stood above Hank, straddling his hulking body as he delivered a punch to his face with his left hand and a solid knock up the side of his head with the gun he held in his right. Hank’s head lolled to the side in unconsciousness, and Jake dropped his limp body to the floor. Stepping over him, he crossed the room and scooped Sunny into his arms.

Feeling the safety of Jake’s arms around her, the floodgates broke, and Sunny let forth deep gasping sobs as she clung to his t-shirt and cried. She could feel the cool, hard metal of the gun in his hand against her back as Jake pulled her closer. At this moment, she didn’t care why he had a gun or what he had to do with her neighbor’s disappearance, she was just glad he was here, holding on to her, and keeping her safe from Hank.

“Shh. It’s okay now,” Jake said softly and gently rocked her back and forth. “He’s not going to hurt you ever again.”

“He came into my room,” Sunny said, between sobs. “I woke up, and he was just standing there, watching me sleep.”

“Creepy bastard.” Jake pulled one arm free to tuck the gun into the waist band of his shorts at the small of his back.

“Jake, he hurt Beau!” Sunny cried, her heart breaking with each word. “He told me he had to take care of him. Beau is gone.”

“What
?
No, Sunny,” Jake said and pulled her face out to look at him. “He’s not dead, he’s asleep. I heard him snoring when I came up the stairs. I figured he must have been drugged when he didn’t wake up when I stepped over him to get to you.”

“What
?
Oh, my gosh, he’s okay?” Sunny pulled free from Jake and stumbled into the hallway. She dropped to her knees and buried her face in Beau’s thick yellow fur. Jake was right, she could hear the dog snoring. Big, loud, deep, life-sustaining breaths!

“Oh Beau, I was so scared I had lost you,” Sunny cried and put her arms around the big mutt as she tried to pull him into her lap. His head lolled toward her, and his eyes struggled to open. In a sleepy haze, his tongue came out and half-heartedly tried to lick her face as his tail did a slow half-wag on the floor. His eyes drifted shut again, and Sunny put her face into his neck and cried some more.

Jake sat on the floor next to Sunny, and she rocked her dog as if he were a big eighty-pound baby.

Sunny jerked her head up at the sound of sirens and turned toward Jake.