Code 3: Finding Safety
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Authors: V.E. Avance
Code 3:
Finding Safety
By: V.E. Avance
V.E. Avance
Code 3: Finding Safety
©
2015, Avance
V.E. Avance Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
All persons and places described in this novel are fictitious. Any similarity to persons alive or dead is purely coincidental.
Table of Content
Thank you to all my fans for continuing to read my work. Without you, this wouldn’t be possible.
Thank you to my team for taking my dreams and helping it all come together; Shannan, Joyce, Stephanie, Angela, Warren and Autumn.
As Leanna Dickson showers, she realizes that enough is enough. Her husband, Mark Dickson, has beat on her for the last time. In their five year marriage, Leanna has been the victim of his abuse more times than she can count. She has had broken bones, bruises and stitches. She quickly finishes her shower and makes her way back to the bedroom that she and Mark share to throw some necessities into a suitcase. The room is not tranquil or serene. The room has a dingy mattress sitting on the floor with aluminum foil covering the only window in the room. Most of her beatings started in the living room but always ended in this room.
Leanna grabs the landline and dials the only number that is worth calling. “Maryanne, can you take me to the bus station in about thirty minutes?” Leanna asks her best friend when she answers her call.
Without hesitation, Maryanne responds. “Of course I can but running isn’t going make your situation any better. Where do you plan on going? You have no family outside of Danville. Georgia is your home. How are you going to turn your back on the only place you’ve ever called home?”
Leanna sighs, “Maryanne, I just can’t take it anymore. I’m tired of being abused and Mark’s drinking is getting out of control. When he drinks he becomes violent. When he’s violent, I’m the victim. Honestly, I just can’t do it anymore. The longer I stay the more chances I have at becoming a murder victim. This is not living. This is surviving. I need to live and, in order to do that; I need to get away from here.”
Leanna sighs. She’s only been surviving since her parents’ tragic passing. As the days turned to months and the months into years, Leanna felt her need to survive dwindle. If she doesn’t get out of Danville today, she knows her days are numbered. She knows that she won’t fight to survive the next time that Mark beats her—punishes her.
“Okay, honey. I understand what you are saying and, though I don’t agree with you running, I’ll help you any way that I can. Just know that I love you and I don’t want to see you go.”
Tears fill Leanna’s eyes. Maryanne has been her best friend since the day she moved to Danville seven years ago. Maryanne never talked about her past but Leanna knows that there’s darkness lingering there. Maryanne knows all of Leanna’s darkness and sadness and, though Leanna’s been curious as to Maryanne’s past, she’s never pushed for her to reveal anything that she didn’t want to reveal. “I love you, too, but I have to go.”
Once the call ends, Leanna finishes gathering her belongings and grabs her purse to wait for Maryanne on the front porch. She hasn’t figured out where she’s going yet but she’s fleeing Georgia completely. She can no longer be this close to Mark. She left a note for him on the kitchen table. As she reflects on the note sitting on the table, a pang of regret hits her.
Mark,
What we had before marriage has long since evaporated. Nothing I do makes you happy and your drinking not only affects you, but me as well. I can no longer be your punching bag when life doesn’t go the way you expect. I will be filing for divorce and will relinquish all rights to anything we jointly own. The house, cars and properties are all yours. All I ask is that you leave me alone and don’t try to seek me out.
Leanna
However, Leanna did take one thing from him that she felt he owed her. She cleaned out their joint bank account of everything but one thousand dollars. Leanna will start her new life with the clothes on her back, one suitcase of necessities and thirty-five hundred dollars.
Maryanne pulls up and Leanna tosses her case in the back seat and climbs in the front. “So, are you sure this is what you want?” Maryanne questions her. Maryanne has tried, on numerous occasions, to help Leanna out. She has taken her in, tended to the bruises and abrasions and even had her front door kicked in by Mark when he came in search of her. Since Danville is a small town, the Sheriff never filed charges on Mark that night, or any other night for that matter. Leanna knew that staying here would just make her a statistic of domestic violence when the day came that Mark finally went too far and killed her.
“I don’t want this, Maryanne, but it’s my only choice. I’m out of options and maybe a fresh start isn’t so bad. I can run away to a large city and get lost in all the hustle and bustle of it; maybe Las Vegas or Los Angeles?”
Maryanne laughs a hearty laugh at Leanna. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but I don’t see the City of Angels or Sin City as a place for you. You’re a Christian woman with values and dreams of having a nice house with a white picket fence and little rug rats running all over the place. Maybe Denver or Dallas might be more your style but definitely not Los Angeles or Las Vegas.”
She shrugs as they pull into the bus depot. She looks around at the run down place and shakes her head. How the hell had her life come to this? All she wanted was the happily ever after that every girl dreams of; to be a wife, mother and homemaker was all she’d ever wanted. Now, she’s about to purchase a ticket to anywhere but here with no higher education or support. Can she really do this? She has to if she expects to have any sort of life at all.
“Well, I guess I’ll figure out where I’ll be heading once I see the bus schedule. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep where I’m going a secret until I feel that Mark is no longer a threat to you. I’ll call you when I get settled so my location can’t be traced,” she says as she gives Maryanne a hug.
“I don’t like this,” Maryanne says as she releases her from a hug. “I don’t like not knowing where you’re headed. What if something happens to you? How would I know where to look for you?” Tears mist over Maryanne’s eyes.
Leanna hates seeing Maryanne like this but it instills in her that someone—anyone, loves her. After her parents passed away, Leanna never felt love until Maryanne. Maryanne has shown her unconditional love that was missing in her life for so long.
“I’m sorry,” she wipes away a tear that has escaped from Maryanne’s eye. “Something
will
happen to me if I stay here. I have to leave but I will stay in contact with you as much as I can.”
Leanna reaches in the back seat and grabs her suitcase. “I love you, Maryanne,” she says as she exits the car and enters the bus depot. She struggles not to look back at her best friend, her only friend.
She walks in and looks at all the outgoing buses—Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles… There are many choices. She points her finger and sings a song in her head that she learned in grade school.
Eenie, meanie, minie, moe, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let ‘em go. Eenie, meanie, minie, moe.
At the end of the rhyme, Leanna has her destination picked out. She requests the ticket and pays the cashier before taking in a deep breath.
You’re getting a fresh start, girl. Don’t fuck it up this time,
she chants to herself before settling on the bus that’s going to take her away from her nightmares.
The ticket in her hand cost her $120 and will take her to Austin, Texas. Texas isn’t as far west as she would like to be but it’s a good start. If she watches her behavior and doesn’t tell anyone in Danville where she is, she’s sure she could be safe in Austin. Leanna closes her eyes to get some rest since she has a sixteen hour bus ride from Danville to Austin.
James McMullen comes home after another twelve hour shift at the Austin Police Department. The house is too big for him and harbors too many memories of the only woman he ever loved. Rebecca had been his wife for six years before his career and her needs drove a wedge between them. His career is one that is full of danger and stress. Most nights, he would head to the bar with a few other officers to unwind before returning home. While he was so focused on himself, his wife’s needs were being attended to by another man. He will never forget that cool October night when he walked in and found his wife’s gorgeous body straddling another man, her hips moving in rhythm to his strokes in and out of her core. In all his twenty-seven years, that night was the worst night of his life and he’s seen some gruesome stuff in his career.
James shakes the image from his head and moves into the kitchen. “Hey boy, are you hungry?” he asks his Border Collie. “Ok, ok Patches. Don’t knock me over or I won’t be able to get you your dinner.” As Patches eats his kibble from the dish on the floor, James pops a chicken dinner in the microwave and nukes it. This is his life. No more home cooked meals, like that ever happened, or someone to talk to after work. Yep, this is his life and he wishes, every day, that he never walked into the bedroom that night. He wishes he had gone to the bar with his brothers in blue instead. Then he could have been oblivious to what, or who, his wife was doing while he was away.
“Officer McMullen,” James says as he puts the phone to his ear without checking the caller ID. “Damn it, why are you calling me Rebecca? I told you, we’re done. The marriage is over and you got half my shit in the process. What more do you fucking want?” His face turns red and he opens and closes his fist at his side as he hears her demands for more of what he worked his ass off for while she fucked every Tom, Dick and Harry in
his
bed. He put a roof over her head, food in her belly and allowed her to be the house wife she wanted because she was too lazy to get a job and how did she thank him?
“If you don’t like what you were granted in the divorce, then maybe you need to take it up with Judge Wallace. He’s the one that decided who got what and how much. Now, this conversation is over. I have a ball game to watch and I’m sure you have another dick to fall on.”
His ex-wife always seems to cause him anger. He loved her more than life itself and she broke his heart. The guys at the precinct are always harping on him to get back on the horse and find another woman, but it’s understandable that James isn’t interested in starting any type of relationship with any woman. “Well Patches, I think it’s time to call it an early night. Let’s go to bed.” James walks up the creaky old stairs, not even caring about the ball game that he, just moments ago, had been excited to watch.
