Let Me Go (3 page)

“He won’t really make me wear this,” she
said to the air surrounding her. And maybe when he came back, she’d
slip by him and find a phone in one of the other rooms. Then,
problem solved. She fought to find that false courage she relied on
the night before. She gritted her teeth as anger was finally
winning over the swirl of other emotions she was feeling. He
wouldn’t do this to her. She wouldn’t let him. She would get out of
here. She had to. As the determination seethed through her pores,
she made a vow to herself. He may have heard her cry right now but
never again. And he’d definitely never see her tears.
No, screw
him.
Kat had survived enough crap in life that she knew she was
going to survive this too, and Mr. Green Eyes wasn’t going to break
her.

Chapter 3

Mason sat on the
chair of the small breakfast table, listening to Kat’s pleas while
she pounded on the door. As her voice broke, his chest tightened.
“She put you there,” he reminded himself as he fought the urge to
help her. Glimpses of the guy he used to be, the good guy, still
peeked through his hardened exterior. Prison time, his revenge
mindset, and his cynical heart had told him this was right.
This
was right. She deserved payback, she deserved humiliation.
He
heard her telling him that he had the wrong person, but he had seen
the look of recognition in her eyes when she first saw him this
morning. She definitely knew who he was. She knew why she was here;
she was just trying to play him, play on his sympathy, and hope
he’d let her go.
Nope, wasn’t going to happen.
He had been
meticulously planning this for some time and everything had finally
fallen into place.

He had told her two minutes, but it had
already been five. He knew he should have stalked into the room
already to show her how serious he was, but now that she was really
here, he needed a moment to himself to process everything. His plan
was to break her down and make her feel the pain of humiliation. As
hard as he was, he wasn’t a rapist, and he’d never prove her right.
It didn’t stop a smile from playing on his lips at the sounds of
her sobbing.
This was turning out great already.

His mind focused on the event he believed
was the catalyst to all this. He was working a shift in the ER when
one of the doctors had called in sick. Mason had just finished
setting the cast of a little boy who had broken his arm. He had
seen so many patients that it was a wonder he remembered that, but
the boy’s name was also Mason. He had joked with him about that to
get his mind off his arm while he set it. He walked out with a
smile on his face, thinking that broken arms were the better part
of ER visits. He picked up the chart for the next patient and
grumbled. A young woman, complaining of stomach and back pain. That
wasn’t the problem. The problem was how often she frequented this
hospital. He walked in and only spared her a quick glance. He
noticed that in another time and place she could have been
beautiful, but she clearly didn’t care for herself. Her hair was
stringy, like it hadn’t been washed in a while, and she was visibly
shaking and twitching. He was used to seeing drug addicts in his
line of work, but her appearance still made him turn his nose up at
her. He couldn’t comprehend why someone would want to do this to
themselves. Broken bones, now that wasn’t usually someone purposely
trying to hurt themselves. But drugs – that was a no-brainer – stay
away. Not that he was a prude; he had tried his fair share of drugs
when in college. But trying something to see what it was like and
actually becoming addicted to doing it as part of your life, nope,
not worth it. So he turned away from her quickly, even scowling a
bit that she was doing this with her life.

“So, Ms. Gingham-”

“Kat,” she cut him off.

“All right, Kat, what brings you to the ER
this evening?” he asked politely, not looking directly at her.

“I’m in pain Doctor and I just need some
medication to make it go away. Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycontin,
anything would be fine.”

If he wasn’t sure about her before, she just
confirmed his suspicions.

“I’m sorry Kat, I don’t go around just
prescribing such serious medications without justification. You’ll
have to tell me where you feel pain and we’ll do a proper exam. If
I feel you are truly in need of painkillers, then I’ll write you a
prescription.”

“No, I need something now. It hurts. Can you
just give me a pill for now? Maybe two?”

She was grating on his nerves and he wanted
her gone. She was wasting his time and his resources.

“I’m required to ensure you are stable
before I discharge you, but I’m also required morally to ensure
that drug users, especially those trying to abuse the system, do
not get high on my account. Now, if you’ll please leave the
premises on your own, I won’t have security escort you.”

He didn’t bother waiting for her response
and just stormed out. But that was nothing new for him. This kind
of situation happened all the time. There was nothing special or
memorable about her and he forgot about her the instant he walked
out of the room. Twenty minutes later, he had the opportunity to
take a five minute break. He was lost in thought as he walked to
his office. He didn’t even register that his door was open when he
walked in and stared at the druggie he had seen just a minutes
ago.

“You! What are you doing in my office?” he
spat out in disgust.

She turned to face him with what looked like
a pad in her hand. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was
his prescription pad.

“Give me my prescription pad. And how did
you get in here? How did you open my desk?”

“You, Mr. Doctor, you think you are so high
and mighty because you have a nice degree and a nice job. So you
turn your nose up at me when all I need is some medicine. So, if
you won’t give it to me, I’ll get it my own way. Picking a lock, no
problem. My mom taught me much more than that.” Her words were all
edged with anger. He almost flinched at the hatred she clearly had
toward him. He stood there for a moment in shock. This situation
wasn’t unheard of in his profession; it just had never happened to
him.

She tried to push her way past him, with his
blank pad still in hand.

He blocked her. “No way,” he said as he
grabbed her arm. “Security!” he yelled. Within moments, she was
being escorted out. He wasn’t sure if they were going to call the
police, but he didn’t really care, since she hadn’t gotten away
with his prescription pad. “Mark my words, Mr. Doctor,” she sneered
as the guards grabbed her. “You’ll pay for this. You think you have
won, but you haven’t. You’ll pay.”

Her words didn’t haunt him; he figured it
was just part of his job. Sometimes you had great days, and
sometimes, they were shit. He had forgotten about that incident by
the end of the day and didn’t remember any of it until he was
accused of rape months later. It’s funny how clearly situations
come back to you when something triggers them. He had explained
this to his lawyer and they had presented it in court. But the
prosecutor used it against him. He claimed it was proof that Mason
could have easily taken advantage of her since he knew she was
vulnerable and under the influence of drugs. That no one would
believe her because of her history. He even argued that the rape
was Mason’s payback for her attempt to steal his prescription pad.
What a load of crap.
But apparently it worked.

Even with the memory so fresh in his mind,
he couldn’t picture her face clearly. He hadn’t really paid much
attention to her back then, but even with his hazy memory of her,
she seemed to look different now. She had cleaned up her act,
clearly no longer on drugs. If he allowed himself to drop his
defenses, she was actually quite striking. Her shiny brown hair was
long and straight, with a slight natural curl toward the bottom.
Her eyes weren’t brown but weren’t green either, more like a
mixture of honey and hazel. A very intriguing color indeed. And her
body was much healthier now. She was curvy, no longer a lanky
malnourished drug addict. Clearly the last six years had been good
to her. He cringed a bit, thinking of how the last six years had
been the opposite for him.

He snapped out of his reverie when he heard
shuffling from inside the room. It had been ten minutes, although
he had only promised two. Time to see if Kat had followed his
instructions.

Chapter 4

Mason opened the
door expecting trouble, especially since he had untied her, but he
wasn’t scared of her. If she wanted to punch him or try to attack
him, he knew he was stronger and more aggressive and could easily
pin her down. But what he saw surprised him. There she was, sitting
on the edge of the bed, outfit still in hand. Her head was down and
her hands were in her lap as if she had been praying. When he
opened the door, she looked up at him through her lashes that were
still wet from her tears. Nothing else about her demeanor betrayed
that she had just raged for minutes against the door. Her face
wasn’t wet and her eyes weren’t bloodshot.
Oh, hell no, this
wouldn’t do. She didn’t realize who she was messing with, but he’d
make sure she did.

“Not a wise choice, Kat.” The hard edge to
his voice made her flinch.
Excellent
, he thought to himself,
frightened is good
.

“What do you want from me?” Kat pleaded. Her
voice took on a pained tone.

“I already told you. Revenge.”

“Revenge from what?” she asked, still
sitting in a monk position, clearly trying to hide the fear in her
eyes.

“You try my patience,” he gritted through
his teeth. “I gave you two minutes to change and you didn’t.
Strip,” he demanded.

“No,” her voice shook.

“Oh, how sweet. You think you have a
choice,” he sneered. “You have two seconds to strip or I’ll do it
for you.” He stalked closer to her as he spoke. She didn’t respond
and didn’t make a move to follow his orders. “Very well then,” he
announced right before he reached around and grabbed her neck,
squeezing a little before jerking her forward. “I don’t think you
understand the gravity of this situation. When I give you a
command, you follow it. Strip,” he gritted and squeezed a little
harder.

“Pl…please, stop. You’re hurting me,” she
stuttered while her body shivered. Mason understood it wasn’t from
being cold.
Good
, he thought,
be afraid; you’ll break
quicker that way.
A slow smile spread across his face at the
thought of finally getting revenge, but he guessed it looked
sinister from her point of view because she gasped before speaking.
“I’ll…I’ll change.” He nodded and released her with a hard shove.
She fell back and wrapped her arms around herself as if that could
offer any protection. He chuckled at that thought and saw her eyes
go wide with fear.
This was pretty fun.
She hadn’t made a
move to strip and he could feel himself scowling at her.

“Please…please turn around,” she
stammered.

“Nothing I haven’t seen already.” He
laughed, but even he could hear his menacing tone. He saw her cower
a bit and felt like everything was finally going according to
plan.

“You bastard,” she answered, her voice
suddenly filled with conviction even while her body still trembled
with terror.

“I’m the bastard?” he asked, slightly
appalled. “Nothing that I am planning will come close to you
understanding what kind of pain, loss, and humiliation I have felt
because of you. And you think I’m the bastard? If I can make you
feel at least a fraction of what I’ve had to deal with, we might be
even. Right now we’re not even close. So, if you think for one
moment I’m going to renege on this, don’t bother. Change, now.” The
way he trailed off on the last word made sure she understood there
were promises better left unsaid if she didn’t follow.

She hesitated for a moment, but began to
change, managing somehow to put on the outfit underneath her
clothes.
Impressive
, he thought to himself, and then she
opened her mouth and the fury came back.

“I don’t understand. What could I have
possibly done to you that was so horrible that I don’t even
remember but would cause you to want to do this to me?”
She
didn’t remember it? She didn’t remember it?
He could feel the
rage building underneath his cool exterior. That bitch put him
behind bars and she didn’t even remember it. Apparently she was so
high or doped up that she went through all the motions like it was
a dream or something.
No! She was a good actress; that was
it.
Clearly, she had to have been, or he would have never been
in jail in the first place. No, he wouldn’t buy her sweet little
performance. He would break her down.

“Enough. Save your act for someone else.
Up,” he commanded. She stood, hesitantly. “I know that you are
probably trying to conjure up an escape plan. I know you are
probably going to walk around this place and try to find a way to
harm me so that you can escape. I am going to show you just how
thoroughly I planned everything out. Follow me.”

“Someone will come looking for me. What will
you do then?” she retorted, lifting her chin in defiance.

He laughed, a bitter sound coming from his
throat. “Who? You think I don’t know you have no one? I planned
this, Kat. You have no one in your life, and you were about to be
evicted. I took care of that too. All your things have been boxed
up and donated.”

“My IDs? My credit cards? What little money
I had?” she stated more than questioned.

Mason shrugged. It didn’t matter to him and
it shouldn’t have mattered to her anymore. “Gone.” He paused just
long enough to let it all sink in. Kat no longer existed to the
world, only to him. “Now, follow me,” he ground out. She did so
without a word, but he saw the moment of disappointment that
flashed in her eyes before she covered it up with a blank
expression. She visibly straightened her back, either trying to
prove to him or to herself that she would not be completely at his
mercy. He admired that false bravado, but it didn’t mean he was
going to tolerate it. It didn’t matter though, there was nothing
she could do about her situation, and they both knew it.