WEAK Part Three: A Thornhill Road Romance (3 page)

He pushed himself violently from the pool
table and with one violent breath he gripped the panties and tore
them from me. The sting of the shredding fabric was exhilarating.
He stuffing the remains into his pocket and then he was right there
on me, between my legs, cupping me with one big selfish hand -
palming me,
owning
me.

"I'm going to fuck you now like you've never
been fucked before you little bitch."

"Big promise Medici, let's see you can live
up to it you fucking asshole."

I hissed the words at him but I knew he could
do it. Only he had the confidence to say that, mean it, and make it
come true.

We ignored the pounding at the door while
Vincent pushed the fingers of one hand inside me, pulled me back
towards him with the other and then pressed that huge, bulging dick
of his against my ass.

"Go away." I shouted at the door. "We're not
open yet."

"Whoever the hell you are, get the fuck out
of here. Bar will open later." Vincent added. The abandon was
intoxicating. We didn’t care and the whole world could go to
hell.

"I'm coming in there. Vicky, who the hell is
in there with you?"

Except for William Hyde.

"Oh shit - that's him." I began pushing away
from Vincent but he held me tightly. God how I didn’t want him to
ever let go but he had to release me or I would have to make him
let go. "Get away from me Medici," I shouted, "that's Will, that's
my boyfriend. This is his bar."

"Fuck him. Fuck this." Vincent shouted. He
let me go, cursing, and began to straighten himself up. I knew it
wasn't fair to do that to him but to not do it would have been even
less fair to Will.

I couldn’t believe what I had become. I
couldn't believe what I had gotten myself into with Vincent Medici,
yet
again
.

By the time Will had unlocked the door and
let himself in we were semi-decent again, but only a blind man
would have doubted what had been going on.

Will stood half way between the doorway and
the spot where Vincent and I stood next to the pool table. I had
never seen the man look so angry and upset and he was absolutely
right. My heart went out to him but I knew words could never make
this right, not in a million years. He deserved far better than
this and I swore to myself that I would make it up to him somehow
if it took me the rest of my life to do it.

"Who the fuck is this guy?" He said. "Was he…
was he hurting you?"

I wished to God I could have said yes to that
question. It would have been so much easier to be the victim in all
this instead of the loose woman who was causing everyone else so
much pain with her stupid, irresponsible actions, but that was not
the case. It had never been the case and if I was honest with
myself I could see that from the very beginning of all this it had
been me who had provoked, teased, head-fucked and thought only of
her own pleasure right up until the last few moments.

I wanted the world to swallow me whole and
erase every trace of me from the surface of the earth.

"I'm not hurting her." Vincent said. The
bastard sounded so calm already. How he managed to do that I'll
never know. "And you've got some explaining to do Mr. Hyde."

"Me?
I've
got some explaining to do?"
He marched up to Vincent getting right into his face. Will was no
stranger to getting physical with his background in bar work and
security but Vincent didn’t back down one inch. In fact, he looked
totally un-intimidated. He was a little taller than Will, more buff
and athletic, but Will was way stockier and heavier. I couldn't see
the Manhattan venture capitalist coming out on top in a
Shillington, Ohio bar room brawl.

I didn’t want to find out.

"Stop this Will, this is all my fault."

He ignored me.

"How about
you
explain to me what the
hell those are?"

Will was nose to nose with Vincent as he
pointed to the floor between us. I followed the line from his
finger down to the ground and I wanted to cry. I felt nauseous and
weak.

Vincent stooped immediately to pick them
up.

"Those are mine." He said, the tiny crumpled
bundle of pink satin and black lace disappearing into his hand.

"Like hell they are." Will grabbed his arm
and began to wrestle him but I guess Vincent had a trick or two up
his sleeve after all and before I could tell what was happening the
heavy weight of Will's frame had slammed down onto the pool
table.

"I think you'll find that in fact, they are."
Vincent looked as cool as if he had just signed off on a business
deal with a new client. He had Will in a wrist lock that was
bending his thick arm backwards over the edge of the table,
paralyzing him into submission.

I had to snap out of it.

As mesmerizing as this was, watching two full
grown, hulking men fight over my underwear, I could not let this
continue. This mess was my responsibility and I had never intended
for either of them to get hurt - especially not Will.

That beautiful, arrogant bastard Medici on
the other hand….

"Stop it now you pair of idiots. Vincent, let
him go. Will…. God damn it, just let him have the underwear if he
wants them. He's right anyway, they are his."

Will was mystified, horrified, but it was
enough to make him stop struggling and as soon as he did Vincent
released him.

"Thank you Victoria." Vincent nodded to me
and placed the underwear safely into his pocket.

"But Vicky, those are yours." Will protested.
"I've seen you wear them." He looked indignant, betrayed.

"Since when are you so interested in my
underwear? You never mentioned them once before in all the years we
were together."

His jaw tightened, his teeth ground
together.

"Maybe that's because I never saw you hand
them over to a fucking stranger before."

Chapter
Twenty-Three

"Victoria, please come back, you have to
listen to the whole story."

The news that her so-called ex-boyfriend had
stolen her patent hadn’t gone down well and the dumb expression on
Will's face had made it quite obvious that he was guilty as hell. I
offered to take her somewhere better to explain things fully but
typical Victoria, she snatched the car keys from my hand and took
off. Before I knew what was happening she was in the driver's seat
of my rental and I was pounding on the window.

"Victoria, open up. You have to listen to me,
there's much more to this than you think."

She didn’t listen. Instead, she started up
then engine.

"Where are you going?" I shouted through the
glass.

She didn't answer. Instead, she hit the gas
and sped off.

The woman was born to infuriate and cause
trouble….

I saw Will taking off as well so I sprinted
after him. Whether he wanted to or not he was going to give me a
ride.

"Get out of my fucking car asshole." He tried
to push me out of the passenger seat but I locked his wrist and
pushed his arm back in his face.

"You're taking me with you Will. Now put the
keys in the ignition and get this mid-range heap of shit moving.
You and I both know you have some explaining to do."

"I don’t know what you're talking about."

"How about theft and sale of a patent that
you had no input in creating."

"The patent was legally mine, I didn’t do
anything wrong."

I squeezed hard on his arm. I think I would
have enjoyed breaking it, but I'm not that much of an idiot.

"You can explain that to Victoria. Now put
the keys in the ignition or I'm going to break this arm and do the
driving myself."

I put another twist on his arm and finally he
started fumbling to get his car started. Victoria was already
disappearing out of view.

"Hurry up Will, she's going to lose us if you
can't find your way into that hole."

He finally got it in but she was gone. How
could she ever have spent time with this lying, cheating, clumsy
idiot was beyond me.

"Get out." I said. "I'll drive. You've messed
this up enough already."

"No way. I'm driving. You can break my arm if
you want to but--"

I grabbed his arm again and twisted hard
enough to make him yell.

"Okay, okay." He said. "You can drive. Let's
get moving already, she's headed to a place called Thornhill Road
outside of town."

The name hit me like a slap in the face. I
hadn't heard it in years. In fact, I had forgotten it even existed.
Coming back to Shillington, Ohio after all this time had been a
trip so far, but to hear that street address again was surreal.

"Why would she go there?"

"She used to live there. Her old family home
is there, she always goes there sometimes when she's upset."

"How can you be sure she'll go there
now?"

"I don’t, it's a hunch. Do you have a better
idea?"

I shrugged. I didn't want to tell him how
well I knew that road, but I planned to get rid of him before we
got there.

We switched sides and I took the steering
wheel. About ten minutes into the ride I started banging on the
dash.

"So much for your Thornhill Road crap Will,
look at that." I pointed to car the same make and model as my
rental. "That's my car over there - at that gas station."

"God damn it, she must have run short of gas.
Pull in."

I skidded into the station and watched him
jump out. He was still banging on the glass like a chump as I
pulled back out onto the road.

Now all I had to do was remember the way to
Thornhill Road. It had been such a long, long time and my family
hadn’t lived there all that long, but somehow, a little bit at a
time, it was all coming back to me and the closer I got the clearer
things became.

Victoria Price. The name still didn’t mean
anything to me from my past, but her face, those eyes… had we
really met before?

Finally I saw the street up ahead. I never
thought I'd ever see that place again and it felt like I was in a
dream. The handful of houses on road were all still there, just
like they had been all those years ago but they were derelict
now.

It was weird, like my childhood had died
right in front of me. Those homes had all been so full of life,
filled with families, kids, pets and all the junk of sub-urban
life. Now they empty of life, overgrown, neglected; a picture
postcard of urban decay.

I spotted my rental parked badly out front of
a house I still recognized clearly despite all the years. It was
the house next door to what had been our family home for a while.
The SUV was half up on the broken sidewalk and half on the cracked
asphalt of the road.

There was no sign of Victoria anywhere but
she couldn't be too far away.

I pulled in, jumped out of Will's car and
headed straight for the front door of my old next door neighbor's
house. It was hanging off the hinges.

"Don’t come any closer."

I stopped dead in my tracks. Victoria was
right there in front of me. She was sitting in an old rocking chair
on the porch, obscured in shadow.

I recognized that rocking chair. I couldn't
believe it was still there after all that time.

"Victoria, you have to listen - I need to
explain."

I needed to explain so much.

"I've had enough explaining Vincent. You
bought my patent from Will, months before I ever met you but you
led me on like a fool anyway, pretending you were interested in it
when all you wanted was to fuck me.
And
you bought a patent
from someone without even verifying that it really belonged to
them. I thought you were smarter than that, I honestly did."

"It's not like that Victoria, I--"

She jumped to her feet and the rocking chair
fell over behind her, one brittle armrest smashed into splinters
against the wooden deck.

"You used me Vincent. You strung me along
pretending to be interested in my work when all you wanted was my…
my fucking underwear, you sad, pathetic, lonely, little man."

The last set of panties I had ripped off her
were still in my pocket.

And she was still naked underneath that skirt
because of me.

What could I say?

"Okay Victoria, you're right. Up to a point
yes, I did use you."

She was shaking with rage. I took a deep
breath - it was time to be completely honest, no mind-games, no
second guessing.

"And I would use you again in a heartbeat if
I got the chance."

It was the truth. I saw her heart pounding
inside her shirt, heard her breathing become harsh and labored.

"I used you because I am totally obsessed
with everything that you are beyond any hope of ever being free
again. I'm helpless every time I see you and there's nothing I can
do about it. There's nothing I want to do about it and of course I
would do it all again if I had to because nothing like you has ever
happened to me before."

She looked totally lost, but at least she
didn't tell me to go to hell.

"I didn't know you owned that patent
Victoria, honest to God. How could I? It was my partner Dill who
made the deal and it was your father who signed over the rights to
William Hyde. I had nothing to do with it, I had never heard of
your device until you came into my office and turned my world
upside down with your mind, your body and that
fuck-off-now-come-get-me attitude of yours that I can't for the
life of me figure out no matter how hard I try."

She didn’t say a word. She needed more. She
needed to understand.

"I consider myself a strong person Victoria
and I know you're a strong person too, but when you're around me I
go weak. Literally. My knees go weak, my body goes out of control
and I can’t think straight. All I can think is, 'I have to have
her, I have to have her' and up until now I had no idea why. I
thought I couldn't have you the way I wanted to so I needed to have
something that belonged to you, something of yours that was close
and intimate to you and being the idiot I am, paying for it was the
only way I think of to do that."