Trip To Seattle
Chapter 16
“Damn it!” Ben shouted and almost threw his cell phone on the floor. They had just taken off and he was going crazy not being able to get in touch with Meg.
“Still the same?” Tracy asked worried.
“Yeah. No pip. Damn it, what’s going on here?”
“Ben, I’m sure she is fine. The police is taking care of everything”
“The police is stupid!” Ben said angry and looked confused at Tracy “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you like this… I’m so sorry…”
“It’s OK. I understand how you feel”
“Look, I don’t want to offend you or anything … It’s just that Derek was always able to outsmart the police and that’s why I’m so worried about Meg”
“She is going to be fine. Trust me” Tracy smiled.
“I wish I could” he answered sadly “But it’s not that simple. I’m scared to death that he is going to hurt her”
“Ben, we don’t even know if he went to Sunset Beach”
“I’m sure he did. Where else could he go?”
“I don’t know… Look, let’s just not assume anything right now. You won’t help her imagining the worse”
“I know. I’m sorry”
“Don’t be. Just do yourself a favor and try not worry so much. The flight is going to take a while, so just relax”
“Relax, huh?” Ben looked at Tracy “While my sick brother is after the woman I love?! I don’t think I can relax” Tracy didn’t say anything. She knew that whatever she would say, this was not going to calm Ben down. But there was no wonder. She knew she would be acting exactly the same way if it was going about one of the people she loved. She was just sorry that no one loved her sister enough to save her from Derek.
***
Derek started stroking Meg’s hair as he was kissing her more and more passionately. She wasn’t objecting. And although she still had doubts about what was happening, she had no strength to stop this… she had no strength to stop Derek.
He kissed her harder, putting his tounge into her mouth. She was a little bit surprised. She didn’t remember Ben kissing her so hard in a long time.
“I’ve missed you, Meg” he moaned as he started kissing her neck.
“Ben… I…”
“Ssshhh, don’t say anything” he put his finger on her lips “Just give in to what you feel” he came back to kissing her neck. She felt his tounge on her body.
“No” she thought to herself “Don’t do this, Meg. Don’t let him do this to you. Don’t…’
The longer she was having these thoughts, the harder it was for her to say ‘no’. She knew this wasn’t right to do it that way. It wasn’t…
Derek looked at her lustfully “God, she wants me” he thought “I won’t blow it” he smiled and gently placed her back on the bed. He kissed her lips again and started unbuttoning her night-dress. And suddenly she realized that something was wrong. Very wrong…
“No!” she screamed and pulled away from Derek.
“Meg, what’s wrong?” he asked scared that his plan might not work out.
“No!” she repeated “I can’t… I can’t” she said, jumped out of the bed and stormed out of the room, leaving Derek alone, angry sitting on the bed.
“Damn it! I nearly had her! What happened, Meg?” he asked aloud and looked at the door.
***
Chapter 17
“Oh God, how much longer will it take?” Ben looked angrily at his watch.
“Ben, we have been here only for an hour” Tracy reminded him ‘It takes some more time to get from Seattle to California”
“Oh, I know, I know” Ben sighed “It’s just that I’m so worried about her. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to her”
“You really love her, don’t you?”
“With my whole heart. She is everything to me. Everything”
“I can see in your eyes how much pain this is causing you”
“I’m scared. Really scared”
“I know. But we will be in Sunset Beach in a few hours and you’ll be able to see her… By the way, how did you two meet? I mean, if you don’t mind my asking…”
“Of course I don’t”
“It’s just that I thought that maybe talking about her will make you feel better”
“Maybe” Ben sighed and added “We met over the Internet”
“Internet?” Tracy sounded surprised.
“Yes, Internet. We were using the names of Dorothy from Kansas and SB. At the time when I met her, I was still grieving after my wife’s death…”
“You mean the wife who is now alive?” Tracy was making sure.
“Yeah” Ben smiled when he thought how complicated his life was.
“Sorry for interrupting. Go on”
“When I meet her I was very hurt and she was the only person who understood me, the only person I could open myself to. She was my soul mate”
“And how did you two meet in person?”
“She came from Kansas to Sunset Beach. When we first met, I didn’t even know it was her. I found out a while later”
“And that’s when you two started… you know…”
“Well, not exactly. I still didn’t think that I was ready… after what happened to Maria… I didn’t think that I would ever be able to love again. But she made me believe in love. It took me quite some time to realize that I loved her, and there were many people standing on our way, but thank God she didn’t give up on me… We had a few problems, she even came back to Kansas running away from me, but fortunately we worked everything out. She came back and everything was going great between us” Ben stopped for a moment “And that’s when my brother hit for the first time…”
“What happened?”
“”Meg and I were supposed to spend a wonderful New Year’s Eve with a couple of friends on the island I gave her for Christmas?”
“You gave her an island for Christmas?” Tracy jumped “Wow!!!”
“Yeah” Ben blushed and smiled “Anyway, I couldn’t go, so I told Meg to go with the rest and wait for me on the island. What I didn’t know was that my brother somehow managed to get into the boat… He went on a killing spree…”
”Oh my God” Tracy froze.
“He killed four people then – including my best friend Mark”
“I’m so sorry”
“He also tried to kill Meg. Fortunately he didn’t manage to”
“But that’s not the end of the story, is it?” Tracy guessed.
“No” Ben admitted “He appeared a few weeks later and imprisoned me. He started impersonating me, fooling everyone around”
“God, that’s sick!” Tracy was disgusted.
“Everything my brother does is sick” Ben sighed “He tried to kill Meg again, but fortunately I managed to rescue her… But still nothing was able to take back the harm he did to her… Anyway, when we finally found our way back together, my dead wife showed up on our wedding reception…”
“What was she doing there?”
“Meg invited her”
“What?” Tracy sounded shocked.
“Well, they had known each other for a while and they had become friends, but Meg didn’t know that it was my wife and Maria had an amnesia”
“Ooops”
“Yeah – ooops”
“And what did you do?”
“Well, I loved Meg very much, but the memories of the past were haunting me all the time. But at the end I figured out that Meg was the one I really loved. But when I finally realized that, Tess appeared at my door step with a little boy, claiming that he was my son. As I later found out he was not” Ben remembered the conversation with Derek “But Tess’s arrival was the beginning of an end for me and Meg”
“So you two are not officially together now?”
“No, we’re not. But I’m still hoping that she will forgive me”
“Forgive you what?”
“Well, I did some things that hurt her very much. And first of all I let Derek interfere my life once again. I still can’t believe that he intended to use his own son to steal my money”
“How?”
“He wanted to make me put Benjy in my will and he planned to kill me and my wife so that Banjy would inherit all the money. There was only one very big problem standing on Derek and Tess’s way – Meg. They needed to make her disappear from my will. And the only way to do that was break us apart. And so they did. Using Benjy and some sick games”
“I’m so sorry”
“I am too. I just hope that we will find our way to each other once again. Just like we used to”
“You will” Tracy smiled “I know you will. I believe in love”
“Yeah, me too” Ben answered and looked at the picture of Meg he had in his wallet.
“I love you” he thought looking into her eyes “I hope it’s not too late for us”
Chapter 18
“Come on, Derek, where are you?” Tess was asking herself as she was standing at the airport waiting for Derek to appear with the tickets. Although there were still fifteen minutes left till the time he was supposed to come, Tess was going crazy. She was scared that they were not going to make it and that she would spend the rest of her life in jail.
‘Damn it, Derek! Why are you doing this to me? Where the hell are you? What’s taking you so long?” one more time she looked at her watch and started looking around as if making sure that no one was following her.
***
Meg quickly ran into the bathroom and closed the door. She leaned against the wall.
“Oh my God, what’s going on with me?” she sighed “What’s happening? I shouldn’t have let Ben do this” she said and wiped a tear rolling on her cheek.
“What’s going on?” she asked again after a while “Why did I feel like if it was wrong to make love to Ben? God, I know that he has a wife and a son, but was that the only reason I didn’t want to make love to him? I love Ben. Then why did it feel so different, so strange… so wrong…” Meg stopped for a moment and tried to concentrate her thoughts on what was happening to her and on what she was feeling. She could swear that she had felt that way before, if only she could remember when. She tried to relive all her memories and suddenly she froze when she realized that the only time she felt that way was when she was making love to Derek…
“Oh my God!” she nearly screamed “Oh my God! Is that possible… Could it be… No… no… He is dead… he is dead… This can’t be… God, this can’t be him… He can’t be still alive… he can’t… Oh God… No, this must be him… That’s why I felt so strange… Oh God, how could this happen? How? God!” Meg hid her face in her hands and started crying. She sat on the floor because she felt that she was not going to take it any longer. Suddenly she froze as she heard Derek’s voice outside the door:
“Meg? Are you there? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. I’m just a little bit dizzy, that’s all”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll be right back”
“All right then, I’ll be waiting” Derek smiled and came back to the room. Meg wiped the tears from her cheeks and tried to gather her thoughts.
“Ph God, what am I supposed to do?” she asked and suddenly came up with an idea “Phone” she quietly left the bathroom and reached the phone in the nearest room. she lifted the earphone and with fright realized that there was no pip.
“Oh God!” she sighed “Damn it, he must have cut the wires. God!” she said and leaned against the wall. That’s when she heard Derek’s voice coming from her room:
“Meg, what’s taking you so long?”
“I’m coming, Ben, I’m coming!” she called and wiped the rest of the tears from her cheeks “I have to do it” she said to herself “I have to. God, help me to be strong”
Chapter 19
Meg pressed the handle and went into her room. Derek was sitting on the bed. He smiled when he saw her.
“Finally!” he sighed “I thought that you would never come out”
“I’m sorry”
“Are you OK?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine”
“Then I guess we can come back to what we were doing” he smiled and pulled her closer. She sat on the bed next to him. He placed her on the bed and started kissing her. She was frightened, she didn’t know what to do. She was disgusted when she felt Derek’s tongue in her lips. She couldn’t stand his hands touching and caressing her. But pretending to be willing to make love to him was the only way to buy her some time. Some time to think about what to do.
‘You are so beautiful” Derek said and stroked her hair. She tried as hard as she could not to show her disgust.
“Oh God, what am I supposed to do?” she thought scared “He is not going to stop. Sooner or later I will have to say ‘no’. And what then? What is he going to do? What is he going to do to me?”
Derek started unbuttoning her night dress kissing her neck and going lower and lower. Soon, she felt his lips on her breasts. And that’s something she just couldn’t stand. She strongly pushed him away and cried:
“No, don’t!!!” she started buttoning her night dress.
“Meg, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this, all right?! I can’t!”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“It’s not right. I can’t do this. Please, just go home Ben”
“Go home?! Don’t tell me that you prefer for me to go home than to stay here with you” he smiled and started kissing her passionately.
“No, Derek, stop!!!” she screamed and froze when she realized what she had just said. She held up her breath and observed Derek’s face. He looked into her eyes and smiled.
“So, that’s why you don’t want to make love to me, huh? Now I understand. You know, you’re even smarter than I thought. I believed that no one would be able to tell that I’m not Ben”
“Well then, you were wrong”
“Oh, was I?”
“Yes, because you have nothing in common with your brother besides your face”
“But you wanted me!”
"I despise you! I could never want you!”
“You wanted to make love to me. And don’t tell me that all those moaning you did was for Ben” he laughed.
“You bastard!!!” Meg nearly cried.
“Oh, come on Meg. Don’t tell me that you really enjoy what Ben is doing in bed trying to behave as if he knew how to be a real man”
“He does know how to be a real man”
“He is a…”
“And you’re not even half the man he is” she said positively.
“You bitch!!!” he shouted and hit her on the face. She collapsed on the bed. He looked at her lustfully “And now you’re gonna see how it’s like to feel a real man”
“Don’t you dare!!!” she screamed.
“Come on, it’s going to be fun” he started kissing her “Just like the first time”
“After my dead body!!!”
“Since you mentioned this” Derek smiled “I’ll give you a choice – either you sleep with me or I’m going to kill you”
“Then kill me, because I could not live knowing what you did to me”
“Are you sure? You prefer to die…”
“Yes” she cut him short “I prefer to die than to let you touch me”
“Oh really?” he laughed and added “You know, in that case, I decided not to leave you any choice. I want you too much…”
“No!!!” Meg screamed “Derek, no!!!”
“Oh yes” he smiled and started kissing her again.
***
“Hey Ruiz, are you sure that Meg is well protected?” asked Spence as he was going through some papers.
“Meg?” Ruiz seemed surprised.
“Yes – Meg. Ben Evans’s fiancée. Derek tried to kill her a few times in the past and we have to make sure that that he doesn’t get to her again” Spence started explaining and looked meaningfully at Ruiz.
“Oh God!” Ruiz sighed and Spence looked at him frightened.
“Oscar, you’re not saying that you haven’t…”
“That’s exactly what I am saying” answered Ruiz.
“How could you not warn Meg about Derek’s come back?”
“I don’t know… We forgot…”
“You forgot? God, you knew she would be his first target and you didn’t warn her. Damn it!” Spence was angry. He went through papers on Ricardo’s desk and found the number to Surf – Central. He dialed it “Damn it, no pip!” he said after a while and put the earphone down “He is there. Meg is in danger. Let’s go” Spence ordered and they rushed out of the station.
Chapter 20
“Derek, please, don’t do this!!!” Meg cried as he laid on the top of her and was kissing her harder and harder “Derek, stop!!!” she cried again.
“Stop?” he laughed “First you want to make love to me so desperately and now you’re asking me to stop?” he looked at her with one of those ominous smiles on his face “I don’t think so”
“Derek, you won’t gain anything by doing this”
“Oh, you’re wrong about that, my dear. I will gain very much by doing this. First I will make love to a very beautiful lady…”
“You bastard!!!”
“And second” he continued “I will get a revenge on all the people who stood on my way. Because you know what? The whole town is going to cry when they find out what happened to the little, innocent girl from Kansas”
“Ben will kill you if you hurt me!!!”
“What makes you think so?” Derek laughed “The last time I heard he was back with his wife, so why are you so sure that he will do anything if I hurt you?” Derek looked icily at Meg. He knew exactly what to say to hurt her. Her eyes were slowly filling with tears when she thought that what Derek said might turn out to be true. But on the other hand, deep in her soul, she knew that it couldn’t be true. She knew Ben…
“Ben still cares about me!” she cried “Even if not the way he used to… I know that”
“All right, all right, think what you want. But the fact is that if we want to check what Ben would do, first I need to finish what I’ve started” he smiled and started kissing her again. She was disgusted but she couldn’t pull away because he was holding her too strong. He started to rip of her clothes still holding her. She knew that if she wouldn’t do something quick, Derek would finish his job.
She looked around for a way to stop Derek, but she didn’t find any solution. And Derek was closer and closer to getting what he wanted. With fright she realized that her night dress was torn, but she hadn’t let Derek take it off.
She desperately looked around the room one more time.
“God!” she thought “What to do? Oh my God! I can’t let him do that. I can’t…” she felt that her eyes were now full of tears. Derek was hurting her by holding her stronger and stronger. She felt that she had a few bruises on her arms. She felt a real pain…
She finally used all her strength to free one of her hands. She grabbed a lamp standing on her night table and hit Derek’s head with it. He let go of her for a second and she used it to escape. She ran out of the room and closed the door after her. But it didn’t help. Derek soon went after her. She suddenly came up with an idea “The gun… Casey has got a gun in his room” she thought with hope and headed towards Casey’s room. She ran inside and headed straight towards the bed where Casey was keeping the gun.
“You know, that’s not funny anymore” Derek said entering the room and looked at her hatefully.
“It never was!!!’ she screamed with anger.
“You’re really starting to get on my nerves”
“I beg for your forgiveness” she said ironically.
“Well, well, well” he laughed “Now, you’re really getting on my nerves”
“And you’re getting on mine!”
“Don’t worry, in a minute I’ll be getting on something else” he smiled and pushed onto the bed. That’s when she turned around, got away from Derek and pulled the gun from under the mattress.
“Not one more move!” she screamed and pointed the gun at Derek.
“Wow! Congratulations” Derek laughed not even caring that Meg was holding a gun “So what are you going to do now?” he asked “Are you going to shoot me?”
“Sounds good to me”
“You won’t do this”
“I will if I have to!”
“So now you wanna play, huh?” Derek smiled “Great then, let’s play” he tried to come closer to her but she was still holding the gun.
“Oh, Meg, you are so beautiful when you’re angry and scared!” Derek sighed.
“Scared?!” she asked “You should be scared! I’m holding the gun here!” she said firmly but the truth was that she was scared to death.
“Not anymore” he said and strongly grabbed her hand. She screamed out of pain. The gun landed on the floor.
“So, what do you say now?” he laughed and pulled her closer.
“I say that you are a pathetic creep!!!”
“You bitch!!!” he shouted and hit her across the face. She collapsed on the floor. She touched her lips and felt blood. She stood up with difficulties and looked hatefully at Derek. He lifted the gun from the floor, grabbed Meg’s waist and put the gun to her head.
“So what now?” he laughed “Your good pass is over, huh? Looks like I’m the winner this time too, aren’t I?” he said with anger and she started crying. She knew that he was right, she couldn’t do anything and he could shoot her anytime he wanted… She didn’t want to die… She was scared to death but still she kept thinking about a way out.
“If only I could pull away from him” she thought “If only he wasn’t holding me so strong… if only…” she cried once again and thought ‘All right, it’s now or never” she started her desperate attempt to get away from Derek. At first nothing was helping but after a while she realized that Derek had more and more difficulties holding her in one hand and the gun in second. She started hitting and kicking him and finally she managed to pull away from him a little. She grabbed his hand and desperately tried to take the gun away from him. The struggle lasted not longer than a minute. Then the gun fired…
Meg with fright realized that her hands were full of blood. She was so shocked that she couldn’t even say if it was her who had been shot, she didn’t feel anything either. Suddenly she noticed that Derek started slowly collapsing on the floor…
******************************