She’s with him, the two of them standing in the crowd. I can watch them grow closer, my feet frozen to the ground. When the crowd shifts I lose sight of them. When the crowd parts both of them are gone.
I never told my wife the full story about growing up in this town. She knows that I hate it and she knows that it was hard for me, be she doesn’t really know why.
She doesn’t know about Liam, the man who made my life a living hell. She doesn’t know the rules he imposed on me or the way that he held me back. The grudge that he had for me and the one rule I broke.
I got out.
In a panic I rush through the crowd but I know they’re not there anymore. Liam told me exactly what he wanted to do to my wife and I knew he had it in him to make it happen.
I push for the door and the crowd watches me in silence. They feed on my pain.
Liam has a way of getting what he wants and right now what he wants is my wife. He has a charm and I know she’s in his spell, she’s going with him because he can give her what she needs. He can give her what I never could.
He’s doing this to hurt me. I broke his rules. I left this town against his orders and no one disobeys Liam without facing punishment.
Rushing through the streets and heading home I see his car in my old driveway. I push through the front door and my feet are heavy as I mount the stairs.
Because I can hear them together in my old bedroom at the end of the hall. I know what those sounds mean. What they can only mean.
This has all happened before, and it’s about to happen all over again.
Excerpt
“Little LTBC!” he shouts, “Look at you all grown up, or well relatively grown up at least.”
Liam pulls me into a hug and I’m too stunned and afraid to do anything. Too scared to even move as he clenches me in tight and then releases me a moment later.
“Good to have you back man,” he says, “Came back into town just to see you. Shame I hear you’re leaving soon, I’m going to have to convince you to stick around.”
Liam wraps his arm around me and tugs me in close, making me feel absolutely tiny in comparison to him.
“Good luck with that,” Lily shoots back a retort, “I think his mind is set on moving.”
“Are you two together?” Liam says, and I know from the tone of voice he already knows everything though I doubt that Lily picks up on that at all, “Well isn’t that a pleasant surprise. I gotta confess I’d always expected Little LTBC here to be a perpetual bachelor. And you are?”
“Lily,” she replied, smiling up at him and quickly biting her lip as her affectionate gaze meets his steely one.
“Pleasure to meet you, Lily,” he says, taking her hand while not releasing me from his grip, “You seem so sweet.”
“Oh thanks that’s so lovely of you to say,” she replies, “I was just trying to convince my husband here to dance with me.”
“Little LTBC dancing?” he lets out a guffaw of a laugh as if the very idea of it was preposterous, “He doesn’t dance at all. He’s so opposed to it that it’s almost like he thinks there is a rule against it. Isn’t that right, Little LTBC?”
He squeezed me in tight again, reminding me once more of that painful memory of the dance and his instructions.
“No dancing for me hun,” I said weakly, seeing her pout and look up at him then back to me.
“Fine then,” she says, “All the more fun for me.”
She spins on her heel and bounces away with all the energy that she usually has, and I register that Liam’s gaze is firmly placed on her ass as she prances away.
“Hell of a catch there Little LTBC,” he says to me, his tone immediately dropping the friendly note and dripping with venom instead, “Hell of a little wife.”
“Thanks, Liam,” I squirm, trying to get away from him and feeling his grip tighten on me in response as he leans in even closer so he’s absolutely sure only the two of us will hear.
“Wonder what it would be like to get my cock up in her,” he says to me, “I bet she fucks like a demon in the sack. Hell she’s so tiny I’m half worried I might wind up breaking her.
“But I bet one night with me would ruin her for you. I bet that’s all it would take. One night in my bed and in my arms and she’ll come begging for more. I can do that you know, I can take her if I want.”
“Liam,” I protested, my voice a whine.
“You’ve broken so many of my rules Little LTBC,” he went on, “Tell me why I should hold back. Tell me why I shouldn’t take what I want. You know that I can. You know that I will. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t, because I don’t see any.”
“Please,” I begged him, but all that earned was a laugh.
“Please,” he said in a mocking voice, “Pleases and begging never worked before, why do you think they’d work now? I get what I want and what I want is what you have. Don’t stand in my way and don’t try to stop this.”
He pulled away from me, backing into the room and giving me one of his cruel grins as he departed.
“You know you can’t anyways.”
He was gone and I knew what came next. I tried to move but I was helpless to stop it. I was frozen on the periphery, watching as he moved towards her.