Over the next few days, Ashley set about forgetting, as she had promised herself she would.
She devoted herself to her usual routine, but more relentlessly than before the interruption of this person in her life.
She devoted herself to her work and the preparations for the wedding. And almost every night, she made love to Shawn, violently and desperately. He didn't understand what had happened to her, but he knew something had happened.
He knew about the incident at the club, but had no idea that his fiancée was there too, and Ashley had sworn Ted to secrecy, who had also guessed what had happened between her and her ex, but not the end, certainly not. Happily.
Another secret from her Shawn. There were so many now that she'd stopped counting them the way Randal had stopped counting the women he'd fucked.
Ah Randal," Ashley sighed.
As he'd assured them, his friends in high places had taken care of the club affair, and although rumors had been flying because of all the witnesses present, it hadn't made a ruckus, in fact it had become something of a legend, which had the effect of giving the club an even more prestigious reputation.
Good for Ted. At least one of them had profited from this fateful incident.
You too," murmured a small voice inside her, but Ashley shook her head and silenced it mercilessly.
That day, Ashley was so absorbed in her work and her thoughts that she didn't immediately notice the condition of her assistant and second best friend after Emma - Linda.
She was a blonde like herself, not as beautiful as her but with a very piquant face. She'd been single for a few years and still refused to enter into a relationship.
She said she wasn't ready. Ashley thought there was something preventing her from being with someone. But Linda had always refused to dwell on the subject.
She'd noticed for some time that he looked worried and, let's face it, frightened, but she'd forgotten to pay attention to him with her own worries. But that morning, when she looked up and saw how distraught, not to say desperate, she looked, Ashley knew it was serious. Very serious. And she was right, especially when she saw her assistant's wrist bruised, probably by a brutal grip.
Ashley, for her part, had struggled to come up with a valid excuse to justify hers. Shawn wouldn't let her off the hook, so she had to invent a criminal. Which wasn't entirely untrue after all.
This person was a criminal.
Anyway, the young woman tried to find out what was happening to Linda, but that day, Linda remained as mute as a grave. In the end, Ashley had to give up, but promised herself to come back the next day with a vengeance, as she clearly felt that this was no child's play at all.
But the next day, Linda didn't show up for work. Ashley knew immediately that something serious had happened in the meantime. Very serious.
She went to see her boss, who was very understanding after her explanation, and let her go home to her assistant.
After a relieved thank-you, Ashley left.
Linda lived in a quaint little house she inherited from her mother in a fairly working-class neighborhood.
She was single but had an older married sister who lived in the next town.
Ashley knocked, but no one answered.
She tried to open the door and it gave way.
Surprised and worried, she entered cautiously.
"Linda?" she called.
The living room that greeted her was in a sorry state, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as she saw Linda, passed out in her hallway.
Seeing the state she was in, her panties pulled down and the blood dripping from her pussy, even the biggest idiot would have guessed what had happened to her.
She opened her eyes as Ashley approached her, her gaze veiled, terrified, desperate.
"Please, I'll do anything you want, just don't come near me again!" she sobbed weakly, miserably.
Ashley felt her heart clench and knelt beside her, speaking as softly as she could.
"It's me Linda, it's Ashley."
This time, her assistant looked at her more closely, sobbed harder, got to her feet as best she could and threw herself into her boss's arms.
"Ashley!"
She cried for a long time.
"Wait, I'll call the police!"
"No!" her friend refused with an emphatic cry, "I don't want the police involved! I don't want to be disturbed! Never again!"
"But my darling, you've been...!"
Ashley didn't have the courage to finish her sentence. Lina shook her head.
"I don't ever want to talk about it again."
She sobbed and struggled to her feet, then went straight to her room."
"I've got to tidy up."
"Go take a bath," Ashley suggested firmly, "I'll put things in order, and don't worry, the big boss has been very understanding."
Linda nodded without answering.
When she returned, she'd put on her least attractive clothes, which was understandable: long-sleeved brown t-shirt and flowery pants too big for her.
"Would you like something to drink?" she inquired, her voice hushed.
"Do you know who did this?" asked Ashley instead, ignoring her question.
Linda only snorted.
"Yes, I do, don't I?"
She nodded.
"But I refuse to press charges. I know how this goes. We both know how it goes. It's not that kind of courage, so save your insistence on doing the opposite right now!"
Ashley pressed her lips together, then sighed.
"I won't."
"Really? Considering how you are."
Then Lida, too, saw her that way. But now wasn't the time.
"The trouble is...I'll ask you...could he do it again?"
This time, Linda couldn't hold back any longer. She leaned against the wall and sobbed her heart out.
A big girl like her, only a year older than Ashley, crying like a child over adult problems, atrocious. Ashley had to keep a cool head. She couldn't let go or Linda would fall apart even more.
"Will he be able to come back here?"
Linda cried harder, nodding.
"That's who, Linda. I won't tell anyone, but at least I'll know and be able to protect you however I can!"
But this time, the young woman let out a fatal hysterical laugh.
"No, you can't."
"Why not?"
"Because that monster is a criminal!"
"And why...?"
"My husband!" and she put all the contempt she was capable of into that word, "or rather my soon-to-be ex-husband owes him a lot of money. He's the kind of person who has no trouble with the law, because he's got a lot of dirty cops in his pocket. Since Roger is nowhere to be found, he turned to me."
Linda leaned her head against the wall.
"He says if I don't pay him back, he'll use my body to get his money back."
She let herself slide to the floor.
"Yesterday, he...he said...he said he came to appraise the merchandise!"
And as she finished, she hid her face flushed with terrible emotion in her hands. She trembled so much and seemed so torn that she ended up fainting again.
Unable to carry her to bed, Ashley had to improvise a makeshift bed for her. And when that was done, Ashley looked at her, adorable and so broken.
A fine young woman who'd never hurt anyone and who, because of a cowardly, despicable husband, found herself the helpless victim of a criminal. A real one. A rapist and a murderer.
Given the identity of the culprit, Ashley also doubted that the police or anyone else could do anything against him. Almost.
So there was only one thing left to do. Ashley knew what she had to do.
She took one last look at her friend, stood up and left the house, making sure it was locked.
She called Emma, who fortunately knew her address. She gave it to her and wished her luck.
She'd never been so grateful to be friends with her beautiful redhead.
"Thank you, darling.
Randal lived in a mansion. He now worked from home, so he must surely have been there. It was only morning, after all, though Ashley thought days had passed at Linda's.
A man opened the door. A cinnamon-skinned colossus with very short hair, neither handsome nor ugly, whose body was covered in tattoos.
He returned the young woman's curious gaze.
"Yes?"
"Oh, hello. I'm looking for Randal."
"And who's looking for him?"
"Ashley. He'll know."
"I'll let him know you're looking for him, but later. Right now, he's busy."
"No, wait!" shouted the young woman as the colossus was about to close the huge glass door, "tell him it's the pisser who's here, and it's very important. A situation similar to Ted's club. He'll understand."
"I know what happened at Ted's club," the behemoth quipped dismissively.
"Then you must understand that it's important!"
"It probably is to you, but not necessarily to him. And I'll tell you again, I'll pass on your message. And he'll come back to you when he has time. That's all I can do for you!"
"But he's here, isn't he?" the colossus' slight twitch betrayed the answer.
"Then I must see him."
"Is he busy?"
"Doing what?"
The little sneer was unbearable.
"I think you know him well enough to know what he's doing?"
Ashley felt her chest tighten, but she lifted her chin with determination.
"I'll go in and wait, sir, even if it takes hours. Because I need to see him. And he'll see me. It's a matter of life and death."
The colossus remained a mute for a moment, and the young woman waited for his decision, her heart beating dully, then he finally shrugged and moved to let her in.
"I'll take you to him," said the colossus, leading the way.
The luxury of the place was unheard of. Ashley was amazed at how the naive little engineer she had known had become a rich and powerful man.
"I thought he was busy with a woman," Ashley remarked, following the hostile man all the same.
"Well, you said it was an emergency so..."
Ashley heard music, piano music.
The colossus opened a door into a huge, brightly lit room with a piano in the middle. Randal was sitting there, playing.
Ashley was an amateur, but even she knew that her ex-boyfriend's playing was extraordinary.
Another thing she didn't know about him.
He stopped playing.
"Yes?"
"A woman named Ashley who wishes to see you. Says it's important."
"The pisser." inquired Randal without looking in their direction.
"She also specified to tell you that."
Ashley gave the man a look heavy with reproach.
"You said he was with a woman."
"I never said that."
And after that annoying little smirk he left them.
Randal played with the keys of his piano.
"What do you want, Ashley, and you'd better have a good reason."
"I do indeed."
"Which one?"
"May I approach."
After a clenching of the jaw, he finally agreed.
The young woman settled into a comfortable armchair.
"Now I'm listening. You said it was really urgent. I hope you're right."
Ashley sat up straight.
"I'm telling the truth. I'm not going to beat around the bush."
And without waiting, she related Linda's situation to Randal. He listened, not interrupting her, not once.
When she had finished, she waited for him to speak.
"I see. So, what exactly do you want from me?"
"Anything you can do."
He gave a brief chuckle.
"In other words, kill him."
Ashley had obviously expected him to propose this, but hearing it was different nonetheless.
She moistened her lips, feeling her nervousness grow.
"If..."
She swallowed her saliva before she could continue.
"If that's the only way, then..."
Randal's sinister sneer cut her off.
"That's a good one!"
He shook his head.
"You dare to come here and ask me for something you yourself reproached me for with such contempt a few days ago, and believe I'll agree to help you. Or rather to your friend who means nothing to me."
He continued to sneer.
"Ah, really, your arrogance will get the better of you."
"That is already done."
"There's that at least. And no, I'm not going to do anything."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't feel like it.
"What about a reward?"
"Precisely, what this criminal like me wants is the repayment of the debt of our friend's sailor. And so all you have to do is pay him back."
"How?"
Randal frowned as if she'd become a complete idiot.
"But from your darling, of course. If you're still together." he gestured suspiciously.
"We are. And we're getting married."
"Well, so much the better. That's the best solution. You're welcome for the solution. Since we're seeing each other for the last time, it's free.′
"But I'm not going to ask Shawn for anything."
"Because you think he won't lend the money."
"Because that criminal raped my friend. No more negotiating."
"Then you should kill him yourself, or better yet, let your friend do it. That's what I did."
At these last words, Ashley felt her breath catch in her chest. It took her a while to speak again.
"You were too, Randal? Raped?"
"No." he made, which relieved the young woman greatly. "But what happened to me was just as horrible. So I took matters into my own hands. That Linda should do the same."
"But she can't. Neither can I, Randal, nor Shawn. Only you can. Please, Randal. Please."
And she uttered this last plea with all her heart, raising her eyes to his and plunging her limpid gaze into his.
"And what must I gain in return, for I never do anything for nothing."
Ashley ran a hand over her face, shaking her head.
"I'll do anything you want. Absolutely anything."
"Anything, huh." he pointed out to himself. "You mean you'll do anything for your friend, even give yourself to someone you have nothing but hatred and contempt for?"
"Yes."
Randal tasted the thing.
"You're not capable of that, Ashley. You don't have what it takes."
"I do now."
Randal rose to approach his unwelcome guest and considered her at length.
"Everything, you say, even if I asked you to leave Shawn today and never come back to him."
He was testing her, or maybe he was serious. In any case, he had only one answer, alas, Ashley never had the strength to say it.
"I love him."
"I never said you didn't, nor did I ask you to stop doing it."
He continued to stare at her with his cold, assessing gaze, then smiled.
"Suck me."
Ashley hadn't expected this, even though she now knew the man he'd become.
"What?"
"Blow me. For a start, obviously. Then I'll see if I want to help your friend or not. It all depends on your performance."
He stood in front of her, waiting for her to act.
She was going to do it, but she wasn't going to submit without flinching.
"Very well," she said, placing her hands on the waistband of his pants.
"But I wonder if I'm up to it."
Her tone alerted Randal.
"Of what?"
"Of reviving you, of course!"
"How? What do you mean?"
She shrugged.
"Last time, you stopped when you were only halfway up my ass. At first I thought it was because you'd lost interest in me, but then I had time to think and come to a conclusion."
"To what?" his tone was calm but made her shiver to her core.
"That you just weren't capable of it."
She returned his mocking smile as well as his words.
"Randal, you don't have what it takes."
Ashley began to recognize that terrifying silence, the prelude to doom.
"You think I've become impotent...?"
She knew she'd stirred up a storm, but she'd gone too far.
"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
They locked eyes, and Ashley trembled at the demented glare radiating from her ex's.
"Indeed."