A/N- I have a couple more chapters posted but I shan't post them till I get a few more reviews. Enjoy this chapter and please remember reviews are always adored.
Chapter 8
Fox..." her pleas this time were soft and desperate and filled with a sense of hopelessness and grief. "You promised me...you promised..." Fox swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed back her hair "help me...please...don't let him hurt me...you let him hurt me..."
"Who hurt you baby? Who was it?" Fox asked her gently, tenderly wiping the tears from her eyes but Teresa was too dazed to answer him coherently and feeling as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders, Fox scooped her up in his arms and settled her on the bed, wrapping the heavy comforter around her when she began to shiver.
When she had stopped trembling and her eyes had lost that glassy look, he tilted her chin upward and asked her the question that had been burning in his mind for the last half hour.
"Who was it Teresa? Who was the man who raped you?"
Harmony Maine
The man walked into the office with a swagger, his hands calm and a smile curving his mouth but his eyes were wild with fright and his heart pounded a thousand beats a minute.
The gray haired gentleman waiting for him held a glass of whiskey in one hand and an envelope in the other. When he got closer he saw that the envelope contained some pictures and his blood froze when he saw the smiling faces of his wife and daughters.
Sweat broke out on his forehead and his stomach clenched with fear for he knew exactly what the photos meant and it was with trembling hands that he looked up into the cold eyes of the man who held his future in his hands.
"Mr. Crane, please don't hurt them. I've kept up my end of the bargain," he stammered disgusted with himself for begging like a frightened puppy but his pride was a small price to pay for his family's well being. If anything happened to them, he didn't think he'd survive it.
"I have to admit that you've been useful but you have a black mark against you Bennett. You let Teresa get away that night and my orders were quite specific weren't they?" Alistair murmured.
The man licked his lips nervously, his mouth was dry as sandpaper and he had to swallow a few times before he could speak.
"Mr. Crane I couldn't kill her…what I did was bad enough…I couldn't kill her…" he replied, cowering when Alistair walked around his desk and grabbed him forcefully by the arms.
"Shut up, you pansy faced weasel and listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you. Teresa is a threat to everything I hold dear and if you don't do as I say I will be sure to reveal to the press that your obsession with a girl who respected and admired you led to her brutal rape. What will your dear wife think of you then Bennett? You will not only lose your family you will lose your job and the respect of the entire community. And who knows what else could happen?" Alistair whispered silkily and the man swallowed hard as endless possibilities raced through his mind.
His wife would be devastated if she found out the truth and he couldn't bear to think of his sweet, perfect wife looking at him with scorn and derision but just remembering the scent and taste of Teresa's silky skin and the way she'd fought him like a temptress had him hardening in his pants. She'd been so tight, so fiery he had thought he'd explode before coming. Her resistance had only excited him and despite the time that had passed he could remember every moment of that night in vivid detail.
I understand Mr. Crane," the fair-haired man replied feeling powerless and small under Crane's gaze, and Alistair grinned motioning for him to sit down.
When he walked out of Alistair's office a few minutes later his face was green and he almost ran over the receptionist in his haste to get to the bathroom.
Once inside he threw up his lunch and as he washed his face, he cursed himself for having let his greed and his twisted obsession with Teresa get the best of him but damned if he wouldn't do it all over again for that night had been the best of his life.
Harmony P.D
The blond haired man flipped through the open files on his desk making sure none of the officers still hanging around could see what he was doing. He didn't want anyone to know that he was investigating his own brother but his gut had warned him that something was terribly wrong and the papers in front of him simply confirmed his suspicions.
"How could you have done something so monstrous?" he whispered, closing his eyes and wishing the file in front of him would magically disappear. "When did you sell your soul to the devil bro?" he wondered dazedly recalling that when they were children it had been his brother who always made sure everyone followed the rules and walked the straight and narrow and now….
"Now he's turned his back on everything he taught me," he murmured, tears falling from his eyes as the sheer magnitude of his brother's folly hit him. So many lives were going to be destroyed when the sht hit the fan, among them the lives of his family and his closest friends. The ringing of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts and when he saw the number on the caller I.D he cursed his dumb luck.
"What do you want Crane?" he asked, in no mood to talk to the Crane patriarch.
"Well, I have recently come into possession of some very useful information and if you want to keep your dirty little secrets you will meet me in my office in an hour. And don't forget that I still have that dossier on you, we wouldn't want your brother to find out about it would we?" Alistair asked conversationally.
His heart stopped. He nearly had forgotten about it. It had been so long since the rich SOB had levied it over his head and as he recalled the information in that file he cursed before hanging up the phone.
"Damn, there no point in thinking about it now for I've got bigger worries," the man murmured. "When Luis figures out what my brother did to his sister he's going to wipe the floor with him, friend or not," he murmured with a grimace. "I almost feel sorry for the bastard," he added shoving back his chair and looking at the files again before stuffing them in his briefcase. Almost
Teresa's condo…
"Babe tell me who it was," Fox begged. "Who hurt you?" he asked Teresa urgently, trying to garner his patience.
"He won't go away, he just won't leave me alone," Teresa moaned shaking her head in a futile attempt to rid herself of the dreadful memories that bombarded her dreams and had turned her life into a waking nightmare. "No mater what I do he's always there," she whispered and Fox felt his heart break at the desolation etched clearly on her face.
"When I get my hands on that bastard he's going to wish he'd never been born," Fox thought.
"Teresa, tell me who it was? Who was the man who raped you?" Fox asked again.
Teresa flinched at the word "rape" as a sickening feeling anchored itself in the pit of her stomach. Pulling away from Fox's gentle grasp, she turned away stiffly. Her mouth opened slightly but as the words were about to tumble out she remembered the man's hissed warning and snapped her mouth shut. "I can't tell him. I can't. He warned me that if I opened my mouth he'd hurt my family and I can't risk that," she thought.
"No one Fox, no one raped me," she muttered woodenly and Fox blinked at the sudden change in her tone. "Look, it's been a long night and I'm tired. Please leave."
"Teresa," he began but she cut him off before he could continue.
"Please Fox, just go. What happened tonight was a mistake. I have a comfortable life here in San Francisco and I have no intention of returning to Harmony. Ever," she told him closing her eyes wearily and praying he'd leave so she could collapse.
Noticing the fatigue carved on her face Fox decided to do as she asked and with a heart-felt sigh he picked up his jacket and strode to the door.
"I'm not going to let this drop Resa. Something just doesn't add up and I'm not going to stop digging till I get to the truth," he warned and Teresa nodded.
"Go," she whispered.
Just then the lusty cry of a toddler wailed through the air and Fox stared at Teresa uncomprehendingly.
"Oh God," Teresa murmured.
