AUTHOR'S NOTE: WOW! You guys just blew my mind with the amount of passionate responses to the previous chapter.
85 reviews for chapter 13 alone? Allow me to bow before you all. I'm humbled by your amazing support! Special shout-outs to all those who reviewed but I wasn't able to respond to. You all ROCK!
Special mentions to a few people who helped with my legal and medical questions; Carol, Layla, bibi 13ca, Kristi and Kim. I'd be so lost without you all. HUGE HUGS!
A Woman's Worth: Chapter FOURTEEN
Damon's POV
I thought that the scariest moment of my life was that time when I found my mother lying dead on the floor with my little brother kneeling right beside her, holding her hand and waiting on her to wake up. At that moment, I was afraid for little Stefan and myself, not knowing what was going to happen, whether we would be separated or whether our father was going to come after us next. I thought that I'd never have to feel that kind of fear ever again for as long as I lived.
I could not be more wrong.
There are no words to describe the feelings that coursed through my veins as I stood there motionless in a bathroom, looking at the girl I loved curled up on the floor, surrounded by cascading water from the shower and holding a razor blade between her fingers that was now lying limp on the cold tiled floor. Large wet clumps of her beautiful brown hair circled the drain cover beside her prone body, while some clung onto her skin like a veil, covering part of her face, shoulders and chest from view.
It was the most disturbing sight I have ever seen, and I have seen plenty in my line of work, even horrifying death scenes at times. But this…it could possibly be even worse than death.
My body's automatic response after getting over my initial shock was to get over to Elena as soon as I regained control of my limbs, and then I was kneeling down beside her, shutting off the freezing water supply that rained over her before I allowed my eyes to wander over her body to see the extent of her injuries. She was naked, but as much as I had craved to see her body in my wildest imagination, I wasn't checking out her womanly curves or her lady parts to satisfy my curiosity.
No, the sight of her battered and trembling body did not do anything for my libido. On the contrary. I had a hard time swallowing back my nausea from seeing the redness of her skin, some in deeper shades than the rest while some were covered with purpling bruises even as I watched. She looked as if she had been out in the sun for far too long while scrubbing her skin raw with a scouring pad.
Then there was her hair. I used to have to fight the urge to run my fingers through her long and silky strands, but now all that was left of her glorious mane was a much shorter, unevenly cut style. I wanted to cry for her, not because of something as trivial as vanity, but because I could only imagine what she must have gone through emotionally in order to lift that blade in her hand and sawed through small locks of her hair, bit by bit, until they were roughly shoulder-length.
I reached out slowly and carefully to remove the sharp blade from between her fingers, not wanting to accidentally spook her or cut her but she didn't react, merely staring blankly at the opposite wall.
I quickly perused over her wrists, searching for any sign of self-mutilation, but thankfully, there were none. However, I could now see the marks on both of her arms left by the monster who had no doubt held her down forcefully as he sexually assaulted her. The other hand was also swollen around the knuckles, suggesting that they might be fractured or sprained.
"Elena," I whispered with a lump in my throat, reaching over to gently brush away the leftover strands from her impromptu haircut from her face. The moment my finger contacted with her skin, however, she jumped about a foot high, her eyes wide with terror. My heart fell when she cowered away from me, her head shaking in denial at being touched. "Elena, it's me. It's Damon," I said in what I hoped was a soothing voice, attempting to calm her down as I raised my hands in front of her, making it clear that I wouldn't touch her if she didn't want me to.
I couldn't bear the thought of her being afraid of me. I would never hurt her in a million years.
She was shaking like leaf, whether from fear or from the cold water earlier, I didn't know. All I knew was that I had to get her out of there and quickly, too, as her lips was turning blue. It was then that I realized that she had been sitting in the bathroom for goodness knows how long in a catatonic state because apparently, she didn't even realize that Caroline and I were in there with her for the past few minutes. She didn't seem to know that we had been pounding on the door, trying to get her to let us in, or the fact that I practically broke the entire door down to get to her.
"Damon?" she mumbled, her frantic eyes searched for mine as she returned to reality.
I nodded in relief, my fingers reaching out to stroke the side of her face, but she hastily retreated against the bathroom wall when my fingers brushed across a particularly sensitive patch of skin right at her jaw line. That was when I finally noticed the discoloration there.
Lockwood was a dead man!
"I'm here, Elena. You're safe now." I turned back to shoot a meaningful look at the distraught blonde behind me and nodded once to her before turning back to gaze down at Elena. "We're going to dry you off and get you out of here, okay?" I asked softly, and then a white towel appeared over my right shoulder, courtesy of the silent Caroline.
When she didn't respond, I cautiously covered her body with the towel, and then I lifted her up in my arms, ignoring the dripping water that stained my jacket and shirt as I slowly made my way into the bedroom with Caroline trailing behind us. I set her down on the edge of the bed as gently as possible before I silently urged the uncharacteristically-silent blonde to come forward.
"Care, can you get her changed while I pack up her stuff?" I asked over my shoulder, my eyes never once straying from Elena's face, noticing that it was now devoid of emotions. I wondered if I had lost her again to her own safe place in her mind, where she felt the need to retreat into rather than being in the present with us. I didn't blame her.
When Caroline came over to take my place in front of her, I reluctantly left them alone for some privacy while I made my way around the room, grabbing random items from the closet and drawers that might be hers while throwing them in an unorganized pile into a suitcase. I didn't want Elena to be in that house for even a second longer than absolutely necessary, so I put my multitasking skills to the test as I placed a call to Elijah.
It was time to involve the police in this case, and I wanted the filthy monster to be caught and kept behind bars before we even left the house. I raced around the room with various articles of Elena's clothing in one hand as I waited for Elijah to pick up the phone but before the call connected, a low moan and then a wince sounded from the bed, causing me to hastily retrace my steps to find Caroline holding the towel up in front of Elena, no longer white but now stained with scattered tinges of red.
Blood.
It seemed to be a recurring theme lately, starting from earlier today at the bar when I had this spine-chilling image of Elena with a blood-stained wedding gown. In hindsight, that was probably an omen of the horrors that awaited us.
I didn't think it was possible to hate Lockwood even more that I already did, but now, I just wanted his head on a platter. My hands clenched in tight fists beside me as I imagined myself rushing home and arming myself with the gun hidden in my bedside drawer, and then going all vigilante on him, emptying every single bullet into his body, starting with his penis. Yes, I would commit murder for this one girl that I loved beyond all reason.
"I-I was just drying her off and then-and then, there was blood…and her skin…." Caroline muttered, stumbling over her words as her eyes fixed on a spot between Elena's legs. "What did he do to you, Elena?" she moaned, her face crumpling into an expression of grief.
We needed to get to a hospital. Now.
Stifling the urge to sink down onto my knees and breaking down into tears of despair, I grabbed the towel from Caroline's grip and took over, sensing that the blonde was about an inch from losing it completely. I didn't have time for this. I could only handle one damsel at a time, and this was not the time to freak out. Elena needed me, and by golly, I wasn't about to let her down now.
"Care, can you look for a robe, something really soft? And here, take my phone and get a photo of everything in this room that might be evidence for what happened but don't contaminate the crime scene, okay? We'll need to document them for Elijah later," I instructed, and thankfully, she composed herself long enough to make herself useful while I returned my attention to the once-again shivering Elena.
In the back of my mind, it was probably inappropriate for me to be the one to get her dressed while she was sitting completely naked on the bed, rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her chest, but it wasn't the time to dwell on propriety. I detached myself from being the man who was in love with the woman before me, and adopted the professional persona of being her case-handler, here only to do a job and that was to protect my charge, feelings be damned. So, I dabbed the towel lightly over her sensitive skin, left raw and bruised by her vigorous rubbing earlier, and I watched with a heavy heart as each dab left her skin with tiny red dots, especially around her inner thighs.
I bit my lower lip in frustration when the towel came away with a larger blood stain after I gently ran it over the apex of her thighs, seeing the worst of the damage done by the man who should no longer be allowed to roam free amongst society. Feeling my sanity hanging on by a thread, I quickly finished drying off the rest of her body and what's left of her hair, and then wrapped her with a silk robe that Caroline had managed to find, tying the sash loosely around her tiny waist. I couldn't risk getting her dressed in anything else for fear that it would aggravate her skin any further.
"Elena, wait here for me, okay? I won't be long," I told her, my fingers wrapped around her freezing hand, the uninjured one, feeling its lifelessness in mine. Once again, I failed to get a respond. I was about to release it when my finger touched something hard around hers, and looking down, I had to suppress an angry growl.
It was the engagement ring, lodged partway down her ring finger. It was a size or two too small, and it appeared as if it was forcefully shoved down her finger, judging by a deep scratch that ran over her knuckle. Bile rose in my throat at the thought of Elena marrying that rapist, and I all but snatched the offending item off her finger and threw it behind me, not caring where it landed. Belatedly, it occurred to me that I should have shoved it down Lockwood's throat through his nostril and watched while he choked on it and died.
Shaking my head to clear it, I quickly got to work; I gathered the suitcase now filled with everything that belonged to Elena and made a hasty trip to my car, placing it in the trunk before I returned upstairs, finding Blondie wrapping up with her photo-taking skills and taking one final zoom at the smudged blood stain on the carpet I found earlier. I knew from experience from hanging out with Elijah and also the numerous episodes of CSI I watched over the years that evidence at a crime scene shouldn't be tampered with or they could not be admissible into court. But then again, Lockwood could very well return soon and destroy any trace of his assault, so I wanted to have some photographic evidence at least, just in case Elijah and his team did not arrive in time to catalogue them.
I returned to Elena's side the moment I reentered the bedroom, fighting the urge to just grab her and run, away from this room, this house, this monster and the traumatic experience associated with all three. I wanted to protect her, to make her forget that any of this ever happened, like it was all just a bad dream. I wanted to escape from reality with her, and live together in a dreamland free from suffering and pain, but I knew that it was wishful thinking on my part.
The horrible ordeal was over, but the worst part was yet to come. The aftermath's a bitch and I wished that I could shield her from it all, from reliving every single moment of it, exposing the raw wounds all over again, but I couldn't. And shouldn't.
Lockwood needed to pay for what he did.
I picked up the girl in my arms, lifting her higher up and closer to me as I carried her down to my car before setting her down gingerly in the backseat. Wordlessly, I threw my car keys over to the blonde, making it clear that I expected her to do the driving while I got into the back with Elena. I could see the surprise in Blondie's expression, because it was common knowledge that I would never allow anyone to get behind the wheel of my baby, not while I was alive. And normally I wouldn't, except this was not a normal occasion.
And also, I couldn't bring myself to let go of my little damsel right now, not when holding her hand in mine was the only proof I had that she was still here, albeit broken and beaten, but alive nonetheless. It was an assurance that I needed badly in order to preserve my sanity.
In a way, I was kind of relieved and oddly grateful that my mother died when she did, because at least she found peace at last and she was finally safe from my father. Death would have been kinder, and I know it sounds bad to say this, but surviving this kind of abuse and later, having to face the world and the monster who did it, face-to-face in an open court would be a fate worse than death.
I was roused from my inner musings when I felt a weight on my shoulder, and I turned my head to find that Elena had leaned in, perhaps unknowingly, and rested her head there while cradling her injured hand against her chest. Automatically, my arms circled around her waist and I simply held her in my embrace as tight as I dared, letting her know that I was there for her, that I was staying by her side like I should have earlier that morning.
I didn't let myself process the part I played in what happened to her yet, and I knew that the moment I had a spare minute, I was going to torture myself with a bunch of 'what-ifs' and 'I should'ves'. Elena didn't need my guilt right now, not when I needed to be strong for her.
I let her down today, and I would have to spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to her.
The next few hours passed in a hazy blur of activities. It started with a telephone call to Elijah from the backseat of the car as I held Elena in my embrace, asking him to meet us at the hospital without divulging any details. As soon as we arrived at the emergency department, I wasted no time in flinging my car door open, and then carrying my charge into the lobby, past the reception and the staff who were calling after me. I wasn't about to subject her to curious gazes from busybodies, a line of questionings about her health, and worse still, whispered guesses of what might have happened to her from strangers.
I headed straight to Meredith's office and upon reaching it, heaved a sigh of relief when I saw her in there. She looked up from her stack of paperwork in surprise when I entered with her former patient, and I gave a firm shake of my head to prevent her from asking pointed questions about the reason we were there. I could see her eyes perusing over Elena with her critical doctor's appraisal, starting with the shock at seeing her much shorter disheveled hair, and she didn't like what she saw, judging from the way her lips pressed together firmly.
"Care, can you stay with Elena while I have a quick word with Mer outside?" I asked Blondie who had followed me into the office. Right now, there was nobody else I would trust to be left alone with Elena, and I was lucky enough that Caroline was there with me throughout the entire ordeal. She was the one person who understood, who felt everything that I was feeling now, only maybe a watered down version because I was a mess on the inside.
"Of course," Care responded without any hesitation, and I watched with grim satisfaction when she wrapped a protective arm around her best friend's shoulders and hugged her close.
With one last look at the subdued brunette, I pushed Meredith out into the hallway, closing the door behind me just as Elijah walked up.
"Damon, what's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked with a look of concern.
Those two seemingly innocent questions were the last straw for my tightly controlled emotions. My two friends exchanged a look of alarm when I strode towards a wall and proceeded to slam my fist into it with a loud roar.
"Hey, hey, stop that!" the doctor called out as she grabbed my arm to stop my tantrum. "Tell me what happened so that I can help Elena."
Her name was exactly what I needed to hear to calm me down, the thought of her in there with Caroline, scared and probably traumatized after what she went through this morning and then I remembered the blood on her skin and her thighs. "Lockwood raped her," I bit out, gritting my teeth with disgust. Two shocked gasps were the only responses I received immediately after my announcement.
"He beat her and sexually assaulted her and we found her, naked and bruised on the bathroom floor, holding a razor blade in one hand," I went on when they didn't seem capable of talking.
"She tried to commit suicide?" Meredith asked with a worried frown.
"No…I don't know, maybe," I shook my head and shrugged. Turning my attention to Elijah, I handed my cell phone to him as I said, "The bastard wasn't at the house when I got there, but we took pictures of what we found at the site."
I waited impatiently as he scrolled through the photos taken by Caroline earlier, his scowl deepening after every image. The moment he raised his tortured eyes back to me, I knew that he would do everything in his power to bring that monster to justice. In fact, if he wasn't such a moral detective, I daresay he would have aimed his gun at him and fired until he ran out of bullets. But this was Elijah and he wouldn't do that. Stupid ethics!
"I'll send an officer to get Elena's statement shortly. I'll call you when I have news." That was all he said before he tossed my phone back to me and hurried off, lifting his own phone to his ear. Now that the police was involved and with one of my best friends heading the case, I could focus on Elena's recovery and made sure that she stayed protected from Lockwood's reach.
"I'll get the nurses to run a rape kit on Elena and then we'll have a look at the extent of her injuries. Is there anything I should know about?" Meredith asked as she slipped back into her professional role.
"I found her barricaded in the bathroom with the shower on, so I assumed that she must have cleaned herself up before I got there. She was bleeding and her skin looked red and extremely raw. I think he hit her face, too." That's it, cool and calm like the good doctor. The situation didn't need me going off in emotional outbursts now. Meredith nodded and left me standing there alone in the hallway as she approached the nurses' station and issued instructions, and then two of them followed after her, reentering her office after a quick knock on the door.
I allowed myself a brief moment to compose myself. It was an extremely difficult task, holding myself back and being all calm when all I wanted to do was to either go look for the monster myself or to drink myself into oblivion at the Grill. I couldn't take this inactivity, not when I could feel my self-loathing creeping in and doing its best to claw at my sanity. My mind wanted to give in but I held it off merely by the fingertips, knowing full well that if I let myself succumb to it, I might not make my way back in time if Elena needed me. So, I held on.
Luckily I did so, because then I heard her voice, screaming in a panic. I didn't even pause to consider whether I was allowed inside when Meredith was with her, but I charged in like a bull anyway, my eyes instantly seeking her out. She was struggling against the nurses who were trying to get her into a wheelchair, screaming at the top of her lungs as if they were hurting her. I was by her side in an instant, grabbing her shoulders and calling her name.
"Elena. It's okay, Elena. They're trying to help you," I said in an effort to comfort her, but she refused to listen, her hands pushing against mine as she shook her head in denial. "Mer, what's going on?"
"I told her that we were moving her to a private room to do the rape kit, and then she started freaking out the moment we touched her. She kept saying 'No' and telling us not to touch her. Damon, we need to get this done," Mer reminded me, with a meaningful look. She was right, of course she was, but I wasn't at all surprised by Elena's reaction. She was stressed out and probably still raw from the ordeal but we couldn't afford to waste any more time.
I crouched down low beside Elena's chair and cupped her face, resisting her struggles. "Listen to me, Elena. It's Damon, okay? You know I won't let anyone hurt you," I said softly as I gazed deeply into her fearful eyes. "I promise they won't hurt you, okay? Meredith and the nurses just want to help you, and you need to let them do their jobs. Caroline will be with you the entire time, and I'll be right outside, waiting for you until you're done."
"No, please, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be touched. I c-can't stand it…it hurts, Damon. It h-hurts so much," she whispered, her eyes pleading for me to understand. And I did, but as much as I wanted to hide her from the rest of the world until she was ready to rejoin it again, she needed medical care right now. There were no two ways about it.
I nodded and rubbed my thumbs tenderly over her cheeks, the parts that were not bruised or sensitive. "I know it does, sweetie, but you have to be brave for me this one time, okay? You trust Meredith, right? She's going to take the pain away and then we can go home. You want to see Pig again, don't you?" I asked hurriedly right after I mentioned the word 'home', which made her look fearful again. Of course I wouldn't let her go back to that place ever again. To be honest, I wouldn't even let her go home with Blondie, not if it meant that the monster could return and somehow convince her to go back with him again. It happened once before, and I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.
"I can't, I can't do it. I just want to forget everything, please," she begged me, her eyes shining with unshed tears and I understood perfectly where she was coming from. It was the exact same thing I was feeling when I first turned to alcohol as a means of escaping. But there was no escape, not from this evil that was eating us alive from the inside. It was always there, lurking, waiting for a chance to pounce on us and destroy us when we least expect it.
I hated myself for what I was about to do to Elena, but it had to be done. "Elena, you were just raped by your boyfriend," I told her, cringing inwardly when she flinched at my usage of the ugly word. "It's not something that you can just forget about. He held you down, beat you up and forced himself on you. I'm willing to bet that he didn't think about using protection while he was busy raping you, did he? In addition to the chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, you could actually get pregnant from this."
I was a bastard for doing this to her, especially when she was so fragile. But it might just be the only way to get through to her now. It was the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but I still felt lousy for putting that expression on her face, as if someone had told a little five-year-old that Santa doesn't exist and that God was a myth. At this point, I was pretty certain that He didn't exist, or if He did, then He was damn lousy at His job. If there was a God, then why would someone like Elena suffer so much in her young life?
"B-but he didn't…h-he pulled out," she swallowed hard, her face turning ashen at the memory.
"There's still a risk, Elena. I can run some tests, make sure you're clean and that there's no chance of that happening. It'll give you some peace of mind, at the very least," Mer said kindly.
Still undecided, Elena looked to me for support, and I tightened my grip on her as I nodded in encouragement. She was afraid, I knew, but by some miracle she still trusted me even though I didn't deserve it. "I'll be right outside the examination room, okay? I'll come and get you the second you're done," I promised.
She nodded hesitantly, and I watched her go with increasing worry, trailing behind the group as they pushed her out of Meredith's office and towards an empty room, her wide eyes on me the entire time as mine was on her. Blondie patted my arm comfortingly before she joined Elena up in front while I kept my gaze on my nervous brunette until some swinging doors blocked my view when they entered the Emergency Department.
There was nothing to do now but wait, and I paced up and down the narrow corridor, counting each and every step I took, ignoring the curious gazes from the people in the waiting room. In my mind, I kept replaying the scene at the house, that moment when I first clad eyes on Elena in the bathroom when I managed to break down the door. That one snapshot moment that could very well win a prize for the most heartbreaking image ever captured. That image was wreaking havoc within my chest, so I pushed it away before it could consume me and turn me into a writhing mess on the hospital floor.
I counted to four hundred and eighty steps before my phone rang, and I heaved a sigh of relief for the distraction. It was Elijah.
"Damon," he greeted, his voice completely serious. "We got him, but he's refusing to talk without his lawyer present. Since the attack is only hearsay at the moment, I can't hold him at the station for long, not without an official statement from Elena."
My body relaxed at the news, glad that the monster was nowhere near Elena at the moment. "She's having her examination done now, and I don't know how long it'll take. Mer's conducting the rape kit and then I guess she'll have to treat all her injuries before your officer can see her to take her statement. Where did you pick him up? Did you manage to get a warrant to enter his house?"
"No, because there's no official police report made. We picked him up at a café near his house; he was getting drunk at the bar. Look, there's not much for us to go on at the moment due to the lack of evidence so I can only hold him for questioning…unless we get that statement." A huge sigh could be heard on the other end of the line, and I knew that Elijah was as eager to nail that asshole as much as I did. "In the mean time, he's not talking. At all."
Why did that piece of news not surprise me? "Then maybe I should go down there and have a little chat with him? I might be able to get him to 'fess up and if not, then at least I'll get to look him in the eye and tell him how much I wish he'd take a long walk off a very short pier," I quipped, my hand balled up tightly at my side while imagining them wrapped around that asshole's neck.
"Damon, you can't just-"
"Great, now that that's settled, I'll see you real soon!" I chimed in and disconnected the call, deliberately ignoring his protest. This was one of those times that I wished that I could divide myself into two; one to stay at the hospital to wait for Elena and the other, across town, preferably committing murder in the first degree.
Right on cue, one of the nurses, an older blonde woman who was assisting Meredith walked out through the swinging doors and headed in my direction. "Mr. Salvatore?" she inquired with a raised brow. "The patient has been asking for you repeatedly since she went in, but Dr. Fell said to tell you not to worry."
The nurse flashed me a curious look when I nodded, her eyes perusing over me openly. Was she checking me out?! "Something wrong?" I asked, about to tell her that I was already spoken for and that I preferred my women to be brunettes, stubborn, foolish, has a heart of gold, and able to stupidly forgive people who doesn't deserve it. Oh, and wide doe-eyes with great 'cunnilinguistic' skills in the kitchen.
"Dr. Fell wanted to know if you had any hair left. I'll be happy to report back that you do," she cracked a small smile as understanding dawned on me. Yup, Mer knew me all too well if she had guessed that I would be about ready to start pulling my hair out by the handful had it not been for the phone call from Elijah.
"How's Elena in there? She okay? In any pain? Are the tests done? Is everything okay? How long more will it take?" I started shooting out questions in rapid succession, eager for news, any news of what's happening behind those double doors. I couldn't take not knowing for a second longer.
Taking a deep breath, the nurse answered my questions effortlessly. And in order. "She's freaking out a little but otherwise, calm. She's as okay as a situation like hers would expect. Not in pain. Rape kit done, waiting for blood work results to come back, and we've hooked her up with IV fluids and some antibiotics for the burns on her skin. Everything is going according to our standard procedure, so you don't have to worry about that. We still need to clean and dress her wounds and x-ray her hand, so it might take some time, maybe another two hours," she said, looking around her cautiously.
I realized then that she was not supposed to share all these information with me because of the doctor-patient confidentiality clause but she was probably acting on Mer's orders, making the exception for me because of my special 'relationship' with Elena and the fact that she had no other family members who could be the recipient of her updates. Care and I were the only family she had left.
"Thank you," I told her sincerely, feeling oddly touched that she would come out and put my mind at ease. If it would take two whole hours before I could see Elena, then I might as well put the waiting time to good use, like, oh, I don't know….bash someone's head in with a very blunt axe? "Can you discreetly let Dr. Fell know that I'll be at the police station and for her to call me the second they're done in there? I'd like to be back in time to see Elena as soon as she's out."
"Will do, Mr. Salvatore," she agreed and then she disappeared behind the double doors again.
As for me, I had somewhere else I needed to be.
Mystic Falls was not a very big town, no matter how much the residents liked to pretend it was, judging by the number of town events held every other week. So, it wasn't surprising that it took all of ten minutes to get from point A to point B – namely, the police station. My presence there did not attract much attention, maybe because I had been a regular visitor for the past few years. No, it wasn't because I was a badass punk that had to be hauled in, but because of my line of work.
I worked alongside those officers and detectives like my buddy Elijah to make sure that other badass punks like Mason Jerkwood were brought to justice. That was probably why some of them pointed me towards one of the interrogation rooms as soon as they saw me walking through the entrance, knowing full well who I was there to see (read: kill!).
I waved at them as I passed, heading directly for the closed door. Elijah was all up in my face as soon as I entered without knocking.
"Whoa, Damon, you're not supposed to be in here!" my buddy objected, placing a warning hand on my chest as I glared down at the bored-looking man seated behind a table. I noted with satisfaction that he was alone and lawyer-less, at least for now.
"Relax, Elijah. I'm not going to do anything stupid, not in a police station! I just want to have a friendly chat, get some updates on the latest, you know?" I remarked sarcastically without removing my stoic gaze from the curly-haired soon-to-be sushi, after I chopped him up in little pieces and threw him to a school of piranhas. For a moment there, I actually felt sorry for the piranhas, having to eat pond scum like him. Maybe I should also throw in some toothpicks for them to pick the remnants between their razor sharp teeth.
"You want news, Salvatore? Did ya hear about my recent engagement?"
Elijah and I both turned towards the smirking man who couldn't help himself but to taunt me precisely where he knew it'd hurt the most. It didn't matter; at least it got him talking. Planting my hands firmly in my pockets to remove the temptation to remove his spine through his ears, I moved leisurely towards the man – no, monster – who was the reason why Elena was at the hospital, getting treatment. My hatred for him increased exponentially and would forever be a part of me for as long as I lived. "Oh, that's right, I saw the ring. You do have excellent taste, I'll give you that."
Elijah remained where he stood when I walked in, his body tensed and poised to intervene should I lose control of my emotions with Jerkwood. I sat down on a vacant chair opposite him, resting my ankle on the other knee as I threw him a challenging look, prompting that it was his turn for a witty comeback. He didn't disappoint.
"Thank you, but we obviously share the same exquisite tastes, especially when it comes to women, or at least one particular woman. So, have you come to congratulate me on my upcoming nuptials?"
I gritted my jaw painfully at his audacity to bring up Elena at a time like this. His arrogance knew no bounds. I decided promptly to cut the crap and give it to him straight. "Are you really as heartless as you are a bastard like you seem to be right now? Elena's in a hospital right now, bleeding and traumatized because of what you did. Wasn't it enough that you physically abused her repeatedly in the past? Now you had to resort to rape to get your jollies?" I bit out in disgust.
"I really don't know what you're talking about," he replied, feigning ignorance although his expression hardened at my accusations. "I never abused anyone in my life. Why don't you ask Elena? I'm sure she'd be able to clarify things for you. I treat her as I would any woman I'm in a relationship with; with love and respect with a bit of kinky sex when the mood strikes."
"Respect? So your version of respect ends up with her covered in bruises and blood? Does it involve her being catatonic and refusing to be touched by anyone in her vicinity? Do you even care about the effects it will have on her, the woman you live with, the one you proposed to and the one you supposedly love?"
I felt rather than saw Elijah moving closer to where we sat, wary of my raised voice and probably my body language, too. I was leaning forward, on the very edge of my seat, in the middle of a staring contest with someone who wasn't fit to even breathe in the oxygen around us.
A troubled expression crossed Jerkwood's features for a split second, and all it took was a single blink and it was gone. If I hadn't been watching him that closely, I would have thought that I had imagined it. "Come on, you and I both know how melodramatic girls can be! I didn't do anything to her…nothing she wasn't begging for, anyway."
I stared at him incredulously, unable to believe what I was hearing. Did he seriously expect us to believe that Elena was a willing participant in the whole thing?
"Between us men, let me just say that Elena Gilbert is one wild tigress in the sack. She really loves it rough, and she's usually the one who comes up with role-playing ideas and all that. She slips into characters very well… too well, in fact that I sometimes can't even tell when she's pretending and when she's not. I guess her constant moans and pleas to make her cum should provide me with some clues, huh?" he let out a hollow chuckle and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me. My entire body went rigid at his words, gearing up for an explosive moment I knew was inevitable.
"And you know what?" he asked, leaning forward as if he was sharing a particularly juicy secret with me. "Just this morning she was practically begging to be fucked hard. So in the spirit of Christmas, who was I to deny my fiancée's request, right? I gave it to her so good, she must have cummed eight, maybe nine times while screaming my name. She must have been so sore by the time I was done with her. Do you think that's why she went to see a doctor?"
I was out of my chair and flying across the table that separated us in an instant. I managed to land one well-aimed punch at his jaw before Elijah successfully pulled me off of him, kicking and yelling as I went. My heart was pounding from the adrenaline and my chest was heaving from the exertion, but I wasn't nearly done with that asshat. As long as he was still breathing, I wasn't done, not by a long shot.
"Son of a bitch!" Lockwood cursed, lifting one hand to cup his jaw. "That bastard attacked me! Did you see that?" he targeted his question to the detective who was holding me back.
Pushing me to stand behind him, Elijah straightened his jacket and regarded him levelly. "I must have blinked, so I didn't see anything. That looks like a nasty bruise; do you need some ice for that?"
I stood there, temporarily distracted as I gaped at my friend in shock because Elijah was usually a stickler for following procedures. He wouldn't let something like my flying-over-a-table-armed-with-my-right-hook go without some form of punishment. I mean, he could have read me my Miranda rights right then and stuck me in jail overnight for that stunt I just pulled.
"Where the fuck is the justice?! A detective who witnessed an unprovoked attack on a civilian does nothing and covers it up? You'll be hearing from my lawyer soon!" Lockwood yelled in frustration and I watched with smug fascination as his face started swelling, right where my knuckles connected with him. My only regret was not aiming higher and knocking him out cold.
"Justice would be when Elena gives her statement to the police and this detective here slaps a set of cuffs on your wrists before hauling you off to jail where you'll share a cell with a guy named Butch McGee who likes guys with an ass like yours. And if that fails, then I will find you and I will end you by lodging a bullet so deep into that pathetic little dick of yours, the only way the coroner's gonna retrieve it is to chop it off and feed it back to you through your nostril!"
There, I think I ruled at trash talking!
Lockwood was about to object to my death threats when Elijah quickly stepped in, sensing that it was time to put a stop to my lovely visit. "It's funny, I can't hear very well either because I haven't been to a salon to get my ears cleaned in years. Say Damon, will you go with me now?" And with that, I was reluctantly pulled out of the room and into an empty office before I could even process that Elijah actually talked about getting his ear wax removed in front of a suspect.
I was shaking my head and frowning as he rounded in front of me and pinned me down with a deathly glare. I knew that face. He was not happy with me.
"What the hell were you thinking?! You risked my job and the case by punching and threatening the suspect when we have nothing against him? And he was unrepresented at the time, too! Damon, I allowed you to be in that room because I thought it might get him to slip up, but all you did was to build his case for him! We have no way of proving that he forced himself on Elena, not when it's his words against hers right now. It's tricky trying to establish the circumstances that led to an attack on a victim, what more when the victim is his own fiancée!"
I knew that he was right, but man, was I pissed off at that monster at the time. "The things he said about Elena-" I said through clenched jaw, exhaling loudly as I paced within the small office.
"I know, and I want him to pay for it as badly as you do, but there's a system I have to follow, Damon. I'm a cop first, and a friend second in this case, and I can't allow you to get so involved in this because it's too personal for you. You're not helping Elena right now if you're going to go attacking the suspect, so why don't you go back to the hospital and be there for her? Let me do my job here, okay?" he asked, his expression one of understanding and sympathy.
"Fine," I bit out, knowing that this was out of my control for now. I wanted, needed to be there for Elena when she needed me the most and I should just let Elijah handle the police side of things. It was the most logical solution, I convinced myself. "I'll stay out of this but I need you to keep me updated in case anything happens…anything at all, even if he so much as sneezes, then I want to know about that, deal?"
"Deal," he answered, looking relieved for the first time today. I suspected that he'd be gaining a few more frown lines before this case was over. "But, Damon….you know I'm going to have no choice but to let him walk if we don't get that statement from Elena soon, right?"
I paused in the act of turning the knob at the door, a coldness settling over me at the thought of that monster coming after her, maybe even killing her this time. Turning back to address Elijah, I announced confidently, "I'll make sure that doesn't happen. She'll talk."
Little did I know that in a matter of hours, Elena would prove Elijah to be right. Soon, Mason Lockwood would be a free man again, and my fear for her safety would unexpectedly change the course of my future with the girl I loved.
My twitter: cgsa_cher
A huge thank you to my awesome beta KRISTI for her dedication in being my beta, despite maybe wanting to throttle my throat for not ending the story 4 chapters ago. What can I say except "Whoops"?
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