This is for Oniz – thank you for your lovely reviews.
I wrote a chapter of this and a story I haven't started posting yet and they've gooone! So upsetting. I shall have to redo them. Sigh.
For now though, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I did love hot psycho Charlie!
IJKS xx
Chapter One Hundred and Three
Grant woke up to cold water being splashed on his face. He blinked several times, spitting the water out and trying to focus his eyes in the dark.
"Charlie?" he called out nervously.
Hearing movement, he tried to stand, only to realise that his arms were tied behind him and he was confined to a chair.
"Charlie?" he yelled again.
He heard another footstep but couldn't quite tell where it was coming from.
"Charlie, you'd better damn well untie me!"
She appeared in front of him like an apparition. Her hair was loose and she was in figure hugging leather trousers. He wondered why he hadn't noticed how hot she looked earlier. But more than hot, right now she looked dangerous. He swallowed anxiously.
"Charlie?" he said.
"I figured that you and I needed a little chat," she explained. "On my terms."
"Where would she have gone?" Joey asked for the millionth time as she and Ruby sat outside the Diner.
"I don't know!" Ruby yelled back at her.
"Don't start yelling at me, Ruby," Joey warned.
She stood and began to pace, telling the teenager that this whole thing was her fault.
"My fault?" Ruby yelled. "This is Charlie's fault, not mine!"
"If you hadn't brought that monster back into our lives..." Joey argued.
Ruby held her hands up to quieten her, pointing out that arguing wasn't going to help anyone.
"We need to figure out where she's gone," she said.
Nodding, Joey sank into a chair and tried to think.
Charlie produced a tape recorder.
"What's that for?" Grant asked.
"That's for your confession," Charlie told him.
She felt wild and out of control, shocked by how much she enjoyed having this kind of power over the man who had ruined her life.
"I'm not going to confess to anything!" Grant said.
"Oh, don't you worry," Charlie said. "I have ways and means to get it out of you."
She grabbed him suddenly by his collar and titled his chair back. He struggled against her, panicked over not being able to use his arms.
"Charlie!" he begged.
She pulled him back and slapped his face so hard that it hurt both of them.
"I can't believe I finally get to have my revenge on you," she said. "And I can tell you now, I'm going to enjoy it."
"Do you think she's going to hurt him?" Ruby asked.
Joey sighed and nodded. It was a hard thing to get her head around. The thought of Charlie having a capacity for violence frightened her. But then part of her couldn't blame her either. She'd had less than a year of agony over Robbo and she didn't think, if left alone in a room with him and with the upper hand, she would be beyond seeking revenge. And Charlie had had over sixteen years of torment over what Grant had done to her. And he'd got her pregnant. And he was helping to destroy her relationship with Ruby. How much worse would it be for her than Joey?
"Well, then I guess she'd go somewhere she couldn't be found," Ruby said. "Like a hideaway or..."
She trailed off. Joey studied her expression.
"I think I know where she's gone."
Grant cried out as Charlie tazered him again. She only did it a little bit, enough to shock him and hurt him but not enough that he would lose conscious. That would waste valuable confession time.
"Did it make you proud?" Charlie asked. "What you did to me? And to those other women? Did it make you feel like a man?"
"What other women?" Grant spat.
"Claire and Claudia," she replied.
Her rapist blanched.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly.
"I know all about them," Charlie said. "I met with them. They're going to help me press charges against you."
"If that was true, why would you be here now?" Grant asked. "You know that any kind of confession like this would be inadmissible in court."
"Oh, I know," Charlie said, stepping closer and enjoying the way he tried to lean away from her. "This isn't for court. This is for me. And Ruby."
"Ruby?"
"Yes, Ruby!" Charlie shouted. "My Ruby! My daughter! The girl that you're trying to poison against me!"
She leant in close and hit him again, her nails catching his cheek and making him bleed.
"You're a fucking psycho, Charlie!" he yelled in fright.
She laughed and studied his face.
"Maybe I am," she said. "Maybe you made me this way."
"I didn't do anything!"
She pushed him back in his chair again, screaming into his face.
"You did!" she yelled. "You pinned me down and you raped me! You stole my virginity and you stole my life! You destroyed me! I was thirteen years old!"
"You were asking for it!" Grant yelled.
He looked at the tape recorder. She hadn't set it yet. Dropping him back down, she pressed the record button.
"Say that again," she ordered.
"No," he replied, having regained control of his emotions.
Joey and Ruby hurried through the woods. Both were breathless but neither slowed.
"Why do you think she's here?" Joey asked.
"We used to come here," Ruby explained. "When we first moved to the Bay. We came here to get away from everything and... well, to bitch about Dad and Morag."
Joey looked surprised. She stumbled a little on a loose tree branch but managed not to lose her balance.
"We didn't always get on with them so well," Ruby explained. "This was a little hideout for us."
