Page 26 of Like Fathers, Like Son
16
Anneka (aged twenty two)
Ithrewmybackpackin the backseat of my car and waved to mum.
She was such a worrier, but as an adult, I was perfectly capable of driving a few hours to meet my friends for the weekend. I’d been working so hard lately, and I deserved this break. My new job as a data analyst was mentally exhausting, but I loved it, and the money was great.
For now though, I was heading out to meet my friends and the guy I’d been on two dates with, and really liked. His name was Nathan, and he was sweet and intelligent, but why hadn’t I slept with him yet?
Why hadn’t I given up my stupid virginity to him? He didn’t make me want him that way, not enough. I hadn’t meant to hang onto it, but my teens were screwed up by my dad ditching us, and me having to babysit Blaze and his siblings so much, as well as other kids in the neighbourhood.
Oh… and then when I was nineteen, suddenly dad wasn’t just living it up somewhere at all. Remains were found. That’s what they called it.Remains. He’d been dead for years, they said. Dead. Shouldn’t I have felt it when it happened? He was my dad, but by the time we found out, I hated him enough that I didn’t even care. He didn’t want us, so why should I care that something bad had happened to him?
When Blaze’s family moved away, it was such a relief, because over the year or two that I had to sit for them, he got more and more obsessed with me. He’d started to follow me around, both at school, and outside, and he was making more and more blatant references to wanting me, and me being his, like somehow he owned me!
He’d taken to touching me as he passed me in the halls, trying for my hair at times, with that weird fixation on my hair getting worse over time.
I even found out he’d been in my room when I wasn’t there, and that creeped me out beyond belief. I stopped sitting for them when I realised, when I found a smear of mud by my bed, messed up bedding, and my diary wasn’t quite tucked under my pillow. How did I know it was Blaze?Who else would it have been?
I steered down the country roads, my music blaring and my spirits lifting by the minute as I headed out of town, and towards my weekend of fun. Maybe tonight would be the night with Nathan. I was more than ready to get physical, even if he didn’t exactly light my fire.
An idiot on a black motorcycle whizzed past me, nearly making me steer off the road.
“Asshole!” I pressed a hand against my chest, my heart racing as I realised just how close to an accident I’d just come. As always, I silently cursed at the idiot, telling myself if I saw that bike wrapped around a tree later, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Even so, I was stunned and horrified when a few moments later, I turned a bend, to find it on its side by the hedge, one wheel still slowly rotating.
“Shit!” I pulled over and rushed out of my car, running straight to the fallen motorcycle, but there was no sign of the black leather-clad rider. What the hell? I turned around on the spot, trying to see where the idiot had landed. How could they just be missing?
I felt a movement behind me, just before a leather-clad body pressed up tight behind me, and a gloved hand looped around my throat.
“Don’t scream or I’ll make it hurt,” a harsh voice whispered, as I started struggling against his strong hold. It took everything in me not to scream for help, but I believed that voice. I knew he’d bring pain.
Blaze (aged nineteen)
FINALLY. FINALLY, I HAD her in my grasp, pressed against my body, her lush curves wriggling as she struggled. Yeah, keep fucking doing that. Already my cock was reacting to her panic, her writhing, and well, the fact that she was Anneka and finally I had her. It’d been too many years since I’d touched her. She had always been meant for me though, so it was time for me to have everything I’d ever wanted.
She’d cut her hair short since I last saw her yesterday. That was the first thing that hit me. It was still red, although not as bright as it’d been before, but it was short. Chin length. I wanted it longer. Why the fuck did she do that?
“Please, don’t hurt me.”
Her voice was as sweet as I’d remembered, and she still smelled like flowers and everything girly. I had the visor down on my helmet, but I could smell her anyway. I don’t think I ever stopped, even when we moved, and I couldn’t see her every day. Even when I couldn’t let myself into her house anymore.
I tightened my grip on her fragile throat, feeling her trying to swallow while her pulse thrummed rapidly against my palm. The sense of power, in holding someone’s life in my hand like this, was immense. It felt like that moment when a fire takes hold, and I know there’s no way to save the structure I’m burning. It reminded me of that godlike feeling I’d felt when I pushed that bastard down the stairs. But this was Anneka, and I had her in my possession at last.There was no feeling more powerful in the world.
“Do exactly as I say, and you’ll be fine.” I almost tacked her name on the end of that, but I didn’t want to give away my familiarity with her yet. I wanted her guessing, wondering, panicking… all of the worst thoughts to run through her mind, because surely then when she realised it was me, it’d settle some of that fear. She’d be relieved that it’s just me. Right?
I marched Anneka back to her car, pushing her against the passenger door, as I drew her hands behind her back, and fastened them with a cable tie. I’d come prepared, and I’d planned everything perfectly.
“Please. That hurts.”
I knew she was lying, because I’d left enough room for her to move her wrists a little to ease the burn, but I also wasn’t an idiot, and there was no way I was giving her enough rope to hang me.
“Shut it.”
She let out a ragged sob, shaking her head so that her hair flew and caught the sun. Wow… itwasvibrant red after all. It just needed the right light to really appreciate it. I wanted to touch it, but this wasn’t the place. If someone drove by right now, while I kidnapped a woman in broad daylight, I was fucked.
I pulled out the syringe filled with sedative, and held it in front of her so she could see it.
