Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 13

Kenton had been a completely different person last night. He had never been violent toward her. He'd been rough a few times, but not like this. It was like he was possessed by a demon. He seemed bent on punishing her for some wrong that she hadn't even committed. He wouldn't let her talk and anytime she tried to get away, he would slap her viciously.

Pulling herself upright very slowly, she saw that it was almost noon. She never slept until noon. Sonja would have come and wake her up. That created a thought of panic. Where was Sonja? Why hadn't she come to check on her?

She made herself get up and go to the bathroom. Every muscle hurt. It hurt to urinate. Her rectum felt like it had been ripped apart. She noted that there were blood stains on the toilet paper.

When she was finished in the bathroom, she went into the bedroom and put on loose clothes. The bedroom looked like a brawl had gone on, which basically it had.Emily went downstairs in search of Sonja. The living room looked like a tornado had been through it. Furniture was overturned, pictures knocked off the walls, lamps and anything that had been sitting on tables or the mantel broken into pieces.Sonja was not in the house. Emily searched in the kitchen and laundry room for her, but she was nowhere to be found. She picked up the house phone to call, but the line was dead. Making her way back upstairs was painful, but she found her cell phone in her purse. It seemed to be working. She called Sonja's cell phone.

"Thank God!" Sonja cried into the phone. "We have been so worried about you."

"Where are you?" Emily asked.

"We're at a friend's house. Kenton came down to the house in a rage at about two o'clock in the morning and told us to get off his property. He was throwing stuff and punching the walls. Mario said he thought he must have been on crack or meth or something like that to be acting so whacked out. Are you okay?"

"No," Emily said quietly. "No, he hurt me pretty bad." She started crying. "Can you come get me? I think I might have to go to the hospital."

"We'll be right there," Sonja said. Emily could hear Fernando asking her something in the background, and then Sonja asked, "Is he still there?"

"I don't think so," Emily said. "I'm going to pack an overnight bag. I'm not going to come back here for a few days."

"That's a good idea. Stay on the phone with me until we get there. I want to make sure he doesn't show back up."

"Okay."

While she waited for them to arrive, Emily filled Sonja in on what she remembered of last night, leaving out the sexual parts. Sonja was horrified and furious. When Sonja, Fernando and Mario got to the house, Emily was sitting on the front door step waiting for them. She had gone through the house and gathered all the money she could find. She packed enough clothes for three days.

Sonja got out of the truck and ran to Emily. She stopped short when Emily looked up at her. She could see how badly Emily's face was bruised. "Dios mio!" She wrapped her arms around Emily and helped her stand.

"Gently," Emily said. "I hurt everywhere."

Mario rushed to her. "Oh my God, Emily." He gritted his teeth and his brown eyes turned black. "I'll kill that son-of-a-bitch for doing this to you."

"No, please, Mario," Emily begged. "Kenton knows a lot of people. He could make life very bad for you."

"We weren't, but I got this weird phone call from Kenton this morning. He said that I needed to stay away from you because he owned you." Ashley shook her head. "It was so weird. I couldn't imagine why he would say that or why he would think there was something going on between us. I tried calling your house and the phone would just ring and ring. I tried your cell phone but it kept going straight to voice mail, so I decided I was going to come by and see what was going on."

"We were worried about you after Kenton had been so cold and hateful last night," Kim said. "Then, when he called Ashley and started threatening her, we knew things must have gone badly here."

"Yes, they went badly," Emily said, shaking her head. "He has never been like this. I have no idea what he was so mad about, but he took it out on me."

"He came to our house at about two and told us to get off his property," Sonja said.

"That's about the time he called me," Ashley said.

"I don't know what has gotten into him," Emily said. "He has never been like this before."

"Do you think he might be on drugs?" Kim asked.

"I know he uses cocaine occasionally and smokes pot, but he's never been like this after using those drugs, or even when he's been drinking a lot. He's been kind of rough when he was drinking, but not like this."