A pizza deliveryman standing in the doorway with his fist raised to knock on the wood startled her, but she pushed past him.
“Hey, are you all right? Should I call rescue, the police?” he asked, looking down her body then past her into the apartment where sounds of fighting could clearly be heard.
Von waved his concern away and concentrated on making it to her car. As she stepped off the small porch, her knees weakened and she grabbed hold of the railing. She could do this. There was only this short sidewalk before she reached the curb. Her car was parked almost in front of Derrick’s apartment in his next door neighbor’s extra spot. Twenty steps at the most.
She wobbled down the sidewalk.
“Whoa! Here, let me help.” The guy grabbed her elbow with his free hand. “Are you sure you don’t need me to call anyone? We’re not supposed to get involved with domestic disputes but...”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “My car is right here.”
“Miss, I really don’t think you should be driving,” he said as she fumbled with the latch, trying to get the door open. “Door’s locked. That’s why you can’t open it. You have keys?”
Von handed him her purse and leaned against the car. She felt so weak.
He opened the door and helped her get behind the wheel, then placed her purse in her lap. “Please, miss, let me call 911 for you.”
“No need. I’ll be fine as soon as I lay down. Tired. Not far.”
When he saw she was insistent on leaving, he reached in and put the keys in the ignition, and cranked the engine. “Be careful.” Before shutting her door, he asked, “You think those guys still want their pizza?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. You head on home.”
Driving was difficult and if not for the empty streets due to the earlier rain, Von didn’t think she would have made it. Her vision was limited to one blurry eye and it kept tearing up. Good thing she lived only a few blocks from Derrick. Normally a five-minute drive, tonight it felt like a five hours.
Never in a million years would she imagine Derrick turning violent. Not toward her, though she admitted she’d given him plenty of provocation. Again she muffled a sob, unable to believe what she’d done.
Von managed to get into her apartment without running into any of her neighbors. Cold air hit her flesh as she closed the door. She looked down and realized her dress was open. She was virtually naked. Not only Sean but the delivery guy had seen her like this. My God, what they must think of me.
The need to be clean overcame any other desire. She wobbled into the bathroom, shrugging off her dress as she went. Von caught sight of her body in the door mirror and her breath hitched. She’d purchased this set for her honeymoon. There’d be no wedding now. Derrick would never forgive her. Would she ever forgive herself?
A steady stream of tears rolled down her face, but she really lost it when she saw the blood smeared on her panties. Her stomach heaved and the contents came spewing out. She made it to the toilet just in time. With one hand she braced herself over the bowl to keep from falling in, and with the other she held her head to keep it from exploding.
In a small portion of her mind, Von knew that her reaction was too extreme, too erratic, too emotional, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. The possibility that she had a concussion crossed her mind. She needed help. She needed Marketta. But first she needed that shower.
Von crawled into the tub and turned the nozzles. The initial blast of cold water jolted her but fortunately it quickly warmed. She poured bath gel on her loofah and scrubbed her skin raw. Still the taint remained. Her need to lie down drove her out of the tub. The ache in her head had eased enough that she could stand without blacking out. However, Von wrapped a towel around her body and another around her hair, then shuffled into the bedroom as quickly as possible. Her cell phone lay on the bedside table. She picked it up and quick dialed Marketta.
“Where the hell have you been? I called you several times last night and today with no answer. I know you weren’t working. What happened to your promise to call me after your meeting with Sean?” Marketta blasted her as soon as she answered.
“Ketta, come over. I need you.”
“Come over? Don’t you know it’s raining cats and dogs outside? And what’s wrong with your voice. Are you drunk? Since when did you start drinking?”
A sob escaped. “Please, Ketta.”
“What’s happened?” her voice was sharp with concern.
“Please,” Von said, unable to manage more.
“I’ll be right over.” She could hear her cousin scrambling around before disconnecting the call.
With only one eye able to open and tears streaming out of the other, Von rubbed the excess water out of her hair before going to her dresser and pulling out one of her winter granny gowns. The flannel gown swallowed her from her neck to her feet. Its voluminous folds left no hint of the figure inside. Sufficiently covered, she collapsed on the bed and let the darkness take her.
Sean drove out of Derrick’s apartment complex parking lot to a nearby shopping center where he pulled in and parked. He gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles showed white. After his breathing slowed and he achieved some measure of calm, he took out his cell phone and dialed one of the numbers recently programmed inside.
“’Lo.”
“Spook, it’s me.”
“Serge, checking in so soon? How’s the vacation? Seen your girl yet?”
Sean let his head fall onto the driver’s seat backrest. “Not going so good. Got into a bit of a situation and lost control,” he confessed.
In a serious tone, Spook asked, “Where’s the body?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t kill him. Hooch is alive. Unconscious, but still breathing.”
“Oh, well in that case, you didn’t lose control at all. With your strength and training, if you were truly enraged, dude would be dead,” Spook said in a relieved tone of voice. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
Sean reported the sequence of events, starting with his meeting with Derrick and Von and up to a few minutes ago when he left Derrick’s apartment.
“Did you shift?”
“No.”
“Good. Think he’ll cause problems?”
He gazed out the window as he thought. “No, I don’t believe so. His ego won’t allow him to admit he’s been bested. Not only that, dude’s a minister now. I don’t think he’ll want his congregation knowing he knocked his fiancé out cold or why.”
“How’s your lady friend? She okay?” Sean could hear the concern in Spook’s voice.
“I don’t know. She left during the fight. She’s got to be hurt, though. Hooch packs a powerful punch and she went down hard.” His fists clenched again and he gritted his teeth as he remembered the sight of Von crumpled on the floor.
“Damn,” Spook said with feeling. “All right. First things first. Give me the dude’s address and if you want, I’ll arrange for someone to go over there to smooth things out. Sounds like you trashed the place pretty good. Fixing things ought to help.”
Sean thought about it. Did he want to fix things with Hooch? No, not really but for Von’s sake he would. He rattled off the address.
“Now, about your lady. You said you were only trying to comfort her and things got out of hand?”
“Yeah. As much as I love her, I wouldn’t have taken her with her fiancé in the next room. That wasn’t the plan.” Sean still wasn’t sure what happened.
“Were you aroused?”
Sean thought back to Von’s scent, her voice, and her see-through bra and panties that revealed every line and curve of her body. The feel of her tight, wet pussy gripping his shaft as she rode him. His cock engorged and began to throb. “Yeah.” It came out a growl.