Knox, page 11
“I think you just like the sound of that name you’ve come up with.” He said it was sexy sounding. “Sexy or not, it’s not going to happen. You’ve beaten a woman nearly to death twice for not getting your way, and I’m going to remand you over for trial for next year. About September should give you plenty enough time to see that your way isn’t always the right way.”
“Will you make my wife come back to me? That’s the least you can do since you took away my mistress from me.” Nora, the judge told him that she thought that his wife was better off without him around. “Well, that’s just not right. I need her around so that someone cleans my other house. I don’t know what she does all day while I’m working, but I know that I like having dinner on the table when I get home.”
“Well, aren’t you just the modern man?” David smiled at her. It was the first thing that she had said to him all morning that was nice. “You’ll spend your time awaiting trial in the local jail. Also, while we’re talking about the local jail, you’ll not have contact with either your wife or Mrs. Erickson while you’re awaiting trial. Do you understand me?”
“Then how am I supposed to convince her that I’m the man for her. Elaine is just playing hardball, and I don’t like it. You should tell her that she has to come and visit me daily so that I can let her see what she’s missing.” Nora, the judge said no. Just like that, just no, like that was final. “You have to give me something. I’m going to be locked in the local jail for nearly a year, and in all that time, I’m supposed to just wait? What am I supposed to do? Who do I get to talk to? The police aren’t very nice to me since they know I beat up Elaine.”
“They’re not your friends, and I applaud them for treating you like an inmate. You can talk to yourself for all I care, just leave the women alone.” Nora, the judge looked at him. “For that matter, you’re to leave anyone alone who tells you that they don’t want anything to do with you. Understand me? When they tell you ‘no’, then you’re to leave them alone too. Not having the police call them for you either.”
“Well, it’s going to be a boring year for me. Can I at least have me some pens and paper? I have to make notes on things I’m going to do when I get out of jail.” Nora said that he could have one sheet of paper at a time and one pencil. Nothing more. “Not even a magazine or two? How about me getting a television I can keep up with my shows on? This ain’t fair, you know. She beat me up too and gets to be out doing things like she wants to do.”
“She was defending herself against you. There is a difference. She wouldn’t have been beating on you at all had you left your ball bat at home and not touched the poor woman. Now, as for your other requests, I’m going to leave that up to the police captain. He’ll know what you need and what you don’t.” She banged the gavel on the desk and then pointed at him. “You’ll behave while in jail, or I’ll send you right to prison on the next trip, see that I don’t.”
He tried to get someone to answer him about his television while they were taking him back to his cell. David didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. He’d made promises that he’d not have it on all night. Unless there was something that he wanted to watch. And he said that he’d turn it down when there were others around, but if they went to sleep, then he’d turn it back up. They didn’t listen to him as usual, and he was getting kind of pissed about it. Someone had to want him to be happy when he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone for a whole year.
By then, Elaine might even have a baby. That would just ruin everything. Her body would be all stretched out like she’d carried around fifty pounds of fat, then lost it. He knew what a body would look like after giving birth; his own wife had done it to herself when she’d gotten pregnant with their kids. And he wasn’t allowed to tell her not to get in the family way because he wasn’t allowed to talk to her. Things were being messed with that he didn’t care for.
When they were taking him back to his cell, he asked for his pencil and paper. They said they’d get it when they had time. Well, he wanted to start on his list now, not when they had time. He had several things already that he wanted to put on one sheet of paper that would about fill it up. David was going to have to write really small, so he’d have everything on his list that he had, so as not to forget them. His mind was too willy for him at the moment, and he couldn’t think straight. He was blaming that on Elaine right away. If she’d just done what he wanted, then things would have been better off for him.
Sitting on the edge of his cot, he put his head between his legs and sat there. It had worked when he’d been a boy to calm his mind down. It only happened when he was thinking too hard, and sometimes at work, he’d have to do this when the teachers were going on about something that they wanted. Usually wanting more things for their rooms, but he had to deal with it the only way he knew how. And that was to do what he was doing now. Shut the world out and calm his breathing down enough where he could count them. Sitting up, when someone said his name, they asked him if he was all right.
“I will be. Got me some breathing issues when I get excited.” The officer asked him what he had to be excited about. “My list. When I make one up, I get too excited and have to breathe this way to get my mind to relax. I’m all right now. Just have a bit of a headache.”
“You want to see the doctor?” He said that he would like something for his headache, but no, he didn’t want to see a doctor. “I can’t give you nothing without his approval. I’ll have to call the doc in to have him say it’s okay to give you something, even if it’s just an antacid. I’ll give her a call and see—”
“Is that all that works around here is women? Gees Louise. Would it be too much to ask if the chief of police is a man, then? Someone who would know what it’s like to be a man who isn’t allowed to talk to anyone?” David was told that the chief was a man and that the doc was also their corner. “Great. So long as she realizes that I’m a living man, not a dead one, I guess that will be all right.”
The doc was called, and he was allowed something for his head. But she was going to examine him first thing in the morning. David couldn’t win today, and he wasn’t happy that he wasn’t going to get a television to watch. The chief had said no, and that was final. Everything against him was final, and he didn’t much care for it either.
~*~
Elaine got her stitches out of her lips this morning, and she was feeling good about herself. Not only was she getting around better, but she could walk all the way to the mailbox and back without any trouble now. She was able to do things that she’d not been able to do in the six weeks since she’d been hurt, like washing all of her hair instead of just the ends because of the wounds.
“You look like you feel better, too.” She told Shipley that she did, and it felt wonderful to feel good. “I’m glad you do. I might have you sign on as my assistant in the office I now hold. What do you think about being a medical examiner’s assistant?”
“I could do that for you. It sounds like something that I did when I was out of the country. I only did it a couple of times, but it wasn’t that bad.” She said she’d been using Locke, but since he’s so busy with his patients at the hospital, it was getting harder for him to help her. “I think that would be just the job that I’ve been looking for. It’ll get me out of the house for sure.”
“That’s the reason that I do it. And because of the people waiting for death certificates. There was quite a backlog when I first started. I’m only just now getting things caught up there. It wouldn’t be something that we do daily, I hope not anyway, but so far it’s only been about two a month. Mostly from the nursing home.” She asked what she had to do. “Nothing more than you did when you were a nurse. Just assist me with the post-mortems and help me keep up with paperwork, too. We can do a couple if you want to wait and decide if you want to do it or not. I’m easy.”
“I think that it would be a good job. I’m not so sure about going back to class and teaching. I drove by the parking lot the other day and had to pull over. It made me so upset. I might not be able to teach again, but this I think I could do.” Shipley said today she was working for the police department as a doctor for one of the inmates. “It’s probably David. I think that he was the only one who stayed in jail when they were all sent off to prison. I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“I don’t either now that you mention it. But I’ll go and examine him today because I said that I would.” Elaine asked if she had to do that often. “No. He’s going to be there for a year, so at some point, he might get hurt, and I have to go and attend to him. So if I have something to work with at the beginning, I’m not going to be blind sided by him when something goes wrong. He’s a dick weed, I heard.”
“He’s a prick, is what he is.” The two of them laughed. “He really wasn’t that bad when I first met him. Sometime between him interviewing me and Knox and me going out a few days later, he got it into his head that I was going to be his mistress. As Knox said when he talked to him, it was like he heard the word and liked it, so he used it until he figured out what it meant. Like I said, I want nothing to do with him or his illnesses. It wouldn’t matter to me if he were to get some incurable disease and fade out of my life.”
“You don’t mean that.” She said that she didn’t, but didn’t want to have to deal with him anymore. “I can understand that. You’ve only just gotten your feet under you again, and you don’t want to go with me to examine him. It would be nice, but I understand. Maybe Locke can spare a nurse to get blood for me while I’m there. That would keep me from having to stick him several times to draw it.”
Shipley made a call, and not only could Locke spare a nurse, but he sent over the equipment for her to get tissue samples, too, if she needed them. David would be taken to the hospital in a couple of days to get a full body workup to make sure that his stay with the police was going to be a healthy one. He would be put on a special diet too, so that he remained in good shape for when he went to prison, if that was a possibility after his trial date.
Elaine was excited about her new job. She’d been having nightmares about going back to the school to teach. She had loved her job, but David had ruined it for her. He’d ruined a great many things for her, and one of them was her relationship with Knox. She had a feeling by now they’d be sleeping together, and because of David beating her nearly to death, she’d had to wait until her stitches were out so that she could make love with him.
That was her plan, too. If she were honest with herself, she was sort of afraid to have sex with Knox. Not scared but nervous. She knew that her skin was still beaten up in places, and she had fresh scars all over her back and legs. The ones that were on her lips had healed nicely, but she could still see the scars from the stitches that she’d had in them.
Her eyes were no longer swollen shut, but she had two black eyes that made her look terrible in the mirror. Her left ear was tender to the touch, and she had to be careful when she brushed her teeth, or they would bleed because of the cuts that she had on her gums. In a word, she was a mess. It made her cry whenever she looked in the mirror because of what David had done to her.
“What’s going on?” She turned and looked at Knox when he stood in front of the bathroom door where she was examining herself. “You look beautiful without the stitches in your mouth. How did it go?”
“It went well. He said I had to keep sunscreen on so that they don’t discolor when I get too much sun on them. But otherwise, I’m just fine.” She tried to turn away from him, but he wasn’t having it. “I have a job working with Shipley as a post-mortem assistant. I won’t have to go on jail runs with her if they involve David, but she is getting a nurse from the hospital to help her out with those.”
“Look at me.” She smiled and turned to look at him, but her eyes were heavy with her unshed tears. “Oh, baby, don’t cry. David won’t be able to hurt you anymore. If he gets out in a year, which I don’t see happening, I told you that Zander is going for the maximum, then we’ll deal with him then. In the meantime, he’s in jail and no longer a problem for you and me.”
“It’s not all, David. I’m so ugly. How can you stand to look at me?” He pulled her into his arms and held her while she sobbed against his chest. “I hate what I look like, and I was hoping we could have sex when I got the stitches out of my mouth. Now look at me. I’m ugly with all these scars and scabs all over my body. I found one on my hip that I’d not known about until I was pulling on my pants this morning. Will it be like this all the time? Where I’m suddenly finding another place that he knocked me around with?”
He held her tightly, and she loved him for that. When she mentioned her hip again, he sort of laughed a bit. Looking up at him, she asked him what he found so funny, ready to do battle if he made fun of her. He only shook his head and then leaned his forehead onto hers.
“I love you so much. And I would love it if we were to have sex tonight. But no pressure. I don’t even see the scars or scabs anymore. I only see how beautiful you are and how brave you are.” She said she didn’t feel beautiful at all. Then she pointed out her black eyes as well as the scarring on her head and arms. “All things that make me realize how brave you were when you were being hurt. I believe that other women would have given up and let him beat them. But not you. He’s going to have his scars and scabs for the rest of his life. Perhaps not the scabs, but the scars for sure. You’ll do what’s right with them, and they’ll be nothing but a faint memory someday that will fade with them.”
“But I want to have sex with you.” He threw back his head and laughed. “I don’t think this is the least bit funny, you know. I have been thinking about making love with you since we started living together. And today, when the stitches were taken out of my mouth, I thought it would come true, but then I remembered what I look like.”
“I see you beyond the black eyes. And they’ll heal. Sometime in the near future, they’ll be as faded away as the other wounds that he put on your body.” She asked him how much longer. “It doesn’t matter. Not to me. I have you, and he doesn’t. I feel like I’ve won the best prize of all the things that I could have gotten by having you in my life.”
“You’re being too nice to me.” He told her that he needed to be laid. “I see how you are. You just want to have sex with me and will butter me up to have it. Is that right?”
“No. I want to make love to you because I love you so very much.” He couldn’t have said anything more romantic than that, and the timing was perfect. “I couldn’t care less what you have on your face or eyes. I love a part of you that is perfect. You’re heart.”
“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.” He told her that he felt the same way about her. “I’d love to have you make love with me. I have been thinking of nothing else since I got back from the doctor’s office. Of course, I’d not looked in the mirror until I got back, but I’m sure you can close your eyes while we do it.”
“I want to see every part of you when I make love with you. I want to see the passion in your eyes. The way your breathing stops when you’re about to come. I want to taste you when you come too.” She felt her face heat up a little at what he was saying to her. “There are so many things that I want to do with your body that I’m afraid that one time won’t be enough. We’ll have to make love for months so that I can taste you everywhere I wish.”
“You’re making me wet.” He said good, and smiled at her. However, the look in his eyes had her seeing lust there, and she knew she felt the same way. “How about we have some dinner and then go up to the bedroom? I think that would be the perfect place to start our new relationship.”
“I love the way that you think.” He kissed her again, and she could feel his erection at her abdomen. Moving against him, she felt his body shudder, and she wanted more. Reaching down between them, she cupped his cock in her hand. “You keep that up, and we’ll never have dinner, much less make it up to the bedroom. I want you now and later, love. How about we skip dinner and have each other for our meal. I think that sounds so much better, don’t you?” She whimpered a bit and told him she loved the way that he thought. “I love you so very much, Elaine Erickson. And will for the rest of my days.”
“And I love you too, Knox Erickson, and am so happy that you found me when you did. Who knew that moving into an apartment could get me someone to love with all that I am. And to have you love me back was more than I could have ever dreamed of.” They kissed again, and he pulled away. She could see his erection now and was glad that he was holding her. “I want you. Now.”
He picked her up in his arms, and she laughed. As they headed to the bedroom, he told her all the things he was going to do to her. First of all, she was to take every bit of her clothing off and have a look at the treasures that she’d been keeping from him. She couldn’t wait.
Chapter 9
Knox felt his frustrations when he tried to open the first button on her blouse. But when he looked at her, he could see a part of her that he’d never seen before. Trust. It made a calm roll over him in such a way that he knew he’d be able to do this without hurting her. The rest of the buttons seemed to open themselves for him, and he pulled it off of her and dropped it to the floor.
“I’ve never been undressed before.” Knox told her that he’d never undressed anyone before. “Good. I like knowing that I’m first for something. You must have a lot of experience with making love to women.”
“You’re the only one that counts.” He kissed her again, gently prying her mouth open so that he could taste what she had there. “You taste like mint and a sweetness that I’ve never tasted before.”
