Anatomy of a Nightmare by M J Marlow (best ebook reader android TXT) 📖

Anatomy of a Nightmare

PROLOGUE
Philadelphia

It had been a difficult delivery and Elena Randall was sleeping as her husband arrived. He had come straight from the military base and he was still in his fatigue uniform. He kissed her lips gently and stroked her chestnut curls; then he looked at the twins and scowled as he saw their fair hair. Russet haired and dark blue-eyed, he knew the woman had been right; these girls were not his. His wife had been unfaithful to him while he was overseas. He could not ask her; she was sedated, so he called the man he had been told had raped his wife.
“Grey,” he barked into the phone, “we have to talk.” His eyes softened slightly as the child with the hint of red to her fair hair opened her eyes and seemed to look up at him. This one, he told himself, they would keep. “You have thirty minutes to come get your daughter. I will not raise your bastard.” His expression darkened again. “In thirty-one, I am calling the press.”
He hung up and went to his wife’s side. If Grey were the father, he had forced himself on Elena. She hated the man she had worked for with a passion. Joseph remembered her telling him many times how Grey had tried to corner her. Joseph had taught her how to defend herself. It was obvious the man had gotten past her guard at least one time. Twenty-five minutes after his call had been taken, William Grey, son of privilege and just beginning a political career, arrived with his high society wife. By the way they were dressed, they had been on their way out for the evening when he had called on them.
“You can take that one,” Joseph nodded to the blonder girl in the left bassinette. “We will keep the red-haired girl.”
“If you say anything,” William began to warn him and found himself pressed up against the wall with Joseph’s arm to his throat.
“Do you think I want people to know you raped my wife any more than you do?” Joseph snarled at the man.
“What makes you think it was rape, soldier boy?” William snapped back. Joseph recognized the signs of inebriation then. The damned man couldn’t stay sober for a minute.
“Because I can’t see any intelligent woman wanting your hands on them,” Joseph remarked. He saw the woman flinch and was glad of it. Damn her for doing this to his family! “Elena wanted to name one of them Lily,” he said to the fair-haired woman taking the blonde child into her arms with a look of absolute joy on her face.
“That will be yours,” Marina said, not even looking at him. “This little angel is going to be called Evelyn Rose, after her grandmothers.” She walked out without another word.
“We’ll be moving back to Maine,” Joseph told the man he wanted to strangle. I don’t want them running into each other and asking questions.”
“They are not any questions I want to answer,” William replied. He looked over at Elena. “She’s a beautiful woman and I was very drunk.”
“I don’t want to know why you raped my wife, Grey,” Joseph pressed down a bit more and heard the man choke. “There is no excuse for a ‘man’ to do that to a woman.” He released the man. “Now get the hell out of here. I don’t want you anywhere near me and my family.”
Grey did not argue. He left the hospital and Joseph saw the limousine moving away. He picked up the daughter he had chosen to keep and she gripped his finger. Yes, he smiled as he stroked her cheek; this was his daughter. He would make certain no man ever did to her what Grey had done to her mother. He hated to have to tell Elena the other girl had died, but that was what he had decided would be wisest in the long run. She wouldn’t be looking for their daughter’s twin around every street corner.
He heard the door open as he picked his daughter up in his arms. He turned and saw his five-year old son walking in with a teddy bear in his arms. His grandparents were with him. Joseph crouched down and beckoned Edward forward.
“Here’s your sister, little man,” he said softly. “Her name is Lily Margaret Randall.” He saw his mother beam. “You’re her big brother so she is going to be looking to you to keep her safe. Will you do that for me, son?”
“No one is going to hurt my sister!” Edward said fiercely. He sat down and Joseph put Lily into his arms and he was lost. “They’ll have to hurt me first!”
“That’s my little man!” Joseph choked as he pushed the second bassinette into the closet and hid it away. “I know you’ll make me proud.”

Twenty years later -
Bangor, Maine

Lily Randall came out of the office building and scowled as she saw the rain. It had been one of those days where everything that could possibly go wrong had. She heard a familiar footstep and knew her personal stalker was headed her way. Just what she needed! She turned off the printer that had gone haywire and decided to take a break. She entered the break room and got herself a cup of water from the cooler.
“Let me take you away from all this, Lily,” Ken Crawford whispered in her ear as he moved in behind her. She turned to face him and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You know how much I want you…”
“The feeling is not mutual, Doctor Crawford,” Lily snapped at him. She set her cup down and put her hands to his chest to push him back. “Get away from me, you ape!”
“Now, Lily that’s no way to talk,” Ken laughed and grabbed her wrists. He tightened his hold and she whimpered in pain. “I am taking you out tonight,” he told her. “Dinner, dancing, and diversion starting at eight o’clock.” He put her wrists in one hand and cupped her bottom with his other, pulling her closer. “Kiss me, Lily.”
“No!” Lily protested and tried to struggle free. His grip tightened even more and she gasped at the strength in his hand. “Let me go!”
“Say yes to dinner, Lily,” Ken said as he leaned in close, “or you can say goodbye to this job.”
“This is sexual harassment,” Lily spat at him. “I could file charges against you!” His grip tightened even more and she knew she was going to be bruised. “You’re hurting me!”
Ken laughed and kissed her and she choked as her stomach rolled in revulsion. She felt the counter pressing into her back and he pushed her down. His hand moved between her legs and her scream was choked off as he kept his lips on hers. She stomped on his foot and he yelled out in pain. He slapped her across the face and she launched herself at him with her nails ready to do some damage; just as the door opened.
“What is going on in here?” Inez Trent demanded as she took in the sight of Lily, her eyes blazing in rage, and Ken looking amused. “Lily?” Lily could not trust herself to speak; she was outraged. “Doctor Crawford?”
“I’m afraid Miss Randall got the wrong idea,” Ken told Inez. “She thought my smiles meant I wanted her.” He saw Lily’s eyes go cold. “I came in here for some water,” he continued as he picked up Lily’s cup, “and she followed me. She – uh,” he reddened, “got a little frisky and I was trying to turn her down gently.”
“You liar!” Lily screamed at him. She knew she sounded like a fish-wife, but she could not help it. He was telling her supervisor that she had hit on him! “Inez, I never…”
“You will finish out the day, Miss Randall,” Inez said coldly. “I’ll see your final check is mailed to you.” She turned to Ken. “I am so sorry, Doctor Crawford. If I’d know she was that type of girl I never would have hired her.”
Ken put his arm around the older woman and guided her to the door assuring her he did not see her at fault. As they left, he turned to look at Lily. He mouth ‘I win’ as he closed the door behind them.
Lily stood where she was for a moment and then realized the horrible truth: she was now unemployed. She knew she should feel relieved that she had been fired before they found the man strangled by his own tie, but she chafed at being fired for something that was not her fault.
“As if I would want to keep working for a place,” she muttered as she opened her umbrella, “where bosses are allowed to harass employees without consequence.”
The umbrella was caught by the wind as she ran for the parking lot where her car was only one of five left and turned inside out. Lily let out a squeak of protest and tossed it in a nearby trashcan. That was all she needed! She got out her keys and opened the car door to slide in. She did not see the two men watching her from an office on the top floor.
“Is that her?” the dark-haired man asked as he watched through the binoculars. He lowered them and turned to his lighter-haired and older companion in the business suit. “You’re right, Uncle. She’s close.”
“From a distance you can’t appreciate just how close,” Gabriel Talbot replied as he sipped at the whiskey he had poured himself. “She’ll be coming back into the building in a few minutes. You can get a better look then and make up your own mind.”
The man nodded and moved to the bar to pour himself a drink. He had been looking for someone to act as a decoy for him for months. This was his last chance to find someone who could take his sister-in-law’s place. If this girl was not right, he would have to let his brother and his new wife go into a potentially dangerous situation. And that, he repeated to himself for at least the hundredth time in the past several weeks, would just not do.
“What else can go wrong?” Lily sighed as she started the engine. Nothing happened and she burst into tears. It wasn’t right! All she had wanted was a flexible job where she could earn a little extra money to help her family keep their home. And that oversexed playboy had taken it away from her because she had refused to go out with him. She got out her cell phone and the battery was dead. “No! This is not happening.”
Lily got out of her car and started back towards the office building. She waved to the night guard and he buzzed her inside. Chuck Weaver was one of those men who was as round as he was tall, but it was not with fat. He had iron gray hair he wore in the close-cropped military style and sharp brown eyes.
“What’s up, Lily?” he asked as she approached the desk. She wondered why he was so uneasy. “Don’t need to ask if it’s raining,” he smiled briefly as he saw that she was drenched. Her midnight blue wool dress was plastered against her curvy frame, leaving nothing to the imagination and the curly red gold hair she usually kept in a severe braid was running wild. The annoyance in her blue gray