Untethered

21 | Sins of the Past

Danny muttered to himself distractedly as he wove in and out of traffic, following Julie from the hospital. He wasn't expecting to see her so soon, and he was still trying to figure out whether or not he should approach her yet. After fifteen minutes of driving further and further, he found himself in a rather skeezy area of the city that wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him. She stopped in front of an apartment building that appeared better suited to rodents than human tenants. Although, now that he thought about it, she probably fell into the former category better, he reflected wryly. He breathed a sigh of relief when she went inside without spotting him.

His distracted thoughts had made him careless, and he had followed her much too closely. If she was sharper, she would have noticed him right away. Thankfully, she wasn't. Truthfully, she was never terribly brilliant, but she was still lethal. That was every man's downfall when it came to her. She didn't have to outsmart them, their IQ dropped just imagining her naked body writhing beneath them, and she knew it. If a man had something she wanted, she just let them live the fantasy out until she got it. Admittedly, he wasn't nearly as jaded 25 years ago.

She had cried about how Frankie beat her, and how her father had molested her, and how her mother was a verbally abusive alcoholic, and he swallowed it. Hook, line, and deadly sinker. Then, she claimed him as her knight in shining armor. It made him feel strong and virile, two things he was lacking.

After all this time, he still wasn't entirely sure what, if anything, she told him was true. It could have all been true—that would have explained why she was so screwy. But then, she could have just made it all up to manipulate him. It was doubtful he would ever know the actual truth. He even felt a small pang of pity for Frankie, the poor bastard. They were both her victims.

When they met, he was married to Greta. That woman was stunningly beautiful. When she fell in love with him, he couldn't believe it. He would've cut his dick off if she asked him to. Her beauty was like an untouchable goddess, audacious and passionate. Soon he realized just how out of his reach she was. She expected too much of him—never believed in his plans and goals, and never thought he was good enough for her or their son—and it cut him deeply. He busted his ass, and she threw it back in his face like he was garbage.

Meeting Julie was a dream come true. She was everything Greta wasn't—the picture of vulnerable femininity that his bruised ego craved. She didn't even have to try. He was ripe for the picking. She needed him, and he wanted to feel like a man. It was perfect. Right up until the night that everything went to shit.

~*~*~

'Just a little longer,' he consoled himself, 'then I won't have to worry about these shit Minnesota winters ever again.' He checked his watch again and resisted the urge to turn the car on for warmth. Dense hedges and tall pines mostly hid him from view, but he worried the Oldsmobile would make too much noise. He couldn't take that risk when they were so close to the finish line.

He shivered slightly, pulling his neck deeper into the parka shielding him the bitter winter wind. His breath puffed out of his mouth creating a fog that seemed to hang in the air, before condensing on his beard, coating it in a light frost.

A flash of light appeared in the side doorway, right before a dark figure blocked it out, and then he heard the screen door bang closed. Counting it as his cue, he turned the key in the ignition, and cringed a little as the Olds roared to life. Putting the car in gear, but leaving the headlights off, he crept forward until he was just out of sight of the guard house.

Finally, he saw her scurrying toward him with short, fast steps carrying a large briefcase. If he didn't know better, he would barely be able to tell that the figure was a woman, as she was bundled from head to toe against the frigid weather. He rolled to a stop, reaching over to flip the door handle on the passenger side.