He smiled, just thinking about her incessant need to keep on talking and about any topics. It was one of things that drew him to her. She spoke at times just for the sake of filling a gap.
Yeah, he adored her.
No doubt about that.
Actually, when it came to Lindsey, he fucking loved her, and it wasn’t just the love of a friendship either. It went deeper than that.
Climbing on his bike, he placed the files into his inner jacket and took off, heading toward the first woman’s location.
He and Landon parked up after the thirty-minute ride. When he made his way toward her apartment, building, he checked the apartment number before heading to the sixth floor. Knocking on the door, he waited.
No answer.
“People work during the day. Does it say what she does?” Landon asked.
Checking the details again, he nodded. “She’s a florist.”
“We better wait it out.”
For the next hour they waited for the woman to arrive, and when she did, Pie felt for the woman. Her head was downcast, and she looked petrified.
The moment she saw them, she froze.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” Pie said. He was really putting his fucking ass on the line right now.
“Yeah, tell that to the woman that’s just seen two fuck-ass bikers,” Landon said.
“I’m here about someone you used to know. Maybe went on a date with him a couple of times,” Pie said. “Went by the name Richard Strong.”
“I didn’t do anything or say anything. I’ve been good,” she said. “Please, tell him I didn’t say anything. I’m fine. Please, my shop is my life.”
He heard her start to panic.
“This isn’t about that, okay? You don’t have to worry about him. He’s not going to hurt you any more, I promise.”
She held the bag of groceries to her chest, obviously doubting every single word he said.
“We know what he did,” Landon said, speaking up.
“I have a friend. She got away, but he nearly did it to her as well.”
The woman visibly paled.
“We just want to talk,” Pie said.
“You’re not here for him?”
“Fuck, no,” Pie said.
She nodded her head and moved a bit closer. As she opened her apartment door, he saw that she had several locks that were designed to keep people out.
She placed her groceries on the kitchen table before turning back to look at them. She seemed to pace herself before looking at them. Clearly, she was visibly shaken by the whole event.
“What do you want to know?”
Her hands shook, and she folded them against her body, hiding her reaction.
“Why didn’t you ever report him?” Pie asked.
She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “After he showed me the tape, I wanted to. The thing was, he’d given me something. A drug. Erm, he had two recordings. He had the one not long after the drug where it made me say and do things that … erm, wouldn’t have, er, showed force. Then he told me he had the tape of what I did. I never saw the actual tape of what happened. My body, I … knew what had happened. I knew I wasn’t myself. He’d given me something to react that way. I didn’t want to have sex with him. I didn’t … I wanted to go home, but he said he had to stop by at his place first. I didn’t think anything bad. He was a doctor, you know. Taught to take care of people. I didn’t expect what happened next.”
“Did he get you hooked on it?” Landon asked.
“No, but he promised that the cops wouldn’t believe me. Who’d believe a doped-up florist versus a doctor that did pro bono work on burn victims, he said. He’d ruin my reputation, shut down my shop, which is my life. I wanted to report him, but seeing the way I was after he gave me something, I knew I couldn’t fight that. I don’t have the money or the resources to fight that. I’d be ruined. I know that he’d probably do it to someone else, but I had to walk away. That I had to go back to my boring life and forget he ever existed. I wanted to go to the police. I’d never taken drugs in my life, but as I was strapped down, after he did what he did. There’s no way anyone would believe me, no one.” She laughed. “I even believed him that I must have been begging for it in some way. That’s how his mind tricks work.” Tears were in her eyes. “So, I went home, in a cab that he didn’t pay for. I got on with my life, or tried to. It’s kind of hard to attempt a relationship when you know he could bring that damn tape around, that he was filming me begging him. That he told me he had more and if I ever stepped out of place, he’d ruin me.” She took a deep breath.