WHO ARE YOU

I felt simultaneously nauseated and righteously pissed off at the same time. There, inside the frame of the bed, was a woman.

She had been badly beaten and was lying there on the floor in nothing but her underwear. She was bloody, bruised, and broken just like you would expect with his particular MO.

Thankfully, I could tell that she was alive. But she had been bound with duct tape at the wrists with her hands in front of her chest. Her ankles were also bound with duct tape which had been wrapped around the straps of the stiletto heels she was still wearing.

There were smears and smudges on her face that I wasn't entirely sure the nature of, filth from the floor or mascara, probably both. And she was wearing a blindfold and noise cancelling headphones. She obviously couldn't see or hear anything that happened in the room, except maybe very loud noises.

The woman looked to be maybe twenty-one, twenty-two. Not much older if at all. She had long blonde hair that was ratted and filthy from her time under the bed. Her skin was lightly tanned and she was small and skinny.

How long had he had her down there? What all had he done to her? And oh my God, but that nasty hotel room stench that I had thought was just from a cheap room had actually been her under the bed.

"If you don't want to join her, you will do exactly as I say exactly when I say it. Any complaints or fighting and you will find yourself being her new roommate." The grin he was giving me now showed me just how far gone he really was.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" I couldn't hide my true self any longer, it was time for me to be me. "What kind of sick fucking freak are you?" Oh, he didn't like that now did he. I watched as his face visibly darkened.

"You might want to watch that fucking mouth of yours, you little slut. Or I might lose my patience and rescind my offer." He let the board he was holding fall against the one next to it, the resulting thud had made the woman jump and begin to tremble in fear.

She thought he was coming for her right now.

"I don't fucking care if you rescind your offer or not, you scummy asshole. I was never going to sleep with you in the first place. But what I am going to do is kick your fucking ass."

"HAHAHA!" He was laughing, a big belly laugh, that too made the woman jump. She could hear that because he was so loud and so close to her. "I would love to see you try that you little bitch. Do you know who the fuck you're talking to?"

"Saul Henry James, born March twenty second nineteen eighty-six. Thirty-five years old, an aries. Married to Kimberly Jeanette James, formerly Hall. Father of Brian aged seven, Ellie aged four, and Quinton aged two. You work on Wall Street, or you did until you were arrested for domestic abuse. You threatened your wife until she bailed you out then you beat her again and stole all her money. You ran off with your mistress Gloria until you grew tired of her as well. You left her on the side of the road last month."

"Who the fuck are you?" He was so angry now that he was literally frothing at the mouth. Spittle and whatever else it was went flying when he yelled at me. "Just who the fuck are you and how do you know so much about me?"

"But, sweetheart, didn't you tell me all of this?" I pretended not to know what he was getting at.

I wanted to get him away from the bed. I wanted him to come toward me so that the woman that was laying in her makeshift prison wouldn't get hurt in our scuffle. I needed to protect her.

"I know damn well that I didn't tell you anything like that. I never told anyone anything about who I really am. So who the fuck are you?"

"I'm your worst fucking nightmare, asshole." I was grinning at him now, though it was forced since smiling was the last thing I felt like doing at the moment. Still, it had the desired effect on him.

With eyes that had gone red with rage and a face contorted into a mask of anger and fear mixed together Scummy finally left his spot next to the bed and stomped toward me.

His body was hunched and his hands were already in fists. He was already prepared to start throwing punches. He thought that I was going to be like any other weak little woman he had come across in his pathetic little life. But he had another thing coming. I was far from a normal weak little woman.

I may have preferred to be fighting him in a pair of comfortable, and not at all revealing, jeans. I would have paired them with a comfortable t-shirt or a tank top. Topping that would have been my black leather jacket and my black boots that were perfect for kicking someone's ass.

I may have preferred that, but that didn't mean that I was incapable of kicking his ass while dressed like a hooker. Hell, I could have kicked his sorry fucking ass even if I was bare ass naked. I would not have preferred that but I could have done it.

I readied myself for him, for his attack. Before he had even reached me, before he had even left the bed, he was already beaten, he just didn't know it. Hell, he had been beaten the moment I had decided to take this case, but now I wasn't going to hold back at all. I was going to let him feel the full force of my strength.

It was time to fight! More importantly, it was time to rescue that woman.