Read Online Taking Passion by Storm by Ravenna Tate - Free Book Online

could never do anyone harm again.
    “ What can I do?” he asked gently.
    “ I’m all right. Honestly.” The mere act of holding him
and absorbing his warmth and strength soothed the demons back enough that she
was able to continue. “He slapped me so hard I thought he’d broken my jaw. The
pain was searing. I almost passed out, and then when he … when he forced
himself inside me, I tried to remember everything because I knew I was not
going to let him get away with this. I was so afraid, but at the same time I
was so damn angry . That this … this pig would have the nerve to do this to
me.”
    He
pulled away and looked into her eyes. “You are your father’s daughter, after
all.”
    “ Yes. Yes, I am. When he finished, he stood up and
laughed. He laughed at me, lying
there, tied up with my own damn clothes. He said if I told anyone he’d find my
father and kill him. He had so many details about me that he rattled off. It
was obvious he’d read my personnel file in the office. He said no one would
believe me that it had been rape because he’d tell them it was consensual, and
that I’d stayed after hours on purpose to wait for him to come into work.”
    Addison
didn’t say anything. She watched the muscles in his jaw twitch, and saw his
eyes flash with anger. Nadine knew in that instance if he had known about the
rape immediately afterward, even if they hadn’t been dating, that man never would have made it to
prison. Addison would have killed him. She saw that on his face, and it gave
her courage to keep going.
    “ Then he untied me and left. I heard his shoes on the
floor in the hallway, and I heard the doors at the end that led to the parking
lot slam shut. I lay there for a long time. I don’t know how long. I’d … I had
wet myself at some point. When I finally got up, I realized he’d taken the
condom with him, but there was something that looked like skin under my
fingernails, and dried blood on my bra. It could have been mine, but if it
wasn’t, I realized I had DNA from him. I knew I had to touch nothing, clean
nothing, and get someone in authority there as soon as possible.”
    “ I’m in awe you did that. Most women don’t.”
    “ I know. I was in shock, but at the same time the
rational part of my brain told me what I needed to do. I called Brenda from the
phone in the classroom, and she called the police. She told me to stay there. I
was afraid he’d come back, but he never did. It felt like a long time until I
heard others in the building, but in reality it was probably less than five
minutes.”
    “ You’re a very brave woman.”
    She
hadn’t felt brave in calling Brenda immediately afterward. It had been the
logical thing to do. The one thing she could focus on at the time instead of
letting the panic take over and render her incapable of doing anything. She’d
clung to the only sure thing in her life at the time. Everything else had
slipped away as if it had never been real. If she had let that continue, she
never would have gotten up off that classroom floor, and they all would have
found her there the next morning.
    “ Most rapes are never reported,” she said. “I wasn’t
going to be part of that statistic. The cops came, along with Brenda and an
ambulance. They took me to the hospital, and within days I heard from the DA
that the DNA from the skin under my nails and the blood on my bra matched DNA
from multiple rapes around the country. Then they tracked down other victims,
and it snowballed from there. He finally pled guilty because they convinced him
that if he stood trial for one rape, he’d be convicted for all of them. He’d
left behind physical evidence on every single one.”
    “ Not too bright.”
    “ He never raped anyone twice. He’d simply move on to
another town, a new identity, and a new victim. He’d been doing this since
before everyone moved underground, and the DA told me he likely thought he’d
never get caught because he’d gotten away with it