Norma Jean Read online

  Norma comes to sit in front of me on her knees. Her eyes pop into my line of sight as she lowers her head. “It’s not your fault Chance. It’s mine really. For ever listening to the guy, for trusting him blindingly. It’s my mistake not yours. I promise you that.” Her hands lift up my face and brush the tears off my cheeks. My heart pounds in my chest. Why can’t I stop loving her?

  “Who. Is. It.” I want to know…I have to know.

  “Creed.”

  Chapter 10

  Norma

  Chance’s face says it all. He wasn’t expecting me to say that. And he doesn’t believe that Creed would do that to someone. Well how well do you really know someone? You don’t hear the thoughts in their head. You don’t know the way they think. The person sitting next to you in a restaurant could be a serial killer thinking about his latest victim. Even though he looks like a regular good looking guy. This fact only shows you can never really know someone. Just because they are nice to your face doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking horrible things about you.

  And that’s exactly how Creed is.

  He isn’t the person you see when you look at him. The guy dresses like a college guy in a fraternity with his polo’s and jeans. His blond hair is always styled just right, never messy or out of place. Those brown eyes though, they hide dark secrets people would never believe he could hide.

  “You,” he clears his throat. “You dated my best friend after me?” he sounds really hurt by this, but what does he want me to say? I thought he cheated on me, so I thought I could trust Creed. He was the one who told me. I saw what Creed wanted me to see. And Chance and I paid the price. Never Creed. I don’t think he has ever been punished for his crimes.

  “Yes. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I even turned him down for six months. I thought I was over you, and he said y’all didn’t even talk anymore. So I thought I had cleaned you out of my life. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. No one is a bigger idiot than me.” Tears spill out of my eyes as I think about the life I could have lead had Creed not messed with it. He took something special and good and made it ugly. Took the only person who could ever truly love me, away from me. I hate him more for that than I do for how he treated me in our relationship.

  “I believe you. I still don’t see what this has to do with Macy.” He puts his hands over mine which were on his knees and gently pushes them off. I hate to admit that hurts, but I hurt him. And for no reason.

  “Someone told Creed about last night.” It’s my only answer. If he can’t figure it out in his head than he’s not the guy I think he is.

  “Jesus. We had sex in his bed.” He scrubs his face with his palm and I get up off the floor. He doesn’t want my comfort. “So he kidnaps Macy? What kind of sense does that make?”

  I sit down next to Cassie and put my arm around her shoulder. This will hurt to finally admit to her family. “He hurt several people that wronged him in the process. Think about it. You and Norma love that little girl. He hurts her, he destroys y’all.” Tears start to fall from her eyes and I flinch. If I had known what I know now, then we wouldn’t be sitting here. But that’s life, you don’t get to see the road you take when you make a decision. Yeah it sucks, but I can’t do anything to fix it. I can only make it right.

  “We need to call Mason and Marley. They will fix this. And him.” He gets up suddenly and starts to head towards the door.

  “Wait.” I say halting him before he can leave. “Tell him Cassie.” She looks at me with big scared eyes, but if I could open up to him, then so can she. This is Chance. He wouldn’t hold any of this against us.

  “Tell me what?” Chance asks turning towards us with both eyebrows raised.

  “Umm…okay so I have known all along who is Macy’s father.” Cassie looks down at her hands and fiddles with her jeans.

  After a minute you can see it cross his face. The pain. The betrayal. We have all had a lot to do with that look. Seems like now everyone around him is hiding something. Which isn’t a lie. I feel awful this is how he had to find all this out. Just because Creed took Macy as some vindictive punishment for the rest of us. “No. Cassie you didn’t.”

  She starts to cry then. And the gut wrenching sobs tear me apart. She has been hiding this for years. Longer than I have been hiding my shit. This is something she hoped no one would ever figure out. I took that away from her and not because I slept with Chance.

  “I was going through a lot then Chance. You know this, you were going through the same shit. Except you vowed to never have sex and I vowed to have lots and lots of it. Some of it was unprotected. At the time I slept with Creed, I was slowing down. I hadn’t slept with anyone in weeks and I have only slept with two guys since then. I knew what this would do to you. I knew what it would do to everyone. I wasn’t ever going to come clean but Norma figured it out. He didn’t just take Macy to hurt y’all he did it to hurt me as well.” She uses her hands to wipe the tears while I look down at the floor. Chance is still standing but he looks like he won’t ever be the same. The haunted look in his eyes is almost more than I can take.

  “It was months ago. I came down for a visit on a weekend. I had been staying in Cassie’s room and stumbled upon some old notebooks. Cassie wrote about it in one. I couldn’t tell anyone though. If you had read it, you wouldn’t either. The words to this day still haunt me.” I take a deep breath and stand up. I walk right up to him and take his hand in mine. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I know he’ll need the comfort soon. “Creed raped her, Chance. She couldn’t tell anyone. She didn’t want to destroy anyone’s life. And she would have. You were at a bad place then, and telling you, your best friend raped your sister would have been horrible. She also didn’t think anyone would believe her, which is true. She was sleeping around and he was known for being a fun easy going good guy. After the first time he made me have sex in front of other people, I called Cassie. I knew she could relate, because we had both been unwilling victims of his.”

  He squeezes my hand before letting it go and sitting down next to Cassie. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you Cass. If I had known, that fucker wouldn’t be breathing right now. Do you hear me? And he won’t be breathing much longer. You two won’t ever have to worry about him again.” He kisses her on the top of her head and then looks over at me. I always seem to get lost in those eyes. The greens and browns pull you in and don’t want to let you go. “Call Marley. You tell him everything Norma. And I mean everything. Don’t leave a thing out.”

  I’m dismissed.

  I walk out of the living room and into the kitchen. Everyone looks so sad, and the guilt eats at me. Makes me want to throw up or scream at the top of my lungs. If anything happens to Macy, it won’t be anyone else but me who kills Creed. That bastard has fucked with me for the last time. He already took it too far with how he treated me, but this right here is taking it straight to the devil.

  I grab my phone from my purse and head out before anyone can start talking to me. Chance’s parents are sitting at the table, Stacy is crying and Rick is patting her back. Mary Beth looks bored, which isn’t surprising. She doesn’t even like Macy.

  I pass the living room on my way out and see Chance holding Cassie as she cries. God that is painful.

  Marley answers after the first ring. “You better fucking explain to me why I had to hear from Mason what you have been going through. I can’t believe this shit Norma. You know I would kill for you. I’ve been protecting you since I could walk.” Yet another person I have hurt with my silence. Though he doesn’t seem to understand that I was protecting everyone else from the ugliness of what I went through. This will crush my mom. Though she might understand now why I didn’t come home over the holidays.

  “Because of that right there. You don’t always have to save me. I can save myself just as well as you can. And what the hell were you going to do? Come to Arkadelphia and kill him? Where would that get you? Nowhere Marley. I took the easiest road I could find. And lo
ok I’m still alive. It wasn’t your mess to clean up, it was mine.” I take a breath to calm myself down before going on. “Look he has gone too far now. He can’t just take Macy and think it’s okay. It was one thing to hurt me, but Macy is innocent in all this.”

  “We are going to sit down and have a long serious talk when this is over. But before that I already have the guys all over town looking for him. Mason only called in about twenty minutes ago, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find him.” I think maybe this might go fine until he opens his mouth again. “When he comes out of hiding, he’s dead. Do you hear me Norma Jean? There is nothing you or anyone else can do about it. He touched you in ways that make me fucking irate. I won’t let this go. Just because y’all were up at your fancy school, doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of this gang. You’re family and every single one of us takes care of our family.” He hangs up before I can respond.

  Fucking great. Marley is going to go to jail because of me.

  “You need to quit blaming yourself Norma. What he did to you isn’t your fault. It’s no one’s. I didn’t even know there was a side of Creed like that. He was always my cool best friend.” Chance must have followed me. I close my eyes tight and wish him away. I don’t want his pity. I brought this on myself. When he puts his arms around my waist and places his chin on my shoulder I stiffen up. “I won’t ever let him touch you again. In fact he won’t ever be anywhere near you again. I was hurt when you left, but I understand why you did it. Hell it was clever and the perfect revenge. But I’m done being that guy you think you can push over and away.” He turns me around in his arms and those eyes meet mine. “Creed might think he owns you but he doesn’t own you like I do.” He brushes his nose along my cheek. “Your body. Your heart. Your soul.” He whispers in my ear. “Those are mine.” He gently nips the lobe startling a gasp from my throat. “Don’t ever forget it.”

  I back away from him and stare as hard as I can. Does he think I’m still that cold hearted bitch? I’m not. People grow and they change. I wouldn’t hurt Chance like that ever again.

  Chance

  “Don’t look at me like that. I know you and me have a lot to work out, but no matter how bad I want to, I can’t go back to that guy I was without you.” I lean in to kiss her cheek but she is having none of that.

  “No matter how bad you want to? What, be without me? Thanks, Chance. Let’s go have sex and be a happy couple.” When her palm connects with my cheek my eyes go wide and my mouth drops open. “I don’t need you. I don’t need Creed, Marley, or fucking anybody. If you have to force yourself to be with me to protect me, then fuck you.” Then the finger comes out and pokes me in the chest. Hard. “All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.”

  “Where did you come up with that?” I’m rubbing my chest because let’s face it that hurt. The woman can be strong when she wants to be.

  “Marilyn Monroe. Smartest damn woman who ever lived.” She turns from me, flipping all that hair over her shoulder. Jesus that was sexy. “Stay away from me Chance. I don’t want you as much as you seem to think I do. And definitely don’t need you.” She heads into the house and I’m left wondering what the hell just happened. What did I say?

  My phone ringing startles me and I see Declan’s name flashing across the screen. “Hey.” I walk over to the front steps and sit down.

  “Just got your message. Teag and I were…umm…yeah so what’s up? Have they found her?” I scrub my hand down my face still trying to process the thing with Norma earlier.

  “No, though we figured out who took her. Remember me telling you about Norma’s cousin? He and his boys are out looking for the guy. Should find out any minute.”

  “That’s good. You made it sound like they take this kind of thing serious.” He starts speaking softly and I guess he is filling Teagan in on what’s happened.

  “Well he is even more serious now. The guy who took her is Creed. I kind of wish I didn’t come down this weekend. Seems I’m the root of all this.”

  “What? Your best friend from high school? Why the hell does he have her?”

  “The short version is I slept with Norma last night, which I’m sure Caden filled you in on. Well not only was it in his bed, but he dated Norma for the past two years. The fucking bastard was beating her and other fucked up shit. Marley just found this out, but you best believe when they find him, he won’t be alive long.”

  “I’m coming. We all are. That is the most messed up thing I have heard in months. Besides I have to meet Norma. I can’t believe you found her.”

  “We found each other at a party last night. I was going to let her go again, but when she told me all this about Creed, I couldn’t help myself. I’m still pissed about everything, but I can’t let her go now. She’ll just get into a bigger disaster.” I stand up as Harley’s car pulls into the driveway. “Y’all don’t have to come down here. We have this covered.”

  “Yeah we are. We aren’t going to let you go to jail for killing Creed. Or anyone else for that matter. But if you do, then I’ll be there for legal council.” And then he chuckles. We say our goodbyes and hang up.

  “What’s up Harley?” I call as she gets out of the vehicle.

  “I came to talk to Norma Jean. I don’t know, I feel like we should talk. I didn’t have anyone else to talk to about this kind of thing when…you know.” Almost a year later and she still can’t just say it. None of us saw that coming. Dylan and Creed it seems have a lot in common.

  “Yeah you might want to speak to Cassie too.” My phone beeps I have a text so I open the door for her and shut it after she walks in.

  Marley: Found Him. Game on. Dean’s house.

  Well wouldn’t you know it. Blood helps blood whether blood deserves it or not.

  *****

  My door is open faster than lightening when I pull up outside Dean’s mom’s house. I see Mason’s car and Marley’s truck in the driveway and I run as fast as I can to the front door. Dean opens it before I get there holding Macy. I drop to my knees seeing she is alright. I take a deep breath knowing I don’t have to worry about her being hurt.

  She jumped out of Dean’s arms when she saw me and took off running right to me. I feel her tiny arms hug around my neck and my arms go around her back. “I’m so happy you are okay baby girl.” I whisper into her hair.

  I look up at the house and see Paige sitting there with tears in her eyes. I mouth thank you knowing she was the one who got the boys over here. “I was so scared Uncle Chance. Creed told me he would hurt you and mommy and Norma if I didn’t go with him. I didn’t know what else to do. He kept me in a dark room until Paige found me. She said you were coming. I’m so happy you are here.” Her little body shakes as she sobs on my shoulder.

  “I didn’t know Chance. I swear to god I didn’t know. She was in his basement. I went over there to check in and you could hear her screaming down there. I beat the shit out of him. I can’t believe he would do something like this. I don’t even know why.” Even Dean is crying and I think we all feel that way about Creed. No one saw it coming because he played his part so well. He only showed us what he wanted us to see. I wonder if our entire friendship was fake. The best friend that I knew wouldn’t have kidnapped my niece.

  “Macy I want you to go to Paige. She is going to take you home to your mommy and Mimi.” Her little head nods as Paige takes her tiny hand and gently guides her to the car. “I don’t know how you couldn’t have known, Dean. He’s been with Norma for two fucking years.” The look on his face says it all. Everything I needed to know about Dean. He’s not like the rest of his family. “I was wondering if you knew or not.”

  “I had no clue. I knew he had a girlfriend but how the hell did I miss this?” then it looks like it clicks in his head. “He has guys over to the apartment that I don’t care for. I’m almost never there. Paige’s roommate is almost never in the dorms and I sleep there most of the time.”

  “It was more than that though.
He beat her, Dean. He raped my sister. He forced Norma Jean to have sex with him in public places. And I’m pretty sure he destroyed my relationship with her to begin with.”

  He dropped to his knees at my words and I honestly feel for the guy. “He’s just like his dad. Our fathers were a lot alike, but Uncle Greg was worse than mine. I’m not really that surprised, though I didn’t see it coming.”

  I just nod my head. Both of their dads are scum and deserve the place they went to. Enough said. “What’s going on inside?”

  “Marley came in yelling and it scared Macy even more, so I brought her up front so she wouldn’t have to hear any of it. I don’t know, I just hope he’s not dead. He can go to jail for a really long time for taking Macy. He could get life.” I stare him down. Creed may be Dean’s family but Creed seriously fucked with mine and he’s not going to jail. He’s going 6 feet under.

  “I figured you wouldn’t want what is about to happen. You know who he pissed off don’t you? Marley would never let him live with this. He’s going to die, and I’m sorry to have to say that to you. You need to learn to live with it.” The look on his face is sad and I hesitate with what I want to happen. Dean doesn’t have much and Creed is a part of that. Though he’s not much.

  I’m about to say something else when honking starts coming from down the street. Then a little pink car pulls into the driveway. Mrs. Davis, Norma’s grandmother. “Dean, Chance.” We nod as she walks over to us. “My grandson in that house?” we both nod again. And she walks her little body right into the house.

  Mrs. Davis is no one to fuck with. She’s known around town for getting into everyone’s business. The thing about it is, she knows everyone’s business. Everyone’s secrets and dirty laundry and we all learned a long time ago not to doubt she wouldn’t tell. Plus she runs a shooting range and always has a shot gun in her car. I even think she knows martial arts. She’s not that old, yet.