that tensioned the lines of the nearby pirate ship ride. It rushed beside her in its arc, along with the hollers and shouts of the patrons on board as it traveled in its wide arc back and forth.
The smell of gasoline and the roar of the engine had become just part of the background of her life. She barely noticed the flashes of the lights and the sounds as she wove through the boxes and around the stalls. Then, she saw them.
Duncan had Emily up against the wall. He had her pinned by her shoulders, and he was roughly kissing her. She was pushing against him, trying to get free. Cora crept closer, keeping to the shadows, until she could hear him.
“—you like it. You know you do.” Duncan grabbed Emily between her legs.
Emily whimpered and shook her head. “Please, not here. Not right now.”
“No, it’s gonna be here, it’s gonna be now, and you’re gonna like it.” Duncan turned her around, smashing her against the wall face first. He ripped off her coat…and that was when Cora saw the bruises on her arms.
Duncan didn’t stop there. He yanked down her pants, and when Emily squealed and tried to escape, he slammed her back against the wall. Emily grunted in pain, and Cora watched as her knees trembled and almost gave out. “Shut up, Em. Stop whining. You should be glad anybody wants you. You should be grateful I want to do you like this. Trent doesn’t. Nobody else does. Just me. So, you’re gonna thank me.”
Cora’s hands twitched into fists.
Duncan shrugged out of his own coat. “You can’t expect me to go watch some contortionist slut and not get excited. It was your idea. You wanted to go see the show, so this is your fault. And you’re gonna help me with it.”
When Emily tried to pull her pants back up, he cuffed her hard to the ear. Emily fell to the ground in a heap.
Simon snarled beside her. She could feel rage pouring off him. It mixed perfectly with her own.
Duncan went to undo his belt.
All it took was one word from her. “Simon.”
Like a greyhound set loose from its pen, all it took was one mutter of his name and he was out of the gate. He strolled from the shadows, and with a flick of his fingers, the miserable little shit was yanked backward. Strings filled the air and caught every one of his limbs in his grasp.
Duncan gagged in pain. “What the f—what the fuck—”
“I’m afraid your plans for that are canceled, old boy.” Simon flicked his wrist again, and Duncan slid across the ground and out of the way. He wanted to rip the cretin to smithereens, but Cora should get to watch the torture, and she was rushing to her former friend’s side.
Emily was weeping. Cora fell to her knees beside her and began helping the poor girl redress herself. “Hey, it’s okay…It’s okay. You’re safe,” Cora murmured to her.
Emily shook her head weakly. “No. I’ll never be safe.” She sniffed. “You don’t understand. Now he’s just going to be angry with me.”
“Let me go!” Duncan shouted, struggling uselessly against Simon’s strings. “Em, Em, tell these freaks to let me go. Tell them you like it, and we were just playing around!”
Simon rolled his eyes. He strolled up to the man and, reaching into his vest pocket, pulled out his handkerchief. He balled it up and crammed it into the man’s mouth. “Silence. Let the girls have their moment.”
Duncan grunted in pain and tried to spit out the gag. Simon tightened the string around his throat just enough to make his point. When Duncan’s eyes looked as though they might bulge from his sockets, he let up so he could breathe. “Let…the girls…have their moment.” Simon grinned as Duncan went silent and nodded. “Good boy.”
Cora was hugging Emily to her, and the other woman was weeping against her shoulder. On his coat. He’d have to get it dry cleaned by Seamstress later. It was just another annoyance he’d need to contend with.
Cora shushed Emily and stroked her hair. “It’s all right…”
“You don’t understand,” came Emily’s broken response.
“I do.” Cora tilted Emily’s head up to look at her. “Trust me. I do. I was raped once. It was brutal. Terrible. And it was by someone I trusted. Someone who said he loved me. Someone who said no one else would ever care for me, so I better just be happy for what I could