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  Millie cleaned and wrapped my wounds in such a way that made me believe that she was a trained professional at some point.

  I could hear helicopters in the distance.

  Harold picked up the house phone. “I better call the police.”

  “Wait!” I knew I had no time left. They either had Dick or were about to. I had no idea what they would do to him—they were making him out to be a monster. That even without a gun he was dangerous. “My friend, Dick Dongy, he’s being framed for my disappearance. I have to get to his house. Caleb and Rex Texxerdad are looking to frame him.”

  Millie held up a finger to Harold. “Richard Dongy? The boy that buries the road kill?”

  I nodded. “One in the same.”

  “Well, he’d never hurt a fly. I knew his mama when she was little. Before she knew about the MS. What’s going on?” Millie wiped my forehead with a damp kitchen towel.

  “Can I tell you on the way?” I was desperate.

  “Of course. Can you walk? You lean on me and Harold. We’ll get you over to the Dongy place. I was wondering what all those helicopters were about. We don’t have cable. Just the Netflix. Figured I’d read it in the papers tomorrow.”

  “Thank you so, so much.” I took their support and was grateful when they opened the backseat door for me. Millie even put my seatbelt on, knowing that my wrists were in so much pain.

  I had to get to Dick.

  Chapter 28

  DICK

  Beauty was the proud mother of two baby raccoons. She took right to motherhood. I made sure she had water and food, and when she and the babies were finally curled to sleep, I set up my iPad and had every intention of going to see Hendrix at the bar. It was only 10:00 pm, so I could spend a few hours at her bar after all. When I opened the basement door, it was like another world.

  The sheer noise scattered me. I quickly shut the door so the babies and Beauty wouldn’t be scared.

  My first thought was earthquake, but that couldn’t be possible. There was no shaking.

  My entire house was filled with blinding light. I heard a muffled voice shouting commands from a megaphone.

  I went to the closest window and peeked out. There were police officers on my property, pointing guns at my house. Beyond them I could see protestors. I could only read one sign:

  Kill the BEAST!

  It was my worst nightmare. They didn’t trust me. They didn’t understand me. I was too different. I didn’t belong.

  Hendrix.

  That I found her was a miracle. That she kissed me was heaven. But now it was over. It didn’t matter that I had no idea what they were angry about, the hate was clear. There was only one thing I could do. Open my front door and let them do what they would.

  I kissed my fingers and touched the picture of my mother. “See you soon, Mom.”

  I unbolted the door and swung it open. The lights were even worse in my face, so I tried to cover my eyes.

  Chapter 29

  Henry

  I was out of the car before Harold had it to a full stop. I had to wade through the protestors. They were an angry mob. They were starting to chant.

  “Kill the Beast! Kill the beast!”

  My heart was in my throat. “No. He’s good. He’s nice. He’s mine.”

  They couldn’t hear me over their screaming voices.

  I pushed past the last of them, headed to the closest police officer.

  When he turned to face me, he wasn’t alone, Caleb was standing next to him. His face dropped when he saw me and anger flashed in his eyes.

  The crowd behind me hushed and I ignored Caleb to see what they were looking at.

  Dick.

  Dick was standing in the open door of his house, swatting at the lights in his eyes.

  The policeman next to Caleb started speaking in a device that I could hear echoing in the ears of the policemen around me.

  “On my count. We shoot on my three. One.”

  I didn’t wait for anymore. They were going to shoot him. I sprinted for the front door. They would have to go through me to get to Dick. Someone grabbed my shoulder, and I whirled around to see Caleb.

  “Get back here.” I pushed his hand away and he didn’t follow.

  Which was probably wise, because all the guns were pointed at where I was headed at top speed.

  I didn’t need to hear the count of two—I felt it.

  Every hair on my skin stood up. I could feel the path I was taking etching my fate.

  But Dick was no monster. I refused to watch anyone hurt him.

  When I ran up the ramp that he’d built his mother I felt like my legs were in slow motion, because I knew they were on the number three in that countdown.

  I flung my arms around Dick and he responded by stumbling backwards. “Get back. Get inside.”

  He pulled me close. “Hendrix?”

  I had a lot to tell him, but I was crying so I couldn’t. I had to let the police know that they were wrong.

  I pushed on his chest. “Stay.”

  I went back to the front door and waved with both hands. “I’m not dead. He didn’t kill anyone. He’s nice. He’s good. I love him. He’s mine.”

  Tears were falling down my cheeks.

  “He’s good. You’re not in danger. He’s…”

  Dick put his hands on my shoulders gently. “Who hurt you?”

  I turned and faced him, turning my back on the police and their guns.

  “I love you.” I’d tell him it all later. When he was safe. “I’m going to hold my hands up and you do the same behind me.”

  Millie and Harold made their way through the cops as Dick and I stood with our hands up.

  They plodded up the ramp to Dick’s house like it was Sunday mass. Then they stood in front of us, and put their hands up, too.

  Millie then pointed at the cops. “You all should be ashamed of yourself. How dare you? Because he’s different than you all? What a bunch of pussies.” And then Millie, my new favorite person, gave the police and the news crews two middle fingers.

  Once the police set their guns down, Dick turned me by my waist.

  “Did you say you loved me?”

  I nodded.

  His smile was bright in the searchlight’s glare.

  I was tapped on the shoulder by Millie. “That officer wants to talk to you.”

  I hugged Millie and then hugged Harold. Millie whispered in my ear, “I know you have the love adrenaline pumping now, but you need to see a doctor soon.”

  Dick piped up from behind me, “For sure. Your wrists look awful. Who did this?”

  Harold patted Dick on the shoulder; “We’ll worry about that after we get all these people off your damn lawn.”

  I insisted on holding Dick’s hand. He murmured to me, “I wish I had my hoodie on.”

  I wanted to squeeze his hand but my hands were hurting. We stood in front of the officer. I actually recognized him as the police chief that spoke on TV. The TV camera’s were an arm’s reach away. I thought it was a bizarre way to talk to me. Weren’t these types of conversations supposed to be confidential?

  “Young lady, can you tell me what was going on in this photo? And don’t worry, I have five snipers with guns on his head. So don’t think you have to lie.” He unfolded the sexy picture of Dick and I.

  I put my hand up on Dick’s head. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”

  The police chief waved in a few directions that looked dismissive. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

  “That was taken just hours ago, when I had the best sex of my life with the most amazing guy I know. He has not—ever-- hurt me or done anything to hurt anyone.” I stepped around the officer and spoke to the cameras. I could see Caleb trying to get through the protesters.

  “That man!” I pointed at Caleb, “And his friend Rex Texxerdad kidnapped me and were planning to kill me! They wanted to frame Dick Dongy. Just because he was different and they didn’t understand him!”

  The angry mob started beating
Caleb with their “Kill the Beast” signs.

  Harold spoke up. “I can verify that this nice girl was in real bad shape, is still in bad shape. Rex’s cabin is about a mile up from our house. I’ll show you where he is.”

  I started to feel the woozy kicking in. Millie had been right. I don’t know how much blood I lost, and I hadn’t eaten since Dick had fed me. He caught me before I could collapse and lifted me into his arms, concern all over his face.

  “We need an ambulance.” Dick directed the police chief.

  I touched his cheek. “I will only go if you come with me.”

  Dick nodded seriously. “I love you, Hendrix. I’ll go wherever you are.”

  “I told you I’d keep you safe,” I whispered to him.

  The angry mob—that had pinned Caleb to the ground—all sighed.

  And then I fainted.

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  It took me two days in the hospital before I was cleared to go home. Dick had to leave a few times to take care of the animals, but my family had taken up residence in the hotel in town, so I was never alone. My mother insisted on sleeping next to my bed and disinfected everything. Millie and Harold also dropped by and told me that Rex Texxerdad was awake and alert and icing his balls when he was arrested for what he had done to me. Caleb’s phone had evidence of all his conversations and planning with Rex, plus the picture of me in the van. There was plenty of surveillance footage at the parking garage to put both Caleb and Rex in jail for years. Rex’s PR girl was also under investigation.

  My family really liked Dick. Now that he stopped pretending that the world was in danger of swooning all over him—he let his real self shine thorough. He was funny and sexy and fantastic.

  It turned out that Dick owned a whole lot more property than he knew, so Rex’s threats to buy his house were empty. Thank Heavens. And it helped that he was in jail, too.

  The whole police situation had led to a bunch of Internet memes, so my boss couldn’t be happier. When I came back to work I was an Internet meme working at Meme’s. He had me and Dick sign autographs and Millie and Harold also dropped in to sign once and a while.

  The raccoon babies were a handful. Beauty was so domesticated; Dick didn’t feel right making her fend for herself again, so she and her cubs became house pets that were allowed upstairs. We’d named the babies, Sleepy and Sneezy and they slept at the bottom of our bed.

  That’s right, we’d moved in together. I was able to get out of my lease because the apartment building felt responsible that they hadn’t checked the security footage from the night I was attacked sooner.

  Becca learned how to take care of the animals so Dick and I could make trips to New York on my days off to try my hand at auditioning again. My brief brush with fame as a news story had boosted my appeal. Or my confidence. Or both. I was getting a lot of callbacks and had a small cameo in Hamilton booked for next Fall.

  I found out a few things when I moved into Dick’s house. The first was why he didn’t have a job. His mom was a stock market genius. She’d invested her savings in such a way that Dick could live two sensible lifetimes on the money that was invested. The second had come when I was sitting in the kitchen early one morning.

  Dick opened a bottle with tons of foreign writing on it. I’d seen him do it before, but all the sudden I was curious.

  “So, what is that stuff?” I stood and took the bottle from his hand.

  Dick blushed. “Well, it’s B.B. Formula. It was all the rage with my mom’s friends when I was a baby. They said that it would help our immune systems. There was a special website you could buy it from. That went out of business, but I loved the drink so much, my mom found a dealer on eSales.com. I still order it so I can have it everyday. Reminds me of her.”

  I gave him a skeptical look. “What happened to the other kids that drank this stuff?”

  He shook his head. “They were all allergic. But I was able to tolerate it.”

  I turned the bottle in my hands. “Have you ever Googled this stuff? Like what’s in it?”

  Dick shook his head again. “Never thought to. Just got to have it everyday. That’s all I know.”

  I took the bottle to the computer and pulled up the search engine. I carefully typed in as much of the name as I could. Some of the characters in the title weren’t even on my keyboard. I had to go through a translating site.

  The results took me to a site that looked like it was created in 1965. I scrolled through all the very fishy looking pictures and claims. I found a list of ingredients.

  “Holy shit.” I opened the bottle and took a sniff.

  “What?” Dick put his hands on my shoulders.

  “This has Miracle Grow in it. And motor oil. And jellyfish penises. And corn syrup.” I moved my head to the side so he could read it.

  “Holy shit. I try to avoid corn syrup.” He put his finger on the screen and dragged it over all the horrible, bizarre ingredients.

  “This crap is bad for you.” I pointed out the obvious.

  He looked at the bottle like it was his first time seeing it.

  I insisted he go to the doctor and have his blood tested and get a full physical. He was perfectly healthy, but the doctor agreed that the B.B. Formula (short for Body Builder Formula) should have never been given to him as a baby and he should definitely knock off drinking it.

  The withdrawal for Dick was super difficult. We had a lot of sex to keep his mind off the B.B. Formula.

  And after a few months, his extra abs started to fade away. In six months he had just abs on his belly. And the penis abs. They never faded either.

  And we came happily ever after.

  The End.

  (P.S. Reviewing this book on Amazon will get you four years of good sex and you can own all the unicorns!)

  Acknowledgments

  Helena Hunting

  Tijan

  Ashley Scales

  Christina Santos

  Lauren Rosa

  CP Smith

  Michele McLeod

  Robyn Diebolt

  Angelica Maria Quintero

  Lauren Lascola-Lesczynski

  TL Wainwright

  Rhiannon Jean

  Jenn Watson

  My SWAT team, Poughkeepsie Street Team, My blogger buds, readers and author friends.

  Family, all you guys rock. Mom and Dad S, Mom and Dad D, Pam. <3

  Other works by Debra Anastasia in KU

  For All The Evers

  Booty Camp Dating Service

  Fire Down Below

  Fire in the Hole

  The Revenger

  Felony Ever After

  About the Author

  A weird lady that likes to laugh, Debra loves her family and her pets. If she can write a book, so can you.

  DebraAnastasia.com for more information