Make him understand he's got to give up.

"-make him understand he doesn't want to keep fucking with you, or Kate."

He watches her face as she bites her lip, concerned. He knows she's scared of him, but is she more scared of Rick? He waits patiently for her to think about what he's saying. Soon, she seems to work her way to some sort of conclusion. "What are you talking about doing, really? How do you scare a sadist?"

"You make him feel the pain," Aden says. His eyes are like two small black coals, his lips pressed together tightly. "I can hurt him without doing any permanent damage. Far worse than he hurt you."

"When he heals, he'll just call the police."

"No, he won't." Aden smiles, that same empty smile that shows he's faking it to fit in. "I have friends who can help me make it so he can't ever harm you again without hurting himself worse. I'll owe them a favor or two, but I can get it done."

"Why would you do that?" She shakes her head. "I've got nothing to offer as far as money, and I'm a fat girl who's not into being beat on so you don't want to fuck me."

That gets him, for some reason. He looks at her, really looks at her for the first time since they met. She's short, and, yes, she's not thin, but she's curvy in all the right places. Her tits are ample, her ass well padded, and she dresses well. And he can tell, if she wanted to, if she was into it, she's got the right mindset to be an excellent lover. She writes porn well enough to get paid for it; she'll be knowledgeable, willing to play. Hungry.

"You're not a model, no," he tells her, being honest. "But I think you're very pretty, in a real woman way, and I'll bet with some love and affection, you'd blossom. And I don't beat every girl, or guy, I sleep with, just the ones who ask." He sighs, feeling his rage starting to retreat, feeling the monster go back to sleep. "Look, Anne, we're not enemies here. Your ex is a nasty little weasel who hurts weaker people so he can feel like a man. People like that are easy to cow when you figure out their pressure point. And I already know his."

"What's that?"

"Feeling like a man. He'd do anything to prevent his manhood being publicly questioned."

"How do I know that I can trust you?" Anne asks. "The vibe I pick up from you is really nasty. In one of my books, you'd be the villain."

"I am," he murmurs. "But right now, I'm your villain. Set me loose, and you'll have your kids back, him out of your life, and no guilt because I won't do anything to him he doesn't deserve."

Anne can feel the precipice in front of her, can feel the danger, the storm brewing. Can she do this and still feel okay with herself? Will it work? Will this madman be able to get her other madman out of her life once and for all without it back-firing on her? She looks over to her pictures, feels the emptiness in her life. She remembers the time in the hospital, the endless parade of young girls, the nights at the club beating them bloody and running to the locker rooms to throw up while he laughed at her, the welts on Pet's back. And the way Pet and Tommy looked at Aden after the scene. The way he got Pet off without ever touching her, without fucking her, without doing anything for himself.

_Fuck it, _she decides. What have I really got to lose that he hasn't already taken from me? "Okay," she says out loud, letting loose the dogs of war.