Stronger Than You Know--A Novel

by Lori Foster

  “Now, before our food gets here, spill the beans. What nefarious stuff has Jodi gotten into? Don’t fudge the truth or leave out anything. I need to know what I’m up against.”

  Yes, to be fair, he needed to know everything. After a fortifying sip of her coffee, she cleared her throat. “First, let me explain something about Jodi, okay? Unlike the place where I was held—” and basically rented out “—Jodi was outright bought and owned by a man who was, from what she’s said, pure evil.”

  “Any man who participates in trafficking is evil.” He held up a hand. “Still, I get your meaning.”

  “There were times he closed Jodi in a small room in the basement. It was his idea of punishment if she wasn’t performing up to his standards. Once, he left her there for two days. No food or water. By the time he let her out, she said her spirit was broken. She only wanted to eat, bathe—and to never go back to that room.” Fingers of red-hot rage clenched around her windpipe, forcing her voice to a ragged whisper. “No matter what she did, though, he found reasons to lock her away again and again. She never knew if she’d be punished for an hour, a day, or if he’d leave her there to die. Jodi said that was the worst torture of all. Not knowing.”

  As he often did, Reyes reached out to her. His strong fingers closed oh-so-gently around her forearm, then trailed down until he could hold her hand in his own.

  It astounded her that his touch helped so much. For a second there, she’d gotten lost in the details of what Jodi had suffered.

  Putting her left hand to her chest, she counted her heartbeats. The combined facts that she was alive and that Reyes planned to keep her that way helped her to find her composure.

  “You do that often,” he said softly.

  She’d been staring blindly at the table. At his observation, her gaze snapped up to his.

  When he nodded at her left hand, she realized his meaning.

  Never before, not even to Jodi, had Kennedy explained the small gesture that signified so much. It was private to her, central to her struggle with a past that still haunted her today.

  “Containing your heart?” he asked, his tone still amazingly gentle.

  With his hand offering safety, his hazel eyes showing so much understanding, the words just came out. “I’m feeling my heart beat.”

  His thumb moved over her fingers, but he didn’t say anything.

  “It’s dumb,” she said, feeling a little self-conscious.

  “No, it’s not. Anything that reminds you you’re alive is a good thing.”

  Oh, wow. He actually got it. An emotional tsunami hit her. She couldn’t speak, so she nodded, and Reyes didn’t press her. He continued to watch her, almost like he’d never seen a woman before—or maybe like she fascinated him in some way.

  A bizarre way? She hoped not.

  Just then, their food arrived, relieving her of the awkward moment. He took care of thanking the server, commenting that it smelled good, asking for more coffee and, in the process, giving her a much-needed moment to clear her head.

  When they were alone again, she said, “Thank you.”

  He chided her with a half smile. “No more of that, remember?”

  “I can’t help it.” He was just that wonderful. Far more than she knew a man could be, especially a big buff alpha like him. “You can’t know how much I appreciate... everything.” Most especially the way he grasped her innermost thoughts.

  “Does that make it better?” he asked, shaking out her napkin and leaning over to put it in her lap, overall pretending that she wasn’t frozen still. “Talking about it, I mean.”

  “I don’t know.” The speaker in her came forth, and while she cut into her French toast, she began to ramble. “I’ve never really talked about my personal experiences. What I share in my speeches is a general impression that applies to a lot of people, in a lot of situations. The specifics of what happened to me... I’ve put some of them in my book. Writing things and saying them aloud are very different.”

  “Maybe you need to talk about them more.” He forked up a bite of egg. “With me.”

  Yes, with him, she probably could. From the start, Reyes had been different. Cocky, yes, but with the ability to back it up. Assured, but in a very nice, take-charge way.

  Concerned, and that was what had worried her most. She’d worked hard to regain her life, and Reyes saw right through the facade to the hyperaware, ever-vigilant, still very afraid girl who knew that, alone, she didn’t stand a chance against the cruelty of the world.

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE IDEA OF sharing her innermost thoughts, her basest fears and most humiliating moments left her shaken, so she deflected. “I thought you wanted to know about Jodi.”

  “That, too.” As usual, Reyes let her off the hook. “Go ahead and eat. We’re not in a rush. I have the whole day free.”

  No problem there. She was finally hungry, and the breakfast really was delicious. In between bites, she shared some of Jodi’s characteristics. Like her brusque insistence of going it alone. Her staunch defense of any woman injured by a man. The very meager way she lived.

  “How long was she with the bastard?”

  “A few months. She’s never said exactly, but I know it was long enough that she’d given up hope. Unlike my situation, she was alone. At least I had Sharlene and the other women. We made a unique sort of family, weird as that sounds.”

  “Not weird at all. Even in terrible circumstances, there’s comfort in numbers.”

  See, how could she not be impressed with his insight? “Jodi was alone, mistreated, desperate, and I hope you don’t blame her for—”

  “If she killed the fucker, I’ll cheer her on.”

  “She did.” Once the blurted words left her mouth, Kennedy went still, anxiously waiting to see how Reyes would react. He surprised her by not reacting.

  Around eating, he asked, “How’d she do it?”

  This was Jodi’s secret, and Kennedy had never shared it before. “You can’t tell anyone.”

  “Okay.” He nodded at her food. “You need to eat, hon.”

  No, she wasn’t buying it. “Just like that? You won’t say anything to Cade or Madison?”

  “No reason. They already suspect she’s crossed a few lines, and if Madison wants to know details, she’ll figure it out.” He rolled one shoulder. “Just know that you never have to question my word. If I can’t keep something secret, I’ll say so. If I say I will, then I will.”

  Had she offended him? She didn’t think so. It felt more like he wanted to reassure her. Again. “I wasn’t questioning you, not really.”

  “Good. So how’d she do it? I’m guessing he didn’t leave any weapons around.”

  “No. He’d had weapons, some that he’d used to threaten Jodi, but they were always locked away where she couldn’t get them.”

  Right up until the tide had turned.

  Her heart beat a little faster. Nervousness did that to her. Reyes might treat this little convo as no big deal, but to Jodi, it would be the biggest betrayal imaginable. Unfortunately, Kennedy wasn’t sure what else to do. “The room he put her in was small and dark. The door locked on the outside. She said it was bare concrete, with damp walls. Always cold.” Imagining it made her shiver. “All she had was a bucket for a toilet, and a wooden pallet to keep her off the floor. No blanket, no water or food. No way to stay warm.” Feeling more of the chill Jodi must have suffered, Kennedy lifted her coffee cup in both hands, cradling it close.

  Reyes’s eyes narrowed. “I hope he didn’t have an easy death.”

  She glanced around the restaurant. No one was near. No one paid them any attention other than a few women giving Reyes sly glances. Not that she could blame them. He owned the space by his presence alone, not to mention his size and that too-handsome face.

  Dropping her voice to a barely there whisper, Kennedy conti
nued the gruesome tale. “Jodi managed to break up the pallet by busting it against the wall. Then she dragged the edges against the rough concrete wall to sharpen them.”

  “Clever.”

  She’d always thought so. “Jodi could have starved before he returned, but she used her misery to build her rage. She was waiting next to the door when he finally came in.”

  “And?” he prompted.

  Again, images formed in her mind, turning her stomach with the ugliness of it all. “She stabbed him with a jagged piece of wood. She said it wasn’t a fatal blow, but the wood broke off in his side, and she had several pieces that she’d gotten ready. She...slashed and stabbed until he went down and didn’t get up.”

  “Grisly,” he said, not at all disturbed. “She got out of there, then?”

  Kennedy shook her head. “She locked him in the room first, then yelled through the door that she’d call an ambulance for him if he gave her the combination to his safe. Jodi said he could barely talk, that he was hurting bad, bleeding everywhere. She’d... Apparently she’d cut across his face, laying open his cheek and injuring his eye. She said he was begging for help, afraid he’d go blind.”

  “Fuuuuck,” Reyes said, sounding impressed. “Guess she got a little payback.”

  “He was desperate, and he gave her what she wanted. She found cash and weapons in the safe, and also her purse, which still had her ID and stuff. She grabbed some of his clothes so she could change once she was well away. Then she found the keys to his car, and...” Kennedy shook her head. “She left.”

  “No ambulance, huh?”

  Still, Reyes didn’t seem disturbed. “She never told anyone, and she never went back. Unless someone found him, he died in that room.”

  “A fitting end for him.”

  “There were times when Jodi wanted to check the house, to make sure he was dead and gone. I always managed to talk her out of it.”

  “Good.” He went back to eating. “It’s risky to revisit a site.”

  “Know something about that, do you?”

  Scoffing, Reyes didn’t take the bait. He just nudged her plate at her. “There’ve been times since then that Jodi went after people?”

  Kennedy really hated to share this part, even knowing she had to. “I don’t have names, or even many details, but she told me about a guy who’d been abusing his wife. She sabotaged his car somehow and he ended up going over a bridge. He survived, but hurt his back, and Jodi was satisfied that he wouldn’t walk again, so he couldn’t hurt his wife.”

  Reyes offered no judgment.

  Rubbing her forehead, Kennedy said, “She also took credit for a few pimps who were found dead, as well as a guy who’d paid one of the pimps for time with a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  “Is that it?” he asked without inflection.

  Kennedy shook her head. “She went after a drug dealer who was preying on kids. He’s dead, too. OD.”

  Softly Reyes said, “Jodi’s gotten around.”

  “If the stories are all true, yes she has. I’ve done everything I could to convince her to stop. I’ve urged her to start building a better life for herself.”

  “She doesn’t yet know how.”

  “No, she doesn’t. And the longer she plays vigilante, the more concerned I am that she won’t stop—until someone stops her.”

  “A worry for you, I’m sure.” He again nudged her plate. “If that’s it, will you please eat before your food gets any colder? We have a lot of shopping ahead of us.”

  She had a feeling Reyes wanted time to think. He was certainly quiet for a while after that.

  Once they’d finished up their food, Kennedy accepted a refill on her coffee.

  “Seriously, hon, you consume way too much caffeine,” he commented.

  “You can have your vices and I’ll have mine.”

  “My vices are more fun.”

  Assuming his were all sexually related, she shook her head. “Jodi said she’d never admitted what she’d done to anyone other than me. With the first guy, I don’t blame her.”

  “Of course not.”

  Kennedy knew if she’d been braver, stronger, she’d have done the same thing. Instead, she’d allowed herself to be intimidated until Sharlene gave her life to free her.

  No, she didn’t blame Jodi. Too often, she blamed herself.

  And the rest of it? The other people Jodi claimed to have hurt or killed? Honestly, she just didn’t know.

  * * *

  A WEEK WENT by in an incredible rush. Having a woman in his house was, at times, more pleasant than he could have imagined, and other times beyond frustrating. Like the way Kennedy slept in the guest room now.

  Reyes hated it.

  He’d liked holding her, but the very next night, she’d quietly made her preferences known and had slept apart from him ever since.

  His subtle suggestions that she might be more comfortable with him, that his bed was big enough, the mattress more comfortable, had only brought out her infuriating manners.

  She’d politely say, “The guest room is very comfortable, but thank you,” and he didn’t know how to press the issue without also pressing her.

  That, he wouldn’t do.

  Why did she have to get all stubborn now and deny them both?

  Other than their sleeping arrangements, everything else was easier than he’d expected. He, Reyes McKenzie, a man who’d put careful boundaries around his privacy, now relished having a woman in his space.

  And not just any woman, but a woman he couldn’t touch.

  Never in his life had he thought he’d be in a situation like this—and liking it.

  She’d damn near shopped him to death those first few days, saying it was his own fault since he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. True enough, she’d offered to let him sit in the mall restaurant while she gathered everything she needed, but he, being a glutton for punishment and feeling over-the-top protective of her, had stuck as close as her shadow.

  He’d also covered those expenses, and it seemed like Kennedy would never get over it. Hadn’t anyone ever helped her? Didn’t matter how many times he assured her he could afford it, she got touchy about paying him back once she could access her funds.

  He was independent, too, so he got it. But in some strange, chauvinistic way, he’d savored the act of providing for her.

  So he had some caveman genes? Go figure.

  In the end, all her careful selections, based on price and comfort, worked out. She now had warmer clothes for the chillier fall weather, plus hiking boots for their evening walks, which had become routine.

  Kennedy shared his fascination with the mountains. She could walk forever, discovering creeks, exploring shallow caves and memorizing birds. Sometimes they followed easy paths, and other times they labored over rough terrain. He loved it all, and sharing with Kennedy made it somehow special.

  His cabinets now held her favorite snacks, which were mostly things he didn’t eat, but he enjoyed watching her enjoy them.

  How twisted was that? Here he was, a grown-ass man, sexual in the extreme, but the way Kennedy licked her lips while eating a cookie made him hot.

  He really needed to get laid, and soon.

  But he wouldn’t leave her alone to see to that, so... celibacy ruled his immediate future. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t appreciate his time with her.

  “I need a shower,” she said, as she climbed into his truck.

  “You can use the showers at the gym, you know.” They spent each morning and afternoon there together. Already Kennedy had gotten better at a few basic moves, though she wasn’t a natural like his sister-in-law, Sterling. Overall, Kennedy didn’t have the same killer instinct or a rabid desire to hone deadly skills. For her, it was more about survival. She didn’t want to maim, as Jodi had done. Or stay and fight, as Sterling would insis
t on doing.

  Kennedy wanted enough advantage to flee.

  “I’m not big on group showers.” She wrinkled her nose. “There are always other people there.” She gave him a look. “Do you realize the women walk around naked like it’s no big deal? They dry their hair, chat with their friends and apply makeup, all while entirely nude.”

  No, he hadn’t known that. Interesting. “You’re shy, huh?” Or was it that the trauma of her past made her more private about her body?

  Yeah, that would make sense. Frowning, he got behind the wheel, all the while checking the area to ensure no one, including Jodi, was looming around.

  “I’ve always been reserved when it came to my body.”

  “There’s no reason,” he said with total honesty.

  Half smiling, she ducked her face. “I used the sink in your bathroom to clean up, and I changed clothes, but it’s not the same as a nice long shower.”

  No, he supposed it wasn’t. And damn it, he didn’t want to think about Kennedy lingering under a warm spray.

  In more ways than he could count, she was the total opposite of his brother’s wife. Put in a similar situation, Sterling would have owned the showers and anyone in them. In part, her alpha attitude made her perfect for Cade.

  But Reyes wouldn’t like having a chick around who was every bit as ruthless as him.

  “I mean it, you know. You have a nice body.”

  Her eyes flared. “You’ve never seen my body.”

  “I’ve seen you in snug shorts.” He rolled a shoulder. “You have a really nice ass.”

  Kennedy almost choked. “That’s...” She shook her head. “Um, thanks.”

  Her modesty was kind of cute, now that he knew it was just part of her nature and not something wrought from abuse. “Did I embarrass you? Sorry. I don’t know a lot of shy women.”

  “I’m not really shy. Not about most things.”

  “Just your ass?”

  Laughing, she slugged him in the shoulder. “I got a lot of work done today. Your office is comfortable.”