Trusting Xavier
Page 7
Turning into her, he tugged her under his mouth and settled her there. Exploring her lips, he breathed her in. Her stubborn fire lit him from the inside out with every breath.
Short nails dug into his back, pulling him in tighter until she pressed against him from her soft breasts to her gently curved hips.
His lips parted, and he hissed into her mouth as she pressed against him. Just as he found the resolve to step away, she took advantage of his open mouth and brushed her tongue alongside his.
His body revolted against his every good intention the minute he tasted her. Really tasted her. The lingering honey and butter on her lips drove him to madness, and he plunged his hands into her hair, the elastic breaking free, sending her soft waves tumbling over his hands.
He backed her against the footrail and spread his legs, bracketing her in there.
Breathing heavy, her heartbeat hammered against the thumb he caressed over her neck, the frantic pace matching his own as it threatened to burst straight out of his chest.
He pulled away and searched her eyes. Their chests rose and fell as they gulped in air.
“More,” she commanded, dragging his mouth back down to hers, her teeth sinking into his bottom lip.
The sharp sting shot straight through him to his dick, eliciting a lusty growl low in his throat.
“A-hem.”
They both froze at the sound, at the deep voice coming from the doorway. They turned in unison to find Dylan watching them with an amused expression and Lucas right behind him with murder in his eyes.
Chapter 9
Xavier wouldn’t hide. He made it perfectly clear by standing tall and silent for Lucas’ censure. He should be filled with regret, with loathing, but all he could muster up was a thin thread of hope that he didn’t dare examine too closely or else it might just disintegrate before his very eyes.
“What the hell’s going on?” Lucas said, plowing past Dylan, his feet eating up the floor as he headed straight for Xavier.
Laramie darted in front of him and pushed him behind her back, the movement so ridiculous on account of her being about ten inches shorter and at least eighty pounds lighter, but also so endearing that he smiled for the first time in days.
He’d had serious doubts of being anything more than damaged goods after dredging up his tumultuous past complete with a blunt list of his shortcomings and a decade full of self-loathing and anger, but this woman, this fighter, she was something to hold on to. And when she held on to him, he started to believe that maybe he was worth holding on to as well.
“Kissing, not that it’s any of your business,” Laramie said with both hands firmly planted on her hips, her chin jutting out, daring her brother to question her, or them.
Lucas shoved both hands through his hair, the force stretching his skin back, making his cheekbones more severe and his wide eyes more pronounced.
Xavier almost felt bad for the guy.
“But he’s your doctor,” Lucas finally sputtered.
“Chloe was your hostage,” Dylan said next to him.
Lucas shot him a glare and jerked toward him with balled fists.
Dylan held up his hands and dropped into a padded chair. “Just giving a bit of perspective.”
“We’re adults,” Laramie reminded him.
“You’re married,” Lucas said, his voice border lining a squeak which was no easy feat for a man like him.
Xavier winced. Irritation danced under his skin, and he fought the urge to jump in and speak for her. She wouldn’t tolerate that, but he’d only watch Lucas push her so far before he’d have his say.
“Wow, Lucas…that’s grasping at some serious straws,” Laramie said, her voice deathly quiet, a tone that came out of women that made a man’s balls slink back inside their bodies while they simultaneously waved a white flag in surrender.
Lucas paced back and forth over eight feet of commercial-grade linoleum. “How long has this been going on?”
“Four minutes,” Xavier said with a glance at the clock on the wall.
“Forty or so days,” Laramie said at the same time.
“Maybe you two need a minute to get the details straight?” Dylan asked, crossing his ankle over his knee with a shit-eating grin spread across his face.
“It’s not like you just walked in on me losing my virginity so put the eyebrows away. And the scowl,” Laramie warned.
“Whose brilliant idea was this?” Lucas demanded.
“Mine,” Xavier said.
“Mine,” Laramie said at the same time.
Dylan shook his head and bit back his smile, his foot hitting the floor as though he was going to stand. “I was joking about getting your stories straight, but maybe you two really do need a minute?”
“We’re fine. It’s fine.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m going to need you to stop trying to protect me now.”
Xavier knew when to shut up. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good,” she said, shaking her head and winking at him.
Eye muscles working well.
Jesus. He pinched the bridge of his nose and told the doctor in him to sit the fuck down for a minute so the man in him could get a grasp on the situation. God, he’d not only just crossed all sorts of lines with a patient but also got caught, and he didn’t care. Not one bit. As a matter of fact, he intended to do it again at the very first opportunity.
How the hell had this gone off the rails so fast?
One kiss and he was full-blown on the defensive and expected to explain himself to the woman’s family? This wasn’t exactly how he envisioned jumping back into a relationship, if he ever chose to.
“Listen, clearly you and I aren’t going to see eye to eye on my relationship with the doc, so let’s put it aside and how about you guys tell me what you’re doing here because this is more than a visit, right?”
“Laramie—”
“Lucas, I mean it. It’s not up for discussion.” She stepped away from Xavier and approached her brother, taking his hand. “And I love you so much for caring, but it was this pattern that had me running in defiance of you eight years ago. I won’t run now, but I will set boundaries, and you will respect them.”
Lucas held her stare, and finally, after several seconds, he nodded in surrender, and his shoulders relaxed.
“Now, what brings you by?” Laramie asked.
Dylan’s gaze broke from Xavier and landed on Laramie. “To talk to you about the plan going forward.”
“Okay,” she said, taking a few steps back and sliding her hands in his.
He glanced down, not quite there yet. Not that he didn’t want to hold her hand, hell, he wanted far more than that, but the easy affection, after retreating from intimacy for so long, it might take a while for him to not be surprised by it. It was a little like a person putting on a pair of glasses for the first time in their life and then being painfully aware of the frame in their peripheral while they acclimated.
He just had to adjust.
He gave her hand a squeeze and brought her knuckles to his mouth, hesitating for a second before he brushed a simple kiss over her skin.
Soft-blue eyes met his own, and she gave him a private smile. One that told him she was fine with where they wound up, and she welcomed more.
Tucking their joined hands next to him, he turned his attention back to Lucas and Dylan.
“Ordinarily, the women who come here have a hard time adjusting to independence. The staff looks at each case to determine the best route for the individual and their family. In this case, we’re in uncharted territory. So far, the women who’ve come here have the comfort of knowing their abuser is behind bars, at least for a good amount of time. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to make sure your husband ends up there. It’s going to take a while. Could be a long while. So I stopped by Xavier’s place the other day and spoke to him at length about how to proceed with your particular situation,” Dylan said.
Chapter 10
Laramie reminded
“Did it occur to the two of you that maybe you should have been discussing this with me?”
“Absolutely, which is why we’re here. If it’s any consolation, Xavier didn’t seem particularly happy about discussing it without you. And he sure as hell didn’t like my suggestion. It was less about what to do about you, and more about how to protect you and your daughter while we do something about your husband and break up this baby mill he’s running.”
No one had managed to do so yet, and she wondered what gave Dylan the confidence to think he was up to the job. As near as she could tell, pretty much everyone around her was corrupt. Of course, no one had the information she had. She just had to live long enough to deliver it. “And what did you suggest?”
Dylan grimaced. “Keeping you here indefinitely. Basically, until it’s all handled which could be a while.”
Laramie turned to the doc just in time to see the anger filling his eyes, his strong jaw locking with tension. “And what did you say to that?”
“That you would be trading one prison for another. I don’t like it.” His gruff voice dropped dangerously low, revealing the truth in his words.
Her throat tightened as a whirlwind of feeling she never expected took root in her heart. “I don’t like it either.”
“Because he’s a cop,” Dylan began, “Witsec was always risky. I’m surprised they even put you in when the very person they were protecting you from is a cop. Especially after what happened with Lucas’ former boss, Vic Conroy. He was hell-bent on Lucas going under protection, and considering his role in helping one of the biggest drug dealers in our history bust out of jail, he had allies. That took a lot of connections to orchestrate, and they haven’t all been brought to justice. That case made national news and has put the authorities across the country on notice that there are major failings within the US Marshals Witsec program. If it were me, I would have put you in a safe house under guard.”
“Another prison,” Laramie said.
“Unfortunately. You should know, there are a lot of dirty players in this baby mill he’s running. Quite possibly all the way up to the district attorney. Who was prepping you for testimony prior to the attack?”
Her skin prickled. “Nobody. Why would they have been prepping me?”
“You were supposed to testify a month later. They should have been going over your testimony with you and practicing questioning, or at the very least, make a schedule to do that with you,” Lucas said.
“No one even told me the trial date had been set.” Her skin heated with embarrassment as she realized just how naïve she’d been.
“What do you mean?” Dylan asked.
“I mean I’d heard absolutely nothing. I figured they were still putting the case together.”
“You didn’t see anything on the news or online?” Lucas asked.
“I didn’t have a TV. I didn’t want Harmony to see Jackson on there. I don’t ever want her to see him again. And I didn’t go online. The US Marshal handling my case said it wasn’t safe.”
“Who was the US Marshal you were in touch with?” Dylan asked.
“Harland East.” She’d been told never to give that name to anyone, but with her back against the wall and a lifetime of either being in a prison or running, what choice did she have?
“Okay, we’ll check him out. There’s missing evidence that was lost in police possession, but the authorities have gone quiet on the whole thing. The news reported that their star witness changed her mind and would no longer cooperate with authorities. But it turns out you were actually here. Someone fed them that story. What I’m wondering now is what led to you being admitted to New Hope. Was it a decision based on proximity? Or was it a conscious decision? Because your neighbors, anyone you interacted with would have only known you to be a single mother. But you ended up here, a facility designed to rehabilitate abuse victims. That strikes me as awfully coincidental,” Dylan said.
“Too coincidental,” Lucas agreed.
Dylan cocked his head and studied her. “What evidence do you have against Jackson, anyway? Just eyewitness testimony?”
She couldn’t help the sly grin that curved her mouth. “That’s just the start of what I have.”
“What does that mean?” Lucas asked.
“You know, it’s probably better that you hear this story now, Doc.” She climbed onto the bed and brought her knees to her chest. “This way you can decided if that kiss was our first or last.”
She turned to her brother. Call her a coward, but she didn’t want to see the decision on the doc’s face as she laid it all at their feet.
“I was a stupid kid. It took me a long damn time to grow up,” she admitted, looking right at Lucas so he would know that she realized the fault she had in their estrangement.
“I thought I finally had when I met Jackson. My boyfriend had just died, and I was pregnant and alone, with a mountain of bills to pay and one income.” She’d gone from running with bad boys to committing to one upstanding man. Little had she known she’d skated into a never-ending dance with the Devil.
A bitter laugh slipped from her lips. “If you could call it an income. It certainly wouldn’t have kept a roof over Harmony’s head. Jackson was charming, attentive, and said that he’d support me no matter what my decision was. We could get married, and he’d be Harmony’s father, or if I wasn’t ready, he knew a few families that had been looking to adopt.”
Their stares crawled over her. Lucas bared his teeth, and she didn’t even dare look at the doc. Dylan smiled at her, no judgment, just waiting for her to tell her story in her own time. She glanced down at the ring on his left hand.
Whoever she was, she was a lucky woman. Maybe Laramie would get the chance to meet her. Even if nothing more happened between her and the doc, her brother had a connection to them, and they’d be in her life indefinitely. Even the doc. What if he didn’t want to go any further? She rubbed at her chest as though she could smooth away the ache there.
“What’s wrong?” the doc asked.
“What?” She glanced down at her hand and stopped. “Oh, nothing. I’m fine.” She crossed her legs and forced a smile so he would know she really was okay.
He narrowed his eyes and stepped up to her, turning his back to Dylan and Lucas. “Are you sure you don’t want me to leave?” he asked quietly.
She couldn’t tell if he was being a gentleman or hoping she’d let him off the hook. Okay, so it may have been her jaded mind overthinking it. Or not. But here she was baring a humiliating history to them, and if he wanted out of it, he damn well could grow a pair and say so instead of waiting for her to let him cut him loose.
She glared up at him. “Doc, I say what I mean. You should know that by now. If I wanted you to leave, you’d be gone.”
He didn’t get defensive. He didn’t even get mad. Instead, he sat on the mattress next to her and stayed. Just stayed. No coddling. No looking at her like she was going to go into hysterics. Just silent, unwavering support.
Fuck all if that didn’t choke her up.
“I wanted to keep my baby, and for the most part Jackson seemed good with that. Only, every now and then he’d make a comment. When I found out I was having a girl, he would talk about a family he knew who was always hoping for a girl. Just little things. And the further along I got, the more he’d have to say in favor of adoption. When I finally had her, he became more distant. He was working all the time, not paying much attention to either of us. Sleeping in another room so he wouldn’t disturb us. Harmony was about nine months old when I finally became suspicious. So I followed him one night to a run-down apartment complex. I waited. I watched. I saw his silhouette in the window, and hers, until they became one. And that’s when I snapped.”
She blew out a breath and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m not exactly proud of it. I took Harmony out of the car and marched right in, determined to collect my husband with no idea what I’d do beyond that. Marriage counseling? Divorce?
“What was I supposed to do? Become a single mother with no money? He made it all. You warned me about that, too,” she said, pointing at her stubborn, domineering brother.
“I barged in on them. He was on top of her, touching her in a way he’d stopped touching me a long damn time before. He was furious. The way he snarled at me. I remember thinking I just didn’t know who the hell he was, and the man before me with cold hard rage in his eyes was nothing like the man inside the walls of our home. It was the first time I knew real fear.”
She smiled at her brother. “And you thought I should fear the wild guys I hung out with. Let me tell you, not a one of them laid a hand on me. Never,” she said, clearing her throat. “Anyway, Harmony sat buckled in her carry seat next to me.”
Thinking about her daughter, the memory sucked Laramie right back in. The lingering scent of stale cigarette smoke tangling with old grease filling the air. The threadbare commercial carpet covering the floor, curled and frayed in the corners. Muted sirens blaring in the distance over the sound of heavy traffic outside and the occasional car spinning out of the parking lot.
“I was standing there, desperation in the air around me. Hopelessness. And this man I had walked down the aisle to, he acted as though he was right at home there. Next to me, Harmony reached for the little plastic keys dangling from the handle of her carry seat, not even paying attention to what was happening.” She shook her head, shook off the fog of an old life that settled over her and looked at each of them, her gaze locking on the doc. “He hit me for the first time that night.”
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