As if he could sense the weight of all he’d said was pulling me to the ground, he stepped forward and enclosed me in his arms.
He smelled woodsy like pine as I relished the strength of his arms caging me in.
“You can’t go back there, not alone. Especially after they sent you black roses and spray-painted Die Bitch on your wall.”
I jerked out of his hold as my jaw hung open.
“How did you know about the roses?” I asked. Then more to myself as my thoughts bounced around, I said, “Lizzy.” Her place had been violated because of me. “This is personal,” I absently muttered.
“Yes.”
A crazy thought crept in my head and though he’d yet to answer my questions, I asked another, “How did they know which room was mine?”
“Drawers were opened on your desk. They probably confirmed it by a piece of mail, according to the reports. Lizzy’s room appeared untouched, as were the living and kitchen areas. Your room was destroyed, including your closet.”
I felt the first of my tears. Stepping farther away from him, I mumbled more to myself, “They’re just things. They don’t matter.”
I wiped at the stupid leakage from my eyes and was grateful I’d brought not only my laptop but my company issued one as well. Though it was likely I wouldn’t have a job to go back to, I didn’t want to spend what funds I had saved up to replace their equipment. Currently, both were in my car, hopefully not suffering ill effects for being locked in a frigid trunk.
“You came all the way here to tell me that,” I said, shooting the messenger with all the venom I had for this psycho person or persons.
“I think you know why I came.” His voice was blunt, but his eyes were soft.
“I’m in danger. Why aren’t the cops here?”
“They’re looking for you. I don’t think you want the feds descending on your family compound. I’m sure you want this place to remain a secret.”
It was true. But how did he know that? Suspiciously, I asked again, “How did you find me?”
“Griffin.”
“Your driver?” I asked, confused.
He chuckled. “He’s not my driver. He’s a friend and owns a security firm. He has his ways of keeping up with law enforcement.”
I would bet it wasn’t a legal avenue.
“That doesn’t answer why law enforcement isn’t here for me.”
“I’m sure the feds have a file on this place. They’ll assume when you left, you had no intention of ever returning. However, at some point they will come around here, if you don’t appear. That’s another reason for you to leave.”
“Leave?” It wasn’t like I didn’t know that I would need to. It was more of a when statement.
“The sooner, the better.”
Though I’d been thinking about it, the rush to leave threw me off balance.
“I can’t just leave.” I shook my head and began to pace the tiny area between trees.
He stared at me like I was from Mars. “Him?”
We were trading one-word questions. It was getting ridiculous. Or maybe it was just the situation. “Not just him. My sister, my family. I just got here. I need a couple of days.”
I expected him to rant or rage and demand I leave. His words, however, were reasonable. “You are putting everyone at risk. If I figured it out, the feds and whoever is targeting you will too.”
A healthier fear would have been what he spoke about. But I was more afraid of leaving with him and how my heart could survive the devil himself.
“Isn’t there something we can do? I need a day at least,” I suggested.
I hadn’t seen my family in years. And there were things I needed to do before I left, including dealing with Turner.
He always seemed able to read me so easily, I thought as he spoke.
“He can come too if you’ll leave this place sooner,” he said with truth in his words, plainly written on his face.
Dumbstruck, I just stared at him.
“What matters to me most is that you’re safe. If that means having him tag along until you both realize the inevitable, fine.”
“Inevitable?”
“Yes,” he said, stepping forward. “You and I are like the last two of a five-thousand-piece puzzle. We just fit together. That couldn’t have been more obvious when you were in my arms just now.”
I would be lying if I said my world didn’t spin on its axis, leaving me feeling dizzy, but I held my ground.
“That puzzle is defective because we don’t fit. The only reason you want me is for your bed or because I’m the first woman to tell you to fuck off.”
I covered my mouth, suddenly conscious of where I was. Such language was not allowed, and there would be dire consequences if caught.
“You’re wrong.”
His utter calmness pushed my irritation button one too many times.
“No, you’re wrong. I thank you for coming here to warn me. And I’m not stupid enough to put my family in danger of exposure or otherwise. In fact, I’ll leave. But I do have other friends. I can go to Chicago and stay with Matt. He’s a cop and can very well keep me safe if what you say is true.”
A triumphant smile formed on my lips as his formed a scowl.
“You could. But you and I both know it’s not what you want. And I’m not going anywhere until you do.” He kept me pinned with his gaze as his voice was barely above a whisper, yet I heard him loud and clear. “You should warn him about losing fingers if he continues to touch you.”
I huffed out an audible sound of frustration.
“I’m not your property,” I said and spun to stomp away.
Only he caught me around the waist inches away from the wide trunk of a tree. Through the thick wool of my coat, I still felt his hard cock at the base of my spine and above.
“No, you’re not property. You’re much more valuable than that. You’re MINE.”
He growled out the words like a final warning, and time seemed suspended between us.
“You’re giving him false hope when we both know he can’t give you what you want.”
The truth of it got me moving. I twisted in his arms and tried to shove him away, but he didn’t move a muscle. Desperate for space, I leaned back into the tree and tried to catch my breath.
“Your cheeks are as pink as your pussy after a good, hard fuck. And I intend to give you just that.”
His mouth slammed onto mine with total possession. As much as I didn’t want to give him entrance, I let out a gasp before his tongue invaded me like the commander he was. There was no love in the kiss. It was a little desperate and a lot angry. His hands found my hips and jerked them to him.
It took more than gravity to stop my liftoff onto my toes as his hands found my ass. The press of his cock molded against my throbbing clit and I lost all reason. When I felt air on my ankles as he fisted the fabric of my dress, I bit his lip to stop both of us.
He pulled back and wiped his mouth as his focus never left mine.
“You don’t love me,” I declared.
“Let me count the fucking ways.”
For all his bravado, there was nothing friendly in his predatory gaze. We held there in a standoff because I couldn’t allow myself to believe what I’d heard. I swallowed, trying to clear my throat so I could breathe and think at the same time, which felt impossible.
I closed my eyes because I should have been running fast and far. This man had a hold over me I didn’t understand.
My eyes sprang open when the pad of his thumb traced my lips.
“You, lass, are my undoing.”
“No,” I asserted, shifting until his hand fell away. “You need to leave.”
I ducked under one of his massive arms that had braced on the tree above my head.
“We aren’t done here, lass,” he said, catching my arm. “There is still more I need to say before we’re not alone.”
“The problem with that is, I’m done.”
I cocked my head to t
he side, so he got my point.
He licked his lips as he took a minute as if he was measuring what he’d say next.
“You have one day to leave on your own before I take you.”
He let go. My feet scraped the ground as I fled the scene, managing not one look back in his direction. He was right about one thing: my need was palpable as evidenced by the wetness between my legs. A cold shower was in order, and I headed for the sanctuary of my childhood home.
Twenty-Six
Dawn bloomed with a gray that blanketed the sky. A slate-colored tufted titmouse, a non-migratory bird, called a song above, and I longed for its freedom. As much as I loved my family, my home, I knew I didn’t belong here.
I’d been roped into mending garments yesterday after fleeing Kalen. I hadn’t had a chance to call Lizzy to check on her. I’d purposefully crashed at my parents’ last night, much to my father’s dismay.
Father stepped out onto the front porch just as I walked onto the worn path to the door.
“Bailey,” he said. The gray of his eyes matched the pallor of the day. In them I saw that he knew just who Kalen was.
“Dad.” It wasn’t a term I’d often used, but it slipped out.
He hadn’t asked me to come to him, so I stayed as he made his way over to me.
“That young man is really worried about you.”
I nodded, knowing I should leave this place for the greater good of the community.
“I’ll be out of your hair soon. I just need to take care of a few things.”
His hands gripped my shoulders. “You don’t have to go. We take care of our own.”
It was so unexpected, tears ran like a waterfall down my face.
“I didn’t think you wanted me here.” The admission tumbled from my lips. My emotions grew raw over things that needed to be said. I was unable to hold them back any longer.
He sighed. “I knew since you were little you didn’t belong here. But you’re still my daughter. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone threaten your life.”
Thunderstruck, my mouth might have gaped a little and not so much at what he said, though that had been a surprise. More so by the curse word that had slipped from his tongue.
His hand came up to stroke his beard. Seeing that action too many times not to understand, I knew he was choosing his words. “Your mother was from the world out there, yet she thankfully chose to live the rest of her life in mine. When Violet was born, she was the spitting image of your mother. When you came, you had a tuff of red hair that was closer to a pale gold than the fiery locks you have now. That comes from my father’s side of things. As toddlers, you both were so adventurous, I knew then I wouldn’t be able to hold you back. The truth of it is, you got that from me.”
I looked into my father’s eyes, the man I feared, and began to see a different side of him. This was the most he’d said to me that wasn’t about work that needed to be done since his speech about the birds and the bees.
His next declarative statement would be replayed in my mind over and over again. “When you decide to leave us again, you need to take Violet with you.”
“Dad,” I said, seeing how hard it was for him to admit this to me.
“Like you, she’s meant to live a different life. I see it in her eyes. I always have.”
“But she’s married and seems happy,” I admitted.
“She would be fine if she remained, but there is so much for her out there.” He was quiet for a second. “She loves to bake. I bet she can find work or go to school for baking. We have some money saved to pay.”
“Do you think she’d want to go?”
“I think she’d be afraid to go alone, but with you, she’d likely take the risk.”
I didn’t ask about her husband. My father was on a roll and I let him continue without interruption.
“Make peace with your sister Mary. Judge her not. She’s envious that you have the spirit to leave and she doesn’t. A part of her wishes she could go, but she also knows she’d never be happy anywhere else. And that’s not true for you. Violet might have survived if Turner had given her his affection.”
I went slack-jawed.
“You don’t think we parents know what’s going on? You don’t think I know about the car you drove into town when you left the compound the other night, or that you’re staying at Violet’s and Turner’s stayed with you despite the fact that I asked you to leave the boy alone?”
He exhaled as if his next words cost him. “I knew you and Turner would marry someday back when you were barely knee-high. He’s a good kid and would do well by Margaret if he showed her any of the attention he shows you. I’d forgotten how smitten the boy could be until you returned. As much as it pains me to admit, he’s like Violet in that he could stay or go. But he’d only stay with you. If you leave him for this Jeremy, he’ll go and never look back.”
That struck me. I’d always assumed he’d want to be here more than he’d want to go.
“What am I going to do?” I asked. Never in my whole life did I need his insight like I did right then.
“I can’t answer that. I’ve never loved another woman but your mother. I will say that you and Turner remind me a lot of us. I haven’t seen you with Jeremy. I do, however, see a fierceness in his eyes that rings true for all he told me.”
“What did he say?”
He patted my shoulder and released me. “Some things must remain between men. I’ll say that should you not choose Turner, I would give Jeremy my blessing to court you.”
Shut the front door.
His head tilted to the sky. “It’s going to rain and maybe snow if the temperature doesn’t hold.” He looked to the heavens again. “I need to get to a meeting.”
“Thanks,” I said, still astonished at our conversation.
“Don’t thank me. Thank your mother. She wisely counseled me not to let you leave thinking that I didn’t love you, lest I lose not only a daughter but a wife. Truth is, I do love you, Daughter.”
And with that pronouncement, he walked off in his leisurely but steady gait.
I was still stunned. All these years, I thought my mother was meek. Yet, my father, who was not a weak man, all but admitted that she held sway over him. If I heard him correctly, she had power in their relationship. Then again, hadn’t she talked him into letting me go to college, or had she? Whatever the answers, it seemed as though she wasn’t the silent partner in their marriage I’d assumed her to be, and he listened.
I went into the house and into my sisters’ room to find another old dress I’d shared with Violet or Mary. Sweat and dirt clogged my pores after a day of scrubbing floors and dusting the town hall after the night of mayhem. Though there had been helpers, the place was huge. I needed to clean up for the day, as I let everything my father said ruminate in my mind.
Although my time was running out, I ate dinner at home. I still needed to talk to Turner and Violet. I wasn’t looking forward to either of those conversations. Each had the potential to break my heart or hurt someone else’s.
Heavy with decision, I headed to find Turner. I hadn’t seen him all day, so I went to the only place I could think of to look for him, his house. Mother told me where he’d built it. And like he’d said, it wasn’t far from Violet’s.
On the porch, Kalen sat in a swing looking out until he spotted me.
“Is he here?” I asked by way of greeting.
He searched my eyes for things I wasn’t ready to admit yet. “He left a little after dinner, probably went in search of you.”
My heel caught against a rock as I went to turn. Kalen was fast and was off the porch in time to catch me just before I hit the ground. The power in his arm was magnified as he yanked me to my feet and snaked it around my waist to help steady me.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“Kalen,” I whispered because his touch never failed to affect me. “Please.”
He stepped away, leaving me to smooth down my dress.
; “Five minutes, lass.” He started for Turner’s front door, assuming I’d follow.
“No, not in his house.”
Though I didn’t plan on letting Kalen touch me, I couldn’t rule out the possibility of that very thing happening. I wouldn’t disrespect Turner in that way.
“Okay,” he agreed.
He walked backward to the porch to grab a satchel. The tan leather was worn yet well-cared for. There had to be a story behind it the way he seemed to keep it with him. It wasn’t something I’d seen him with before. However, it wasn’t the time to ask.
Once he had it in his hand, he followed me around the side of Turner’s house. Behind it, I stood with my arms folded over my chest. A chill crept over me now that I wasn’t in his arms.
He set the bag down, careful it was within his reach. “You asked how I could love you. You need to know the ways before you walk away.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear this. His hand came up before it dropped back to his side. I focused on the vivid green of his eyes and the contemplative expression on his face when he spoke.
“I could say it was because you’re beautiful, which is true. But I’ve had many beautiful women in my lifetime.”
I huffed, “That’s a ringing endorsement.”
He wasn’t rattled by my eye roll and continued undeterred.
“I could say it was because you are smart. Let’s face it, that’s high on my list. Nothing’s worse than trying to hold a conversation with someone whose only interest is what party to attend next. But that’s not it either.”
Before me, he ran a hand over his thick black hair as if he were struggling with what he wanted to say. A second before he continued speaking, he stopped and looked me squarely in the eyes. “You have this fierceness in you layered by a lovely vulnerability.”
I met his eyes, unsure if he would explain. I didn’t have to wait long.
“You’re loyal. I see that with your friend Lizzy and now with your family. You may not want to live here, but never once have you spoken a disparaging word about your family and their choices.”
He paused before speaking again. “You fight for what you believe in. It would have been so easy for you to let those odd wire transactions go. But you pursued it with tenaciousness, where most in your position would have listened to their boss and not their gut and let it go.”
Queen of Men: King Maker series Page 13