Recovering Ivy

by Riley Edwards

  “It’s a long, complicated, convoluted story.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep.”

  “You didn’t. I was going to say, it’s a story best told over drinks. I’ll tell you one day, when time permits.”

  I looked around his office again, my eyes stopping on a folded American flag on the bookshelf. I didn’t know much about the military, but I knew what that flag meant. I continued my perusal and saw with new appreciation just how ambitious Zane was. He’d come a long way. I stopped to study the man standing before me. Muscular arms folded over a big strong chest, his posture was straight, and his face hard. His eyes were warm and gentle, the way they had been when he’d rolled us to our sides and tucked me close so we could both catch our breath. It seemed I couldn’t stop thinking about having sex with him. However, this time, it wasn’t the hot steamy rolling around I was remembering. It was the tenderness in his face when he’d touched me. It was a direct contradiction to his gruff tone, dirty words, and rough handling of me.

  He’d looked at me like I was precious.

  I’d never had that.

  He gave it to me then and he was giving it to me now.

  The look.

  The soft eyes.

  He scared the shit out of me.

  11

  Zane

  When I’d introduced my assistant to Ivy, Rena’s eyes nearly bugged out of her face when I explained Ivy would be taking Donna’s place and asked her to give Ivy a tour of Z Corps. Rena’s professionalism took over and she’d kept her surprise to herself. I didn’t offer an explanation to Rena’s unspoken question as to why Ivy was getting a full look at the premises. Donna had never been further than the command room or kitchen. She’d never been in my office or the team rooms, and certainly never down into the basement where the armory was housed. Hell, if there was a way I could’ve kept Donna from coming back into the inner sanctum, I would’ve. But the kitchen was back there. I’d even considered building a new one just for Donna to use, but the reception area wasn’t big enough.

  There was a knock at the door before Linc poked his head through and saw me sitting behind my desk. Without permission, he let himself in. I needed to remember to engage the lock on my door. My team thought it was perfectly acceptable to barge in whenever they damn well felt like it, especially my brother and Jasmin. The two of them thought they ran the place and had no issue speaking their minds. There was a time no one under my command would think about questioning my authority.

  The good old days.

  There were rules, a chain of command to follow.

  “You straight?” he asked and sat in front of my desk.

  “Not tracking, brother.”

  I wasn’t but I didn’t want to talk about Ivy. I’d sent her away so I could get my head straight. What the hell had I been thinking telling her about where I’d grown up and offering to tell her about my father, Rick.

  “You’re a lot of things, dumb isn’t one of them,” he returned.

  “Drop it, Lincoln. I don’t want to discuss her.”

  “Like Leo didn’t want to discuss Olivia? Or Jax didn’t want to discuss Violet. Hell, when shit went to hell with Jasmin, and I didn’t want to talk about it? Like those times? Funny, if memory serves, you wouldn’t let shit drop.”

  I thought about what he said, and he was right, but those were different situations. All three men were good men, clean, they deserved a good woman. As much as I hated touchy-feely shit I hadn’t minded giving them a nudge in the right direction.

  “She’s an employee,” I pointed out, an unintended side effect to me having her work at Z Corps, an added layer of protection. One I needed desperately.

  “Now you’re not only grasping at straws but you’re full of shit.”

  “Is she not my employee?”

  “Why are you doing this?” he huffed. “It’s obvious you’re into her.”

  “By into her, you mean, I’ve fucked her? Yes, Linc, I picked her up in a bar and took her home. The next morning I woke up and she’d bailed. End of story.”

  “Right.”

  “Now you’re pissing me off. What the fuck do you want me to say? Not the first time I’ve picked up company for the night at a bar and it won’t be my last.”

  “Wanna bet?” He leveled me with a stare and I braced. “I want you happy, brother.”

  “I am fucking happy.”

  “No, you’re coasting through life. And don’t try to lie to me. I was the same way before Jasmin. Once I met her, it was all over for me. I knew I’d do anything to have that woman.”

  Lincoln wasn’t telling the whole truth, he wasn’t like me before he met Jasmin. He’d always had stars in his eyes and known he’d wanted a wife and a family. It was simply how he was built. He had something I didn’t, the ability to love.

  “Happy for you.”

  “Life moves on, Zane. Whether you choose to move with it or not, it’s moving. You’re letting a whole lotta life pass you by because you’re stuck in your head and weighed down by a metric shit ton of guilt that’s not yours.”

  “Drop it.”

  “She’s different, Zane.”

  “There is nothing different about her. She’s the same as any other woman I take to my bed. But I will give you this; she’s had a shit life and deserves better than a condemned man. I have nothing to offer. She’ll find someone who can give her all the beauty she’s after, but that man will most certainly not be me.”

  “That’s fucked.”

  Thankfully, there was a tap on my office door before it pushed open and Colin walked in.

  “Sorry to interrupt.”

  “You’re not. We were done,” I told him and looked at Linc. He was giving me a side-eye glare telling me he was far from done.

  “I talked to our contact at the local PD, Detective Goldsborough. We gave him the heads up on one of Forester’s regular prostitutes. He picked her and her John up about thirty minutes ago. We have the go-ahead to watch the interrogation. Declan and I are headed there now.”

  “Let’s go.”

  I stood, ending the conversation with Linc. Not only would I rather poke my own eyeballs out with an icepick than continue to talk to my brother about Ivy, but the sooner Forester was nailed the sooner we could all get on with our lives.

  Only now, I had the small issue of seeing the feisty woman every day. My crazy fixation on her would wane, it had to.

  Two hours into Amy Lawson’s, better known as Destiny, interrogation we weren’t any closer to answers. I was ready to shake the woman; she was protecting Forester. The question was why. Money was always an option, but even facing jail time she still wouldn’t budge.

  “You wanna give her a go?” Goldsborough asked when he entered the small room where we’d been watching behind the mirrored glass.

  I looked at the woman sitting at the metal table. She didn’t look like a junkie. She was very attractive, well-kept, healthy complexion and weight. No, she wasn’t a drug user.

  Forester had something on her.

  “Sure.” Declan handed me a file on Joanna Long and everything we had on Forester and I entered the room.

  Amy looked at me and her eyes flared just as I hoped they would. She found me attractive. It wasn’t beneath me to use whatever I could to make her talk.

  I sat across from her and pretended to be reading over the file. It was unnecessary; I had the damn thing memorized, but I wanted her nervous. The longer the silence went on, the more she’d have the need to fill it.

  “I already said everything I’m going to say,” she started. I let the silence stretch. “I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

  “Tell me about Forester Grant. He’s a regular, right?”

  She shifted in her seat.

  “Nothing to say. He’s a good tipper.”

  “He ever get rough with you? Make you do things you don’t want?”

  Slow blink and more shifting.

  “Nope.”

  “He’s
just an average John. Straightforward missionary sex? Gets his rocks off and rolls off?”

  Shame washed over her pretty face.

  Interesting.

  “Sure,” she mumbled.

  “Walk me through how this works. I’ve never had to pay to get laid. He calls you up, makes an appointment, you meet, he fucks you, and what? Leaves money on the table and walks out?” Amy narrowed her stare before she looked down at her lap. “Or does he get some after sex cuddling, too? What exactly does he get for his money? A blowjob included in the price or is that an add-on? Is there a list of ala carte items he can choose from?” She continued to look at her hands. “Tell me something, Amy, does he make it good for you, too, or do you have to fake it? With all the whores he hires I bet he’s great in the sack. Does he make you scream?”

  “I’m not a whore,” she whispered.

  “You’re not? You fuck for money. Forester sees you at least once a week and fucks you. Is he so good you fuck him for free? Out of the goodness of your heart you spread your legs for him? Explain to me, Amy, why you aren’t a whore?”

  I hated this part. I was a dick in general, but I didn’t take any pleasure in badgering the woman. She looked like she was ready to cry. There was an easier way; she could tell me the information I needed and I wouldn’t have to sit across from her and make her feel like shit.

  “Why aren’t you a whore?” I repeated harsher this time and pounded my fist on the table. She jumped at my outburst.

  “I don’t fuck him!” she yelled.

  “Damn. Either you give great fucking head or you suck as a prostitute.”

  “I don’t suck him off. I don’t touch him.”

  Her temper had gotten the better of her, just as I’d hoped.

  “He gives you money for what? Conversation? You give good advice or some shit?”

  She was back to being silent.

  “You’re willing to go down on a solicitation charge, yet you don’t sell him sex. Is that because you’re protecting him or yourself? You must know prostitution is a lesser crime than distribution or trafficking, depending on how much Forester is giving you.”

  “What?”

  Yeah. That got her attention.

  “The drugs, Amy. How much does he give you during your meetings?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Cut the shit. You’re a bad liar. How much and what kind?” She said nothing. “You should take my advice and make this easier on yourself. Hurry and cut a deal before you end up like her.” I slid the picture of Joanna Long across the table, showing her dead on the floor of her bedroom in Forester’s house. “You remember her? Forester’s live-in piece of ass.” It felt wrong talking about Ivy’s sister like that. I was thankful she wasn’t here to witness me degrading Joanna that way. “He was done with her and ready to trade her in for a new live-in.”

  “Joey was a nice girl. She had a rough life and didn’t deserve that. Every time she tried to get clean, he’d give her more,” Amy told me. “She wanted out.”

  Shit. That piece of information would kill Ivy.

  “Why didn’t someone help her?” I asked.

  “Her sister tried. But anytime Joey talked to her, Forester would threaten Ivy and tell Joey if she didn’t keep her mouth shut, he’d make Ivy one of his whores.”

  “Come again? Forester knew about Ivy?”

  “Yeah. He knows everything. He only picks women who have something to protect. Something he can exploit. That’s how he controls us.”

  Fuck it to hell. My mind was racing through a thousand different scenarios, none of them good. Forester knew who Ivy was and played her.

  I took my phone out of my pocket, unlocked it, and called Leo.

  “Yeah,” he greeted.

  “Where’s Ivy?”

  “She bailed about ten minutes ago; said she was going home.”

  “Fuck!” I roared, my heart pounding in my chest, angry I hadn’t told the guys not to let her leave the building.

  “Get to her place now and sit on it. If she tries to leave, stop her. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Copy that.” He disconnected.

  “What’s his racket, Amy?” I impatiently asked. She remained quiet. I was done fucking around. “Check this, anything happens to my woman because you’re protecting his ass I will personally see to it you never see the light of day. By the time I’m done with you, it will make what he did to Joanna mild in comparison. You feel me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Good. My man Declan is gonna come in here now and you’re gonna tell him every last fucking thing you know. And if I feel like you’re telling the truth, I’ll see about setting you up someplace new.”

  “I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about my daughter.”

  “Fuck.”

  “He has his men watching her.”

  “We’ll sort that out, too.”

  I didn’t wait for her response and I didn’t pay attention to the tears now streaming down her face. I needed to get to Ivy. My phone was already at my ear when Declan passed me to enter the interrogation room to talk to Amy. Linc fell in step beside me when the call connected.

  “Yo,” Jaxon answered.

  “You got eyes on Forester?” I asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Jesus Christ. Find him. Also, tell Garrett to run Amy Lawson, thorough search.”

  “Copy.”

  I pocketed my phone and beeped the locks to my Rover. Once we were inside Linc started in.

  “Your woman, huh?”

  “Not fucking now,” I barked.

  The inside of my SUV still smelled like Ivy. She’d lathered up her arms with some coconut lotion this morning on the way into the office. Christ, had that only been this morning? How was it a woman I’d known for such a short amount of time could worm her way in so deep? I concentrated on navigating to Ivy’s apartment and tried to block visions of Forester getting his hands on her. She’d fucking break if he got a hold of her. There was no doubt he’d extinguish her snarky attitude and sexy smile in a matter of hours. She had too much in her past. As strong as she was, everyone had their tipping point. Forester feeding her drugs and whoring her out would shatter her soul. She’d never come back from it.

  We pulled up to a shitty apartment complex in a bad part of town and my blood boiled thinking about Ivy living in such shit. She was so much better than this. I clocked Leo standing by the front door, uncaring if people noticed him. I parked and we made our way to him.

  “She’s not here. I knocked on her door. No answer so I let myself in. I’ve gotta say, I was in under three seconds. Locks are shit. No one was in there. As crap as the place is, she keeps a tidy house, nothing was out of place. No struggle. This is the only way in and she hasn’t been by.”

  “Fuck!”

  Linc was on his phone and when he was done he turned to us. “No sign of Forester.”

  “I’m gonna tan her ass if she went on another fact-finding mission and followed him. He knows about her. Knows she’s Joanna’s sister. She’s being played,” I informed Leo. “He threatened Joanna to keep her mouth shut, or he’d take Ivy.”

  “Jesus,” Leo cursed.

  “He touches one fucking hair on her head I’m gonna bash his fucking skull,” I growled.

  Where the hell are you, Ivy?

  “We’ll find her,” Linc said.

  I hoped he was right because if we didn’t there would be rivers of blood and I wouldn’t stop until I tore Forester apart.

  12

  Ivy

  The mall was packed. I hated shopping, but I really hated it when there were wall-to-wall people. I’d found some great deals and was ready to leave. I couldn’t take the hustle and bustle any longer. I’d pulled up my Uber app and was getting ready to order my car when I got the feeling someone was watching me. You know the one, a single prickle on the back of your neck when someone is staring at you. It wasn’t the first time it’s ha
ppened while I was shopping today, but I’d dismissed it as my aversion to crowds.

  Too many people.

  I hated being touched and bumped into by strangers.

  With my car ordered and five minutes to wait, I stood inside the safety of the mall. Maybe all this talk about me being unsafe had rattled me enough I was losing my mind, because I could swear someone was looking at me. I tried to casually look around to see if I recognized anyone, but I didn’t. And there were too many people around for me to know if someone was following me.

  Damn Zane for making me paranoid. I was getting ready to go stand outside just to prove I was brave enough and wouldn’t let his crazy ideas stop me from living my life when my phone beeped alerting me my ride was waiting outside.

  The woman driver greeted me and I gave her my address. She was chatty all the way to my place telling me about her rescue cats and she drove for Uber as side income so she could take in more. I wondered if I would be her by the time I was her age. A lonely cat lady, driving for Uber to not only feed them but for companionship. It sounded to me as if this woman didn’t have any human interaction outside of the people she drove.

  We pulled up and I paid my toll and grabbed my bags. I was unlocking the security gate to enter the building when I felt it again. I quickly opened the door and slammed it behind me. I glanced at the elevator, then the stairs, debating which one was safer. I opted for the stairs even though the stairwell was shady and smelled like piss. I didn’t want to wait out in the open for the elevator.

  Damn Zane.

  I booked it two flights of stairs and made it to my door. Once I opened the door and was safely inside, I closed the door, dropped my bags, and leaned against it. I’d gone mad.

  “Nice of you to show up.”

  I screamed and turned, fumbling with the keys in my hand, praying I didn’t drop them so I’d have something to gouge the man’s eyeballs out with.

  “What are you doing here?” My heart was in my throat and my stomach was queasy.

  “Waiting for you.”

  Once the shock had started to wear off, I was horrified he was in my apartment. It seemed wrong for a man like him to sit on a raggedy couch I got from goodwill for fifty dollars. He was too good to have the second-hand fabric near his skin.