by Stacy Eaton
“Right now, nothing, but you are going to have to tell the airline that it wasn’t you on the plane. They are going to figure it out sooner or later through DNA tests anyway.”
“Oh, God!” My knees buckled, and before I hit the ground, Grey had his arms around me and was walking me toward a couch.
Grey took the phone from my hand. “Peggy, this is Grey Bloodstone. Would you care to tell me what happened?”
I could hear Peggy’s voice, but not what she was saying. My mind was spinning, and I was having trouble breathing. Grey sat next to me, one of his arms around my shoulders holding me up, and I unconsciously moved to get in closer. My entire body felt cold and his felt so warm.
They spoke for a few minutes while I tried to comprehend what had happened and what that meant, but my mind couldn’t wrap around it. Grey set the phone down and placed his hand on the side of my face and tilted it up.
“It’s going to be alright, Barb.” His hand was rough against my skin, and I was mesmerized by the feel of it as he pulled me closer and laid my head against his shoulder. His hand stayed on my face, his thumb gently stroking my cheek. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmured.
Right here, right now, I wanted to believe him. For the first time in so long, I felt safe, protected, but I knew it wouldn’t last. What was going to happen now? Would I be in trouble because someone had taken my identity and gotten on a plane as me?
What would Todd do?
I shivered, and Grey’s arms tightened around me.
“Would one of you please explain to me what is going on?” Gigi asked from the couch opposite us. I opened my eyes and looked at her. Suddenly realizing I was snuggled up to Grey, with one of my arms holding on to him, I let go and pulled away. He let me go, but didn’t move away.
I tried to get the words out but Grey spoke first, “It appears that Barb paid someone to pretend to be her and go on a business trip. That would have worked for a while, but the plane crashed. Now the families are being notified, which means her husband will be told that she is dead.”
“And that’s a problem how?” Gigi asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, first off, she’s not. He’s going to want to know where his daughter is, and if Barb is dead, so is her identity. That could cause some problems.”
“Tina is dead because of me,” I added softly.
Grey took my hand, the rough calluses on his skin brought me back to Earth. “Barbie, it’s not your fault. You had no idea that this was going to happen.”
“No, I didn’t know it was going to happen, but it did. She’s dead because I wanted to live.”
“I get why you’re upset, trust me, I do, but you have to remember that this happened for a reason. What would have happened to Allie if you had been on that plane?”
“Oh, God.” I brought my hand to my mouth to try and stifle the sob. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“First things first, I think you need to explain everything. Now seems like the perfect time,” Gigi interjected as she leaned back on the couch and clasped her hands in her lap.
“Where is Allie?”
Grey replied, “Amelia took her for a little while. She’s safe, don’t worry.”
I hung my head. Where could I possibly start?
Grey’s thumb rubbed over the back of my hand, and I almost pulled my hand away, but it felt so good to be touched in a loving manner, and I needed that little bit of assurance at that moment. I found myself squeezing his hand in return.
When I finally began, the night I told Todd about the pregnancy came back to me in full force.
“I thought you would be excited,” I had replied wanly.
I considered that my words might enflame him further, that he might jab me again, or yell, but his reaction was far worse. He gripped my upper arm and yanked me from the table so hard I stumbled, and the chair got twisted under me and fell over.
“You thought I might be excited? Let me show you how excited I am!” He shouted in my face and then pulled his arm back and slapped me.
I froze in place, too shocked to do anything but take what he gave. His left arm squeezed my upper arm so hard that I winced. I’ll have a bruise tomorrow, I thought absently.
“You fucking cunt! I can’t believe how stupid you are!” He slapped me a second time, on the same side. I tasted blood on my tongue and clamped my mouth shut so he wouldn’t see it.
His hands grabbed my arms and he shook me like a rag doll, my teeth rattling inside my skull. “I never said I wanted kids! You’re going to get rid of it! Tomorrow, you call the doctor and tell him you want an abortion.”
“What?” I squeaked out. No, there was no way I was going to do that. I loved this little baby I was carrying. I wouldn’t do that.
He pulled me so our noses were almost touching. His eyes were a dull brown as they glared at me with hate. “You heard what I said. You will get rid of that THING in your body.”
“Todd, please,” I begged as tears coursed down my cheeks.
“You heard me, Barbara. I want that thing out of you.”
I took a deep breath as I started to explain my story, or my life, as it had been. “Todd was,” I heaved a sigh, “Todd swept me off my feet. He was charming and loving and attentive while we were dating. Once we got married, he started to get controlling. He was the classic abuser, always lashing out and then begging for forgiveness. When I found out I was pregnant with Allie, he wanted me to get an abortion. He freaked out when I said I wouldn’t. He beat me the first time trying to get me to miscarry her.”
I couldn’t look at Grey as another flashback took hold of me.
I shook my head, “No.” I began to sob.
“No?” Todd gritted his teeth, “Did you just say no?”
“Todd, please, I want this baby, please. Just think about it,” I pleaded.
“How dare you!” he shouted and shoved me away so hard I tripped over the fallen chair and fell to the ground. “How dare you talk back to me!” He loomed over me, “Well, if you won’t do it willingly, let me see if I can help you.” He pulled his leg back and kicked me in the stomach.
The pain was excruciating, and nausea built fiercely in my abdomen as I screamed and clutched at my mid-section. He kicked me a second time. This time, I felt one of my ribs snap, and a finger, too.
“Stop! Todd, please stop!” I begged, but he kicked a third time as I tried to curl up to protect myself. His foot veered off my stomach and hit my face, blood poured from my nose onto the floor.
“Look what you just did!” he screamed down at me. “Get off the floor and clean up this mess.”
I tried to stop crying and reached up to wipe the blood from my face. Mind-numbing sobs tore through my body as I heard him complaining about my stupidity.
I forced myself to not make any noise as I lay on the ground holding my stomach and praying that my baby was alright. After a moment, his footsteps on the wooden floor receded. The front door opened and closed with a huge bang. It wasn’t until I heard his car engine rev that I allowed the pain and anguish I felt to become vocal.
I don’t know how long I had lain there on the floor and cried, but finally I picked myself up and gingerly went into the bathroom to inspect the damage. The right side of my face was swollen and red, with crusted blood covering my mouth, chin, and under my nose—my swollen nose.
I looked at my hand. My pointer finger was bent slightly and swelling up. Oh, God! I felt the nausea return and fell to the floor next to the toilet to throw up. My ribs screamed as I heaved, and I forced myself to stop as soon as I could. My brow was drenched in sweat and I could barely stand up.
Somehow I managed to do so, and lifted my blouse to see the skin already beginning to bruise. My hands went to my belly.
“Please, God, whatever I did, I’m sorry. Please, please, protect this child.” I forced the lump in my throat back down and began to clean myself up.
I turned to Grey as I finished speaking. “Luckily Allie was strong enou
gh to survive. He hit me a few more times while I was pregnant, but never as bad as that first time. I knew I was in over my head. I wanted to get out, but he is such a high-profile man in that area, I knew no one would believe me. Why would someone believe me over a well-known attorney?”
I thought about the times I had wanted to call the police, but never had.
“Once Allie was born, I realized that things weren’t going to get better, like I had hoped. They only got worse. I was working on this one marketing plan for the local nonprofit women’s shelter, and I met Peggy. She saw right through my charade and cornered me one day. I confessed everything, and she started helping me figure out how I could get free.
“She opened an account, and we had money siphoned off my paychecks and bonus checks to fund it. We had a goal, and once I reached that goal, we put the rest of the plan in action. She had found Tina, the woman who died in the plane crash.” I paused as I remembered the brief encounter with her in the bathroom. My heart hurt for her, and for Roberta, too.
“Anyway, Tina was an actress that I hired. The day I left, I took Allie to the sitter like I normally would, had a taxi pick me up so I was seen leaving the house with my one bag and went to the airport. After I went through security, I met with Tina in the bathroom; she had a change of clothes for me.” I gasped and Grey’s hand tightened around me.
“Oh, God. Roberta had come into the bathroom and found us.”
Gloria interrupted me, “Who is Roberta?”
“She worked with me. She was going to the conference to help me. I kind of figured she would take my position after I left.” I paused and wondered who would sit at my desk now. I shook my head and resumed my story, “I had to make the quick decision to explain to Roberta and made her promise she wouldn’t tell anyone. She swore she would take it to her grave.” My voice dropped as a new wave of tears raced down my cheeks, “I guess she really did.”
Grey’s arm slipped back around my shoulders, and he pulled my head closer and kissed the side of it. That one kiss almost undid me. So much compassion was conveyed in the small gesture that I wasn’t sure I could handle it.
“They got on the plane, and I walked out the opposite door into another terminal wing and left the airport. My sitter met me at the door, and she drove Allie and me to Las Vegas where we climbed onto the plane under a different name and arrived here.”
I was going to have to admit that I committed identity theft, too. Jesus, I was in trouble.
“We expected Todd to figure out a few days later, when I didn’t come home from the business trip, that I had disappeared. I expected to have a few days to get things in order and find an attorney to file for divorce.”
“You can still do that,” Gigi declared. “I’ll call one of my attorneys and get him over here this morning. We’ll get his advice and see what he suggests.”
I nodded, realizing that I was at a loss here and was going to have to rely on others to help me through. I glanced at Grey. His eyes were filled with compassion, and something else I didn’t understand.
“Thank you, Grey. I don’t even know you, and you have stepped up and helped me so much.”
I leaned forward, my hand bracing against his chest over his heart, as I placed a soft kiss on his cheek. The stubble on his skin brushed my lips and caused a tremor to quake deep inside my stomach. His heart thumped hard against my palm. I pulled back and met his gaze. Why couldn’t Todd have been like this man?
Chapter Thirteen
Grey
I held my breath as she leaned forward. Her lips barely touched the skin of my cheek, but I felt the heat of it all the way to my groin.
I almost groaned. Now was not the time for my sleeping sex drive to wake up. It had been dormant for almost two years. The last thing this woman in front of me needed was my testosterone to come roaring alive with a vengeance—and if she kept looking at me like that, it would.
Gloria cleared her throat, and Barb sat up straight, her hand trailing softly over the top of my chest, and turned away.
I shifted away from her and removed my hand from her shoulder, placing it along the back of the couch—close enough that she knew I was there, but far enough away that I wasn’t touching her—because I really wanted to touch her. Talk about bad timing.
For over a year I hadn’t looked at another woman, hadn’t thought about one either. Gloria adopted me off the street, gave me a job, a place to live, and suddenly parts of me that had been sleeping for a long time were wide awake.
Way to go there, Grey. You should be ashamed, I hissed mentally at myself.
I cleared my throat. “So, Gloria, you can have an attorney come to the house and speak with Barb?”
“Yes, in fact, let me go call Curt right now.” She stood up and looked down at me pointedly, “Can I leave you two alone?”
My eyebrows arched up high, and I laughed, “Yes, ma’am.” Damn, could that woman see any more clearly?
I stood up and returned to the table, needing something to do with my hands that wasn’t putting them on her body, or pulling her close to me and telling her I would protect her.
Jesus.
My coffee was cold, but I guzzled it and poured another cup, “Do you want coffee?”
She shook her head, “No, my stomach is already churning; I don’t need to add coffee to the mix.”
“How about some juice then? You just had a pretty big shock. They say sugar is good for that.”
“How do you know so much about that?” she asked as she stood and approached the table.
I shrugged, “I don’t know. I heard it someplace, I guess.”
“So you like to work with your hands, huh?” It was said innocently enough, but I found myself reading more into it. Oh, yeah, I liked to work with my hands and right now, my hands wanted to work her—or punch myself in the face for even thinking such things.
I swallowed wrong and coughed. “Yeah, I do,” I replied after I had cleared my windpipe of the liquid.
She was grinning, “I guess that didn’t come out right. Sorry.”
I chuckled, “No. I knew what you meant.”
“How long have you been doing wood work?” She sat back in her seat at the table. Obviously, she wanted to talk about something other than her situation. That was probably a good idea, although I wasn’t interested in talking about my life. If it helped to calm her, then I guess I could do it.
“Since I was a teenager. My father had a small area in the basement where he would make things. I fell in love with the feel of the wood and how you only had to think of something before you could bring it to life.”
She let her gaze wander over my face briefly before she turned to the window and closed her eyes. The sunlight highlighted her hair and gave her skin a healthier color. “I like the way you think,” she said softly.
I like the way you look, almost popped out of my mouth as a reply. “And speaking of which, I should get back down to the shop. I have a lot to do now that Gloria has approved the design.”
I moved away from the table, and Barb stood up.
“Grey?”
The sound of her voice stopped me. I turned slowly and found her standing behind me. “Thank you. I can’t believe that you don’t even know me, and yet here you are helping me.”
I wanted to reach out to touch her face, to feel my fingers slide softly over her skin, but I held back. “I can’t seem to help myself when it comes to the women in this house.”
She smiled up into my face, and I knew that if I didn’t turn around and get the hell out of there, that I would be pulling her toward me and finding out how incredibly soft her lips felt.
I let my hand drop and grabbed the wooden backboard for the rocking chair and left.
The whole way back to the shop, I felt her gaze on me. The thought of how bright her eyes were in the sunlight and how she had gazed up into my face like she wanted me to pull her into my arms had me imagining all kinds of scenarios—ones that I couldn’t afford to have, not wi
th a woman like her: abused, broken, rich, and, oh wait, still married.
I entered the shop and went about pulling out wood to make more of the back plates for the chairs.
Barb was a wealthy woman. Obviously, she grew up with money, and the rock on her hand showed that she probably married into more money. She had said he was a well-known attorney, and she was from California, so I could only imagine the kind of paycheck he brought home.
Most likely, I wouldn’t see what he made in a year in ten of mine.
I needed to focus on getting this job done and stop daydreaming about something that would never happen.
I pushed thoughts of Barb out of my head and got back to work. If there was one thing I was good at, it was forgetting about a woman. I had a lot of practice. I barely ever thought about my wife now. She didn’t deserve any thoughts from me anyway—not after what she had done.
For the next three hours, I focused on what I was doing. Amelia called down to ask if I was coming up to lunch, but I begged off. I was in the zone and didn’t want to be distracted by a beautiful woman and a small bundle of happiness.
They weren’t mine to enjoy.
Amelia brought me a plate of food and I scarfed it down in a few bites and got right back to work. By late afternoon, my hands and shoulders were sore, and I figured it was time to call it a day and go take a shower.
When I arrived at the main house, it was almost six, and dinner would be ready soon. I found Gloria in the library; her eyes were closed as she leaned back in a winged-back chair near the fireplace.
I was about to step back out, when she spoke, “Were you working or avoiding today?”
I laughed, “Working.” She gave me a look that told me she didn’t quite believe me.
“Allie seems to be quite taken with you, she kept asking for you this afternoon.” Gloria straightened up in her chair.
“Is that so?” I sat down opposite her.