by Anne Rainey
“I know that look,” Lucy said, interrupting the arrows of heat zipping through the air. “He wants you bad.”
She started to speak when someone tapped her shoulder. Jeanette turned. The dark-haired man who’d bought her the drink. Uh-oh.
“Would you care to dance?”
Lucy chuckled. “Things are about to get very interesting.”
Jeanette spied River out of the corner of her eye. His gaze was on the guy flirting with her. And he didn’t look at all pleased.
“Ah, crap,” Jeanette muttered.
River didn’t need this right now. He balled fists at his sides. Every man in the room watched her, and that alone had him wanting to throw her over his shoulder and take her off to somewhere private, away from all the flirtatious looks and overactive sex drives.
When another man escorted her out to the dance floor, River decided to let her have her fun. He went to the nearest table and pulled up a chair, straddling it backward. He placed his palms on his thighs, content to watch her sway to the beat of the music. She moved with passion, as if she were imagining a lover’s touch. When her hands went on a journey up and down her body, River forgot his own name. Then the man who’d escorted her out to the dance floor dared to touch her. “Not going to happen,” River muttered as he stood and crossed the room. He got waylaid twice by women asking him to dance, once by a man wanting to give him his number. By the time River reached Jeanette, the other guy was gone.
“I’ve missed you,” River said. He moved up behind her and placed his hands on her hips, but she stiffened.
Jeanette turned and stared up at River. The dark look in his eyes sent a small thrill of anticipation through her. But his words stopped her short. “You missed me? That’s it?”
His lips thinned, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. “What do you mean?”
“You really think I’m supposed to fling myself into your arms and let you have your way, don’t you?” Damn him, Jeanette was ready to do just that too.
The song changed to a faster beat, and she breathed a sigh of relief that the sultry tune was no longer playing. But as she studied him, his silent intensity washed over and seeped into her. His eyes were dark with green fire. She could see and feel what he wanted so clearly in her mind. His body covering hers, entering hers, their passions mounting and dueling. But was that all he wanted? That was the bigger question.
“Come home with me. We need to talk, sunshine.”
Jeanette brought their bodies into contact, but just barely. She could smell his natural masculinity; it came off him in waves. It made her long to run her tongue over his beautiful, full lips.
Rising up on her tiptoes, she took a taste. He stood there, not touching her, as if not trusting himself enough to touch. So she touched him. Her fingers went to his hair. God, she loved his hair, so thick and full. She took handfuls of the soft dark strands and brought his head down for a better taste of his mouth. Without realizing it, Jeanette found herself in a secluded section of dance floor.
“Take what you want,” he murmured as he dropped his hands from her body and let her have free rein. Her hands moved from his hair to his face. She traced every hard contour and angle, then drifted downward to caress his chest and ripped abs. When she reached the waistband of his jeans, Jeanette stopped, unsure what to do, how far to go.
River groaned. “No one can see you. Continue,” he softly demanded.
When she cupped him through the soft fabric, his hips thrust forward. Suddenly, her hand was squished between their bodies. River said, “God, you make me crazy.”
She recognized that gravelly voice and craved it. They were both desperate for each other. Just as she was about to usher him out of there so she could get him alone, another voice broke the magical spell.
“Would you care to dance?”
She turned to decline the stranger’s offer, but River was quicker. “No, she wouldn’t.”
The man’s eyebrows quirked up at River’s immovable tone. “Uh, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to hear the lady tell me that herself.”
“Thanks for the offer,” she said with a smile, “but I’m all danced out.”
“Another time, then.” He nodded and walked away.
Lucy appeared by her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Reilly called. The babies are sound asleep. Quality time with my man is calling my name. We ready to go?”
The two of them nodded.
Lucy yawned. “Thank God, because I only have so many more hours left in me before it’s lights out.”
River couldn’t get Jeanette out of the nightclub quick enough. Once outside, he anchored her to his side with one strong arm around her waist. He’d recognized the man in the club. Roland Kent, and he was an ass. He’d screw anything that walked. He’d obviously taken one look at Jeanette and decided to make a play for her. What a fool.
She’d see a guy like that coming a mile away and put him in his place without even blinking. Never before had River felt such an overwhelming need to shout to the world that Jeanette belonged to him. His heart flinched at the prospect of ever hurting her. She wouldn’t appreciate the chauvinistic attitude. She wanted to be loved, not prized as if she were a thoroughbred.
Lucy and Jeanette started laughing about something, but River didn’t hear anything they said. The hot lava roaring through his veins blocked out everything else.
He took the ladies to Jeanette’s car and waited for them to get in. “Did you drink tonight?” he asked Jeanette. She shook her head, and River nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
Before she could close the door, he leaned in and kissed her. Her lips were soft and gentle, and River took his time tasting her. When they parted, he whispered, “Be careful.”
She didn’t speak, only stared at him as he closed her door and waited for her to start the engine.
Once they were on their way, River let out a breath. He loved her. Completely and undeniably. And tonight he wouldn’t hold back. In fact, before it was over, Jeanette would know all about Larry Briggs, the complete uncensored story. If she didn’t despise him, didn’t look at him with revulsion, River would count himself lucky.
He didn’t dare let himself hope for more than that.
Chapter Eleven
River waited until Jeanette was seated on the sofa in his apartment before he began. By the time he’d told her about the billy club, about swinging it at Larry’s head, tears filled Jeanette’s eyes. Sadness came off her in waves, and River couldn’t stand it. He’d never been able to handle sympathy, and he sure as hell didn’t want the woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with to look at him that way now. He wanted her to think of him as strong, able to handle whatever life threw at him. Pity was for chumps, and he wanted no part of it.
“Is this too hard to hear?”
She shook her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “It’s not easy to know what you went through. Imagining you as a scared boy is…difficult. I won’t lie about that. But I want to share every part of you, River, not just the good parts.”
River took a deep breath and continued. “So, Joey was out of it. His mind had slipped away, and I could see it happening. What he’d just gone through…” River choked back emotion. “I know exactly what he was feeling, because it’d happened to me too. Larry was an animal.” He sat and stared down at the floor, bringing the memories of that day to the surface. It was the first time River could remember talking about it openly. He only hoped Jeanette didn’t look at him with revulsion afterward.
“I bent down and shook Joey’s shoulders, only to have him wail and scream in a pitiful attempt to save himself from any more abuse. I tried to tell him it was over. That Larry wasn’t going to hurt him anymore.”
“Did it help?” Jeanette asked in a quiet tone.
“Joey stopped crying.” River closed his eyes tight to block out the ugly visual racing through his mind like a bad horror film. It didn’t help. It would always be his constant compa
nion, whether he was awake or not. “When Joey opened his eyes, it was as if he was coming awake from a deep sleep. He looked up at me as if he had no idea what had just happened. He wanted to know why he was on the floor. Then he looked over to where Larry still lay in a pool of his own blood, and he started to scream all over again.” He took a breath before saying, “I didn’t know if it was seeing all the blood or if seeing Larry again had caused Joey to remember the immoral things that had been done to him. Either way, I knew Joey’s mind wouldn’t be the same. Not ever again.”
Jeanette’s voice cracked when she asked, “Was Larry dead?”
“We thought so, and God help me, I wasn’t sorry.”
She reached out and placed a hand over his. He hadn’t realized he was shaking until Jeanette touched him. Her warmth slipped inside him and eased him like nothing else could. “No one would blame you, River. You were defending a helpless little boy. Anyone would do the same.”
“Maybe, but not all of it was for Joey’s sake. I hated that man, Jeanette. Hated the very ground he walked on. If I were given a choice to undo what I did that day, I would still pick up that billy club. I don’t regret it.”
Jeanette sat in silence for a moment before asking, “What happened next?”
“I had to get Joey to snap out of it. So I shook him really hard and smacked him across the face a couple of times. When Joey finally stopped screaming, he looked at me with terror in his eyes. The boy I once knew was gone, thanks to Larry. That innocent kid who made everyone’s day brighter wasn’t ever coming back.” He looked at Jeanette, hating himself for telling her about such ugliness. He’d never wanted her to know. Didn’t want it touching her. “I needed his help, though. Larry was bleeding all over the damn place, and we needed to get him out of there. There were only two scenarios, and neither of them was good. I knew if Larry was alive and came out of it, he’d kill both of us. If he was dead, we had to do something with the body. We couldn’t just leave him there, right?”
“Why didn’t you call the police? It was self-defense.”
River cursed under his breath. “They hadn’t been real helpful in the past, sunshine. I sure as hell didn’t trust them to help us then.” Jeanette stayed silent, so River continued. “Together, we worked for what seemed like hours, dragging Larry out through the back door. He was a tall man, well over six feet, but he was thin, so that helped. Probably from the alcohol and years of abuse he’d put his body through. He’d never been a clean-cut man, but seeing him all bloody, his hair matted and stuck together, nearly turned my stomach.” That day was so clear in River’s mind it might have been yesterday, if he didn’t know better. “His eyes were closed. I didn’t know that meant he was just unconscious. I thought I’d killed him. Even so, I was sure Larry would rise up and punish us for doing what we’d done.”
“D-did you bury him?”
“No, but I remembered that Larry had a dolly. We left his body on the back stoop; then we walked out to the shed. We both hated that shed. It was Larry’s very own torture chamber.”
She cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“He used to bring us out there and tie us up, then whip the hell out of us. He was sadistic. He got his rocks off on seeing us in pain.”
“But you needed the dolly, and it was in the shed?”
“And so was the rope Larry kept there. Joey and I went out and got what we needed.” He snorted. “Hell, neither of us wanted to go in. It was as if by going in, Larry would suddenly wake up and our nightmare would start all over again.” River balled his fists as he remembered walking into the dark, damp building. “The only light to be seen was from the open door where Joey stood with his arms wrapped around his middle, waiting. He was still so out of it. Anyway, I found the dolly and the rope and grabbed both. It struck me then.”
“What’s that?”
“I was about to tie Larry up with the same rope he’d taken such pleasure in using on us. When I looked up at Joey, I knew he was thinking the same thing. There was a sick sort of justice in that.
“Once we got back to the house, it was only a matter of holding on to the dolly while we slid Larry off the stoop and onto it. Joey held it still while I did the rest. We were scrawny kids, so it took us a while.”
“And Larry never came to?” Jeanette asked.
“Nope. I told Joey to get the blanket that we’d used to wipe up the blood. While he did that, I tied Larry down. When Joey came back with the blanket, I grabbed it and covered Larry’s face. We both felt a huge sense of relief. Together, we walked into the woods with Larry strapped to the dolly.”
“Where did you take him?”
“As far into the woods as we could and just left him there. It was dumb, I know. Anyone could have come along and found him. But we weren’t exactly criminal masterminds, you know?”
A smile appeared at the corners of her lips, but River noticed it didn’t quite reach her eyes like it usually did. He hated that. “So, we worked side by side the rest of the day and into the night, cleaning up the mess. We rehearsed our story. If anyone asked, we’d say that Larry had taken off. He’d done it before, so it was believable enough.”
“You knew that keeping it simple would be the key to escaping suspicion,” Jeanette mused.
He nodded. “Pretty much. And though I had no idea how we’d manage it, I had it in my head to try to find Reilly. The idea was ludicrous, because I had no idea what foster home he’d been placed with, but the thought of finding him kept me going.”
“Anything would be better than life with Larry, is that it?”
“Hell yes. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, Joey and I could start to actually think of our future.”
“What happened after that?”
“That night, we slept together in the living room on some blankets that we’d spread out on the floor. Neither of us wanted to go back into the bedroom. As far as I was concerned, the door to that room would never be opened again. It was closed forever, just like our life with Larry was closed forever.” He shoved a hand through his hair, then stood and paced the room. “The morning dawned early, and the sun streaming through the windows seemed bright and cheerful. I ached all over, but this time it wasn’t from Larry’s fists. When I looked over at Joey, he was still sound asleep. He looked so peaceful. For the first time since I could remember, really. But when I tried to wake him, Joey didn’t respond right away. I started to get really freaked when I called his name and he still didn’t wake up. I shoved the covers back and saw blood all over Joey’s pajama pants between his legs.”
“Oh God,” Jeanette groaned.
“I was so damn relieved when his eyes popped open. Still, Joey needed a doctor and fast. I went to the phone and called for an ambulance. When they came, so did the questions.”
“But you were both alive,” Jeanette said, her voice hopeful. “You saved Joey’s life, right?”
“Yeah, but once the cops started asking questions, things started to come together.”
“And Larry?”
“A hunter found him the next day. He’d gotten himself half untied. By then, the authorities knew everything. The sexual and physical abuse couldn’t be hidden away anymore. Larry went to jail where he belonged. Joey and I were truly free for the first time.”
“And then Wanda and Chet brought you all together and gave you a home you could be proud of.”
“Yeah.”
“What happened to Joey?”
“We keep in touch. We don’t visit each other. It’s too much of a reminder for the both of us, if that makes any sense. Last I heard, he was living in California. married and with a couple of rug rats.”
“Because of you, Joey has a happy ending,” she said in a soft voice. “That doesn’t always happen in cases like that.”
“No, they don’t, but don’t go thinking I’m some kind of hero. I was a scared kid. We both were. Like I said, if Larry had been dead, if I had killed him, I
wouldn’t have been sorry. The world would be better off without that piece of shit.”
Jeanette went to him, placed her palms on his cheeks and murmured, “I agree.”
The statement surprised him. “You do?”
Her gaze hardened. “I have no sympathy for child molesters, River. None whatsoever.”
He wrapped her in his arms and held on tight. “God, Jeanette, I love you so damn much it hurts. You’ve always been the light in my world.” He thought of his mom’s wise words. “I no longer want to live in the past, because you are my present and future. I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”
“I love you, River,” she whispered. “I’ve always been yours.”
“Tell me you want to spend the rest of your life with me,” he urged. “I don’t deserve you, but I don’t care. Fuck it.”
“As long as I breathe, you will never wake from another nightmare alone. I will always be here to take away the monsters,” she promised. “And River?”
“Yeah, sunshine?”
“I’m pregnant.”
His heart tripped a beat. “Seriously?”
Jeanette’s eyes welled up, but she refused to let the tears spill over. “Yes.” Guilt washed over her. “In the all the craziness of moving in with you plus the other meds I was taking, I messed up and missed a few days of my birth control pills. When I missed my period, I went to the doctor yesterday. He confirmed it.”
“I’m going to be a dad?”
She nodded. “A wonderful, strong, compassionate father.”