by Melody Anne
How in the world had he traced her?
Something in her compelled her to come up closer during all the drama. “What are you doing here?” she had to ask.
She was within five feet of him when she smelled the cheap whiskey wafting off of him in waves. He didn’t care if he risked his life and the lives of others by driving drunk. She’d forgotten how much she hated this man. Or maybe she hadn’t.
“I came to see my daughter,” he spluttered and slurred. “Are you going to tell these men to unhand me?”
“I just don’t understand how you found me,” she said slowly.
“You left your emergency contact information with the people taking care of your mother. And I’m your papa. I shouldn’t have to try to track you down.”
“Don’t call yourself that. You’re no father. In what universe do you think you’ve deserved the right to call yourself a father?”
The men holding her father didn’t release their hold on him. She was more than grateful to them for that, though she was mortified that her co-workers were witnessing such an embarrassing moment in her life.
“I’m responsible for you being alive,” he shouted at her. “You owe me, girlie. Both you and that worthless sister of yours. You just took off and left me all on my own after everything I did for you. Well, I need some help, and you’re damn well going to give it to me.”
She gazed into his bloodshot eyes. Was it no wonder she was a mess? With her mother in a mental facility and her father a raging alcoholic, she was surprised she’d made it this far in life. No. She wouldn’t think that way. She was better than that, and she’d already proved it.
“Alexa and I are alive in spite of you. You abused us both, and you know it. You seemed to think that it was okay to talk with your fists. Our mother didn’t stop you, and you literally drove the woman crazy. I stayed too long because I had to protect Alexa, but we’re both grown up now, and we won’t ever let you touch us again.”
His eyes filled with rage and suddenly he broke free and made a charge for her. But though fears from a life full of them were almost choking her, Savvy refused to run from this man anymore. She raised her arm to block him, but he was able to slam his fist against her jaw. Stars exploded behind her eyes.
She stumbled backward and braced for the next impact, but as her vision cleared, she found her father flat on his back, knocked out cold. Ashton was standing there looking more frightening than she thought possible.
But the expression in his eyes changed in an instant. “Savvy, are you okay?” he asked as he stepped toward her.
She heard him speaking but she couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on around her. Her head seemed to be buzzing still. Dang, the bastard who called himself her father had really landed a good hit to the side of her head.
“Savvy, can you speak?” Ashton asked her.
This finally motivated her into action. She stumbled away from him.
“I’m fine. I apologize for the embarrassment. I’ll, um, take care of it,” she said. But she hadn’t the least idea how she was going to manage that.
“Nothing needs to be taken care of, Savvy. I want to know if you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said harshly as she backed away yet another step. She couldn’t handle having him touch her. She knew that any contact of that kind would make her fall apart.
Sirens sounded in the distance, and she looked up the docks toward the road. The gates had been opened, and two police cars screeched to a stop inside. The men in blue jumped out and came racing down.
Savvy stood by silently as co-workers who’d witnessed the assault explained everything. And then the cops were asking her questions. Did she know who this was? Did she know where he lived? Why would he want to hurt her?
She couldn’t even recognize her voice as she answered those questions. Her father regained consciousness as they were handcuffing him, and he struggled with them as they dragged him away. When they reached the top of the docks, he managed to head-butt one of the cops, causing the man to lose his footing and hit the ground.
The cop’s partner drew out his Taser, and her father fell down writhing in pain. The man who had raised her — if what he’d done could be called that — was most likely going to prison for quite some time.
And Savvy felt absolutely nothing. Or very little, anyway.
That feeling of blankness was almost a blessing. No, it was a blessing. She would so much rather be numb than to deal with the horrible emotions of pain and sorrow. Numb she could handle. Numb she was used to.
And then people were walking away. The show had ended. And soon only she and Ashton were standing there, and even the light was beginning to fade in the sky.
Somehow she found herself much too close to her former lover, her only lover, as he reached out for her once again.
“Savvy, please let me help you.”
And she snapped.
“Don’t, Ashton! Don’t pretend you care. You haven’t spoken to me in three bloody days. Okay, maybe you managed to say hello.” All her fear and pain rose to the surface like a fast-erupting volcano.
“Savvy, I’m sorry. I’ve just needed time to think,” he said, and he stretched out his arms to her again.
“I swear, Mr. Storm, that if you touch me, I’m going to go psycho,” she almost yelled as she backed further away. “Do you have a Taser on you? You might need it.”
“I’m sorry you went through that. Please, tell me what I can do.”
“I don’t need or want your help, Ashton. I’ve done just fine on my own for a long time, and I will continue to do just fine. So stay the … heck away from me.”
Savvy turned and walked off with her head held high. Neither her father nor Ashton would be able to break her. She was strong — no matter what the men in her life told her.
She had survived so much. And she would keep on surviving no matter what the fates threw at her next.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ashton really wanted to throw a drink back, but he decided that was probably the worst thing he could do at the moment. He was in his office, pacing like a madman, and Savvy was on her way in to see him. That was happening only because he’d pulled the boss card to get her there. He hated that it had to be this way.
He hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours the night before. He was worried about this woman, a woman who had become so important to him. But she’d thrown him for a loop on the cruise, and he’d just needed time to figure out what to do.
Ashton had always known that he would need to bring heirs into this world. It was expected of him. He was a Storm, after all. And to add more fuel to that fire, he was also an Anderson. If he didn’t produce heirs –— the best of the best — he wouldn’t be doing his family duty.
But could he honestly give up a woman as amazing as Savvy just to produce children he wasn’t even sure he wanted? That’s what had been bothering him since they’d docked the cruise ship.
Add to that the traumatizing visit of Savvy’s father the night before and he couldn’t hold off from speaking to her anymore. He had to make sure she was really okay. He had to see if he was truly able to let her go.
“I was instructed to see you here.”
Ashton turned to find Savvy standing stiffly in the doorway. She obviously wasn’t pleased about being there.
“We need to talk, Savvy,” he said, and he gestured to her to come inside his office.
She didn’t budge. “Is this about work, Mr. Storm?”
He’d never heard such dullness in her voice before. Had he been that cruel to a woman who had brought him so much joy?
“Yes … and no,” he answered at last.
“I only want to speak about work,” she said, her arms crossed.
“Savvy, this is ridiculous. You throw a bombshell at me, and I take some time to think about it, and now you’re acting as if the last couple of months didn’t even happen. How mature is that?” The irritation in his tone probably rang out loud and
clear.
Her shoulders slumped just a bit, but her eyes flared up. He could see she was trying to decide whether to turn away or to hear him out. He hoped like hell she’d pick the latter.
“In case you’ve forgotten, Ashton, you were the one to walk away from me and then avoid the hell out of me all because I said I didn’t want to be a mother. I’m sorry if that doesn’t go along with your life plans, but I’m done with being made to feel that I’m a lesser person because of my choices. I won’t wait around for you to decide if I’m good enough for you to screw.”
“You think that’s all I want from you?”
“Yes, pretty much.”
His eyes narrowed even more. “If all I wanted to do was screw you, as you so vulgarly put it, then why in the hell would I care or not whether you want children?”
That seemed to stump her. Her eyes took on a haunted look and her arms dropped. Good. She needed to mull over why the fact that she didn’t want babies would make him reconsider their relationship. It was because he wasn’t just thinking about today or tomorrow, but about ten years down the road. He was thinking of forever with her. Forever if they could be a real family.
“I care about you, Savvy. I care about you more than I thought it was possible to care about another person,” he said when she didn’t speak after several tense moments.
“That’s … that’s impossible,” she said, and she looked as if she were ready to tuck tail and run.
He wasn’t allowing that. He strode forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the office. Once the two of them were at his desk, he leaned against it and slung his arms around her, trapping her against him.
“Yes, it’s not only possible, but true. I care about you enough, my sweet Savannah, to change my own goals in life.”
She was breathing heavily as she looked up at him. He could see she was trying to determine whether she could believe him or not.
“Ashton, this is insane. We barely know each other. It’s just a fling. Or it was.”
“Are you trying to convince me of that, Savvy, or convince yourself?”
She stood stiffly against him, but he rubbed his hands along her back and felt immense pride when she began to relax.
“I don’t care if you want to admit it or not, Savvy. Okay, I do care. And you have to admit that you care about me, too. What we have is special, and I’m not willing or able to give you up. And I don’t think you can walk away from me.” He leaned closer, his lips only a breath away from hers.
“But … the problems,” she said.
He noticed she didn’t actually use the word children in her stilted sentence.
“We can just be together right now, and the rest we’ll figure out,” he told her.
Tears sprang to her eyes and they filled with hope. It was all he needed to see. He barely had to move to connect their lips, and instant fire and comfort filled him when she reached up for him. She’d missed him as much as he’d missed her.
They truly were meant to be together.
“Would you mind taking your sleazy little hands off my future husband?”
The room went deathly silent as Ashton looked up to find Kalli in his doorway, and she was holding something between two of her well-manicured fingers. He was too stunned and then too pissed to be able to utter a single word.
“Haven’t we been here before, darling?” Kalli said. “You with your hands on the cleaning staff while I’m standing like a fool in the doorway? Have you grown addicted to the smell of bleach?”
Ashton found his voice at last. “What are you doing here, Kallista? I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now.”
“Of course you aren’t, darling. Not when you have your tongue halfway down this slut’s throat,” the woman said. “Haven’t you learned by now not to fraternize with the hired help? They have no manners and they don’t know how to behave in society. It’s a recipe for embarrassment. I guess we all have to dabble in lukewarm water once in a while, though, just to get it out of our system.” She moved a short way toward the two of them.
“Get the hell out of my office,” Ashton growled. Savvy, who wasn’t saying a word, pulled away from his arms, making him even angrier. How had he ever thought to marry the “high-class” bitch who was now invading their privacy? He took a determined step toward his ex-fiancée.
“Be careful, darling,” Kalli said. “You wouldn’t want to upset me too terribly. It might harm our child.”
He stopped moving; she took what she was holding and waved it high in the air. Savvy gasped from behind him, and he realized that what Kalli was brandishing must have some sort of significance. He took a good long look.
“Is that an ultrasound?” he asked, and he suddenly grew weak at the knees.
“It certainly is, my love. I knew you’d want proof I was carrying.”
And then Kalli was placing that photograph into his hands. But he couldn’t focus on the image in front of him, not for the life of him. Or for the life of …
“Here, let me point out the little head,” Kalli told him a little too smugly. Then he heard words but not full sentences from this woman, the blue-blood hussy who had managed to get his ring on her finger before he’d wised up.
“… healthy pregnancy … low blood pressure … ten weeks along …”
There was so much buzzing in his ears that he could barely process what she was saying to him.
“How?” He hadn’t slept with her in … crap! In about ten weeks.
“If I need to explain the birds and the bees to you, Ashton, you couldn’t have been very active with your little low-class floozy for the past couple of months.”
Some of the buzzing started to end. “The baby can’t be mine,” he insisted.
Kalli’s face fell, and Ashton doubted himself. Was this truly his child? The small amount of hope scared the shit out of him.
“Yes, Ashton, this child is yours. But if you don’t want it, I’ll go ahead and terminate the pregnancy,” she said as she turned and began walking from the room. She made it back to the door before he found himself yelling.
“No! If that child is mine, I have a say in this,” he absolutely bellowed.
“I’m not having the child if I’m not married to the father. So make your decision, and make it fast,” she snapped. And then she sashayed away. But not before shooting a death glare at Savvy.
Ashton stumbled backward and sank down into his chair before he looked up to see Savvy shivering in the corner. She appeared to be in shock.
“I’m so sorry, Savvy, so very sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay, Ashton. I understand,” she finally replied, her voice so small.
“I can’t abandon my child.” That was his best attempt to explain.
“I know.”
And Savvy walked out of his life almost as quickly as she’d walked into it.
Chapter Thirty
Who is the best sister in all the land?”
Savannah looked up, her expression not changing even a bit as Alexa rushed into the room, a grin on her face and a piece of paper in her hand. The paper-in-the-hand thing nearly sent Savvy into tears all over again, but she hadn’t cried in a week, and she wasn’t about to start again.
She didn’t honestly understand how a person could cry nonstop for two weeks straight. She had to have no tears left in her system. She also didn’t understand why in the world she had been crying at all. It wasn’t like she was a drama queen, or a woman who threw fits — not ever.
She blamed her excess of emotion on the loss of her job. She hadn’t even thought twice about quitting once Kalli had walked back into Ashton’s life with the one thing she was willing to give him that Savvy wasn’t. At least Alexa had taken her in, even if the place to stay was a very uncomfortable secondhand couch in the world’s smallest apartment.
“You’re the best sister,” Savannah said, doing her best to smile.
“Of course I am. Because I got something for you that is going to get you off
my couch for at least the afternoon,” Alexa said, waving the piece of paper around. “Then I will probably have to burn the stupid couch ’cause I don’t think you’ve moved from that exact same spot for the past three weeks,” she muttered.
“I heard that, Lexie.”
“Ah, my sweet big sister, I wasn’t trying to be quiet,” Alexa said with another hop.
After her sister placed the bit of paper in her hands, Savannah tried to figure out what she was looking at. When it finally hit her, an actual smile almost lifted up her lips.
“How could you afford this, Lexie?”
“Don’t worry about the how and just go jump in the shower and get dressed, and then get the heck out of here for the next twelve hours or so,” Alexa said, tugging on Savvy’s hand.
“It’s for today?”
“Yep, and it’s a one-time deal, so hurry, hurry, hurry,” Alexa said, now pushing against Savvy’s back to thrust her into the bathroom.
“My clothes,” Savannah called out.
“I’m getting them. You shower; I’ll play servant.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me for a particular reason?” Savvy asked through the closed door as she stripped off her pajamas.
“Not at all,” Alexa called back, but Savannah knew only too well when her sister was playing fast and loose with the truth.
“I’m so excited about this, Alexa, that I think I’m going to let you get away with lying to me.”
Then the conversation stopped as Savvy turned on the water and did her best to send her worries down the drain. So what if she’d fallen in love with the wrong man? Didn’t all women have to do that at least once in their life? Of course they did. Even if she was supersmart — and she probably was, if she said so herself — it didn’t mean she never made any mistakes.
Before she knew it she was singing, very off tune, “I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair…” If only it were that easy. At least her sister wasn’t shouting at her through the doorway. Not that yelling at her would stop her mad singing tirade. Savvy decided she might just be going a little bit crazy. Didn’t they say love made a person crazy? She’d been smart not to go through the teenage angst of love. At least she was now a bit wiser and though it was killing her a little bit more and more inside, she knew she would survive this, but as an impressionable teen, she might not have been strong enough.