Positive note? It’s a small town. One stop at a local pub, I knew exactly where to find Lynn Davis, Kyle, and probably Gia’s mother.
I pull up to the double-wide sitting on about half an acre of land and park in the dirt driveway.
Kyle said he grew up in the sticks, but damn, I’m going to be eaten alive by mosquitos and whatever else is flying around out here.
I step out of my rental car and take in my surroundings before climbing up the rickety steps to knock on the door. I wait for a few moments, but no one answers. I hear movement inside, but the sheets hanging on the windows obstruct my view and keep me from peeping.
I’m about to knock again when the door finally swings open. A man in his late forties or so stands before me. He’s about six feet, which is three inches shorter than me. He looks like an older version of Kyle. Except his blonde hair is long and unkept and his face is covered with a scruffy untamed beard.
I look past him and see a woman passed out on a worn floral print couch. I can’t see her face, but long blond hair drapes down touching the floor.
“Can I help you?” he asks gruffly.
“Um yeah, I’m Nathan Sayers. I was looking for an old friend, Kyle Davis. I was told he lives here,” I lie, knowing Kyle isn’t here. Hasn’t stepped foot here in years that I know of.
“Kyle ain’t lived here in years,” he says echoing my thoughts. “Not since he left for some fancy college. We don’t care to see him either. Thinks he’s better than us since he married that girl.
I nod clenching my jaw. “Are you his dad?” I ask him.
“Nope. I’m his uncle, John. His mother is my sister.”
“Is she here?” I ask hoping I can talk to her instead. I don’t like the vibe I’m getting from this guy.
“Yeah,” he snorts. “But as you can see, she’s indisposed,” he says moving to the side so I can get a better view of the woman, clearly passed out drunk on the sofa. Beer bottles litter the table and floor around her. Kyle told me she was always a bit of a train wreck. Seeing it in person though is saddening. No one deserves that for a mother. Maybe that’s why Gia ran.
“Oh, well okay.” I pull out my phone to finally confirm once and for all that Gia and Kyle are in fact related. More specifically brother and sister.
I pull up a picture I took of Gia when she wasn’t looking. She’s sitting on my bed smiling, wearing a navy blue blouse and jeans. Her wild curls hanging down her back. It’s from the morning after we were together for the first time. She looks beautiful.
I hold up the phone for him to see the screen and ask, “Do you know this woman?”
I look him in the face to gauge his reaction. Instantly his eyes flare with…desire?
That can’t be right.
The creep actually licks his lips while rubbing his chin. He even tries to discreetly adjust his pants, but I notice. I stand looking at him in stunned silence. He’s turned on. That’s not a reaction you expect from an uncle towards his niece.
“Georgia Rose. So the pretty little colored girl’s still alive huh? I thought for sure she ended up in a ditch somewhere. Then again, she always did put up a good fight,” he says with a smirk, and the implication is not lost on me.
Doing my best to subdue my rage I ask him, “Who is she to you?”
“My niece. Technically.”
Technically?
“What? Your good friend Kyle didn’t tell you he had a black sister? That’s a surprise. Since he loves them so much now. He thinks because he married that girl that wipes his slate clean. That boy tortured that girl about being black, day in and day out for years. Taunting her and teasing her. Then all of a sudden, he grew a conscience and started looking down on the rest of us like he hadn’t taken part in making her life a living hell.”
“I have to make it right.” Kyle’s words come to the forefront of my mind, listening to what this asshole is saying.
“I know he’s been looking for her. That’s why you’re really here right? She’ll never come back here, and she won’t forgive him either,” he states matter-of-factly. He takes out a cigarette, lighting it before going on. “If you do happen to find her, you tell that black bitch if I ever see her sweet ass again, she’s dead. I owe her for the little souvenir she left me with.” He turns his face to show me a deeply marred scar above his right cheek.
“You’ll never lay a finger on her. That I can guarantee,” I threaten, caution to tread lightly evident in my tone. I’m already about two seconds from pummeling him as it is.
A wicked smile stretches across his face. “Oh. I see…She’s a hard one to pass up, isn't she? Always has been a pretty little thing. By the time she was twelve…” He trails off shaking his head trying to goad me. He’s telling on himself without actually saying it out loud. No doubt this creep molested Gia as a child. It’s him. He’s the monster that haunts her. From the sound of it, she had no one to turn to or willing to stand up for her. This family is fucked up.
I imagine a little Gia scared and violated by someone who should have been protecting her. Without warning, something in my mind snaps and I tackle him to the floor. He attempts to block my punches, but I land one after the other.
His face is bloody by the time my sanity starts to return. I look up, and Kyle’s mom is trying to pull me by the shoulders and screaming for me to get off her brother. I look her in the face for a moment and not a hint of Gia can I see. She looks like Erin’s twin.
“I said get off my brother! Get out of here before I call the cops!”
I reluctantly climb off the sack of shit, rising to my feet. “Answer me this. Did you yell for him to get off your daughter when he was molesting her?”
“I don’t know who you are, but you better get the hell out of my house!” she shouts.
I’ve never felt such anger. I’ve never hit a woman, but I could consider it for this one. I want her to suffer for what she allowed to happen. I just want him dead. I deliver one last kick to his gut before I stumble out the door.
I get in the car, slamming my door. I throw my head back against the seat and stare at the gray cloth lining the roof. I pull out my phone once again looking at Gia’s picture. A scream rips through my throat as I yell at the top of my lungs, and tears run down my face. I punch the steering wheel repeatedly until my hand starts to ache.
My heart is breaking for the woman I love and what she’s had to endure. She was violated in the most disgusting way. Taunted for being different and sadly, I have a feeling I haven’t even scratched the surface of her hell.
Meanwhile, the scumbag child molester who abused her sits in there, free and gloating. Not for long though, I don’t know how or when, but he’ll get what’s coming to him. I’ll make sure of it.
I reign in my emotions enough to pull myself somewhat together and crank the car. I race straight for the airport to see if I can get an earlier flight than the one I have booked. I need to see Gia. Kiss her. Hold her.
Mostly, I need to talk to her. If anything their uncle said is true about Kyle’s part in her suffering, he can go to hell. I won’t tell him anything about her. Right now, she’s my first and only priority.
Chapter 14
Gia
Quinn and I are getting ready to head out the door to do some evening grocery shopping when there’s a loud knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” I call out.
Without checking to see who it is first, I open the door to find Nathan standing there. His arms immediately scoop me up. Holding on to me like I’m his lifeline. His clean, masculine smell floods my senses as I wrap my arms around him in return.
“You’re squeezing me too tight,” I tell him when breathing becomes difficult, but he doesn’t loosen his grip.
“I’ll go shopping and leave you two alone,” Quinn says smirking as she walks by. I offer her a small wave of appreciation.
Nathan keeps holding on to me like I’ll disappear if he lets me go. “Nate? I�
�d like to breathe, so could you please loosen your grip?”
He pulls back slightly looking me dead in the eye and cupping my cheek. “I love you, Gia,” he confesses to me for the first time.
My heart rate picks up, and my breathing stops. My bottom lip starts to tremble, and my eyes fill with happy tears as I stare at him in disbelief.
“Breathe Gia,” he whispers against my lips. I inhale a sharp breath letting the oxygen reach my brain that seems to have stalled.
Nobody has ever said those three words to me. Ever. In my entire life. Not even my mother told me as a child. I felt like Sam loved me like a daughter and his actions implied it, but he never said it. I wasn’t so sure I was lovable.
Nathan kisses me tenderly, and this time, I’m the one to pull away. Looking up at him, I tell him, “I love you too Nathan.”
He kisses me again, sliding my jacket down my arms removing it from my body. My top follows right after. I start pulling his shirt off, and he takes over, peeling it off swiftly, revealing his magnificent upper body.
I kiss his chest when he grabs my hips pulling me closer to his body. I feel his length on my stomach triggering a moan to slip through my lips. His hands move to tangle in my recently straightened locks. With a light tug of my hair, he pulls my head to the side exposing my neck to him. He sucks and bites the flesh there, making my body tremble with delight. He makes his way to the couch to pull me down to straddle him. His lips return to mine with urgent want and need.
When he pulls back this time, holding my face in his hands. He whispers to me, “Tell me what you want Gia. Anything you want me to do, I’ll do it. Whatever you want from me, take it.”
I absorb the words he’s saying and realize he’s giving me power over his body. Letting me know I’m in control, and that means the world to me. He trusts me with his body, and I trust him with mine.
With Nate, I’m so sexually uninhibited. The discomfort I used to feel whenever I tried to get physical with someone is nonexistent when I’m with him. I don’t think. I’m just here at the moment. It’s like he is made for me.
I bite my bottom lip. My mind racing, thinking of all the naughty possibilities. But what I want most right now is just to feel him inside me. “Take it out,” I say against his lips. He pushes me back a bit to fulfill my request.
With his belt undone and zipper down, I climb off him to remove his jeans sliding them down his legs. I take mine off too, along with my panties leaving me only in my bra. His eyes trail the length of my body before wandering back up to meet mine again. He reaches in his boxers to pull out his hard cock and my mouth waters. I get on my knees in between his legs and lick my tongue along the length of him. I swirl my tongue around the tip, lapping up the moisture escaping from the tip from his overly aroused state.
His head flops back, and his breath hitches making me smile. As badly as I want to taste him some more, I need to feel him. I’ve missed him, and I’m desperate to have him. The proof of my arousal is running down my thigh.
I kiss his stomach as I work my way up his body. Once I’m straddling him again, I take him in my hand, lightly stroking him before lowering myself onto him. He sits back, grabbing my ass, squeezing it possessively as I begin my up and down movement. I throw my head back, and a garbled moan escapes me as my pace picks up. He grips my hips tightly and starts bucking underneath me. We’re meeting each other thrust for thrust in a perfectly synchronized rhythm.
It doesn’t take long for the pressure to build in my core. I grip his shoulders, my nails digging into his flesh alerting him of my impending orgasm. My movements become almost frantic as I chase the bliss I’ve only ever felt with him.
Finally, I go toppling over the edge whispering his name like a prayer. My body shudders from the aftershock as I fall limply over him, but he’s not done. He wraps his arms tightly around my waist, burying his face in my neck, delivering thrust after thrust from underneath me, having his way with my body until he at last grunts out his release.
He lazily kisses me over and over, never freeing me from his arms. Not that there’s anywhere else I want to be.
Our ragged breathing eventually slows, and I lead him to my bedroom, so Quinn doesn’t walk in on us naked on the couch.
I want to cuddle up with him and ask him about his trip, but by the time we make it to the bed, he’s ready to go again. I’m totally spent at this point, but as soon as I feel the first stroke of his warm tongue on my center, I can’t help but surrender myself to him for the second time tonight.
I don’t know what got into Nathan last night, but he was insatiable. The few days we spent apart are no more than a distant memory now. We more than made up for it in one night.
He’s still fast asleep with his body curled around mine. I sit up, and his arm tightens around my middle. I smile to myself and run my fingers through his hair, staring down at his beautiful face.
Love was an imaginary feeling that before you I never knew. Who would have thought I’d find it in someone like you.
He has no idea how just his very presence soothes my souls. Just being with him is healing parts of me I thought to be forever broken.
“I love you, Nathan,” I whisper.
“I love you too Gia,” he whispers back, and a small smile spreads on my face.
It’s midafternoon when we drag ourselves out of bed. I have the day off from the diner and Quinn is off to work since her deadline for her new article is due first thing in the morning.
Nathan and I have the condo to ourselves. So after we thoroughly desecrate my shower, we order in some food since we don’t want to share each other’s company.
“So tell me about your trip,” I finally get to ask. “What was so important that it took you away from me?” I playfully pout.
He lets out a reluctant breath before he explains. “I had one last PI case that has been ongoing for the past two years. I got a lead that helped me finally solve it. But now that I have, I’m not sure what to do with the information.”
“Well, you’ll figure out the right thing to do,” I tell him going to turn in some music. Donnie Hathaway’s ‘Song For You’ softly fills the room.
“Yeah. I guess,” He finally says when I rejoin him on the couch. His eyes don’t leave mine. He seems to be pondering something.
“What’s on your mind?” I ask him tapping his shoulder.
“Gia, I need to ask you something.”
“O…kay…,” I say, warily sitting up a little straighter.
“I need you to know you can tell me anything,” he says, seemingly stalling.
“Okay. I get it. What do you want to know?” I’m already getting annoyed that he won’t just spit out what he wants to say. And knowing Nathan, I’m not going to like this question.
He sits up straight and moves to sit right across from me on the coffee table.
This can’t be good.
“So you’re from West Virginia right?” he asks, already knowing the answer. I told him that much on our first date.
What the hell is he getting at?
“Yeah, why?” I ask nervously fidgeting.
“And you claim you don’t have any family there?”
“Claim?” I scoff. “No. I don’t have any family back there,” I say getting even more agitated by the second.
“None literally or none you care to remember?” he presses.
“What’s with the third degree, Nathan?” I ask, raising my voice defensively.
“I know you were running from something. Your eyes give you away. I saw it the moment I met you. I just need you to tell me what it is. I need to know what’s haunting you.” I swear the pity in his eyes makes me feel like he already knows, but how could he? There’s no way.
“Why?! Why do you need to know about my fucking demons?” I yell.
“So I’ll know how to free you from them,” he says softly.
My anger simmers somewhat. “You can’t free me from thi
s Nate. Nobody can! My demons live too deep within me. They’re embedded in my soul. You can’t save me. That ship has long since sailed,” I tell him honestly.
“I love you, Gia. Please. Just let me try.”
After a few moments of silence, I take a deep breath, “Fine, you want to chase the monsters away? Here we go…”
Chapter 15
Nathan
My tears run freely from my eyes listening to what Gia’s saying to me. She starts by telling me about how her mother was a drunk, but I knew that much from Kyle. But the rest? It’s horrific.
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