“Okay, I’ve had it!” I yelled. Charlie was quick to take the loaded gun from my hand, probably realizing if he didn’t, I would be too tempted to use it on one of them. “My head hurts, I’m tired and I’m just not good at shooting. I’m a florist for God’s sake, I make bouquets and they are fucking impressive and perfect, because that’s what I do. You are the soldier,” I pointed at Dillon, “and you are a kick-ass fighter that won’t let me out of his sight, so how about you guys do the Rambo gun bullshit and leave me to fucking worry about my sister.” I took a deep breath, feeling somewhat lighter after my tantrum. “I want ice cream,” I growled to no one in particular, then walked away from our booth at the firing range. Of course the guys didn’t let me get too far ahead, carefully maneuvering me between their hulking mass of bodies.
The drive back to the house was quiet. My heart began to hammer when I saw Braiden’s car as we pulled into the long driveway. He’d been gone since last evening when he took my phone and left without a word. It was already afternoon again and we only had a little over twenty-four hours to organize the paperwork that would transfer the ownership of my house to William Levier. Dillon and Charlie had no intention of allowing me to do such a thing. As far as they were concerned, it wouldn’t be necessary, but I yearned to have the deed in my hands, ready to go, just in case. I had always sworn there wasn’t a single thing that would convince me to give up my family home. I was wrong, dead wrong. The safety of both me and Emily was worth more than that. At the end of the day, the house was simply a house, a material object.
We found Braiden seated in front of a massive computer screen in a sharp looking office. He was dressed in an expensive looking black suit, his black hair hung over his eyes in an almost wild carefree way. His jaw had a two day growth, and his dark eyes looked a little tired, but still intense. I wondered what the hell he was up to last night. He looked spruced up enough that I wondered if he had been on a date—he’d been gone almost twenty-four hours without so much as a call, and now he looked as though he had stepped from the pages of GQ magazine—when he had clearly stated he would be looking into ‘things’. Braiden didn’t look up or acknowledge us in any way. Charlie and Dillon sat lazily in chairs, just watching him, I, on the other hand, paced nervously around the room, wanting to ask him what the hell he’d found out. Watching him sit so still at that damn computer, completely oblivious to my panic and anticipation had me wanting to shake the shit out of him. Just when I thought I might start screaming like a crazy woman, Braiden swung the computer screen around to face us. An image of a tall, lean blonde haired man with cold blue eyes and a deep olive complexion filled the screen. He had that educated, upper-class, pretty boy look, but at the same time, he appeared cold and cruel.
“William Levier, your brother-in-law,” Braiden said, glancing at me. He flicked to another picture—this one was an older man with similar blue eyes, his hair a little darker, but peppered with grey. He was handsome for an older man, but he also looked ruthless and calculating. While perfectly groomed into the rich and powerful businessman he portrayed on the outside, you could clearly see his callous and hard exterior went further than skin deep. The gleam in his eyes, the hard line of his jaw, he looked like the human personification of Lucifer. “Jonas Levier, William’s father.” Braiden skipped to the next picture.
I gasped and tears immediately filled my eyes. Emily. She was dressed in an elegant, knee length wrap dress, standing tall and proud in expensive heels. Her short pixie style hair was fashionable and sleek, and her makeup was flawless, accentuating her crystal blue eyes. But it was in her gaze that I could see the truth clearly—she looked defeated, her eyes were hollow and empty—the spark of life that had once filled them was gone. Charlie pulled me down to his lap and I went willingly.
“Last night I took a quick trip out of town.” Braiden glanced a little nervously at Dillon. It was unusual to see Braiden show any visible signs of discomfort. “I visited one of Jonas Levier’s smaller clubs—one of the legal ones. I didn’t expect to find anything in such a short amount of time, but I met a woman there.” Braiden sat back in the black leather chair and linked his hands behind his head, any signs of worry gone. He looked cool and aloof once again. “Her name was Madison and she knows of your sister.” I forced my tears away as I listened to Braiden, ignoring the picture of the elegant, yet broken girl on the screen. “She is well known amongst the staff of Jonas’s establishments, she’s been in his employ for a long time now. She used to be one of his most sought after women that had a price tag that would make you shudder.” Braiden’s eyes flickered with something I that couldn’t identify and his hands left the casual embrace behind his head as he leaned forward. “She fought, and many of the men that frequent Jonas’s clubs like that in a woman.” My hand held fast over my mouth in an attempt to hold back the vomit rising in my throat, while my body shivered uncontrollably. Charlie wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to the comforting heat of his body. “Apparently, a couple of years ago she stopped fighting, became compliant, and the only reason Jonas kept her around was because she still looked sixteen. When she turned twenty, she started to look her age and found herself with a whole new cliental. Still men with dominant predilections, but they weren’t masochistic; they didn’t hurt her like the others did. Madison seemed to be under the impression that Emily had been very happy in her new place of employment. She was basically a kept woman, one of Jonas’s favorites.”
“How did she end up married to William?” Dillon asked, his voice low, murderous. He was angry and I got that. As soon as the horror fled my body, anger would be left in its wake, too.
“Madison isn’t on the inside, she only knows what she knows because of rumors. According to said gossip, Jonas gave Emily to William as a gift of sorts. William had wanted Emily for a long time and the rumor is Emily did something to embarrass Jonas. Being handed off to William was part of her punishment.”
“Part of it?” I asked through trembling lips. Braiden looked at me for a long time before answering.
“Dominant men like Jonas have certain ways of delivering punishment to a sub depending on the severity of the misconduct. Madison seemed to think Emily did something quite terrible that may or may not have left a client more than a little uncomfortable in the region of his genitals.” One corner of Braiden’s mouth lifted in a half grin, but it was gone as fast as it appeared.
“What sort of punishment, other than being forced on William, did Emily endure?” I persisted. I needed to know, and it would more than likely make me sick to my stomach, but I needed to know what she had gone through. As if knowing was a form of punishment for allowing her to walk away from Claymont. She had been nothing more than a child, I should have filed a missing persons report, or I could have tried to tracked her down and drag her home until she was eighteen, by which time she might have settled down a little. Braiden’s gaze went from Dillon’s to Charlie’s, then back to mine. “She is my sister, Braiden, not theirs. Tell me!”
“As I said, Madison isn’t privy to the inside world of Jonas, it’s mostly rumors,” he hedged.
“JUST TEL ME!” I screamed, my patience finally gone.
Braiden didn’t flinch or show emotion of any sort. “It is said that he scarred her body in a way that makes her worthless now.” I held my breath, waiting for him to explain. Braiden’s eyes flared for a moment with fury. “He whipped her. Some dom’s use a whip in sexual play—Jonas is renowned for his execution with such equipment—but on this occasion he used it to break the skin and left marks. In the upper class world of Jonas Levier, such marks make a woman worthless; hence, she was given to his son.” I felt numb. I couldn’t comprehend the world Emily was living in; I couldn’t comprehend the life that was suddenly drowning me. “William has been shunned by his father. He acquired himself a taste for heroin and got himself in a sticky situation with one of the local city gangs—he owes them money, a lot of money. Jonas has officially wiped his hands of William and w
ord is he is currently looking for his property—he wants Emily back.”
“What does that have to do with Rebecca? Why are they here?” Charlie asked.
“From what I gathered, William found out about Emily and Rebecca’s property here in Claymont. William has accumulated a lot of property, but the majority of it is tied up in his father’s businesses. Rebecca’s home is worth a bit of money and with William’s connections in property, he would be able to find a buyer quickly for it. It would be an effortless way to get himself out of his current financial quandary. My guess is he tried to get Emily to convince Rebecca to sell, and when that didn’t work he thought he might be able to scare her out of the house.”
“So he attacked her,” Dillon surmised.
Braiden nodded. “Didn’t go to plan though, so now he’s grasping at straws, throwing around his father’s name in hopes that people will bow down out of fear and give him what he wants. For William this is about money, nothing more, nothing less.”
“And Emily is just piece of property stuck in the middle.” I stiffened at Charlie’s description of my sister and stood up from his lap.
“She’s not a piece of property, she’s a fucking human being, Charlie, she’s my damn sister, my flesh and blood and they hurt her. They forced her to do things she didn’t want to do!” I found myself screaming at him. Horror now replaced with anger.
“I know baby, I didn’t mean any disrespect. You know that’s not how I feel.”
“Do I? I know you blame her for my attack. You’ve blamed her for it the moment you saw that piece of paper on the floor in my kitchen. What the hell am I supposed to think?” Charlie stood and I saw the rage in his eyes. My heart raced, and my head pounded, but not with fear, this was all anger.
“If she hadn’t run away all those years ago, neither of you would be in this predicament now.” It felt like he slapped me, I actually flinched. Braiden stood along with Dillon.
“We can’t change what happened; choices were made and we can’t hold that against anyone. If you want to play that game, we could go back and pile hate on the women who birthed both Jonas and William Levier. The blame could be endless. The only people who should hold our anger and hatred right now are the Levier men. They are the monsters here, they are the reason behind Emily and Rebecca’s situation.” Braiden sounded so calm, he almost doused the fire burning in my veins—almost. I still wanted to smack Charlie, hard. Before I could do anything irrational and crazy, I turned and stormed out of the office—no one followed me. I slammed the door closed on mine and Charlie’s room. I stood there, seething, anger coursing through my body. I picked up the closest thing to me—Charlie’s shoe—and threw it hard. It slid across the top of a dresser, knocking an expensive looking art deco sculpture off the top of it, which broke when it hit the carpet. But it didn’t made a sound when it landed and it frustrated me. I wanted destruction, I wanted noise, I wanted to break shit. I picked up and threw the other shoe, then began throwing clothes around the room, pillows, my make-up, anything I could get my hand on, until I finally ran out of objects to throw. I sank to my knees as big ugly sobs fell from my lips. I cried for my sister. I cried for the injustice those demons inflicted on her small body, I cried for the damage that such abuse would have inflicted on her soul, because in that picture of Emily, that’s what I saw. A broken girl and it would haunt me for the rest of my life.
I barely noticed the large hands that picked me up off the floor. I knew instantly it was Charlie, and I was still angry with him, but I couldn’t find the energy to escape his embrace. He sank to the floor, his back against the bed, me in his lap.
“I’m sorry, Betty Boop, I didn’t mean to belittle your sister or what she’s been through. Seeing her in that picture though, hearing Braiden’s story, it destroyed a small piece of my heart. I was furious and I didn’t know how to deal with that, still don’t.”
I wrapped my arms around him and held him close. “I failed her—I shouldn’t have let her go, I should have looked for her when she left, I should have asked her to come home—but I never did, not once. Those rare phone calls she made to me, I was so indifferent and angry at her for leaving. And she was being raped, held against her will. How can I ever forgive myself for that, I’m her big sister for fuck’s sake.” I was pressed so hard against Charlie’s chest, I was sure when he finally released me I’d have bruises, but at the moment I didn’t care.
“No, Rebecca, this is not your fault. Like Braiden said, the only ones to blame are Jonas and William Levier. We can’t change what happened, all we can do is fix it.” We sat like that for the longest time, Charlie’s steady breathing under my ear cooling the flames of anger and despair. He and Braiden were right, Jonas and William were the only ones to blame.
“What now?” I finally sniffled, my eyes heavy with the familiar feeling of sorrow. I had cried so much over the last month, I was surprised I wasn’t suffering from dehydration.
“Well, Dillon and Braiden left, they’re meeting Frank and going to do a sweep over Claymont. This isn’t that big of a town, and a rich, drug addicted city boy hanging out with hired muscle shouldn’t be that hard to find. In the meantime, I believe you requested ice cream.” I somehow managed to chuckle. “I need to tell you something and I probably shouldn’t, it’s not really our business. But in retrospect of what’s going on...Jonas and his clubs and what Emily has been through...” Charlie took a deep breath and I pulled away so I could see him better. “Braiden is pretty invested in finding Emily. Dillon says he’s never seen Braiden this emotionally involved in finding someone.”
I almost snorted. The cool, calm and collected exterior of the dark and mysterious Montgomery cousin had me doubting Charlie’s words. “I don’t know what you see when you look at Braiden, but I haven’t noticed much in the way of emotion. He’s so calm, it’s actually a little unnerving.”
Charlie swept a strand of loose hair behind my ear. “Believe it or not, Braiden is pretty fucking torn up over all this. He’s barely slept more than a few hours each night since he started looking for Emily, and last night he didn’t sleep a wink. Dillon said he’s kind of obsessed.” Charlie hesitated.
“That’s a good thing, right?” I wondered out loud.
“Yeah, I guess. But his interest in Emily seems to go beyond simply finding a client. And the reason Braiden has been able to find out so much about Jonas Levier and Emily is because Braiden has similar tastes...sexually.”
My eyes widened and my stomach coiled with disgust. “He rapes women?” I almost screamed.
“Fuck no, of course not. He’s a diehard protector, he’d never hurt a woman. But he likes things a little rough in the bedroom. He’s visited clubs like Jonas’s, not hard core ones full of unwilling women, but gentler versions, if you can call them that. He was even in a dom/sub relationship once.”
Oh, wow. He was like a real life Christian Grey! I realized why Charlie was concerned. “Emily doesn’t need that, Charlie, after everything she’s been through, she doesn’t need to come home to that kind of attention.”
Charlie silenced me with a finger over my lips. “Braiden isn’t an idiot, he’s actually pretty damn smart. He’s good in those relationships because he is good at knowing exactly what women need, what they want. He’s pretty intense, if you haven’t noticed. He likes to just sit back and take things in. I trust that he will know exactly what Emily does and doesn’t need. He won’t hurt her, I trust him with her and you can, too.”
I actually found myself thinking Braiden might be good for Emily. If he understands the world she’s been living in, if he’s willing to put her needs before his own, he just might be able to help her.
“Alright, let’s get you that ice cream, then we can slouch around this mansion and watch their giant TV. Have you noticed how everything is so big and oversized in this house? I think Braiden is overcompensating for something.”
And just like that Charlie had made me smile again.
Chapter 20
Charlie
Night had once again fallen, and as the clocked ticked by, I grew increasingly nervous. I hadn’t heard from Dillon or Braiden in a few hours, and with tomorrow being the day we were supposed to meet with William, I was beginning to feel stressed. There wasn’t a chance in hell William Levier would get his hands on Rebecca, but since he had her sister he would no doubt try to use her as leverage. Rebecca was on the phone in the office talking to Lola. Bouquets was beginning to feel the strain of Rebecca’s absence. Orders needed to be filled and accounts needed to be paid, but I didn’t feel comfortable letting Rebecca go there, so she was on a conference call with Lola trying to sort it all out from here. I needed to run, fuck, or fight this hostility that was coursing through my veins, but none of them were an option right now. So, that’s when I found myself searching through Dillon’s drawers for a pair of swim trunks, I figured swimming laps would be just as good in trying to get some of this aggression out. The dude better not be a speedo man, no way was I wrapping my junk in that shit. Bingo! I stripped bare and pulled on a pair of black swim trunks, which were a little too tight, but I didn’t give a fuck right now. I needed to blow off some steam—now. I walked out the back sliding glass door, the cold air outside hitting me so hard I almost screamed like a girl. I moved a little faster for the pool which was steaming with warmth. I dived in, the warmth embracing me like a blanket. It wasn’t as warm as my Jacuzzi, but it beat the outdoor temperature hands down. I began swimming laps and when I stopped for a break, I found a cute pair of bare feet directly in front of me. Her toenails were painted a soft shade of pink that I hadn’t noticed before. I reached out and gently grasped her ankle, allowing my hand to travel up her calf. She wore a warm, bulky bathrobe, and as my hand travelled higher, I suspected that she was naked underneath it. I glanced up at the amused look on her face.
Fighting Back (Mercy's Angels) Page 19