Beside him, Sarah had stiffened, her body language letting him know that, yeah, he’d shocked her, after all. And when she lifted her head once again, the pain shimmering in her eyes made his heart tighten in his chest.
“So, in order to cope and control your fears, you shut down in the only way you knew how,” she said.
He realized why she understood him so well. Probably because she’d done the same thing after that foster family had left her behind. “Yeah. I had to stuff all those emotions deep inside and keep them buried. It all ended when I was finally old enough to go to school at the same time as my brothers, but when my mother passed away when I was eight, everything changed drastically once again.”
“That’s when your brother Clay started raising you and Mason, right?” she asked, remembering some of the details he’d shared with her.
He nodded. “Yes. And since Clay was always worrying that we’d be separated or taken away if social services ever found out about our situation, he’d always tell me and Mason that we needed to be good and stay out of trouble and not say a word to anyone about our situation. Behaving and doing what Clay said was easy for me, because by then I’d already learned how to control my emotions and keep everything inside. I was straight-laced and disciplined, which was a good thing since Mason was constantly testing Clay’s patience and authority.”
She reached up and touched his cheek, her fingers warm and soft and soothing. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”
He shrugged and gently grabbed her hand, placing it back on his chest, right over his beating heart. “Last night, when I took you back to the motel, it reminded me of the places my mother would take me, and it made me physically ill to think of you staying there.” Which reminded him . . . “By the way, when I was getting your money back today, the front desk clerk mentioned that some guy had been asking around about you. He wanted your room number, and the asshole gave it to him without getting his name. Not sure if this guy is connected to the break-in, but would you happen to know who this person might be?”
With every word he spoke, Sarah’s eyes got bigger and bigger. He saw panic and fear collide in the depths as she stared up at him and whispered, “Oh, God,” in a strangled voice. “What if I’d been there last night?”
She abruptly sat up, holding the blanket to her chest as she tried to move away from him. He quickly scrambled upright, too, and caught her arm, refusing to let her go until he had some answers because something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Sarah?” Her name was a soft demand for her attention, to snap her out of her haze of distress, but it didn’t seem to work. “Who was it?”
Her face was pale, her breathing labored as she ran a trembling hand through her hair. “I knew it was just a matter of time,” she mumbled, more to herself than him.
“Before what?” he asked impatiently, wanting to shake the answers out of her but trying like hell not to spook her further.
She turned dread-filled eyes to him. “Before he found me.”
Jesus Christ. Someone was stalking her, Levi realized, and felt as though he’d been punched in the gut. “Who, Sarah?” He clasped her hand in his, trying not to roar in frustration. “Before who found you?”
“My ex,” she finally revealed in a small voice. “A guy I’d been dating for a few months.”
And with that revelation, so many other things now made sense to Levi. Where she’d worked, the off-the-beaten-path motel she’d been staying at, the cash she’d kept on hand, and her insistence that she was leaving Chicago. His intuition had been right, and he was relieved that he had a few answers, though he suspected there was a lot more she needed to tell him. It didn’t seem as simple as a bad breakup with an ex-boyfriend.
He forced himself to relax, hoping it would calm her down, as well. He sat back on the couch and drew her to him. “Come here,” he said gently, and guided her so she was sitting sideways on his lap. She now had all of the blanket wrapped around her body, which was a good thing considering they were both still naked and it would be a helluva distraction having her ass pressed against his dick.
She was staring straight ahead, her vulnerable expression revealing all of her worries. He touched her chin and turned her face toward his so she was looking at him. “You need to tell me what’s going on. Straight up, Sarah. No more evading my questions or making excuses.” He needed facts and details in order to help her and understand what he was up against. “Are you running from this guy?”
“Yes,” she said in a barely audible voice.
He’d expected as much, but hearing her confirm it made his protective instincts skyrocket into overdrive. “Tell me why.”
She shook her head stubbornly. “This isn’t your problem.”
He knew she was used to being alone and handling things by herself, but there was no way he was going to let any other man put his hands on her. Ever. “Sweetheart, I’m making it my problem. As of right now. You’re going to start at the beginning, and you’re going to tell me everything. All of it.”
He could see her reluctance, but she finally spoke. “His name is Dylan Harper. I met him a few months ago when I was waitressing at a diner. He’d come in every day for coffee and a piece of pie, and he always sat in my section. He seemed like a nice guy, so when he asked me out, I said yes.”
She picked at a piece of lint on the blanket, averting her gaze as she continued. “We dated for about a month, then one day he told me we were going to a friend’s place for a barbeque about an hour and a half away from Chicago in Fairdale. It was a rural area, in the middle of nowhere. It was this small gated community called Sacrosanct, which Dylan told me meant blessed. When we arrived, the only reason we gained entrance was because of a tattoo on the inside of Dylan’s wrist that he showed the guy at the security gate. I thought that was odd, but once we were inside, everything seemed normal. At first.”
She stopped talking, and Levi gently brushed a few strands of hair from her cheek and prompted her to continue. “What do you mean, at first?”
“There was this huge main house that was beautifully maintained, and around it were clusters of smaller cabins where other people lived. Well over a hundred, I later found out. The community was fully sustainable, with fields of organic fruits and vegetables, a stable of pigs and cows and chickens, and well water. Everything ran on solar power, so nobody had to leave for anything, but I didn’t realize the implications of any of that until I was ready to go, and Dylan told me that this was our new home.”
Levi’s gut twisted with unease. “Couldn’t you just leave?”
“I thought I could,” she said quietly as she pulled the blanket tighter around her body. “But the main gate was always locked with a guard who had strict orders on who could come and go, and there was a ten-foot-high block fence around the entire community. It didn’t take me long to realize that this place was a cult, and I was being held against my will.”
Shit. He could feel and hear how difficult this was for her to talk about, but he continued to encourage her to go on, to tell the story however she needed to. “What happened?”
She swallowed hard. “I was placed in a cabin with three other women who were ordered to watch over me, and I had to attend daily rituals where the leader of the group, an older man named Rick, brainwashed members into worshiping him as a holistic being. While everyone seemed in awe of him, I was the only one who had a problem handing over my loyalty, dependency, and trust to a man who controlled everything and everyone in the community.”
Her bare legs were peeking out of the covers, and he gently trailed his hand along one of them. “How long were you there?”
“Three weeks.” She met his gaze, and he hated how ashamed she looked, as if it had somehow been her fault that she’d been trapped there. “I fell into line with the others, only because I knew it would be the only way for anyone to believe that I’d been converted into being a follower and I’d be able to walk around the place more freely. I also saw a posses
sive, threatening side to Dylan that scared me, and he made it clear that if I ever tried to leave or escape, he’d find me and bring me back. Deserting the Sacrosanct community is considered a punishable offense, but I was desperate to get out of there.”
Obviously, she’d escaped, and he couldn’t imagine how she’d gotten through such a well-guarded place. When she remained silent, he nudged her once again with words. “What did you do?”
“Every day, I tried to look for a way to get out of there, and after three weeks, I noticed at the far end of the secured grounds that there was a thick tree limb overhanging the block wall into the compound, and I knew that was my only hope of escaping. It took me a few days of thinking, but I ended up getting a long line of rope and I threw it over the limb, then used it to help me climb up the wall with my feet until I could grab the top and go over it.”
“That’s pretty damned resourceful,” he said, impressed that she’d figured out a way to utilize the branch.
“I was desperate,” she said with a small shrug. “I had a few things in my backpack and fifty dollars in my pocket that I stole from the main house. I hitchhiked my way back to Chicago and had to live on the streets for a while until I could find a job and a place I could afford to live . . . I still feel so stupid and naive for getting myself into such a bad situation.”
“Sweetheart, it’s not your fault,” he said, trying to soothe her. “All that matters is that you’re out now. You’re here with me now and you’re safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She lifted tear-filled eyes to him, which nearly shattered his heart. “You can’t make a promise like that. If Dylan tracked me to the motel, he’ll find me again.” A shudder racked her body. “And if he gets me back into the compound, I’ll never be free again.”
“If he does find you, I can guarantee that he won’t hurt you,” he said fiercely.
She shook her head in denial. “You can’t protect me forever.”
Yes, he could. He caught her chin in between his fingers so she was looking into his eyes. He understood that he couldn’t keep her locked up in his house indefinitely, but Levi could keep her safe until he could find this asshole himself and make sure he never touched Sarah again. As a cop, he had resources, and in this instance, he had no problems taking advantage of that support.
“Listen to me,” he said, determined to reassure her, to ease the panic reflected in her eyes. “You’ll be working at my brother’s bar, surrounded by people I trust who are like family to me and my brothers. Clay will make sure that everyone knows about Dylan, and you won’t ever be alone. I’ll take you to Kincaid’s and pick you up, and if I can’t be with you, someone I trust will be. Always.” And that was a vow he wouldn’t break.
“Just until I can save enough and leave,” she insisted, compromising in the only way she would allow. “I don’t want to be a burden and inconvenience, to you or anyone else.”
She was neither to him. In fact, she’d become so much more than what he’d ever anticipated, all in a very short amount of time. But it had become increasingly clear that Sarah believed she was a nuisance because that’s how she’d been treated since her parents’ deaths. Right now, in this moment, there was no convincing her otherwise. For now, it had to be enough that she trusted him, and Levi refused to give her any reason to regret that choice, or do anything to disappoint her like so many other people in her life had.
“Let’s just take everything one day at a time, okay?” he asked so she didn’t feel pressured to make impulsive decisions based on her unstable emotions right now.
“Okay,” she said softly, her expression weary.
Satisfied that she’d agreed, he pushed his fingers into her hair at the side of her face and brought her head to his shoulder. He glided his thumb across her soft cheek, and she let out a sigh and snuggled closer. Gradually, her body relaxed against his, and he felt her steady, even breaths against the side of his neck and knew that she’d fallen asleep.
He held her for a while, thinking about their conversation while trying to set up a plan in his mind. She was right . . . Dylan sounded like the kind of guy who wasn’t going to give up, which meant Levi needed to be proactive when it came to finding the asshole before he tracked Sarah down again. It wouldn’t be easy considering he didn’t have much information on the guy, and the compound in Fairdale wasn’t in his jurisdiction as a cop, but that wouldn’t stop him from digging up what he could on her ex.
* * *
Levi waited until later that night when Sarah was asleep in his bed, then grabbed his cell phone and went into the kitchen to make a call.
His partner, Nick, picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Ironman! What’s up?”
“I need to ask a favor,” he said, skipping any idle chitchat and getting right to the point of the call.
“Anything,” Nick replied, immediately on board.
“It has to do with Sarah.”
“Sarah, the woman from the convenience store?” Nick asked, his tone incredulous.
“Yeah, that Sarah.” As if there was any other in his life. But Nick wasn’t aware of everything that had happened between Levi and Sarah since he’d gotten shot, so he understood his partner’s surprise.
“Damn. Did you finally get lucky?” Nick joked.
“Actually, she did agree to a date with me,” Levi said, but didn’t elaborate, not when there were more pressing matters to discuss. Instead, he filled Nick in on what had happened after the date, when he’d taken Sarah back to the motel, and her confession tonight about being stalked by a controlling, possessive ex who was a member of a cult.
“You know we don’t have any authority if he’s living in Fairdale,” Nick replied once he had all the facts. “That’s out of our jurisdiction.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his fingers across his forehead, trying to ease the tension settling there. “What I need is as much information about this guy as you can get for me. His name is Dylan Harper, and all I know is that he’s currently living at the Sacrosanct compound. I want to pay him a friendly visit as a civilian to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, if you know what I mean.” There wouldn’t be a physical confrontation that jeopardized his job as a cop, but verbally, Levi planned to be very persuasive.
“Oh, yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” Nick said, a smirk in his voice. “I’ll see what I can find out about him this week and get back to you.”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
Levi disconnected the call, feeling marginally better. Now that he had Nick digging up whatever he could on Dylan, tomorrow Levi planned to make sure that both Clay and Mason were apprised of the situation before Sarah started her shift at Kincaid’s later that night. He wanted protective eyes on her at all times. If for some reason Levi couldn’t be there, then he knew his brothers would provide backup until the issue with Dylan was resolved and Sarah no longer had a reason to run. At least, that’s what Levi was hoping.
Hearing the familiar padding of footsteps on the wood flooring, he glanced up as Sarah walked into the kitchen, looking drowsy, a little disheveled, and sexy as hell in one of his navy blue Chicago PD T-shirts.
“What are you still doing up?” she asked, her voice husky as she walked straight to him and wrapped her arms around his waist as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “I don’t like waking up alone.”
He didn’t know if it was her sleepy subconscious talking or an honest declaration, but he loved that she’d missed him enough to seek him out. “Just taking care of a few things.” Taking care of you.
“Come back to bed,” she whispered.
It was an invitation he couldn’t refuse, even if it was just to hold her while she slept.
Chapter Eleven
“What size jeans do you wear?”
Sarah followed Samantha through the women’s section of Target, with Katrina trailing behind. Levi had surprised her this morning with the announcement that the two of them were having lunch with Clay and his wi
fe, Samantha, and Mason and his fiancée, Katrina. While eating their meal at an Italian restaurant near Clay’s bar, Sarah mentioned to the women that she needed to buy jeans for her shift at Kincaid’s later that evening, and they’d both insisted on coming with her.
“Last time I bought a pair, they were a size five,” she said as they came to a wall with shelves that held folded pairs of jeans. Samantha went right for the darker pairs and started looking through the pile.
Katrina stopped at a rack of cute dresses and glanced through them while Sarah gravitated toward a nearby clearance rack to see if she could find anything there. The two women had been so nice to her, and right from the moment she’d met Samantha, she’d noticed that she was the nurturing type. She was also stunningly beautiful and well put together in a polished, sophisticated way. But she looked right at home in Target, and she seemed to know where everything was located.
Sarah had never had close girlfriends growing up because of being shuffled through so many foster homes and her fears of getting attached, only to leave people behind. Or them leaving her behind. Even as an adult, she didn’t have any close friends, so having this girl time with Samantha and Katrina was a nice change. And fun, too. She’d laughed so much during their lunch and already felt a friendship forming, even if it was just for a short while.
“The men over there look like they’re having such a deep, important conversation,” Katrina said, her tone amused. “But man, do they look damn hot all standing together.”
Sarah glanced over her shoulder, and sure enough, Levi, Mason, and Clay were in a tight circle in the aisle that separated the women’s section from the men’s, and yeah, she agreed that all three men were good-looking in their own separate ways. Their arms were crossed over their chests, and all of their expressions were serious as the two older brothers listened to whatever Levi was saying to them.
Dirty Sexy Cuffed (Dirty Sexy #3) Page 13