by Susan Stoker
“You know my name is Nathan Anderson.” He paused.
She nodded, but didn’t speak.
“My brothers are Logan and Blake. We came back to Castle Rock a year ago after our mother murdered our father.” He ignored her gasp and continued. “I told you earlier how abusive she was. Well, she wasn’t just abusive to me and my brothers. We left home when we graduated from high school, and when she didn’t have us around anymore to bully, things got worse for my dad. She shot him. Then shot herself. We’ll probably never know what she was thinking because she didn’t leave a note or anything.”
“I’m so sorry,” Bailey said, putting her hand over his where it was resting on the table. She felt horrible for what he’d gone through, but was happy he was back home with his brothers. It was obvious he loved them.
“Thanks. We came home for his funeral and decided that we wanted to help people who were in abusive relationships, or who needed protection from an ex, so we started our own business.”
Bailey pulled her hand back and put it in her lap, twisting her hands together. She was getting a bad feeling about this. “What kind of business?”
“Ace Security. We provide security for men and women when they go to court, we dabble in investigations, and we’ve done some surveillance work as well.”
The food she’d eaten was threatening to come back up, but Bailey kept her mouth shut and waited for Nathan to continue. He did so, somewhat reluctantly, it seemed.
“Logan got together with a girl he knew in high school, Grace. Her parents used to own an architectural firm here in Castle Rock. It was right here in this space, in fact. Francesca bought it when the firm went under.”
“Why’d it go under?” Bailey asked.
“Grace’s parents were Margaret and Walter Mason.”
Bailey jerked at hearing the names, and her eyes got wide. Oh shit.
“I see you recognize their names,” Nathan said, his tone hard to read. “They hired the Inca Boyz to take lurid photos of Grace with Bradford Grant. They were both drugged and unconscious when the pictures were taken. The Masons were hoping to use the photos to blackmail Bradford’s parents.”
“You know who I am,” Bailey whispered. She was terrified, embarrassed, and freaked out all at the same time.
“I know who you are,” Nathan confirmed. “But please, listen to the rest of my story?”
Bailey nodded. She couldn’t move anyway. If she tried to stand up, her legs wouldn’t hold her. She knew it. The last person she should’ve offered to help was Nathan Anderson.
“I’m assuming you left Denver around the time the thing happened with Grace and Bradford?”
She nodded again, then said quietly, “I didn’t like what Donovan was doing. It was one thing to hold up convenience stores, drink, and do drugs. It was another thing altogether to take money to hurt and kill people . . . and blackmail them. I didn’t want anything to do with it.”
Nathan nodded. The compassionate look in his eyes was killing her. Why was he looking at her like that? He should hate her. Shouldn’t want anything to do with her. But there he was, watching her, making sure she was all right before he continued. God.
She rushed on, wanting to get the conversation over with. “When Donovan came home that day, he was high on the rush of what they’d done. Kept talking about how much fun it was. How he’d wanted to keep the pictures, but the woman who’d hired him had paid him extra to mail the camera back to her.”
Nathan nodded slowly. “Yeah. It’s one of the reasons why they had enough to charge him. He put his return address on the envelope.”
Bailey chuckled, but it wasn’t a humorous sound. “He’s not that smart.” And he wasn’t, but he had been smart enough to manipulate her for years. To make her feel as if he was the only person who cared about her. To make her think he loved Joel like a son. Except her brother had been there when Donovan and his brothers had gotten back from taking the pictures of Grace and Bradford. They’d bragged about how good it felt to feel her naked body against them. How they wanted to take her while she’d been unconscious. The only reason they hadn’t was because Bradford started making noises like he was waking up, and they’d run out of time.
It had sickened her. She knew Donovan and his brothers and friends weren’t exactly upstanding citizens, but not caring that they were talking about raping an unconscious woman in front of a nine-year-old kid, her nine-year-old kid, had been too much.
“Why’d you decide to leave, Bailey?”
It was as if he could read her mind. “You don’t know?”
“The only thing I knew about you before you came up to me in that parking lot was that your name was Bailey and you were Donovan’s ex-girlfriend. And that no one knew where you were.”
Well, that was something, she supposed. Nathan didn’t say anything, giving her the time to think through what, if anything, she wanted to tell him. And him giving her that time, not pushing her, or rushing to fill the awkward silence between them, gave her the courage to tell him. Why not?
“Because they were laughing and saying how powerful they felt being able to do anything they wanted to both Bradford and Grace while they couldn’t do anything about it,” she whispered. She felt dirty just talking about it. Knowing she’d spent most of her life around the evil that was the Inca Boyz. The tattoo on her lower back itched, as if reminding her just what she was. Contaminated.
“And they were doing it in front of Joel,” she continued, her voice cracking with emotion. “They didn’t care that he was listening. It was as if they wanted him to hear. Wanted to deaden his emotions. Make him see that women were nothing but trash, to be used however a man wanted to, whenever he wanted to. I had to go.”
“I’m proud of you, Bailey,” Nathan said quietly.
Bailey’s eyes whipped up to his in shock. “What?”
“I’m proud of you. It couldn’t have been easy to simply pack up and move with no job, no idea where you’d end up. Knowing that leaving like that would piss off not only Donovan, but likely the gang too. And to do it with a nine-year-old in tow only made it harder.”
“I didn’t want him to end up in some sleazy hotel room, raping an unconscious woman and thinking it was fun.”
“Do you want to know the rest of the story?” Nathan asked, not commenting on what she’d just told him.
Bailey nodded. She didn’t, not really. But she knew she needed to so she could decide if she should pack up and leave tonight, or if she had more time.
“You know Donovan went to jail, as did Grace’s parents. Grace and my brother got married, and will be having their twin sons any day now. Alexis, who is Bradford’s sister, started working for Ace Security. She and Blake were investigating the Inca Boyz, trying to get more information on them and their new moneymaking scheme. It turns out that Alexis went to school with one of the women who hung around the club. Kelly White.”
Bailey gasped. God. Kelly was a bitch. A couple of years older than she was, and someone who’d always hated her. Especially because she wanted Donovan for herself. Well, it wasn’t that she wanted Donovan per se, but she’d always wanted the power that would come with dating the president of the gang. And she hated Bailey because she had that power.
“You know Kelly?” Nathan asked.
Bailey only heard curiosity in his voice. Not scorn or disdain. He was either a really good actor, or completely insane.
“Yeah. She’s . . . not the nicest person.”
Nathan let out a huff of laughter. “That’s one way to describe her, I guess. Anyway, Alexis met with her to try to find out more information on the gang. One thing turned into another and she ended up at a party at Damian’s house.”
“Jesus,” Bailey breathed. “Is she okay?” She knew exactly what the parties at Damian’s were like. Inca Boyz parties were more like fuck-fests, with the gang members passing the women who hung around the gang among each other. They had contests about who could screw the most women in one night. They didn’
t care about who they fucked or if the chick enjoyed it. It was all about them getting off. And the last party she’d been at, Bailey had been dismayed to see so many girls who were obviously way younger than eighteen. But again, that didn’t faze the Inca Boyz. They treated them just like they did any other chick who showed up—like they were there only for them to screw.
“She’s okay,” Nathan reassured her quickly. “Somewhere in the midst of her trying to collect information on the gang, Damian and Dominic figured out who she was, Kelly lured her into a trap, and they, along with a guy named Chuck, took her up into the mountains, beat the hell out of her, and were going to leave her there for a couple of days before going back up there and killing her.”
Bailey knew she was going to be sick. Without another word, she grabbed her purse, scooted out of the booth, and headed for the front door. Ignoring anything but the glass door and the dim but fresh air beyond it, she didn’t see Nathan wave at Francesca, didn’t hear the older woman’s cheerful goodbye, and barely even noticed Nathan’s presence at her side as she threw open the door to the restaurant and stepped out into the dark evening. She blindly turned right, not knowing where she was going, but Nathan took her arm in his grasp and turned her the other way.
“There’s a small park this way.”
She didn’t say a word, but allowed Nathan to steer her to a bench in a small park nearby. She collapsed on it and huddled over, her arms tight around her belly, her head resting on her knees.
“Alexis is fine. Blake and Logan made it to her in time. The others . . . not so much.”
Bailey’s head came up at that. She could just make out Nathan’s face as he sat straight next to her. His hand was still around her arm. She could feel his warmth seeping into her bones as if he was an actual heat source. His thumb was brushing back and forth against her, making her wish that she could feel it against her skin instead of only through the material of her sleeve.
“Not so much?” she asked shakily, still not convinced the delicious meal she’d eaten wasn’t going to end up on the grass at her feet.
“All four are dead.”
Bailey blinked. “All of them?”
Nathan nodded. “Between Blake and the cops, they were all killed.”
Bailey’s head spun. Donovan’s brothers were dead. And Kelly. And even the awful Chuck. He’d asked Donovan if he could have her once, and of course Donovan had agreed, as long as he could watch. It had been awful. Donovan had held her down while Chuck had taken her from behind.
“I’m not sorry,” she said, her hatred easy to hear.
Nathan didn’t comment on that, but only asked bizarrely, “You ready to hear more?”
“There’s more?”
“There’s more,” Nathan confirmed grimly.
“I’m ready,” Bailey told him, not sure she was.
“Kelly ranted and raved about how when Donovan got out of jail, he’d be looking for you. That he’d remove your tattoos with a blowtorch, and she’d be his girlfriend once you were out of the picture.”
Bailey shivered and put her head back down on her knees. When a guy tried to leave the gang, they’d either be forced back in, or they’d be allowed to leave if any of their tattoos that represented the gang were obliterated. Donovan had bragged often enough about burning them off with a hot piece of metal, or cutting them out.
She thought about her tattoos. She had a lot of them. From the gang logo on her arms to the initials IB, and of course the words Donovan had forced her to get on her back. Oh yeah, she was as good as dead. If Donovan and his gang tried to remove every trace of the Inca Boyz from her skin, she’d never survive it.
“He was released from jail last week,” Nathan said, as if his previous words weren’t enough to push her over the edge.
Bailey stood without thought and started walking.
Nathan caught up to her within steps and pulled her to a halt. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to go,” she mumbled.
Nathan stepped in front of her and took both her shoulders in his hands. “Where, Bailey?”
“Away. He’s gonna find me. I need to get Joel, and we need to leave.” Bailey knew she wasn’t making sense, but she was completely freaked. Why hadn’t she gone to the library to check to see if Donovan was still in jail, as she’d planned? She’d gotten complacent, thinking she was in the clear. But with everything that had happened, she knew without a doubt that Donovan would want revenge. Against the Andersons, who had killed his brothers, and against her. He’d hurt Joel just because he knew that would hurt her. There was no way she’d put her brother through that.
“Listen to me, pixie. Take a deep breath and listen, okay?”
There was that nickname again. Bailey took a deep breath as he’d demanded, but closed her eyes, refusing to look at him.
“We’ve got eyes on him. He’s too busy trying to assert his leadership over what remains of his gang to do anything else at the moment.”
“He’s going to find me,” Bailey said morosely, her entire body sagging in defeat.
“You’re right. He is.”
Nathan’s words surprised her so much, her eyes popped open and she stared up at him. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she snapped.
“Would you rather I lie and tell you that you’re safe here, that he’ll never find you, and you never have to worry about him or the Inca Boyz again?”
When he put it that way, Bailey grimaced. “No.”
“Come and sit back down. My brothers have a plan.”
Bailey looked up at Nathan. Really looked at him for the first time since he’d started telling her about who he was and that he knew who she was. He looked about as devastated as she felt. His lips were pulled down into a frown, and his brow was furrowed with deep worry lines. He’d loosened his tie and had undone the top button of his white shirt. His sports jacket lay back on the bench they’d been sitting on, and he was breathing hard.
She nodded. It was a minuscule movement of her head, but he saw it.
He paused for just a moment, as if making sure she was really okay and wouldn’t bolt the second he let go of her shoulders, then he took a step back and held out an arm, indicating the way back to the bench.
She slowly trudged over to it and sat. A shiver rolled through her body at the implications of what Nathan had told her. Immediately she felt Nathan spreading his jacket over her shoulders. The warmth from his body was still in the material, and it seeped into her skin.
“What’s the plan?”
“We tell Clayson and the other guys at the shop what’s going on.” He held up a hand to forestall the protest he could obviously see in her eyes. “Not everything, just that an ex-boyfriend of yours is trouble, and if he shows up, they should immediately call the cops.”
“What else?” Bailey asked, not convinced. Donovan wasn’t completely stupid. It wasn’t as if he would waltz into her workplace and drag her off. He’d be sneakier about it.
“We know someone who can put in an alarm at your place. Nothing fancy, but enough to give you time to call for help. And, pixie, I know you won’t like this, but Joel needs to know.”
“No!” Bailey exclaimed immediately. “No way. I’ve tried to shelter him from this as much as possible.”
“Have you talked to him about anything at all?”
“No. And I won’t. I don’t want to talk to him about the Inca Boyz or anything about it.”
“But you told me yourself that Donovan was bragging about fucking an unconscious woman right in front of him. He’s almost ten, Bailey. He’s not stupid. He knows more than you think he does.”
Bailey turned away from Nathan and took a deep breath, which did nothing to stem the tears welling in her eyes. Everything she’d done, she’d done for Joel. She never wanted to see him look at her in disgust. And he would if he knew what she’d done. What Donovan had done.
“Look at me, pixie.”
She didn’t. The swing set in the small park
wavered in front of her as the tears filled her eyes, then spilled over.
Nathan didn’t make her look at him. Instead, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. He said reasonably, “I’m not trying to upset you. But I think Joel is probably confused. Donovan told him that women were trash, and could be treated as such. But he loves you, and isn’t sure what he should think. I’m not saying you should tell him all the details, but enough so that he can be on the lookout. So that he’d tell you if he sees Donovan. If the man really wants to get his hands on Joel, he’ll probably try to sweet-talk him first.”
Bailey licked her lips, tasting the salt from her tears. Thankful she didn’t have to look at Nathan, she said in a shaky voice, “I can’t lose my brother.”
“And you won’t. I swear. Do you want me to do it? I can talk to him and answer any questions he might have.”
Bailey’s body tensed. “Why would you do that? You just met me. You don’t know me or my brother. And your family has been so hurt by Donovan and the Inca Boyz. I was a part of that. I don’t understand.”
She felt Nathan take a deep breath next to her, then let it out slowly. Because he was sitting so close, his hot breath wafted over her upper chest, making her nipples tighten inappropriately.
“You intrigued me since I first found out about you. I wondered what kind of person you were. What made you hang around the gang in the first place. More importantly, what made you leave.”
“And now you know I ran because I was scared,” Bailey said in a defeated tone.
“No,” Nathan countered. “You ran because of love. You loved your brother more than anything else and ran to protect him. There’s nothing you could’ve done that would endear you to me more, Bailey. Don’t you get it? Logan and Blake are my life. I was nothing without them, and I’d do anything to protect them. I’d kill for them, if it came down to it. Your love for your brother is something I see and feel every day. Every time I see Logan saunter into Ace Security. Each time I hear Blake talk to Alexis on the phone. I think I’m almost as proud as Logan is for his sons to be born.”