by Susan Stoker
Bailey knew Nathan wasn’t lying. He was laying himself bare to her. And she had a feeling that he did understand.
“I wasn’t strong enough when we were younger to protect either of them. I was the nerdy geek who went through life just trying to get by. They were tough and strong and not afraid of anything. I was Joel, pixie. He was me. That you want to stand in front of him and protect him from Donovan and any harm that might come his way makes me care about you all the more.”
More tears fell from her eyes, but Bailey didn’t move an inch. She sat stock-still in Nathan’s embrace, soaking up his warmth, his goodness. She didn’t deserve it, but God, it felt good.
“I said it at dinner, and I’ll say it again. I don’t care about your past, Bailey. What matters to me is when push came to shove, you chose your family. I’m not the most experienced man when it comes to relationships, but if I had my choice of any woman in the world, I’d choose you. I want someone who will stand by my side as fiercely as you’ve stood by your brother’s. I want to help Joel become a man who will treasure his sister and appreciate all she’s done for him.”
Bailey squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled a huge breath through her nose. She never imagined a man like Nathan, a good man, being able to interpret anything she’d done while involved with Donovan in a positive way. She wanted to believe him. But was afraid to. He had to stop. “Please stop talking,” Bailey begged.
In response, Nathan’s arm tightened around her. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, except that eventually Donovan’s gonna come looking for you. Let me be next to you when that happens. Let Logan and Blake be there. Alexis and Grace, and probably Felicity too. You’re not alone anymore, Bailey. Let us in.”
Bailey said not a word, merely let the tears fall from her eyes. They sat together on the bench for a long time. The mountain air got chilly, but Nathan didn’t budge. Finally, when her legs were almost frozen, and she was all cried out, Bailey asked in a toneless voice, “Take me home?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nathan nod, and then he was standing. Without asking, he took her hand in his and led the way back to her car, his jacket still resting on her shoulders. She tried to remove it and hand it back, but he merely shook his head and guided her arms into the sleeves, helping her wear it instead of it being draped over her shoulders.
He closed her door and made his way around the front of the car. The drive back to her house was done in silence, although Nathan had grabbed her hand the second he’d gotten the vehicle started and hadn’t let go.
After arriving back home, Bailey didn’t wait for him to come around and open her door. She got out and started walking for her door before he could get to her. Nathan was way too good of a man to hang around her. She’d contaminate him if he did.
Not surprised, she didn’t even startle when he grabbed her hand and walked next to her until they reached her front door.
Keeping her voice low so Duke wouldn’t hear her if he was still awake, Bailey said, “Thank you for dinner.”
“You’re welcome. Can I call you tomorrow?”
“I need time to think, Nathan.”
“Okay, but can I call you tomorrow?”
Bailey sighed in exasperation. “No. I need time to think,” she repeated.
“And you can have it. But I still want to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you, though. Why aren’t you getting the hint?” she complained testily, wanting nothing more than to put on a pair of sweats, get under her covers, and cry.
“I’ll call. You don’t have to answer, but you should know me or my brothers will be around. Checking on you. Making sure you’re okay.”
“You sure you’re not keeping tabs on Donovan’s whore so she doesn’t slip away and make it impossible to use her for bait?”
A look of shock and horror registered on Nathan’s face, and he took a step back as if she’d physically hit him. Bailey felt remorse for her harsh words. “Nathan, I—”
“We are not using you for bait,” Nathan said slowly. “I would probably still be looking for you if you hadn’t come up to me in that parking lot. I’m ninety-nine percent sure Donovan has no idea where you are, and he sure as hell won’t find out from me or my brothers.” He looked at the ground then, running a hand through his hair before taking another step backward.
It might as well have been a mile.
He finally looked up at her, his voice devoid of any of the passion and excitement that had been present all night. He’d retreated behind a shell, and Bailey suddenly wanted the slightly nervous geek back. Not this remote stranger.
“I’ll talk to my brothers. We’ll make sure you’re safe, and I’ll get the security guy to call you to set up a time to install the alarm.”
He held up a hand when she opened her mouth to protest.
“It won’t cost you a dime. Trust me, we want Donovan taken down, and you or Joel getting hurt isn’t a part of that plan.” He shrugged. “It’s a tax write-off anyway, so it’s no big deal.”
That hurt. Bailey tried again, even though she didn’t know what she was going to say. “I didn’t—”
“I’m glad you know everything now. You can do what you need to in order to keep yourself safe. I can’t keep you from running, but you’re a hell of a lot safer here in Castle Rock with Ace Security looking over your shoulder than you would be anywhere else. Remember that.”
And without giving her a chance to say anything else, Nathan turned around and stalked back to his car. He didn’t look back once, merely got into his car and drove off. Leaving her standing in front of her door, shaking with cold, and something else.
Bailey looked down at her feet. She was ashamed of herself. Nathan had been nicer to her than anyone had been in her entire life. He hadn’t pushed her for anything. Had treated her as if she was precious to him. He hadn’t demanded a kiss or more. Hadn’t even seemed to expect it.
Anytime Donovan took her out to eat, even if it was only to McDonald’s, he always told her she “owed” him. More often than not, her repayment was taking his dick down her throat. She didn’t even want to think about what he’d made her do after he’d “given” Joel the game console.
But Nathan wasn’t like that. She knew without a doubt he’d never force her to do anything. He’d offered to talk to Joel for her. He’d told her how he felt about his brothers, about growing up, about how his mom abused him.
She’d been a bitch, and he didn’t deserve it.
The door opened behind her, and Duke walked out. “Have fun?” he asked in a low voice.
Bailey nodded, simply because it was expected.
“Good.”
She kept her face turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the tear marks. “Was Joel good?”
“Of course. He’s a good kid. He kicked my ass in This Is War and went to bed around ten thirty.”
“Thanks for looking after him for me,” Bailey said tonelessly.
“You’re welcome.” Duke paused for a moment before saying, “If you need me or any of the guys to kick that guy’s ass . . . we will.”
She chuckled then, realizing in a sudden rush that Duke wasn’t just saying that. He meant it. Somehow she’d gone from having no real friends, to having not only Clayson and the others at the auto body shop, but having Nathan, Blake, and Logan Anderson at her back too. Her head spun.
“Thanks. But not necessary.”
“Okay, but all you gotta do is say the word,” Duke insisted, then let it drop. “I’ll see you on Tuesday, Bailey.”
“See you, Duke.”
She watched as he strode to his car and pulled away.
Looking up at the sky as if it would hold all the answers she needed, Bailey took a deep breath. She stood that way for several moments before heading inside and closing the door behind her. After making sure all three locks were engaged, she kicked off her shoes, then wandered down the hall.
She peeked in on Joel, finding him fast aslee
p and snoring slightly. She stripped off Nathan’s jacket, then her dress and underwear. She pulled a pair of sweats up her legs and grabbed the extra-large T-shirt she liked to sleep in. She padded back out into the hall and into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
Then once more she entered her bedroom. Before lying down, she grabbed Nathan’s jacket and put it up to her face. Inhaling deeply, she pulled Nathan’s scent into her nostrils. The slightly sweet smell of his shaving lotion, or deodorant, or soap wasn’t overwhelming. It was just right. Somehow she knew he wouldn’t bother with cologne, or the fancy man-scent spray that was so popular nowadays. He simply wouldn’t think that it would do any good. That a woman wouldn’t be attracted to him, regardless of the way he smelled.
Without thought, Bailey snuggled into her covers, with Nathan’s jacket still held to her face.
She’d hurt him.
She hadn’t meant to, but she’d done it all the same.
But she did need time.
Time to figure out what the hell she was going to do.
She needed to make sure she and her brother were safe, try to explain to Joel that the man he’d come to love when in Denver was actually a thug and a criminal, and figure out how in the hell she’d come to care for Nathan after knowing him two days.
Bailey fell asleep with the scent of Nathan in her lungs, and not having any answers to what she was going to do next.
Chapter Eleven
Six days. That’s how long it had been since Nathan had heard Bailey’s voice. He’d done as she asked, and given her space.
Logan had arranged for a local company to go to her house and install a basic alarm. Nathan had wanted the expensive one with all the bells and whistles, but he also didn’t want to make Bailey uncomfortable. He hated that he’d thrown the “tax write-off” excuse at her because it wasn’t true, not in the least. He was footing the bill personally. But after a conference call with the technician, he’d agreed that with Joel in the house, and it being as small as it was, the basic alarm would work.
One thing Nathan insisted on was that if the alarm was tripped, a call would go out to the cops, and they’d immediately be sent to her property. If Donovan tried to get to either Bailey or Joel at their house, it would be a lot harder to get away with it with the cops breathing down his neck.
He’d also called Clayson and explained in as little detail as possible what was going on with Bailey and what he and his other employees needed to be on the lookout for. Clayson promised that they’d keep their eye on both her and Joel and would walk her to her car after work. The older man also said he’d try to convince Bailey that she needed to stop walking to work. It simply wasn’t safe, all things considered.
Nathan didn’t like not talking to Bailey herself, especially after it had taken him so long to find her, but her accusation had sliced through him as easily as a warm knife through butter. The fact that she thought for one second he would use her as bait, killed. But what cut him to ribbons even more was that she thought of herself as Donovan’s whore.
Bailey Hampton was no one’s whore.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what kind of life she must’ve led hanging out with the Inca Boyz. She’d been with them since she was a teenager, so that meant she’d spent seven or eight years hanging with the gang before she’d gotten out.
He’d done plenty of research on the Inca Boyz and gangs in general. On an intellectual level, he knew what happened behind closed doors within the gang. He’d seen the video Alexis had taken when she went to an Inca Boyz party. The women were expected to have sex with whoever wanted it, whenever they wanted it. He hated that Bailey had been a part of that.
Not because of the actual sex, but because she deserved more than that. She deserved to be worshipped. To be told every day of her life how beautiful she was. How smart. How absolutely amazing she was. But he knew without a doubt, Donovan didn’t tell her those things. Didn’t treat her as she deserved to be treated.
He wanted so badly to give her the life she deserved. And to do that, he had to do everything in his power to make sure she was safe.
To make sure she had the freedom to choose who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
To make sure Joel didn’t get sucked into the gang lifestyle.
So he hadn’t called.
He hadn’t stopped by her work or home.
And he’d left the surveillance of her to his brothers and Alexis.
They’d reported that she seemed to be a night owl, with the lights in her small home on late into the evening.
That she did nothing but go to work, pick up her brother, and go home.
She was lying low, being safe and smart.
But still, Nathan wanted to hear her voice. Make sure she was okay mentally as well as physically.
But he stayed away and concentrated on Donovan. He and Alexis checked the Inca Boyz Facebook account every day. There hadn’t been one new post. But the more Alexis learned from her newfound hacking skills, the more certain Nathan became that Donovan wasn’t going to let Bailey go without a fight.
Donovan’s dad had been a drunk who stayed home and drank while his wife worked twelve-hour days to put food on the table and tequila in his belly. Nathan would’ve felt sorry for the kid Donovan had been, except from the age of ten, he’d been in trouble. It started with visits to the principal’s office in grade school, and then in junior high, he’d been suspended several times.
Alexis hacked into his juvie records and found that he’d been put into detention for the first time at the age of fourteen for holding up a convenience store with a pair of seventeen-year-olds from his neighborhood. After that, he was in and out of jail for various violent offenses until he turned eighteen.
He’d gotten better at hiding his illegal activities from the cops when he was officially an adult, but he was still very much on law enforcement’s radar. He’d never done any hard time in jail, until the incident with Grace. Every time he was charged, witnesses had recanted, or victims had refused to press charges. But his long list of suspected crimes included sex with a minor, solicitation, and assault with a deadly weapon.
But it was an interview with a prostitute that had solidified that Donovan would come for Bailey and Joel. The woman had been found unconscious in an alley in Denver. The alleged victim had been taken to the hospital, and a detective had taken her statement:
“When he was raping me, he kept telling me that it was my duty to take whatever he gave me. That women were only good for one thing. He said that the world would be a better place if boys were taught from a young age that women were deceitful and needed to be kept in their place. I thought he was going to kill me. His voice was cold; he had no remorse whatsoever that he was hurting me. In fact, I think he enjoyed it. When he was done, he started to beat me. Calling me by the wrong name and saying that I was his to do what he wanted with.”
The detective asked the alleged victim what name he called her. Her response:
“Bailey. I tried to tell him that I wasn’t her, but he didn’t care. Just kept saying over and over that he’d teach me to run from him. That he’d show my brother what it meant to be a man.”
The woman had disappeared after being released, and Donovan had never been charged with her rape and assault. Nathan hadn’t visibly reacted when Alexis had unearthed the statement, but every muscle had tightened. Donovan wanted Bailey back. And he’d do whatever it took to get her and her brother under his thumb again. And Nathan knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t have another chance to escape if the gang member got his hands on her. Not alive anyway.
Detective Ross Peterson, from the Denver Gang Task Force, had been communicating with Nathan and his brothers on a regular basis as well, letting them know what was happening inside the gang now that Donovan was back.
And what was happening was a bunch of nothing, at least outwardly. With his brothers dead, Donovan was trying to get back control of his minions. Apparently the group did
a lot of sitting around and drinking. But that didn’t mean they weren’t planning on revenge, or that Bailey, hell, or Alexis and Grace, were safe.
The Inca Boyz had to be pissed at everything that had happened over the last months. Their gang was basically in disarray as a result. If Donovan was smart, which he doubted, he’d be watching the Andersons. And Nathan’s interest in Bailey could lead him right to her.
It was just one more reason he should stay away from her . . . but he couldn’t. If nothing else, Bailey needed a friend. And he’d be there for her even if she didn’t want anything to do with him. He’d realized that he’d pushed Bailey too hard. Of course she didn’t want to jump into a relationship. He needed to be her friend before he could be anything else. And he could. He had lots of practice being friends with women. In the past, most of the women he’d had an interest in didn’t see him as anything other than a good buddy. Yeah, unfortunately, he’d had lots of practice hiding his feelings and being nothing more than a friend.
Glancing at his watch, Nathan pushed back from the counter in his kitchen and stood. It was time to stop feeling sorry for himself and head out to the park, and Joel’s party. He’d promised he’d be there, and be there he would.
Grace had done an excellent job of corralling people to attend. She’d spoken with her best friend, Felicity, who’d gotten at least four families from her gym to come. She’d even convinced Cole, the co-owner of the gym, to show up.
Alexis and Blake were picking up pizza and soft drinks, Grace had arranged for Felicity to get decorations, and Nathan told his brothers that he’d be in charge of the presents.
He’d had no idea what kind of toys ten-year-old boys played with, but it was easy to get ideas from the Internet, and combined with his love of Star Wars . . . it was a no-brainer.
Nathan had packed his car the night before, so after finishing his coffee, he placed his mug in the sink and headed out.
He arrived at the park around nine and was pleased to see Felicity already there. She had all the decorations, so he jogged over to her car to help her unpack. They brought the ten bags up to the pavilion Bailey had rented.