Love and Protect

by Lori Ryan

  “I need to talk to my mother,” Justin said, still not taking his hand off the mouse as he flipped through the evidence of his brother’s abuse.

  “Go. I’ll delete the account. What she went through was awful, but your brother is dead. Letting this get out can’t help Laura now. All it will do is lead to speculation. People will want to know why he did this, if he was abused as a child, if your family knew he abused his wife. We need to make sure this doesn’t get out.”

  Justin nodded numbly at Alec and then stood and left the room as though he moved on autopilot. How did this happen? How had Laura been living with such horrifying abuse without him having the slightest idea anything was wrong?

  It happened because you were never here. You didn’t care enough to stay.

  Justin and Patrick had been two very different people. Patrick had somehow been able to handle the family and all its pressures and expectations. Then again, Justin thought with grim realization, maybe he hadn’t been handling it so well after all. Not if what he was doing to his wife was any indication.

  Justin hadn’t ever handled it. As soon as he’d gotten hold of his trust fund at twenty-three, he was gone. He’d traveled, blown obscene amounts of cash, had very few ties with anyone, and had only visited his family when it was absolutely necessary. In fact, as he thought about it, he’d probably only seen Laura once or twice since the wedding. But this level of abuse? He never would have guessed his brother capable of that.

  Justin drove the twenty minutes to his mother’s house with his mind spinning. His mother saw Patrick and Laura all the time. They only lived a few minutes away, and Patrick had been a mama’s boy if ever there was one. How could Martha Kensington have missed all of this?

  She couldn’t have. There was no way she didn’t know what was happening.

  The thought made another wave of guilt wash through him. Guilt and disgust. His mother had turned her back on horrifying abuse. He was sure of it.

  He let himself in and called for his mother as he started up the stairs. She’d been in her bedroom for days drinking enormous quantities of vodka. It was a pastime she’d perfected over the years. Justin knocked on the door but didn’t wait for her to answer before opening it. She glared at him from the chair by the window. Apparently she didn’t have anything to say in greeting.

  “Did you know, Mom? Did you know Patrick was beating Laura?”

  Justin’s stomach dropped when his mother actually smirked at his question. “Stop being so melodramatic, Justin,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “She was a difficult woman to manage. He did the best he could with her.”

  Justin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Manage?

  “What are you talking about, Mom? A man doesn’t manage his wife. And what he was doing was not some small little incident here or there. I saw pictures, Mom. He was beating the crap out of her. He tortured her. You can’t tell me you didn’t see the evidence on her. You can’t sit there and tell me you didn’t know.”

  As Justin watched his mother, his mind raced, searching for some reason that might explain the blank indifference he saw on his mother’s face. What could make a person turn their back on someone suffering the way Laura had? How could his mother simply turn away from another woman needing help?

  “Laura has pictures. Dozens of pictures documenting the abuse. And, I’ll tell you one thing. I’ve got just as much money and almost as much power as you do, and from now on, I plan to use it to make sure you never get near Laura and her baby. If you go after her in any way, I’ll make sure those pictures get out. And, I’ll make sure Laura has all the money and influence she needs to fight you. You won’t win this fight, Mother. You won’t get anywhere near that baby.”

  He didn’t tell his mother he and Alec had just agreed to delete all of the evidence. She didn’t need to know that. She just needed to believe the pictures existed and that he’d use them if he needed to. Besides, for all he knew, Laura had copies. She’d been smart enough and brave enough to arm herself with the evidence in the first place. She most likely had copies or printouts or something more as backup.

  “How dare you threaten me?” she slurred. She tried to use the trick where she drew herself up straight and tall, adding another inch or two to her impressive height. The effect was diminished when she stumbled slightly and had to hold onto the wing chair she’d been sitting in to keep herself up.

  And in that moment, a flash of thought pierced the anger and shock Justin was feeling. He searched his mind, looking through the memories of his time at home, when he hadn’t been at boarding school or college or partying in Europe. His father had always been cold and distant with them, but had there been something more? Justin had spent most of his life away at school. Boarding school had begun for him at five years old, for Patrick at seven. He had vague flashes of memories of his mother with a bruise here and there, but nothing that had ever raised a red flag for him. Until now.

  “Mom,” he croaked out, raising a hand to reach toward her, to connect in some way. “Did Dad—”

  She cut him off, hurling the heavy crystal class in her hand toward him barely missing his head.

  “You always were useless. Running all over the place, sleeping with Lord knows who and partying your trust fund away. It should have been you that died, not my Patrick. It should have been you.” Her face was twisted into an ugly rage of drunkenness and just plain hate.

  She’d never been a very loving mother, but Justin hadn’t ever imagined their relationship would come to this. He shook his head as he watched her sink back into her chair. There wasn’t anything else he could say to her at this point. Right now, he needed to focus on Laura, to make sure she was safe. Then, he’d come back and try to sober his mother up, try to talk to her and find out if she needed help just as much as Laura had all these years.

  But, first, he would make sure his mother didn’t hurt Laura. Justin called Alec on his way over to a hotel and told him to double their efforts to find Laura and to send any bills for the detective work to him. He needed to make sure she was all right, and make sure she knew she could stop hiding and running. It was time someone in their family did the right thing for Laura Kensington.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Laura tried to walk slowly so she wouldn’t get to the barn too quickly, but it seemed like the trip was shorter than ever today. She knew she needed to apologize to Cade for yelling at him the way she had, but she didn’t really want to have this conversation about it. She’d embarrassed herself enough as it was since she’d arrived at the ranch.

  She’d seen Cade go down to the barn shortly after she had stormed out and she hadn’t seen him leave in the last two hours, so he was likely still down there working with the horses or dogs.

  Sure enough, as she rounded the corner, she saw him throwing hay bales into a stack along the center aisle of the barn. Light from the afternoon sun streamed in through the double doors to land on taut broad shoulders. The muscles in his back rippled under his shirt, drawing her gaze, but she blinked and tried to focus on the conversation they needed to have instead of the effect that watching him sometimes had on her body. Okay, the effect watching him always had on her body.

  She knew he saw her because he stilled slightly before tossing the next bale onto the stack.

  Laura waited, not sure how to start. She would have liked to get lost in him for a while instead of dealing with the awkwardness of her apology, but he stopped and wiped his brow with one arm, then stripped the leather gloves off his hands and looked at her.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken out my fear on you when you were only trying to make me feel better,” Laura said, arms crossed over her chest. This was the first apology that felt true and real to her, and the first time she cared whether someone believed her apology was genuine.

  In the past, apologies had been obligatory, either to avoid her father’s wrath or to appease her husband and ward off further blows—to show the right amount of deference. Sh
e always knew a few more strokes would follow an apology for good measure, but it would eventually lead to peace. At least for a while.

  But now, she cared what Cade felt and thought, only she couldn’t read him. He merely looked at her. When she began to fidget, he held a hand out to her.

  “Come here. I want to show you something,” he said.

  Laura laid her hand in his, so big and strong and protective. She tried to ignore the way that hand made her feel, the way his warm strength caused her body to thrum with electricity, but it was getting harder to push those feelings down. He tugged her out the back of the barn and around to one side where the Jeep she’d seen many times was parked.

  “Shane was going to show you this later, but this is probably a better time,” he said, opening the door and reaching into the glove box. Cade pulled out a set of keys and turned to sit on the seat of the car, long legs hanging over the edge. He pulled Laura into him so that she stood with each of her legs brushing the insides of his. They’d never stood this close—this intimately. He’d always kept his distance. But, now there was a closeness she hadn’t dared to crave for more than three years. The heat from his legs brushing hers traveled, the warmth flooding her thighs and settling between her legs and making her chest tighten with anticipation, but he seemed unaware of the effect he had on her.

  Cade held out the keys to her and pointed out the key to the Jeep. He looked her dead in the eye when he spoke, and she could see how much he meant the words he was saying. “This is always in here. If anything happens, if you even think someone is coming or you see anything suspicious, I want you to take the Jeep.”

  Laura opened her mouth to object, but he cut her off. “Take it, Laura. You need to have a way to get to safety if anything happens and I’m not here to protect you.”

  Her heart flinched at the thought that he would want to protect her. And, also at the thought that maybe he couldn’t. She nodded at him.

  Cade took out another key, looped on a chain, and held it up to her. It was a smaller key, brass with a number on the side. He drew a piece of paper out of the glove box.

  “This is the key to a bus station locker. Shane had some business in Johnson City a few days ago. He went to the bus station there and put ten thousand dollars in cash in a locker. This locker,” he said showing her the key and then the paper. “There are directions to the bus locker here. There are also times and meeting places.”

  Laura looked at the paper.

  Noon, two days after you run: Baird Diner in Searcy, Arkansas.

  Noon, four days after you run: Casey’s Barbeque, Springfield, Tennessee.

  The list went on specifying ten separate meeting locations spread out over the course of almost three weeks. Laura looked up at Cade, unable to speak.

  “If you have to run and I can’t go with you, this is where I’ll meet you when it’s safe. If I’m not there, it means it’s not safe for me to come and get you yet, so you keep moving and get to the next meeting spot. If you get to the end, go back and start over at the top of the list. I’ll be there for you as soon as it’s safe. I promise you that, Laura. This is your running plan. This is what you do if you have to run.”

  Laura was stunned as Cade looped the chain with the bus locker key over her neck. The brush of his hands sent tingling sensations down her spine, but his words had a much stronger effect on her. They melted her heart. “There’s a copy of the meeting times here in the car,” Cade said as he put the paper back in the glove box and shut it. “And, there’s a copy in the locker just in case you can’t get to the Jeep and you have to run some other way. Just remember the bus station in Johnson City.”

  Laura couldn’t say a word. She was flooded with more emotion than she’d felt since the day Patrick had died and she’d started running. But a different kind of emotion. One overwhelming and new to her.

  “Remember when you said I’ve had a charmed life, never had to worry about not having love and support?” Cade asked.

  “I…” Laura whispered, voice thick as she shook her head. She felt awful for what she’d said. For the unfairness of what she’d said to him because of her fears. He cut her off before she could say anything more.

  “No, Laura, you were right. Other than losing my dad, you’re right. And even that happened when I was an adult and better able to handle it than I would have as a child.” Cade laced both of his hands with Laura’s and held them to his chest, pulling her body even closer to him. Their bodies aligned in an intimate way that she’d never shared with any man other than her husband. No, that wasn’t right. She’d never had this type of intimacy, of closeness, with Patrick. Cade’s eyes were heated and she couldn’t look away. “So, believe in that. Believe in my charmed life. Believe that I always get whatever I want. Because I want you in my life, Laura. For as long as you want to stay. When you’re too scared to believe in anything else, you can believe in that.”

  Laura’s eyes were locked on Cade’s face as her breaths went shallow. She couldn’t pull her gaze away. His eyes burned with intensity and need. And it created something Laura didn’t want to feel. Hope. The greatest of hopes.

  And Laura had never been so scared in her life.

  Chapter Twenty

  “What do you mean gone? When? Where?” Alec demanded.

  The private detective at the other end of the phone didn’t seem riled by Alec’s temper at all, and that only pissed Alec off more. “He’s gone on leave. Apparently, it’s something he does every summer and it’s not unusual for it to be for long stretches at a time. The hospital said Dr. Samuels is semi-retired and only practices part-time now. That’s all I could get out of them. I think it’s worth trying to track him down, though. The police have decided there’s nothing to Laura’s disappearance. They won’t share the CCTV tapes from the hospital or the airport, but they said they have her on tape looking safe, not coerced, and quite well. They’re saying she left of her own volition and there’s nothing more they can do.”

  “That’s crazy. She stands to inherit her husband’s substantial estate and she’s nowhere to be found? How could that possibly be of her own volition? I don’t buy it. Find that doctor and see what he has to do with this. I’ve always thought it was a little odd for him to want to check a woman who was only a few months pregnant into the hospital just because her husband died. Why wouldn’t he just send her home and have her family doctor check on her? Find out what the hell he had to do with Laura’s disappearance and where that man went,” Alec said and disconnected the call.

  Dammit. What was Laura Kensington up to?

  Alec hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since she’d gone missing. He stared out the window at the front lawn of Patrick and Laura’s home. He’d kept the staff on so far, but he’d need to close up the home and send them packing soon. So far no one had questioned his presence there as he’d quietly searched through Patrick’s things, but a cursory search wasn’t cutting it. He needed to tear this place apart and no one could see him do that.

  “Sir?”

  “What!” Alec snapped at the gardener who stood just outside Patrick’s home office door. The man blanched, but held his ground.

  “I thought you should see this, sir. I didn’t know who else to show. Mrs. Kensington has not been here at all since Miss Laura has gone missing, so I don’t know if I should call her or…” the gardener said, letting the thought trail off.

  “No, it’s fine. What is it?” Alec put a calm mask on his face and waited with all the appearance of a patient man.

  The squat tanned man in front of him produced a bag from behind his back. It was smeared with dirt, but he could see the contents plainly through the clear plastic. Cash. A lot of it.

  Alec took the bag and dumped the contents on the desk, ignoring the dirt that marred the once-clean surface. A quick scan told Alec there was likely at least twenty thousand dollars in cash and what looked like a driver’s license. Alec picked up the rectangle of plastic and flipped it over. The picture was of
Laura Kensington, but the name said Laura Keller, and the license was from the State of Rhode Island instead of Connecticut.

  Alec stared at the license for a few seconds trying to figure out what the hell Laura Kensington—or whoever she was—was up to.

  “Where did you find it?” he asked the man.

  “Buried in one of the planters in the greenhouse. Miss Laura had always tended to the plants in the greenhouse herself, but since she’s gone, I do it to make sure her beautiful plants don’t die. I saw the bag sticking out from the dirt,” the gardener mumbled, as if caught doing something he shouldn’t have done.

  “Have you told anyone else?” Alec asked.

  “No. No, sir.” He shook his head.

  Alec opened his wallet and slipped the license into it, then grabbed a handful of the cash from the desk and tossed it to the gardener.

  “This is yours. You never found the cash or the license. You’ve been saving money for a new car, a bit at a time if anyone asks where you got that amount of cash. Just make damn sure no one hears about this, you got it?”

  The man nodded vigorously, holding the money as if he were afraid it might bite him. “Yes, sir. I understand.”

  “Oh, and one more thing. Stay out of the greenhouse from now on. I’ll take care of searching the rest of the plants, but I don’t want anyone else in there from now on.”

  Alec watched the man leave the room before lifting his phone. He’d have his lawyer take care of letting the staff go and closing up the house until Laura Kensington was found. They’d hire a caretaker to come once a week and check on things and a lawn service to keep up the property from time to time rather than the full staff that existed now. The lawyer could easily be fooled into thinking Alec was simply trying to help his partner’s widow out by maintaining the home without keeping up the expense of a full staff. Alec sneered as he waited for his lawyer’s secretary to answer the phone. Manipulating people had gotten all too easy to do. It almost took the fun out of things.