Fight for Me

by Jessica Linden

  A rustle at the kitchen door caught her attention.

  Knox leaned against the door frame, his thumbs hooked in jeans pockets that rode low on his hips. His faded navy T-shirt stretched tight across his biceps.

  He yawned. Never before had Natalie considered a yawn sexy, but Knox could probably pull off sexy during a root canal. There was something innately male about him, something primal that drew her in.

  Her past boyfriends—if they could even be called that—were rich, pretty boys. They were nice, sure, but they didn’t possess the rawness that Knox did.

  Looking at him made her body tingle.

  Knox wandered over to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup. Natalie focused on the computer screen again.

  “Anything new?” Amelia asked.

  Natalie shook her head. “No. It would have been nice if they had used an actual name instead of just ‘Board Director.’ Or if I could talk to the lawyer who drafted the document.”

  Unfortunately, the law firm was now defunct, and that particular lawyer had moved out of state from what Natalie could tell. But where exactly, she had no clue. And with a name like John Smith, it would take weeks to figure out which lawyer was the one she was looking for.

  Knox took a seat next to her, placing a pile of donuts on the table in front of him. “Do you have any idea who your mother might have appointed?”

  “No.” Natalie sighed. “The only person I can think of is Amelia.”

  “And it’s not me, honey.” Amelia patted her hand. “I wish it were.”

  “It says here that the only person who can call a meeting of the board is the director. Though there are four other board members whose votes hold equal weight, none of them can put anything to a vote. Only the director has that power.”

  Amelia rested her chin in one hand and drummed her fingers on the table. “It has to be someone she knew. Anna wouldn’t appoint just anyone.”

  “Or maybe she would,” Natalie said slowly. “If my father wanted to find the director, he would look for someone she knew, just like us. So maybe she chose someone she didn’t know well.”

  Amelia pursed her lips. “I don’t see her doing that. But then again, I hadn’t seen her for years before she died.” She pounded her fist on the table. “Fucking Gerald Kent. I could kill that man.”

  “Get in line,” Knox muttered.

  Amelia shook her head, her lips drawn in a thin line. “Sorry, dear, I know he’s your father . . .”

  “Don’t apologize,” Natalie said firmly. “He hasn’t been a father to me in a long time. If ever.”

  The silence stretched on as the three of them looked at one another. One of the dogs whined, breaking the quiet.

  “They want their morning walk.” Amelia drained her coffee mug, then rose.

  “This is so frustrating,” Natalie said after she had left. “None of this information will do us any good if we can’t find the director.”

  “Maybe you were on to something before,” Knox said. “Maybe both you and Amelia are right and she chose someone she knew, but not someone so close to her that your father would know them.”

  “If my father doesn’t know them, then chances are neither do I.”

  Knox reached over and ran his fingers down her cheek. “You’ll figure it out.”

  Her heart palpitated at the feel of his fingers on her skin. “You’re so sweet,” she whispered.

  He dropped his hand instantly and pushed his chair back with a screech, then stood and crossed to the sink. “I’m really not.”

  He put his hands on the counter and leaned forward, staring out the window. Natalie walked over and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek on his back.

  “You’re a good person,” she said simply.

  “I’ve spent my life fighting in an underground ring for X. I’m not—”

  “That doesn’t make you a bad person. If our pasts define us, then what does that make me? A meek society girl under her father’s thumb.”

  He turned so he could wrap his arms around her. “That’s not you.”

  She cupped his face in her hands, looking into his eyes. “And your past doesn’t define you, either.” She touched his lips to hers, willing him to stop being so hard on himself. He was so much more than he let himself believe.

  Amelia had said to make themselves at home, but Knox still felt like some sort of trespasser as he and Natalie explored the house.

  What did one person need with seven bedrooms? Granted, Amelia hadn’t always lived here by herself, but still. Even for a family, it was excessive. As a foster kid, he’d often shared a bedroom with two or three other boys. A whole football team’s worth of foster kids could fit in this house.

  Though most of the rooms didn’t seem to be in use, each one was lavishly decorated. From what he’d gotten to know about Amelia, he doubted that was her doing. It was most likely left over from when her parents ran the house.

  Natalie opened the door to what appeared to be another sitting room and flipped on the lights. She stood in the doorway with her hand on her chest, like she was trying to keep her heart from leaping out of it. “This room seems so familiar.”

  “Your mother probably brought you here,” Knox said.

  She stepped through the doorway and slowly turned in a circle to take it all in. “My house is architecturally similar to this one, so I thought that’s why some of the other rooms seemed familiar, but this room . . . I feel like I’ve been here before. I know I have.”

  Knox watched as she knelt next to an old wooden chest and opened the lid. She pulled out several Barbie dolls all in various stages of undress.

  “Susannah,” she whispered. “This one’s name is Susannah. And the redhead is Lucy.” She reached into the chest again and brought out a plastic game with four hippos. Hungry Hippos? Something like that. One of his foster homes had had one, but the marbles were all missing, rendering it useless. In her hand, though, she held a fabric pouch that looked like it held the marbles for the game.

  She looked up at Knox. “I used to play this. Right here, with both of them. And my father took that away. From all of us.”

  Knox knelt next to her, his fists clenched. He wanted to hand her father to her on a platter. He’d love to gut the man himself, but he knew firsthand that to truly be free of him, Natalie would have to deal with him herself.

  The ghost of his own father followed him everywhere.

  “Tell me more about your mother,” Knox said.

  “I used to love the Disney princesses. So did she. One year for Halloween, we both dressed up. I was Ariel, and she was Cinderella.” Natalie laughed, tears glistening in her eyes. “I think she got more candy than me. She was so beautiful. She was a romantic at heart, always reading romance novels. She used to read to me before bed every night. Fairy tales. Life was a fairy tale for her. Until it wasn’t. Looking back, I see now that my mom changed. She used to be so lighthearted and carefree, but the older I got, the more serious and withdrawn she became. Not with me. Never with me, but I could see it with other people. I think my father must have cut her off from everyone just like he did to me.” Her fingers tightened around the legs of one of the Barbie dolls. “God, he’s such a bastard.”

  “He can’t hurt you anymore,” Knox said.

  Natalie blinked, trying to clear the tears out of her eyes, but one fell anyway. “He’s already done so much. Now that I’m away from him, I see things so clearly. He killed her. I know it in my gut. And unless I can figure out this thing with my trust, he’s going to walk away with everything.”

  When Natalie walked into the kitchen with a stack of children’s books in her arms, Amelia stood at the stove stirring something in a huge pot.

  Natalie did a double take. “I thought you didn’t cook.”

  “I don’t,” Amelia said briskly. “This is for the pooches. Chicken and rice.”

  Natalie and Knox exchanged a glance, and Natalie put a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. This was exact
ly why her mother must have loved Amelia. Natalie only wished she could have had the other woman in her life longer. It may have made all the difference.

  She cursed her father silently, losing count of how many times she’d done that in the past few days.

  Amelia wiped her hands on her apron. “There. That just needs to cook a bit.”

  “Amelia, I was wondering if I could have these,” Natalie said, holding out the books she’d found mixed in with the toys. “Not now, obviously, but if you could set them aside for me.”

  Amelia took a look at them. “Ah, yes. The fairy tale books. Your mother read those to you every time you two visited. They were mine when I was a girl.”

  “Then I can’t take them. I’m sorry for asking.”

  “Don’t be silly. What am I going to do with them?” Amelia came closer so she could look at the titles. “Ooh. Cinderella. That was your mother’s favorite.”

  “We had a copy at home, too, but I don’t know what happened to it. She read it to me at least once a week. The fairy godmother part was her favorite. She always used to tell me my fairy godmother would help me when I was in trouble.” Natalie chuckled. “What I wouldn’t give for . . .”

  A fairy godmother. She didn’t have one of those, but she did have a regular godmother. Her name was Eleanor Simmons, and she’d been a friend of her grandparents. Her mother had not been close with her at all, and they only saw her on the rare occasions when their visits coincided at her grandparents’ house.

  “Do you know Eleanor Simmons?” she asked Amelia.

  “That woman is more of a hermit than I am. It’s been at least a decade since I saw her. Why in God’s name are—ah.” Amelia nodded knowingly. “Smart girl.”

  “What?” Knox asked.

  “I think she could be the board director,” Natalie explained. “She was a friend of my grandparents and my godmother. My mom wasn’t overly religious, but she had me baptized at their church. I’ve seen the pictures.”

  “How do we find out for sure?”

  “I don’t know. Ask her, I guess. But it makes sense for it to be her.” Natalie started ticking off the reasons on her fingers. “She was my grandmother’s closest friend, but my mom wasn’t close to her. So she wouldn’t come to my father’s attention. It’s like you said, Knox.”

  “Do you know how to get in touch with her?” Knox asked. A vibration sounded and he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

  Natalie snorted and opened the laptop that was still sitting on the kitchen table. “Everything is on the Internet these days.”

  Twenty minutes later, she pushed it away. “Okay, maybe not. The only mentions of her I could find online are random society page snippets and an obituary for her husband. No phone number, but I did find a street address.”

  Knox checked his phone again. “Tony came through. I need to go.”

  Natalie closed the lid on the laptop and stood. “I’m going with you.”

  “It’s safer for you to stay here.”

  She put a hand on his arm. “We’re in this together, remember? And besides, while we’re out, we can swing by Eleanor’s house.”

  Chapter 9

  Knox parked the car Amelia had lent them. It was a late-model luxury sedan, the nicest car he’d ever driven.

  Though, the car he’d learned to drive on was a close second. When he was fifteen, X took him to an abandoned parking lot to teach him to drive, letting him behind the wheel of X’s own expensive car. Knox had thought he was the shit, expertly parallel parking on the first try. X’s look of pride had meant everything to him.

  Then, when he’d turned sixteen, X had gifted him with a car of his own. Nothing fancy—a fifteen-year-old beater—but it was more than he’d ever had before and way more then he’d ever expected.

  “Ready?” Knox asked.

  Natalie took a deep breath and pasted on a brave smile. They’d spent almost forty-eight hours in relative safety, and now they were venturing out.

  Tony had finally come through and found someone who was willing to sell them a gun and keep his mouth shut. The second part was the most important and the least guaranteed. Knox—well, actually Natalie—was paying handsomely for his silence, but someone willing to sell guns illegally probably wouldn’t think twice about going back on his word, paid or not. It was a necessary risk, though, and a minimal one. The guy could report back to X, but by then they’d be long gone, and the meet-up location was nowhere close to Amelia’s house.

  They met Tony’s contact in a park that straddled the north and south sides. It was as neutral a location as any in this town. Natalie hung back a little, both to keep a lookout and to stay out of arm’s reach from the guy Knox had no reason to trust.

  “Damn, man, it’s all true,” the guy said when he noticed Natalie. “I should charge you double for getting me involved in this crazy shit.”

  Knox’s nostrils flared. He wanted to slug the guy for even mentioning Natalie. Too bad they needed him or he’d be on the ground.

  Knox inspected the gun, a .44 Sig. He knew a little about guns, enough to know this wasn’t the one Tony described.

  “It was supposed to be a Glock.”

  The guy shrugged. “This is what I got. Take it or leave it.”

  Knox didn’t have much of a choice. He popped the clip out to find it half full. “Where’s the rest of the bullets?”

  “That’s all, man.”

  “You got more?”

  “No, I ain’t no friggin’ Walmart.”

  Knox narrowed his eyes at the guy, who was several inches shorter and pudgy. In the cage, he would have pulverized this punk. Where the hell had Tony found him?

  Didn’t matter. He was willing to part with the gun they needed. Still, Knox leaned close to his ear when he handed over the cash.

  “If I hear you crossed me, I won’t need a gun to end you.”

  The guy pocketed the money and took a few steps back, stumbling. Knox held his ground and watched the other man scurry away. Then Knox tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans and joined Natalie.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Once back in the car, Natalie directed him to the address she’d found for Eleanor Simmons. It was on the far northeast part of town. As they turned onto Kennedy Street, Natalie stilled, turning her face toward the window and away from him.

  “This is my street,” she said quietly.

  Knox glanced over at her. Why had she brought them this way? It might be the most direct route, but surely there was another way they could have gone.

  “Which one is yours?” he asked.

  After about thirty seconds, she pointed to a massive brick mansion with tall white columns in front of the entryway. It was easily the biggest house on the block. Hell, it was the biggest house he’d ever seen.

  That was where Natalie had grown up and lived her entire life. If he didn’t already know she was out of his league, he sure as hell knew it now.

  They took a few more turns, winding up on a street with houses that were almost as impressive as those on Kennedy Street.

  “There,” Natalie said, pointing to a house in the center of the block. Knox didn’t get a good look at it. He kept driving and parked on a side street.

  He turned off the ignition. “What’s your plan?”

  “Ring the doorbell?” she asked with a wry smile.

  “Natalie . . .”

  “No, hear me out,” she said. “We could have done that at Amelia’s right? It would have saved us a lot of trouble. Eleanor is a friend of my mother’s family, so there’s no reason to think she would turn us in.”

  In his experience, Knox had found that most people couldn’t be trusted. He didn’t want to take any risks now.

  He pulled out the gun and checked the clip again. Damn. He’d feel a lot better about this if he had a full magazine instead of nine measly rounds.

  He let out a breath. “Okay. Let’s go check it out. We can decide how to proceed once we get there.”

&nbs
p; On the sidewalk, Natalie reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his. She leaned her cheek against his shoulder.

  Just an average couple out for a stroll.

  Yeah, right. He’d never fit in in this neighborhood.

  The house and yard were enclosed by a wrought-iron fence, as were most of the houses around here. There were no visible cameras near the gate or the driveway.

  The landscaping wasn’t immaculate, either. In fact, the grass was several inches too tall and the flower beds were overgrown.

  Natalie wrapped her fingers around the bars of the fence. “It’s vacant,” she said, her voice sounding vacant as well. “That would have been too easy.”

  “Did you find any other addresses?”

  She shook her head. “This was the only one listed. It’s the family estate.” She gazed forlornly at the house.

  A young couple pushing a stroller and walking a dog was nearing them on the sidewalk.

  “We should go,” Knox said, wrapping an arm around Natalie.

  Before he could lead her back to the car, she spotted the couple. “Excuse me!” she called out, walking to meet them.

  “Fuck,” Knox said under his breath. He doubted this yuppie pair was a direct threat, but the longer they stayed out in the open, the higher the risk. Plus, their pictures had been all over the media. They could be recognized.

  Knox hung back, keeping an eye on the situation and devising an exit strategy.

  “What a lovely baby!” Natalie said, leaning down to look at the infant. “She can’t be more than a month old.”

  “Four weeks last Tuesday,” the mother said with a smile.

  “Congratulations. She’s beautiful.” Natalie beamed at both of the new parents and reached down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “Listen, I was wondering if you know anything about the woman who used to live here. She’s an old friend of the family, but we’ve lost touch. All I had was an address, but it appears she moved away.”

  The father furrowed his brow. “That house has been empty for a few years now, right, honey?” His wife nodded. “To tell you the truth, it’s become a little bit of an eyesore. Whoever owns it is not keeping up with it the way they should.”