Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Benedicts [Lusty, Texas 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting)

by Love Under Two Benedicts (lit)

  Then had come that horrible ultimatum, a threat uttered one night when Benny had been crying and Deke had been drunk. He’d told her to shut her baby up or he’d shut him up permanently. Ginny knew she needed to do something immediately, something drastic. He’d apologized when he’d been sober, but Ginny no longer trusted his apologies. More than anything she’d wanted to run away, her baby tucked safe to her bosom, but she knew the reality was she couldn’t. Deke hadn’t finished with her yet. There could be no escape for her. He’d told her he’d kill her if she left him. But if she could make sure that Benny was safe first, then that would be another matter.

  She’d recalled reading that article in the paper about the woman who’d opened that restaurant in Lusty. Hell of a name for a town. So she’d convinced Deke that getting rid of Benny was what she wanted to do so they could party more, and she could give him all of her attention. Asshole never looked at her really, so he never saw the way just saying those words, just pretending, tore the very heart out of her.

  Ginny hoped with all her heart that, someday, Benny would understand. She knew that even if that woman, Kelsey Madison, didn’t step in and take care of her boy, he would be safe.

  She pushed away her own memories of growing up in foster care. The authorities were more careful these days, more rigorous in rooting out the pedophiles, giving more care to the children’s safety than they had when she’d been in the system.

  Ginny inhaled deeply and looked toward Deke, who continued to snore in the bed next to her. She moved as carefully as possible, wincing when the chain of the handcuff that held her fast to the headboard clanged.

  There, on the bedside table beside the two empty Jack bottles, lay the key to the cuffs. She had to pee so badly she decided to risk waking Deke by reaching beyond him.

  Moving carefully, she inched her way up on the bed, pulling her legs closer to her chest, sidling until she could get her knees under her. Fire shot through her shoulder.

  If I could only reach the key.

  Deke had locked her up while he’d been so drunk he could barely see. She could only be grateful he’d left the key where she could see it. Reaching it would be another matter.

  Kneeling on the bed, she stretched her entire body toward the nightstand, her arm extended, fingers stretched. One eye fearfully watched Deke for any sign that he was awakening. It had been very late when he’d finally passed out, so he likely wouldn’t wake up for a couple of hours yet.

  Best be careful. No sense tempting fate.

  Ginny stretched for all she was worth and bit back the pain and frustration when she saw her reach was just inches short.

  Damn it.

  She edged her knee closer to the headboard and heard another soft clink of metal on metal.

  Looking down, she recognized Deke’s belt, nearly off the head of the bed, between the mattress and the headboard, where he’d abandoned it after…

  Ginny swallowed hard, the sight of the leather sending chills through her and curdling her stomach. It took everything in her to reach out, take hold of the thing, and bring it closer. Working quickly and one-handed, she folded the stiff leather in half. Grasping one end of the shortened accessory, she reached out, lifting it over Deke’s snoring head toward the nightstand. She knew one moment of a strong urge to use the thing on him, on his face, to see how he liked it. She tamped down that impulse because that action would surely get her killed.

  Ginny was swept by the sudden and certain knowledge that she didn’t want to die. She wanted more than anything to get away from this bastard, find her son, and hold him close.

  Stretching, the belt touched the table just beyond the key. Closing her eyes, gathering her strength and, praying, she pulled the belt toward herself quickly.

  Thank God. The key hit the mattress, and Ginny set the belt down and picked up the key.

  Working quietly, she unlocked the cuffs. Easing from the bed, she inhaled deeply as she gained her feet and blinked back tears. She hurt in so many places, but the deepest wound was one that had no bruise or abrasion. The deepest wound was in her heart.

  My baby.

  She used the facilities quickly, then ran the water just lightly enough to be able to wash her hands and face. She gave herself a quick look in the mirror, wincing at the sight of the bruise on the side of her face. She didn’t check the rest of her body. She didn’t want to see the welts. She could feel them. That was enough.

  Leaving the tiny haven, she let her eyes roam the nondescript room. She had no luggage here. She hadn’t known Deke had planned to stop at a motel, or that instead of returning home to Waco, he’d decided to head to Abilene to visit a friend of his.

  The words he’d said before getting completely drunk last night brought a chill to her now.

  Moose is my best buddy, and he knows how to handle a woman. You’ll see.

  Ginny didn’t know how far they’d driven after leaving Benny. She didn’t really know where she was. She did know she couldn’t stay another day with Deke. Benny was safe, so she could try and escape now.

  She grabbed her clothes, dressed quickly. Next, she gathered her shoes and her purse and searched for Deke’s wallet. Finding it, she opened it and scanned the sparse contents. Helping herself to the fifty there, she tossed the wallet back down, then headed for the door. Easing it open, she slipped outside, pulling the door gently shut behind her.

  She knew enough to know they’d been heading north after they’d left Benny. If she wanted to go back to her son, she needed to head south. Taking only a moment to put on her shoes, she gave a glance at the car before turning and walking toward the end of the building.

  Looking around, she fixed her bearings and began to walk. Nerves told her to run, and so she did. The motel had been on a country road at the bottom of an exit ramp from the highway. She ignored the roads and instead struck out across country. It would be harder walking, but Deke would never be able to follow her where he couldn’t drive.

  Frightened, yet determined, Ginny began to run for her life.

  * * * *

  Kelsey really liked Bernice Benedict. She hadn’t been certain how she would feel sitting face-to-face with the older woman over the kitchen island now that she was sleeping with two of Bernice’s sons. Any fears she might have had about the older woman harboring any animosity toward her vanished within the first few moments of her visit.

  “So here’s the little man who’s captured the heart of Lusty.” Bernice’s greeting had made Kelsey smile. It was true. Benny had captured the heart of the entire town. A delivery of clothing and toys had come just after breakfast, and that act had been repeated over and over again ever since.

  Kelsey brewed a fresh pot of coffee, then sat across from Bernice as they both watched Benny playing on the floor with his some of his new toy trucks.

  “Any word yet from Matthew?” Bernice asked quietly.

  “Just that he hasn’t found her yet,” Kelsey responded softly. “That poor woman. Imagine feeling so desperate…”

  Bernice shook her head. “I can’t. It’s simply beyond my experience. There’s never been a problem, or an obstacle, that either me or one of my husbands hasn’t been able to surmount. Even during the hardest times, there’s always been a slew of family—Benedicts, Jessops, Kendalls, and Parks—to lend a hand.”

  Kelsey tilted her head to one side as she considered the woman and the statement she’d just made.

  She opened her mouth to ask a question, then thought better of it. Bernice, however, proved that she was at least as observant as her sons. Reaching forward, she laid a hand on Kelsey’s and squeezed.

  “It’s not always easy balancing two men, but in my experience, it certainly is worth it.”

  Kelsey sighed. “It still seems surreal to me. As though, I don’t know…”

  “As though someone is going to come out of the woodwork at any moment and condemn you for daring to follow your heart?”

  “Yes.” Although Kelsey hadn’t said the words to
the men the way they had said them to her, she felt love for them within her. Making love with both of them at the same time was following her heart.

  “I have to admit that I felt that way at first myself. Outside family can be a deterrent, too. My father never came to accept my lifestyle, although my mother did.” Bernice shrugged. “What I do know is that both Jon and Caleb were meant for me, and I for them. They each meet separate needs in me.” Then she leaned forward. “One day, when you come visit us at the big house, I’ll show you Sarah Carmichael Benedict’s journal. She wrote it not long after her sons courted and then married Madeline Kennedy. I guess in helping her daughter-in-law to adjust to the reality of loving two men, she figured her words and insights could help future generations. By then, their dream, a town where people could live and love as they chose, had become a reality.”

  “I’d like that.” Mention of the journal brought to mind the promise she had made Matthew and Steven the night before about a different sort of journal.

  Steven came into the kitchen just then, kissed his mother and her, and then looked down at Benny.

  “Does anybody here want to go see some horses?” he asked the room in general.

  “I do! I do!” Benny jumped up and down in excitement.

  Bernice announced she wanted to go out to the barn, too. “It’s been too long since I’ve come out to the ranch to visit.”

  “This would be a good time for me to go and get those photo albums,” Kelsey said. She felt no qualms leaving Benny in the hands of the Benedicts. Steven was so good with the little guy, and Benny and Bernice had taken to each other on sight. “I have them in a storage locker off the highway between here and Waco.”

  “McCluskey’s?” Steven asked.

  “Yeah. I put a lot of my stuff in storage there when I moved from Austin. I should be back in an hour or so,” Kelsey said.

  “Take your time, love. We’re going to be busy in the barn.”

  Ten minutes later, Kelsey waved as she navigated the car out of the driveway and headed toward Lusty. Because she was driving farther than just her usual five minute jaunt between the ranch and the restaurant, she’d activated her Bluetooth and set her cell phone in the console beside her. Traffic was never brisk through town, especially in the morning. She turned the radio on low and took her time driving through the small town. Looking around, Kelsey shook her head. Even today, she could see families, groups of people who lived and loved together, standing in front of stores where they’d obviously bumped into friends coming and going. Yet she’d never noticed until Matthew and Steven had taken her to the museum and out to the ranch that first time that a happy couple more often than not included three or even four people.

  “Talk about being blind,” she said aloud as she stopped at the only traffic light in town. It turned green, and she passed the museum and then the sheriff’s office. Matthew and Adam’s cars were both there, and she lifted a hand in a wave, not knowing if anyone saw her or not. Soon she was motoring past her apartment building on her way towards the state road and her destination.

  I should stop on the way back and grab some more clothes for myself.

  She needed to do laundry but could do it at the ranch.

  She accelerated once she reached the state highway, and her cell phone rang. Reaching up to her Bluetooth, she pressed the button.

  “Hello?”

  Matthew’s smooth voice came over the line. “Hey, pretty lady.” Kelsey smiled because she could hear the smile in his voice. “Where you headed on such a fine morning?”

  “Out to the storage place to get those photo albums. How’s it going?”

  “Slowly. When I saw you drive past, I decided I needed a break. I’m only about a minute behind you.”

  Before she could say anything, her car jolted, and she gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Matthew’s voice left teasing behind.

  “Some son-of-a-bitch just rammed—” She was jolted again, harder this time. Her eyes flicked to the review mirror. A Ford Taurus had pulled back but began accelerating again. “Fuck off!”

  “Kelsey!”

  “Asshole in a tan Taurus seems to be…Oh, shit, he’s coming up beside me. Matthew!”

  He was yelling in her ear, but Kelsey couldn’t answer. It took all her concentration to hang on to the steering wheel. The Taurus rammed her car on the driver’s side, and she spared a glance but didn’t recognize the hat-wearing driver behind the wheel. Uncertain whether to speed up or slow down, she began to apply the brake.

  Was the asshole drunk? Kelsey spared him another glance. He seemed to be widening the gap between them. Then he narrowed it again. This time, the impact was harder, and Kelsey lost control of the car. It left the road and careened toward a tree.

  She had no time for more than a sharp curse as car met tree and glass shattered and metal screamed.

  Chapter 16

  The moment Kelsey gasped and told him she’d been rammed, Matthew turned on his lights and siren and stomped on the gas. Then she swore, and he heard the sound of the other car ramming her, and his heart tripped in his chest as he screamed Kelsey’s name.

  He knew he couldn’t be more than thirty seconds behind her. He crested a small hill and saw in heart-stopping clarity what he heard with sickening dread through the cell phone. Kelsey’s car hit a tree.

  The Taurus that had run her off the road had come to a stop but now sped off, likely in response to Matthew’s siren. The driver swerved in his haste to pick up speed. Matthew caught the first three letters of the license plate, saying them over and over to himself so he wouldn’t forget.

  He very badly wanted to wrap his hands around that bastard’s neck and squeeze the living shit right out of him, but he had to let him go.

  Police procedure dictated in this kind of situation that the victim came first.

  “Oh, Christ.” He couldn’t think of Kelsey as a victim. Bringing the cruiser to a screeching halt, he jammed the gearshift into park and practically leapt from the vehicle. Running for all he was worth, he reached her car, yanking and yanking until he got the driver’s door open, calling her name the entire time.

  Kelsey moaned in pain, and it was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. Bits of plastic littered the interior of the car, and his woman, still strapped in, sat with her head back against the seat.

  “Sweetheart?” His hands shook as he stroked her. He took a moment to examine her and the car. He’d move her if he had to but wanted to see how badly she was hurt first. There was no smoke coming from under the hood and no smell of gasoline. So far, so good.

  “Oh, fuck.”

  “My sentiments exactly.” As he watched, she opened her eyes, blinked, then turned looked at him.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi yourself. I want to get you out of here. Where does it hurt?” He couldn’t keep his hands off her. She was alive. She could talk.

  He’d been a cop long enough to know she could easily have been killed.

  “I think I bumped my head.”

  “Yeah, I see a bit of a goose egg coming up. Anything else?”

  “Shoulder where the seat belt grabbed me. I wasn’t going very fast, Matthew. As soon as that jackass pulled up beside me, I slowed down. I guess I should have stopped. I never expected him to ram his car into the side of mine like that.”

  “Most people can’t think rationally in a moment like that, baby. Thank God we were talking at the time. Okay, I’m calling for an ambulance.”

  “I don’t need an ambulance. Really. They’d just cart me off to Waco, and I’d be in the ER for hours. ”

  “You’re fucking getting an ambulance. Deal with it.”

  He just stared at her as she unfastened her seat belt. Because she seemed determined to get out of the car, he helped her. He kept his hands on her until he saw she was steady.

  “See? I’m standing on my own two feet. I’m shaking, a bit sore, a little scared, and a lot pissed off. But I’m not hurt badly. I don’t need an ambulance
.”

  She was standing and lucid. “Fine, then you’re going to the clinic in Lusty. Come sit in my car while I call Adam.”

  “Can we go to the storage place first, since we’re almost there? I want—”

  Matthew stopped and stepped in front of her, and she must have finally realized how coldly furious he was because she immediately shut up then shrugged her shoulder.

  The shrug made her wince.

  “We are going immediately to the clinic. If you say one more word about going anywhere but the clinic, it’ll be the hospital in Waco for you. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important to me at this moment than making sure you’re okay. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  He drew her into his arms and held her. He knew she could feel that he was shaking. He didn’t care. “Scared the living hell right out of me. I thought we’d lost you.”

  He felt her arms come around him, and he felt her trembling. “I thought you’d lost me, too.”

  He led her to his cruiser, then eased her into the front passenger seat. He took a moment to run back to her damaged vehicle. Her purse had tumbled onto the floor, and he grabbed it, making sure he got everything that had fallen out of it. He returned to his own car and called Adam. He told him what had happened and gave him the information he had on the Taurus. Then he shut the radio off and turned the car toward home.

  “Adam’s contacting the highway patrol. They’ll likely meet him at your car. Adam’s already issuing a BOLO. Once they’ve finished forensics, it’ll be towed. Gord Jessop has one of the best car repair shops in the entire county. They’ll probably take it there.”

  “Okay. The guy must have been drunk.”

  Matthew divided his attention between the road and his woman. “Don’t close your eyes, baby. I don’t want you passing out on me.”

  Kelsey laid her head back. “I don’t feel anywhere near to passing out. I’ve got a mild headache, is all.”