Chapter Ten
“D o you eat at your brother’s home every morning?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“And none of you are married?”
Evren shook his head. “I’m not privy to my brothers’ sex life, but Jeremiah has been too focused on building his empire, and Saxon is too fucking crazy. I haven’t seen Aera in a long while so I can’t say what he’s up to, but I doubt he’d be settled down.”
“And you?”
“Guess I never found the right woman.”
“Well, I can assure you, marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’re not missing out on much.”
“Kinda cynical.”
Lowen shrugged. “Marriage is a different institution for women than it is for men. Women are held at the mercy of the men who dominate them, and there isn’t any recourse to take.
When you’re born into that life, or marry into it, you’re there until you die.
Mine happened to last two years before I was murdered. ”
Understanding dawned in his assessing stare. “Well, you never have to get married again if you don’t want to.”
Did he believe her? Or was he just appeasing her? Not knowing what else to say, she nodded her agreement in a noncommittal acknowledgment.
Evren held her hand as they left his place to walk across the corridor to his brother’s home.
Once more, Jeremiah sat at the table with three tablets around him and two phones, drinking coffee as he studied something on each device.
His sleeves were folded up to mid-forearm, showing off colorful tattoos.
Suspenders strained over his massive chest and shoulder muscles.
He was a large man, a little taller than Evren, and she had no doubt he could bench-press an elephant.
Jeremiah’s sharp gaze watched them as they sat, lingering on her for a moment.
Evren held out a chair and waited till she sat before taking his own.
“Morning,” Jeremiah said.
“Morning,” she replied. “Thank you for allowing me to be here.”
“Of course.” He reached up and rubbed his forehead, directly over his right eye.
“Do you have a headache?” she asked.
He immediately stopped, as if he didn’t like showing any weakness. “Sometimes I get migraines.”
“Not sometimes,” Evren said as he poured syrup over a stack of pancakes. “He gets one or two a week. And he doesn’t like taking medication. Says it reminds him too much of our shitty parents.”
Lowen returned her gaze to her plate. Would he be receptive to a suggestion? She knew what it was like to be hurt without the benefit of an analgesic.
“W-would you mind if I helped?” she asked, her voice soft and unsure.
“What?” Jeremiah asked, cocking his head.
“I know some pressure points,” she said. “I can show you, if you, uh, don’t mind.”
He studied her for a moment then gave a small nod. Swallowing down her nerves, she rose and rounded the table, approaching him slowly like he was a rabid dog. She knew firsthand how a man could turn on her and mete out torment.
“May I see your hands?”
Jeremiah held them out. On each hand, she pressed the fleshy area between the base of his thumb and index finger, watching him to see if it was helping. Slowly, the frown between his eyes eased. Not a lot, only a little, but it was something.
“The fleshy area between the thumb and index finger is called ‘Union Valley,’” she explained. “There are other pressure points over the body, but this one always helped me.”
After a few minutes, she released him and stepped back.
“I’m impressed,” he said as he inspected his hands, mimicking what she did. “How’d you know about pressure points?”
She hated returning to memory lane, but she couldn’t ignore his question.
“One time, Scias hit me and when I fell, my head crashed on a concrete parking spot bumper. I had a concussion that gave me migraines. Scias denied me pain medicine because he said it was my fault. So, I researched what I could do with the headaches and I stumbled across pressure points. It’s not a complete cure, of course, but it helped. ”
Lowen returned to her seat, not making eye contact with either man. She didn’t know if Jeremiah believed her or not, so she made sure not to linger.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
Shock floored her as Lowen flashed her gaze toward him, unsure what to make of those two words. Jeremiah stared back at her, sincerity reflecting back.
She withheld a smile, but inside she was happy he felt better. “You’re welcome.”
“I don’t think the phone call yesterday was a prank,” he said out of the blue. “I believe it was Scias Mailliard’s mole, probably trying to figure out if Lowen was here.”
Startled, she dropped her fork onto her plate and it clattered loudly. He knows I’m here.
“Jeremiah,” Evren rebuked.
“I can’t have Scias Mailliard making threats in my casino like he did the other day.”
“Threatening your casino?” she gasped, interrupting him. “What?”
“I handled it,” Evren assured her.
Suddenly, she felt very lightheaded. “Oh, no,” she whispered, a thread of panic shooting through her. Please, not now . Her breathing constricted until she was panting. Not again!
“Hey, hey, hey,” Evren said, laying his hand on her thigh. “Focus on me, Lowen. Deep breath in, let it out slowly. Good. It’s okay.”
But it wasn’t okay. Nothing was okay. Now, there wasn’t any doubt about it. This timeline might be different, but Scias was still demented and was hunting her. He would never let her rejection rest. Not when his reputation was on the line.
“It’s not safe for me anywhere in Nevada, is it?” she muttered, knowing she couldn’t bring any more trouble to Jeremiah’s doorstep. Her hands shook as she pulled the diamond necklace from under her shirt. “Do you know where I might be able to hock this? I can use the money to help—”
“Stop,” Evren interrupted. He looked at his brother. “I’ll protect her.”
“And who’ll protect you?” Jeremiah demanded. “Mailliard is deadly, and he probably knows now that you’re shielding Lowen.”
“So am I,” Evren shot back. “She’s one of us now.”
“Yes, she is, and that’s why she’s going to Blackmeadow.”
Evren’s jaw dropped. “Uh. What?”
“It’s the safest place for her until we can deal with Mailliard and this fucking mole who’s reporting all our moves. Because he knows where the fucking cameras are, his identity remains elusive.”
She looked between the brothers. “What’s Blackmeadow?”
“Our family home in Canada,” Evren explained. “It’s a place to disappear when we need or want some downtime.”
Something twisted inside. Would she spend her whole life “disappearing” from Scias? A plan started to form. She couldn’t, and wouldn’t, continue to be a burden to Evren and his family much longer.
“If you can sell my necklace, I can use Blackmeadow until I can establish myself in Canada. It’ll be a good place to reinvent myself.”
Evren stared at her like she was speaking a different language. “We’ll figure that out later.”
“We? You can’t disrupt your life anymore because of me.”
He didn’t respond for a moment. “I refuse to be a shitty person.”
Their conversation played through her head. Shitty parents. Shitty life. Evren wasn’t a shitty friend. He was her hero. Her knight in shining armor. A whisper of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Jeremiah demanded.
Evren smiled serenely at her. “It means I’m disappearing with her.”
She immediately shook her head. “What? But your life is here.”
“I’d be too distracted thinking about you.”
“Hold the fuck up,” Jeremiah growled. “What about your job?”
Evren shrugged. “Give it to Saxon.”
“Give me what?” Saxon said as he walked into the dining room. He glanced at each of them. “What’d I miss?”
“Lowen has to disappear and I’ve decided to go with her,” Evren explained. “You can have my job.”
Saxon frowned. “But I like my old job.”
“Do both,” Evren encouraged. “Security by day, torture by night.”
Saxon pursed his lips as he thought, and then gave him a thumbs-up. Lowen wasn’t sure if that was a hyperbole or not. Both men turned to their older brother to wait for his decision. Jeremiah focused on her, but she couldn’t get a read on him. His poker face was stone-cold expressionless.
“Very well,” he finally said. “You’ll need money and passports. What is your middle name, Lowen?”
“Marie.”
“I’ll have my assistant obtain new IDs by tomorrow.
” He hesitated for a brief moment. “I’m not trying to strong-arm you, Lowen, or tell you what to do.
But it’s my job as head of the household to protect my family, and since you are now part of my family, you and my brother better not get yourselves dead. ”
“You’ve been adopted!” Saxon exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted a sister.”
“You have a sister,” Jeremiah reminded him.
“That ghost haunting the old house isn’t my sister,” he said, the levity completely gone. “She’s just a shell of a person wasting air. The incubator made sure none of us got out of there with our souls intact.”
There was so much hatred in his tone that it shocked her. It made her heart ache for him.
“Sax,” Jeremiah murmured. “The incubator is gone.”
Saxon surged to his feet, sudden rage turning his face dark and scary. His Dr. Jeckell had just turned into Mr. Hyde.
“Of course, she’s gone,” Sax snapped. He gripped his hair like yesterday. “I got rid of her, you know. She can’t kick me anymore. Can’t put her cigarettes out on my skin anymore. Can’t whore me out anymore. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember,” Jeremiah answered calmly. “I vowed to keep you safe, and I will. Recite the words, Saxon.”
He shook his head.
“Saxon,” Jeremiah snapped. “Say the words.”
With his chest heaving, he stared at Jeremiah, and little by little the manic look slowly faded. “This too shall pass.”
“Again,” Jeremiah ordered.
Saxon drew in a deep gulp of air, and his shoulders sagged. “This too shall pass.”
Little by little, the fury drained from his eyes, until they were clear once again.
His body sagged as he seemed to age right before her eyes.
Gone was the cold, terrifying man. The weight of those horrible memories settled on his shoulders like an anchor trying to drag him down into the dark depths of Hell.
Compassion filled her because she knew exactly what that felt like.
After a few minutes, Saxon rose. “I ... I need to go.”
“If you’re going for therapy, watch your back. Nothing gets traced back to you. Understood?”
“I’ll be careful.”
With those words, he marched out of the dining room and a moment later the sound of the front door let them know he was gone.