Chapter Fourteen #2
“I’m not angry with you. I get it. And I wouldn’t say I was hiding my past. I just don’t think about it anymore.” He lifts one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I married my ex a short time after we met. She was the victim of a mugging and she’d been stabbed, too.”
My hand comes to my mouth. “I’m sorry.” I lower my arm, twisting my hands together in my lap.
“She needed me and I guess I liked being needed.”
I stiffen because this is the hard part. “Is that why we’re together?” I ask, recalling Dex said something similar. “Like Dex said, my past was a mystery to you. Then my place was broken into. Now you’re keeping me safe, and that’s what drives you, right? Keeping women safe?”
He shakes his head, his lips lifting in a grin.
“You know better. You must have heard me tell Dex you’re different, and you are.
In every way.” His hands slide over mine and hold on tight but instead of feeling better, the sad truth of my life intrudes and though I initiated this conversation, it’s gotten too deep.
“It doesn’t matter.” I pull my hands out of his. “I’m never going to be free of Lance. I know it and so do you. He and Cassandra will do whatever they have to in order to keep him out of jail and he’ll never give up on his obsession with me.”
I lift a pillow and pull it into my lap, pressing it against the pain in my stomach.
Because no matter how Remy feels about me, I can’t let myself go and admit to feeling the same way.
Because if this situation with Lance goes on much longer, I’ll have no choice but to run. To go somewhere he can’t find me.
“I shouldn’t have asked you about your marriage. It has nothing to do with me.” I place the pillow back in its spot and lie down, facing away from him.
He doesn’t reply but I hear the bedsheets rustle and soon he lies behind me and pulls me into his arms. He doesn’t say a word but I settle in the comfort and safety of his arms, and am able to relax.
* * *
Remy
I understand more about Raven’s fear than she knows. I also don’t believe my past has nothing to do with her. She overheard me talking about Sadie and my marriage and the notion bothered her enough for her to ask.
I haven’t been hiding the truth from her. I just pushed it into a part of my brain where old things pile up, rarely to be thought of again. I’ve moved on from my ex-wife. I’ll never get past my mother’s murder. It altered the course of my future.
Once I laid eyes on Raven, she pulled me in. She’s who I’m meant to be with. Until she’s free from the stress and fear of who her brother will go after next in order to hurt her, I won’t push her for anything more than she’s willing to give.
The next morning, I wake her up like any other morning we’ve been together. I roll her onto her back and hover over her, treating her to a long kiss as I slide into her. Once we forgot protection, we came to a silent but mutual agreement none was needed after that.
Now, at nine-thirty a.m., we’re in the kitchen for breakfast. True to his word, Dex’s suitcases are gone and so is he. Not only does my father have a groundskeeper on premises, he has a housekeeper, and since Dex obviously let her know he was coming, the fridge is stocked with food.
Working together, Raven and I cook breakfast, making two omelets and whole-wheat toast. For two people who’ve never cooked as a team, we do pretty well.
While she finishes at the stove, I place orange juice and the coffee I made on the table. Once she sits down, I already know the direction I plan to take the conversation. I’m keeping things light.
“So, did I ever tell you how I made my fortune?” I ask.
She sputters, having just taken a sip of juice. “I just assumed you had family money. I mean, I knew it wasn’t from being a New York City police officer.”
I lift my mug for a drink of coffee. “There is that. We all have trust funds. But when I met Zach in college, he was determined to find Hadley. We now know she was in WitSec but all Zach knew was that she and her family had disappeared. We bonded over our hacking skills and I tried to help him dig into databases where we didn’t belong. ”
Her pretty eyes open wide. “What happened?”
“We got caught.” I ignore my omelet in favor of storytelling.
“But we got lucky, too. The feds were so impressed with our skills, they hired us to find holes in their databases and programs. Through our work, we met influential people in Silicon Valley. Zach and I developed our own anti-hacking software and sold it for enough to make us millionaires.”
She grins. “You’re pretty impressive, Remington Sterling.”
Chuckling, I say, “I’m glad you think so.” Am I smug about it? Hell, yes. Zach and I did it on our own.
She shakes her head, eyes twinkling. We finish our food and clean up in easy silence and occasional small talk.
No sooner have we cleaned up breakfast than Raven’s phone buzzes with a call. She answers immediately. “Hi, Caleb,” she says, quiet when her brother is obviously talking to her. “He what?”
Her voice rises and I come up by her side, waiting as she finishes the conversation, my curiosity and concern rising with every word Raven says.
“I’ll get back to you with our plan. Love you,” she says and disconnects the call.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Her hands shake and I wrap an arm around her and guide her to the family room where we sit down. Going with my gut, I pull her into my lap. “Now tell me what happened.”
“Lance tried to take Owen out of preschool.”
My blood freezes, my skin prickling with the awareness that Lance had a plan we never considered. “He didn’t succeed, right?” Though she said the word tried, I need to hear it again.
“No,” she says with a shake of her head. “The preschool knows who’s on the pickup list. Lance couldn’t have thought the teachers would believe he was Caleb. They aren’t identical twins. I just don’t get his thinking.”
I slide my hand up the back of her shirt and rub her soft skin in a soothing, up-and-down motion. “I don’t think he ever planned to get his hands on Owen. He wanted to shake you both up and he succeeded. You now know he’s unpredictable.”
“He told Caleb that he was just playing a joke on him. That he hadn’t bothered with him since he’s been out and he wanted to get his attention,” she says.
“I call bullshit.” That sick bastard is toying with both of his siblings but I have no doubt Lance’s real target is Raven.
She shivers and I pull her close, my brain spinning with the need for that bastard to violate his parole and land back in prison.
“Remy? I want to go home,” Raven says. “And I need to see Caleb. We have to talk.”
I know better than to argue with her. She’s emotionally distraught and I have no intention of making things worse. But I’m equally curious and disturbed by her words. “Talk about what?”
“How to get rid of Lance once and for all.”
Knowing she doesn’t mean that the way it sounds because she’s not a killer, I manage a nod. “Go pack. I’ll be up to help you in a few minutes.”
Once she leaves the room, I pick up my phone and call Zach. No one is going to make any crazy plans without our approval.