Beautiful Innocence (11 page)

“I won’t,” I yell, as my feet are already out the door.

Twenty minutes later I’m standing in the aisle of a hardware store looking at different locks. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, I need a lock for my front door. I have one, but I’d like something to back it up.”

He reaches onto the shelf and grabs two different products. “Well, you got yourself a deadbolt or you can use a the old standby chain lock.” He holds them both up and I have no clue which one is best.

“Which one would you let your daughter use if she lived alone?”

“Why don’t you get both and have someone install them. Extra measure and all that.”

I huff, looking at the price. Not too bad. I pull out the cash in my back pocket and pay up front. Twenty dollars lighter in the pocket, and I still need to grab some food to make do for the week. I hit the Piggly Wiggly and smile as I throw the truck into park, remembering how good it was to finally know what it was like to be in that man’s arms.

It’s five by the time Sam walks in to work. When he comes right up to me I can see the relief in his eyes, but it makes me nervous, like he’s heard all about Josh deflowering me. “Hey,” I raise my hand ready to wave, but he just grabs it pulls me in to a big bear hug.

“Where the hell have you been?” He sounds so worried I feel horrible not calling and asking him to go shopping with me.

I shrink down, ashamed of making him feel that way. “The store.”

He grips my shoulders and pushes me slightly away from him. “I meant last night. You ran out of here so fast after I told you about that guy. I couldn’t find you anywhere. I looked everywhere.”

“I took a walk.” I mentally berate myself for lying to him again.

“You took a walk?” he asks incredulously, and I can tell he isn’t buying it.

“Yeah, now Sam, listen, I went and grabbed a few locks. Could you maybe help me after work and put them on?”

“Of course I can. Is everything okay?”

I nod a few times, trying to control my distress from showing. “I was just scared of my past finding me. It’s no big deal.”

A few customers come in hooting and hollering pulling his stare from me briefly. “You have to give me some answers about that past of yours later.” He turns abruptly and makes his way behind the bar to serve the group that came in. But I feel his eyes on me while he does it. Great! Now I have two men trying to dig into my past.

Later that night Sam is following me up to my apartment after work and I start to freak out when I notice my door is ajar. I think real hard, remembering that I closed it and locked it before I went to work. My heart picks up and my breathing comes to a halt. “What’s wrong?” he asks as he comes up behind me.

With a shaky hand I point, unable to find the words, knowing I’m about ready to hit full panic mode.

He shifts around, stops, but leans and whispers, “Give me a minute, don’t follow.”

My heart is pounding so hard I’ve chewed off three nails and died at least once before he finally comes back out. I have no clue why he took so long. I mean the place is like the size of a small bathroom. “There’s no one in there.”

I slowly and hesitantly walk in under the very watchful eye of Sam, who has a lot of concern in his demeanor while he places the tools down. “Give me those locks so I can get them up,” he barks his order at me, watching me shake and gasp for air as I try to settle my heart.

Without finding my voice yet, or the use of my legs, I point to the plastic bag. I hear some weird growl come from him, but he goes about putting the locks on right away with the toolbox from Aunt Angie’s office. While Sam tries his best to make me feel safe, I sit on the edge of my bed and practice my breathing. It’s not coming easy, and I want to run and call Josh so I can feel safe again, or maybe just keep running, but I don’t have his number, or any money, and to top it off, I have no phone.

Sam stands up after he places the tools back into the toolbox and looks at my bed and then back to me. “How about I stay here for a night or two?”

I look up and I know he sees the relief plastered on my face as my breathing steadies.

He holds both his hands up just in case I’m getting the wrong idea as I quickly glance between him and my little bed. “Just to keep you safe. I can’t leave you like this. I can hear your heart from over here.”

My nerves are shot, and his offer sounds too good to be true, so I nod and move over. His steps are hesitant, but once he gets to the bed he bends over and slips out of his boots and then his belt. I’m waiting for him to remove more clothes, but that’s all he takes off. I shift over until I’m practically pressed up against the wall, because I feel like a slut having him lie next to me after last night and this morning. The bed shakes as he turns on his side and then the warmth of his hand on my waist is next as he forces me to turn to him. He stares, searching for a minute, but I look away first.

“Hey, don’t do that.” He tips my face back up. “Who would be looking for you that has you so scared?”

“Bad people.”

“I got that, darlin’, but why?”

“My mom left me there with them. I don’t know why she did.”

His hand rounds my waist and he squeezes gently. “Who, Ava?”

“It doesn’t matter, Sam. If they find me they probably won’t want me anymore anyway.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. If they wanted you before, why not now?”

I shake my head, feeling dizzy and exhausted. “You know what, Sam? I’m really tired. Can we do this another time?”

He scratches the top of his head, but turns a second later and hits the light. “Go to sleep. I got you.” And then the warmth of his body as he hooks his arm around my waist, tugging me in closer, makes me feel safe enough to finally close my eyes. He’s not Josh, but he’ll do.

It’s been four days since Josh dropped me home. I haven’t seen him since he dropped me off after twelve hours of crazy passion, which upsets me, but I also reprimand myself for allowing myself to care. I mean, really? Who am I kidding? He got what he wanted. I got what I needed. And whoever came looking for me, Sam says hasn’t been back in once. I’m too afraid to ask around about Josh and his rather rude disappearance act, because then they’ll figure out that I let myself fall for their number one player in this Podunk town. And Sam has been so amazing, such a good friend, and has slept over each night after work, holding on to me at night, letting me sleep without worry or nightmares. He continues to ask questions, and I continue to avoid them.

When I finally wake up on day five of no show Josh, Sam is pulling his jeans on. “Hey, I’m running late. I need to head home for a few hours. My mama’s driving me crazy. You want to come for breakfast?”

“No, you go. Just do me a favor and lock the door behind you. I’m going to try to sleep a little longer.”

He leans down and presses a chaste kiss to my forehead. “All right. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Sam and thanks again.”

Sam goes to open the door just as the soft knock comes from outside. He pulls it open and I take a peek around him, holding the sheet to my chest to find Josh standing there, holding flowers and looking like his world just ended. His mouth drops open as he shifts his gaze to Sam tucking in his shirt. “Unfuckinbelievable,” he roars in a horribly fierce tone before chucking the flowers on the ground and storming off.

Sam turns to me, completely confused, and I can’t blame him. “Why the hell is he bringing you flowers?”

Shit!

“Move, Sam,” I scream, running out the door in my sweat shorts and tank, trying to catch up to Josh in a panic. He jumps into his truck as I’m yelling for him to hold on, but he doesn’t hear or doesn’t listen. He peals out of the parking lot so fast his tires squeal so loudly he probably woke up the entire town. I slump down onto the bottom step, completely confused, hurt, scared and a thousand other new feelings that I’m not used to at his reaction. I should have gone to him days ago. I should have reached out and told him that I was scared. That I’m actually terrified. I’m so stupid.

Sam sits next to me, keeping his eyes straight as an arrow. “You got something you want to tell me?”

“You’re going to hate me if I do.”

“Try me.” He places his beefy arm over my shoulder and tucks me in to him.

“I slept with him.”

“You did what?” The safety of his embrace is gone when he leaps up and hovers over me, pointing his finger at me. “I told you not to trust him.”

“I have a reason. I just can’t share it.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Just forget it.” And he does, because now he’s jumping into his car, storming off just like Joshua did. How can I go from having two knights in shining armor to none? I just turned away the only two friends I have, so now I’m left with no one to protect me, and it’s entirely my stupid fault for being the world’s biggest dumbass.

JOSH

I can’t believe how stupid I am. I even told her I wasn’t the hearts and flowers kind of guy, but I saw the pretty bouquet at the store and I couldn’t resist buying them for her. I had purposely stayed away because I knew I was falling hard for her and it’s starting to scare the hell out of me. And then Sam comes along. I knew he was gunning for her, but damn, I guess I gave her too much credit. She seemed like a one-man kind of woman, but who is these days. I’ve failed to meet one. And they say men can’t keep it in their pants. I’ve yet to meet a woman who couldn’t refuse a ride if offered.

Dane pokes his head into my office a couple days later. “You got a visitor.”

“Tell her to go away.”

Ava’s come by two times since I saw Sam leaving her apartment and once to my place. I just didn’t answer the door. I must’ve stared out at her from the peephole for the entire five minutes, watching her while she stood there with tears in her eyes.

I wanted her and I hated her.

“It’s not Ava. It’s Sam.”

“I have nothing to say to him.” I stand and make my way over to the window and stare outside, waiting for Dane to leave but he doesn’t.

“I think you should talk to him. Something isn’t right. He’s out there squirming around like something’s wrong.”

Dane leaves and I can hear the distinct instructions to Sam to take it easy.

Sam storms through my door. “Is she here?” His eyes bulge as he glances all around.

“Is who here?”

“Don’t play stupid with me. Where’s Ava?”

I shrug. “No idea. Haven’t seen her.”

He punches the wall hard, knocking a hole in the plaster as it crumbles to the floor.

“What the fuck, man?” I grab a hold of him, wanting to kick the shit out of him for no other reason than fucking Ava. It has nothing to do with the hole in my wall, and he knows it. But Dane and Jason run in and pull him away before I start the beating.

“She’s missing.”

I freeze. “What do you mean—missing?”

“She came to me last week, scared. She had run out of the bar so fast the night before I didn’t know where she went. The next day she comes to me and asks me to install some locks on her door, so I did.”

He stops and sits shaking his head in his hands. “I couldn’t leave her alone. She was frightened and I asked her why and she told me bad people were looking for her. I couldn’t leave her, man.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. You’ve been staying there to keep her safe, not sleeping with her?”

I start to pace instead of banging my head against the wall, like I want to. “Why didn’t she tell me? I told her to tell me if she was scared and she promised me she would.”

Jason comes over and grabs my phone. “Let’s call Angie and see what’s going on first before you two freak out any more.”

Jason nods and a few yeps come out before he hangs the phone up. “She took off. She’s got Angie’s truck.”

“And my credit card,” Sam chimes in.

All heads turn to him. “Why the hell would you give her that?”

“I didn’t. It’s been missing. I thought I misplaced, but I have a feeling she took it when I was sleeping or working.”

“All right, no need to panic,” Dane adds as he heads to the main monitoring room. We all follow. “I’ll have the police throw out an APB on the tags and we’ll keep monitoring your card.”

Suddenly I feel like it’s entirely my fault now that the moves are all in motion. I left her. She was scared, and I fucking left her because I was too much of a pussy to admit my growing feelings for her and too much of an idiot to miss the fear in her eyes.

Dane comes over to me while Jason and Sam stare at the screens. “Hey, we’ll find her. She’ll be okay.”

“Why the fuck is she running?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should all have a meeting. You, Sam and Angie and I need to sit down and start putting these pieces together. Maybe we’ll figure out why without her telling us.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“Jason says Angie’s already on her way in.”

“I need a fucking drink,” I mumble as I drop my head between my knees.

One hour later we’re all sitting at the conference table, writing down what we know.

Dane starts the conversation. “So, what can anyone add that we all don’t know at this point?”

I bang my head on the table after forty minutes of going over the same shit. Annapolis, Roger, Alex, and her mama on the loose, possibly dead and the most important—Ava’s missing.

“Man, if you got something you need to add it to the pot,” Jason smacks my arm.

“I don’t know if it means anything.”

“Why don’t you let us decide?”

I keep my head down, forehead pressed to the table. “She was a virgin.” Several gasps cause me to look up.

Angie is choking on her coffee. Sam shuts his eyes, like maybe it will prevent him from believing it and Dane just crosses his arms and glares at me. “What do you mean was?”

“That night she ran, Sam, I was outside coming in to get her. Angie called me. Ava was so scared and she asked me to drive her anywhere. So I did and next thing I know she’s asking me to be with her and I did that, too.”

“She asked you?” Sam asks like it’s so far-fetched that it can’t be true.

“I had no idea she was virgin until, well, you know when.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” Jason growls out.