Beautiful Innocence (13 page)

I hate where this appears to be going, but I keep my mouth closed and just run my fingers through her hair, trying to keep her talking. “My mom started to threaten to leave and go on about how we didn’t sign up for this kind of life. Well, he got real mad and hit her pretty hard that day. I’ll never forget her look of shame and defeat. She changed that night. She was always so carefree, and happy-go-lucky, you know?” A tear or two escape, so I wipe them away, hating every minute of this story, because I can feel the absolute hate pumping through my veins for these men. The desire to get up and punch something is tugging at me, but I refuse to let go of her to make myself feel better. “Anyway, she always talked about moving home if we ever had a chance to get away from them, but the one thing she made sure of was to not let anyone know the plan.”

“What plan?”

“To come here and start over. To find Angie and be a real family.”

“So, I’m still confused. If your mom has gone and taken off, why would they come after you? Why not just write you off?”

“I have no idea where she is and I’m scared that she’s hasn’t come for me yet, Josh. I really think something might have stopped her. It’s been too long.”

I just nod and continue my attempts at consoling her by rubbing her arm up and down. “Anyway, they started getting sloppy with their phone conversations, or when they thought I wasn’t listening. I had one chance, Josh, and I took it. David was by himself, in charge of watching me. I put it all together the night before from hearing Alex and David talking. David kind of had a thing for me, so he was always the nicest to me, but he never touched me sexually, he wasn’t allowed. My mom used to have trouble sleeping, so there was still a prescription in the medicine cabinet for her Ambien. From what I understood, Alex and Roger were gone, making the final arrangements for me. I crushed the last three pills of the sleeping pills with the back of my hairbrush and put them in my shirt pocket.” She stops and takes a deep breath. “I got him his usual beer and dumped the contents of those pills into it. He was out cold in thirty minutes flat. I grabbed the money in his wallet and a few things that I could and split. I must’ve run ten miles before I even thought of stopping. And then I hopped on that bus and came here.”

If it wasn’t for the feeling of my heart racing along with her story, I’d be certain that it stopped. “What arrangements were they making for you, Ava?”

“I’m not a hundred percent positive, but they kept talking money and how I wasn’t allowed to be touched, that I had to stay a virgin, hence why I attacked you that night. I figure if I’m not one anymore there’s no reason to want me.”

I close my eyes, letting it sink in, and attempt to rationalize that maybe she’s wrong, maybe she heard them wrong, but then it makes sense. The puzzle somehow is coming together. Wanting to not let her out of my sight until I know she’s safe is an understatement. I roll over and pull her tightly to me. “Are you telling me that they wanted to sell you off to the highest bidder. They actually wanted to sell you, baby?”

“I think. I heard a name, but only the first. His name was George and they talked about splitting almost a hundred thousand dollars once I was delivered at some port.”

“Holy shit!” I curse under my breath, unable to breathe. I am at complete loss trying to grasp someone wanting to not only hurt an angel like her, but to sell her. What the fuck? The rage running through my veins right now is nothing compared to what those men are going to experience when I find them.

“Yeah,” she murmurs and then the tears stream down her face. “My sentiments exactly.”

I’m completely knocked immobile for a second, but then I take in her tears and my brain registers that she needs my reassurance. “Baby, no, don’t worry, I’m not letting anything happen to you.” I kiss her lips frantically trying to make Ava and I believe my own promise.

“Once they know I should be fine, right?”

“Yeah,” I agree, but still have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about this. “Is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything at all?”

When she hesitates I feel like she’s hiding something, but I choose not to press her since she’s come clean about so much. “Come here, I need to hold on to you for a minute.”

She snuggles in closer, and I can hear the steady breathing several minutes later that tells me she’s fallen back asleep. I keep her close, because if I don’t any anger management issues I have are about to break loose.

As I continue to hold on to her protectively, it dawns on me that this is actually happening. She’s in. The vault is completely broken open, and the key is being thrown out and buried. Not one woman since Melanie has touched me this way, but Ava is inching her way in to my heart, day-by-day, minute-by-minute. The best thing I realize is that I’m happy letting her.

My phone beeps with a message sometime later. I peer down to make sure she’s still out, and then reach over to grab my phone off the nightstand. It’s Dane wondering where the hell I am. I hit send and he picks up after the first ring. “Where are you? Is she okay?”

“Shh, she’s sleeping,” I say, but realize how stupid that sounds since she’s right next to me and I’m talking, in a hushed voice, but still. “As soon as she gets up, I’ll bring her down.”

“How bad?”

“Fucking awful, man,” I whisper softly into the phone, turning away from her slightly. “You might need to lock me up, because I’m about to go all Pulp Fiction on these fuckers and head to the slammer.” I hang up before he asks any more questions.

It takes me an entire hour of sweet-talking and kissing to persuade her to come down to my office. It started off as a word battle, but one of the things I’ve learned about Ava is that she has a spot on her neck just below her left ear that gets her fired up. So, I use it to my advantage, getting her to listen and come to work with me.

She showers and I leave her to it, figuring if I go in we’ll never make it down to the office where they’re all waiting for us. She comes back out wearing the shorts from yesterday, but has on one of my button down shirts. It’s way too big for her, but she looks perfect. If possible, the shirt makes her eyes look even bluer. “We can grab some coffee on the way.” I reach out for her hand, but she tucks both of them inside her front pockets.

“Maybe I should stay and you can tell them everything.”

I keep my eyes on her as I walk to her until our toes touch. Pulling her hands out, I hold on to them, I sigh. “Babe, I don’t want to leave you right now, okay? Can you please humor me and come without fighting me.”

She tilts her head and regards me. “I’ll come if you promise to not get yourself thrown in jail.”

“You heard that, huh?”

She nods softly. “Yeah.”

I drop her hands and cup her face. “I promise, I’ll do my best not to. That’s all I can give you right now.”

A few tears brim in her eyes and I watch them trickle down her face before taking my thumb and swiping them away. Damn it, I cannot say no to her when she looks at me like that and I’m pretty sure she’s well aware of it, too. “Okay, I promise.”

Dane and Jason are wearing down the carpet in the conference room when we arrive. Her hand is in mine, and they both look down at our intertwined fingers, then their eyes shoot up as they quickly glance at each other. I ignore it. “How you doing, Ava?” Dane is the first to ask.

“I’m okay.”

Dane pulls a chair out and gestures for her to sit. I go to release her hand, but she grips tighter. “Stay with me,” she whispers.

I guide her over to the large leather chair and sit before pulling her down on my lap. I’m going to take a beating for these little gestures, but I don’t care right now. She’s my number one priority. They can razz my ass another day.

The entire time I retell her story Dane can’t even look at her and Jason seems to be wrestling with his own fists under the table. I know how they feel. The feeling is so feral and so raw that I barely know which end is up. My first instinct is to kill the assholes threatening her, do away with them. Society is going to thank me for it—ridding the earth of scum like them. But then there’s Ava who needs me, so I can’t do the one thing I wanted to do to them since she told me her story.

“Ava, I need to ask you something, and I need you to really think this one through,” Dane says finally looking up.

She squeezes my hand.

“Do you think your mama got wind of any of what Josh has been telling us? If she knew of something, how far would this Roger go?”

I start to sit up straighter at how direct he’s being, but he glares back at me to stop. Ava slumps back into my chest. “I honestly don’t know. Even though we lived under the same roof, I know zilch about him.” She pauses and peers down. “I like to believe if my mom did know that, she would’ve taken me with her.” She shakes her head slightly like she’s having trouble believing it herself.

Christ listening to her voice tremble is tearing my heart in half.

They share a knowing glance, but then Jason folds his hands on the table and clears his throat. “Ava, we’re going to need to call the police in Annapolis and they’re gonna want a statement darlin’.” He pauses and stares into my eyes briefly before falling back on her. “Do you have any proof to support what you’re saying, honey?”

I want to kill him for asking her, though I know he’s right. We need something to go on, otherwise it’s not going to mean shit.

She shakes her head.

“Josh,” Dane addresses me. “We had Johnny go out and place a few cameras around. The bar and the apartment upstairs are all set to go. If you plan on keeping her at your place Johnny needs to get in there, too.” He turns to Ava. “Here’s a cell. All our numbers are programmed in there. I want you to keep on you at all times. It has a GPS chip inside, so if something happens we’ll always know where you are. Never go anywhere without it, Ava. Do you understand?”

She nods and then turns to bury her head into my chest, quietly sobbing. “I’ll give Johnny a key. Put them in every fucking room, every room, Dane.” I have no desire for them to watch us, but at this point I don’t give a shit.

“You sure?” Jason asks.

“Yeah. She ain’t going back. She’s staying with me.”

Dane and Jason discreetly leave as Ava clings to me. “It’s just a safety precaution. We’ll still have privacy. They won’t look unless they have to, okay?”

“I wasn’t even thinking about that, but now I am,” she whines. “I really thought they wouldn’t find me or maybe just not bother with me.”

I cup her face and gaze into her sad eyes. “Babe, you must have something that they want and just don’t realize it.” I pause to decide if I really want to say it, but then decide what the fuck. I need to keep pressing her hard to think about the things she heard or names she might’ve gotten a hold of so I can get to them before they attempt to grab her. “You are not the only virgin out there, Ava. I’m sure they could’ve grabbed someone to replace you to make their money. That’s what concerns me, babe. Why are they looking for you?”

She shakes her head solemnly. “I already told you. I don’t know anything but the name George.”

“All right. What about this David kid? Do you have a full name on him?”

“David Cahill. At least that’s what they told me.”

“Okay.”

I relent, not wanting to hurt her any more than she already has been, and at least I got another name to dig into.

“I need to go to work.”

‘What?” I yell, and I can hear my own voice go up five notes. “Ava, you’re not working today.”

“Josh, Aunt Angie counts on me.”

“Angie wants you safe, babe. I have a few hours I need to put in. Can you just lie down on my couch and wait for me to finish? I swear I won’t be able to concentrate if you refuse. Just give me two hours to go through all this new information.”

“Okay,” she agrees, but I can tell she wants to run.

AVA

Sam is behind the bar the next day when he spots Josh walking me inside Shooters. He stops making a drink long enough to scowl at me. Torn between trying to keep my friendship with Sam and not hurt Josh’s feelings, I slump at the chair by the hostess stand. Josh squats down and tips my chin up. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

I shake him off, but he just gives me that knock it the bleep off look. “I hurt, Sam.”

Josh looks over my shoulder at who I can only imagine as being Sam, because Josh slightly winces. “Sam is a big boy, babe. He can handle it.”

“He took care of me for four days, Josh. Four days without asking me for anything. I’ve been a horrible friend.”

He sighs and lifts my hand to his mouth. “I gotcha. I’ll talk to Sam and clear this shit up when I come back. Deal?”

I roll my eyes, thinking about that nasty conversation, and wonder how he thinks that is going to fix anything.

“Hey,” he drags my face back down to his. “Stop it. It’ll be fine.”

I exhale a long breath. “I should get to work.” Even though I’m nervous about someone strolling in and kidnapping me, so some man can pop my cherry that doesn’t exist anymore, I still look forward to breaking free from worrying about it 24/7. The only two things that keep my mind free of fretting is making love to Josh and working. And as much as I prefer the first one, I can’t very well live in his bed for the rest of my life.

He pulls me to my feet. “I gotta bolt for a little while, baby. I’ll tell Sam to keep an eye out for you.” He wraps his arms around my waist. “There’s a camera watching every move in this place right now. All the vents are fitted. If someone comes in, Johnny or Jason will see. Are you good with me leaving? And don’t lie this time.”

I nod and smile reassuringly. I don’t want him to go, but know he needs to and I need him to, so I can sort of move on with my daily routine. His mouth presses to mine and his lips give me the sweetest, slowest, and softest kiss he’s ever given me before, leaving me wanting more.

“I can’t wait to do go time with you later on.”

The sides of his mouth curl up into a big grin at my remark before he kisses me one more time. His eyes roam over my face, trailing his finger down my cheek, sighing deeply.