Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (27 page)

The world was lucky he was sitting behind his desk. Cam had been growling at anyone who got within three feet of him ever since Grace had moved out of his place and started refusing to take any of his calls.

Sure, she was staying with Spence and Sage, and he got nightly reports to the effect that she was safe and sound, but that didn’t help his mood any—it didn’t help his mood at all. Because what Cam wanted was Grace back in his home and back in his bed.

So they’d gotten into a fight. It wasn’t something they couldn’t fix—their wounds would heal—but the next day, when he’d woken up after only a couple of hours’ sleep, she’d already left.

At first Cam had panicked, thinking that someone had managed to break into his house and stolen her away. But then he found the note, saying she was going to Sage’s.

He called Spence, of course, to make sure that she was, in fact, there. Knowing she was safe had helped, and that day he’d even been angry enough with her to think he was glad to be rid of her.

But then the week had dragged on and the more he missed her, the angrier he became with the rest of the world. When he wasn’t thinking obsessively about her, he was thinking obsessively about her case. He needed to know how to help her and, more importantly, how to help
them
.

“Can I get you anything else before I go, Cam?”

“No. I’m fine.” It was a wonder his legal assistant didn’t march right out of his law offices after telling him where he could shove his bad mood.

But instead of yelling at him as he deserved, as he almost wanted, she just left him alone, like everyone else was doing.

And why? Because his thoughts were pinpointed on one woman—one dark-haired, exotic-eyed, beautiful, frustrating woman. Grace. It was always Grace, always had been Grace. She was his first love, and he had no doubt she would be his last.

But would she allow him to stay in her life? That was an entirely different matter. She was strong and independent, and the bottom line was that she just might not need him as much as he needed her.

“Cam, I have to talk to you.”

Cam looked up to find Sage in his doorway. “Of course. Is everything okay with my brother?”

Concern flashed through him at the worried look in Sage’s eyes. She was normally a cool, collected woman. Right now, she didn’t look so calm.

“Before I talk, I really need a drink—a stiff one.”

She took off her jacket and sat down while Cam went to his liquor cabinet and poured them each a scotch. He had a feeling he would need it, to judge from the expression she was wearing. His body hummed with tension.

“Your brother is fine, Cam. I should have said that right away,” she told him after taking a long swallow of her drink.

“Then this is about Grace.” It wasn’t a question. There were very few people who would cause Sage to look that way while talking with him.

“It’s about Grace,” she said, and her eyes filled with tears.

“You’re going to have to explain to me what’s going on,” Cam told her, frustrated at all the preliminaries. Okay, she hadn’t been in his office all that long, but it seemed like forever.

“You know she’ll murder me if she knows I’m talking to you, right?”

“No, she won’t, Sage. You’re her best friend, and she trusts you. I’m the man who loves her, and she’ll learn to trust me again.”

“I know you love her, and that’s why I’ve come to you with this.”

“Then tell me, please.”

Cam got up and grabbed the bottle of scotch again. He had a feeling that they were going to need a lot more of it before this conversation was finished.

“You know about her relationship with Jimmy, right?” Sage downed her drink and pushed it toward him for a refill.

“Yes, Sage, I know about it, and I’d really rather not discuss that aspect of her life. Unless you know something to tie him to the embezzlement case—and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised—I don’t want to discuss that man.”

“I don’t know if he’s involved, but I do know he raped her, shamed her, and then held something over her head for years. She finally walked away when she found him in bed with her mother, but I have a feeling he’s the one behind these little acts of terror against her.”

“Why? What could he possibly be holding over her?” This wasn’t something Cam was expecting.

“This is so much harder than I thought. I don’t want to betray my best friend. But she needs us.”

“If you aren’t going to tell me, then why in the hell did you come down here and throw out the bait?” Cam snapped, jumping from his chair and pacing his office.

“I’m trying to tell you,” Sage countered.

“If I’m going to help her, then I need all the information.”

“Jimmy was a monster—is
still
a monster. How do you think he managed to go from ranch hand to an important position in an exclusive art gallery? The man has skills, backwoods kind of skills, and he’s dangerous.”

“I know all of this, Sage.”

Cam was losing his patience. He turned away and took in a long, deep breath as he tried to pull himself together. Sage needed to work up to telling him whatever it was she knew, and if he pushed her, she would clam up again.

“I’m sorry, Sage. I’m just worried about Grace.”

“I’m worried about her, too,” Sage said with a sigh. “We all abandoned her after high school. But it started with you, when you left and didn’t come back that summer we graduated. You left for law school and she was devastated, but she had faith that it would all work out. While you were gone, she met Jimmy. Everyone knew she was your girl, and the hands warned the new kid on the ranch that Grace was a hands-off kind of gal. He ignored them. He pursued her. She didn’t think anything of it at first—just that he was a nice guy and she was helping him.”

“I was in law school, a good law school. Considering I was in foster care up until I was thirteen years old, that’s a pretty damn good accomplishment. I didn’t mean to abandon Grace. I was coming back for her. I was just busy . . .” Cam trailed off. He could spout that all day long, but he knew he’d left her, the calls starting to come in less and less, the visits rare. He’d left her because he figured she’d be waiting for him when he came back. He was twenty-two at the time, young and foolish.

“That doesn’t matter. Grace turned her sadness into anger, and so she flirted a bit with Jimmy—not enough to cross a line, but enough to make herself feel wanted. Then Jimmy didn’t appreciate the fact that she was playing with him.”

When Sage’s eyes filled with tears, Cam wanted to stop her, didn’t want to hear what she was going to say, although he already knew. Grace hadn’t admitted it that night a few months ago, but he knew what had happened.

“He raped her. She wasn’t sure at first, because he had drugged her. And she didn’t tell anyone, feeling ashamed and dirty. It was right after I left for college. He’d been priming her for an entire year, and then he did his filthy deed when she was all alone. We’d all left her, something I feel horrible about. She never told me, never told anyone. Then they moved away, and she figured she’d seen the last of him, but he showed up, and he had horrible images of her—horrible, Cam.” Sage stopped to calm herself.

“What do you mean, ‘horrible images’?” Cam asked.

“Once she was drugged, a friend showed up . . .”

Sage jumped from her seat at the sound of the wall breaking when Cam shoved his fist through it.

“What happened, Sage?” he thundered.

“There were pictures, lots of pictures of her with them, and the way they did it made her look like she was a willing participant,” Sage whispered.

“Why didn’t she go to the police? Why didn’t she charge them with assault?”

“Her mother talked her out of it.”

“What?” Cam stood rigid next to the window, the need to strangle someone so overwhelming that his fingers hurt. “Why? Why would she do that?”

“Because she convinced Grace that if she cried rape, they would turn it around on her, making the Sinclairs look bad. Mommy dearest couldn’t allow that to happen,” Sage said, scorn dripping from her tongue.

“Grace won’t prosecute this bastard even with all of this. It’s bullshit,” Cam raved.

“And I think he’s coming after her for more money, now that he knows she’s back where it all began. I don’t know if he’s trying to get a nice fat sum of money in his account before his fiancée figures out exactly who he is, or if the well has run dry from his job—but I think he’s trying to scare the crap out of her, make her weak, and then exploit her for all she’s worth.”

“Why wouldn’t he just demand more money? This doesn’t make sense,” Cam said, anger still ripping through him, but trying to calm down so he could think.

“I don’t know, Cam. I really don’t know, but there’s too much coming at her right now, and I don’t think she can handle anything else.”

“So the threats have nothing to do with the embezzlement,” Cam stated.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how any of this is happening to Grace. She doesn’t deserve it,” Sage said in a defeated tone.

“I’m going to solve this. I think it’s time Jimmy and I have a little chat.”

Cam couldn’t hear anything further. He needed action. Yes, he was a man of the law, but at this moment the law couldn’t help him. Although he had friends who could—no questions asked.

It was time to call them.

“Hi, Grace.”

Her spine stiffened at the sound of his voice. Disgust and shame all at once filled her. “Why, Jimmy? Why are you back in my life? Why are you calling me?”

“Aren’t you going to even ask how I got your number, darling?”

“I’m not your darling, Jimmy. I never have been, never will be,” she snapped.

“You’re just no fun at all, are you?” he mocked.

“Why don’t you tell your fiancée—I know you stole my number from her—that you’re a rapist and extortionist? I have nothing to say to you.”

“I wouldn’t hang up if I were you, Grace. I know that high-and-mighty tone. You think you’re so much better than me—that you always have been. But you see, I’ve managed to pull myself out of that trailer park I grew up in. I’ve managed to make a name for myself—and find me a real respectable whore to marry, even. A very wealthy whore, at that,” he said with a laugh.

“Then go back to your whore and leave me the hell alone,” she snapped, her fingers itching to hang up, but she knew this wouldn’t end until the filthy man said what he intended to say.

“I can’t do that. You see, she’s begun to grow suspicious that I’m not exactly who I say I am. She doesn’t think I’m quite as wealthy as I’ve implied.”

“So that’s why you finally came out from hiding behind your future bride and let me see your face—you want money.”

She fought to keep her voice even, to make it sound almost bored. What good would showing him emotion do her? None at all. It would give him power, and she was through with giving this man power over her.

“I need more money, darling. You know, not many people will want to hire an event planner who so willingly took slutty pictures when she was barely out of high school.”

Grace was silent as she counted to ten and then twenty silently. She’d promised herself she would never again let this man manipulate her, and she wasn’t going to do it this time.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Jimmy. You see, when I ran to my mother and told her I was raped, and she acted like it was my fault and made me go clean myself up before she was able to even look at me, I felt shamed and alone. I felt that way for years, until the day I walked into her bedroom and found her on top of you. Neither of you looked ashamed—you looked pretty damn hot for each other.”

“What does that have to do with your pictures, sweetie?”

“I didn’t pay you off because I was ashamed, Jimmy. I paid you off because my mother was ashamed. If you want to publish those pictures, you go right ahead and do that. But just remember that I know some pretty powerful people, and I figured something else out as the years went by . . .” She stopped, a smile creeping into her tone.

“And what is that?” The more she taunted him, the angrier he became. Good. She wanted him angry, because she was sure as hell pissed off.

“No one controls me. Try and use those pictures and I’ll have you in jail for slander, extortion, and rape.” She wasn’t bowing down to him ever again.

He was silent as he tried to comprehend what she was saying. She waited.

“You can’t do that,” he finally spluttered.

“Oh, yes, I can, Jimmy, believe me. I don’t know whether you still even have those pictures or whether you were smart enough to think of using them against me twice. But all the same, those pictures are evidence of what you did to me.”

“No, they aren’t, you stupid whore! They are consensual sex as far as the public will see it. I made damn sure of that. Your beautiful little face was posed just right—I placed your fat lips over my cock!”

“It’s not that I have fat lips, Jimmy; it’s that you have an incredibly small penis,” she said.

“That’s it. I’ll show the world what you really are.”

“You go ahead and do that. And then you’ll see exactly what I’ll do to you!”

The other end of the line was silent as Jimmy considered. She didn’t care. Finally, she was able to tell this scum he held no power over her.