Just For You, Sir (Doms of Decadence) (20 page)

“Stephan
was the young colleague?”

“Yes.
Right away, he paid attention to me, he noticed me and for once my parents were pleased with me. It helped that Stephan seemed so charming and romantic. It was like he’d stepped right out of a romance book. He had a dominant streak, yet he could also be sensitive and caring. God, he had me fooled. I fell for him and I actually made my parents proud the day I married him.”

“Did you really fall for him or was it simply because for the first time you had your parents approval?” he asked.

She blinked, frowning. “Well, I’m not sure. A bit of both, maybe.”

“When he started abusing you, did you ever consider going to your parents for help?”

She blinked back tears. “No. I knew they wouldn’t help. They loved Stephan. As long as I was with him the relationship with my parents was better. Not great, but better.”

“Please don’t tell me that you stayed with him because of them.”

“Partly, maybe. I was too scared to leave him. I knew he wouldn’t let me go. I knew if I left that I would always be on the run, looking over my shoulder, afraid.”

“So what made you leave in the
end?”

She cleared her throat, her distress easy to see.

“Baby, we can wait to do this if you’re not feeling up to it.”

“No,” she told him,
holding his hand tighter. “I need to tell you everything. It’s just hard to remember. Stephan has this half-brother, Evan. We didn’t see a lot of him, thank goodness. He scared me, he was always watching me with these cold eyes. I knew he didn’t have much of a conscience and I could never understand why Stephan was so close to him.

“Stephan was
very big on image, he was forever dictating to me about the way to act and dress in public. Honestly, you’d have thought he was royalty, the way he carried on. Evan was coarse and rude, he dressed in jeans and t-shirts, watched football and when he drank he became more obnoxious. All things Stephan would never dream of doing. He wanted to promote himself as a perfect, upstanding family man. But then I found out exactly what Evan’s function in Stephan’s life was.”

She swallowed,
growing paler.

“Stephan had an assistant, Gerry. He was a nice man, well, he was always kind to me. Turns out, Gerry must have been gathering information about Stephan to blackmail him. I was supposed to be at my parents for a weekend visit, but they’d had to suddenly go to New York, so I came home early. No one heard me return, I guess. I thought no one w
as home. But as I walked toward the stairs, I heard this noise. For some reason I didn’t call out. I don’t know why, but I just tiptoed to Stephan’s study.”

Jacey li
cked her lips.

“T
he door was partially open. Inside…inside, Gerry was on his knees, his hands and feet tied. Evan had a gun held to Gerry’s head, while Stephan paced back and forth. Stephan was furious, I’d never seen him so angry. He was accusing Gerry of trying to blackmail him, of betraying him. He held this notebook in his hand. I don’t know what Gerry had on him, but it must have been significant for Stephan to be so angry.”

Chris
t. He knew where this was going. He could see her standing there, terrified, watching everything unfold.

“Gerry was crying, begging them to
let him go, not to kill him. I-I wanted to do something, but it was like I was frozen, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak.”

“If you’d tried, they’d have killed you.”

She raised her gaze to his. “They still might,” she whispered. “Gerry was trying to explain, making up excuses. Stephan was nodding, as though he were actually listening. Then he grabbed a lighter and set the notebook on fire before throwing it in the fireplace. He was asking Gerry if there was any more evidence. Gerry kept saying no. Evan told Stephan he was lying. Evan stepped around Gerry and kicked him in the crotch. He fell onto his side, choking and screaming. That’s when I saw his face. They’d beaten him up, well, Evan must have. Stephan wouldn’t have lowered himself to actually doing anything physical. Gerry’s eyes were swollen, his nose looked broken.”

Der
rick moved so he sat beside her. Leaning against the headboard, he pulled her onto his lap, holding her tight as he rocked her. Her body was shaking.

“Evan pulled him up
onto his knees and whispered something to him. Stephan crouched down and looked at Gerry, told him that he’d made a big mistake by crossing him. Then he turned away and-and Evan, he shot him. One shot, right in the head.”

Her eyes were wide, her breath coming in short, shallow pants.

Derrick held her closer. “Jacey, look at me. Look at me,” he demanded. Immediately, her gaze met his. “He can’t hurt you.” He didn’t make it a question. There could be no doubt in her mind.

She nodded.
Tears glistened in her eyes.

“Did they see you at the door?” he asked.

Jacey shook her head. “I thought I was screaming, but it must have been in my head because they didn’t turn to look at me. I-I stepped away from the room as quietly as I could. Then I left the house, got in my car and drove off. I just drove and drove. I stopped once and got some money out of an ATM. Then I drove again. When I was so exhausted I could barely think I checked in to a hotel under the name Jacey Reynolds and slept. When I woke up, I had to come up with a plan. I knew I had to disappear. So I sold my car and dumped my phone and all my ID.”

She rubbed her forehead tiredly and his heart ached at how alone and terrified she must have been.

“I knew it wouldn’t take Stephan long to figure things out. He would send Evan on my trail. I had about a thousand dollars and no idea what I was going to do. I figured I couldn’t do much without a social security number or ID, but I thought I might be able to get some sort of job, maybe rent a room. Start over. So I brought a bus ticket to Austin. I’d never been to Texas.”

“
You were very brave.”

“I was terrified,” she confessed. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.
I always figured that Stephan would find me eventually and kill me, but after I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to do whatever I could to stay alive, at least until the baby was born.”

“He’s not going to get to either of you now.”

“But he can’t let me live, Derrick. He must have found me. Evan was probably the one driving that car the other night. They’ll kill me when they find me, and anyone who is helping me. Anyone close to me is in jeopardy.”

“I’m not without my own resources. I know it must seem like Evan and Stephan are infallible, but they’re not. They’re just men.”

She shivered. “I’m not sure they are. They have no conscience. Evan actually smiled as he shot Gerry. He liked it. And Stephan, he’s not any better. He gets Evan to do his dirty work, but he’s just as evil. They have no honor. They don’t fight fair.”

“Oh, baby, neither do I. Not when it comes to protecting those I love.
Where I grew up you were either a leader or a follower. I always led. I know how to fight dirty and I know how to protect those I love. Now, tell me their names. Their full names.”

“Evan Sanders and Stephan
Worthington.”

Derrick frowned for a last moment. “Stephan
Worthington, I know that name.” Suddenly it hit him. “Jesus Christ, Stephan Worthington is the Illinois State Attorney General.”

She nodded. “Yes, and he’s planning on running for Governor. My full name is Jacinta
Worthington. My father is George Peters of Peters, Reynolds and James. He’s backing Stephan’s campaign. What I know would ruin him and my father and his family. You see why he has to get rid of me?”

He’d known her husband must be someone with connections, but he hadn’t realized
that he’d recognize his name. Stephan Worthington was good friends with the Vice President of the United States and had backing from a number of very prominent people. Shit, this would rock the State of Illinois and work its way up to Washington D.C.

But he didn’t give a shit about any of that. His job was to look after Jacey and their baby.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to let him or his brother anywhere near you. No matter who he is.”

Derrick sat back in his chair as he said goodbye to Roarke and ended the phone call. Jacey was upstairs sleeping. Christ, when he thought about what she’d gone through, he wanted to hunt down those two bastards himself.

But this required some more delicate
manoeuvring, which is where Roarke came in. His friend had some far-reaching connections. Roarke had immediately promised to contact an old friend of his who owned a security firm. Hunter Black was a former Navy SEAL and his employees all had a military or Government background.

Roarke had assured Derrick that if anyone could keep Jacey safe and investigate Stephan
Worthington then it was Hunter and his team. They’d be here in the morning. In the meantime, Derrick knew he wouldn’t be getting much sleep.

He stood up and paced across the room.

The more people who knew about this, the more danger Jacey would be in.

And any danger was unacceptable to him
.

***

Jacey walked down the stairs, hearing voices coming from the living room. She didn’t want to intrude on a private meeting, so she moved toward the kitchen, coming to a standstill as she saw a large man carving up some meat. Thick sandwiches were piled high on a plate beside him.

He turned to look at her and she almost stepped back out of the room. He wasn’t that tall, but he was stocky
. His tight t-shirt outlined the thick muscles of his arms and shoulders. His arm seemed larger than her thigh. A huge scar ran down the side of his face, the skin around it puckered, giving him a menacing look.

“W-who are you?”
A burglar wouldn’t be standing there so calmly making sandwiches.

“Friend of
Roarke’s.”

A friend of Roarke’s?
Where was Derrick?

“You hungry?” he asked.

“Ahh, yes, I guess,” she replied.

“Good. Pregnant. Special sandwich.”

“Umm, don’t go to any trouble,” she whispered, feeling like she’d turned a corner into the Twilight Zone.

He just grunted.

Jacey backed out of the room. She needed to find Derrick. Now.

She let out a
screech of surprise as she backed into something hard and unyielding. She turned. Ice-blue eyes stared down at her, analyzing her. Her heart in her throat, she could only stand there, staring back.

If she
were smart, she’d be running the other direction right now. But she had a feeling she wouldn’t get far.

“Derrick’s looking for you,” the entirely too scary man said. “Come into the living room.”

He turned away as though fully expecting her to follow him. “Who are you?” she whispered.

“Hunter,” he said over his shoulder as though that explained everything.

With a shake of her head, Jacey followed him down the hallway toward the living room.

“Jacey!”

She turned to find Derrick walking toward her, a look of intense relief on his face. He drew her into his arms.

“Christ, when you weren’t upstairs in our room, I almost had a heart attack,” he told her.

“Sorry, I woke up hungry so I thought I’d come down for something to eat.”

He ran his hand over her hair. “
How are you feeling?”

“Better,” she told him.

“Good. Come into the living room. I want you to meet some people.”

“Umm, yeah, I think I’ve already met a couple
of them. Are you holding an annual bad-ass meeting or something?”

Derrick let out a surprised laugh. Tension drained from his body just as she’d hoped.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say the word ass before.” He placed an arm over her shoulder, bringing her closer to him as he led her to the living room.

As they entered,
Hunter sat beside another large man who was working on a tablet. A third man sat hunched over a computer that was set up on a table in a corner of the room. He didn’t bother to look up.

“She doesn’t obey very well, does she?” Hunter said with disapproval
, searing her with those icicle eyes.

“Depends on who’s doing the ordering,” she replied
angrily. No way was she going to be bullied by him, no matter how scary looking he was.

Hunter raised a brow, his eyes flickering over her again as though reassessing her. “Well, you’re going to have to learn how to follow my orders
, and quickly, sweetheart.”

She glanced up at Derrick in confusion. Who were these guys?

Derrick took her hand, leading her to the sofa across from where Hunter and the other man sat.

“Jacey, this is Hunter Black
. He owns a security firm. I’ve hired his firm to help protect you and to investigate Stephan.”