Rebound: Passion Book 2 (11 page)

She
was dressed like a typical teenager, something I’d stopped being about two
hours ago, in a halter-top and shorts. The thing with Patti had barely tipped
me over into adulthood, this shit, what I might have to do now to protect had
finally taken the shine off the once happy go lucky kid with the silver spoon
in his mouth and the world at his feet. My eyes had been opened and I didn’t
like
none
of what I saw.

I
looked at her standing there and it pissed me off that my first thought was to
get her back inside behind closed doors. This had been her reality for how
long, this hiding and barely existing while this sick fuck was living his life
free and clear? The report on the net had said that because their state had no
stalking laws at the time of the incident he had walked with a mere slap on the
wrist and a restraining order, which everyone knew wasn’t worth shit. He’d been
free to torment her while she and her mother had lived in fear no doubt.

I
crowded her in the doorway until she walked backwards into the room her eyes
never leaving mine. I tried to fix my face and dim the kill lights maybe a
little but I could see from her apprehension that I wasn’t doing a very good
job. “I know.” Her eyes fell to the envelope in my hand before her shoulders
scrunched up to her ears before they fell and she lowered her head as if in
shame. That too pissed me off.

Lifting
her chin I looked into her eyes hoping she could read what was in mine. It was
a fucked up situation all around. How could I ask her to trust me after
everything that she’d been through? We’d only just met, she knew next to
nothing about me, only that I’d stormed into her life and decided that she was
mine. That wasn’t about to change but I had to find some way of getting it
through to her that this was for real. That I meant everything I’d said to her
on that beach. Was that only a few short hours ago? Felt like a lifetime.

“You
have nothing to be ashamed of Kadyn, but now I understand certain things. I
want you to listen to me, as hard as this might be for you to accept you no
longer have to live in fear, I won’t allow it. I know you’ve felt cornered for
the last four years but that shit ends here and now. Tomorrow I’m taking you
home to meet my parents, if my words alone won’t convince you then being with
them will. What we love we protect, when you become one of us you gain the same
care as everyone else in the Steele clan. And we are a force to be reckoned
with believe me. So far it’s just been your mom and dad and their limited
resources, well now you have Nathaniel Steele in your corner and he’s no light
weight.”

She
had no idea what the fuck I was talking about, it was evident in the
questioning look she gave me but I figure it was best to just show her. I can
imagine that being given the run around all these years by the people who were
sworn to protect her had made her a little doubtful, but now it was my job to
see that she had all the protection she needed. I felt raw inside and although
all I wanted was to go home and dive into the file her dad had given me I
needed her more.

“What
were you doing before I called?” she looked back into the room where I could
see a puzzle of some sort laid out across the table. “I was playing with the
puzzle.”

“Fine,
I’ll stay with you for a little while before I leave. Now that I know the
basics Kadyn one day soon I want you to tell me everything.” She swallowed
deeply and nodded her head. “Aren’t you going to yell at me for going behind
your back to find out the truth?” She was suddenly very shy and unsure of
herself, which was understandable. I hope one day soon to break her out of that
shell. For some reason I wanted to see her like my sisters are, care free and
full of life.

“How did
you find out?”

“I
looked it up online. Don’t panic I was very careful there’s no way for him to
trace anything back to you. Tell me again why you’re so sure that he would even
know if someone went looking?”

“There
were things that he knew, things that he had no way of knowing unless he had
our phones tapped or my internet hacked. He used to contact me using different
user names, even when I changed my ID and password he’d still find me. Then he
started sending things to my friends using my handles so we figured he’d hacked
me. It got to the point where no matter what we did he would still find me.”

“Ssh,
it’s okay he’s not here now.” I hugged her close when her body started to
shake. Standing there in her father’s living room I asked myself what strange
twist of fate was at work here. My ex had turned out to be a monster
who
had set out to terrorize someone else and had almost got
her killed. And now my future was running from a monster set on destroying her.
Was she my redemption for the horror I’d unwittingly brought into my family?
Was this inexplicable rush of love that I was beginning to feel for her somehow
part of some master plan? Whatever it was it was now mine to deal with.

I
lifted her chin so I could reach her mouth for a long overdue kiss, one that
was meant to erase all the darkness of this day. I only meant to share some of
me with her, didn’t mean for it to become anything else but when she collapsed
into me, her body becoming pliant and soft I took it deeper feeding her my
tongue as my hands roamed her back down to her ass.

Careful
Matthew. I pulled back slightly and kissed her nose before setting her away
from me. “I know you’re not ready for anything heavy right now so I’ll take my
time, but know that in the meantime there’s going to be a lot of heavy petting
and make out sessions in your future.” I tried to make a joke of it to lighten
up the heavy mood that we were in. Again she hid her face in my chest and I
kissed her flushed cheek before leading her to the table with her puzzle.

I
sat with her for the rest of the afternoon keeping the conversation light so as
not to spook her any farther. I drew more information out of her without being
too obvious and the more she told me the angrier I became. It wouldn’t do to
show her my anger though, she’d been traumatized enough from what I could tell.
It was a wonder she wasn’t more fucked up than she was after the shit she’d
endured. No wonder she’d reacted the way she had that day on the sidewalk when
I walked up on her.

My
only purpose now was seeing that she was safe, that meant no more looking over
her shoulder, no more hiding out like a criminal. There’s no way I could live
with that. Now I see why Josh was as crazy as he was over his wife, why he had
that attitude of kill or die where she was concerned. Kadyn wasn’t going to
have any less from me, no matter how long it took I was going to make sure she
had everything a Steele woman deserved and no asshole pedophile was going to
rob her of it.

She
seemed to relax more as the day went on and I kept my touches to a minimum to
get her comfortable with me being that close. I couldn’t help touching her
though. If my hand wasn’t playing in her hair my finger was trailing down her
cheek. I stole two or three more light kisses as we sat there, each time
holding my breath that I wouldn’t do something that would set her off. I had no
idea what I was dealing with here.

“You’ll
come to me tomorrow? I’ll give you directions it’s not that far.”

“I might not be able to, dad
might need the car.” She looked so young as she looked up at me from her place
on the floor: young, innocent, and sweet. My heart constricted in my chest and
I had the wayward thought that if that shit happened every time I looked at her
it will be a lot of wear and tear on my old ticker.

“Fine I’ll come get you; don’t
be a female, be ready when I get here I hate waiting.” I added the last to get
a laugh out of her, which it did. I’d wait forever for her if I had to. Fucking
sap

It
was on the way home that I almost had a panic attack. I just realized I had no
idea how to date a woman. I knew the basics, flowers and candy and that type of
shit, but I was a boy when I started seriously dating my ex. Were the rules the
same? What was I supposed to do for her? If the females in my family were
anything to go by women needed a lot of fucking maintenance. Nothing I can’t
handle as long as I know what the fuck I was supposed to be maintaining.

I
went upstairs and dropped the envelope in a drawer, it didn’t escape my notice
that I wasn’t in any hurry to read that shit. There was a whole lot that needed
to be done there yes, but I also wanted to focus on her as much as on the
situation. I wanted to make up for the lost years, at least that much I knew.
Had she ever just gone to the movies with her friends? Or out for ice cream,
the usual teenage bullshit that girls did? Somehow I didn’t think so. That
would be my first order of business; I’m going to have to recruit my family to
help me with this. I’d already decided I was gonna need mom’s help in a big way
but it looked like it was going to be a whole family effort.

It
was almost dinner time by the time I got back so there was no time to talk to
Josh or dad about what I’d learned. Everyone gathered around the table and
though I could sense the questions and feel the stares no one asked or said
anything. I’m sure by now everyone knew what was going on because as far as I
know Josh didn’t keep shit from Carrie and dad and mom shared the same damn
brain so…

I
watched them covertly to see if I could pick up any tricks on this dating
thing, starting with Josh and his wife; felt like a fucking peeping Tom. I
nixed that idea in the first three minutes, the guy is a dictator; I never
noticed how much of one before. He watched what she ate piling more on her
plate when she didn’t take enough to suit him. I also realized that if the girl
kept rolling her eyes like that she was gonna need a new pair by the end of the
damn year.

“Joshua
I have enough how many times must I tell you I can’t eat all of this?”

“You need to build up your
strength babe remember what the doctor said?”

“This
would build up the strength of ten lumberjacks.” Everyone at the table started
laughing at their bickering back and forth.

Next
I checked out Nessa and the douche but nixed that too. It didn’t take long to notice
that she ruled that play. He catered to her every whim, but on farther
inspection she leaned on him a lot. I could maybe use bits and pieces from each
of them I guess. Mom and dad were a crazy mix of both. They were still into
embarrassingly whispering to each other and sharing secret smiles, holding
hands under the table.

“Did you
get what you need son?” dad’s voice brought me back to the present; my mind had
wandered off trying to process all this new information.

“What do you mean dad?”

“You’ve been studying us like
ants under a magnifying glass; trying to get pointers?” He had a stupid smirk
on his face as he said it.

“It
occurs to me that I might not know the first thing about dating.”

“What do
you mean? You had a girlfriend for four years son if anyone knows how to do it
you do.”

“Yeah but
this feels somehow different, like I have to do things in a whole new way. I
have the basics I guess but what is too much and what’s not enough?”

“Dude…”

“Shut up Josh. Mom I’m going to
need you.”

“What do
you need son?”

“She
doesn’t have a mother, I mean she has one but she’s out of reach for now so I
need you to be there for her like you are for Carrie and Nessa.” One of the
things I’d learned in my little digging expedition is that she couldn’t really
contact her mom because they were afraid that this guy had a bead on her and
any contact would tip him off to where she was hiding. He didn’t know anything
about her dad and that was the only reason he hadn’t found her as yet.

Mom
got a sad look on her face “Of course Matthew you know you don’t need to ask.”
I nodded my thanks and went back to eating. The conversation went back to
normal around me but my mind was full of her.

When
dinner was over I excused myself and headed for the privacy of my room to read
the report her father had given me. Tommy Bruno was a middle-aged businessman
who had fixated on Kadyn when she was a child of fourteen. He’d moved into the
neighborhood where she and her mother lived and had struck up a friendship.
According to the report everything had seemed on the up and up in the beginning
just a friendly guy seeing a single mother on her own and offering his
services. He would cut their lawn on the weekends and even pick up their mail
when they travelled out of town. Things took a turn when the mother Simone
noticed the unusual interest in her underage daughter and what she deemed
inappropriate touching. The young introverted girl hadn’t noticed anything
different or hadn’t known any better until her mother warned her and forbid her
from being alone with the over friendly neighbor who she had seen as just a
friendly uncle.

After
heeding her mother’s warning the gifts started. Bruno would hide and sneak the
young girl gifts of stuffed toys and chocolates, which he cautioned her never
to tell her mother about. When it was brought to Simone’s attention that the
older man had kept up contact after she’d warned him off she had confronted him
to no avail.

Things
got worst when the young Kadyn caught Bruno peeping in her bedroom window in
the early morning as she got dressed for school. A subsequent trip to the local
police station had garnered no help as there was no hard evidence against the
perpetrator and when questioned Bruno had stated that he was just passing on
the walkway between the houses on the way to his shed.

Then
followed four years of what is now known as stalking. He followed the young
girl everywhere including to and from school, on outings with friends and even
the local grocery store. With no help from the law the mother had done
everything she could to safeguard her daughter, putting bars on the windows,
changing her work hours so that her child was never home alone in the evenings.
They became hostages in their own home because of one man’s obsession.

Things
came to a head when him or someone sent pictures to Kadyn of her asleep in her
bed. From the angle it was evident that the person had been standing over her
when the picture was taken. The cops couldn’t prove that it was him because
he’d been careful enough to cover his tracks.

Simone
finally realizing that she couldn’t protect her daughter had called in the
father who had taken his daughter out of the situation. She was basically
living like a fugitive while her tormentor was walking freely. The state was
now making steps to update their stalking laws but it was too late for Kadyn,
her life had already been disrupted.