The Only Shark In The Sea (The Date Shark Series Book 3) (20 page)

The first sign of emotion showed as tears began rolling down her cheeks. “It was so innocent at first. Him taking my hand, touching my cheek, a chaste kiss. It was the first time I had ever felt tenderness like that. It was the first time someone other than my parents had touched me purposely—and I hadn’t been touched by them in so long I craved what he was offering. We only had a few minutes after school each day, but he wanted more. He kept pushing me to meet him, sneak out at night, or lie about where I was going. He didn’t understand why I wouldn’t even try. Eventually he got tired of waiting.”

Vance and Peter both tensed as the most likely conclusion to her story of young love flashed through their minds. Vance had originally suspected long-term physical abuse. When she’d denied it, rape had been his next guess. He had hoped so badly that he wasn’t right, but now he feared those dark guesses were about to be confirmed.

“I don’t know how he knew both my parents were going to be gone that day. My father was delivering an order in another town two days before graduation. My mother had been at a meeting for something to do with the graduation ceremony. I was cleaning my father’s shop and it had to be done by the time he returned. When Thomas walked into the shop, part of me was thrilled to see him, but I was scared of not finishing the cleaning and being punished. He knew how harsh my father was, so he helped me clean so it would get done faster and we could spend time together. He said everything would be fine.”

Peter glanced over at Vance, looking for some kind of explanation, but he had none to give. This was all new to Vance. It seemed odd that this Thomas guy would help her clean the shop before raping her, but he had no choice but to listen and wait for an explanation. In the same boat, Peter turned back to Natalie.

“I was extremely sheltered,” Natalie said quietly, “but I knew about sex. I knew what he wanted, and even though I was scared, I wanted it too. I wanted to
feel
like someone actually cared about me. I followed willingly when he led me back to my bedroom and started kissing me. Maybe part of me thought it was the only chance I’d ever have to be with someone like that.” She shook her head and more tears fell. “Neither one of us heard the front door, but I knew my life was over when my bedroom door flew open and I heard the rage in my father’s voice.”

Peter moved forward on the couch. “So, Thomas, he didn’t rape you?”

Looking perplexed and a little startled, Natalie came out of her fog enough to answer his question. “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “It was consensual.” Her expression darkened immediately, though, and her body drew in on itself. “Not that the truth stopped my father from threatening to tell everyone it wasn’t. It didn’t stop Thomas from blaming me in the hopes of escaping my father’s wrath, either.”

Vance and Peter both blanched at the news of Thomas taking the coward’s way out and hurting her so badly, but Peter avoided mentioning it and moved on with his questioning. “Was your father trying to protect your reputation?” Peter asked. His voice was laced with confusion, something Vance shared. Protecting Natalie’s—or Clara’s, as she was then—reputation didn’t sound like something her father would be concerned with.

Scoffing, Natalie’s fingers twisted into fists. “Protecting me didn’t even factor into his mind.” Her chin quivered, but the anger in her eyes held back another round of tears. “When he found Thomas in my bed…Thomas wasn’t released from the hospital until three days after graduation. His father thought he could stand up to mine, press charges, finally get rid of him, but the second Thomas’s father brought up the police, mine threatened to tell everyone Thomas had raped me.”

Something broke in Natalie and heavy, regretful sobs shook her entire body. “I never would have lied for him. I wouldn’t hurt Thomas like that, even though he didn’t protect me like he said he would. Nobody believed I would stand up to him, though. Thomas’s father backed down immediately, but that only meant my father’s attention was back on me.” Holding onto Gypsy with one hand, Natalie swiped at her tears with the other. “He stormed back into the house like a demon gone mad. My mother had already locked me in the basement like he’d told her to…waiting for him to return and punish me. That was the first time I saw her look truly afraid of him. She cowered behind him when they came down into the basement and didn’t try to stop him from grabbing me and dragging me up the stairs and outside.”

“Did he hurt you?” Peter asked as he scribbled notes on his pad of paper.

Natalie’s face twisted. “Not in ways that left bruises.”

“What did he do to punish you?” Vance asked without looking at her. He was afraid to see the depth of the pain inflicted by her father, but the longer she remained silent, the guiltier he felt for hiding. When he finally looked up, her eyes were there, connecting with his as though she were waiting for some shared strength that would enable her to divulge her worst experience.

Swallowing hard, her eyes stayed locked with his as she spoke to only him. “He didn’t care about my reputation. He wanted everyone to know what I’d done.” The trembling that had started in her chin extended out to her arms and hands. “Our front porch faced the main road through town. It was the perfect place.”

Sitting across the room from her when she was in so much pain was torture, but Vance didn’t dare interrupt or risk causing her more pain in an attempt to comfort her like he might anyone else.

“His pocket knife tore through my clothes in seconds. He left nothing. I hadn’t even seen the rope in his back pocket until he shoved me against the rail post and began tying it around my body. That’s where he left me for two days after telling me that no one would ever touch me again, that no one would want to touch me once they knew what a whore I was.” She maintained eye contact with Vance, but they had gone vacant again, disassociating herself from the memory in an effort to block out the humiliation and pain she had been forced to endure.

Peter swore softly and shook his head. His gaze slid from the statuesque Natalie to his notepad where he scribbled a few more hasty notes. Even after he finished writing, he didn’t speak for a long time. Gypsy squirmed in Natalie’s lap, trying to snuggle closer to her hurting friend, but she had completely shut down by then and wouldn’t respond to him in any way.

The next time Peter spoke, it was to Vance rather than Natalie. “Tell me about the call and letter,” he said quietly so as not to disturb Natalie.

“The call,” Vance said after a worried glance at Natalie, “I didn’t hear myself, but she told me it was her father and he demanded she come home to face the consequences of her actions. He said they had been searching for her for seven years, and now that he’d found her, she wouldn’t be able to escape her punishment any longer.”

Peter looked back at Natalie. She sat staring blankly ahead with her arms wrapped stiffly around Gypsy. Frowning, he looked back to Vance. “And the letter?”

Rather than explaining, he handed the sheet of paper over. It didn’t take long for Peter to read it and drag a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know what to think when you called. No offense, but one phone call and a letter from her father didn’t sound like much to go on.” He shook his head. “After hearing the rest of her story, I can’t believe this guy is still running around free. What kind of sick bastard ties his teenage daughter to the porch and leaves her there just because she had sex with her boyfriend? I’m all for teen abstinence, but that’s child abuse. And no one did anything to help her?”

It was sickening to even contemplate such a thing could happen. Knowing it
had
happened…hearing Natalie’s empty voice recount such a tragic event in her life, made him regret eating breakfast. If touching her at all wouldn’t have sent her even deeper into herself than she already was, Vance wouldn’t have let go of her for the rest of the day, maybe longer. All he wanted to do in that moment was wrap his arms around her and erase all the internal scars she tried so hard to hide.

“It’s a miracle she functions as well as she does. Something like that would have broken someone weaker,” Vance said.

“Days like this make me lose faith in humanity in general,” Peter said grimly.

Vance started to nod in agreement, then frowned and shook his head. “But people like Natalie restore that faith. She’s so strong, and she doesn’t even recognize it in herself. She thinks she’s weak for running away and hiding, but she did what most are too scared to actually do.”

His eyes were pulled back to Natalie. Her empty expression had softened into one of sleep brought on by the need to escape. The emotional hell he had just forced her to endure was too much on her system and she’d retreated, but that wasn’t entirely unexpected. He hated that she’d had to even think about it, let alone relive it, but now he and Peter both understood the danger she was facing. They could protect her now.

“If she’s not willing to go in front of a judge with all of this, getting a restraining order will be difficult,” Peter said.

Vance shook his head, even though he had been the one pushing that very thing earlier that morning. “I don’t think she can handle going through this again.”

Nodding in agreement, Peter said, “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she’s watched out for regardless.” He stood and handed Vance a business card. “Make sure she has my number in her phone in case she needs something when you’re not here.”

The assumption that Vance would be in Natalie’s apartment on a regular basis made him hesitate in taking the card. “I’m not sleeping with her,” he said, defensive even though he wasn’t entirely sure why. So what if he was involved with Natalie? Guilt twisted his gut, because he knew there was more than one reason getting involved with Natalie would cause disapproving looks.

“I know,” Peter said calmly, “but I can see that you care about her a lot and want to keep her safe.” He extended the card again until Vance finally took it. “I’m sorry I judged you before. Stephanie was a great girl, but sitting alone in your apartment drinking all day isn’t going to help you deal with losing her.”

Grimacing, Vance’s head dropped. “You called Guy, didn’t you?” Vance should have remembered that Peter and Guy had become friends over the years thanks to his work on the psychiatric floor of the hospital and his frequent involvements with the local police.

Peter sighed. “You sounded a little frantic when you called this morning and Guy had already asked me to keep an eye on your building since you were refusing to talk to anyone. I wasn’t sure what was going on and I was worried.”

“I really am doing better,” Vance promised. “And I’ll call Guy later and apologize for dropping off the planet since the funeral.”

“Hey, everyone understands you needed time to process things. They’re just worried.” He looked back at Natalie for a moment. “Watching out for Natalie gives you something to do, something to focus on, and she really needs it. If something more than that develops between the two of you…nobody’s going to fault you, Vance.”

Vance narrowed his eyes, remembering all too well Peter’s earlier reaction. “Oh really?”

Holding up his hands in defense, Peter said, “I’m sorry. I really am. It just took me by surprise to think you were already involved with someone else. For whatever reason, Natalie was the only one capable of getting you to sober up and leave your apartment, and that can only be a good thing.”

Not sure how to respond to that, Vance didn’t say anything at all.

“I’ll talk to a few others and let you know what we can do to make sure Natalie’s protected, okay?” Peter gripped Vance’s shoulder to reassure him. “You’ll stay with her for a while, I’m guessing?”

“She’s off work until Monday. I’ll…” Vance trailed off, not sure what answer he was trying to give. Going back to his apartment made his chest constrict even though he knew Stephanie’s things had been packed up. Natalie hadn’t asked him to stay, and probably didn’t even want him there. “I’ll be around to make sure she’s okay,” he finished awkwardly.

This time, there truly was no judgment in Peter’s expression or tone as he told Vance he’d be in touch soon and took his leave. After the door closed behind Peter, Vance reached forward automatically and turned the deadbolt. Then he just stood there, unsure of what to do next. Natalie had taken off work to keep an eye on him, but now he was the one trying to protect her. But how? Would she really put up with him in her apartment for that long? He didn’t even have a toothbrush or clothes. Eventually he’d have to go back to his apartment, but the longer he put it off the better in his mind.

Making a decision he wasn’t entirely sure was the best, he found his phone and dialed Guy’s number. After nearly ten minutes spent reassuring him that everything was all right and Vance hadn’t disappeared off the face of the earth, he was finally able to make his request. There was only relief and no judgment when he asked Guy to pick up a few things from his apartment and bring them to Natalie’s. Maybe Guy was just better at hiding it than Peter had been at first, but then again, Guy had been the one to ask Natalie to stay in contact with Vance in the first place.

He hung up a few seconds later and turned back to the living room to figure out what to do about Natalie. Slumped to one side in the armchair, he knew she was going to wake up sore and stiff if he left her there. Touching her seemed like such a foreign thought, he almost tossed away the idea of moving her to her bed as soon as it formed, but as he stared at her, exhausted and hurting, he couldn’t just leave her there.

It was more than the fact that she looked incredibly uncomfortable. What she had said about everyone being too afraid of her father to touch her, of never knowing tenderness or kindness until Thomas risked her father’s wrath to be with her, and especially of his parting promise after tying her to the porch railing that no one would ever want to touch her again, Vance
needed
to touch her. He needed to show her that not every touch would lead to pain and sadness.