Underestimated (26 page)

“Your wife was a cop too?” I asked. I never knew

that. I had seen a picture at his house once of a graduating

class, and I assumed one of the two females was her, but

had no idea that she was an officer. I was shocked that

Lauren never mentioned it. Not that she was much on

gossip, but she would answer my questions. I guess I

never asked what his wife did.

“Yes, she was a cop or
is
, I should say. She went

back home to Chicago after one year here. Her dad was

also a cop, so she knew that there was more action than

writing parking tickets in some small hick town.”

“I like this small hick town,” I smiled up at him.

He carried a heavy heart. I could see it in his eyes.

“I need for you to talk to me, Ry.”

“I’m not telling you who he is, Dawson,” I assured

him.

“Then don’t, but I need some answers.”

I took a deep breath. I owed it to him. There was

nothing that I could tell him that would scare him away. If

he was going to run, he would have done it before now.

“What do you want to know?” I asked, turning

back to lie on his chest. It was easier not to look at him

when I talked about my past. I didn’t want to see the

disgust on his face.

“How did you spend your days there?”

“Most days were good. He traveled a lot, so I

spent most of my time either alone or with Rebecca.”

“Tell me about Rebecca. She knew. She knew that

you were there against your will. Why didn’t she help

you?”

“Rebecca helped me in more ways than you could

ever know. I don’t know that I would have survived

without her.”

“How old was Rebecca?”

I’m not sure why that mattered, but I answered.

“She was probably in her mid-thirties when I first got

there.”

“And she was just the help there?”

“She was more than the help. Her only job was to

take care of me.”

“What do you mean take care of you? What did she

do?”

“Hmm, a little bit of everything I guess. She made

my appointments for my hair, dress fittings for his stupid

dinners, made sure that I had my birth control shots. She

cooked for me too, but I think that was because she liked

to do it. I remember her always being close by. I used to

ride around the property on one of the golf carts, and

sometimes I would see her in a distance checking to see

where I was.”

“Were you able to talk to her?”

“Not much. Every room in that house had cameras,

and he could hear everything that was said. Sometimes she

would ride with me on the cart, and we would talk, but she

was always afraid to say anything.”

“Why would she work for a man like that?”

“Rebecca too, came from the same side of the

tracks as I did. She grew up very poor and never had

much. She was waitressing in a diner in some small town

when Drew approached her about working for him. I don’t

think she really knew what she was getting into, and I think

she too was afraid of him. She had a five year contract to

take care of me. He would give her, her own suite, take

care of all of her needs, and once her contract was up, she

would be paid a half a million dollars for her time. I guess

Drew thought that five years would be enough time to train

me.”

“So she too was weak. What a coward. So she left

before you?”

“No, she signed another one year contract. I think

she was afraid to leave me. She was the one that came and

put me back together when he decided to come home

pissed off and take it out on me. But she was leaving

shortly after I left. I hope she did,” I added.

“How often were you…”

“Punished, you can say it,” I said, finishing his

sentence.

“You were a grown woman. You shouldn’t have

been punished.”

I ignored that part. “It depends. Sometimes I would

go months without any encounters. He would come home

and do his thing with me and leave me alone. Other times,

mostly when I had to go out with him,” I added. “I always

said something or looked at someone or something that he

made sure that I was going to be punished for.”

“And this Derik prick, did he leave you alone?”

I snorted. “No. Once I was trusted enough to go out

and shop or go to the library, Derik had to be the one to go

with me. He always made sure that he took a back way

home, but I did become friends with his wife Jena and was

occasionally allowed to go out to a show or to eat with

her.”

“You couldn’t talk to her?”

“And tell her what, Dawson? Hey, your husband

has sex with me, and I am living in this mansion with

everything that a woman could want with this good

looking rich guy against my will. We didn’t talk about

personal things, well I didn’t anyway. She did. I used to

be absolutely repulsed when she would giddily tell me

about their sex life.”

I almost felt bad thinking about it. I said, almost. I

did start to somewhat enjoy sex with Derik. Not that I

liked him or anything. I hated the slime ball, but at least he

would let me finish. He loved for me to come and tried to

make sure that I did every time, unlike Drew who used it

to torture or punish me when I did.

“So you were getting raped by not only Drew but

his business partner as well.”

He didn’t say it like a question. He knew what it

was.

“Not for long with Derik. I got up enough nerve

one night and told Drew that I thought Rebecca should go

along the next time I was going to the library. I told him

that I didn’t think it looked good to be running around the

city with him so much alone. The bastard agreed. He made

sure that Rebecca was with me from that point on.”

Our deep conversation was interrupted by none

other than my annoying neighbor.

“I’m making coffee. You guys going to sleep all

day?” Lauren called from the kitchen.

We both laughed.

“Why don’t you have any leftovers in here?” she

asked as I made my way out to meet her.

“We had pizza at the shop last night, remember?”

“Yeah, but what happened to that lasagna?”

“You ate that yesterday.”

“Great, now I’m going to starve,” she pouted.

“Or you could go home and cook. Hey, I know.

How about you cook once and let me come over and eat

your leftovers?”

Lauren laughed. “Nah, I kind of hate that idea.

What are you guys doing today? Wanna go hangout at the

mall?”

“No. We’re staying in today,” Dawson said,

joining us. I knew then that our conversation wasn’t over.

“You guys are pathetic. You act like you’re forty

or something,” she stated.

“I am forty,” Dawson said. I laughed. He wasn’t

forty. He was only thirty.

I made us all breakfast and noticed how Dawson

kept staring at me. It wasn’t his sexy, I want you stare. It

was more of a trying to determine whether or not I was

okay kind of stare. I wasn’t okay, and was beginning to

wonder if I ever would be. Some days I did think I was

okay, and couldn’t be better. Other days, like that day,

made me question that.

I smiled a warm smile at him. He returned it.

After Lauren left we got dressed and walked down

the path to the beach. It was chilly but not too bad for

October in Maine. Dawson held my hand as we walked.

He was quiet, and I didn’t quite know what to say. We

spoke to John, out for his daily walk with his dog, and then

sat in the sand. The sand was warm from the sun. It felt

nice, therapeutic.

“I want to know how you got here, Ry.”

I knew it was just a matter of time before the

questions continued. I picked up a handful of warm sand

and let it funnel through the bottom of my hand. I looked up

to him, and he leaned in and kissed me.

“Please talk to me,” he begged. “I think maybe

getting it off your chest will help.”

“It doesn’t help, Daw. It makes me relive it.”

“I need to know, Ry.”

“Because you need to decide whether or not you

should marry me?” It wasn’t actually a question. I was just

stating a fact.

“I am marrying you, Riley Murphy. I love you. But

we have been together for over a year, and I know that

there is so much that you haven’t disclosed. Why won’t

you tell me?”

“Why did I ever get involved with a cop? I should

have gone out with Levi. He probably wouldn’t care about

my past. But nooo. I had to go fall in love with someone

with investigating training.”

“Investigating training?” Dawson said light

heartily with a smile. I smiled back. I couldn’t help it. He

was just too darn cute.

I took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know everything, but right now I just

want you to tell me how you left. What made you decide to

leave?”

“Remember that I told you that Rebecca started to

go everywhere with Derik and me?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well, after a few times. Derik stopped stalking

me in the library. He was pissed that he couldn’t get me

alone anymore, and pretty much pretended that I didn’t

exist.”

“Did Derik always drive you?”

“Mostly, I think he was the only one that Drew

trusted. Drew gave me a cellphone so that he could track

my whereabouts and call when he wanted.”

“Did you drive?”

I snorted. “No. I did get my driver’s license when I

turned twenty one. I’m not sure why. I was never allowed

to leave without Derik, Rebecca and sometimes Jena, but

if I was with Jena, either Derik or Drew himself

followed.”

“And Rebecca?” he asked.

“We were in the library right after Drew had

agreed to keep her on for one more year. I was looking for

a book that I had been waiting to come out. It was the third

in a series.”

I smiled, when I noticed that Dawson wasn’t the

least bit interested in the book that I had been so excited

about.

“Anyway, I looked up, and Rebecca was giving me

some sort of strange look. We were never close, like in

talking about anything personal. We talked, but she would

mostly just listen. I think she was afraid of what Drew

would hear.”

“What, Rebecca,” I asked.

“You need to leave, Morgan,” she stated, and for

some reason I knew that she wasn’t talking about leaving

the library. I feigned ignorance anyway.

“I have twenty more minutes,” I stated.

“You need to leave Drew, Morgan. I am going to

help you. We have nine months to get you out of there, and

I will be gone. I don’t think I would ever forgive myself if

I left and didn’t at least try. I may end up dead, but at least

I would die without a guilty conscious.”

“Rebecca, you know that I can’t just leave. I can’t

even leave the house without a babysitter. I have nowhere

to go. I wouldn’t go back to where I came from. He would

just find me.”

“We are going to figure it out. I promise, Morgan.”

I kept looking to Dawson, trying to read his face.

Every time that I did, he leaned in and kissed me.

“So, how did you two scheme up your

disappearance?”

“We never talked about it again for a month. Drew

had beaten me pretty good one evening, and the next day

she brought it up again while she brought me food.”

“Why did he beat you up?”

“I thought you wanted to know how I got out.”

“I want to know it all,” he insisted.

I turned my gaze back to my little mountain that I

had been forming from funneling sand through my hand.

“I had to go to another one of his events,” I started

with a heavy sigh. I hated Drew’s events, dinner parties,

and prospect meetings. I knew what it meant. I was never

going to make it through one of his engagements without

messing up. He knew it. He thrived on it. He knew that we

would come home, and he would play his sick games with

me. That was really the only time that he raised a hand to

me. It was inevitable. I would screw up somehow.

“I was having my hair and makeup done when he

came into to check on my progress. He was rushing me, or

the stylists, I guess. I wasn’t intended to go to this

particular event. I overheard him telling someone that I

wasn’t feeling well, and I wasn’t going to be able to make

it. He then went on to suck up to whoever was insisting