Withholding Secrets (27 page)

I scrubbed my body quick and washed my hair with the shampoo and the conditioner that was placed in the full shower area. When I finished, I turned the water off and slid the door open, grabbing the towel that was waiting on the edge of the skin for me.

Instead of getting a reply about the missing girls and the sex ring, Chuck messaged back just to get rid of the kids if I knew what was good for me. Replying with a nasty message, I told him that I wasn’t and if he couldn’t answer me, then I would find someone else who would. I could crack this. I had to crack this myself.

There had to be something that linked the girls together. I understood that some kids just ran away from home, but there was something about these girls that was starting to bother me even more. Maybe it was just worry over nothing, but my boss had been following it, and Kane was more protective over Sky now than before. Maybe he knew something about it that he wasn’t telling me. That was my fault, too. I didn’t listen to the news or read the papers, because it was all disgusting anyway. I needed to now. I needed to pay closer attention to that stuff, being a parent now.

My mind needed to be cleared from all this jumbled mess. Maybe going out for a while wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The kids were fine with Kane’s parents, and he was right, they would take care of them and keep a good eye on them. And he loved us. He said it himself. He loved us so much that he was locking us up in his maximum security prison.

The phone lit with an incoming text. It was Chuck again, not willing to say anything except that I needed to get rid of the kids before I dug myself any deeper. What hurt the most was that he knew that I was incapable of having them and taking care of them.
They aren’t puppies, Keri. You can’t just get rid of them when you’re tired of having them around
, was the next incoming text.

“Baby, are you just…?” Kane shoved himself into the bathroom, his eyes shooting straight down to my naked body standing there. My glory. Right there. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me naked before, but still, I was a little shy about it. “Naked.”

Wrapping my arm across my chest and the other trying to cover my lady parts, I fought to pick my towel back up, but he was right there, right by me, his hands caressing over my skin and his lips brushing my shoulder. How in the hell did he do that?

One second, I was capable of maintaining control of everything inside of me, and the next, I was a complete mess; a pool of lava at his touch, at his look. All I could think about was him—that dark hair, bright green eyes, and that extremely handsome face of his. Ugh. How come every time that I looked at him, he had gotten even sexier? I mean, was that even possible? Why was it that, with him, I had completely lost my mind just with his touch?

“I don’t have to be down there right now. We have a little time.” His large bear claws nudged my hands away from my hiding and they spread over my bare stomach.

“I need to be back before the kids…”

One of his warm hands brushed against my already sensitive chest, causing my pulse to speed up, my breath to hitch, and my head to fall back, giving him complete access to my neck, right to the spot that he loved nuzzling. The volcano began to build up its pressures, and the urge to erupt came in fast. “The … I need … be home … kids … Kane.”

“You are mine tonight, Keri. All mine. My mom will stay with the kids, and they can stay at their place.” The nipping at the crook of my neck had my body straight to the verge of spewing the molten lava everywhere.

“I don’t think…” How could I even think when he was nuzzling that tender spot while touching my body in every sensitive spot that he knew? One hand was teasing my under carriage, and the other was working a complete frenzy on my chest. My head was dizzy, and all I could do was reach behind me and dig my fingers into the short black hairs of his head and beg for more.

“Yes, Keri. They can, and they will be fine. You need some time apart. Just let me take you out for a good time tonight.” His voice, muffled by tender flesh, was still deep and husky, insisting that more lava fill into the volcano. More than there ever has been. 

“You are so good to me. How did I ever find you?” I leaned into him, needing his lips on mine, his breath to breathe, but he pulled back. He pulled back, not having any mercy on me.

“I believe that
you
were the one who barged into my office like a mad woman. Then,
you
insisted on bringing out your wonderful crayon box, throwing colors at me. And
you
had shown up at my club after doing the unimaginable just to protect your family.”

I crinkled my nose, laughing as I pulled away from his hold. “Still bringing up the colors? Damn.”

“You have no idea how much I wanted to give you some colors that I am pretty sure aren’t in your special crayon box.” Cocking that dark left brow up, the devil slid across his face, forewarning me of the imminent attack.

My eyes opened wide as I slid past him, going out to the bedroom. He caught me with a few short steps and his hands cupped my body as he brought me down to the bed. My heart danced with the butterflies, and the heat intensified through my body. He felt so good pressed against me. “Kane.”

“We will get this straightened out, Keri. We will. Don’t worry about it.” His lips brushed mine softly, igniting even more flames inside of me as if there weren’t enough.

“Kane, either you are going to let me get dressed or make love to me. Whatever you chose, you better chose now.” Wiggling for a better position, the volcano bubbled some lava over and it ran to all the parts of my body.

His eyes widened as he hunched over me, wearing a wicked grin. “Whatever I chose?”

Nodding, a jolt of excitement rushed through me and crash landed right into the pool of volcanic action. Drawing my bottom lip through my teeth, I waited, but he made no attempts of doing anything. When I started to get up, he held me down as his eyes darkened even more. “Kane.”

“Oh, you just wait. I will make you beg like you have never begged before.” His mouth came down on mine with the severe hunger worse than before. Taking his sweet time, he nipped me, kissed me, and tortured me for the longest time until I was begging and on the verge of coming apart each and every time. When he finally gave in to joining me, it was so intense there was no way that I could even see or hang on. It was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life, and I was purely exhausted. Explosions were going off in every part of my body imaginable.

I hadn’t even realized that I dozed off until I felt the bed shifting. Kane was sitting on the edge with his phone pressed to his ear, and he was raking his hand through his messed hair.

“I don’t care what you do. Get it done now.” His tone was harsh and his shoulders were tense. Focusing my eyes in the darkness, I gasped as soon as I saw his back. Scratches were all over his beautiful back. Scratches that he hadn’t had prior to our wild love making. Reaching over, I brushed my fingertips over them, feeling the swelling in my chest. What had I done to his back? Reaching around, he put his arm over me and grit his teeth. “You better get it fixed. I will take care of this end.” Hanging up the phone, he tossed it onto the mattress and the ruffled up comforter.

“Is everything okay?”

“They said Joe has been around and he found out about the divorce and stopped it. Monday, you will be divorced and they will make sure that the papers are through and cleared.” His kisses had moved down to my neck as he shifted around, cuddling up next to me. “We better get up and get going.”

“I’m sorry about your back.”

“Keri.” He moaned as his nipped my shoulder and his hands massaged and caressed my bare skin. “You do that again and I will never let you out of this bed again.” Sliding off the bed, he collected my hands and yawned. “We have to get to the club.”

“Alright. Alright.” Pouting, I went back into the bathroom and looked at my phone, seeing the new message.
You need to give them up now or I will come and take care of it myself.
I texted back that I would take him out before I would let him disrupt our lives. It didn’t make me proud to threaten him because his intentions were just to protect me, but this was my life and my life was with those two kids who were abandoned right along with me. 

Donning a pair of black shorts and a red blouse, I fixed my hair up into a clip and gave myself a once over before I went back into the bedroom to see Kane looking sharp in his black silk, buttoned, long sleeved shirt that was tucked neatly in his best dark jeans with the crosses embroidered on the back pockets. Every woman in the club would be all over him, but I would be the only one to go home with him.

“You go in there and change right now.” His voice was stern, and his eyes sharp. Okay. Maybe I wasn’t dressed appropriately, but I saw what the women at the club wore and I was still wearing more clothing than them.

“What’s wrong with this?”

“It probably wouldn’t look very good if I were to kick the ass of every man that looked at you tonight.”

“And me kicking the ass of every woman who tried crawling over you would be any different?” I cocked my brow as I waved my hand at him and all his handsomeness. Just the sight of him made me want to drop my panties, my shorts, my shirt, everything, just to have him making love to me again. My heart was racing and the butterflies were fluttering wildly in my belly while thinking of what happened in that bedroom not that long ago.

“My eyes are only on one woman, and that is the one who I belong to.” Lunging for me, he snaked his arms around my waist and lifted me against him. “I’m not sure that I will make it very long tonight with you looking like this.”

“We don’t have to go.”

“We are going.”

“Maybe we could…” I motioned toward the bed with my eyes.

“We are going.” He kissed me and smiled. “I can’t promise that I won’t drag you off into the dark places and have my way with you a few times, but we are going.”

“Here would be…”

“We.” Kiss. “Are.” Kiss. “Going.” Long and deep kiss that was so full of love that it made me want to just rip the clothing from his body and have my way with him again.

Still, I needed to be careful. Those two kids that were my responsibility came first. Kane was right, though. I had to trust someone, and I hoped like hell that I could trust him. My selection of guys in the past, the two that I had, weren’t the right choices. Closing my eyes, I prayed that this wouldn’t turn out like those relationships. And those kids wouldn’t get taken away from me.

With Kane sound asleep, the tightening in my stomach had gotten worse as the week flew by. The texts from Chuck were getting more demanding and threatening if I didn’t give up the kids. Like hell I was. They were mine no matter what anyone said. I had their custody papers and my divorce papers in hand. Those two pieces of papers were gold, and I kept them locked up in Kane’s safe.

Checking on Sky, my heart skipped. I loved that little girl so much, and she was go wonderful. We had been playing games with her homework, and she was getting better on concentrating. Of course, when she had gotten worked up, everything was gone. Just yesterday, it had taken me over an hour to get her calmed down. Even Kane’s mother tried, but nothing was working. Ben even mentioned that she was faulting at basketball during practice and making bad mistakes; ones that she never made before. Something was getting to her and there was something she wasn’t telling me.

Walking into the dark room with the soft glow from the wall nightlight, a strong pang hit my chest as I sat on the floor next to her bed. What was going on with her? There had to be something that was throwing her off. This wasn’t my little girl who openly told me everything now.

Looking at her pink backpack, my gut knotted, and something was wrenching together the muscles in my chest. She knew that I would do anything to protect her, and I already had. Just the other day, she had gotten her period and actually came to me about it. We talked about it, and I could see the shame on her face. Still, she didn’t want Kane to know and I could understand that. She wanted to tell me what happened, but held back. I didn’t push either. When she was ready to talk about it, she would.

Something caught my eye in the side pouch. A light maybe? Glancing over my shoulder, I swallowed hard and slipped my hand into the pouch. Nothing like invading her privacy. If she found out, she would hate me for sure and I would instantly lose all the trust I built up with her.

My fingers wrapped around something that felt like a phone. Pulling it out, the rush of betrayal hit me. She had a cell phone. But where in the hell would she get a cell phone?

Kane. He probably got the kids phones for protection. He was so great to us, but he should have told me. I had the right to know, though I would have resisted. But with the missing girls, maybe she should have one just in case.

Tears burned my eyes as I saw the unknown number. Someone was texting her. Someone…

Please, honey. I miss you so much and I should have never left you. I was wrong, but I felt like I was failing you. Please, tell me where you are, Sky.

The air shot out of my lungs. My dinner was curdling in my stomach and insisting on coming out. It had to be Joe. Joe had gotten her number somehow. But, how? Looking through the last messages, that number only came once before, and this one had a reply.

I will make it up to Keri. I hurt her, too, and I am so sorry. I am sorry, baby. I walked out. I was wrong. You’re my little girl. I screwed up, honey. I did, and I am so very sorry. Please, tell me where you are. I need to know so that I can make everything better for you.

All she responded with was a no and ‘leave me alone’. Good girl. But, how could I bring this up to her? What if she told him where we were? What if she gave into him and something happened to her? What in the hell did I do?

I could tell Kane, but he would go after Joe and kill him. No. I had to do something. I had to … break my phone so I could get a new one, just like hers. That way, I could swap when no one was looking and retrieve that bastard’s messages.

I wanted my revenge on that bastard for doing what he did to us. He took our money. He walked out on us. He was in our home. If he thought for one second that he would get away with what he did to us, he was going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

Tomorrow, I would begin my destruction on that bastard. I would make damn sure that he never saw the light of day again. Even if it meant going beyond the law to take care of him. He was not going to get away with what he did to
my
kids.

Putting the phone back, I pulled myself from her room and went into the living room section. Easing my way through the darkness, I found Jordan’s door and checked on him. His book had fallen to the floor and he was sound asleep. God needed to give that kid credit for wanting to exceed like he was. I wasn’t going to get on him about studying after bedtime, but if it was affecting his school or his hockey, I would have to put an end to it.

Stopping in the living room, I caught the blinking light that was under the end table. A computer. A freaking computer! No doubt that Kane put there for the kids to use, and I was sure that it was protected, too. If they looked up any bad sites, five hundred police officers and FBI agents would be storming into the house. That was just how protective Kane was to us.

It was all a game. That was what I had been teaching Sky. Finding the dark corner, I tucked into it and opened the laptop. The blue screen lit, bringing my heart to beat faster and faster. I didn’t want any of them to wake up, but I needed to find out what was going on. I had to. The missing money, the break in, the divorce papers not going through, and now Joe was texting Sky. Not to count the information on the missing girls.

I was sorry, and I loved Kane with everything I had, but my kids were more important to me. If his ‘
services’
hadn’t found Joe yet, then I would. I wanted to teach that bastard not to mess with women. Especially this one. If he thought that he could just reel me in, dump his kids on me, and then expect me to just walk away from them, he was wrong. He was so very wrong.

Going through some backdoor ways I learned from a few of my brother’s computer textbooks, I wiggled into the connection to Joe’s phone through a messaging server. Moron. I wasn’t as dumb as I looked, now was I? Of course, if I was caught, then I would go to prison for computer hacking, but if my little girl was involved, then I would risk it. I just had to clear the damn computer before anyone found out.

And I could, too. I just had to remove everything and fry the hard drive. That would be the only way to cover my tracks. If I didn’t, they would think that it was Kane, and I would never let him go down for this. Besides, he could always buy another computer. It wasn’t much money to him.

He would hate me if he ever found out what I was doing, and what I was about ready to do.
Please, forgive me for I am going to sin. I have to do this. I have to protect my family.

Now, it was just waiting. Waiting…

My eyes burned. Resting my head back, I felt my chest tightening even more and my stomach churning rapidly.
God, forgive me. Kane, forgive me. I just have to know.
I couldn’t let anything else happen to Sky or to Jordan, or to Kane for that matter. Those three had been through so much in their lives. I would rather die than to let anything else happen to any one of them. The coloring on the screen changed and the loaded photo was gone.

Joe’s computer
:
As I said, I will have them next weekend. I give you my word. I have been watching them, and the blonde one has a routine and I can get her easily. The other one … she’s the one that I need to break first. If I get them, you better have the fucking money and means to make me disappear or I will not hand them over.

Unknown source
:
I am growing impatient with you. If I don’t have those two by next weekend, I will be coming to see you and you will pay.

Joe’s computer
:
Do you have buyers already for them?

Unknown source
:
Yes. And let me tell you, you will be a free man soon. They both will be bringing you a lot of money. I can’t wait to meet them. You better not be fucking me about them either, or you are as good as dead. Now, let me see them again.

The flash of the photo had come up just as quick as it disappeared. My heart stopped hard. Tears blistered my eyes. Covering my mouth with my hands, the scream wanted to come out, but I held it in, causing it to regurgitate in my stomach.

Unknown source
:
They better not be touched. If they have been, you will be done for.

Joe’s computer
:
Both are pure. Neither one is touched
.

Unknown source
: Better stay that way. These guys do not like used ones. What is the holdup with the dark haired one?

Joe’s computer
:
Nothing that I can’t fix.

Unknown source
: I better have them both in my hands by next Sunday. They will need that long before the party.

Joe’s computer
:
So, if I do this and deliver as promised, I want something in return
.

Unknown source
:
You will be paid and given freedom. What more do you want?

Joe’s computer
:
One for myself.

Unknown source
:
My friend, are you turning to our side now?

Joe’s computer
:
After that last party and seeing what goes on, yes. I am.

Unknown source
:
Then, we just might have to keep you around. Deliver as promised and I will assure you that you will not be sorry. You do not deliver and you know what is at stake.

Joe’s computer
:
I assure you that you will have your girls.

Unknown source
: What about that woman you were married to? She still getting in the way?

Joe’s computer
: She’s as dumb as a box of rocks. She will never figure anything out. That’s why I chose her. I can easily take care of her.

Unknown source
: I have someone who would buy her. Someone who really wants her. And believe me, for the shit that she put you through, she will get what she deserves.

Something flickered, sending me a warning. I knew what that was. Working as fast as I could, I keyed in the commands and fried the whole hard drive. My stomach was pushing upward, and the gritty guilt was piling up heavily in my throat.

What in the hell did I do? Any word of this and I would be thrown in prison for hacking through secure connections. Kane might be too, and then where would my kids be? God. This was the worst thing that I could ever imagine happening.

I knew what I had to do. I had to protect those girls at whatever cost to me. Just like now, I had to cover my tracks. I had to make damn sure that Kane would never get involved in this. I couldn’t risk him. I would need him when this all went down. I needed him to take my kids. They trusted him, and he was so good to them. He would take good care of them for me. For what I was about to do, if I survived, I would be sent straight to prison and I would never be able to see them again. But, I would get those girls back and keep them safe … at all costs.

I just needed to think of a plan that could work. I was up on the sale block, as well. But, Joe was after his own daughter to sell her on this market. If I managed to lure him in and take her place (I could pass as a teenager), I could take him down and beat the ring’s name and leader out of him.

***********

Rolling over, my heart sank hard as I found the bed beside me cold. Slipping out from under the covers, I let go of the breath I was holding, knowing she couldn’t have gone far. She couldn’t leave the house. The alarms would have gone off. Keri probably just went to check on the kids. Her and those two kids. Nothing was as perfect together as they were. And that little group was mine. All mine. And I loved it all.

Last night at dinner at my mom’s, I just sat back and admired my new life. Keri was working with Sky on her homework. Jordan would spout off equations to her, and she went right along with Sky trying to go over history and answering Jordan at the same time. When she caught on to what he was doing, she damn near went over the table after him. He was actually having her do his homework for him. And he had gotten away with it for ten problems before she caught on.

My mom just laughed at them. I could tell that she loved Keri already. Sky and Jordan, too. Sunday, we were going to have nothing but a family day, and for once, I couldn’t wait. This was my family now, my life. My dad had taken Jordan under his wing right away, and those two would go on talking about hockey just as he did with me. Jordan scored some new sticks, skates, better padding and gear, and even a fancy bag with his name on it to keep all his hockey items in.

Making my way out to the kitchen, I swallowed hard. Keri quietly emerged from the basement steps on her tippy toes. Just as she rounded the corner, she gasped loudly as her eyes shot to me quickly. Her hair was all messy and she was wearing my t-shirt and a little pair of black shorts. I could never get over the sight of her that night at my club, wearing my t-shirt and a pair of my boxers. Nothing had been sexier than that. And that, was all mine.

“You scared the hell out of me.” Her whisper drifted through the air as she pressed her hand to her chest.

“I woke up and you weren’t there.” Leaning against the counter, I smiled as my eyes drifted over her. Her shorts were barely peeking out from under my t-shirt, and the gash in her leg was damn near gone already. Putting herself through the pain just to keep that little girl protected still amazed me every time I saw that scab on her slender leg.