Loving Attention

by Becca Van

  “And since no one but Father and Vinnie”—Kat spat out the last word—“has keys to our rooms, there’s no way they can blame Rosita.”

  Niki nodded even though she wasn’t sure she believed that Rosita was safe. When their sperm donor was in one of his drunken rages, no one was safe. Not even the slimy weasel Vinnie. However, her father and his right-hand man were like two peas in a pod. Matteo Russo, her and Kat’s father, treated Vinnie like the son he’d never had.

  “Tell me what Father did,” Kat demanded.

  “He told Vinnie that I was his.” Niki sucked in a deep breath and tried to quell the tears burning her eyes. She continued when she had her emotions back under control. “Dear old Dad was trying to get Vinnie to sell him his Ferrari. Vinnie refused, but then he changed his mind. The asshole decided he wanted me and traded his car to get what he wanted.”

  “Oh. My. God.” Kat covered her mouth with horror as moisture filled her eyes. She gripped Niki’s hand tighter. “Did he hurt you? Did he rape you, Niki?”

  Niki shook her head. “No. The deal had only gone through the week before I escaped. I think Vinnie thought he was trying to seduce me. He’d catch me in the hallway, pin me up against the wall, kissing and groping me. I tried to push him away and told him no, but he wouldn’t listen. Rosita interrupted a couple of times.”

  “Thank God for Rosita,” Kat murmured.

  “Yeah. She interrupted on purpose, saving me,” Niki said. “Other times she was nowhere near.” A shudder of revolted fear skated up her spine.

  “What did he do?” Kat whispered.

  “He stripped m-me and he…he shoved his fingers inside me while biting my nipples.”

  “That fucking bastard,” Kat shouted, jumping to her feet before pacing away. She spun back around to face Niki. “I’m going to kill him.”

  Niki wiped a couple of stray tears from her face as she snorted. “Get in line.” Kat was the least violent person she knew, other than herself and Rosita, but Niki knew a person in danger was capable of anything. She’d tried to fight Vinnie off, but he’d just laughed, tethered her wrists in one of his big hands, and kept doing whatever he wanted to her. If it hadn’t been for her father calling for his asshole 2IC, that fucker would have already raped her. Vinnie had been so angry at being interrupted he’d slapped her across the face before locking her in her room.

  The next morning while serving the fucking bastard’s breakfast with Rosita, she’d tripped and ended up dropping a plate full of food on the floor. Since her old man had still been drunk from the night before, was actually still drinking at the breakfast table, he’d lost his temper.

  He grabbed hold of her hair, forced her onto her knees, and shoved her face into the food on the floor. Then he’d started kicking and punching her. Niki thought she’d been going to die. Once he’d tired himself out, he ordered her to clean up the mess and make him a new breakfast. Rosita had turned to walk over to her and help her to her feet, but Niki had given her a slight shake of her head, warning the other woman off. She hadn’t wanted Rosita to end up in her father’s line of fire. It was bad enough that she’d copped a hiding for an accident.

  When she’d finally managed to stand after cleaning off the floor, she’d gazed toward Vinnie to find him smirking. It was only when he’d started tapping his foot that she looked at it and fathomed he’d tripped her up on purpose.

  Niki had decided that she was leaving that night. If she hadn’t, she would have been repeatedly raped and beaten. That was something she wasn’t sure she’d be able to endure. There was no way she would have been able to look at herself in the mirror ever again.

  Niki had decided that if she couldn’t escape, she would rather die, but then she’d thought of Kat. Her wonderful, loving sister all alone out in the big wide world. Kat had looked after Niki as much as she could in a dictatorial, abusive household.

  She’d known her sister wouldn’t have been able to live with the guilt of leaving her behind if she’d died.

  As she’d cooked her father his fresh breakfast, she’d caught Rosita gazing at her from the corner of her eye. Rosita had winked at her, the signal they’d devised to tell each other that time had run out.

  “I wish we could go back and save her,” Kat said.

  That was the moment Niki comprehended she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. “I do, too. What I want more, though, is to go to the police and rat out that fucking bastard who created us and his evil prick of an offsider. They need to pay for what they’ve done.” She stared into Kat’s green eyes. “I wish I’d been able to get some evidence of their criminal activities, but I didn’t get the chance.”

  Kat glanced to her left.

  “Kat, did you find something we can use to incriminate them?”

  Kat drew in a shaky breath and nodded.

  “Have you shown the police?” Niki asked.

  Kat shook her head, biting her lower lip. “I was waiting for you to escape first,” she said. “I didn’t want any of the assholes pointing their fingers at you and trying to kill you. If the cops had stormed in, you could have been shot or killed in the fray.”

  “Thank you,” Niki said as she pulled Kat into her arms. “Thank you for loving me and protecting me. I love you so much, sis.”

  “I love you, too.” Kat hugged her tight.

  Niki drew back. “I think it’s time we took a stand against the bullies who’ve made our lives a living hell.”

  “It is, but I don’t think it’s wise for us to let on who we are.”

  “You’re worried that the crooked cops on Father’s payroll will pass on where we are and what names we’re using.”

  “Yes.”

  “Is there any way we can set up a fake email account and email the files to the cops?”

  “I think that’s the only way,” Kat said.

  “What if the police can trace where the email has come from?”

  “I’m not sure if they can,” Kat answered. “Probably, but I think it’s a risk we’re going to have to take. We’ll send the information to the Slick Rock Sheriff’s Department. They’re the only law enforcement officers I think we can trust.”

  “Have you looked at the files?” Niki asked.

  “No. I couldn’t…I didn’t want to know how evil our father truly was.”

  “I think he killed Mom,” Niki whispered hoarsely.

  “I do, too.”

  Chapter Four

  Niki couldn’t stop fidgeting and gazing about the internet café diagonally opposite the diner. She and Kat had been horrified by what they’d found on the files on the USB drive. Her father and his goons weren’t just into selling drugs and firearms. They were also sex slave traders.

  She’d known her father and his minions were evil, but she hadn’t realized how malevolent they really were. No wonder he’d had no compunction about trading her for a car. He regularly sold flesh-and-blood women to be used as sex slaves. Her stomach roiled and she had to swallow back the bile threatening to rise up her throat.

  “What do you think?” Kat asked.

  Niki centered her attention back onto the computer monitor and read the email Kat had compiled. The note was short but concise. There was no name at the bottom of the letter. “Attach the files.”

  Kat swallowed audibly, nodded, and attached the files to the email. She stared into Niki’s eyes as her finger hovered over the send button. Niki curled her finger around Kat’s and said, “Together.”

  “Together. Always,” Kat said as they pressed the send button.

  As quickly as they could, they wiped their search history from the computer after deleting the fake email account, gathered up their things, making sure to remove the flash drive, and left.

  Niki didn’t relax until they were home behind locked doors and windows.

  She tossed and turned in bed, hoping like hell that what she and Kat had done didn’t come back to bite them in the ass.

  Brent couldn’t believe that Niki was late. She was suppos
ed to have been here an hour ago. Even though he was highly attracted to her, he’d thought she’d really wanted this job, but maybe he’d been wrong. Had he and his brothers done something to scare her? Had she had an accident on the way to the ranch? Was she stuck in a ditch somewhere, injured or even dead?

  He’d been pacing from one end of the verandah to the other, staring down the driveway and toward the road, willing her to get her ass here.

  He’d just turned to stalk back to the other end of the verandah when he heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel. Dust rose into the air as she drove her shitty old car toward the house. He was down the steps and had her car door open before she’d come to a complete stop. “Where the hell have you been?” he shouted.

  Niki flinched and whimpered, her fingers shaking and fumbling as she tried to undo her seat belt.

  Brent squatted at her side, brushed her hand away, and unclipped her seat belt. “I’m sorry, Niki. I didn’t mean to yell, but I was so fucking worried about you. I thought you might have been involved in a car wreck.”

  Niki finally looked at him, and when he saw how pale her face was, he grimaced. She had dark circles around her eyes as if she’d had trouble sleeping. “Move!” she ordered.

  He was so taken aback by her gumption, he rose and stepped back before he consciously thought about what he was doing. He’d never heard such a demanding tone from her before, but he was glad that whoever had hurt her hadn’t totally broken her.

  She got out of the car, walked to the trunk, and opened it. He felt like a real bastard when he saw all the grocery bags. She gazed at him as he stepped closer. “I’m late because I stopped at the grocery store on the way out here. I was at the supermarket at eight on the dot, but if you don’t believe me, you can dock me an hour’s pay.”

  She turned from him, lifted two bags into her arms, and tried to walk around him. Brent stopped her by clasping her shoulder. “Let me get them, baby. They’re too heavy for you.”

  She huffed out an exasperated breath and rolled her eyes but didn’t stop him from taking the bags from her arms. He called out to his brothers as he strode toward the back door, glad that Niki had taken note that they hardly used the front door.

  His brothers, who’d been sitting in the kitchen wasting time while they all waited for Niki to show up, came racing out the open door. “Unload the rest of the groceries from Niki’s trunk.”

  “Hey, sugar,” Rig greeted.

  “Morning,” she responded grumpily.

  “Did you get out on the wrong side of bed this morning, honey?” Hes asked.

  Brent had heard the conversation since all he’d done was put the grocery bags on the kitchen counter so he could go and get the last of the bags. His brothers were loaded down with two bags each, and he wasn’t surprised to see that Niki once more had her arms full.

  “No, I didn’t get out of the wrong side of bed,” Niki snarled.

  “I thought I told you that we’d get the bags,” Brent said, once more removing them from her arms.

  “I’m not a fragile fucking princess.” She glared up at him. “I’m more than capable of carrying a couple of grocery bags into the house.”

  Brent wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he wanted to get her into the house first. He had a feeling that if he upset her or pissed her off even more than she already was, she was going to get into her car and drive away. That was something he couldn’t live with. So instead of responding to her ire, he followed his brothers into the house.

  He sighed with relief when he heard her slam the trunk closed and her feet on the footpath leading to the verandah. She practically stomped up the steps, but at least she didn’t try and slam the door closed after entering the house.

  She huffed out a sigh as she scrambled onto one of the stools, braced her elbow on the counter, and rested her chin in her hand. She looked so fucking exhausted, and he was sure the marks under her eyes darkened as he stared at her. Her face was so pale she looked ready to pass out, and her eyes were bloodshot.

  “Would you like a cup of coffee, sugar?” Hes asked.

  “Please.”

  “White, no sugar, right?” Hes quirked a brow.

  “Please,” Niki said again.

  Hes made everyone coffee while Brent and Rig put the groceries away.

  “How much do we owe you for the food?” Brent asked.

  “Isn’t the receipt in one of the bags?” Niki frowned.

  “I didn’t see it, but I’ll check again.” He and Rig searched for the receipt, but it wasn’t there.

  “Maybe it fell out into the car,” she said, and she slid to her feet.

  “You don’t have to give me the receipt, baby. Just tell me how much it was,” Brent said again.

  “And you’d believe me?”

  “Of course I’d—we’d—believe you.”

  “Don’t you know how naïve that is? I could lie and end up getting more money than I spent.”

  Hes placed the mug of coffee in front of her, shaking his head. “We know you wouldn’t lie to us, honey.”

  “But you don’t even know me. I could be a gold-digging bitch for all you know.” She threw her hands up with exasperation.

  “And are you?” Rig asked. “A gold-digging bitch?” he clarified when she didn’t answer immediately.

  “No!” she replied honestly.

  “Then there’s no need for us to see the receipt, is there?” Brent asked.

  She shook her head.

  “I appreciate you trying to save us time by shopping on your way to work, but we need to go into town again.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need to get a few supplies for the animals and I’m going to buy you a cell phone.”

  “No, you aren’t.” Niki set her mug onto the counter with precision before crossing her arms over her chest. Today she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and he could see her nipples poking against the fabric of her bra and shirt. His cock began to harden, and while he tried to ignore the lust simmering in his blood, it was difficult when he could also see the flesh of the tops of her breasts since they were now pushed up higher.

  He stepped closer to the counter to hide his hard-on and met her gaze with determined resolve. “Yes, I am.”

  “I don’t need a cell phone.”

  “Why don’t you have one?” Hes asked. “Nearly every western-world person—man, woman, and child—has a cell phone in this day and age.”

  “Because I…I don’t need one.”

  When she lowered her eyes to the counter, Brent knew she was lying. He reached across and nudged her chin up. “It would have put my mind at ease if you’d been able to call me instead of me worrying about you being an hour late.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about calling you and when I did, I realized I didn’t know your cell phone or house number.”

  “You didn’t memorize them?” Brent pointed to the list of phone numbers on the wall.

  “I didn’t think I’d need to.”

  “You do.” He frowned at her. “What if your car breaks down on the way to the ranch, or you get a flat tire? You’ll have no way to call and let us know you need help.”

  “I can take care of myself.” She huffed out a breath.

  Rig cleared his throat, gaining her attention. “So, you know how to change a tire?”

  Niki had no idea what the big deal was. She had a burner phone she’d stolen from her father, but she wasn’t about to tell them that. While she mightn’t have actually changed a flat tire herself, she knew how to do so. She and Kat had sat at home watching how to do just that on Kat’s smartphone. While her sister had been working at the library for a few months now, she’d barely managed to scrape by on her wage. Now that Niki was here, hopefully they’d be able to save some money for a kitty just in case they had to leave in a hurry. There was no way either of them was going to call a tow truck or roadside assistance they weren’t members of just to change a damn tire. She just prayed nothing else we
nt wrong with Kat’s car because if it did, they were both going to be in dire straits. Niki wouldn’t be able to get to the ranch and earn any money.

  If the car did decide to bite the bullet, Niki would have to find a secondhand bicycle to get around on. She didn’t relish the idea of peddling out this far from town, especially if it was raining, but she’d do what she had to pull her own weight and bring some money in.

  “Yes, I know how to change a tire,” she said snarkily.

  Rig rubbed the back of his neck, looking a little lost in how to respond, but Brent had no problem coming up with something else to say. “You shouldn’t have to change your own damn tire. The men in this town take care of the women.” He pointed his finger at her. “That includes changing tires, carrying groceries in, and protecting the fairer sex.”

  While Niki already knew how possessive and protective the men in and around Slick Rock were, she didn’t know why they were including her in their damn chauvinistic rules. She and Kat were single and they both planned on staying that way. They weren’t about to get involved with men who liked to give orders and expected their directives to be followed to the letter. They’d dealt with over-the-top rules all their lives and weren’t about to put up with someone else who wasn’t a member of their family dictating to them.

  “You all live in the dark ages,” Niki stated and immediately wished she could recall the words. Brent’s eyes went from heated to ice cold within a blink. When she felt the fraught tension in the air, she felt guilty. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt them or make them think she was judgmental. She didn’t care how the people in this town lived or that they implemented rules they wanted their women to adhere to. What she did care about was being able to live her life the way she wanted. She wasn’t in a relationship with any of these men and didn’t want to be.

  So why the hell do I get turned on whenever I’m near them? See them? Smell them?

  “I’m sorry,” she said, meeting each of the Lyndon brothers’ gazes. “The last comment was uncalled for. I just…” Niki paused, trying to come up with an explanation as to why she didn’t want anyone bossing her around. She shook her head, struggling to control her breathing.