by Vanessa Dare
Willing, my ass. He meant sex slaves. Jesus, what kind of sick fuck was her father, dealing in the flesh trade? I heard the sisters stirring. “Go on. Be quick.”
“Heroin, deliver her to their private plane by six. She wouldn’t be coming back.” He, too, kept his voice down.
Heroin meant addiction. Addiction meant they held power. Anna would have done anything, anything, to get the drug. Including whatever fucked-up sex shit they wanted. When tired of her, they’d give her enough heroin to OD. It was a one-way trip.
“This is between you and me,” I murmured to the man as they came out.
“This is my sister Elizabeth. Mr. Anders,” Anna said by way of introduction.
He stood, towering over both women. Elizabeth’s mouth fell open, but she quickly shut it, took the offered hand.
I gave Anders a pointed look and he nodded imperceptibly. Neither woman needed to know her father and Todd’s plans. No way in hell. Since it wasn’t going to happen, ever, it wasn’t worth sharing. Anna didn’t need any more nightmares. Shit, I was going to have them thinking about Lawton’s fucked-up plan.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. I needed to direct my anger in the right direction. Lawton was a dead man. I repeated in my mind my thoughts from the middle of the night. “Okay. Let’s make sure we have this correct. Lawton contacted you about killing Anna.” I gave it a little spin, but it was the truth.
“I’m Olivia, but I go by Anna.”
Anders nodded his understanding. “Ladies, please sit.” He offered them the couch by moving to lean against the wall.
I felt like I had three shots of espresso. I was too keyed up to sit. “You also work for Carmichael who has both Anna and me under his protection,” I continued. “This means what, exactly?”
“Anyone who works for Carmichael knows not to touch either of you. He’s not a man to cross.”
“What about Lawton? Is he a man to cross?” I asked, weighing Lawton’s power in comparison to Carmichael’s.
“Hardly.”
He didn’t seem impressed by Todd Lawton, although Anders was a linebacker with military combat skills. He also wasn’t eighteen like Elizabeth, and at one time, Anna.
“I called Carmichael and told him about the hit. Instead of killing you, it’s my job now to keep you safe.”
“Todd doesn’t know you work for Carmichael?” Anna asked.
The big man shook his head. “It’s not like we have business cards. I work for a number of people, as a consultant.”
Consultant. Without all the sugar coating, he was a hit man.
“Does he…Lawton, think you’re still on the job?” Grif asked.
“He does, but if Carmichael wants my mark to have protection, that trumps Lawton. Besides, if Lawton thinks I’m still on the job, that’s the easiest way for me to help keep you safe. If I’m supposed to be killing you, no one else is.”
Anna glanced at me and I knew she was thinking I’d done the same thing for her back in New York.
“So what’s that mean?” Elizabeth asked. Anna must have given her clothes to wear because she wore a blouse I recognized along with a pair of shorts. Her hair was long down her back, slightly damp as if she’d run wet fingers through it to tame it. Without the expensive clothes and makeup, she looked her age.
“Lawton will go on thinking I’m working for him when in fact no one touches anyone under Carmichael’s protection. If Lawton bothers you, I take him out.”
That would be tidy. We could just sit back, play cards and watch reality TV while Anders tracked down Lawton and killed him for us. Neither Anna or Elizabeth would have to worry about that sick fuck anymore. I didn’t think Elizabeth cared one way or the other how Lawton left her alone, but Anna wouldn’t have closure. I couldn’t have her waking up, night after night, with nightmares about her past.
“Anna has to deal with him first. On our terms. Safely. Then he’s all yours,” I told him.
“Mind telling me what the bad blood is between you?” Anders asked. “Some background here would be good.”
Anna glanced at me before she began. It took about five minutes, but she’d given Anders the basics of what had happened to her. “I don’t want him dead. He needs to rot in jail.” She glanced at me, then at Elizabeth. “I know that’s cruel, but he does.”
She had a kind heart, but very misplaced. Cruel was giving Anna to his father’s clients as an unwilling, drugged sex slave. Prison was too good for him. If something happened to him in prison, like a shiv to the gut, it would ease my mind. I looked at Anders briefly, but said nothing. I had no doubt he could read my mind—and get it done.
“We just have to catch him doing something that we can use against him. He’s smart and very slick, which means that’s not easy to do,” Anna said.
“No, it’s not,” Elizabeth countered. “It’s fairly easy actually. I just couldn’t do it on my own. With all of you, my idea could work.”
I stared at her. Blinked. So did Anders and Anna. This teenager had the magic answer? Why hadn’t she piped up sooner?
“Well? What is it?” I asked, when she didn’t say more. Drama. Teenage girls and fucking drama. When I had kids, I was having boys. All boys.
“Todd has an escort meet him at a hotel every week. Obviously, I wasn’t supposed to know, but my PI keeps me posted. I needed ammunition against the man who’s marrying me solely for my money. I mean, really, who wants to marry a guy named Todd, anyway? Oh, sorry Anna.”
Anna’s lip quirked up, but she said nothing.
Elizabeth was so young, should be getting ready for college, not using a PI to dig up call girls on her sociopath fiancé.
“Okay, um…hunh.” Anders cleared his throat. “You’re marrying Lawton?”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “I’m engaged to him, but I have no intention of marrying the guy. I’ve known about the escorts for a while and hoped to expose him to the press, but it wouldn’t be enough. My mother’s…out of the picture and my father’s playing for Todd’s team. He’s too ruthless to fight alone.”
“Damn straight,” Anders said, his voice angry. If Lawton planned on giving Anna to some Asian assholes, no doubt he had a similar fate in mind for Elizabeth. The way Anders skin flushed red and the tone of his voice, he knew this, too. “How old are you? Nineteen?”
“Eighteen,” Elizabeth replied.
“Oh, this man’s going down.” Anders focused his intensity toward me. It felt good to have a little manpower—literally—on our side. Anna could definitely take care of herself, but I couldn’t protect her and let her go after Todd without someone else joining our team. If Elizabeth was going to enter the fray, which was most likely considering her gene pool, Anders was going to be a huge help. “When’s his next little rendezvous?”
“Tonight.”
I pulled out my cell, hit redial one more time. “I need a call girl. Tonight,” I told Carmichael.
He paused only briefly. “I’ll send Stormy Dawn.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Anna
Anders left us to do his thing. I really had no idea what it was. If his job was to protect us now, it wasn’t going to be too hard if we stayed in the hotel room. Which was the men’s plan. Both Grif and Anders decided—it was pointed out this was not a democracy—we would lay low until tonight. I gave Grif the evil eye for not including me in the decision making, but they were actually right. We didn’t want to blow it at the last hour by seeing the sights and either having Todd find us and do something else, or have the press get wind of my return. So Anders went off, promising to pick up Stormy Dawn, whoever she was, from the airport.
It was only seven thirty and none of us had had coffee. Once we returned the sofa to a bed, tossed Elizabeth her pillow, we all went back to sleep. Grif, usually frisky any time of the day when I was anywhere near a bed, fell onto the mattress like a Redwood, clothes and all, and didn’t stir when I woke at noon.
I took a shower, put on makeup and a pair of jean
s, white T-shirt and a pink hoodie sweatshirt. I left my hair to dry naturally, something I enjoyed now that I didn’t straighten my hair. When Grif tugged on a curl, I knew how much he liked it and wouldn’t go back to using an iron on it ever again. Not when he gave me that look. I found Elizabeth watching TV, sitting cross-legged with her pillow on her lap. The sofa was back to its original form so I sat down next to her.
“Did you sleep at all?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Some. I’m a morning person though.”
“I wouldn’t have known that from earlier.”
Glaring at me, she replied, “Yeah, well, I’m not used to being woken up by a guy.”
“I hope not,” I muttered. Lots of kids had sex even younger than eighteen, but I could see Elizabeth finding some willing guy to sleep with because she’d grown up so sheltered.
“You’re having sex.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah, well, I’m thirty. When you’re my age, you can have sex, too.”
“You were married to Todd when you were my age,” Elizabeth countered.
I picked at a fray in my jeans. “That was a different kind of sex.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Being in love, lust even, is a requirement for sex. If you don’t have that, don’t do it. Take my word for it.”
Oh, how I wished Grif had been my first. I was both in love and in lust with him. The first time would have been painful, but he would have made it good, made it special.
“I have no intention of marrying Todd, so I’ll keep your words in mind.” She tucked her long hair behind her ear. “Does Grif have any younger brothers?”
I tugged the pillow off her lap and smacked her with it. “No, annoying sisters, just like you.”
She grabbed the pillow, tucked it back in her lap.
“You better be careful. I think Grif’s going to be very particular about the guys who are interested in you.”
“He is? Why?”
Why? God, she was just like I’d been just a short time ago, questioning why people were nice to me, completely wary of any kindness. She was just as jaded and that broke my heart.
“Look at you,” I waved my hand in her direction. She still wore my clothes she’d thrown on earlier, all wrinkled and slept in. “You’re gorgeous. All that blond hair and crazy-long legs. Grif’s going to be interrogating every date you have because he cares about you. It’s his job to keep the women in his life safe. That includes me, his sisters, you.”
“So I get an older brother, too.” I watched her as she considered this. I knew how hard it was to transition from being self-reliant to depending on people overnight. She fiddled with a thin silver bracelet on her wrist I hadn’t noticed before. “Cool,” she said, as her mouth tipped up into a sly smile.
“Since you’re not marrying Todd—” over my dead body, “—then what are you going to do with yourself. College?”
She bit her lip, glanced sideways at me with her gaze on the TV.
“I know you have secrets. We all do. Grif, too. We’re all really good at keeping them, and for good reason, but it’s time to share. So, college?”
“College. Definitely.” She looked at me. Her eyes were so blue, so completely different from mine. “I want to be an interior designer.”
“Really?” I was surprised at that. The way she finagled and cajoled I pegged her for a lawyer.
“I applied to schools. That’s my secret.”
“And?”
“And…I got in. Being home schooled made getting good grades easy.”
I didn’t believe that. She got in to schools because she was really, really smart.
“Yale, Rhode Island School Of Design, Duke.”
“Wow. Amazing schools. All on the other side of the country. Just like me.”
She drew her eyebrows together. “Just like you?”
I shifted so I leaned against the arm of the couch, facing her. “After I disappeared, I bought my apartment in New York, then went to Harvard. It took a little time, but the people who made my new identity gave me the fake transcript needed to go to college. That had been one of their demands on me. I could have the new identity as long as I went to college. Looking back, the woman was looking out for me. So I rented in Boston close to school, but kept my apartment as home. Went back on breaks, summer. It’s being sold now since I’m Olivia again.”
“Won’t you miss it?”
That was a good question. Would I miss my little bolt hole? It had been my world, and it had been safe. I zoned out at the TV as I answered her. “Looking back, I was lonely. Really, really lonely. Being afraid is hard work, Elizabeth. But do I miss it? No. Home is where Grif is.”
“When this is all over, where’s that?”
Another good question. One I couldn’t answer on my own. “That’s something Grif and I have to decide together.”
She stared at the TV for so long, I thought we were done. “Can I come visit you?”
My mouth fell open. I grabbed her hand, forced her to look at me. “You’re my sister. The only family I’ve got. Maybe we can all decide where to go from here. Together.”
The smile she gave me was brilliant and I could literally see her shoulders lift. The weight of being alone was gone from her as well. “Wow, I feel like Sloth from the Goonies when Chunk tells him he’s going to live with him now.”
Okay. I got stalled for a minute on the eighties movie trivia. “I don’t have a Baby Ruth bar like Chunk did, but we can order room service.” I loved that movie. I remembered seeing it Switzerland on movie night, which meant a group of girls in the lounge with a VCR and popcorn. I longed for adventure like the kids in the movie had, where One Eyed Willy would help them save the day.
“Oh my God, you know that movie! I’m such a movie geek,” Elizabeth squealed.
She was eighteen going on thirty going on twelve. I grabbed the menu by the phone.
Grif came out of the bedroom, hair mussed and a crinkle down the length of his cheek. He rubbed his eyes blearily. “I swear I haven’t heard a girl squeal like that since Carrie was seventeen and Tommy Landecker asked her to the prom.” His voice was rough like tumbled rocks.
I stood, went over to him and wrapped my arms around him. He was warm from the bed and his T-shirt was soft against my cheek.
“Sorry,” Elizabeth murmured.
“As long as it’s not for a stupid spider or something, I’m good. Listen, I got a text from Anders.” He lifted his hand holding his cell. “The time and place has been arranged. We need to move hotels one more time. We’re reserved down the hall from Lawton’s little get-together so we’ve got to get there before he does.”
“Can we order room service before we go?” I asked, savoring his scent.
“Order me a cheeseburger and fries while I’m in the shower. You.” He pointed to Elizabeth, eyed her warily. “You better not be one of those girls that eats like a bird.”
“Make that a double, but I want a chocolate shake, too,” she told him.
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Grif
Lawton, of course, wouldn’t take any old hotel room for his fuck session. He had to get a suite. Which meant we were in one of our own two doors down. It was twice the size of my apartment in Denver; two bedrooms, a kitchen, even a baby grand. I liked the finer things in life as much as the next guy, but this was over the top. For what Lawton was going to do with his escort, he might not even need a bed, let alone two of them. Thinking about the guy’s sex life made me want to hurl.
Regardless of what happened, we weren’t moving again, and the two bedrooms were going to come in handy. Elizabeth would be in her own room situated on the other side of the massive main living space, far enough away from us for privacy. And I needed privacy for what I planned to do to Anna. When she completely freaked out by the nightmare, I had not only to soothe her, but myself, too. I couldn’t hold back, even knowing only a door separated us from her sister. Every time Lawton crept into her mind,
I wanted to erase it all with my touch. I literally wanted to fuck her until she forgot. So far, it was working.
It was time. Lawton would get what was coming to him and Anna could get closure. Elizabeth could give the guy the bird, too, then be a perfectly normal, obnoxious teenager. Stormy Dawn turned out to be a woman closer to my age but with breasts that could be used as flotation devices and legs that never ended. I did a double take when she came into the suite, I couldn’t help it. Anna gave me the evil eye, considering the woman looked like she just stepped out of a porn flick. And she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Okay, the T-shirt had a V neck showing a vast expanse of cleavage and a pierced navel with a jewel sparkling enough to draw a man’s eye. Her hair was long, with side-swept bangs. The color couldn’t be natural, although based on her profession I doubted she had any hair elsewhere on her body that could offer confirmation.
I stole a glance at Anna, who, along with Elizabeth, were openly staring at the woman. I had no interest in discovering Stormy Dawn’s hair color. Although beautiful, she was all fake. Plastic surgery, tanning beds, a hair salon and tons of makeup made the overall effect. But Anna, she was natural. Real curves a man could grip, soft skin that was so pale in places a network of veins showed through. It reminded me she was real, flesh and blood. Breakable.
Stormy Dawn could easily distract Lawton. Hell, I was distracted. Any conscious male would be. That was obviously why Carmichael had sent her specifically. Anders wasn’t paying her much attention, digging in a small bag and pulling out the paraphernalia for a wire, but he’d had an extra hour or two with her getting her from the airport.
“You’re real name isn’t Stormy Dawn, is it?” Elizabeth asked as they shook hands.
“No. I use that name when I work for Carmichael. And that means, no, I won’t tell you my real name.” She added the last when Elizabeth started to open her mouth. Her voice was soft, her words kind, but direct.
“I love your makeup. Do you think you can show me—”
“No,” I cut in. Elizabeth was not getting tips to look like a hooker.
