Family Ties (Hidden Secrets)

by Belden, P. J.

  Not too long after hiring Kyle, my longtime friend and agent quit and never spoke to me again. It hurt a lot. Since becoming the star the world sees me as, I don’t let many people close to me. Yet I did her and she just leaves me without even a notice. I have sent many letters and cards to the only address I had but have received nothing in return. Even though I haven’t received anything this whole time, I still write her in hopes that one day she will write me. Something told me that the reason she left and wasn’t contacting me wasn’t because she wanted it that way. Looking back, I have a feeling it was something to do with Kyle but couldn’t be sure.

  After he was hired for a while, Kyle started talking to me like I was a slave and that I had to do his bidding. He wasn’t at all what you would think an evil man would look like, but of course what did they look like really? He was tall and lanky. You can’t be fooled by his appearance. He was actually quite strong. Pfft, I have the bruises to prove it. He wore glasses on a nose that must have been broken on several occasions, but never set back the right way. His eyes showed every emotion he felt, which was usually anger and disgust. He had blonde hair that was cut like he put a bowl on top of his head and buzzed where the bowl didn’t cover. That saying ‘looks can be deceiving’ was accurate when talking about Kyle Hall.

  I had seen how everyone reacted when Kayla came forward about what Alex Greene had done to her. I wasn’t about to have someone hovering over me as she had to hover over Kayla. Not happening, I would take charge of my own life. Kyle was not a predator like Alex was. So I just had to figure out how to bring him down and I would, it was just going to take some time.

  “Mary Elisabeth Williams! You are not even listening to any of us are you?”

  Uh oh! My whole name was being used. Truth was, I was done listening to what they were saying. There was no way I was going to ask for their help; I wasn’t going to ask for anyone’s help. I was an adult and would handle my own mess and frankly the conversation was over.

  “Look, I know you guys feel the need to protect me and overshadow my life because of how long Kayla was attacked and what happened to Colleen. But Kyle is not like Alex or Wendi or Dani or whatever her name was…I will handle him in my own way and take care of any situation that may arise! I hope you all can respect that and listen to me when I say, stay out of it!”

  “Absolutely not! I will not turn my back on you and leave you to be broken down like Kayla was! I am…” My dad started.

  I flung my chair backwards as I stood up. “I am not broken and I am not Kayla! Sorry Kay. I am an adult and will take care of it myself! I have been handling him for this long. I think I can manage. I am not pushed around easily! Leave me and the situation ALONE!” I turned and started to leave.

  “What about all the other times, Mare?” Nate hissed.

  I froze in mid step, turned and looked at him with a glare that could have been heard only no sound was made. He faltered a bit, but regained his composure.

  “Why not tell them about the several times you have come to my house to recover from Kyle? Why not tell them about this last time Mare?”

  “You want to air laundry, Nate?” I hissed. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

  “I can’t keep your secret any longer. You are being hurt and its killing me. Though I love you coming home to me and getting to take care of you, but babe…I can’t leave you to continue to get hurt. It’s killing me. I love you too much to stand by and let that happen.”

  Everyone gasped around the table. I continued to stare at him.

  “Well, don’t worry. I won’t be coming to you. I don’t want to see you anymore. You’re a fucking asshole. I. HATE. YOU.” I turned and ran from the house without a look back.

  I hated myself for what I said to Nate, but he betrayed me. How could he do that to me? I was so frustrated with my family and Nate. They need to just stay out of it and away from me until I could handle it.

  They weren’t to blame and I knew that. They were only trying to help. When Kayla was pushing all of us away we all felt so helpless. None of us knew what we could do and we did everything and anything we could think of to just try and help. Maybe it is the fact that I am now in that situation that I see things differently, I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t want to be in this situation. My mind began to wander back to earlier today…

  Today was a week since I met Tobey. Honestly, I was leery of him at first. He gave off a hardened vibe, like he was angry about something or at someone. As the week wore on though, I didn’t see that as much. I saw a man that loved what he did. It wasn’t a job, but a life. He willingly opened his doors to me, so I could learn what it was like to own a ranch. Though I suspect that was more to prove I can’t do it than it was to help me.

  Checking my watch, I decided to walk. I was honestly too excited to wait at home any longer. I hadn’t seen Tobey all day and found myself actually missing him. It was weird to think of someone that way. I didn’t miss anyone outside of my family. In all the men that I have been with over the years, Nate was the closest I came to dating because we saw each other almost daily and had sex more than once. But it was different with Tobey. I don’t know why or how, but it just was. A smile spread across my face as I thought about last night with him in the back of his truck.

  Looking up to see where I was going, I screamed in fright when I came face to face with Kyle. People around us walked slower trying to see or hear what was going on. Kyle wasn’t a stupid man. He waited until the crowd moved along before he grabbed me. I was so terrified that it took longer than it should have to react. It wasn’t until his hand hit my face that I realized I was just standing there.

  It hurt like hell and tears filled my eyes. I wouldn’t let them fall. That was what he wanted. He wanted me to cry and beg him, beg for him to stop. Like hell that was ever going to happen, he’d have to kill me first and even in death I wouldn’t beg.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  “To lunch,” I said firmly. “If you’ll excuse me,” I said; my voice a lot stronger than I felt when I saw the look in his eyes.

  “You aren’t going anywhere. I gave you time off to heal. You had one damn thing to take care of in that three weeks and you bail on it. You have cost me money and you are about to pay me back now!” He roared.

  “Like hell I am! You work for me you asshole! If you hadn’t beaten the shit out of me, maybe I wouldn’t have had to take the time off to begin with!” I screamed back at him.

  He smacked me across the face again and my head whipped to the side. Again tears filled my eyes, but I would not let them come out. I blinked rapidly until my vision cleared. Suddenly all the breath left my lungs and a pain shot through my stomach. When I looked up, he was pulling his fist back to strike again. Having all I could take, I raised my knee up meeting his groin hard and he doubled over holding himself. I took that moment to run. He recovered quickly and was hot on my tail only moments later.

  Struggling, I tried to get to my phone and watch where I was running all at the same time. Finally grabbing my phone I dialed the only person I wanted near me right now. I prayed for Tobey to answer. It seemed like the rings on the line were longer than normal or maybe that was just because of how close Kyle was. I could hear his erratic breathing behind me as he tried to catch me. He grabbed my hair and yanked me back and I screamed. I elbowed him in the stomach and he loosened the grip on my hair so I took off running again. I could barely hear anything over the sound of my heart beating and the blood roaring through my ears. I barely made out Tobey answering…

  I walked over off the path of the drive and dropped down to the ground. I cried the tears I didn’t cry today when he attacked me and I cried the tears that I will no doubt hold in tomorrow when I go back to work and have to face him.

  Chapter Eight

  Tobey

  Within seconds of Mary storming out, everyone was staring at me. I swallowed hard and knew the card to play to smooth this over. Or at leas
t I hoped it would.

  “I have a suggestion.” I cleared my throat. “She wants to come to my ranch to work for a week. Mary has told me that she wants to own her own ranch and asked if she could see what it would be like and if she could handle it. I have no problem with it. A ranch can never have too many hands as long as there is work, of course. Anyway, why don’t I take her to my ranch tonight and start that week. It will give you all ample opportunity to investigate this Kyle Hall and figure out what steps to take when she gets back.”

  Pausing for a minute to allow any objections… and yes, I did expect them. I was surprised when nothing came. When enough time had passed I continued on, “There will need to be a good plan in place because Kyle will be good and pissed when she tells him she is not going to be available for a week. If this plan is good for you guys, I would like to go after my girlfriend now.” Receiving several nods from the table, I turned to Kayla and Jason, “Thank you for dinner. You have a lovely place here and congratulations on your impending marriage.” I then turned and looked at everyone else at the table. “It was nice to meet you all and hope we can all meet again soon. Maybe you all can come out to the ranch when the week is up?”

  I turned and walked out of the house to run after Mary. My brain was telling me what I already felt; that there was more to this story with Kyle and I was hoping that I could get it out of her so maybe I could help her. At the moment, the plan didn’t matter. Honestly, I’m not sure it was going to matter again at this point. I was falling for Mary and falling for her hard. It was becoming obvious that I wasn’t sure I could go through with it anymore. Hurting people was not something I did. I couldn’t hurt Mary now, not now that I realized my feelings for her were more than just a plan to get in and hurt her. Part of me was pissed off at that. I hated failure. Actually, I never failed. My head was throbbing, but I knew that at this moment it was the right call to make. I knew I was in deeper than I wanted to admit, but right now I just couldn’t go through with the plan. Not when she is already hurting like this. It was confusing at times. This is why I never hurt anyone. It just wasn’t in me to do it.

  As I walked out to find Mary, I thought back to all the things that I have learned about her and her family in the time I have spent with them, which wasn’t long I know. But I found nothing in her or her family that showed evil doing or anything. They seemed like good honest people. Kayla seemed truly damaged and rebuilding for what had been done to her. He needed to figure out what that was. Mary, oh Mary, she was amazing; warm, giving, full of life, loving.

  My family had to be mistaken. They had to have gotten the names wrong or something. It was not these people. It couldn’t be, could it?

  @~^~~ @~^~~ @~^~~

  Elijah…

  Once Tobey left the room, I gave in to the thoughts running through my head and I turned to Jason. I hoped like hell he would give me the answers I didn’t want to find, but just had a feeling were there. Though a bigger part wanted him to prove me wrong.

  “Jason, can I talk to you a minute? In private?”

  “Sure Eli, we can go to my office.”

  The two men walked down the hall into Jason’s office. I thought very highly of Jason because he risked everything to save my sister and I would never forget that. I owed Jason everything and of course he would not ever dream of collecting on it. He did it because he loved her. I respected that.

  “So what’s going on Eli?”

  “I need you to do me a couple of favors. If it is too much I can try and find someone else but really I only trust you with this.”

  “Family always comes first man. What do you need and I will do it?”

  “I, of course, want you to look into this Kyle Hall. Find everything you can find on him that could help us figure out what we need to do and what kind of danger Mary may be in.”

  “Done. I was already going to volunteer to do it anyway so not really a favor. What else?”

  “I want you to check into this Tobey Young guy that Mary is dating. I don’t know, something about him seems off to me. She is going out to his ranch for a week and I want to make sure that we know where that is and what is going on”

  “I can do that as well. Shouldn’t take long for either of them. I will look up Tobey first since he is the immediate possible threat with her being out on his ranch. Then I will dig into Kyle.”

  “I want you to keep this between us. I mean, Kyle isn’t so much a quiet topic but Tobey is. Come to me the minute you have anything on Tobey.”

  “Will do. I understand completely where you are coming from. I will get right on it once everyone is gone.”

  “Thanks.”

  @~^~~ @~^~~ @~^~~

  I hurried down the driveway and didn’t see any sign of Mary so far. Stopping for a moment, I looked around. The drive was surrounded by trees on both sides. There was a storm coming in and has darkened the early evening light which made it hard to see much beyond the trees. I was beginning to panic. This was a new feeling for me; to care so much for a person that I panicked when they run off in a storm like this. Just as I was getting ready to call her name is when I heard crying. My chest tightened when I walked toward the noise and found her leaning against a tree with her knees to her chest.

  Without even a thought to why I shouldn’t do it, I sat down and scooped her up into my arms and sat her on my lap. Running my hands down her back, I cooed to her softly. Whether I was ready to admit it or not, this woman was under my skin and damn close to being in my heart. I knew the moment she looked up at me with teary eyes and wet cheeks and my heart broke for her that I was in love with her. I wasn’t sure how she felt about me though. She kissed me like there was no tomorrow, but was that chemistry or love to her? She told everyone I was her boyfriend, but that was just because they got caught making out in his truck, right?

  Dammit! I need to get my shit together!

  “I’m sorry. You didn’t come here for this.” She wiped her face and stood up. I stood next to her and wrapped her in my arms.

  “I told them that you were going to come and stay at my ranch for a week to see if you liked the ranch life. You don’t have to work this week. We can do that some other time. You can use it as a vacation.”

  “You really want me at your ranch? Even after I just brought you into a butt load of problems?”

  “I have no problem with you coming to my ranch. Do you want to come?” I asked nervously.

  “Yes, I would love that.”

  “Good, then let’s go to your place and get your stuff then head out.”

  “I don’t have anything with me really. But I do need to grab some things from my parents’ house. Then take care of my rental car… That is if Kyle hasn’t had it towed again.” She sighs.

  “Again? He has towed your car before?” She simply tried to wave me off the topic but I wasn’t having it. “No you said again. When?”

  “If I’m not back when he thinks I should be or I leave because my family needs me…It’s really not that big of a deal.”

  “It is a big deal, Mary. He needs to be stopped.”

  I held her in my arms for a few more minutes before thunder sounded overhead causing us both to jump. We hurried to my truck and got in before the rain started.

  We were in my truck headed for her parents when I turned on the radio. Mary absentmindedly started to sing along.. I watched her as she sang. She sang beautifully, but it was when I focused on her eyes that I noticed a tear slip down her cheek. Without thinking I reached across and wiped the tear away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing really. My sister sang this song to me, Jason and Nate while we were all on a stakeout and I can just remember the pain behind her voice as she sang this song...I might add she sings it a lot better than I do.” She laughed softly.

  We pulled up into her parents’ drive. Without saying a word she hurried out of the truck and ran inside. Stepping out of the truck I waited for her to come out of the house. She came running out with a f
ew bags. I grabbed them from her and kissed her head before putting them in the back seat of my truck and we both climbed back in. Trying hard to give her some peace and quiet, we drove to my ranch. My curiosity started to get the better of me and I couldn’t wait any longer.

  “What happened to your sister? I mean, if you don’t mind my asking. I just see how deeply it affects all of you.”

  “You really don’t know? It was all over the news and papers for a while.”

  “I don’t get much time for TV or newspaper, sadly. Please tell me.”

  “She was raped and tormented for sixteen years. From when she was twelve until he got caught, but not before he had others brought in on it. He was paid to break her and break my family. I hope the money was good because he sits in jail now. We didn’t see my sister much while all of it was going on until he about killed her dog so he could rape her again. It was then that she finally told us what was going on.”

  “Oh my god! What kind of sick pervert would do something like that?”

  “His name was Alex Greene. He wanted my brother Carson to throw his fight so he could make a substantial amount of money. Carson wouldn’t do it. We weren’t raised like that. We were raised with morals. Anyway, his payback to my brother was going into my sister’s room while my brothers were downstairs having a party and raping her. Then he kept going afterward because he was being paid to break the Williams clan by some ex friends of my parents.

  Anyway, Kayla finally knew that she would never be able to get out from under him on her own. Well, my youngest sisters graduated and she ended up meeting a detective at their party. He showed up at her work the next day with breakfast. They were eating when she got a phone call. It was Alex, told her that if she didn’t get him out of her office he’d make her watch him kill Jason and then he’d slowly torture and kill her. After all that, she decided it was time to come clean to the family and get our help. She kept it from us all those years. Tried to fight this guy on her own. Carson tried to take matters into his own hands and did remarkably well until he sent in his goon squad on him and they had knives. Hospitalized him. The twisted part too was that he sent photos of every time he raped my sister to the police station; over the sixteen years he signed each photo ‘She’s one of your own. Catch me if you can A.G.’. I am so glad that he is finally behind bars where he belongs. Suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder from a showdown when they finally found him. Jason wanted to kill him, but Kayla wouldn’t let him. She wanted justice, not revenge. She got it. Now my sister is slowly pulling her life back together. Jason helps her a lot. That’s her story. Please don’t treat her any different. She hates the looks she gets from people who pity her.”