by Susan Stoker
“Right, so life went on like this for a while. I’d be sh-shoved out of the house at six thirty to go to the bus stop and wait for the bus, which wasn’t coming until seven forty-five. Then I’d get home around four. The house was always empty. Mom was out doing whatever she did. She’d come home around eight and send me to my r-room.”
“Did she abuse you?” Gray asked.
Allye hated that question. And because she was exhausted, thirsty, cold, and scared, for once, she didn’t prevaricate. “If you m-mean did she hit me, then, no. But if you c-consider letting me eat chips for breakfast, never being at the house when I was there, and n-never once hugging me or telling me that she loved me ‘abuse,’ then, yes. Every d-damn day of my life.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry, kitten. You’re right, that is absolutely abuse. My question was out of line.”
Damn, now she had to apologize. She forced herself to sit up in the water, almost choking on a wave that chose that moment to crash over her head. Gray was there immediately, putting his arm around her and holding her upright as she coughed.
When she’d caught her breath, she looked Gray in the eyes. They were close enough that she could see them in the bright light of the moon. “No, I’m s-sorry. That was uncalled for. Technically, I wasn’t abused. My mom provided me with f-food and shelter. She sent me to school. But she never, not once, helped me with my homework. I had to c-clean the entire house by the time she got home in the evenings or there would be hell to p-pay. She treated me like a live-in servant rather than her k-kid most of the time. I can’t ever remember her h-holding me when I was scared or upset, and she n-never read to me, or did anything else a real parent does for their kid.”
“That sounds like abuse to me,” Gray repeated dryly.
“Yeah, well . . . not to the s-state. I called them once,” Allye admitted out loud for the first time ever.
“Who?”
“Child services. I r-reported my mom for abuse. They came to the house and investigated. But it was all b-bullshit. They saw the orderly house, the clean kid with no bruises. They c-called my school, and even though I was behind the other kids in my class intellectually, the teachers reported no s-suspicious b-behavior. They interviewed my m-mom, and apparently she snowed them as easily as she t-tricked everyone else. The case was closed.”
Gray’s mouth came down in a frown and he murmured, “Jesus.”
“Yeah. My mom was p-pissed and tried for months to figure out who reported her. I never admitted it was m-me. But I realized then how useless it would be to do it again. Eventually she f-forgot about it. I really wish that I had been put into the f-foster-care system then, rather than later.”
“What happened?”
“Can we keep going? I mean . . . if you’re not too t-tired.”
Gray eyed her for a long moment. “I’m not too tired, kitten. It’s easier to talk about it if I’m not looking at you, isn’t it?”
Surprised he’d figured her out, Allye simply nodded.
Without a word, he brought her hand back to the pocket she’d been holding on to earlier and motioned for her to lie back. She did, and felt his powerful legs kick them into motion once more.
“Maybe when I was s-six, I would’ve had a chance to be adopted. But at nine, there was no way. I was too old. No one w-wanted a weird kid who was a C student at best and p-preferred to sit in her room and read rather than socialize.”
Allye sighed and told him about the most painful day of her life. “It was a Saturday, and Mom didn’t want me hanging around the house, as usual, so she took me to the local m-mall. She did that all the time. Dropped me off in the morning and picked me up in the late afternoon. I have no idea what she d-did when I was at school or at the mall, but I’m guessing she was screwing men for m-money. Anyway, that day she never came to pick me up.”
“Are you serious?” Gray asked.
“Yup. I went to where she usually met me, at the usual time, and she never sh-showed up. I hung around until eight at night, w-when one of the security guards spotted me and m-made me come inside with him. I gave him my mom’s number, but s-she didn’t answer. The cops came and drove me h-home. I tried to thank them and send them on their way, but I guess they weren’t comfortable l-leaving a nine-year-old who hadn’t been p-picked up by her mother without at least talking to an adult. I let them in the house . . . and that’s the first time I knew k-karma was a big f-fat lie.”
“What happened?”
“The house was empty. My mom had cleaned it out. P-Probably backed a moving van right up to the door and shoved everything inside. Even the s-stuff in my room was gone. All my clothes, my bed, all of it, just gone.”
“Where’d she go?” Gray asked.
“No c-clue.”
Gray stopped swimming again. “You mean you haven’t talked to her since?”
Allye didn’t sit up, just floated on her back next to him. “Nope. Never saw her again. Never w-wanted to see her again.”
“Fucking bitch,” Gray swore again as he resumed swimming.
“Yeah. So, I went into f-foster care. But it’s not much fun as a preteen. Or a teenager. I didn’t really have any horrible experiences. I mean, I wasn’t b-beaten or anything like that, but I never felt like I truly belonged. The homes I lived in were okay, I guess, but my foster parents were always busy, and I never felt like they were truly parents . . . if that makes s-sense.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Anyway, when I first went into the s-system, I was optimistic. I thought if I was super n-nice and always did what p-people told me to, that I’d get lucky and get adopted. Karma, you know. No such luck. It s-seemed as if the more I tried to do good, the worse luck I had. In one of the homes, there was this c-cat. I loved her. She was older than d-dirt, but super affectionate. She liked to sleep under the covers with me. I fell asleep more than one night with her p-purring against my chest. On my way home from school one day, I saw a s-stray cat meowing down into a storm drain. I looked and saw two k-kittens were stuck down there. I was small enough that I could shimmy into it. I r-rescued those kittens and reunited them with their mother. I was so proud of that good d-deed I did, but when I got home, I found out that my f-foster dad had accidentally run over the cat I’d loved so much.”
She huffed out a breath. “So much for k-karma that day,” she said, not able to hide her bitterness. “It’s been like that my entire life. I do something good, and almost immediately, I find it turns around and b-bites me in the ass instead.”
“Give me another example,” Gray demanded.
“You m-mean the cat-and-kitten thing wasn’t enough?”
“No.”
She knew Gray wasn’t being mean, he simply didn’t believe her. “Okay, f-fine. So, one of the other dancers at w-work needed a place to stay because her boyfriend was knocking her around. I let her s-stay with me, thinking it was the nice thing to do. Well, her b-boyfriend found out where she was staying and s-started harassing her at my place too. It got so bad, my landlord evicted me for d-disturbing the rest of the residents.”
“What? Jesus. What happened to your friend? Did her boyfriend get to her?”
“No. She m-moved out right before I was evicted and went home to South Carolina.”
“So, your letting her move in saved her from her abusive boyfriend,” Gray concluded.
“No.”
“Yeah, kitten, it did.”
“Whatever. Okay, how about this? Another d-dancer wanted to go out one night to this new club. It was her b-birthday, and she was so excited about going, but her friend bailed on her. So she asked me to go. I did, and it turns out the c-club wasn’t a dance club, not like I was thinking. I thought we’d go and have a few drinks and d-dance all night, but instead it was a BDSM club. She had been w-wanting to try the lifestyle and didn’t want to go by herself. So, I had to spend the n-night watching my friend get naked and t-tied to a cross while a man wearing leather pants got her off. Not only that, I had to fend off m-men all
night who kept wanting to tie me up. It was awkward and embarrassing and so not my s-scene.”
“I can see how that would be a shock,” Gray said.
Allye swore she could hear the humor in his voice. She raised her head and glared at him.
He smiled, his white teeth looking impossibly bright in the moonlight. “What else?”
“It’s not just isolated incidents, Gray,” Allye said in defeat. “It’s everything. I m-mean, look at me now. I got k-kidnapped, for God’s sake. Then instead of being sold off or m-murdered, I’m unlucky enough to have been on a boat that the creepy asshole b-blew up! Now, I’m in the middle of the freaking ocean. Karma hates me.”
“I’d say you’re the luckiest woman I’ve ever met,” Gray said calmly.
Allye sat upright again. “Did you just say that I’m l-lucky?” There were clouds rolling across the sky, and she realized when she sat up that they’d covered the moon, taking away any semblance of light. She’d also let go of Gray, and now she couldn’t see or hear him anywhere near her.
“Gray? Fuck . . . Gray? Wh-Where are you?” Her words were panicked, and Allye felt her heart rate increase from the mellow beat it’d been as Gray was towing her through the water to a hysterical staccato.
“I’m here, kitten,” he said into her ear.
Allye immediately relaxed when she heard his voice and felt his arm go around her waist. She dug her nails into his thigh, feeling the muscles there flexing as he moved his legs, keeping them afloat. “Don’t leave me,” she blurted out. “Please don’t leave m-me alone out here.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Promise,” he told her, not sounding at all upset or freaked out by her outburst.
He put one of his large hands on her sternum and gently eased her onto her back. “I’m right here. I’m going to get you home. Swear.”
Allye tried to relax, but found it almost impossible. She’d always liked to swim, but now she wanted nothing more than to be back on dry land. She brought her other hand up and used both to hold on to him as he once more began stroking through the water, presumably toward land.
He began speaking as if she hadn’t just had a freak-out moment. “The way I look at it, Allye Martin, you’re the luckiest woman I’ve ever met in my life, and karma is working just fine for you.”
He paused as if waiting for her to disagree, but Allye didn’t have it in her. All she could think about was everything that could go wrong. Sharks, or if Gray accidentally started swimming in the wrong direction, or if the man who wanted to buy her got impatient when she wasn’t delivered and came looking for her himself.
“Let’s just take today as an example, okay?” he said. “I could start back from when you were little, but I’d prefer to talk about things I know firsthand.”
“Whatever,” Allye mumbled.
“Yeah, you were kidnapped, which sucks. But you weren’t assaulted. You weren’t knocked around. You were fed and given water. Both of which are helping you now, whether you want to admit it or not. Instead of the money transaction going down, you happened to be on the boat I showed up on. You weren’t supposed to be there, but you were. Then, instead of you sinking to the bottom with the boat, I happened to have a handcuff key on me, and I was able to get you free. And now you’re also free of your captors and on your way home. That sounds like karma is working really well for you, kitten. Because I’ll tell you, most women who are kidnapped and disappear into the sex trade aren’t so lucky. They’re never found, and spend the rest of their lives being raped, used, and abused before dying what is most likely an undignified death and being buried in an unmarked grave somewhere.”
Allye knew he was right, but it was really hard to look at the positive side of things when she was being towed through the waves in the middle of the ocean.
“Let me put it this way,” Gray went on. “On average, there are an estimated ninety thousand missing people in the United States in any given year. Roughly forty thousand of those are female. You were probably an hour or less away from being one of those forty thousand women. I’d say whatever good things you’re doing in your life . . . keep doing them. Karma is definitely on your side. She might take a while to show her face, but she’s there.”
For the first time since she was little, Allye felt tears prick the back of her eyes.
All her life, she’d felt like the unluckiest person alive. But with just a few sentences, a stranger had made her see her entire life differently. No, not a stranger. Gray. And honestly, he was right. Yeah, she’d had shit happen to her, but who hadn’t? And the fact that she wasn’t chained inside a cage begging her “master” to let her eat was proof that maybe, just maybe, karma hadn’t forsaken her, after all.
“Th-Thank you,” she said quietly, not sure if Gray could even hear her.
But he had. “You’re welcome.”
Allye felt his hand come down and squeeze her shoulder before he began stroking toward their destination again.
She had no idea if she would survive the night—heck, survive for another hour—but she was more thankful than she could ever express that she wasn’t alone. That Gray was with her. If she’d somehow escaped the boat on her own, there was no way she would’ve lasted through the night. She knew that without a doubt.
Her fingers tightened on his pocket at the thought, and as if he could read her mind, Gray said, “I’ve got you, kitten. Just relax. Sleep if you can. I’m not letting you go.”
The last thing she thought before falling into a semi-trancelike state was that she wished he meant his words for more than the here and now.
Chapter Five
10:28 p.m.
Gray had been sidestroking for what seemed like forever. His arms were tired, but he refused to let himself even think about being worn out. When he’d gone through BUD/S—basic underwater demolition training for SEALs—he’d felt like this, and learned he could push his body for hours longer than he’d thought he could.
He looked over at the woman beside him. Allye. A unique name for a unique woman. She’d been dozing lightly, and while he enjoyed hearing her talk—and wanted her to stay awake so he could assess her physical condition—the fact of the matter was that he wanted her to sleep through as much of this as possible. She was freaked out, justifiably so, but she’d held up extremely well.
Thinking back to her upbringing, Gray wanted more than anything to have Meat track down her mother simply so he could pay her a visit and let her know in no uncertain terms what a piece of shit she was. He didn’t know Allye all that well, but the word resilient came to mind.
She’d survived what most people wouldn’t have been able to. It was almost laughable that she didn’t believe in karma. She was the epitome of karma working its magic. She was healthy, and seemingly thriving, despite what her mother had done to her in her formative years.
Eyeing the lights twinkling in the distance, Gray looked at his watch one more time. The GPS inside the device told him he was nearing the area where he and Black were supposed to rendezvous. And it wasn’t a minute too soon. Allye had stopped shivering a while ago, which was a bad sign.
Stroking again in the direction where he was supposed to meet Black, Gray finally saw what he’d been on the lookout for—a boat in the distance, moving slowly over the water in what looked to be a grid pattern.
He wasn’t sure it was Black; it could be a random fisherman, or the person who had bought Allye, coming to pick her up, but he doubted it. Men like the scumbags who bought and sold women never did their dirty work themselves. They almost always hired someone else to do it. And while the boat coming toward him could be filled with bad guys, he didn’t think so.
He gently shook Allye. “Wake up, kitten. Rescue is here.”
As if he’d flicked on an overhead light in a pitch-dark room, she sat upright, almost drowning herself in the process. After she’d gotten her bearings, she asked, “What? Really?”
Gray tamped down the chuckle that threatened to erupt. He had one hand under
her elbow, giving her an extra boost of buoyancy as she regained her full senses. “Really. Can you tread water for a sec?”
“Of course,” she said, pulling away from him, but still keeping one hand on the pocket she’d been holding as he’d towed her through the waves. It wasn’t quite as dark as it had been earlier, the moon shining bright once again, but she was obviously not taking any chances that she’d float away and lose him. As if he’d let that happen.
He waited for a beat to make sure she wasn’t going to sink under the waves, and when she seemed okay, he quickly reached into one of the many pockets on his special suit and took out the small beacon he’d stashed there. While he hadn’t planned on anything going wrong, he and his teammates were always prepared for the worst-case scenario. And being lost in the middle of the ocean was definitely one of those scenarios.
Black knew the general area to look for him, had the coordinates where they were supposed to meet, but in the dark, he wouldn’t have a chance in hell of finding them. Not without the homing beacon. With a flick of his thumb, Gray turned on the small electronic device. It would send a signal straight to the handheld device Black was probably holding. He hadn’t turned it on before now because, unfortunately, it had a very short battery life.
Holding the small, flat black box out of the water to improve its accuracy, Gray looked at Allye.
She was eyeing him, and the beacon, with curiosity. He waited, but she didn’t ask. He both liked and disliked that about her. He’d prefer she’d flat-out ask him when she had questions, but she’d obviously learned to keep her head down and her questions to herself.
“It’s a beacon. I’m fairly certain that’s my buddy in that boat over there.”
Allye’s head whipped around so fast, he would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so tired. She looked back at him. “Really?”
“Really.”
“You mean we don’t have to swim all the way to the boat?”
“If that really is Black, then, no. If it’s a random person out for a joyride, or someone looking for you and the men you were with, then we’ll have to keep swimming in general, because they’ll go right by without seeing us.”
