by Laurie Roma
As she grew up, she’d been learned how to play the piano, the cello, but the violin had always been her first love. She’d started composing her own music when she was around ten, and her mother had seen it as an opportunity to achieve the fame and distinction she’d never been able to reach on her own.
Zoe had been invited to perform all over the world, and her mother had traveled with her, along with a tutor and a bodyguard. “We were in Paris for my fifteenth birthday. My mother had left the hotel to get me a birthday cake from a bakery we both loved, because I was angry that I had to perform that night. She was killed in a car accident on her way back.”
She felt slightly detached as she told him about her mother’s death and the aftermath that followed. It had been so long ago, that it almost felt as if she were talking about someone else. In the shadows of the candlelight, it was easy to talk about how scared she’d been waiting for her father to fly out to meet her. He’d taken her mother’s body back to New York with him, but he’d insisted that Zoe finish her tour instead of going home with him.
“That was fucking cold.” Dante felt the rage well up inside him for the scared young girl that had lost her mother and also been abandoned by her father.
Zoe sighed. “He’d promised to join us for my birthday, but he’d been stuck in another country doing business. A part of me understood that my father couldn’t look at me without seeing her. He didn’t want to be around me after that. I think he loved her so much, that the guilt ate at him because he hadn’t been there.”
“Did she look like you?”
Startled, she nodded. “She did.”
Dante could see why her father had fallen so hard for her mother. He’d had the same reaction the instant he’d seen Zoe. That still didn’t justify her sorry excuse of a father. Both of her parents were to blame. They’d kept her isolated and alone for so long, that it wasn’t difficult to see why Zoe had continued touring. She’d thought her only value came from playing music, and she’d simply kept doing what she knew.
Zoe continued on with her story, explaining how she had started getting anxious before performances, and how that anxiety had transitioned to panic attacks after that. “When I turned eighteen, I decided I was done and I moved back to New York.”
“Eighteen,” Dante whispered. “They stole your childhood.”
She smiled sadly. “My life had never been normal, so I never knew I was missing out on anything. Not really. But when I turned eighteen I wanted to go to college. I got into Columbia University, and for the first time in my life, I realized what life was really supposed to be like.”
Dante’s eyes widened. “Columbia? That’s a damn good school.”
“I had good tutors,” she explained. Not to mention she wasn’t only gifted when it came to music. Her mother had come from a wealthy family, and when her parents died, they’d left her a lot of money. That money had been put in trust, and had become Zoe’s when she’d turned eighteen. “When I told my father I was going to school, at first he was furious. He wanted me to continue the plan my mother had set for me. He said I was wasting my talent. But I was old enough and had money of my own. He couldn’t stop me.”
“Did you like school?”
“I loved it,” she said with a smile. “It might sound strange, but I loved the classes, the learning. Still, I was awkward around people my age, and I didn’t know how fit in. I basically went to class, then went back to my apartment. I continued to play, to practice, and with my homework, I still had no life. But then, a few months into my second year, I met Ashley Briars.”
She smiled as she remembered meeting her friend. In a way, they’d been very similar. Ashley had come from a wealthy family, and was sort of an oddity because she wanted to go to school even though she didn’t have to. Ashley’s parents and two brothers made spending money and doing nothing of value an art form.
Zoe and Ashley had met on campus during one of their breaks, and they’d discovered they only lived a few blocks away from one another. Ashley had been studying to become an accountant. Even though they’d had different majors, they had quickly become the best of friends. During those college years, Ashley had taught Zoe how to shop and have fun. She’d also been the only person Zoe could talk to about all the things she’d kept inside herself for so long.
Being friends with Ashley had given her the confidence to break free.
“You graduated from an Ivy League school. That’s a huge accomplishment. I’m damn proud of you, angel.” Aw, hell. Dante realized why she’d flinched when he’d started using that endearment. Since her real name was Angelica, it was a reminder of who she once was.
Unaware of his self-recrimination, Zoe couldn’t help but flush with pleasure at his compliment. “Thank you. The night I graduated, my life changed. I was happy when my father had come back to New York to attend. He’d thrown a big, elaborate party for me. But everything changed when he announced my engagement to the man he’d chosen for me to marry.”
“What?” The word exploded out of Dante on a roar.
She quickly explained when she was young and her father had been away, her parents’ friends, Shen and Meili Wei, had watched out for her. The wealthy Chinese family had a large estate in upstate New York. When she was young, her parents had socialized with the Wei family often. As she’d grown older, their son, Paul, had been her escort to several events, but there had never been any real feelings between them.
“I told my father in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love. I think he wanted me to get married so he wouldn’t have to worry about me anymore.”
The son of a bitch. Dante wanted to kill her father. His throat felt raw when he asked, “Did you marry him?”
“What? No! I told Paul I wasn’t going to marry him. He’d said he was as surprised as I was by the announcement. We were at a gala a week later when a reporter asked about our upcoming marriage. Before I could say anything, Paul confirmed it.”
She remembered the shock she’d felt when he’d dragged her into a private corner, gripping her arm so tight, he had left bruises. He’d told her to stop being a whiny bitch, and to do what she was told. It was as if he’d become a different person. Someone who had terrified her.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I went straight to Ashley. She never liked Paul, and she was furious for me. I called my father, but he wouldn’t listen. That was it for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ashley and I had been talking about moving and getting a place of our own. Somewhere we wouldn’t have to deal with either of our families. So, we did. We found a place close to the accounting firm she was working at. Since I was going to start composing again, location wasn’t really an issue for me. I had a performance a few days after the gala, and I announced that the wedding was off. I thought that would take care of it…”
She paused for a moment to drink her wine. “It was about two weeks after we’d moved when Paul showed up at our apartment. Ashley had just left on a business trip. I’d gone shopping that afternoon, and when I got home, he was just…there.”
“In your apartment?”
“Yes,” she answered softly, then turned to stare at the flame of the candle on the coffee table. “He hit me, knocking me out before I knew what happened. When I woke up, I was tied to my bed. He…he said that I was fucking up all of his plans, and that I had to learn my place.”
Dante wanted to tell her to stop, that he didn’t need to hear anymore. But he did. He needed to know exactly what happened to her so he knew what she was running from and how to protect her. His emotions felt as wild and turbulent as the storm raging outside. Forcing himself to remain still, he waited for her to continue.
“He didn’t love me. It was never about that. You see, Paul needed to marry me. He needed the access I could give him to move his shipments when I traveled to perform.”
“His shipments?” Dante’s mind raced. “Jesus, you’re talking about Wei Auctions. Fuck, I remembe
r hearing about this. The Wei family was accused of using their auction company to smuggle artifacts, diamonds, and other shit on the black market.”
“That all came out later, but at that point, I didn’t know about any of it. Paul had traveled with me a few times when I thought he was my friend, but his mother and mine had been close and she’d joined us on our trips several times a year when I was young.”
“So, they’d been using you for years,” he stated softly.
She nodded. “I’d always been quiet and shy, so Paul thought he could force me to do what he wanted. But I had embarrassed him and his family, and he said I had to pay for that.”
When she remained silent for a few minutes, Dante guessed what was coming next. His hands clenched into fists as he said, “He raped you.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’d never been with anyone before. It hurt. I never knew I could hurt like that. He beat me, too. Not on my face. I had to be presentable in public, but he kept hitting me until I wished I would just die. He knew Ashley would be gone all week, and he said after the week was up, there was somewhere he could take me if I needed more convincing. He left after a few hours to meet some of his friends because he wanted to get high. He’d kept me tied and stuffed a gag in my mouth so no one would hear me. I tried to get free, but I couldn’t move.”
Dante let out a low vicious curse.
Zoe couldn’t feel the tears streaming down her face as she looked back over at him. “I prayed for a miracle, and I got it. Ashley’s flight had been delayed, and as she was waiting for it, she ate something that made her sick. She came home and found me. God, she was amazing. Sick as hell, she cut me loose and called the police, then stood guard by the door with the biggest kitchen knife we had in case he came back before the police got there. May I have some water?”
He got up and came back with two bottles of water. Dante opened one and handed it to her, then opened the other one and drained half the bottle. “You’re in witness protection, aren’t you?”
“I was.” When she’d woken up in the hospital after having surgery, she’d told the police everything. After a few days when they couldn’t find Paul, they’d told her that he was on the run and her only chance of survival was to go into the program.
“So, you became Zoe.”
She shook her head. “No, I became Claudia Chen. When I joined the program, Ashley agreed to go with me. I didn’t want her to give up her life, but she was in danger too since Paul was still out there and she knew what had happened. Because no one could find him, Paul’s family blamed everything on him, but I knew they were searching for me, too.”
“Their operations were under scrutiny now. That had to piss them off.”
“Oh, yeah. Ashley and I were handed off to the U.S. Marshals, and we were given new IDs and moved to Portland. Ashley hacked into my bank account and moved some of the money from my trust fund into a new account. She’d always been good with computers, and she’d done something similar for herself, since her family was always after her trust fund, too.”
“Damn, she was smart.”
“She really was. She’d connected with some hackers online, and found a way to create both of us new identities that even the Marshals didn’t know about. She’d moved our money to those secret accounts, and we had paperwork to back it up.”
“She didn’t trust the Marshals?”
“At that point, we didn’t trust anyone.” She hesitated for a moment before saying, “And she was right. Things were fine for about a year until someone in the Portland office leaked our location to the Wei family for money.”
God, the hits kept coming. “Someone sold you out?”
“It was the only way they could have found us. I’d called my father from the hospital after I was attacked, but I was sent straight to voicemail, and he never got back to me before I was moved. I was told he tried to get in touch with me later, but we weren’t allowed to contact anyone from our old lives after we’d been given our new identities.”
Even though she shrugged, Dante could see it still hurt her.
“I was working in a small, all-night diner as a waitress about a block away from our apartment. We didn’t need the money, but we needed something to do, so Ashley got some work online, and I chose to work at the diner. One night, I looked out the window and saw the street flooded with police cars. Paul Wei and his men had found us, and Ashley was dead.”
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.” He’d known it was coming from her use of past tense when she spoke of her friend, and his heart ached for her when she confirmed it.
“I ran. We’d stashed bags in a storage unit we paid for in cash in case we ever had to leave. I took off from the diner and went straight there. I saw it on the news later. They’d beaten Ashley to death. I didn’t know where to go, or who to trust. I just knew I couldn’t stay.”
Dante couldn’t even imagine how terrified she’d been after discovering that her best friend had been murdered. Ashley had been her only ally, and when she’d been taken from her, Zoe had been all alone. “No, you couldn’t stay,” he said. “I wouldn’t have trusted anyone either, but the police and the Marshals must have been looking for you?”
“Everyone was. They weren’t sure if I’d been taken, or if I was dead somewhere. I knew I should let someone know I was still alive, but I just couldn’t do it. I bought a car and I left Portland. I slept in my car some nights, then I stayed in different motels for a few weeks, in places that had no surveillance and where I could pay cash.” Her lips curved in a small self-deprecating smile. “It was about a week after I’d left that I just broke down. For days, I hid in the corner of my motel room crying, barely able to function.”
She remembered the immense grief and the frantic panic she’d felt, but talking about it felt cathartic. She’d never really been able to tell anyone her story, and she wanted Dante to know the whole truth.
“You were in shock,” Dante argued. “There are very few people that could have gone through what you did and still be able to get themselves out of the city without being caught. Survival mode is tricky shit. Some people have it or they don’t. You’re a survivor.”
“Well, I knew I wouldn’t survive long without a plan. Ashley would have expected better from me. I didn’t want to go back to Portland, but I remembered something I heard one of the agents say when we were in the New York office waiting to be relocated. One of the men had just gotten back from Arlington, where a Chief Deputy Marshal was being commended for exemplary service before he retired.”
“You’re talking about Jessup Carter,” Dante assumed. After she nodded, he added, “My father and Jessup served in the Rangers together. They’ve stayed close over the years, even with the distance. He’s the one who asked my dad to hire you.”
“I recalled what the men had said about him. Even though his wife was a scientist that had created some new adhesive that had sold for millions, he’d continued working. But it was more than that. They spoke of Jessup like some sort of icon, like a role model or an ideal measure of what kind of agent they wanted to be.”
“Jessup is a good man. His sons own a large ranch out near Billings in Montana. He and his wife moved out there to be closer to their grandkids. I hear he’s coaching little league now.”
“He is,” she confirmed with a small smile. “It took me awhile, but I was able to track him down from the information I remembered. When I did, I drove out to Billings.”
She’d been extremely nervous about meeting Jessup Carter. From everything she’d learned, she thought he might be the only safe agent she could speak to about her situation. He had money, so the likelihood of him turning her over to the Wei family was minimal. Still, she’d watched him for several days before approaching him. He seemed like a nice man, but he’d had a hard edge underneath the surface that had made her wary.
“Every day—when he wasn’t working with his sons or with his wife—he’d go sit on this big wooden bench near an apple tree on the edge of his prope
rty. Sometimes he’d eat lunch there. After he’d left one day, I snuck over and saw that the bench had been carved as a memorial for all the friends he’d lost. Seeing that helped convince me to speak to him.”
“He knew you were there,” Dante said. It wasn’t a question.
She laughed a little. “He did. When I finally approached him, I was still several feet away when he said, “You ready to talk now, little lady?” without even glancing over at me.”
It had been difficult, but she’d sat down on the bench next to the older man, and told him everything. He’d listened without interrupting, then he’d simply said, “Well, you’ve got yourself in some situation, alright. Now, we just need to figure out how to fix it.”
She’d offered him money to help her—which had offended him greatly—and she’d told him he could check out her story. She’d tried to keep her emotions contained while she’d spoken to him, but then he’d just put an arm around her and invited her to dinner.
The invitation had been so unexpected, she burst into tears, sobbing all over him. It hadn’t fazed him, though. He’d just wrapped an arm around her shoulder and let her cry. Then he led her back to his house, where his wife had taken over caring for her.
“They said I could stay. They offered to help me get settled in Billings, but he wanted to let the Marshals know I was alive, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near there when he did.”
“So, he sent you to us?”
She nodded. Her hands had stopped shaking enough for her to pick up her wine glass again. “He contacted one of the men he used to work with in Virginia—someone he said he trusted completely—and reported what I’d told him, but he said that I’d left and he didn’t know where I was going. We wanted that in the report so anyone who accessed the file wouldn’t send anyone after Jessup. He didn’t like lying, but I was firm on that.”
