A New Life Series - Finisher Set

by Samantha Jacobey

  “But I wasn’t afraid of him and kept telling him my name was Nikki. Nikki Peters. Each time that I said it, he hit me. But I wouldn’t stop and he wouldn’t stop, so he hit me harder and harder, until we were interrupted.”

  “Another guy came in and told him the clerk was outside listening to him beat me. Eddie pointed at me, and told him to fix it or they would have to dump me.”

  Brian wore a shocked expression as the meaning of the words dump me sank in.

  “There was something… special… about the way Henry had looked at me. His eyes were a deep brown, and he knelt down on the bathroom floor in front of me and said, ‘Listen, baby girl. Ya have t’ use yur new name now. If ya don’, things are gonna end badly fur ya. I’m gonna take care o’ ya if ya let me, but ya can’t make Eddie mad like that. He’ll take ya away from me if ya do.’”

  Michael smiled at the way Tori imitated his brother perfectly.

  “He used paper towels to clean my face. He told me his name, Henry Morgan, and he shook my hand. When Eddie came back, he said we were good and I rode with him after that, hanging on to his chest and wrapped in his jacket.” Looking over at her husband, she felt moved by his expression as she described his brother, a story he had never heard.

  Her eyes shifting back to her sibling, Tori waited for him to contemplate that portion of her account, hoping it had been enough to satisfy his need to know. On the contrary, it only left him wanting more, and as the pause grew extended, he made a circular motion with his right hand. Taking this as an indication to go on, she continued, her voice almost mechanical.

  “I’m not sure where all we went from there, but we ended up down in South America, at a camp the guys had. It was a vast location, in the heart of the jungle…” and she described her childhood home for him in detail. She had shared pieces of her life there with Brian, but she knew the other guys wouldn’t know.

  Elaborating about the early arrangement of the group, she explained how the majority of them only came and went from the camp, while Henry and three others stayed on full time and took on the majority of the work in raising her. She explained how Brian Turner had started off training her right away, and how she had been taught how to read, do math, and given lessons so that she became fluent in all five of her current languages.

  Reaching the part of her early teens, she explained how Eddie began to grow more distraught, returning to the camp to find she had physically changed little since his departure. “He was waiting for me to go into puberty,” she elaborated, “Which confused me. I wasn’t sure what it was all about, or why it mattered.”

  Brian’s eyes grew wide, still a bit surprised they had waited, but knowing what was coming when it finally occurred. “How old were you, when it happened?”

  “Uh, seventeen or so my doctor guesses. And by that time I had grown to love Henry so deeply. He refused to touch me though. He was saving me for Eddie. And, after I finally began to mature, Eddie and the rest remained in the camp and finished off my training for about two more years before it was decided I was ready.”

  Taking another long pause, Tori blinked at him for a moment, closing her eyes to calm herself, and then began to explain about what happened between the two of them the last night she shared Henry’s hammock. Not waiting for a response, she continued on, clarifying that their actions had driven Eddie into a rage. With a small sigh, she described how she had been raped and beaten afterwards, effectively forced to take her place among the group.

  After that, the entire group went back on the road, and Tori described her duties, both the ones that everyone saw and knew about, and the secret ones she became as apt at performing. “I became a murdering whore,” she shrugged, “I have learned to accept that about myself. And worked to change it.”

  Brian cringed at her words, and she stared at him coldly, “I warned you it was bad. I told you that you could not forget it after it was shared.”

  “I know, I know,” he agreed with a nod. “It’s not how bad it was that has me. It’s how coldly you talk about it. If it weren’t for the tiny tear here and there, it would be like you couldn’t give a shit less one way or the other.”

  She stared at him. Holy fuck, he hasn’t figured it out. And I even told him before… I told him I borrow people’s feelings. “Yeah well, I guess I’m just good at hiding things. Anyways, that’s about it. So, I guess we’re done here?” She smiled as if she had been telling them about visiting summer camp.

  “Uh, no,” Collin interceded. “You’ve told us lots of crap about things that happened and you did, and I will be the first to admit it’s pretty fucked up. But you still haven’t told us why those things make it so dangerous for you to go public.”

  “Yeah,” Brian sided with him, “Now tell me why you can’t join the band. Those guys are dead. Your past is behind you.”

  Shaking her head slowly from side to side, she spoke in a low tone, “There are others. Many others. Who knows what they saw or think they know about me. If I surface publicly, it will only be a matter of time before they come after me, and then all of you will be in danger. I can’t take that risk. I never wanted you to be found in the first place. I wanted to keep you safe.”

  Staring at her, Brian could not believe his ears. “You mean you weren’t looking for me?” he asked dubiously.

  “No, I wasn’t looking for you. And honestly, I think that’s why the Feds went to all that trouble to alter my age. They claimed they were searching for my family, but in the wrong age bracket, so my identity would never have been found. As it turns out, I was never registered as a missing child, so it was a moot point. I didn’t want you to be found so The Organization could never use you against me, or hurt you to get to me.”

  “The way the Scorpions did,” Brian finished for her.

  “Exactly. We were so lucky then, you have no idea how it could have turned out.” Her face grim, the three friends had a much better understanding than she realized.

  “But no, to answer your question, I had no intention of ever looking for my lost family. It was purely an accident that Brett knew enough about how I was acquired to locate you and tear up your house.” Glancing around the room, she recalled their previous visit to the location and the discovery of her identity.

  “He only wanted to draw me out; after getting to know him, I don’t think he would have really hurt you. He wasn’t quite like the leader of the Dragons and his group was more or less soft.”

  The guys had a cynical laugh at the fact she called a group of cold-blooded killers soft.

  Exhausted in the telling of her story, and having said all she intended to say, Tori stood and left the group of men to ponder her words and talk amongst themselves. Making her way up to her room, she ignored the bag of items she had been packing that remained on her bed. Instead, she turned left past the bathroom that lay on the left as you entered the suite.

  Making her way down beside the bed, she sank to her knees and placed her right shoulder into the corner. Resting her forehead against the wall, she breathed deeply for several minutes, listening to the silence. She had never intended to have another soul know about the life she had lived; about her darkest hours. Before she finally fell asleep, she had time to curse the sheriff and his deputies who had rescued her in Iowa and wished to God they could have been a few minutes later.

  To Have and To Hold

  Tori awoke the next morning to find her husband lying on the bed, staring at her. Shifting, she turned so that her back pressed into the corner and she could look at him more squarely. Saying nothing, she simply waited to hear whatever he had to say.

  Michael had been watching her since he had come up the stairs, not having been to sleep yet. The group of men had talked for several hours after she had left them, and he had felt obliged to stay and hear what they had to say about her tale. Eventually, he had shared his own dark part in the way they had met, and why he had come to live with the band as their personal protection.

  “I watched them abus
e her. Like she said, she was their whore, and that’s all I knew,” Michael filled in some of the blanks for the group of men. “My brother tried to clue me in, but he wouldn’t give me details. Made me promise to look after her when he sent her to me, only Eddie killed him before he could make that happen. It was only by dumb luck or a twist of fate that our paths crossed and I got a second chance to make good on my word.”

  “Anyways, it was Eddie who sent me to be head of security here. Apparently, he had been keeping tabs on Brian for years and saw the opening as an opportunity to get a better hold on him.”

  Collin laughed, “Yeah, that was a ballsy move, sending you to watch the girl’s brother.”

  “Yes it was, but he never lacked for balls. Eddie was a damn smart man. Never did anything without purpose. He probably made only one mistake in his whole twisted plot; he picked a little girl smarter and more stubborn than him, and she clearly beat him in the end.”

  Lying on their bed, looking at her, he wondered if she knew she had already won. “I guess you know you beat them. The only power any of those guys have over you is the power you give them.”

  Tori stared at him, blinking slowly and turning his words in her mind.

  “By letting your fear get the better of you,” he continued, “You’re losing part of that victory. Don’t get me wrong, I love you more than anything, and what I want most is to take you home, to make babies with you, and raise them in that huge house we bought and are restoring.” He noticed her small smile at the image he described, so he finished the thought, “But deep down, I know that life would be a lie.”

  Her smile disappeared, her brow wrinkled in pain, “It’s not a lie; I love you, too, and I want those things as badly as you do.”

  Michael raised his chin as a challenge, “Maybe. I mean, I really want to believe that, but deep down, I keep thinking that this life is the truth. This life is your destiny.” He pointed an extended digit at her, “After you left, your brother said some things. Got me to thinking in a way I really hadn’t. Things I hadn’t really wanted to face.” He didn’t want to tell her the men had argued over her again before he finally began to see the reality behind his actions and those of the other man.

  “He has an interesting way of seeing things. If Eddie Farrell hadn’t interfered, you would probably have found your place in your brother’s band a long time ago. You have a talent that is so clear. Yeah, you’re good at lots of things, but playing is the one that moves you. It shows in your eyes and on your face, when you hold a guitar and make it sing, telling all the things your spirit wants to say.”

  “Wow, Marge was right,” Tori leaned her head back against the wall, “You are a smooth talker.”

  “Yeah,” Michael laughed, “I guess I can be. But no more than you.” His eyes twinkled slightly as he relished in their connection. “The guys, they know it’s the truth. After you left, Collin and Brian said you used to play in Terry’s shop, alone, like you were hiding and keeping it all for yourself. And it’s evident every time you put your hands on the strings; that is the time that you are truly alive.”

  “So what’re you saying? That means I have to join the band?”

  He stared at her for a long moment, his turn to consider his words carefully before he spit them out. “Ok, yeah, that’s what I’m saying. You have to join the band,” he stated flatly. “It’s what you were meant to do. And no one is afraid of having people come after them because of your past. No one, except you.” He stared at her, waiting for her to protest, but she held her tongue and glared back at him.

  “So you guys aren’t even the least bit afraid of what could happen?” she finally asked in a quiet voice.

  Sitting up, he tried to be honest, “I think we’re all more afraid of choosing out of fear. I would love to take you home, but I need you to be there because that’s the life you want, not because you were too afraid to take the one you were born to have.”

  She stared at him, taking shallow breaths as she considered his plea. Deciding to take another track, she shook her head, “How is that fair to you? You and I are supposed to be building a life together, a life we started in a little town in Texas. How is it fair if I just change those plans on a whim, because my brother asked me too?”

  Michael didn’t even flinch, “Who said life was fair? You of all people should know that it isn’t.”

  Seeing her resolve weakening, he pushed on. “I took you to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do we part. I meant those words. I meant the ones that are engraved inside your ring. I loved our life in Texas, but I love you more. Wherever you go, I will be by your side. And you don’t have to worry about the bad guys coming after you. I’m gonna be there if they ever do. I got your back, baby girl, and don’t you ever forget it.”

  Standing, he left her, still leaning in the corner and thinking about what he had said. Making his way into the bathroom, he closed the door behind him. Stripping down, he turned on the shower and climbed beneath the hot spray.

  Placing his head against the smooth tile, he felt weary from his long night and the heavy thoughts that plagued his heart and mind. Not hearing the door open and close, he jumped slightly when the curtain moved, and his wife stepped into the tub behind him.

  Smiling at him, she admonished, “You know you’re not allowed to call me baby girl. That was Henry’s name for me.”

  Giving her a small grimace, he countered, “Well, you think he was raising you for Eddie, but he wasn’t. My brother was making you for me.”

  She grinned, considering that thought for a moment, knowing he could probably be right. Reaching up, she ran her hand over his slumped shoulder.

  Michael turned to face her. Taking her in his arms, they shared a deep kiss and he shifted to plant her firmly, back against the wall. Relaxing her leg, she allowed him access to her soft hollow, and he took her beneath the warm cascade as he had always done when they were together and naked. She really is the perfect woman for me.

  Not So Fast

  After their steamy encounter, the couple drew the drapes to hold out the day, stretched out on the bed and slept for several hours. Awakening before her husband, Tori spooned up behind him, her arm draped around his chest to feel him breathe.

  The room dimly lit, the sun had traveled well into afternoon, still held out by the dark shades that were pulled across the glass. Breathing into his hair, her love for him consumed her, and she hoped that he would not pay for his words with his life; or anyone else’s.

  Stroking his curling hairs heavily, she roused him gently, and they made love again before they dressed and made their way down the stairs. The other band members had also slept in, accustomed to the late to bed and late to rise way of life. Still not completely convinced this was where she belonged, Tori had at least become willing to talk about it.

  Taking a cup from the cabinet, she reached for the pot of coffee, and Michael watched her with a raised brow. He had only seen her drink anything other than water a few times in his life. Sipping the hot liquid, he could tell she wanted to calm herself before they began the conversation that she dreaded. Still facing the cabinet, standing next to the sink, she began.

  “So, what exactly is it you guys have in mind?” she asked the question about nothing specific, wanting to give them a chance to talk about whatever meant the most to them.

  Sensing they may have reached a point of gaining her consent, Brian spoke up, “We want you, of course. We think you would be a great addition to the group.”

  Shaking her head, she countered, “Not good enough. There’s lots of musicians who could do that.” Turning around and leaning her rear end against the counter, coffee mug in hand, she raised it towards Collin and put the question to him. “What do you think about all of this?” She glared at him, waiting for him to respond.

  Staring at his friend’s sister, he thought about the time he had taken her to his hotel room, with the intent of getting her sloppy drunk and doing ev
ery nasty thing he could think of to her. After finally hearing her story, he felt relieved he had not succeeded. In a submissive voice he replied, “I think we would be damned lucky to have you,” and left it at that.

  Cutting her eyes over at Cody, she did not bother to repeat the query.

  Clearing his throat, “I only hope you remember that I am the lead singer,” he thumped his chest at the words I am, “Because you have a great voice and I would really like to keep my job.” Something in his smile made her heart skip a beat and she considered that he might have been serious.

  Nodding slowly, she countered, “Not so fast. I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

  Brian showed his full set of perfect white teeth, hearing the word yet, and extrapolating she hadn’t, but she was going to.

  “I wanna know what’s in it for me,” she finished, her tone gruff as she tried to play off her growing desire to agree to the move.

  Collin’s turn to show off his conceit, he joked in a booming voice, “You get to be a part of the best band ever. What more could you want?”

  The other two men laughed at his bold move, and Tori herself had to smile. She had found him so annoying, the way he pursued her back in LA. His response typical for him, she praised herself for not giving in to his advances, especially since they were going to be working together.

  “Well, then I guess I have to go for it, right?” she spoke slowly, trying not to appear too eager. “So, what’s the plan?” wondering exactly what she had signed herself up for.

  The group spent the rest of the afternoon going over their itinerary for the next six months, as the tour had already been scheduled to begin before summer came. Pointing out that they may have started having cancelations in light of the accident, they decided the time had come to give Mark Holt a call and let him in on the good news.